.. my journey to financial success

Sometimes I wonder what it is all for?
We strive to gather and gather.. and in the end we just have a bunch of stuff. Does it make us happy? Maybe, sometimes, temporarily.
I haven’t quite found out what it is that makes me always happy, but I do know of some things, which aren’t centered around spending:
- Watching a well made movie
- Creating a website/project just for the fun of it
- Being around friends and family and having a few laughs
- Seeing a little child laugh uncontrollably just by the mention of the word springy

I guess there aren’t that many things out there which involve the money or status in life.. but certainly a lot which make it not so happy. Financial worries etc..
So let’s all vote not to get in that boat. Make enough to live and to be happy; strive to get to that point of freedom. That day where you can just sit back in your chair and breathe out a sigh of fulfillment. That’s the day I’m looking forward to

I just transferred all my savings to Ally Bank (formerly named GMAC bank). They offered a great rate I couldn’t resist (1.78%) at the current time 10-10-09 and daily compounding! How great is that? My money and interest gets compounded daily so I earn more. Good bye ING Direct with your yet again lowered rate to 1.29%. Now I have an FDIC backed bank that offers me the same, if not better, service for greater benefits. I can still do my automatic transfers for my emergency savings and regular savings, and I still have my multiple accounts. Here’s to daily compounding

Well, I think I can honestly say that when I make progress I always seem to sabotage myself and lose that lead. I start an exercise program, see results, then stop exercising.. It’s like I know that I can’t get to that finish line or it won’t be fun.
Same with personal finances. It seems like the more I save the more I spend on random things. I need to control this. So I implemented a plan that I’ve seen across the PF blogosphere. The 50-30-20 rule.

• 50 % – Essential Needs (rent/mortgage, food, cable.. etc)
• 30 % – Fun (non-essentials) (gym, eating out, vacations, books)
• 20 % – Savings (emergency fund and for the future)

I calculated this split after taxes and my contributions to my 401k, which I am happy to say I upped to 7%

Anyways, the real good part of this, I stopped my sabotage!

How you say? Well I just automated everything. I automatically deduct a set amount after each paycheck equal to the 20 % necessary for savings. ING made this quite easy. I then live on the rest.

Up next is the dreaded budget.. stay tuned

Since recently moving to a new place I’ve let go of some of my financial budgeting. Basically, before I was able to do easily stay away from temptations (mostly going out with friends), and the move created an environment that tempts me more and more.

I cannot stand it that I’ve done what I’ve done and I have to get things back in order. It all starts with tracking my expenses on a day by day basis to establish how I must adjust my budget to my new environment. On a weekly basis I will post the review of all expenses and then create a final end of month expense review. Hopefully at this time I can look back and see exactly where I have fix things. Most certainly that would be the going out portion, but it can be surprising what expenses you will find when you take a closer look.

Last time I did this exercise, I found out my largest expenditure was Target of all places.

Reading the recent timelines have given me such headaches lately.  This is the story of Satyam, one of the largest outsourcing companies in India. The CEO just announced that he falsified for quite some time now that the company had assets equal to $1 Billion, when as a matter of fact, there are no such assets. This company has hired over 50,000 employees, and it will be a tough time ahead for them. I for one, find this outraging. How can someone just “say” that they have so much money, especially when being audited by a respectable firm in PricewaterhouseCoopers? There is something wrong in the world today, when morals fly right out the window and lying becomes part of business. Perhaps I am naiive at such an early age, but I do believe in doing the right thing. In this case, one person will cause pain for many in turn. Shame on him.
You can read the article on the NYtimes site at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/worldbusiness/09outsource.html

Hi there,

Welcome to my web log of my journey through personal finance. It has long been a dream of mine to chronicle what I am going through and to share it for others to profit from it.

I’m not quite sure what I will write about specifically, I guess I’ll make up the categories as I explore different personal finance topics.

Enjoy