Money Forward

This blog is about money and trying to keep my money from flying out the window.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Eating out is cheaper?

This article from MSN Money is saying that in some cases eating out is cheaper than eating in. I think it depends on what you order, but I could see it being possible. Since portions are so large, my fiance and I often get a salad and share an entree. Sometimes this can cost around $12-15, which is cheaper than cooking a shrimp dinner or many chicken dinners at home. I don't think this would work for everyone, but maybe eating out occasionally is not a bad idea AND is not detrimental to your budget.

Worldwide Debt

This article from Robert Kiyosaki on Yahoo Finance is interesting and made me think of of how much debt many countries have. I can't imagine what would happen if China and all of the other countries we owe debt to came knocking asking for repayment. Of course this probably wouldn't happen, and taking our currency off the gold standard tried to prevent this, but it's still something to think about.

Should we be worrying about the size of our national debt? Is there something we should be doing personally to avoid these problems? Doing anything might be a bit alarmist, although I have heard of people buying gold bullion and such to make sure they keep something tangible.

Goals

I'm sure these will change in the future, but at least this will be something to work from.

Short-term (Now-2 years)
New car - Mine is 10 years old and since I have to drive to work now, I would feel better about being in a more reliable car.
Two ROTH IRAs - at least started

Mid-term (3-5 years)
Half of student loans paid
- I'm only looking at half since we looked at the numbers and we would do better saving a decent amount of money and waiting longer to pay off the loans than if we just paid them off as fast as possible (which would take several years without much savings).
Downpayment for a house - I'm hoping for between $80k-100k since houses here are so expensive and I would prefer to have a 20% downpayment.

Long-term (5-10 years)
$250k net worth
- Although this seems low, I think it will be hard enough to get to considering our $40k of student loan debt and high expenses that we can't get rid of. We may try to cut more things out, but we're already down to bare minimum in many instances.

Another strain on our goals is that I'm going to school part time and I have 7 more semesters left if I keep on track. Depending on classes that will cost between $4000-$5500 a semester (3 semesters a year).

So that at least is a start. Hopefully they're achievable goals.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Economy and the Environment

In college we looked at a lot of case studies and things that looked at the effects of the environment on the economy. This article today on YAHOO! talks about similar things. Without the environment, we don't have much else, including money or an economy, so why kill it?

Surprisingly I have also found out that most of the time when a business puts in technology and plans that are environmentally friendly, they actually increase their profit in the long-run. Most businesses still only think short-term and therefore won't change; but if they would open up a bit, they could do better while helping the environment.

expectations

I had a longer post, but I think it's best to not post it.

So in short.. How can family expect so much financially and emotionally from each other, especially when they know the financial and emotional situations everyone else is in? Not sure if it's just selfish or or plain stupidity.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

more info

Since I have time I decided I could give more background info.

I just took a new job over a month ago, and because of that we had to move about 15 miles or so to make my life, and my fiance's life easier. She is going to school full-time and working when she can to make money to pay off some of our debt and to create some savings. We're basically living off of my pay, which is a bit tight. We've cut out a lot of things like cable tv, but I'm sure we could cut a bit more. I'm also going to school part-time and because I don't want anymore loans, my tuition is all out of pocket. My company reimburses a little bit, but I still have to front the money at the beginning of each semester.

I'm not sure of my financial goals, only goals of what I want.. which probably isn't good. I'll add to that later though.

something new

I've decided that although I've done decently with our money, it's time to try something new since our goals and finances ar eall over the place at the moment. So I'm going to try this and hopefully will be able to keep on any track we've decided on, and exchange a lot of info.

As a start.. I'm getting married at the end of the year. We've already joined our accounts and decided that it would be best if I take care of all of the finance stuff. We're a bit in debt, and with my fiance going to school full time, me going to school part time, we are a bit crazy. Once she gets a job things will start to turn, but for now I have to think of some goals which I'm sure will be "out there" and figure out how to get to them. It'll be hard since we have one income that we barely survive on and loans that keep increasing. We'll see what happens.