My Personal Finance Journey

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Trois, Deux, Un – Let The 3rd Annual Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance Begin – Let’s Give Away $800!

It’s almost July!

Hallelujah, we’ve just about made it through half the year. For me, this means that it’s just about time to do a detailed check-in on my financial, blogging, and professional goals as well as my net worth progress so far for 2013.

However, July also means that it’s once again time to break out the spandex shorts, big time trial helmets, and 15.5 lb carbon fiber bikes for the Tour de France bike race, and on My Personal Finance Journey, for the Tour de Personal Finance! 

That’s right! For the 3rd year in a row in July 2013, MyPersonalFinanceJourney.com will be hosting the Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance. The Tour de Personal Finance is a month-long Tour de France-themed personal finance-blogging competition. For all of the details on how the competition works, click here.

We greatly appreciate Debt Free Direct for being the title partner of the 2013 event and for all their great support. If you’re interested in learning more about the help and advice Debt Free Direct offers to people in debt or their money-saving tips on how to prevent building up debt, click here.

 

2013 Tour de Personal Finance Brackets Complete!

This year, we had a record number of post submissions with a total of 64! A very awesome turnout! A big thanks to everyone for participating.

You can view or download a copy of the competition brackets to see which posts will be going head-to-head in each Stage’s Intermediate Sprints by clicking the link below:

2013 Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance Bracket

The Stages will start going live tomorrow! 

This year, thanks to a GREAT suggestion from Lance @ Money Life and More after the 2012 Tour de PF, the posts are grouped together by categories instead of scattered using a random number generator. This year’s 9 categories are shown below:

  • College Finances
  • Side Hustle
  • Debt
  • Frugal Living
  • Job/Career
  • Lifestyle
  • Psychology of Money
  • Retirement Planning
  • Saving/Investing

 

This Year’s Prizes and Charity Give Back Announced

The 2013 edition of the Tour de PF will be doubly exciting because we have some very nice cash prizes to give away to the winner and also to charity to continue helping the community.

These will be as follows:

  • Yellow Jersey (1st Place) Winner of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance will receive $100 cash via PayPal.
  • In addition, the Yellow Jersey Winner will also get to decide what charity they want me to donate $700 to in honor of their efforts/victory. 

I wish everyone the best of luck, and I’m excited to see how this year’s event will unfold over the next month or so!

 ***Photo courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Bradley_Wiggins_19_etape_du_Tour_de_France_2012_Chartres_(cropped).jpg

I Have FINALLY Moved the Journey to WordPress Self Hosted!

Light_float_plane_aircraft_making_a_landing

Happy Thursday everyone!

As you can see, the layout of the site looks a little different today.

The reason?

I finally set aside all of my excuses and have moved My Personal Finance Journey from Blogger (where I’ve been for 3+ years) to WordPress Self Hosted. I’m using the Genesis Framework with the News Child Theme and very much like it so far!

Anyhow, this is just a quick post to humbly request that you bare with me for a few days while I get the kinks worked out on the new hosting platform. After that, I expect to be back in full force with a more reader-friendly platform that gives all of us better functionality.

How about you all? What blogging platform do you use?

If you’re on WordPress, what theme do you use?

Talk to you soon!

-Jacob

***Photo courtesy of wikimedia.org

Introducing The 3rd Annual Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance Competition – Submit Your Best Posts Today!

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free $65.84 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to charity! Deadline to enter is May 31st, 2013.

I simply love the Tour de France.

There is truly something magical about watching this particular 3 week cycling race unfold in July each summer. In the race, the riders cover nearly 2,000 miles, including stages through the majestic Alpine Mountain range and the sunflower and vineyard fields of Southern France. As an avid cycling fan and past Category 2 road cycling racer (I raced once-upon-a-time from 2001-2005), July is a truly a glorious time of year.

For the 3rd year in a row in July 2013, MyPersonalFinanceJourney.com will be hosting the Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance. The Tour de Personal Finance is a month-long Tour de France-themed personal finance-blogging competition. In 2011-2012 (the first two years for the event), thanks to AWESOME participation by the PF blogger community, the Tour was a great success. This year, I’d love to have you participate once again! 

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF THE TOUR DE PERSONAL FINANCE?

The goal of the Tour de Personal Finance will be to crown the best (voted by readers – read below for details) personal finance blog article written during the last year.

HOW THE TOUR DE PERSONAL FINANCE WORKS

The Tour de Personal Finance will be conducted each year in July during the same time period in which the Tour de France cycling race occurs. The format/layout will be as follows:
  • Personal finance bloggers will submit their best, highest quality post from the past year (only one post) to me via email (see below for details of how to submit a post) before July 1st.
  • The posts will separated in to brackets based on the category of the article. Next, the posts will be paired off using a random number generator..
  • The paired posts will “compete” against each other each day in a stage (what they call each day of racing in the Tour de France), which will be posted on My Personal Finance Journey.
  • Readers will comment on the post to vote for which post they think is better. The post with the most votes each day will be declared the STAGE WINNER.
  • The stage winners will move on to the next round, where they will square off against other stage winners. Again, the best post each day will be voted for by the readers.
  • The blog author will be allowed to vote for him/herself. Others will most likely do it, so you should too! But, no gaming of the system will be allowed. Entrants will, however, be allowed to ask their friends to vote for them, promote the contest on their site, etc.
  • At the end of the month, the final winner of the competition will be crowned the Maillot Jaune (or the yellow jersey, which is given to the overall winner of the Tour de France each year). Ties will be broken by me. 
We greatly appreciate Debt Free Direct for being the title partner of the 2013 event and for all their great support. If you’re interested in learning more about the help and advice Debt Free Direct offers to people in debt or their money saving tips on how to prevent building up debt, click here.

WINNERS’ JERSEYS

In the Tour de France, there are 4 main winners’ jerseys that are fiercely contested. These include the Yellow Jersey (overall winner), Green Jersey (best sprinter), Polka-Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains), and White Jersey (best-placed young cyclist). 
As such, along with crowning the overall winner with the Yellow Jersey (as mentioned above), the Tour de Personal Finance will recognize 4 winners each July, as described below:
  • Yellow Jersey – Winner of overall competition. Article voted “best” by readers. See “Changes in This Year’s Event” section below for details on the prize for the winner and the charity selection component. 
  • White Jersey – Goes to highest placing, new blog (judged by how far they get in the competition and how long they have been blogging).
  • Green Jersey – Goes to the blog whose article wins a single stage “the fastest.” In other words, the Green Jersey goes to the blog who wins a single stage by the biggest margin against their competitor.
  • Polka-Dot Jersey – Goes to the best blog article entered which details information on “climbing” out of the debt “mountain”.

HOW TO ENTER

If you are a personal finance blogger and are interested in participating, entering is very easy! Just send the following information in an email to Jacob@mypersonalfinancejourney.com to enter by June 15th, 2013.
  • Name and URL of blog.
  • URL and title of your best article from last 12 months.
  • A concise 2-5 sentence description of the post (this will be posted on each stage’s announcement, so really SELL why post should win!).
  • The month and year in which you started blogging (will be used to determine White Jersey winner).

SOME INFORMATION ABOUT LAST YEAR’S EVENT

You can view how the 2012 Tour unfolded by viewing the competition bracket at the following link – 2012 Tour de Personal Finance Bracket. You can also view a sample of some of the Tour de Personal Finance Stages, the introductory post explaining all of the details, as well as the post-race awards recap from past years by clicking the links below:




SOME EXCITING NEWs / CHANGES FOR THIS YEAR’S TOUR

  • Last year, there were 52 different personal finance blogs/articles that participated. For the 2013 event, I am targeting to have 64 different blogs/articles competing. This should be do-able since I’m getting started organizing things 2 weeks earlier than last year! 
  • I will be reserving the reader portion of my 10% monthly blog income give back event for both June and July as prize money to the Yellow Jersey winner (~$50). The Yellow Jersey winner will also select a charity of their choice to receive the charity portion of the 10% monthly blog income give back (~$50).
  • Lastly, in the 2013 event, I have actively been seeking out platinum, gold, silver, and bronze sponsorships from various companies and advertising representatives in the PF realm. I am proud to announce that Debt Free Direct has enthusiastically jumped on board as our platinum/title partner, so you’ll be seeing some information about what they offer interspersed throughout the Stages of the event. I will be donating half (50%) of all sponsorship proceeds to a charity selected by the overall competition winner (Yellow Jersey), which will be really fun! 

I look forward to another great event this year and reading your posts! 

***Photo courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Bradley_Wiggins,_2012_Tour_de_France,_Stage_19_close-up.jpg

Reader Profile – Roger From Asset Allocation Central

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Today, in the ongoing Reader Profile Series, we’re getting to know MPFJ.com reader and enthusiastic commenter (especially on my long-winded asset allocation analysis posts!), Roger, from the site, Asset Allocation Central. Let’s all give Roger a big round of applause for sharing his life with us and listen to his story. Enjoy!

Also, if you’re interested in sharing your own financial story/journey with us in a reader profile of your own, just shoot me a quick email, and we can get the ball rolling!

1. PLEASE TELL EVERYONE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF (BACKGROUND, EDUCATION, FAMILY SITUATION, ETC).

My name is Roger, and I live in a suburb of Philadelphia with my wife, Lisa, and our dog, Bailey. I have two adult sons, Ben and Nathan, that both live near me. Ben works at an American Red Cross lab that tests genetic compatibility for bone marrow transplants. Nathan is still in college and is majoring in computer science. He has a partial academic scholarship and an Army ROTC scholarship.

I was born and raised in suburb of Detroit and had a happy childhood. I was really lucky that I had frugal parents that taught me from a young age to live below my means.

I earned a BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan and graduated into a high unemployment (greater than 10%) economy in 1982. I had a brilliant (not) idea of moving to North Carolina to improve my chances of finding a good job. I ended up working in a crappy retail store making minimum wage.

I decided that I needed to get qualified for something better, so I got an MBA from Duke University in 1985. I sort of liked the coursework, but I fell in love with PCs, which had just come out. After getting married and graduating, Lisa and I decided we wanted to leave North Carolina (too conservative) and move to Washington DC or Philadelphia. I got a job at Scott Paper company as a Financial Analyst in Philadelphia. The job was kind of boring but I still loved PCs, so I started taking Computer Science courses at Villanova University and eventually earned a Masters Degree. From then on, I was a software engineer working for my own company or other companies.

2. DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION (WHO WORKS IN YOUR FAMILY, HOW YOUR INCOME IS, YOUR EXPENSES, ETC.).

I retired early at age 52, and I highly recommend early retirement to anyone who asks!! Lisa loves being a personal trainer and yoga teacher, so she still works part-time.

We have no debt (mortgage or otherwise), and we have a nest egg that supports our relatively frugal lifestyle.

3. WHAT ARE THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CHALLENGES YOU ARE FACING (SAVING, PAYING OFF DEBT, STUDENT LOANS, MERGING FINANCES AFTER RECENTLY BEING MARRIED, ETC.)?

My biggest financial challenge is managing our investments so that our money will outlast our retirement. I spend a lot time studying investing and asset allocation in pursuit of alpha. I also spend time figuring out how to further reduce expenses without eroding our happiness. I’m often amazed at how little money I really need to be happy compared to what I thought I needed.

4. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE (RETIRE EARLY; BUILD YOUR CAREER, ETC.)?

Lisa and I plan on downsizing our 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house to something significantly smaller after Nathan graduates. We also want to travel, and we’re going on a 15-day European Riverboat Cruise for our 30th wedding anniversary next year.

I would like to live in some foreign countries, but I’m not sure that I can convince Lisa. I’m looking for a little adventure!

I plan on spending time playing with software development with an emphasis on the word “playing”. I like to build fun stuff because I’m an engineer at heart!

5. WHAT’S YOUR BEST PIECE(S) OF FINANCIAL ADVICE AND/OR YOUR GENERAL PHILOSOPHY ON PERSONAL FINANCES?

I have several pieces of advice that have served me well:

You need to realize that more “stuff” will not make you happier. Meaningful work, helping others, interesting experiences, and good relationships will make you happy and these are cheaper than most “stuff”.

Always live below your means and work hard to eliminate all debt. The more you do this, the faster your savings and investments will grow.

Spend time learning how to invest. As your assets grow, your investment knowledge will literally pay bigger and bigger dividends.

***Photo courtesy of AssetAllocationCentral.com

$65.84 Giveaway – Community and Charity 10% Monthly Blog Income Give Back # 20 – May 2013 Edition

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The 10% give back giveaway fun rolls on for the month of May! 

In case you missed the first 19 editions of the 10% Blog Income Give Back, after doing some thinking at the beginning of October 2011 about what direction I want this blog to grow and evolve towards in the future, I decided that any income made from this blog would have more significance to me at a personal life values level if I knew that a portion were being given back to the following places:

  • 1) The readers – Obviously, without you here to read my articles and interact with my ideas, there would be no blog in the first place (let alone blog income). As such, it is only fitting that you receive a portion of any blog income.
  • 2) Charitable organizations – If you’ve read my blog before, you know that I’m a big believer in donating a portion of my money to charity. Each year, I donate between 5-10% of my income to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as part of the Bike for MS fundraiser that I do. Beyond the good that is done by donating your money, getting used to contributing to charity is also a good practice to emulate the actions of affluent individuals (T. Harv Eker discusses this in his book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, which I would definitely recommend reading if you have a few hours).

Because of these considerations, I’ve decided that each month going forward, I’m going to give away 10% of my net (after-tax) blogging income/profit to My Personal Finance Journey readers (5%) and to charity (5%). Listed below is how the process will work:

  • After each calendar month passes, I’ll tally up my net blog income and determine what Dollar value correlates to 10%.
  • I’ll post the giveaway (similar to this post you’re reading now), and you’ll have approximately 2-3+ weeks to enter.
  • Once the giveaway is over, a grand prize winner will be announced, and that winner will then select what charity they’d like to have 5% of my blog income sent to. Once the giveaway entry window ends, I’ll send out the money to the blog reader winner(s) and personally drop off the charity donation.  
  • So far, I’ve been very happy with the success of the October 2011 – April 2013 give backs. Listed below is a summary of what we’ve accomplished so far with the give backs. 
    • Current total given to charity = $918
    • Current total given to blog readers = $847 

So, that’s the overall flow of things and a brief recap of what’s happened so far with the give back initiative. Now, let’s get in to the specific details for this month’s (May 2013) giveaway. 

Details of May 2013 10% Blog Income Giveaway

  • $65.84 total blog income to give away – $35.84 to a My Personal Finance Journey reader and $30 to the Blue Ridge Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. 
    • $35.84 in the form of one prize available to one reader as follows – 
      • 1) Grand Prize = $35.84 cash via PayPal.

    How to Enter the Giveaway – Deadline to Enter is 11:59 PM, May 31st, 2013


    Like last month, I’ve decided to use the RaffleCopter giveaway management tool to handle sign-up facilitation for the May giveaway, so simply go through the steps listed in the widget below to enter the running for the prize and accumulate entry points.

    There is no limit to the amount of points you can earn. If you refer 10 subscribers – your name will have accumulated 170 entry points! Or, if you link to the giveaway more than once, you can accumulate those 10 entry points multiple times. You can also retweet the giveaway and/or share other My Personal Finance Journey articles via social media sites once per day. In the event of a tie, I will be using a random number generator to select the winner.

    Important instructions: After you complete an entry method, make sure to click and fill out the “I Did This” or “Enter” button in the widget so that I have a record of your points.  

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    Remember, the deadline for entries will end at 11:59 PM, May 31st, 2013 (a little over 3 weeks from today – the start of the give back). Good luck to you all! Please contact me if you have any questions. After the deadline for entries passes, the winner (one with the most points accumulated) will be contacted via email to receive their prize.

    ***Photo courtesy of http://pardonmypublishing.com/nobomeca/blog/images/DSC_0010.JPG

    Reader Profile – Rob from Financial Sprout

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    Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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    Today, in the ongoing Reader Profile Series, we’re getting to know MPFJ.com reader and enthusiastic commenter, Rob, from the site, Financial Sprout. Let’s all give Rob a big round of applause for sharing his life with us and listen to his story. Enjoy!

    Also, if you’re interested in sharing your own financial story/journey with us in a reader profile of your own, just shoot me a quick email, and we can get the ball rolling! 

    1.PLEASE TELL EVERYONE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF (BACKGROUND, EDUCATION, FAMILY SITUATION, ETC).

    My name is Rob, and I am the founder and chief writer for Financial Sprout, which presents finances from a teen’s perspective.  I am currently 17 years old, and a junior in high school in the top 10% of my class.  I plan on going to college to double major in Finance and Music Performance (preferably at IU).  I come from a large family of 9, so I really know how to be frugal, and I love to share with other people how to stretch their dollar

    I currently live in the rural cornfields of Indiana, where I work my job as a corn detasseler for a hybrid genetics company (in the summer), and perform odd jobs.  Other than that, I am currently trying to transform my blog from a hobby into a full time job to get me through college. 


    2. What Got You Interested in Personal Finance at a Fairly Young Age?   

    I started to get interested in personal finance after my brother, who has his masters degree in finance, gave me a Dave Ramsey book to read when I was about 13, called “The Total Money Makeover.”  I then became more interested as I started taking classes in school like Accounting, and especially when I started to listen to the Rich Dad Poor Dad podcast on my IPod.  I guess you could say that my brother was a big influence, because he thoroughly supported and cultivated my interest in finance.  

    3. How Did You Get Started Personal Finance Blogging?

    To be truthful, I started my blog to make money.  That same brother that got me interested in finance owns a few financial blogs himself, and helped me start my own.  I figured that the income it will generate within a few years will help me get through college, and possibly get a huge head start on investing.  I also wanted to help other teens out there, who might not have have very much financial sense, to get a head start on thinking about finances and investing.

    4. DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION (WHO WORKS IN YOUR FAMILY, HOW YOUR INCOME IS, YOUR EXPENSES, ETC.).

    I obviously still live with my parents, so I am not fully independent; nonetheless, I still have financial responsibility.  My father is currently a truck driver for a dairy farm, hauling milk from the farms to the processing companies.  My mom works part time as a CNA at a home health care company and goes to cosmetology school full time.  The biggest of our family’s expenses is the mortgage to our home large enough to house our large family.  Although having a big house is great, it tends to eat away at your paycheck pretty quickly!

    5. WHAT ARE THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CHALLENGES YOU ARE FACING (SAVING, PAYING OFF DEBT, STUDENT LOANS, MERGING FINANCES AFTER RECENTLY BEING MARRIED, ETC.)?

    Currently, my largest personal expenses are gas, private lessons, and car insurance.  

    I drive a ’93 Cadillac El Dorado, which is a sweet car, but it only gets about 15mpg.  I pay about $20 a week to a week and a half for gas, just to drive to school/ church and back.  Recently, I just started to get private saxophone lessons, which are $20/hour, so that cost me about $80 per month.  Since I’m a 17-year-old boy, the car insurance companies must think I’m made out of money because they’re charging me $85 a month for liability insurance!  Per month, I have about $200+ in expenses, which is quite a bit when you don’t have a traditional job.  I make ends meet by working odd jobs for people like tiling in a bathtub and painting people’s houses (just a few things I’ve done recently). 

    6. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE (RETIRE EARLY; BUILD YOUR CAREER, ETC.)?

    My biggest goal in life is to go to college absolutely free!  I already have a “21st Century scholars” scholarship, which pays for 100% of the tuition to any Indiana public university.  I plan to earn more scholarships and grants to cover books, room and board, and other expenses.  I also need about an extra $6,000-8,000 in scholarships to use to purchase a professional tenor and soprano saxophone for my music studies.  This should be very possible with my current academic standings.  After college, I plan to start aggressively investing, since I will already have no student loan debt, and retire early.  


    7. WHAT’S YOUR BEST PIECE(S) OF FINANCIAL ADVICE AND/OR YOUR GENERAL PHILOSOPHY ON PERSONAL FINANCES?

    My philosophy is to live within your means.  

    You can still retire early even if you only make $15/ hour.  It’s all about balancing your expenses.  If you don’t make much money, then you should coupon, plan out meals, don’t eat out, etc…  Live frugally, and you can use the money you save to invest towards your retirement.  If you still can’t set aside money then do some side jobs to designate towards investing, so you are always contributing.  Save so that you can invest more, or as Dave Ramsey says, “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” 

    Reader Profile – Jenny from Frugal Guru Guide

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    Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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    Click here to enter my free $50.53 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is April 30th, 2013.

    Today, in the ongoing Reader Profile Series, we’re getting to know MPFJ.com reader and enthusiastic commenter, Jenny, from the site, Frugal Guru Guide. Let’s all give Jenny a big round of applause for sharing her life with us and listen to her story. Enjoy!

    Also, if you’re interested in sharing your own financial story/journey with us in a reader profile of your own, just shoot me a quick email, and we can get the ball rolling!  

    1. PLEASE TELL EVERYONE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF (BACKGROUND, EDUCATION, FAMILY SITUATION, ETC).

    I’m in my early 30s and married with two-almost-three (due this month!) kids.  My husband and I both graduated from Purdue University, him with a master’s and me with a bachelor’s.  I worked half a dozen jobs in college, and after graduation, I married and soon had a baby and a career as a novelist (under a pseudonym). 
    After five years, the fiction industry went belly-up with the economic crash, and I tried my hand at various things, from house-flipping to tutoring, while homeschooling my oldest and having a second child.  After laughing hysterically at the publishing houses’ offer for my frugal living guides, I decided I could do better on my own and struck out independently.  That’s what’s “under the hood” at Frugal Guru Guide—my first book, on everything to do with autos from commuting to buying and selling to maintenance tips, is going to come out probably at the beginning of next month.

    2. DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION (WHO WORKS IN YOUR FAMILY, HOW YOUR INCOME IS, YOUR EXPENSES, ETC.).

    I’m currently getting drips and dribbles from my novels as they are occasionally published in other languages, but 90%+ of current our income is my husband’s, who works for a large corporation.  I’m hoping that this will change this year closer back to where it used to be.
    We have no consumer, student, or car debt – only the mortgage.
    We are putting 19% of our gross income away into retirement right now, including 5% employer matching, and 6% is going into kids’ college funds and the same into paying the mortgage down early and to charity—we’re really working on getting charity up to 10% of gross within the next 5 years.  We’re also spending about 7% of gross each year on remodeling, which is desperately needed, and our mortgage, taxes, and home insurance add up to 20% of gross.  We put 2.5% of gross into our very modest car fund every year—we keep our cars a very, very long time.
    We spend about $55 a week on groceries (and average $40 on eating out as a family).  I spend $150 on clothing for myself, excluding shoes and underclothes, about $100 for each of the kids, including everything (and with lots of frou-frous), and about $50 for my husband, inclusive of everything (because his mother still compulsively buys him clothes and always will.)

    3. WHAT ARE THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CHALLENGES YOU ARE FACING (SAVING, PAYING OFF DEBT, STUDENT LOANS, MERGING FINANCES AFTER RECENTLY BEING MARRIED, ETC.)? 

    I’m trying to build my own income after it getting devastated by the recession, and we’re trying to save more for retirement and also give more to charity and pay off the mortgage sooner.

    4. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE (RETIRE EARLY; BUILD YOUR CAREER, ETC.)?

    Career-building is my priority right now.  I’m not really interested in early retirement.  I don’t see work as something to be avoided or shunned, but I do seek out meaningful work that is largely enjoyable.  I do want to have plenty saved up for retirement and old age, but I’m not counting down the days, and I may choose never to retire.  We’ll see.

    5. WHAT’S YOUR BEST PIECE(S) OF FINANCIAL ADVICE AND/OR YOUR GENERAL PHILOSOPHY ON PERSONAL FINANCES?

    Live below your means.  Weigh the real benefits before making any financial decision, and don’t assume that every major expense will be a good investment just because people assure you it will.

    Reader Profile – Greg from ThriftGenuity

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    Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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    Click here to enter my free $50.53 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is April 30th, 2013.

    Today, in the ongoing Reader Profile Series, we’re getting to know reader and insightful commenter, Greg, from the site, ThriftGenuity. Let’s all give Greg a big round of applause and welcome for sharing his life with us and listen to his story. Enjoy!

    Also, if you’re interested in sharing your own financial story/journey with us in a reader profile of your own, just shoot me a quick email, and we can get the ball rolling!       

    1. PLEASE TELL EVERYONE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF (BACKGROUND, EDUCATION, FAMILY SITUATION, ETC).

    My name is Greg and I currently live in Richmond, VA and work in health insurance.  I am married, but no kids just yet.  Ironically (since I am in health insurance), my wife is a physician so we are focused on her finishing up her residency and joining a practice before expanding the family.


    My background – I grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA (Go Steelers!).  I went to school at a small private university studying communications and marketing.  While getting established in my career, I moved around every couple of years for job opportunities and earned my MBA.  Now, I am a bit more settled in with my job and have expanded into other opportunities in my spare time, specifically teaching guitar lessons, refereeing soccer, and just started blogging.

    2. DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION (WHO WORKS IN YOUR FAMILY, HOW YOUR INCOME IS, YOUR EXPENSES, ETC.).

    For my age, I am in a good place financially.  We spend only about half our take home pay and save the rest and we have put away a sizeable amount relative to our age.  We both work and once my wife joins a practice, we will see a significant increase in income.  Because we want to remain mobile for the next year as we decide where to live for the long term, we are basically keeping the bulk of our money liquid, so if we do move, we will have a nice down payment for the next house.  Also because of that, we are putting as much money as we can into our Roth accounts before getting to an income level where that is no longer an option.


    In addition to our mix of stocks and bonds, I am also very interested in real estate investing.  I was able to turn my first house into a rental property and am looking to expand, again, once we know where we will be living long-term.

    3. WHAT ARE THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CHALLENGES YOU ARE FACING (SAVING, PAYING OFF DEBT, STUDENT LOANS, MERGING FINANCES AFTER RECENTLY BEING MARRIED, ETC.)?

    Our primary financial challenge is my wife’s med school loans.  Once the subsidies run out, we will start paying down the principle very aggressively with a target of completion in 2 years.  The interest on that loan is fairly high, so it is a balancing act determining when and where to invest money elsewhere and if it will yield a better return that the interest on that loan.


    Other than a mortgage, we have no other debt, which I am very happy about.  The couple of years after the med school loan is paid off will be very exciting, because we don’t live a very extravagant lifestyle, so we should be able to really strategize our investments.

    4. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE (RETIRE EARLY; BUILD YOUR CAREER, ETC.)?

    My plans for the near future are continue to progress within my career but also maintain a work/life balance.  I really enjoy the couple of side ventures that I have going on and will continue to focus on them.  Once kids are in the picture, I really want to make sure that I have time dedicated to spending with them.  As far as retirement, I definitely plan to retire early, but I am not yet ready to say at what age.  I don’t mean that in the sense of when I will be financially ready, but more from the standpoint of what else I want to do.  So my goal is by around 40 (10 years from now) to be financially independent so the career I have and any other ventures are all because I want to do them and not because I have to do them.


    5. WHAT’S YOUR BEST PIECE(S) OF FINANCIAL ADVICE AND/OR YOUR GENERAL PHILOSOPHY ON PERSONAL FINANCES?

    I think that all of the financial decision I’ve made to this point can be summed up in determining what value I am receiving for the money.  I think that if you always keep this in mind, it really keeps your feet on the ground and you can truly assess your wants and needs. 

    • Applied to college – is the tuition at X school providing me better opportunities than the tuition at Y school or is it just some perceived bragging rights?
    • Applied to a career – is what I’m doing adding value to my overall career and where I want to go? Am I being paid what I’m worth?
    • Applied to home or car – does this location or size add additional value, or is it just to show that I can?

     By asking these questions with large and small financial decisions coupled with your overall financial goals has served me well to this point and should continue to do so.   I will also add that you must educate yourself on the item at hand, or your evaluation of it will have less meaning.

    ***Photo courtesy of http://thriftgenuity.com/roedyblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/GR-e1361912788835.jpg

    $50.53 Giveaway – Community and Charity 10% Monthly Blog Income Give Back # 19 – April 2013 Edition

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    Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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    The 10% give back giveaway fun rolls on for the month of April! 

    In case you missed the first 18 editions of the 10% Blog Income Give Back, after doing some thinking at the beginning of October 2011 about what direction I want this blog to grow and evolve towards in the future, I decided that any income made from this blog would have more significance to me at a personal life values level if I knew that a portion were being given back to the following places:

    • 1) The readers – Obviously, without you here to read my articles and interact with my ideas, there would be no blog in the first place (let alone blog income). As such, it is only fitting that you receive a portion of any blog income.
    • 2) Charitable organizations – If you’ve read my blog before, you know that I’m a big believer in donating a portion of my money to charity. Each year, I donate between 5-10% of my income to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as part of the Bike for MS fundraiser that I do. Beyond the good that is done by donating your money, getting used to contributing to charity is also a good practice to emulate the actions of affluent individuals (T. Harv Eker discusses this in his book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, which I would definitely recommend reading if you have a few hours).

    Because of these considerations, I’ve decided that each month going forward, I’m going to give away 10% of my net (after-tax) blogging income/profit to My Personal Finance Journey readers (5%) and to charity (5%). Listed below is how the process will work:

    • After each calendar month passes, I’ll tally up my net blog income and determine what Dollar value correlates to 10%.
    • I’ll post the giveaway (similar to this post you’re reading now), and you’ll have approximately 2-3+ weeks to enter.
    • Once the giveaway is over, a grand prize winner will be announced, and that winner will then select what charity they’d like to have 5% of my blog income sent to. Once the giveaway entry window ends, I’ll send out the money to the blog reader winner(s) and personally drop off the charity donation.  
    • So far, I’ve been very happy with the success of the October 2011 – March 2013 give backs. Listed below is a summary of what we’ve accomplished so far with the give backs. 
      • Current total given to charity = $893
      • Current total given to blog readers = $821 

    So, that’s the overall flow of things and a brief recap of what’s happened so far with the give back initiative. Now, let’s get in to the specific details for this month’s (April 2013) giveaway. 

    Details of April 2013 10% Blog Income Giveaway

    • $50.53 total blog income to give away – $25.53 to a My Personal Finance Journey reader and $25 to the Blue Ridge Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. 
      • $25.53 in the form of one prize available to one reader as follows – 
        • 1) Grand Prize = $25.53 cash via PayPal.

      How to Enter the Giveaway – Deadline to Enter is 11:59 PM, April 30th, 2013


      Like last month, I’ve decided to use the RaffleCopter giveaway management tool to handle sign-up facilitation for the April giveaway, so simply go through the steps listed in the widget below to enter the running for the prize and accumulate entry points.

      There is no limit to the amount of points you can earn. If you refer 10 subscribers – your name will have accumulated 170 entry points! Or, if you link to the giveaway more than once, you can accumulate those 10 entry points multiple times. You can also retweet the giveaway and/or share other My Personal Finance Journey articles via social media sites once per day. In the event of a tie, I will be using a random number generator to select the winner.

      Important instructions: After you complete an entry method, make sure to click and fill out the “I Did This” or “Enter” button in the widget so that I have a record of your points.  

      a Rafflecopter giveaway

      Remember, the deadline for entries will end at 11:59 PM, April 30th, 2013 (a little over 3 weeks from today – the start of the give back). Good luck to you all! Please contact me if you have any questions. After the deadline for entries passes, the winner (one with the most points accumulated) will be contacted via email to receive their prize.

      ***Photo courtesy of http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3538/3366568135_098cce59f2_o.jpg

      Reader Profile – MyFIJourney

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      Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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      Today, in the ongoing Reader Profile Series, we’re getting to know reader and insightful commenter, MFIJ, from the site, My Financial Independence Journey. Let’s all give MFIJ a big round of applause for sharing his life with us and listen to his story. Enjoy!

      Also, if you’re interested in sharing your own financial story/journey with us in a reader profile of your own, just shoot me a quick email, and we can get the ball rolling!         

      1. Please tell everyone a little bit about yourself (background, education, family situation, etc).

      Where to begin?  I’m currently an overeducated (I’ve got a doctorate) white collar professional with an exciting career in the sciences, pulling in a very respectable salary and well on my way to achieving financial independence.  But, things weren’t always such….  

      I was raised in one of those households that sits on the border between frugal and cheap.  My parents were excellent at saving money, largely because they bought as little as possible and rarely did anything fun.  Not spending money is about the only real financial skill I picked up at home.  Learning everything else has been a sometimes painful and sometimes amazing journey of discovery.

      Over the course of my very extended training, I have earned a variety of different salaries, ranging from sub $20,000 all the way up to my current six figures.  I’ve also lived in many areas of the country since each training position was located in an entirely different city.  I’ve learned a variety of things from these experiences.  For example, how to deal with lots of different kinds of people, the importance of not buying things that I would be unwilling to move across the country, and how to live on relatively little income.

      Overall, I’m doing my best to remain an anonymous blogger.  This is necessary since I post my entire investment portfolio and dividend income on my site so that everyone can learn from my successes and failures as I work diligently to grow my wealth and income streams.


      2. Describe your current financial situation (who works in your family, how your income is, your expenses, etc.).

      My household consists entirely of myself as the sole breadwinner, my two cats that are only useful at looking cute, and an expanding army of plants who also contribute nothing besides breathable oxygen.  With so many freeloaders to take care of, I’ve got to work extra hard!  

      Income streams:

      I hold down a full time day job that allows me to pull in a nice six figure base salary (plus bonus).  I love the job, and I’ve got a great boss.  As a bonus, I get to use all of my scientific knowledge that I’ve spent years acquiring to do some really exciting work that will hopefully lead to innovative products that will improve the lives of millions of people.

      My second job is that of personal finance and investing blogger.  But at this point, I’m only pulling in pennies, barely enough money to buy a gumball.   Note to aspiring bloggers: this is not easy, passive, or quick money.  But that’s okay, because more importantly, my blog is also a constant source of encouragement for me to improve my knowledge of personal finance and investing, which directly contributes to my third income stream – investments.

      My third source of income is dividend stocks.   I consistently invest in companies with a history (10 plus years) of increasing dividend payments.  Ideally, these companies have wide moats to guard against competition, strong fundamentals, and are undervalued at the time of purchase.  My eventual goal is for my dividend income to be large enough to cover all of my expenses.

      Expenses:

      Out of my base salary, 50% of my take-home pay immediately goes to saving and investments.  25% of my base salary goes towards rent.  I live in a very high cost of living area at the moment, but given the specialized nature of my work, there’s no avoiding that.  And the other 25% of my base salary covers the rest of my expenses.  When I get a bonus, half goes into investments.  The other half is held in reserve in case I decide to take a vacation or have some other big-ticket fun.

      3. What are the current financial challenges you are facing (saving, paying off debt, student loans, merging finances after recently being married, etc.)?

      I am aiming to become truly financially independent by the time I’m 45.  In other words, I want to have all of my expenses entirely covered by investment income.  My primary means of achieving this lofty goal is to aggressively save money and invest it in a diversified portfolio of dividend growth stocks.

      If I were to outline my financial independence strategy it would be as follows.

      1) Save like a madman.  I direct six percent of my gross salary to my 401k in order to grab the full employer match.  After that, I aim to save at least 50% of my net income every year.

      2) Establish an emergency fund equal to one year’s worth of expenses.  This will cover me in the event that I need to buy a replacement car or if I get laid off and it takes me a year to find a new job.

      3) Regularly invest in dividend growth stocks with the intent of building a diversified portfolio of quality stocks that regularly and predictably throw off ever increasing amounts of cash.

      4) Work hard and aggressively grow my career.  As my career grows, so will my income and thus the amount that I can save each year.

      4. What are your plans for the future (retire early; build your career, etc.)?

      A major goal of mine is to build up my career.  I’m loving my new job, not in any small part to all the amazing people that I work with.  This is my first job outside of the ivory tower of academia and I am working hard to prove myself, and to grow my career well beyond my current entry-level position.

      Achieving financial independence as soon as possible is my primary goal.  I don’t have any specific desire to retire early since at present I really like my job.  However, I am well aware that I work in a labile industry and could be laid off at any point.  I’m also cognizant of the fact that I’m one reorganization at work from having my otherwise awesome boss replaced by someone I’d rather not be working with. 

      As mentioned above, I’ve had to move all over the country in order to pursue my educational and professional development.  All of those moves have been based solely on the presence of a position that I desired.  I never really thought about whether I would be happy living in the area or not.  Some of those moves have been very sudden.  Here’s your new position, now uproot your whole life and move across country stat.  I’ve always had to work to make the best of every new location – sometimes I’ve succeeded admirably and sometimes I’ve failed miserably. 

      I consider financial independence to be the ultimate insurance policy against layoffs, bad bosses, and urgent cross-country relocations.  It allows me to call the shots. From the moment that I hit financial independence, life will start to conform to my desires, rather than the other way around.

      5. What’s your best piece(s) of financial advice and/or your general philosophy on personal finances?

      If you want to hit financial independence, and do it early, you’re going to have to start saving a lot more than the standard sub-5% savings rate common in the US.  The math behind extreme saving is really easy.  Starting from nothing and saving 50% of your income will get you to financial independence in around 14 years, give or take depending on returns.

      Living in such a way as to allow you to save 50% of your net income is rather difficult and involves a lot of tradeoffs and sacrifice.  It really forces you to decide up front what’s important to you and direct your money towards only those things.  Everything else gets kicked to the curb.

      The real trick is finding the right balance in your life and knowing when to give and take in order to maximize your happiness.  I usually tend to be overly cheap and wind up missing out on things.  It’s something that I’m working on correcting as I try to find balance in my life.

      Once you’ve got the saving part down, you need to work on investing.  There’s plenty of great ways to convert your savings into income producing assets, my favorite being dividend stocks.  Some take a lot less effort like index fund investing, and some take a lot more like real estate investing.  No matter which method you pick, learn everything you can about it, lay out an investment plan at the outset, and stick to the plan.

        ***Photo courtesy of gravatar.com

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