When reading articles like this: http://www.kirotv.com/education/9297347/detail.html it reminds me that I haven’t started a 529 plan for my daughter. I spent about a half hour trying to figure out which plan is best and also requested information on the Washington state GET program, but I’m starting to get serious about opening a Kansas based 529 plan. It has a decent rating from the people that
I Want That! Please, Can I Have That?
I suppose it was inevitable. My daughter has reached that precious milestone of wanting everything she sees in the store and she believes with the right approach, she’ll get it. I guess it’s been slowly evolving, but I really noticed it last time we went to the store. She’s almost 3 years old and firmly has a grasp on the idea that getting more “things” is
Net Worth Trend
Well, as some of you may have noticed, I took down the details of our net worth. I did this for a couple reasons. I decided that I didn’t want to put that level of detail out any more and not long after making that decision, a few of my friends discovered this blog. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ashamed of where our net
We Are a Nation of Optimists
On the subject of things that don’t seem to make sense……. Kiplinger has an article about how consumer confidence is at a 4 year high. I confess. This just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Gas prices are at an all time high, interest rates are rising which could have multiple impacts on consumers (credit card rates increasing, adjustable mortgages going up etc),
Lot’s Happening Here
It’s been a little quiet on the blog posting front the last few days. We celebrated the Easter holiday at our house so there was plenty of preparations for that, and what has really kept me busy is that I took a new job within my company. It should be more exciting and a completely different technology than I have been working with so I’ll
Don’t Go In To Debt For That Vacation!
Take a look at this article that talks about how to pay for that next family vacation. Basically, the article states that you should plan ahead a bit. If the vacation is important to you, then why not make it a priority all year long to put aside a bit of money. He also talks about potential ways to save on other things to make
What Does Good Money Management Mean to You
I was reading a comment on My Open Wallet and it got me to thinking. What does good money management mean to you? As I’ve talked to people that have struggled with money I never realized that their definition of good money management and mine were completely different. My definition of good money management is that you have a plan, you know how much money
Oprah’s Debt Diet
I was going to write a post about Oprah’s debt diet. (Their “finale” was yesterday) but I found that “It’s Just Money” did a good job and said pretty much everything I was thinking. One part of the show that I found a little annoying was their level of enthusiasm about declaring, “Great news. You are going to be a millionaire”. I guess I would
Picking Stocks and Mutual Funds is a Pain!
One thing that I’ve been doing is trying to learn more about stocks. I have a friend of mine who damn near seems like Warren Buffet. He learned his skills from a family member and has shown me some amazing stocks. I’m not someone who just wants the latest stock “tip”, rather, I’d prefer to understand how to find the stock myself. So, over a
Interesting Observation About my Financial Journey
This morning I was going through our investments/assets/expenses which I keep in a custom excel document that I created a few years ago. This spreadsheet includes multiple tabs, and a couple charts. I call this my Financial Dashboard. At a glance I can easily see all the figures that make up my net worth. It also shows me what my expenses are, what percentage of