My Financial Journey

Well a down month for my net worth this month and the first one in a long while. Given the general stumbles of the stock market as a whole I don’t feel too bad about it. In fact had I done my report based on today’s results I would actually be well into the black as a number of my major holdings are up double digits today. Ah well - I should really be rooting for more turmoil and stock market declines as I’m doing only buying for the next 20+ years.
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So on January 1 - I’m rehashing my favorite articles for the year and I bring up the post from early last year where I bought myself a new car. I suffixed the article with the comment and I quote “still as pimp as the day I bought it. I’ve also had zero issues with the car since I bought it (setting myself up with that statement)”
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I thought this would be a good place to highlight what I consider some of my favorite or best posts of 2007.

Get Rich!! Play the Lottery!! Somebody has to win!!
- my thoughts on the lottery.

The true cost of owning a home - or reasons why renting isn’t all that bad.
- was true before the housing bubble and is true after the housing bubble.

Save for tomorrow - but don’t forget to live today
- I can’t take the credit for this post, but probably the most powerful advice on my site.

I just don’t get it - what is the big deal about gas prices?
- Probably one of my favorite rants - stop complaining about gas prices

The fine line of frugality
- It can be a fine line sometimes.

Frugal cure for a sore throat
- probably not my best writing but certainly the most popular post on this site.

My Financial Journey’s pimp ride version 2
- still as pimp as the day I bought it. I’ve also had zero issues with the car since I bought it (setting myself up with that statement)

Why thinking you are smart enough to know where the market is going is so dangerous.
- please don’t adjust your retirement plan based on short term results or doom and gloom forecasting.

Another Financial Goal: My very own full court basketball court
- I’ve got to get working on this one.

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I figured this would be a good time to check up on my $100,000 by age 30 goal. I have a feeling that I’m actually falling behind on this one as I know I have over $3,000 in Roth IRA deposits that I am behind on. I’m pretty sure I have the money to make the deposits and they will likely be deposited in the next couple weeks, but unfortunately they will not make this report.

The whole idea of this goal was to make sure that I was in a good situation in regards to my retirement planning. You can go ahead and read the original post here, but idea was to give myself an aggressive savings goal that would have me well on my way in my retirement planning. You can see where I currently stand vs my original plan below.
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A pretty steady and boring end to 2007 for me. For the year though my retirement nestegg grew by $26,362 or 56%, which is what really counts. I sometimes wonder if I should only do quarterly or even yearly reports on my retirement nestegg, just because if you take yourself too seriously when looking at results in the short term you may miss the big picture.
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I want to apologize for missing last month’s report. I believe that is only the 2nd time since I started blogging 2 years ago that I missed a report. Two kids are more than 2 times the work of 1 kid

Note the percentage change below is over a 2 month period instead of the normal one month period.

Traditonal Rollover IRA -$12,441.28 (-9.10%)
My Roth IRA - $30,460.08 (+10.69%)
Wife Roth IRA - $14,439.44 (+1.80%) 15,194.20
Current Traditional 401k - $14,097.38 (+26.35%)

Roth/Traditional % = 62.85% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $71,438.18 (+6.94%)

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My family and I are going to be making a cross country trip next week to attend a wedding and due to the fact that we have a 2 year old and a 3 month old we decided it was probably better to rent a van than cram everyone into my wife’s Accord. I spent days calling around, doing searches on the internet, etc. and in the process think I learned a thing or too that I will share with my readers.
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