Easy Like Sunday Morning Recap and Roundup – # 12 – February 10th, 2013

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Each time, the purpose of the Easy Like Sunday Morning Recap and Roundup series is the same – for me to be able to connect with you, the readers, on a more personal (non personal finance informational transmission only) level, encourage community, and also to give back to the other bloggers around the blogosphere who have mentioned My Personal Finance Journey throughout the past few weeks or so. It’s been about TWO months since the last roundup, so we definitely have some catching up to do! 

As far as the theme goes, the title of the roundup gives it away. The roundup theme is named after the Lionel Richie song, Easy Like Sunday Morning (which I play once each time I put this together), to remind us of the importance of slowing down at least every once in a while to take appreciation for that which transpired over the past few days.

So, without further ado, let’s get started with this edition’s roundup!

UPDATES FROM JACOB’S PERSONAL FINANCE JOURNEY AND LIFE 

• As far as my life in general, the months of December and January were busy, but AMAZINGLY AWESOME and also productive! Below are some of the highlights:
• In my graduate school Alzheimer’s disease research…
• We were finally able to finish up the follow-up experiments required to respond to the manuscript reviewer’s comments (a paper that myself and another coworkers in my lab had been working on for about 2 years). And, with some luck, it got accepted to the journal, PLoS One, without further revisions needed! The title of the paper is, “Halogenation Generates Effective Modulators of Amyloid-Beta Aggregation and Neurotoxicity.” We just submitted the approved-proofed version of the paper a few days ago, so I’ll be sure to share the link whenever the paper experiences final publication.
• If you’re interested in reading up on the type of research I do, you can view the article at the following link in the journal, Biomacromolecules. My paper, titled, “Different Fates of Alzheimer’s Disease Amyloid-Beta Fibrils Remodeled by Biocompatible Small Molecules,” that was approved last year was published in the January edition of the journal. Looks nice! 
• This past month, we have also started the planning process for testing our Alzheimer’s Disease drug targets in an animal (mouse) model in the next year or so. Having gained experience testing drug targets on the in vitro level, it would be a nice addition to my graduate school experience (and overall career development) to have some knowledge with in vivo testing as well. So, I’m glad to be making this progress!
• Having finished getting the Biomacromolecules paper published, we also decided to turn it in to my Master’s Thesis. In late December 2012, with some luck, I was able to successfully defend my thesis, and therefore, will be getting my official MS degree in Chemical Engineering in May 2013. Only a couple more years of grad school now! 
• At the beginning of November 2012, our younger greyhound, Charlie passed away after losing his battle with some stomach problems that had been pretty severe since June of last year. Because of this, in early January, we successfully adopted a new golden retriever, Crystal (9 years old), from a local kennel here in Virginia. Our records indicated that she had 72 puppies, and since the current puppies at the kennel were selling for $1300 a piece, she apparently was quite the money maker! As you might have read, we had Crystal spayed in mid January, and she has recovered very nicely. Below is a picture of her with her new greyhound “brother from another mother.” She fits in to our life so well and is amazingly sweet! Note: we have no idea why, but the greyhound’s eyes ALWAYS glow green like this in all pictures! It’s kind of endearing to us! 

• Lastly, over the Christmas and New Year’s break, I visited my home in Arkansas for 1 week, and then our family went on a week long vacation to Playa Del Carmen and Isla Mujeres, Mexico. It was a very beautiful vacation, filled with lots of great memories. Below is a picture of me swimming with the fishes in Playa Del Carmen, compliments of the awesome Olympus Stylus Tough 8010 shockproof waterproof drop-proof camera Xmas present I got my girlfriend last year! Literally, my entire nuclear family has this same camera, and not one has broken yet! 

• As far as my personal finances, the months of December and January have been going well. 
• At the start of the New Year, I updated my target asset allocation by 5% to closer match the reality of how I have been operating for the past year or so. Now, I employ a 30% fixed income / 70% equity asset allocation split.
• The S&P500 index/the overall market has now gone up almost 13% in the past year, so my net worth is now at an all time high. However, since the market has increased recently, it is also necessary to keep a close eye on my asset allocation target to make sure I am not getting too overweighted on equity, which would trigger me to sell equity and buy fixed income. When I checked my overall net worth earlier this week, I was still within the appropriate +/- 5% rebalancing band limits, so all is well! 
• So far in 2013, I have contributed $2,050 of my $5,500 allowable yearly Roth IRA contributions. So, I’m on a good track there! 
• Other than that, my finances have been dominated in late January/early February 2013 by getting in a $3,000 personal donation to the Blue Ridge Multiple Sclerosis Society to support my MS150 ride this summer. With this being the 25th anniversary of the MS150 ride here in Virginia, my goal is to raise $25,000 overall in the past 5 years. In order to meet this target, I need to raise about $9,000 this year.
• If you are interested in helping out with a tax-deductible donation, please click on my donation page link below. Just $10 will make a world of difference in helping me reach my “$25k for the 25th Anniversary” fundraising target!
• Jacob’s MS150 Fundraising Page  
• In order to encourage young adults to get involved in the personal finance habit of donating to charity (which often is only adopted later in life), MyPersonalFinanceJourney.com will not only match, but double any money donated to my MS ride by people under the age of 30 years old. So far, 6 folks under the age of 30 have donated! Thanks so much guys and gals! 
• Throughout the weekends of the spring and summer, I will also set up and ride my bike trainer outside of various Harris Teeter’s, Wal-Mart’s, Target’s, Kroger’s, and the Downtown Mall throughout the Charlottesville area to promote the MS Society and raise funds. 
• As far as my blog goes, February 2013 is now the 5th month for My Personal Finance Journey to feature posts by our staff writing team!
• As I mentioned in the September roundup, I added several new staff writers to contribute articles for the site on a regular basis to prevent having one to two week breaks between my regular posts while I am busy in graduate school and leaving you all out to dry. Listed below are the awesome staff writers for My Personal Finance Journey! They are all doing a great job so far.
• Miss T from Prairie Eco-Thrifter.
• ADP from American Debt Project.
• Travis Pizel, a writer for Care One and Enemy of Debt.
• Kelly from Cordelia Calls it Quits.
• Melissa from Mom’s Plans.
• Kevin from Out of Your Rut.
• Jeff from Sustainable Life Blog.
• Toi Williams from Fine Tuned Finances.
• Greg from Club Thrifty
• Shondell from Call me What You Want Even Cheap.
• While this definitely reduces the net profit of my site (and vis-a-vis the amount that I have available for the 10% income give back), I view this as a HIGHLY worthwhile long-term investment for my site building for the future, so am more than happy to have each and every one of the writers above!  

GUEST POSTS FROM PERSONAL FINANCE BLOGGERS ON MY PERSONAL FINANCE JOURNEY

Since the last roundup, there were 4 guest posts here at My Personal Finance Journey. They were all SUPER high quality! Enjoy!