I’m so close I can almost taste it. (Although, I’m not really sure what $100,000 tastes like). After almost 6 years on the job, my 401k is about to hit $100,000. I would have already hit the mark if I hadn’t scaled back my contributions to help offset our vacation home purchase (scaled back to 8% to get all the company match) but I expect that
Woman With 9 Maxed Out Credit Cards Wins Lottery
The first thing I thought about when I read this story is, “That million isn’t going to last long”. This woman found a $10 bill on the ground and then used it to buy lottery tickets. She’s glad she did because she won a $1 million dollar jackpot. The article says that she has 9 maxed out credit cards and $8500 in debt from an
New Millionaire In the Making
I just noticed there is a new “millionaire in the making” that I hadn’t seen. Jeanette Courts is a divorced 38 year old mom who works for the Pentagon making 94,000 per year. Here is a summary of her net worth: Government Thrift Savings Plan: $107,000Roth IRA: $6,000Savings Bonds: $2,000Online savings account: $10,000Brokerage account: $1,000Other savings: $4,000Home equity: $190,000 Jeanette is looking good. I’d say
What Should Your Net Worth Be At 30?
It seems like such an easy question to answer. Of course the answer varies from person to person, but let’s just say that you know what you need to have when you retire. If you would like to retire with an annual retirement income of $50,000, you are going to need to have roughly a million dollars at retirement age. This assumes that you are able
Intelligence Does Not Equate To High Net Worth
I have posted about this subject before but I recently read an article that did a good job of explaining this. A professor got access to a database of people that have been participating in a study for the last 25 years. It started when they were in college and now these people are in their forties. While the original study didn’t cover finances, it
Pay Off Your Mortgage in 5, 10, 15 or 20 Years
The idea of not having a mortgage payment and truly owning my house makes me salivate like a dog standing over a nice medium rare T-bone steak. I’ve been prepaying on my mortgage for a few years to knock some of the interest off and pay my home off early. I’ve taken a very unscientific approach to paying the mortgage off early. I’ve simply added
Mortgage Company Just Dying To Give Us More Money
I guess it’s a sign that it’s getting harder for the banks and mortgage companies to find someone to loan money to. I continue to get more letters from various lenders telling me that I am qualified to either refinance my home mortgage with them or take equity out of my home. The latest is from my actual mortgage company. The top of the page
Teach Your Kids To Be Smart With Money – Encore Post
Here is a post that was previously posted back in March of 2005. If you haven’t reviewed the ELYM archives, you may want to take a peek. ———- As you’ve read through all of these articles, have you found yourself thinking that you should have done a few things different? Could you be better off now if you had made different decisions earlier on? Do
What Is Your Net Worth
I was browsing through personal finance articles and came upon this recent article by Rodney Sessions on net worth (in the Hattiesburg American). Rodney spends the majority of the article asking why we shouldn’t consider other things as part of our net worth. I’m not sure Rodney understands the point of calculating your net worth. He seems to be implying that people’s net worth is
Winning the Money Marathon in 26.2 Steps
Becoming financially fit can be challenging. But consider this: Marathoners get up early on the weekends and run multiple miles, sometimes in the rain, skipping the breakfast buffet and Bloody Marys. Makes reaching financial fitness sound totally doable, doesn’t it? So in honor of the Seattle Marathon today, we offer 26.2 tips that work well both for running and personal finance See the whole article