Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Net Worth Update: +$3,260.50





Welcome to the snowball folks!!  This month I am +$3,260.50!  Every net worth update my smile grows bigger and bigger and my 'wallet' gets sexier!  If I flashback 12-months ago my net worth April 15, 2011 was -$78,454.19!!!  

Checking (-$157.73):  I get paid this week, but wanted to get the numbers together just to see how I was doing.  I am planning on doing a mini numbers-only net worth update after this check and the bill pays all clear.

E-Fund (+$1,112.46):  Steadily climbing to the once lofty $10K goal, 3-yards from the half-line!

Misc Savings (+$1,439.99):  This account is hiding a bunch of IRA and credit card payoff money.  This will be dispersed (HA! I feel like an accountant using that word...) on Friday, friday (gotta get down on Friday)!

Roth IRA (+$202.74):  The past couple weeks have been crazy with the markets!  I just read an article on 6 stocks that have already doubled in price since Jan 1, not to mention Apple (APPL) going crazy! 

401(k):  How did this category get here already?  Hooray tax savings!!!   Side story:  I actually got a call from my HR Manager to confirm how much I was withholding for my 401(k).  She couldn't believe that I was saving more in 1 pay period than most of my coworkers do for the entire year.  I enthusiastically told her that the maximum contribution was increase and I want to max out.  She didn't get it...

Credit Cards (-$5,747.19):  WHOA!!!!  Almost a $6K jump?  Remember my crazy plan to pay off my car and save $1,067 in interest, here it is.  I am going to leave this category totaled for now, but the balance transfer has $5,764.45 remaining on it, with a nearly $600 payment heading its way from the Misc Savings fund above!

Student Loans (+$232.57):  I doubt I can afford to spur much activity in this category.  The loans are HUGE and I am spending so much cash saving (retirement, savings, & credit card pay down) already.   

Nissan Loan (+$6,177.66):  Mission accomplished!  I beat NMAC at the interest game.
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta ,
A real gangsta plays his cards right... 


Graph:  For fun I plotted a trend line for the last three months, which predicts me hitting $0 net worth July 2013!  This is a hopeful guesstimate, but we will see.

Monday, March 26, 2012

What To Do With A Bad Car Loan


Where to begin?  You wake up in night sweats with your car loan contract chasing you?  You were financially reckless and bought a car you could not afford...  Where to go from here?

Let's travel back in time to how you go into this situation.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

A Plea to my French Comrades

My heart goes out to the residents of Toulouse and all of France as tragedy strikes their country via a possible terrorist affiliated murderer, who has killed seven civilians to date.  As of the writing of this French Police are in the middle of a standoff/negotiations with Mohammad Merah.


UPDATE (3/21 10:03):  The swift work of the French security forces have arrested Mr. Merah, where he will undergo the capable work of the judicial system.  


UPDATE 2 (3/22 6:00):  Mr. Merah is still bared up in his residence.  Reports now state that he "will die with gun in hand".


UPDATE 3 (3/22 7:34):  Mohammad Merah is DEAD!


It is currently a presidential election year in France and as in the States anything happening during election season becomes political ammunition.  (Disclaimer:  I do not speak French and am relying on translators and interpreters)  One of the presidential candidates Mrs. Marine Le Pen has used these horrific events to state the following:
[It was now time] "to fight this war against these politico-religious fundamentalists who are killing our children, who are killing our Christian children, our young Christian men, our young Muslim men and who killed these Jewish children two days ago".  -Source
This statement fills me with complete disgust and trepidation as this is similar to the 2001 sentiments we held in the States.  Having seen my own country wage war on the Middle East and all things Muslim, I urge you to think before you act.  In the States, elected officials made claims time and time again that we were at the root of the problem and each and every time I would watch the sand slip through the cracks in their hands.  They had waged a war for no other reason but to wage war.  


Citizens of France:  This is not a war.  You cannot fight an idea or a belief.  Taking revenge on vengeance is cyclical.


Ensure your safety, but do it without being radical.  Do it without being The United States circa early-2000

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(Photo from Wikipedia)