I’ve been spending a lot of time lately peering in to my personal finance spreadsheet. This is the spreadsheet that shows all of our major assets, our income, our expenses and our liabilities. The assets and liabilities really haven’t changed much. Here’s a quick rundown of the major stuff: House: $340K Lake House: $155K Toyota Truck: $9K Honda CRV: $24K Boat: $8K Yamaha Quad: $4.5K
Millionaire Gives Away All His Money to Feel Better
Karl Rabeder has decided that all of his money is making him miserable. Here is an excerpt from the article: The tipping point came while he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to islands of Hawaii. "It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is," he said. "In those three
Should You Buy Earthquake Insurance?
With all of the attention on Haiti the last few days and the powerful destructive capabilities of an earthquake, it’s probably worth asking the question whether you should buy earthquake insurance. For years I questioned whether we should have the insurance and I felt as if I was living on the edge a bit. For those of you that haven’t spent much time reading through
Our Frugal Friend is Happy and Very Wealthy But is it Balanced?
Over the last couple of years we’ve developed a friendship with an older man that owns a number of homes out near our lake house. He is retired and lives off of rental income from approximately 15-20 rental homes he owns. Fred still owns every house he’s ever purchased. The majority of these rentals are in Seattle and most are in lower income neighborhoods where
Mint now Supports Assets to Help Calculate Net Worth
I’m not sure how long Mint.com has had this feature but I just noticed it today. Now you can add assets like real estate, vehicles and any other valuable assets you have. You can even associate an asset (like a house) with a particular loan so that it calculates your equity in that asset. I found these features by clicking on the “Your Accounts” link
Avoid Specific Wall Street Fraud – Invest in Index Funds
Okay, so that title probably sounds a little bit moronic. I don’t think anyone can avoid the fraud we’ve seen on Wallstreet over the years. Here are a few of my favorites: Enron Worldcom Madoff Mortgage Securities It seems that the only limit to the amount of fraud on Wall street is people’s ability to imagine it. From energy manipulation to massive Hedge fund ponzi
I Finally Signed Up For Mint
I’ve been sitting on the sideline when it comes to signing up for an online tool that allows me to get a consolidated view of all my investment and bank accounts. The main reason is that I didn’t want to offer up my account logins for fear of creating extra drama in my life. I finally bit the bullet yesterday and am somewhat surprised at
I Just Won 1 Million Euros
I’ll tell you. My luck has been GREAT lately. First I managed to take all my investments out of the market before it crashed and sent it to Nigeria in order to receive a huge cash payout. (still pending) and now it turns out my email address has been selected for a 1 million Euro prize. That’s a lot of US dollars!!! Here’s the note:
How Much Should We Have In Our Emergency Fund?
I have to confess something. We’ve been running with a dangerously low emergency fund balance for quite some time. It all stems from building the lake house and all the costs associated with doing that. We have finally caught up with everything from construction and are working hard to start building our emergency fund back up. How bad is it? Well, we are currently running
Today’s The Day We Rescue The Idiots
Okay, I know. That’s a little harsh. I’m trying very hard not to be bitter about having to spend upwards of $1 trillion dollars to rescue our economy. As hard as I try not to be a little bitter about it, I’m not having a lot of luck. Maybe it’s because I’m not confident that this "rescue" will really save anything. Regardless of whether they