Finance and Fitness Dreams

March Fitness is Coming to a Close-How Did I Do You Ask

2014-03-29T08:48:00.001-07:00

I started on a journey and just a short 40 days ago and along the way I have been making weekly goals. I have reached some and failed on a couple others. The end goal is weight loss and better health and fitness, here's a summary.

My end of March goals look like this. While I have a couple days left, not much is happening in these 2 days to make or break me. Let's go through them.

Goal #1 Biggest Loser Competition. I have lost exactly 0 pounds, so this is major failure on my end, I have maintained along the way. Along the way I have tried a couple things including extra walking and push-ups. I have tried a week of skipping breakfast with intermittent fasting and recently going back to my bacon and eggs in the morning. All in all, I have ate well, but more like a 70/30 Paleo lifestyle, with some epic failures on St. Patrick's Day.

End of March Goals

Lose 8 lbs which should put me right around 215 lbs

Walk a total of 60 miles(keep track on Nike app) this is Mon-Fri after work and all day Sat-Sun, morning walks will not count since it's 5:30 am and I'm lucky to know I'm wearing clothes to go outside

Add in 2 sets of (push ups, sit ups, body squats)

Photo Courtesy of http://athleticaone.com/100-reasons-you-should-work-out-today/

Goal #2 And I Would Walk 100 hundred Miles and I would Walk 100 More(that's a song kids). I did it! I reached my goal, actually I have been doing great on my goal. I am currently at 62.73 miles and climbing, that's with forgetting to use my Nike running app. If walking were the only way to weight loss I would have lost 50 pounds. I am the old man on the right in the picture if anyone is curious.

Photo courtesy of http://www.schwarzenegger.com/

Goal #3 Do as many push-ups and squats to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I had my ups and downs but I have done an estimated 550 push-ups and squats throughout the month, which breaks down to about 20 push-ups/sits each day. I cannot say this is the 2 sets of exercise daily, but I can say I am closer to look like this handsome young Arnold on the right.

So what now? Should I just give up because I haven't lost weight, can I get a he-double hockey sticks NO! I used to weigh 265 pounds, honestly it could have been more who knows, I wasn't exactly jumping to get on the scale. The things that worked best for me was cutting out as much sugar as possible, living in Miami where I sweated out 2 pounds a day by just breathing, and riding by bike everywhere and working out more. Well I'm not ready yet for biking everywhere especially right now, but I am keeping track of my sugar intake and looking to reduce any added sugars and even keep the natural sugars as low as possible. I'm not that familiar with what regular sugar intake should be, but over the last 3 days I'm averaging 60-70g a day. According to an article here, it says to get your sugar intake to below 40g total, which seems very reasonable for what I have been doing since a nutty bar and gelato were included in the last 3 days. For this week I am also weighing myself every morning trying to make weight loss a conscious effort. I am going to keep this going for 2 weeks, so here's to losing a few pounds and being proud to share it with everyone.

Sometimes Fitness Friday Falls on a Saturday

2014-03-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

So a week of struggle followed by a St. Paddy's Weekend that I did not fair to well. The goals for day 15-22 went well, even lost 1.5 pounds, short of my 3 pound goal, but I was walking more and eating right so I felt great. Then came the goals for days 22-29! I went with intermittent fasting and skipping breakfast(coffee only), adding some more pushups, and drinking gluten free beer on St Paddy's Day weekend. Success!(actually a fail), Fail, and Fail is how that all went.

While I did follow the no breakfast for the 7 days, I noticed that I was still on the up side of my weekly weight( I measured Friday morning), so it caused me to overeat and add in nightly snacks that I wasn't eating as much before. Then add on my Saturday of a few Gluten filled beers, burgers, and pizza and this week was on the wrong side. Sunday I ate whatever I felt like and despite playing basketball for fitness, I still ate poorly, I was better on Monday as far as the items I ate, but still overate the healthy items. So with all of that great stuff going on in my body, I'm sure you guessed it, I gained weight, from the scales perspective, I went back to the 228 mark, so an overall 4 pound gain from the previous Tuesday.

So I made 3 goals to get back to when I felt best the previous week. 1 goal was to eat Breakfast each morning. I put down bacon and eggs, but any paleo filled breakfast should do the trick. I also wanted to include my 25 pushups again, since I'm not doing any weight work, I need to have some push and pull exercise besides my dog pulling my arm off while we "walk". Lastly, I decided that I was getting to dependent on coffee, so a 7 day hiatus was the ticket. I started Tuesday expecting to be tired and have a headache, well only 1 happened and I was in bed immediately after I ate my dinner. So I am changing my coffee plans to at least mix it up this week, maybe some tea, a fruit and veggie smoothie, just not the same thing every morning before work.

Here's to reaching goals and getting back on track, because like finance, fitness is all about behaviors, and here's to improving mine!

Post 101-What Rich and Poor People Do With Tax Returns

2014-03-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

Good Morning to the Millions and Millions of Readers out there, I always like to laugh in the morning!

I first want to congratulate myself for sticking with this and getting to my 101st post. It was almost 3 years to the day since I started my first post. I was not as consistent as I could have been, skipping 2011 entirely and a 6 month stretch in 2012-2013, but life and priorities happen, but I'm certainly glad I'm here today. I just want to thank those who read or comment, I hope it has helped or made you think about finance and fitness along the way.

I think the post below is the question that everyone asks as I did in my first post, well the journey continues.

What do I need to do to get fit and wealthy?

TAXES-The Rich and the Poor

Let me first start by saying I don't know what the Rich or Poor do with the money they receive from a refund from there tax returns. Here's a few things from friends and family that I have seen along the way(no judging....yet)

I'm buying a new big screen TV(I have seen more empty big screen boxes on my daily walks now than I have seen during black Friday/Christmas time)
Buying a new/different car(Chances are your refund isn't big enough for a new car, so they are putting some money down and financing the rest)
I'm not sure what I'm going to do, probably just save it(doesn't seem like a bad idea at all)
I'm paying down my debt(I'm sick of paying the regular payment for what feels like the rest of my life.)

I look at the first 2 and think a couple things. One is you know what I paid the government this whole year and I deserve this money, I have been saving the whole year I deserve something nice. Another part of me thinks that's got to be the stupidest thing you can do with your money right now! You have been paying the government extra all year long not earning any interest or paying down any extra debt and what did you do with the money, you couldn't get it out of your hands fast enough. It's called delayed gratification. I'm sure you want a new phone, new TV, new computer, new car, trip to Vegas.

As you can see by the length of each rant, I'm not a huge fan of the first 2 bullet points. What do I think about the last 2 bullet points?

One is that this person must be making the right choices they are getting a return and saving the money or at least trying to eliminate some of there debt. This person must be rich or know about how to handle there money and will be rich one day. Another part of me says this person only thinks they know what is going on, why are they getting a refund, they decided it was a good idea for the government to hold on to there money while they had credit card debt at 19%, a car loan of $500 month, and eating ramen noodles so they didn't go over there grocery budget, they might be as blind as the person buying the new car!

While this rant was similar to the above, I think they are making "weatlhy" decisions in the end. While in theory I do think that it is a poor decision to loan the government money at 0% return, I believe that most Americans including myself find it a struggle to save money, so even though we are giving the money to the government to hold on to, we know they are pretty reliable and will give us what we have saved and feel pretty good about ourselves.

So in the end if you are waiting on your tax refund or already spent it on a big screen TV, keep this post in mind on your decision today and for the future. If you think I'm crazy here's a post over at Get Rich Slowly that has a couple ideas as well.

Fitness Friday-Go Eat a Steak

2014-03-07T16:37:00.000-08:00

So I promised myself and all the millions and millions of readers out there, that I would start a Fitness Friday post, well time flies and guess what it's FRIDAY, so throw out the diets, gym time you put in and make sure you are eating out at work today, grazing on the cupcakes and cookies and chocolate your co-worker brought in. Well if we did all that I personally would have to change my plan to Fat Friday and I've already been on the 265 side, I like this side better.

So an update so far for the week on my Fitness Goals for the week.

Lose 3 lbs
Walk a total of 15 miles
Cook a Paleo/Gluten Free Dessert
Eat Paleo Dinner when going out March 8th

I usually don't like to include weight loss as one of my goals for the week, but I wanted to get a head start on my March goals and this is the head start i needed and I don't weigh myself daily so this is a tbd, this coming Tuesday.

I am on a good pace to walk 15 miles for the week, I'm currently standing at 9.29 miles on my after work walks and my usually long walks are on Saturday and Sunday.

Cook a Paleo/Gluten Free Dessert. My wife has requested the Coconut Cream Pie I did last time, but I want to mix it up. I just bought Almond Flour(the most expensive thing in the world) so I want to try and include that in the mix, but I'm planning on probably doing this on Sunday with my extra time from not having a basketball game this week.

Eat Paleo when we go out for my wife's birthday on March 8th, time will tell. Which should be fine, I'm sticking to meat and veggies and my drinks will be wine, water, or tea. My breakdown might be "helping the wife" with dessert.

Just a quick recap for the week so far, I happy to be working towards the Fitness Friday Goal.

Fitness Goals-100 Days at a Time

2014-03-02T09:04:00.003-08:00

A friend from high school which I used to play basketball with, commented recently that I don't talk about Fitness very much and mostly talk about Finance......truer words have never been spoken. So here we go, Fitness Real Talk.

Let me start out by saying I stopped(canceled membership) going to the gym June 2013, so 8 or 9 months ago, I then took the $54 I was paying in gym fees and put that toward buying Nike stock, the irony on this is simply priceless. I stopped going to the gym for a number of reasons.

I wasn't seeing results. I was lifting heavier weights, but I'm not entering any Strongman competitions anytime soon, I want to be lean and fit circa 2000, just so I'm at least in this century at least.

Because of the results, I showed up less and less. The gym was in my building and sure it was nice to go before work or during lunch, it was a process.

Summer was coming and I knew I wasn't going to be hitting the gym, I was going to be running and biking more than anything.

Angel, my dog. I walk my dog every day, 2x a day, a quick 15-20 min walk in the morning and a 30-60 min walk when I get home. So I was already getting my walking exercise and I could see results just from walking daily.

Good news as of October 2013 I was lightest(227lbs) I've been since probably when I graduated college. This was all without working out during this time, just walking the dog and eating right, throw in a Sunday basketball game and call it a week.

In October my parents came and I told myself I was going to ease up a little because I wanted to have a beer and whatever my parents were going to cook during this time, I was also easing back in butter and cheese(gluten free or grass-fed only, usually Kerrygold) I was doing my best to stick with this and try to add items that were at least gluten free. Since October-February I have been a roller coaster of eating, going completely rogue and eating what I wanted to strict Paleo for a week or gluten free additions. I have included intermediate fasting to balance some of the heavy eating days.

The fact remained I was all over the place with weight, going up a little more than I was going down, just happy to be under the 230 mark was a success. I am able to walk daily usually 1-2 miles with my dog, so that has been the Winter Workout in a nutshell, throw in some Sunday basketball aka the only day I sweat throughout the week. So thanks Angelita(my Siberian Husky).

If you live in the Midwest.......

I am a believer in Paleo and over the last 2 weeks have been working to get back to my Paleo ways, not as strict as my 30 day Paleo challenge, but working my way back to that point. I have started a 100 day transformation. Over this time period I am working on getting my diet and my fitness level at a constant level and where I feel like I need to be.

As many have you have seen, taking a large time frame and attempting to be successful is one of the most difficult things in the world for many and definitely for myself. So along the way I am creating goals along the way in 7 day increments. For example Days 8-15 were adding a set of push ups each day to the week, making sure I reached my month long goal of reaching 42 miles walking for the month, and bringing my lunch every day to work. I also created 2 items, 1 is my Duke notebook where I am open and honest of what I ate, what went well and what I didn't do so well. The other is a calendar of those 100 days, only putting positive comments on each day, if I did the push ups, ate Paleo, walked extra, it's the Positive Only Calendar.

As I'm putting words to computer I'm realizing my short term goals are great and I'm doing well with following and living up to those goals, doing my best to be held accountable. What I failed to do was create an end goal and goals along the way to show my progress, if you want to reach a goal you have to have measuring points. So I'm going to start listing out my goals below. I'm also going to be dedicated to posting 1 Fitness blog a week to show my progress and what I've been working on throughout the week, It will be Fitness Friday post.

End of March Goals

Lose 8 lbs which should put me right around 215 lbs

Walk a total of 60 miles(keep track on Nike app) this is Mon-Fri after work and all day Sat-Sun, morning walks will not count since it's 5:30 am and I'm lucky to know I'm wearing clothes to go outside

Add in 2 sets of (push ups, sit ups, body squats)

End of April Goals

Lose 8 lbs which should put me right around 207 lbs

Add in 2 weekly runs in place of the walks, still keeping a total of 60 miles for the month

An additional day of a sport per week( this could be an additional day of basketball, volleyball, flag football, anything to keep active)

100 Day Goals

Hit 199 lbs

Create a summer workout at the park/beach 2-3 days a week

Have a 80/20 Paleo program, which will include a list of items I tolerate(IE grass fed butter) with my Paleo standards

Complete 12 Fitness Friday Blog Posts

Around this time I was right around the 240 mark, plus or minus 2 pounds. I had definitely dropped from being my 265 when I was in Florida and switched to cutting out the evil sugar from my diet, but gained a solid 10 lbs since being in Chicago and eating hot-dog's and drinking beers. I took the summer off to walking daily and occasionally running and biking and playing basketball on Sunday, results were not there. Although neither was my focus, I think in my head I thought if I do these things the pounds will come off. My eating was "normal", I wasn't eating fast food every day, but I also wasn't shying away from eating how I wanted either.

Fast forward to September. I read and listen to alot of informational items, mostly about money and health and fitness. After listening to Robb Wolf and his podcasts, Fat Burning Man, I finally got off my arse and did a 30 day Paleo Challenge. To my surprise it was easy and I really liked the principals behind it. Eat meat, veggies, and fruit, I was able to lose 10-15lbs and my Achilles pain that I was waking up with every morning(I was walking around like I was 60) went away. Pretty great intro to eating Paleo and feeling great, I had thoughts and hopes of getting down to 185-190, about what I was in high school during basketball season. Of course this was when I'd eat Burger King before a late basketball practice and just run it off during practice. That doesn't exactly happen, It's 9-5 and cook and clean and walk the dog and watch some TV to finish up the night.

So I have issued a challenge to myself and to anyone who reads this, tell me what you are doing to avoid that winter weight, what do you do when your work out?

I want to get a kettle bell to add some weights into my workout, have any thoughts on this? What's your goals, does weight or fitness matter?

Are you the same as you were in high school or college or whenever you were your fittest?

You Can't be Financially Independent in Debt

2014-02-23T07:48:00.002-08:00

So I was thinking the other day how fast I would be able to pay off my debt . I knew that the only way I'd be able to be financially independent is that I paid off each and every loan it's not something I'm proud of but I am in debt and the only way that I'm coming out of it is by hard work and making each and every payment till they're gone.

I have a student loan that's with Discover(bought from Citibank aka the Satan of banks) and this loan is keeping me from being $250 closer to financial independence . The loan is $250 a month that means that every single f****** month, I have to pay the bill they charge me interest,they even send me a statement and I open it and read over the numbers and usually it's depressing.

As previously mentioned this is my old Citibank student loan, I used this for extra money to go to the university of Syracuse, because I wanted to study abroad. This is my pain for living in small mansion in London, getting on a plane to go see how many countries, spring break in Spain, this is a private tuition to Syracuse this is even get in including a $5000 scholarship that barely even put a dent in it. But it's not a that I didn't have a great experience or meet some great people, this is the extra holding me back of getting rid of debt, I am to $250 month closer to never having to pay a single payment ever again to Discover/Citibank, what a powerful statement, what a great feeling. Who knew that paying off debt or the anticipation of paying off debt would be so exciting, must be because I am that closer to financial independence.

I think about my money all time whether it's my job salary, investments, paying off loans, credit cards, cash, I really do think about it all the time. I think you have to, I believe if you want to excel at something you have to obsess over it, always be working towards your goal. If you have read the blog over time you have seen that consistency is one of the things I struggle with and my strategy of defeating this is not making this a marathon, but making each part of my life a sprint and then relax. During that sprint, I'm intense I have a goal, I have a destination that I am climbing towards. You have to want it, simple as that. I go through phases with music and listening to different items, well a while back I couldn't' get enough of motivation videos, they are great for when you are pursuing something and you want a boost.

I think that's where I'm at, I really think that I'm come to the point where I I'll do whatever it takes to get rid of debt and get closer to financial independence, closer to Warren Buffett and that's why I write about this stuff Finance Fitness and Dreams.

Why I hate Mr Money Mustache Part II Cable and Internet Edition

2014-02-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest Why I hate Mr Money Mustache Series. Disclaimer I don't hate anyone, I'm jealous in a couple ways, but I also am not a Mustachian.......Here you Go

I always read Financial Bloggers alike and many people for that matter scream to the heavens, STOP WATCHING TV, cut your cable cord and save money. They will then go on to talk about how they stopped spending so much money and in Mr Money Mustache's case "Cut your Cash-Leaking Umbilical Cord".

Well Guess What? I want to watch TV! I want to watch sports, NFL, College Basketball, and any other show that I want to see right this minute! There I said it, I think the reasoning is completely logic. Here's goes:

For example let's say you spend $50 month on the Internet for example, maybe $9/month for Netflix and another $9 for HuluPlus, i don't know, humor me for one second. So there you are spending $68 for "Cutting the Cord" Congratulations to ummm saving money?

Don't get me wrong if you are able to get rid of TV and Wait for It......The Internet then good work, you are Frugal beyond your years and can put that $68 in a monthly account and make 10K in 20 years(no calculations actually done). But every time I read an article about saving money on Cable TV it still involves the Internet. So I skoff(not spell checking this word).

I do think there are many out there spending too much for cable and Internet. If you are spending $200/month and you are not getting paid to be Movie critic on the Internet, I think you have a cable and Internet problem. However if you are paying the small amounts of $40 or $60 month to have the luxury of watching the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football then this seems reasonable.

The goal like with Cell Phones and my favorite Republic Wireless and for many across the board is to save as much money while still getting the highest quality product possible. So I skoff(yep one more time for good measure) at the idea of cutting Cable TV, because most of the time it's not really true anyway and you are using the Internet to stream TV. Like every purchase, it's important to do the research and get the most for your money. $480/year is a lot of money to many people and don't get suckered into that $70/month $840 year after the 12 months are up, look for a deal with other providers, reach out to the customer service and get that bill lowered. Just Remember It's OK to have Cable and the Internet which most seem to lull over.

*********UPDATE***************

We made a decision to cancel our DirecTV service and go with the above mentioned Internet Plus option through Comcast, we are fairly new into the conversion, so I want to do a separate blog post explaining the cost breakdowns and if it actually works for us.

I'm a Credit Card Hypocrite

2014-01-29T18:14:00.000-08:00

Credit Card Hypocrite

The other day my wife and I were shopping for a new laptop, she changed jobs and were without a computer for the house, unless you include "my computer" which my wife purchased around 2006, it has no battery so it must be plugged in at all times, cannot download pretty much anything because of a certain error message about running a program that from a drive, and heavens forbid you X out of something, it could be another 15 minutes before you are able to get back on, and did I mention you also cannot restart the computer or shut it off without unplugging it. Oh yeah it's a Peach! But I digress........

We did our research on computers before hand and had maximum budget before taxes, she knew pretty much what she wanted between 1 or 2 computers, it really came down to the size of the screen, which was a difference of $200. Because my wife and I keep our separate accounts and one joint account for items we equally contribute for ie mortgage, food, utilities, etc this purchase was all her, I can deal with the Peach listed above. I like any loving husband gave my wife advice on the purchase as we were doing the research together. I said and I quote "I would put the purchase on a credit card you might as well get the miles/cash bonus for a purchase you plan to make anyway" HYPOCRITE! Now I haven't used a credit card for I believe about 2 years ago to make a large purchase of Airline tickets. I am credit card debt free and I have been the anti-credit card guy since then. So why am I giving advice to use a credit card?

It all starts with what I can control and what I cannot control. My wife is smarter than I am and I can't make her not use a credit card, I can do my best to influence her and provide her as much information on why you shouldn't use a credit card. Dave Ramsey for example mentions a study that says credit card use at McDonald's found that people spend 47% more when using credit cards instead of cash (http://www.daveramsey.com/article/the-truth-about-credit-card-debt/). Now I believe the difference is we are not making a random purchase, this is a planned purchase with an expected amount that we have in cash available for this purchase. So my turning point would be I believe if you are making a large planned purchase, cash available in your checking account, it is not against the rules(Finance and Fitness Dreams Rules). If you are able to get an extra $10(1% of $1000) for this purchase. This makes the assumptions that you will pay the bill in full and on time, which definitely factors into the decision. There is many factors that need to be considered, but as I have mentioned previously I am not going to use a credit card to make purchases, now or in the future, I have loan debt to pay off and I do not feel comfortable putting any amount of money on my own personal credit card.

My advice for my wife is slowly progressing to putting ALL purchases on the debit/checking, but like any habit, one of the hardest things to do is stop doing it "cold turkey" so we are working on a process of gradual reduction. My wife has been in the habit of grabbing whatever card is in her wallet, debit or credit and making a purchase. We have slowly progressed to using 1 credit card only to make purchases, then using that 1 credit card to make only business expenses. She has since changed jobs and no longer needs to make purchases on the credit card for business expenses. After January 2014 is over in theory there should be zero purchases on the credit card and only debit purchases. Because we tend to travel a credit card purchase will be in the mix in the form of airline tickets, car rental, hotel, etc and I think it is in our best interest. I will pay cash directly to my wife when these purchases are made. It's not a credit card free life, but it is certainly still heading in that direction while we work our way to Financial Independence,

6 years 4 months and counting.....................

Finance=Fitness Lose Weight=Savings, etc

2014-01-20T08:49:00.001-08:00

The name of the blog much like most of my posts here are Finance and Fitness Dreams, I think there are so many different correlations to each other, that it deserved a special post to compare a little. I will be the first to tell you I struggle with both Finance and Fitness, I'm not 600 lbs or filing bankruptcy, but I struggle to not eat an entire bag of chocolate covered pretzels or rack up credit card debt and I think these are highly correlated.

Let's start with a couple things that always pop up when talking about Fitness or Finance. He's born with great genetics, that's why he has a 6 pack or the finance equivalent they were born into that money, these are the same thing just different worlds. The real question is ok that's true you don't have great genetics, your family didn't hand you a trust fund on your 18th birthday, so WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

There are so many cases of people getting in better shape and increasing there net worth, so I believe these go hand in hand, here's a couple that Finance and Fitness terms that do that:

Finance=Fitness
Budget=Diet
Investing=Gym
Money/Job=Healthy Food You Eat
Credit Cards=Junk Food or Carbs
Cash=Meat/Protein
Good Debt=100 Calorie Snack Packs
Retiring Early=Crossfit or Explosive Movement Exercise
Bankruptcy=Obesity
Side Income=Going for that Extra Gym Session Saturday Morning
Investing in Index Funds=Walking

I'm sure there is 100's more, this was my brainstorm of Finance=Fitness, maybe you can come up with your own and we can get a huge list going or at least bigger list!

So many things have gone the other direction for Finance and Fitness in America and even all over the world, being in debt and overweight is the new "normal" What are you doing to break out from this, I mean what am I doing? I'm on a budget, I walk every day, I stay away from Credit Cards, I keep to a Paleo or Paleo Lite eating pattern, I practice what I preach. Do I fail? Every day, but if you move on from that daily failure, you can make the next day a success. I ate chocolate covered pretzels yesterday(a lot of them), does that mean I'm ditching my Paleo Lite(90% Paleo, 10% Organic/Gluten Free), h-e-l-l no(said with attitude, neck cocked, possible finger wave), it means I'm going to do my best possible to eat right today and just as important as that is what went wrong yesterday so I can fix this. Because you know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results. I know that yesterday my breakfast was very light, so I had a snack early, which left my lunch very small. That means today a couple things are changing, I went with a heavier lunch, of more meats and vegetables, not just the small sandwich I ate yesterday. I will not be going to CVS/Walgreen's to pick up some more junk snacks. Is there other solutions, h-e-l-l YES(just shouting this time), I could have not waited till my 3rd alarm and then slept 20 extra minutes and ate a real breakfast, eggs and bacon. Today was not that day, so we moved to another option, I was prepared in some way.

Be prepared. if it's one thing that's important about Finance and Fitness it's being prepared, if you are not prepared to make a major purchase you might resort to using a credit card or not have a good lunch and your eating chocolate pretzels and looking like this guy.

I mean if you really think about Jared could be the spokes model, yeah Jared's a model for Finance and Fitness. What this guy do he got in shape, ate right to lose weight, does some exercise and boom has a net worth of 15mm(here's an article that says so http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/jared-subway-guy-marks-15-years-turkey-subs-article-1.1365511). I of course prefer David Beckham and Warren Buffett(Mark Cuban rejected my offer, just kidding sorda).

I am also a big believer in "Laser Focus" If you want to do anything to the best of your ability, you need to dedicate 100% of your energy if not you will not get the best possible results. A simple way to think about this is try eating a healthy snack while doing a bench press, pretty tough to lift those 200lbs when you have an apple in your mouth. I know that sounds a little ridiculous, but so is expecting the best results without dedicating yourself. In previous posts I have mentioned that I Sprint and Relax, because otherwise I end up cheating a little on both. For me I have 2 focuses currently and that's why I believe I ate a bag of chocolate pretzels yesterday, I wasn't laser focus on my fitness goals. I have went from my Paleo challenge all the way down to Paleo Lite, I still have the ultimate goal of losing 14.8 lbs(down 2.2 lbs), but I'm not going to get there unless I change my habits Now. I listen to a Dave Ramsey podcast every morning, as a friend from work says, he reminds you to save every day and I let him know yep I need that reminder. It's the same for Paleo and Fitness, apparently I need an every day reminder.

Yes Finance does equal Fitness, neither one is easy, neither one is difficult on a numbers level spend less than you earn and eat less than you burn, seems simple enough. It's not otherwise everyone would be wearing one of these shirts(abs in cutoff shirt and sweater tied over your shirt equals rich in my crazy mind). So I guess what I'm saying is when I've made it to where I want to be I'll be wearing a cutoff belly shirt with a sweater tied over my shoulders............I can dream, Finance and Fitness Dreams.

How We Are Cutting Costs on Our Cell Phone and You Can To......Republic Wireless Review

2014-01-05T13:37:00.000-08:00

So it finally happened, I got fed up with paying over $200 to have a cell phone. Sounds crazy but so many people out there are doing the same thing whether it's with Verizon, At&t, T-mobile, or US Cellular.

One sunny day I was looking at my bills and realized there wasn't a huge amount I could change, my mortgage payment's staying the same, my student loan payment is fixed, what really can I cut? Then it hit me, I am personally paying $80 every month to be able call a few people, send a boatload of texts, and search the Internet on my train ride home. $80, that's $960 year, that's almost a $1000, that's crazy. Doing some calculations on bankrate.com if you would invest $80 monthly into the stock market and received a 8% return, you would have 119K!!! You can't buy a Rolls Royce Phantom with this money but at least a huge down payment! Who am I kidding we wouldn't buy this car, but you see what i'm talking about now. I didn't want to give up my cellphone, so I needed a solution.

I decided to check out some personal finance blogs(tons of great info out there) and came across a really interesting concept with phones which made a lot of sense to me. The idea is to use Wi-Fi as much as possible when making phone calls, sending text messages, and checking the Internet. If for any reason you are unable to connect to those it goes through the Sprint network. I liked the concept and I liked the price even better. Here's a Republic Wireless Price Plans below:

For me there was a ton of Pros and a few Cons.

Pros

New Moto X Phone for $300, less than retail price
Monthly Plan similar to mine, except $50 less month
No 2 year Contract

Cons

Quality of Service
Initial Expense of phone and only 1 phone option

I did the math and came to the conclusion that after 6 months I would break even and save $300 in the first year alone and as much as $465 if I went to the $10 Cell and Talk plan. I'm not even taking into account that if I stayed with Verizon I would have bought a new Iphone 5S which starts at $199.99, if you take that into account I would be ahead after 3 months and saving money, like I'm sort of rich rapper guy throwing dollars everywhere. Here's the breakdown:

Month	Verizon Wireless	Republic Wireless $25 Plan	Savings	Republic Wireless $10 Plan	Savings
1	80	$330	-$250	$330	-$250
2	80	30	50	15	65
3	80	30	50	15	65
4	80	30	50	15	65
5	80	30	50	15	65
6	80	30	50	15	65
7	80	30	50	15	65
8	80	30	50	15	65
9	80	30	50	15	65
10	80	30	50	15	65
11	80	30	50	15	65
12	80	30	50	15	65
Total	$960.00	$660.00	$300.00	$495.00	$465.00

I bought the phone and took the plunge. Here's my review over the past 2 months of owning the new Moto X and joining Republic Wireless.(P.S. this link saves you even more if you join)

I purchased the phone online and used a promo code, similar to the link above and received the phone less than a week later in a Republic Wireless box with a shiny new Moto X inside. Starting service could not have been easier, a few clicks and an email address here and there(Moto X is a Google Phone so having a Gmail account makes everything go smoothly). I wanted to test it out since you have 30 days to return the phone, so I kept my Iphone and Verizon during this time, also because RW assigns you a phone number(you can change to your old number with a couple clicks as well) based on your area. I had a couple small issues and huge pros alike, check out what I went through shown below:

Small Issues

I couldn't receive text messages from Iphone users because my imessages was still turned and my phone number was still registered as an Iphone user so all messages were trying to go to my new Moto X phone and would reject. I actually blame this on Apple more than RW but it was an issue for about a week until this was eventually fixed
Sending picture messages in the first week or two was either extremely delayed like a day or two or the user did not receive them at all.
Overall voice/service quality is lower than my original Verizon phone. My wife probably notices it more than I do, I would say if Verizon is a 10 for service, RW has been an 8 for me.

Huge Pros

Moto X phone is amazing! I have been so impressed with the apps being just as good and in some cases better than Apple. The Google Voice recognition(similar to Siri) is great, I couldn't be happier. The screen size, resolution, and camera are better in every aspect.
My bill since I have started has amounted to a total of $22.05, with a $12.25 bill coming. I started with the 3G plan and it worked well, I switched about 2 weeks ago to the $10 Cell and Text plan and haven't missed a beat along the way.
Everything being connected to Google has been great, from Google Hangouts, Play Store, Gmail, the previously mentioned Google Voice, just great, much more friendly than every Apple product and Cloud system I have ever used.

Overall I have really enjoyed owning my new Moto X and being apart of Republic Wireless, it is a great way to save money and not to sign a contract for 2 years and pay $100 month to own a phone. I highly recommend Republic Wireless, I have gone through the first 2 months of RW releasing the Moto X and it has been great.

If you want to cut your cell phone bill and make the switch make sure to use this link to save an additional $19 by using this referral link http://referrals.republicwireless.com/a/clk/20z49M or clicking on this Republic Wireless hyperlink. Any questions or concerns, let me know and I can tell you first hand!

Why this is a Retire Extremely Early and Paleo Lifestyle Blog

2013-12-29T14:00:00.000-08:00

As you have probably seen in a few posts previously the overwhelming direction of Finance and Fitness Dreams entails two distinct directions, Retiring Really Early and the Paleo Way of Life.

Many of you might think this is pretty interesting or many might think I'm crazy. Good news is I'm OK with either one. I don't want to be normal, I have absolutely no desire to be 45 and working in corporate America waiting for the day I can retire and "enjoy my older years". One of my favorite quotes is "youth is wasted on the young". Why not retire at 30, 40, or 50? Think of the things you would be able to do with your free time: visit family, volunteer at a non-profit, maybe travel. I'm not sure what your dream is but mine is many of these and more.

I'm on my way to retiring in 7 years. The concept is simple, have a passive income(non 9-5 job) that is greater than your monthly spending. If you have 2K in income per month, well you better not spend a dime over that, whether you are traveling, buying groceries, or making a payment to the IRS. Make more than you spend. Crazy concept I know. As most in there 30's are figuring out this is the best income producing time you have had, so this is when you pile up savings and pay down debt. We are currently on our way and our plan looks something like this in terms of year by year:

Year 1(the next 7 months for us)-Pay off Half of my Student Loan Debt, pay 33% of our Rental House Off, Pay Regular Payments on our current home, Contribute the Matching portion to our Roth 401K and 401K(Year 1-7), Contribute personal savings to a personal Stock Portfolio(Year 1-7)
Year 2-Pay off Student Loan Debt, Pay 33% of our Rental House
Year 3-Pay off our Rental House(creating a Passive Income Stream in Year 4). At the end of year 3, based on a tight budget we would be able to retire, since the income from the Rental House and our Current Home(paid for with rents coming in) would satisfy our current costs. But to say it would be tight would be an understatement and I don't think that's my dreams to be living on a tight budget, it would take away some of the very things I want to do with my retirement.
Year 4-Reevaluate our current situation, time frame, pay off schedule, and goals. Pay 25% of our Owner Occupied Home
Year 5-Pay 25% of our Owner Occupied Home
Year 6-Pay 25% of our Owner Occupied Home
Year 7-Pay 25% of our Owner Occupied Home and be Debt and Mortgage Free

So this puts us in a situation where we would have the option to retire. We would live off what is considered the average household income in America. We would need to budget for the every day expenses of groceries, utilities, etc while making sure our taxes, insurance, and health care were included in this. After those few expenses everything else would be used to do the things we find retirement worthy.

During these 7 years there will be bumps along the road, but I have put our 7 year plan on a very Ronald Reagan conservative(I'm not political, although I do think Ronald Reagan seems pretty cool for an old guy) approach, especially with the fact that I think this can be done in 3 years and the reason for an evaluation to see what we think is best. Along the way we may beef up our HSA Savings or Retirement Bonus of our 401K. The strategy in year 4-7 may lean more towards creating an even larger emergency fund of all cash, possibly switching the investments to a larger portion in taxable versus non-taxable income. This is the journey this is my path, I plan to retire early by using Rental Income. Along the way I will read everything I can get my hands on from retire early finance blogs, books, and anything else that I think will bring me closer to my desired location, Retire Extremely Early!!!

I have chosen the Paleo lifestyle for many reasons but mostly because it yields results. Recently I did the 30 day Paleo Challenge and was able to lose some weight and feel healthier, with items such as my Achilles being pain free, which is an amazing feeling from walking around every morning like you are 65. Since the Paleo challenge I have been for the most part Paleo(minus Christmas, HoHoHo) along the way. I am good not having Dairy, Legumes, and Pastas back in my diet. The one exception is cheese, I'm from Wisconsin, that's against the rules. I do keep the cheese to gluten free so usually Boar's Head or if I can find a cheese that is from Grass Fed Cow's then I'm in business. So this week I am starting back with my Sprint and Relax Paleo.

I really believe eating right with Paleo and exercising(Walking my dog a couple times a day) is the way to health and feeling great. So this week will be the week of the Chicken! I will have a couple obstacles with work, new year's, and college basketball game, but will be a great test early. My goal as of January 31st is to have less than 7 items that are not Paleo or at least Gluten Free.

I can't suggest enough to read up on eating Paleo. If I could sum up Paleo I would say it's eating like your Grandma and Grandpa used to eat, just more natural products, not processed or with a bunch of ingredients you can't pronounce. Have you tried Paleo or thought about retiring early, let me know with a comment.

401K, Sounds Like a New Steroid Cereal

2013-12-20T18:16:00.000-08:00

Good Morning FFD(Finance and Fitness Dreams),

As the year ends and we start thinking about Christmas, New Year's Resolutions, and Taxes I thought it might be a good time to run down my thoughts and directions on a 401K and Roth IRA, two of the best investment vehicles around. I don't pretend to be an expert and despite my stays at the Holiday Inn, I am not any smarter on the matter because of it. But what I can do is give a brief common sense picture of what each one is and how I use them in our investment strategy.

First let's start with the 401K. This is the definition from Investopedia, it's a little wordy but it gets the job done.

Definition of '401(k) Plan

A qualified plan established by employers to which eligible employees may make salary deferral (salary reduction) contributions on a post-tax and/or pretax basis. Employers offering a 401(k) plan may make matching or non-elective contributions to the plan on behalf of eligible employees and may also add a profit-sharing feature to the plan. Earnings accrue on a tax-deferred basis.

So a 401K is a place where you keep your investments, depending on what your company offers as a selection it's usually mutual funds and index funds. What happens for most people is they make a selection when they first start working to take out a % of there pay. The good news is this is all done pre-tax before the government takes out Federal, State, and Social Security. So for example if you get paid $1000 each pay period and you have elected to have 1% taken out this would take out $10 from each paycheck and be put into the mutual fund or index fund you have chosen. By taking this out before taxes it also decreases your tax bill overall since the government has less to be able to tax . The 401K part is really just a way of saying this is how we are going to tax or not tax your investments.

Your 401K is for the long term, we are talking retirement and when I say retirement this time I mean the earliest you can take this money out is 59.5 years old, otherwise they penalize you and we don't want that. I won't get into to many specifics on each rule because that's not the purpose of this little blog. The main points are this money is growing from your pre-tax money so it's a little larger % then if it would be taken out if Uncle Sam got a hold of the pay check first. Your investment grows tax-free, so when you pile up all this money it's growing and growing and you are adding more and more, which allows it to become a huge monster snowball along the way.

One of my favorite features that a lot of companies utilize is what they call the company match. I like to call it my Retirement Bonus, they give it to me every year as long as I promise to not spend it till I get to be old and don't want to work anymore. What they say is OK if you put in 3% of your money all year, you know what we will match that and put it in your 401K account at the end of the year, free of charge. So using the example of someone who makes 50K, you would have put in 3% or $1500($300 for every 10K), they would then put that same amount of $1500 in your account and congratulations you just got a Retirement Bonus!!! They most commonly put this in as cash or some form of the company stock, but either way it's yours.

Here's a little summary of the Pro's and Cons of 401K so far:

PRO

Money is taken out pre-tax allowing you to save a little extra(this also decreases your tax bill)
The investments grow tax-free
Company match or Retirement Bonus
Automatic way of Saving Money

CON

This is a retirement account and you will be penalized if you take out this money before you get old and want to retire
You do have to pay taxes on the money(Death and Taxes people), so whatever your current tax rate is when you retire, you have to pay Uncle Sam
Limited Choices of Investments and Not very much guidance from investment professionals on what you should invest in

Here's another option becoming more and more available with employers, but first a definition from Investopedia.

Definition of 'Roth 401(k)

An employer-sponsored investment savings account that is funded with after-tax money. After the investor reaches age 59.5, withdrawals of any money from the account (including investment gains) are tax-free. Unlike the Roth IRA, the Roth 401(k) has no income limitations for those investors who want to participate - anyone, no matter what his or her income, is allowed to invest up to the contribution limit into the plan.

So the main difference between the 401K and Roth 401K is the money is funded after tax money, which limits the initial investment, but like the 401K this is allowed to grow not only tax-free, but when you decide to take your withdrawls after 59.5 these are also taken out tax free! For me on this one it's a horse a piece as an old saying goes, since you are contributing to a retirement investment account, I would worry less about which one you are investing in and instead rather that you are investing period.

So what do I do?

Currently I invest 4% of my salary, which is what my company matches as well, I have no plans of changing this now or in the near future. This is my retirement account, so I treat it like an old man, quiet, nice, and a little boring. I invest in index funds, which are low cost funds that mimic the stock market. I have them spread over a broad range, but I have them split between 3 or 4 investments, including the S&P 500, International, Small Cap, and a Target Fund(this overlaps some of the previous index funds). These funds are low cost, boring investments just how I like it for my retirement. I don't plan on touching this money until I am at the earliest 59.5 and if my plan goes as I have it drawn up, this will actually be money that I do not rely on and instead is more of a bonus account when I get to when the world thinks you should retire age.

My suggestion is if you have a 401K option at your place of employment that includes a company match, start it today and put your investment percentage to receive the maximum your company offers. I believe the 401K is a great tool to help you in retirement. Even better ask a few people you know who are in the retirement age and see what they did. Are they living off Social Security? 401K? Real Estate? Still Working? Pensions? Annuities? Would they have done things differently if they knew what they knew now? I'm a believer in the 401K I don't think it's the answer to everyone's retirement problems, but I certainly think it should be apart of everyone's and it's apart of mine that's for sure. Here is a link to a short video that encourages you to invest as well, take a look it might get you excited to start one today!!

http://www.investopedia.com/video/play/understanding-your-401k/

What Do You Want to Hear? Dumb Decisions

2013-12-15T09:20:00.001-08:00

Good Morning,

I can honestly say I love writing about money and personal finance, it might be my new passion right up there with sports, I think, read, and listen to this stuff every day. I usually write about many things that involve my every day life for personal finance, but maybe there is something more. I guess the better question is "What do you want to read about"?

My personal adventure includes credit cards, student loans, investing, starting my own side business, corporate America, and everything in between. For many of us we are hard working, who came from a small town. Some have chosen to stay, some move into a bigger city, and others get as far away as possible. While I don't know how each and every person is doing that I grew up with, I do know many of you have stable jobs and make a good living. I know there are outliers on both sides that don't make 30K a year and others that make well over 100K. Either way whether you make a small amount or a large amount the numbers are the same with personal finance. Because I think that relating to some of the "Dumb Decisions" I've made over the years, this might get the ball rolling for "What do you want to read about" and these are just a few of mine:

I took out Student Loans to pay for every cent of college.
I paid for my first spring break with a credit card, once again every cent.
My first car that I bought with my own money was a Mercedes Benz.
Moved to Florida without a job and minimal savings.
Pursue my passion of coaching by taking an unpaid position 80 miles away
Pay for my time in Florida with credit cards after my savings ran out

So these are just a few "Dumb Decisions" that I have made over time, I have learned from them which is the most important. They are also correctable in a short period of time, of course I am paying for many of them today and that's what happens if you notice almost every decision that was made had to deal with debt or was one step away from doing so. Student Loans, Credit Card, Car Loan, No job and minimal savings lead to more Credit Card debt. I cannot blame anyone but myself, I mean what am I going to do, blame my parents for not paying for my college or not buying me a new car for college graduation, come on that's not the way things work.

It's great if you are currently standing debt free it makes many of your decisions much easier, but so many of us have made these not so bright decisions. The key is stop making these "dumb decisions" this blog is to point out some of the things that you and I are doing and at the very least think twice before doing them. I have an example and it can really show the difference in choices and decisions in your life.

This person does not have a full-time job and when this person does it is often considered low income. Here are some of the things that I hear that make me believe this person is not going to change or become wealthy or be very far above the poverty level.

I need a new car, I saw this vehicle and it's only 10K, I just need someone to loan me the money
I need a new phone, mine is crap, I saw this new one and it looks amazing, I'll just have to wait till I get paid next
I'm so glad I don't have to dress up at my job, I'm so glad I get to wear jeans and a t-shirt

This is another list that could go on and on, but when I hear these things I know this person is not going to dig themselves out of this hole, if anything they are going to go further into that hole. Here's a couple things I wish I heard instead.

I want this new vehicle, but the only way I'm getting it is if I pay cash, otherwise I'm just going to drive my car until it dies of old age.
New phone, no thanks, I was considering cancelling my service or just getting one of those pre-paid phones, because I'm trying to get ahead
I prefer not to dress up at my job, but I'm working towards a higher position with higher pay so I can have that choice

Do you catch yourself saying things that sound like what a poor person would say? Or do you find yourself saying some things that the wealthy or this guy might say?

Warren Buffett

I hear it in myself but for me it often relates to food and eating. Yesterday I heard myself say I'm having a bad week eating, while I ate an Italian Beef sandwich and a soda. I think the same thing can be said about fat and skinny people, a better word choice of people might be healthy and unhealthy. These are things that can be controlled, its our decisions. I make a decision every day to walk up either an escalator or stairs on my way to and from work, I also make that same decision to walk from the train station home. It was 10 degrees yesterday, but I knew that if I didn't walk home I wouldn't be doing any exercise and that's the decision we have to make to get healthy or wealthy. People sacrifice for there money, we are not children of the Hilton Family or Kardashian's and were handed money from family. We need to make sacrifices and better decisions and that's what I'm doing here.

Please leave comments on decisions you make or made that were good or bad(bad are more fun today), whether it's for health or wealth, It's great to hear them. Also side note in the upcoming year I'm contemplating taking my blog to Wordpress and getting a little cleaner and more professional looking so be on the look out for that.

Emergency Fund Why I disagree with Dave Ramsey, Suzie Orman, and Everyone Else

2013-12-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

Let's be clear I absolutely think you should have an Emergency Fund, this should be part of the beginning of every road to debt freedom, early retirement, or Murphy's Law that's around the corner.

What I think is dead wrong is where you should place your money. Dave Ramsey recommends a Money Market account, Suzie Orman says a Checking with Interest account, guess what I totally disagree. There is a few factors that in this, but I believe the best place to keep your emergency fund is in an individual stock that you know and trust. Here's how I got here.

When first starting out to build your emergency fund, whether it's the initial $500, $1000, or arbitrary amount that you see fit, this should go to an account that you have limited to no access, whether it's only online at a separate bank or you have to physically step into a branch to get your money, play Hide and Seek with your Emergency Fund. So you are building up your emergency fund on a weekly, monthly basis congratulations and you have to climb up Mt. Everest to get those funds, not make a transfer from Savings to Checking.

I'm quite sure not everyone is going to read this article and say this guy is brilliant I'm listening to every word this guy's the smartest man alive. Ok now here's the risk tolerance for your Emergency Fund, Las Vegas Style, see where you are at, since as of right now you have already made the Hide and Seek choice.

Low-You think going to Las Vegas involves going to see a show and eating the Buffett(non-seafood)Open a Checking or Savings at a Local Bank/Credit Union that's separate from your main account, you might not even do that your probably just putting it over to your savings you already have, less risky that way.
Medium-You go to Vegas with ready for a show, some slots, and maybe even a drink at the casino, who knows I might be feeling crazy. Chances are you are still going to put it a money market of some sort and probably online after you checked out the best online accounts available.
High-You go to Vegas with cash in your pocket and only the clothes on your back, because you will be buying new ones with the money you will be making. This is me in a nutshell, I have a little gamble to me, I'd rather double down than and risk it then take a small win. I suggest and use investing in direct company stock, here's GRS read on How to Invest Using Direct Stock Purchase Plans.

I started many months ago and found I was able to set aside $50 month towards my emergency fund into a company I felt comfortable with and in this case absolutely love, Nike. I have since upped my contribution to a little over $100 month. I find that having money in an online account that is separate from my everyday expenses and automatically drawn monthly from my checking is the best plan for me. It gives me that little gamble of a my stock purchase going up or down(my money is on up, literally). This also gives me the liquidity to sell my stock and receive the funds in about 3 business days. There's a small risk in every aspect of my choice, but if you used to play poker online, enjoy fantasy football or a good survivor pool, or even buy a lottery ticket when it's 350 million dollars you probably agree with every word I'm saying. I can't be boring, I have to have some risk and if this is the most risk I'm taking, I think I'm going to be just fine.

Here's something to think about if you think I'm the craziest man alive after reading the last paragraph(also possible). Here's a quote from Insurance Industry Basics: Float and Motley Fool "The great thing about premiums is that the insurer collects the money up front but doesn't have to pay out claims until later down the road. In the meantime, the company "floats" these unpaid premiums. This float is invested in stocks, bonds, and other securities, and the insurance company pockets the profit."

So let me get this straight they use the Insurance Premiums or Emergency Fund equivalent and try to make a profit off of this money until they have to pay it out? That's exactly what I am suggesting, run your emergency fund like you are an insurance company!!!!

Why I Hate Mr Money Mustache

2013-12-07T07:27:00.001-08:00

Why I'm Jealous of Mr Money Mustache and Hate Him at the Same Time Part I of Many.

Let's keep it simple I think retiring at 30 is amazing and I'm jealous. Now here's why I think many of the concepts used don't work for the majority.

Riding a bike to save $10,000 just doesn't happen. Here's how this scenario works for someone who lives in Chicago. I like 8 miles from work, I jump on my bike and ride to work sweating like a mad man in the 20 degree weather. I get to work after my hour long trip, take of my coat and drenched shirt, well I don't want to spend any money so I go to work and smell like I haven't showered in days. This doesn't work! What do you expect people to shower in the sink? Move closer to my place of work.....Great idea I just raised my
rent/mortgage by about $1000, new article would how I spent $12,000 year but Bike to Work. I'm not even going to mention people who live in the Suburbs or Rural Area.

Here's a better article title and one that appeals to the every day person. How I Saved 1 Million Dollars Riding the Train, Walking to Work, Driving a Beater!!!

Here's the 3 options you will run into and here's how we can save some money doing it.

1. You live far enough away from work and public transportation that you have to drive, not peddle 30 miles to save $10,000 and die of frost bite on your way to work, your not Lance Armstrong, this ain't happening.

So in my eyes having a car payment is just about one of the worst things you can do to get stuck in a rut for probably the rest of your life, check out my decision and pros and cons of selling my Benzo de Lorenzo). So I had the luxury of living in the city and selling my vehicle, most people don't. So if this is you we need to downsize, sell your car and get a beater, like a 1997 Mercury Tracer perhaps, a fine vehicle if you ask me. In my Blog(http://financeandfitnessdreams.blogspot.com/2013/05/money-mindset-owning-nice-car.html) which says that if you have a car loan that it should be only 10% of your income, so if you have 1 car and make 50K(average American Income), you are allowed to have a $5000 loan, the rest must be paid for in cash. If there are 2 members and 2 cars are needed this would still be the same since there are 2 vehicles, assuming the house hold income is 100K, the total car loan allowed would be 10K. But that's my criteria if you were to buy today. If you want to really WIN, you can't have a car payment, I don't care if it's 0%, you owe some rich guy at the bank money, period. Sell your car and get a cheaper one, that's it 1 sentence.(Side note I'm not including Van or Car Pooling but also great ways to save money)

2. You live in the City, but you can't or won't Ride your Bike or Walk to Work. That's cool, you are going to save money and be almost as cool as Captain Planet.

So you are most likely taking Public Transportation, train or bus or fairy for those really cool people you are saving money and the environment. Using Chicago as an example it costs $100/month for a pass to ride every in the entire city of Chicago, which is amazing in itself. But get this my work says we like the environment and want to save you a couple extra dollars we will give you $30 month to get to work. That's crazy I'm now down to $70 month to get to work, but wait there's more(Insert Realllly Cool Infomercial Here), any money that is taken out is taken out pre-tax which is not only reducing my overall taxed income but lowering the cost of the monthly pass. Based off the criteria I filled out on rideshare.com( I have no idea what tax bracket I'm in, 25% just felt correct. So I'm paying $52.50 month to travel in the city and if you live in Chicago this covers pretty much everything. So what you spend on a tank of gas I spend on getting to work, it's worth hanging out with strangers for 45 minutes while I listen to a podcast or read my book.

3. You Do Live Close Enough to Work to Bike or Walk, and apparently save $10,000 a year, spend this on Twinkies and Malt Liquor please.

Being able to walk or ride your bike is pretty exciting, it doesn't work for everyone, but if you have the option to make that choice consider yourself in a good place. It can certainly save you a few dollars in expenses and get you a little exercise which is what FFD(Finance and Fitness Dreams people, getting the FFD tattoo tomorrow?) is all about. I would not however pick up where you are living now and move closer to work, but if it's an option to consider in your purchase or rental decision. For example when I first moved to Chicago I had 2 options, both similar places in nice neighborhoods, 1 was a 10 minute walk and the other was a 20 minute bus ride, made my decision so much easier, but remember that every one's work can change from year to year, which it did for me, less than a year later.

So in Summary I think Mr Money Mustache is correct that you can save some money by riding your bike to work or wherever, but that's just not a reality for 99% of the population. Henry Ford and George Stephenson invented cars and trains, whatever mode of transport you are using let's make sure it's paid off or is a low number on the budget. Comments are appreciated even if you think I'm crazy or agree with me completely. Thanks for reading.

Do you spend your savings on Lattes and Lunch?

2013-12-02T06:30:00.002-08:00

Daily/Weekly Spending.

So over the past month or so I have noticed my spending to be going up a little bit, I'm usually pretty good with only buying 1 or 2 coffees($2-$4), 1 snack($3-$5), and lunch once or twice($10-$20, so spending $15-$29 a week isn't terrible in my book, but it not only needs to get better, but it needs some more attention. My goal is to keep my total to $20 for the week, this includes coffee, snacks, and lunch. I'm going to keep track of my spending during the week and see where I am at. I encourage you to do the same.

Day 1-Monday-Running Total at the Start of the Day $0.00

$8.50 on some amazing Paleo Granola mix, this should last me throughout the week as a snack, it's a little more than I usually spend, but it's for the whole week. Strike that I ate the whole bag today, i'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds doing so and it was delicious. I also brought my lunch, so while this saved me some cash, the amount of food I ate, Paleo or not was about as much as an Offensive Lineman for the Packers.

Day 2-Tuesday-$8.50

So I lost my fantasy football bet and decided to pay up today and reward myself for losing apparently, 2 medium coffees $4. Well in terms of losing I apparently lost on this one. Good news is I am doing an intermittent fast today(http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/08/06/a-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting/). Here's a good website that gives the details good and bad. I've done it a couple times over the past weeks and I find it great for balancing out my body and practicing hunger control. Sounds crazy, but many people do it intentionally and unintentionally every day.

Day 3-Wednesday-$12.50

I have decided is going to be No Money Spent Wednesday, I mean I have a goal right, based on the way i'm going I'm going to lose and I don't like to lose unless it's the LB's, that's pounds for all you metric kilogram trackers out there. I did a great job, brought in my coffee and ate some leftover chicken for lunch, I really feel like I won today.....Winning

Day 4-Thursday-$12.50

Well it certainly helps to have a Chili-Cookoff at work, I am spending $0 today on lunch, I will be doing my best to not spend over the $15 my wife "gave to me" for a Happy Hour, plus a little money coming from my work for the event always helps. The good news is I was able to use the $15 for the Happy Hour from my wife, I'm going to include that in my total, I'm also going to include the $5 entry fee for entering the cook-off which if I would have won(should have won my Chili is delicious). So I did spend a total of $20 today on the extra's in life, beer and chili. When I came home my wife did happen to buy some take out food, which I do not count in my specific budget, but that is something I'm hoping to work together on very shortly:)

Day 5-Friday-Running Total at the Start of the Day $32.50

Today is a good day right, because it's Friday! I started the day off with a free coffee(I have a coffee betting problem and I'm not afraid to admit, I won today). I brought some lunch from home, keeping it simple with lunch meat, cheese, and an an orange. I'm working on keeping this day free of spending, so I plan on wrapping it up with a total of $32.50.

Day 6-Saturday-Running Total $32.50

So once again the good news is I was able to not have any spending on my part, which for a Saturday is semi-amazing. My wife and I did stop by portagegrounds.com
for a coffee purchased by my wife, while we figured out our spending habits and I am going to help set up an automation system for my wife, starting January 1. I also ate my Paleo breakfast before I came so even if I would have spend money it would have been $2 or $3 total.

Day 7-Sunday-All-in Total for the Week $32.50

I did not spend a dime on food, actually cooked a couple things on Sunday(key to success for limiting Eating Out). The most I did was drive the car to go play basketball, so I brought my water, worked up a sweat, and finished up the day right.

So in Summary for the week, this is actually really expensive for me from what I would like my budget to be. The budget I would like to keep is $50 for the month, so in Chicago that amounts to about 1 coffee and a lunch a week. I feel like I have been doing a poor job of my eating out budget, so I am sticking strictly to cash for the month of December, taking $50 out of the checking and calling it a month. Well if anything this has kept me accountable and I learned that I still need to keep a stricter budget with coffee and eating out during the week because it encourages me to eat more healthy and Paleo and also keeps the costs down.

Thanks for reading and make sure to comment on what your budget is? How you manage bringing in your lunch and eating out? If I'm crazy for keeping track of this?

I'm a Real Estate Loser

2013-11-27T05:13:00.000-08:00

Good Morning World, I'm a Real Estate Loser.

So over the past few months we have been looking at investing into real estate again, we purchased our home, a multi-unit a little over a year ago, we were able to fix up the property using a contractor and have enjoyed having a touch of what we wanted in our unit, while still receiving rent to help with the mortgage. Because we have had success I was looking for ways to purchase more real estate, most likely buying and flipping the property(the shows on HGTV add to the mix) or even a buy and hold strategy to pay off the mortgage and get a little extra cash on the side each month.

Despite my enthusiasm and reading biggerpockets a real estate website for advice, the fact remained we needed a down payment for these homes and in most cases since the market we are looking in is mostly comprised of all cash investors. In a stroke of two worlds matching up, a family member was looking to invest and felt comfortable with our decision making, which would include there money expected to be paid back in full and our name being on the loan and ultimately responsible for both the loan and any money used in the transaction. So you can imagine my excitement, someone was willing to gamble on us in the real estate market. I was so excited, let's make some money, watch out Donald Trump, Richard Kyosoki ain't got nothing on me, I will own Chicago one house at a time!

REALITY hit just the other day. We have put multiple offers on properties, some low, some high, some all cash, some loan, most REO, but overall we are batting a big fat 0. I think the crushing blow came a couple weeks ago. We had previously submitted an offer on a house, the asking price was 181K and recently dropped to somewhere around 155K. We felt the right price for us was to get this property at just a touch below 140K, we submitted the offer and this was rejected through Homepath which is where the government sells many of the properties from mortgages that were previously backed by FHA mortgages. I was a little bummed out but we were on our way to San Francisco and I felt like we gave our best offer.

Then about a month later, I noticed the price had been dropped again to almost exactly what our original offer was, so I contacted our real estate professional to submit our offer again and even increased our bid a couple thousand over asking to make sure we put our highest and best offer to win the property. After more than a week we were told we did not win the property and later saw the house move to conditional, taking it off the market. That was the last time I have really been excited for a house and have decided it is best to focus in other areas where I enjoy my time more.

So today I am a Real Estate Loser, lost multiple bids, feels like have seen 50 houses in person to no avail. It's a little frustrating, but as my wife says if it were mean to be it would have happened. I think that I need to focus more on other avenues that I enjoy, including writing on the blog, my ebay store http://stores.ebay.com/GQ-Casual and my Shopify store gqcasual.com, which I just started in the past week or so. We are still on track for the 7 year retirement, paying off debt as we go, I really believe we can make it. Cheers and enjoy the read.

Don't forget to comment I love reading it.

Paleo and the 30 Day Challenge-It's Finance and Fitness

2013-11-17T20:39:00.001-08:00

I have been away from writing for awhile and due mostly to focusing on other items in my life. I found it best to use all of my focus on one item in my life to get the most production. This is what I refer to as Sprint and Relax.

So what have I been up to for the last 2 months? Well the most important thing was I did the 30 day Paleo Challenge. Paleo might be known better to you as the Caveman diet or the hunter-gatherer diet. Here is a general outline of what I ate for those 30 days, shown below, you can check out Robb Wolf's What is the Paleo Diet? for more info.

Ok to Eat Avoid

Fruits	Dairy
Vegetables	Grains
Lean Meats	Processed Food & Sugars
Seafood	Legumes
Nuts & Seeds	Starches
Healthy Fats	Alcohol

I really took this seriously, I ate almost to the tee the outline above, I don't eat that much bread anyways besides sandwiches,which is usually the most difficult item for people to give up, but that was easily replaced with lettuce or cabbage. Cheese or Dairy was probably the most difficult for me and after the 3rd week I ended up adding it back in. Like many lifestyle changes, you end up taking what you can't live without and I added cheese back in but went with a common theme in the paleo way of life to eat everything as natural as possible, just like your grandma used to make. So I added Kerrygold Swiss Cheese which is made from all natural grass-fed cows, I also did the same thing with butter, using the same brand.

I was able to lose around 15 pounds in those 30 days, which I am really proud of. My parents came to visit and I knew immediately I would take a little break from my Paleo lifestyle. Overall I have stuck with Paleo, many of the principals are easy to follow. If I am ever in doubt for any of the items I choose to eat or need a recipe, I can always check the Internet to confirm or for the most part if it's Gluten Free then it's good to go.

Losing weight and being healthy for me starts with Paleo. I did not go out of my way to exercise with the exception of walking my dog every day, so I think that's what made me feel great about this, I wasn't running 5 miles a day or lifting 3 days a week, I stuck with Paleo and it worked.

I think finance and fitness have so many of the same principals to winning. You have to eat healthy or be financially fit, no credit cards or ice cream, eat less than you need or don't spend more than you earn. So many of these things are exactly the same and exactly the reason why America is Obese and Broke. So try something different this week and bring all of your lunches or don't put sugar in your coffee this week, I think we all need to start somewhere and today is a good day.

My 7 Year Plan-Owning the Bucks or Retiring Early

2013-09-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

About a year ago I wrote on how I believed Dave Ramsey was a genius, but I wanted my own plan, the Automatic Plan. I’m happy to report I’m following my own steps pretty well. I know where my money is going, I have everything set up to savings (I manually pay extra on debt with this amount, not as automatic, but it feels great), and investments. Credit cards are gone, I make payments to my student loans (which I detest), and in a combo deal we are also working towards paying off our home early from rental income. So as of right now I am on step 4 and I am charging ahead.

What I mentioned in the notes was “My 7 year Plan” but I never really talked about it.

http://financeandfitnessdreams.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-i-think-dave-ramseys-genius-but-i.html

Automatic Plan

Figure out Where all of your Money is Going
Make things Automatic-Debt, Savings, and Investments
Make paying off Credit Cards a Priority
Add additional payments to the Debt you like the least
Pay off home early
Make sure you and your loved ones are taken care of
Build wealth and give!

I always thought I wanted to be a millionaire, own yachts, the Milwaukee Bucks, and own houses all over the world. I soon came to realize this takes a lot of hard work throughout your life, plenty of time, and some luck. Do I always want to be grinding it out looking for that next deal; do I want to be 60 or 70 and just now ready to enjoy my retirement? That just doesn't sound that great to me. I love to travel, enjoy a morning coffee or evening beer in different places, I love Chicago March-November, but winter gets old pretty quick. So I decided that the best way to truly have the option to do what I want at an early age is to be debt free and have passive income.

So being on our automatic plan and having 2 houses that provide rental income, we have a plan to complete our 7 year plan and well RETIRE!!! So I have student loan debt, which I am working on. We have 2 houses, one which we live in, both receive rental income. I am tackling the student loan debt, while we take the extra rental income and pay off each house as quickly as possible. I ran some rough numbers a few months ago and figured out if we took what we made and the rental income we could pay off both of our houses in 7 years! I got pretty excited, because then we would have $0 debt, 7 years worth of investments in stocks(401K, Roth IRA, Individual Brokerage Acct), and passive income from 2 houses. So based on everything we would have $0 debt and 2 passive incomes coming from rental income.

We could retire/semi-retire/do something we really like to do whether it’s volunteering or making 100K, so I would be 38 and living on a small income with my wife, available to travel freely which we really love to do, Miami could be our base home(happy wife, happy life), I could visit friends and family for weeks at a time(your couch will be my couch, your guest bedroom, my bedroom). I could travel to Nicaragua(shown on the right) and hang with the wife’s family, maybe see if I can be a beach bum for a week, go to every single college basketball game in a 50 mile radius for a month, play golf with my Dad every day for a month, I don’t know but that sounds EXCITING to me!!!! My goal is to make it work, little step by little step, sprint by sprint, paycheck by paycheck, I hope you will join me on the ride, because in many ways you already have by reading a blog or two and of course this one.

Creating a Business Multiple Revenue Streams-30 Day and 45 Day Update

2013-07-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't created the next Google or Nike, but I have doing well with my side hobby(can't call it a business just yet). My goal if I didn't type it the computer("the files are in the computer", name that movie?) was to sell 1K worth of items on eBay, i switched that about 2/3 of the way through to make 1K profit, because for all anyone knew I could be spending 4K but selling 1K worth of items, that's not very impressive.

Well Said Sir, Well Said

I am happy to report I failed! Well not exactly, I did reach my original goal of 1K in sales, but it did take me and extra 5 days to reach the 1K mark. I have had over 100 items listed in my store called GQ Casual , give it a look if you would like, pretty much all Men's Clothing.

I would love to say I bought some used clothes yesterday and threw them on eBay the next day and I made a killing. I have been doing this off and on since college, mostly with new clothes in college and used clothes over the last couple years. I used a lot of trial and error, research, and knowledge about brands, sports, and what guys like to wear(hint I don't buy skinny jeans). It took me time to develop a template for the items and change things like adding logos, telling why I sell on eBay "the man fund", and I even used to wash and steam almost every item I had, crazy amount of time.

Headquarters, Beats Me

EBay is not for everyone, taking the pictures, finding the items, shipping, listing the items this all takes time, but I enjoy 90% of it(listing it, not so fun). As of right now I know this can make me money, not quit my day job money, but enough to have some extra money on the side to be used for whatever I want, whether it's paying off debt, going to a comedy show, or buying something I like and want. Only time will tell on what I plan to do with this stream of revenue, but I do know it's currently coming in and I'm happy doing it.

Is there a business or hobby on the side that you do that makes money? Tell me more about it, I love to see comments.

Cutting Back is Great, Winning is Better, and Earning More is Best

2013-07-17T09:53:00.001-07:00

Sprint #1 and My Victory Pose

Everyday many of the personal finance blogs preach cutting back and living frugal. I agree with and do my best to practice many of the principals talked about on a daily basis. I however lean more towards the Big Wins and most importantly Earning More is the best.

I tend to look at it with examples, I can cut back on my groceries for $40 less a month, I can research on buying my next TV and save a $200 for the big win, or even better I can start a side gig and make an extra $500 month. All are great, but as I prefer I'd rather go out and kill something and drag it back, you know earn the extra money.

I can't stress this enough, the best way to pay off debt, live comfortably, and be happier overall is to earn more, simple right. (I'm a work in progress and always remember you can't outearn your spending). This can mean so many things. I turned to eBay to buy and sell items which earns me an income. This just happens to be something I'm comfortable with, that I know a good amount about or have learned over time. I work at a bank so it really has nothing to deal with my current job, just something I enjoy. I started doing this for fun, little extra money for going to a Daniel Tosh stand up, nice dinner for the wife and I, since it felt like what my Dad like to call his "beer money" fund, it is great.

So the question is Why can't you go out and do something similar, maybe you are a mechanic full-time, why not earn more by doing oil changes on the side, something simiple. Let's say your a nurse, why not teach part time on the side. There is a 101 different things you can do to give your income a boost. I'm not just talking about your everyday full-time job working the 9-5, which you can also do Overtime, Bonus, Raises. We can all make a little extra money and I am a great example of just trying something out that I figured out how to make extra money, who knew it would be eBay.

On that note I am very proud to announce, Sprint #1 has been completed, with some money to spare.

I just paid the last little bit off and I am officially at a $0 balance on my student loan. It's not a debt free scream, but it makes me happy to know I can do it. I paid off over 3K in 4 short months!

It's been awhile between writing, but working overtime and eBay will do that, but as always expect more and more because this feels great and I want everyone to know it and share.

Please share an example of how you worked a side gig whether it was to pay off debt or buy an ice cream cone, I love hearing it. Thank you!!!

Retire Rich or At Least Early

2013-06-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article from Afford Anything with the article titled Party Like You're a 72-Year Old Retiree. I like to read a lot of personal finance type of blogs and this was one of my favorites. I planned on writing about something similar, but instead I'm going to take some of the key points and write about them in a little more detail from my side.

I'm 31 am I ever going to be retired???

"My parents, in short, have the coolest retirement ever. And what’s crazy is that they didn’t start saving for retirement until their 40s. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which says that if you don’t start saving for retirement by age 25, you’re totally screwed"

The median income for households is right around 50K, so let's use that number for our talk. If you take $400 every month(this assumes you have $0 saved so far) at a 6% rate(lower than historical data), at the age of 65 you will have 500K. That's some pretty good coin, but it's so hard to think that far ahead and to be honest $400 a month sure does seem like a lot. Also remember that we are relying solely on the stock market in this scenario and while I think the stock market is the Golden Ticket, people from the Great Depression, the .Com crash, and the recent crash of the housing market and bail outs, makes me a little nervous. So is it possible absolutely, but 34 years of giving up $400 month to have a half of a million dollars at 65, doesn't really get me to excited, so I'm guessing it won't for you either.

Keys to Retiring Early

"Yet by the time they both turned 60, only 20 years after they began working, they were ready to retire. They probably could have done it sooner if they weren’t raising little ol’ me." They have zero personal debt. They paid off their mortgage within 7 or 8 years. They’ve never taken out a car loan and they’ve never carried a credit card balance."

So seeing the big picture or little pieces of motivation that come along really help and the statement above did just that. So a pretty broad example but a couple took 20 years of saving had no personal debt, paid off their mortgage extremely early, and never had a car loan or credit card balance to speak of. I am taking steps to get rid of every one of these retirement killers. I had a car loan and sold my car and thus got rid of the loan with it. I have a mortgage, currently on a 7 year plan to pay it off(the other option is when I turn 60 or in 2033 it would be paid off, sounds terrible), and I can happily say I have paid off my credit card balance.

Enjoy Today and Tomorrow

"Yes, you should still enjoy today. Don’t get so obsessed with retirement that you forget the present moment. Travel when you’re young AND when you’re old. The world will change a lot in the next few decades. You’ll get to watch it happen.

But don’t forget that packing your lunch to work, brewing your own coffee, driving an old car – that’s not really a sacrifice, is it? Not compared to what you’ll gain."

Enjoy today. Travel, Explore, do what you enjoy the most. Just remember that you should not do it with a credit card, cash advance, personal loan, or anything else that requires you owe someone especially the bank. The last statement really hit home, especially with my Saving for Vacation with Grocery Money I really don't mind packing my own lunch, brewing coffee at the house, and taking the bus or train. It certainly can be tempting living in Chicago with all the great places to eat and drink, but like Afford Anything said it's not really a sacrifice is it?

Finishing up a Sprint and Saving for Vacation with Grocery Money

2013-06-20T11:05:00.002-07:00

As I update my sprint to paying down my student loan, I made a bold claim that I was going to pay off a portion by the end of July, well I am happy to say I am still on my way, it's going to be tight though, because I have been holding off on using my "man fund" to pay off the remaining balance. I just made a payment on 6/18/13 so the balance should be right around $800 with a little over a month to pay off, then it's party time!!! LOL No it's on to the next debt, the borrower is slave to the lender and nobody wants to be a slave.

My next plan of divide and conquer is to plan and cash flow my vacation, no credit cards, no savings that I apply to debt, it will be 100% be cash flowed by cutting back!!! Cut it out you say guy from Full House! Oh we will, I tell you, we will.

So our plan is to travel to San Francisco and possibly up or down the coast to some nearby cities. The cost can vary and according the San Francisco visitor's bureau, tourists staying in a hotel spend $244 per person per day. We are going to go about this a little differently, since we plan to vacation in early September we have about 3 months to save, we will then take the amount that we save and use this during our trip, if we have a $100 total we better find someone with a couch who lives in San Francisco. The good news to start is our air fare is taken care of, we made the right move last summer and accepted Delta's offer for some free vouchers and and extra day in Nicaragua, BOOM, airfare paid for.

So because my wife doesn't like sharing any details about money and the fact that I love my wife and my marriage, I will only share the money we save, not any incomes or what we have budgeted for. We will keep things simple, if I have $100 budgeted for and only spend $30, then more of the BOOM! saved $70 for "San Francisco is Fantastico"(patent pending). This will also include money budgeted for eating out, this is our real vice where we spend far too much money. The same plan will apply $100 budgeted, spend $40, and yep you got it BOOM Baby!!!! $60 saved. Based on this while I don't have a concrete number my projected savings we will need is probably about $1000, which is about $300 or $400 month, so that's a lot of savings, but I love a challenge.

Here are a couple of simple plans to save a few extra dollars:

Make a list every week for our Groceries and project what we will spend before we go. I did this and came within a dollar it was kinda freaky actually. This way I know what I'm spending before I ever step into the grocery store.
Cash only. I take out my budgeted money after each paycheck and only use that to pay for groceries. If I want the chocolate cookies dough and it's $2 over what I brought, I politely ask to have it removed.
Do not eat out. This will be the hardest to accomplish. This will involve wait for it, making coffee and breakfast at the house, eating leftovers and sandwiches I brought from home, and even planning our dinners for the week and taking it out the night before(nice little Pot Roast in the slow cooker right now).
Say NO. This also rings up as one of the more difficult things to do. Say no to eating out, say no to that work lunch with everyone. We are not going to totally cut off the eating out for lunches, but 1x a week is the limit.

The message here is finish up a sprint and let's save some money to go on vacation, because honestly do you want to wait till your 65 to go on cool vacations????????

I would love to see some comments on how you save on groceries and going out. Thanks for reading.

Creating a Business-Multiple Avenues, Multiple Streams-60 Days on Fire

2013-06-15T19:02:00.000-07:00

Squeezing me for my wallet!

I just got back from vacation from visiting Disney World and watching my Brother In-Law's graduate from high school, Congrats Omar and Jesse!!!!(If you read my blog that is, haha). I will get into some of the saving and extra spending in another post I did during this vacation, hint Mickey and Minnie killed me.

Reading a comment from my previous post http://www.makingsenseofcents.com/ I realized I need to talk about and write about what I will be doing over the next 60 days and beyond. I will be taking the steps to start an online clothing company, where I will be selling new and used clothing. I heard a quote when starting a business, of course I can't find it right now to give them credit, but starting out, "I want you to put as much work as you would in 2 years into the first 60 days". Sounds crazy right??? Absolutely does to me, that's why I'm doing it!!! I'm a big believer in if it was easy everyone would do it, so I'm hoping this is going to be terrible!

So my business plan is to acquire and sell clothing online, first with eBay, mixed in with Storenvy, and possibly Etsy, that's to be determined, the majority of the items for sale will be on eBay with a small mix in Storenvy. All of this will be done in 60 days, the 60 day of Fire launch will be on June 9th and will go until August 7th, after this I will take a 2 week break and get all nerdy and put together spreadsheets, some ongoing, about what sells for brands, price, best days to sell, etc. I also plan on really working on a process to see how long things take and if any of this can be done by others or is me doing all the work.

*********************************************************************************
Delay in Writing for a couple days, work will do that to you.

So the 60 day launch has begun, not of course with some obstacles. I currently have around 75 items for sale found on the link above. The obstacles included not having Internet for a couple days, we only use a Wi-Fi card and I left it in Miami and work always gets in the way. So because of the promotions offered by eBay I used a majority of Buy It Now(just like it sounds) and only a few Auction with the Buy It Now option. Another recent promotion will allow me to list the rest of my items available which is about 20 or 30 over the next couple days with what I have used the majority of the time with the 7 day Auction and Buy It Now. I will continue to keep buying and keep listing, but so far i'm on Day 6 and things are on there way up

I'm on pace to sell an item a day with what I have currently listed, which needs to be a larger number, but with some of my Auctions ending on Sunday, this number should pick up. 60 Days on Fire has begun!!!!

Money Mindset-Owning a Nice Car

2013-05-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

Mercury Capri Convertible

Growing up I was lucky enough to have a car that was considered mine, it started with a 1997 Red Mercury Capri convertible, which I think was my Dad buying a convertible during the summer and then realizing we lived in the snow filled winter wonderland known as Wisconsin. I don't think I really had to pay for anything on that car, if I did it was minimal, insurance, oil change, gas(Yes I remember .99/gallon), nothing too much.

Mercury Tracer

I then moved on to what many people growing up know as my car. A 1997 Mercury Tracer, Purple of course. Many nicknames were given, "The Traca' You Can't Replace", "The Tracer You Can't Eraser", "The Purple Barney Car". All great nicknames for a great car. I think the car was a couple years old when my parents bought it, some of the upgrades were.... haha who I am I kidding everything was standard, nothing was power, cruise control, that would be my foot hovering over the gas pedal at the same rate, CD player, haha a radio was the only thing bumping in my car.(I did later buy a CD player when I worked at Circuit City). During high school and college, my parents had me paying the car payment the best I could, about $160 month until I basically couldn't afford it anymore and my parents paid off the loan.

What does this have to do with owning a nice car? Well I didn't have a new car or expensive, I consider myself lucky for what I had, but nothing brand new or high end like a Mercedes Benz or BMW. During college summers I lived in the Chicago suburbs and had the pleasure of working at a golf course that costs from what I remember around 80k to join. So pretty much every car that rolled in there was a 50K car or more. Rarely did I see the typical American Ford Taurus unless it was in the caddie parking lot. I associated having money with having a nice car. Which I think was one of the reasons I purchased my Mercedes Benz. Now I bought it below Kelly Blue book value, but I felt like the richest man in the world. My car payment wasn't ridiculous, nothing that I couldn't afford(asterisk )

I shortly realized buying a car with a payment was not smart. I was paying about $300 month, not including insurance, gas, and maintenance which gets a little higher with a foreign car. After moving from Florida(need a car), to Chicago(don't need a car). I was able to sell my car after listing it on Craigslist, I took a hit out of pocket, I think I had to pay about $1200, possibly less. This might have been the greatest financial decision I have made in my life.

Now when I see someone in my neighborhood driving an Escalade or new BMW, I think they are morons. Why would you spend so much money on a car, is it to look good, feel good, these are items that are not going up in value? That's a lot of money. So let's say you make really good money and pull in 100K, a new Escalade costs about 60K, that still makes no sense to me, unless you are paying cash for this purchase I have to say this is a bad decision. That's 60% of your salary. I think knowone should have a car payment and the fair amount for your salary to car ratio should be right around 10%. So make 200K you can drive a 20K car, unless it's cash then i think that bumps to 20%, so make make 200K a year and you can drive a used Escalade all paid for.

My Money Mindset when I am in the suburbs or nicer area is to see that same BMW and think that they are doing very well for themselves. Owning a nice car seems to tell me that you have money. This could be keeping up with the Jones' which is also something that can bring you down in the debt spiral of course. But I think it's totally different, the guy driving the BMW is a guy doing well making good cash, the guy listening to Jay-Z driving the 60K Lexus is a moron to me.

Do you have a nice car with a payment or a lease? Do you own a 1993 Toyota Corolla with rust on the side? Do you ride your bike to work? Take the bus, train, carpool? How do you save money with your own transportation?