Shucks, it's been so long, I've forgotten how to update them! I'll muck about with them later. In the meantime, here's where i stand right now:
Debt
Credit cards -personal: $2045 due
Credit cards- business: $0
Repay my sister: $0 (paid off $10,000 last year)
Student Loans: $0 (paid off every last cent last year)
Mortgage-residence: $75,316 due
The retirement accounts took a beating last year. I'm hovering at $16K right now.
Charitable giving for 2008: $10,000
Net worth is about $1500 short of where I was last year. I guess considering the economy that's not so bad.
I still have my job!
I have great tenants in my rental house, and great roommates at MY house!
Things are pretty good actually.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Why Did I Stop Blogging?
About this time last year I stopped updating my blog.
I'd only been writing for three months, but it had suddenly become like a full-time job. For some reason I felt compelled to keep up with what the other bloggers were saying, to comment on their articles, to submit my posts to carnivals... and I didn't even know why!
I never intended to make a big thing out of this blog. But my fourth post EVER got mentioned on one of the MSN money blogs (wha....?!). That little bit of attention was fun but then it set up a pattern of trying to keep that up.. and that was no fun. Yuck.
So, one day last March I just went back to writing in my paper journal, with my ball point pen, for me. Much better.
But maybe now I'll start posting again. I probably won't go back to commenting on other blogs or submitting to carnivals. And I don't know if I'll have any readers. But that's ok. Nice and slow and mellow.
If you happen to be reading and feel like leaving a comment, go for it. I may or may not respond. If you leave a complimentary comment, it will be much appreciated (who doesn't appreciate some flattery?); if you leave a neutral comment just sharing your thoughts, I will ponder it; if you leave a negative comment blasting me for something I've written, then I may ignore it or delete it.
I'm going back to using this blog for its original purpose! A place for me to play around with my ideas about money. How to live with it. How to love it. How to leave it. How to make more of it. How to give it away. How to experiment with it. How to make it a science. How to make it an art form. Yes, sounds good.
I'd only been writing for three months, but it had suddenly become like a full-time job. For some reason I felt compelled to keep up with what the other bloggers were saying, to comment on their articles, to submit my posts to carnivals... and I didn't even know why!
I never intended to make a big thing out of this blog. But my fourth post EVER got mentioned on one of the MSN money blogs (wha....?!). That little bit of attention was fun but then it set up a pattern of trying to keep that up.. and that was no fun. Yuck.
So, one day last March I just went back to writing in my paper journal, with my ball point pen, for me. Much better.
But maybe now I'll start posting again. I probably won't go back to commenting on other blogs or submitting to carnivals. And I don't know if I'll have any readers. But that's ok. Nice and slow and mellow.
If you happen to be reading and feel like leaving a comment, go for it. I may or may not respond. If you leave a complimentary comment, it will be much appreciated (who doesn't appreciate some flattery?); if you leave a neutral comment just sharing your thoughts, I will ponder it; if you leave a negative comment blasting me for something I've written, then I may ignore it or delete it.
I'm going back to using this blog for its original purpose! A place for me to play around with my ideas about money. How to live with it. How to love it. How to leave it. How to make more of it. How to give it away. How to experiment with it. How to make it a science. How to make it an art form. Yes, sounds good.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Whatever Happened to the $10,000 Check I Wrote in March?
A lot has happened since I wrote that $10,000 check which I promised to keep you updated about.
First, I stopped posting because all this blogging was getting too overwhelming!
Second, about a week after I wrote the check, I randomly met an old friend who I hadn't seen in eight years. She mentioned that she wanted to set up a memorial fund, at the same organization I had made my check out to, in honor of her teenage son who had passed away from Leukemia a year ago. And, she wanted to dedicate it on May 19th, one day before the date on my check. Sweet synchronicity!
Third, despite all the good happy feelings I had started off with, I suddenly got really stressed about being able to afford it. I spent an absurd amount of time worrying about it. Two months of worrying.
Fourth, by mid-May just enough money had come in from various random sources to pump my cash accounts to $11,500. (This included the stimulus rebate check, remember that?)
What then? I walked into the organization's office and handed in my check as a contribution towards my friend's fund. And I was still worrying and kept on worrying for a few more months.
You know what? Worrying is messed up. I know I did a good thing but I didn't get to enjoy it! What a WASTE!
Fifth, all that worrying led to a whole lot of financial "bad luck". Yuck! More on that later.
Sixth, I changed my attitude, quit worrying, and started to go with the flow again.
Seventh, the Universe sent the $10,000 back to me from another source. Yay! More on that later.
Moral of the story: Enjoy the process, let money flow, worrying is counterproductive.
First, I stopped posting because all this blogging was getting too overwhelming!
Second, about a week after I wrote the check, I randomly met an old friend who I hadn't seen in eight years. She mentioned that she wanted to set up a memorial fund, at the same organization I had made my check out to, in honor of her teenage son who had passed away from Leukemia a year ago. And, she wanted to dedicate it on May 19th, one day before the date on my check. Sweet synchronicity!
Third, despite all the good happy feelings I had started off with, I suddenly got really stressed about being able to afford it. I spent an absurd amount of time worrying about it. Two months of worrying.
Fourth, by mid-May just enough money had come in from various random sources to pump my cash accounts to $11,500. (This included the stimulus rebate check, remember that?)
What then? I walked into the organization's office and handed in my check as a contribution towards my friend's fund. And I was still worrying and kept on worrying for a few more months.
You know what? Worrying is messed up. I know I did a good thing but I didn't get to enjoy it! What a WASTE!
Fifth, all that worrying led to a whole lot of financial "bad luck". Yuck! More on that later.
Sixth, I changed my attitude, quit worrying, and started to go with the flow again.
Seventh, the Universe sent the $10,000 back to me from another source. Yay! More on that later.
Moral of the story: Enjoy the process, let money flow, worrying is counterproductive.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
I Wrote a Check for $10,000
Yesterday I wrote a check for $10,000 and dated it 5/20/2008. That's less than two months away. It will stay in my checkbook until then.
My heart almost leaped out of my chest as I wrote that check. It wasn't fear racing through me though, it was excitement. Odd that I should be excited -and not fearful- about writing a huge check for an amount that is not currently in my accounts. Yes, that's right, I don't have all that money right now and I'm not sure where it will come from. I just know I'm ready to jump.
This check is for my favorite charity- a place I have worked with and supported for about ten years. Ten years, ten thousand, it just seemed appropriate.
Many years ago, right after I got married, my husband told me about a cousin who was having some medical problems. This cousin was a young guy who didn't have insurance when he had to go in for treatment and now had some hefty medical bills. I had an intense urge to give him all the money we had just received as wedding gifts to help him wipe out those bills. But I never said anything. My husband and I were pretty broke at the time- right out of college- with college loans, tiny paychecks, no furniture, and a car that was dying. I took the practical route and used the money to live on.
I think about that time often. I don't have strong regrets but I do wonder what would have happened if we'd given the money away instead of using it. I think it would have felt really good.
Really good. Like the feeling I had last night when I wrote my check. This time I'm giving it away for sure. Just waiting for the rest of the money to arrive...!
I will keep you posted.
My heart almost leaped out of my chest as I wrote that check. It wasn't fear racing through me though, it was excitement. Odd that I should be excited -and not fearful- about writing a huge check for an amount that is not currently in my accounts. Yes, that's right, I don't have all that money right now and I'm not sure where it will come from. I just know I'm ready to jump.
This check is for my favorite charity- a place I have worked with and supported for about ten years. Ten years, ten thousand, it just seemed appropriate.
Many years ago, right after I got married, my husband told me about a cousin who was having some medical problems. This cousin was a young guy who didn't have insurance when he had to go in for treatment and now had some hefty medical bills. I had an intense urge to give him all the money we had just received as wedding gifts to help him wipe out those bills. But I never said anything. My husband and I were pretty broke at the time- right out of college- with college loans, tiny paychecks, no furniture, and a car that was dying. I took the practical route and used the money to live on.
I think about that time often. I don't have strong regrets but I do wonder what would have happened if we'd given the money away instead of using it. I think it would have felt really good.
Really good. Like the feeling I had last night when I wrote my check. This time I'm giving it away for sure. Just waiting for the rest of the money to arrive...!
I will keep you posted.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Top 10 Ways I Make Money
Last month I wrote about the top 10 things I do to save money. This month I thought I'd make a different top 10 list and address the flip side of the personal finance coin.
So here are the top 10 things I do to make money:
1. Regular full-time job. This is currently my biggest source of income. I love my job but eventually I would like to make enough money from other sources to make this a much smaller percentage of my income. In the meantime however, I did get a hefty raise in November and I have plans to negotiate another raise soon.
2. Roommates who pay me rent. They get to live in my great little house for a fantastic price, and I get to have most of my mortgage paid by others. Win-win.
3. Second job This hourly job fell into my lap when a friend asked for some help with his business venture. The hourly rate is more than my full-time job but I only work about 30 hours a month. I am going to continue doing this job because I am actually learning some handy new skills and maintaining networking connections with people who I might want to do serious business with in the next few years.
4. Rental property I purchased a small 3br single family investment house a year and a half ago and have been learning how to keep it rented. This has been a tricky source of income because occupancy is never guaranteed. If I were to do this over, I would have negotiated a lower purchase price and better terms... and maybe bought in a neighborhood half a mile north of this one. However, despite the less-than-ideal conditions, my conservative side did insist on buying a house that I could afford even if it stayed vacant indefinitely. So far, I've been putting all the income from this house back into the property (either for maintenance or in a fund for emergencies/ improvements). According to my tax calculations, which take into account depreciation, I've had a loss on this property which has resulted in a nice tax refund. I also live in an area that escaped the housing bubble so property values are continuing to hold steady and even creep up a little. In the long term, if I can keep it rented, this house will be a steady little investment.
5. Business About a year ago I began to explore a side business. Getting this off the ground has been slow going... but fun. I have learned a lot. I am starting to pay more attention to appropriate marketing strategies for this business which provides products I have created for a very small and specific niche. So far I have broken-even on this venture and expect that I will be heading into profit territory soon. Once again, my expenses here helped to boost my tax refund.
6. Consulting Once in a while I do some freelance consulting. I am still of two minds about how much time I want to spend on this kind of activity. I would ultimately like to put less emphasis on sources of income that require a specified amount of time/personal energy to generate revenue.
7. Financial investments This includes any interest earned on my savings accounts and dividends and capital gains on stocks and funds. Last year I spent a few months trying my hand at more active stock trading but decided it wasn't interesting or lucrative enough for me to devote that much time to it. Now I stick to a more easily managed portfolio of funds that I don't have to think about more than a couple of times a year. This portfolio is still pretty small but one of my goals this year is to really pump it up.
8. Online activities My income from the internet is very small but I have decided that as long as the source/activity is interesting enough, then every penny coming in counts! These activities include such things as participating in cash rebate programs such as Inbox Dollars and Mypoints and having some advertisements on my blog. Some of these activities don't require much effort at all (but also don't generate much income).
9. Multi-level marketing This is brand new and still a... twinkle in my eye! In the next couple of months I am going to get involved with a company that two of my friends have had some success with and see how it goes. It doesn't require any money to start up so I figured I've got nothing to lose except for a few hours and I can help my friend out in the process.
10. ..... I tried. I couldn't come up with #10! I don't sell items on eBay or hold yard sales (I don't have enough stuff to get rid of and the stuff I do get rid of I freecycle). I don't babysit or mow lawns or shovel sidewalks. I guess you could read about the money that seems to find its way into my life without my necessarily doing much for it in Found Money.
That's my list. Perhaps a next step would be to make a nifty pie-chart and compare how much of my income comes from the different sources.
So here are the top 10 things I do to make money:
1. Regular full-time job. This is currently my biggest source of income. I love my job but eventually I would like to make enough money from other sources to make this a much smaller percentage of my income. In the meantime however, I did get a hefty raise in November and I have plans to negotiate another raise soon.
2. Roommates who pay me rent. They get to live in my great little house for a fantastic price, and I get to have most of my mortgage paid by others. Win-win.
3. Second job This hourly job fell into my lap when a friend asked for some help with his business venture. The hourly rate is more than my full-time job but I only work about 30 hours a month. I am going to continue doing this job because I am actually learning some handy new skills and maintaining networking connections with people who I might want to do serious business with in the next few years.
4. Rental property I purchased a small 3br single family investment house a year and a half ago and have been learning how to keep it rented. This has been a tricky source of income because occupancy is never guaranteed. If I were to do this over, I would have negotiated a lower purchase price and better terms... and maybe bought in a neighborhood half a mile north of this one. However, despite the less-than-ideal conditions, my conservative side did insist on buying a house that I could afford even if it stayed vacant indefinitely. So far, I've been putting all the income from this house back into the property (either for maintenance or in a fund for emergencies/ improvements). According to my tax calculations, which take into account depreciation, I've had a loss on this property which has resulted in a nice tax refund. I also live in an area that escaped the housing bubble so property values are continuing to hold steady and even creep up a little. In the long term, if I can keep it rented, this house will be a steady little investment.
5. Business About a year ago I began to explore a side business. Getting this off the ground has been slow going... but fun. I have learned a lot. I am starting to pay more attention to appropriate marketing strategies for this business which provides products I have created for a very small and specific niche. So far I have broken-even on this venture and expect that I will be heading into profit territory soon. Once again, my expenses here helped to boost my tax refund.
6. Consulting Once in a while I do some freelance consulting. I am still of two minds about how much time I want to spend on this kind of activity. I would ultimately like to put less emphasis on sources of income that require a specified amount of time/personal energy to generate revenue.
7. Financial investments This includes any interest earned on my savings accounts and dividends and capital gains on stocks and funds. Last year I spent a few months trying my hand at more active stock trading but decided it wasn't interesting or lucrative enough for me to devote that much time to it. Now I stick to a more easily managed portfolio of funds that I don't have to think about more than a couple of times a year. This portfolio is still pretty small but one of my goals this year is to really pump it up.
8. Online activities My income from the internet is very small but I have decided that as long as the source/activity is interesting enough, then every penny coming in counts! These activities include such things as participating in cash rebate programs such as Inbox Dollars and Mypoints and having some advertisements on my blog. Some of these activities don't require much effort at all (but also don't generate much income).
9. Multi-level marketing This is brand new and still a... twinkle in my eye! In the next couple of months I am going to get involved with a company that two of my friends have had some success with and see how it goes. It doesn't require any money to start up so I figured I've got nothing to lose except for a few hours and I can help my friend out in the process.
10. ..... I tried. I couldn't come up with #10! I don't sell items on eBay or hold yard sales (I don't have enough stuff to get rid of and the stuff I do get rid of I freecycle). I don't babysit or mow lawns or shovel sidewalks.
That's my list. Perhaps a next step would be to make a nifty pie-chart and compare how much of my income comes from the different sources.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Rolling In It
We're only half way through the month but I am declaring March the best month of the year! Well, so far anyway; I don't want to rule out the possibility that things could get even better. I've had more money coming my way this month than I could have possibly imagined.
Here's how it breaks down:
Total: $4350
This has made the following possible:
Other good stuff:
Here's how it breaks down:
- Federal tax refund: $1800
- State tax refund: $300 (anticipated, not yet deposited)
- Side-business income: $1900
- Refund from mortgage company for an escrow overage: $350
Total: $4350
This has made the following possible:
- Pay off all my credit cards (including the business card)- check out the progress bars on the right!
- Fully fund my travel account
- Give about $400 away to people/causes that I support
Other good stuff:
- I discovered that I could still open a Roth IRA for 2007 and deposit money into it. I did. I transferred the full $4K for '07 and another $2500 for '08 from my ING account.
- Looks like my monthly escrow payments are going down by $40 each month.
- One of my roommates will be moving out and I am planning on moving into her room and renting out my larger gorgeous room for an extra $100/month. This will bring my housing expenses down to $265/month. Throw in the $40 reduction from above and we're looking at a monthly outlay of $225. Wow.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
February 2008 Blog Statistics
Statistics from my second month of blogging:
Age of the blog: 57 days
From February 1st to 29th
Number of Posts: 12 (pretty lame, sorry)
Number of visitors: 1539 (yesss! blasted past a thousand!)
Pageviews: 2262
Average pages/visit: 1.47 (this is dropping, we were at 1.82 last month)
Bounce rate: 79.08% (yikes! lots of tire kickers... that's ok, I still love you)
New visitors: 64.46% (nice, over 35% of visitors came back, last month was 25%)
Subscribers (that I know how to track): 24 (this has fluctuated quite a bit over the month, people come and go)
Most visited page (other than home): 382 page views What Can I Buy on a $200 per Month Grocery Budget?
Highest single-day traffic: 130 visits on February 12th mostly to What Can I Buy on a $200 per Month Grocery Budget? (almost identical to last month..., obviously many are interested in other people's shopping habits)
Top Traffic Sources (thank you!!)
Lazy Man and Money
Frugal Hacks
pfblogs.org
The Financial Blogger
Organic search: 124
Blog expenses: $0
Blog income: $6.32 The Inbox Dollars referrals are still giving me a little kick back and now I have a few Adsense Google ads on the site. Hope they're not too annoying.
Noteworthy
Age of the blog: 57 days
From February 1st to 29th
Number of Posts: 12 (pretty lame, sorry)
Number of visitors: 1539 (yesss! blasted past a thousand!)
Pageviews: 2262
Average pages/visit: 1.47 (this is dropping, we were at 1.82 last month)
Bounce rate: 79.08% (yikes! lots of tire kickers... that's ok, I still love you)
New visitors: 64.46% (nice, over 35% of visitors came back, last month was 25%)
Subscribers (that I know how to track): 24 (this has fluctuated quite a bit over the month, people come and go)
Most visited page (other than home): 382 page views What Can I Buy on a $200 per Month Grocery Budget?
Highest single-day traffic: 130 visits on February 12th mostly to What Can I Buy on a $200 per Month Grocery Budget? (almost identical to last month..., obviously many are interested in other people's shopping habits)
Top Traffic Sources (thank you!!)
Lazy Man and Money
Frugal Hacks
pfblogs.org
The Financial Blogger
Organic search: 124
Blog expenses: $0
Blog income: $6.32 The Inbox Dollars referrals are still giving me a little kick back and now I have a few Adsense Google ads on the site. Hope they're not too annoying.
Noteworthy
- I began experimenting with advertising on the site. It's slow going for now. When I manage to make a penny a day I am pretty thrilled. Don't ask me what a fool I make of myself when someone actually clicks on an ad. :blush:
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