Daddy Financials

Single Ma had a great article on her plans for her daughter's college education.

This really got me thinking about how much support is too much when it comes to your kids.

While I think it has helped me a lot in life to have gone through what I had to go through to get myself out of college with my BA, I always say that I will do whatever I can to help the piglet not have to worry about money. Would I be doing her a disservice by taking that out of her mind?

I don't plan to keep her ignorant when it comes to money. I do plan on teaching her the virtues of compounding interest, saving early and often, and controlling your impulses so you not paying off debt for the better part of your life. The lessons on ROTH vs. pre-tax 401K will come when she's a little older :)

I hear/see all the time where kids become super dependant on their parents for everything, from housing, cars, "get me out of trouble money", and anything else that comes up. While I do want her to have all of the things that I did not have as a kid (house, trips, a decent hairstyle [my mom cut my hair more times than I care to mention]), I don't want her to miss out on the lessons I learned from all of my hard work, it does build plenty of drive and character to dig yourself out and try to make your own mark without much help from anyone else. But I don't want her stressing about every last dollar and having to work crazy hours and missing out on life.

Even though we were poor, and I mean ppooooorrr, my childhood is full of wonderful memories. Material things meant nothing to me growing up, I was happy just walking through the park with my mom or visiting Grandma's house and racking up on all the cookies she gave me :) I want her to have this same mindset, even when she gets older. To appreciate the moments with family more than the trips to the mall (this will get harder the closer she gets to teenage-hood...I know). This also pushed me to work harder when I got older, to bring my family up with me and not depend on anyone for anything I wanted.

I guess like all things in life, balance is the key and learning the power of "no".

I think I'll just stick to the original plan, save enough in her 529 to where she will still have to work, but not as much as if we had nothing saved up. And keep her separate savings account in ING to get her a little head start, we plan on keeping $1,000 in there and anything on top of that is up to her. Aside from that, we'll deal with things on a case by case basis. PRAY FOR ME PEOPLE.

Why is this so hard? They should have handouts at the hospital on what the formula is to raising a Bill Gates, Denzel Washington (does more charitable work than he gets credit for) or Oprah.

Thanks for reading
Love ya babe

My little Piglet got really sick this week and I was unable to get to work, let alone think of a post.

She came down with a really bad case of strep throat and her fever reached 105 degrees at one point.

She is feeling a little better now so my world is getting back to normal. It was really tough to see her just laying in bed all day and not really able to eat, she is normally full of energy and ready to sing and dance at the drop of a hat.

I knew something was wrong when I got home from work Monday night and she saw me come in and just pointed at me, she normally screams "It's dada, dada" and comes running over to give me a big hug. This is the highlight of my day and I look forward to it on my home.

We spent the next two days either in the hospital, watching Dora the Explorer, sleeping, or watching Happy Feet.

That's my sappy daddy moment for the day :)

We'll get back on the Debt Reduction post this weekend or early Monday.

Til then, have good weekend.

Thanks for reading

I'm still here people. Thanks to all those who were out looking for me (Sistah Ant, Dimples, Etc) :)

It's good to feel wanted :)

Work has just been really hectic. I was given some more responsibilities at work and I've been getting used to having the extra burden on my plate. I normally post during my lunch breaks but I've been busy catching up on stuff during lunch breaks. I may not be able to post everyday day like I would like. But I will be back on board the blog train now that I have a better handle on things. I haven't fallen off the wagon again. I've been saving, spending time with the wife and piglet and hitting the gym as well. As busy as I've been, life just seems more fulfilling when its full of things to do, even if work is part of it.

This will really make that October vacation to Florida seem worth it now boy :)

Its good to be back

Off topic: Who do you guys prefer musically Kanye or 50 cent?

I think Kanye is an actual musician, he takes a lot of chances and actually gets creative with his delivery and his message. 50 had his time to shine (Get Rich or Die Tryin is a great album), but I think his time as a decent rapper are done (he was never a great lyricist); Just like DMX and countless others who started hot and fell hard. You can only glorify "hood life" for so long, it gets harder when your a multi-millionaire he lives in Mike Tyson's old house. Glorifying the ghetto and how profited from it isn't a good platform to stand on anyway. Being from the ghetto and "makin'" it should be something like a badge of honor, you don't make it seem like it was the good life. Talk about your struggle and how you persevered through it, bring some issues to light that you encountered on your quest to get out (Wu-Tang [to a point], KRS-1, Tupac Shakur). If life was so good, why doesn't every rapper live in the projects? I love hip hop and what it stood for when I was growing up, I will probably always listen to rap music, but it has taken a serious turn for the worse in the last few years.

That's my off topic remark for the week :)

Thanks for Reading

I know I've been gone for a few days, crazy family stuff going on. I wanted to share my success story with you guys. I was working out yesterday and I benched 205 Lbs 3 times. WWWOOOOOHHHOOOOOOO :)

It's not a huge number, but I haven't benched 200+ since high school, which was many moons ago :) I want to keep lifting and working out, eating right (even if it is a little more expensive) to see how hard I can push myself. I have put on some muscle though, I'm trying to get the wife to call me Big Daddy but that's not flying in our house lol

On a financial note, we have had to dip into our emergency fund for some financial emergencies, and we are now about $200 in credit card debt, not much but it's there. Time to get back on my game and get things back on track before they spin out of control, Lord know it can happen quickly.

It just feels like theres always something doesn't it? When I was chubby and living on fried cheese, Chinese food, chicken, and bacon... I had my financial world in perfect order; now that I am in better health and working out, my finances are starting to sputter. If I can just get these two halves of my life to mesh in perfect harmony....I can plan to take over the world (Using Brains voice from Pinky and the Brain) :) Luckily, I have my family to hold me together, the wife and I got some alone time together, the piglet has grown 1 inch in the past month and she is getting smarter by the second. The little sneak has even figured out that all she has to do is give daddy a hug and kiss and she can have pretty much whatever she wants :) I'm such a softie when it comes to my angel :)

Thanks for reading guys

I Love you Baby

This is more of a rant than a post. As you may or may not know, my family has inspired me to get myself in better shape. I want to be around for the long haul and still be able to enjoy it without the use of a pacemaker or walking stick to help me around, or even a wheelchair because my weight has gotten out of control. On a side note, this can also help in my retirement years by cutting down on medical expenses, but that's not the point of the post. Why is it so damn expensive to eat healthy?

Whole wheat bread, brown rice, tofu, chicken breasts, fresh veggies and fruits....this can add up to quite a pretty penny when you compare it to the alternative; chicken thighs/wings, white bread white rice, pork, canned veggies. I also lift weights so a tub of protein powder can run as much as $50. My big question is why the price difference? Whole wheat bread should be easier to manufacturer since the grain does not have to go through as much processing as white bread does, same with brown vs. white rice. Fresh veggies are just plucked and shipped (washed of course), while canned veggies require canning, adding preservatives and so on and so forth. It's like (and I hate to saying or hearing this statement) the system is against us. Almost as if you are being pushed towards less healthy, cheaper alternatives, to keep you nice and plump.

The battle of the bulge can be an expensive fight, keep your eyes and ears open for sales and stock up when you find a good one. I refuse to let the system win and conform, join me in the revolution, it will not be televised :)

Thanks for reading

I Love you Baby

Had a little asthma and cough situation last night and early this morning, so I took a sick day.

Nothing new to report but I'm planning a review on the book The Pursuit of Happyness for tomorrow.

Check out MoneyMonk's post on the the Chris Gardner story and how it should inspire all of us to do better in the meantime.

Thanks for reading

I love you Baby

So I have decided to go into "Debt Reduction" mode with a twist. I'm treating our vacation fund as a bill, a $2,000 bill to be exact. Debt reduction mode is basically just pouring all extra money towards paying off this debt.

I used to do real estate photography before, I called the guy I used to work for to see if he needs any help. If he does, that s an easy $150-$175/month for 1 days worth of work. I can take the wife and the baby in the car with me while I take the picture of these houses, sort of like a weekly sightseeing trip :) If that does not come through, I'll use CashDuck some more to get some money that way and after that I can cut down on my expenses without hurting the family.

The main reason for this is to try to really enjoy my vacation. I can't help but try to save money in every way I can, but for my vacation I want to shut down that part of my brain. If I already have the money saved and set aside for spending on this trip, then I won't have that guilt when I get back "sweet moses, we spent this much money in 8 days, we could have boosted our emergency fund or put that towards our IRA." I want to relax, drink some margaritas, enjoy some good food, then go back to my old ways when we get back. If we have money left in the vacation fund, I'll deal with it then, instead of cutting corners to make sure there is money left over.

This should make the trip much more enjoyable and really give my mind the vacation it needs.

We already have the vacation fund set up, I just want to use this to make sure we're not strapped for cash by the end of the trip.

Any other tips on generating streams of income?

Thanks for reading

I Love you Baby

You ever get that down and out, "why do I keep doing this feeling?"

Maybe it's because I check our accounts so frequently, pretty much every day, the changes seem very minuscule when they do happen. Whenever someone has a problem, I'm the one they turn to, either for advice or something they need. I try so hard to cut corners and save wherever possible, yet everyone is in me ear telling me "it's too much", or "don't live like your broke just to save some money." Yet these same people don't know the first thing about saving or how hard I actually work at this. It's not easy for me either, I would love to go out for lunch every day instead of brown bagging it, I would have been more than happy to finance a G35 instead of paying cash for Concorde, retirement is more than 30 years away and I wish I didn't know what the heck a 401K was. My emergency may never get used, so why do I keep putting money in...because your emergencies keep coming up. Whenever you need money, you come to me, whenever the banks or your credit cards won't give you anything else, I'm the one you have come to. All this effort just feel unappreciated at times, and I guess I'm just going through one of those times.

You wanna know what keep me going, what pushes me to knock down that financial wall with a sledgehammer after years of pecking at it with a plastic spoon? FREEDOM. I want to someday be free of all of this, to not have money worries or at least minimize them as far as they can be minimized. I am dead set on overcoming anything that gets in my path. Those who block the road that leads to my salvation will get run over with the 18-wheeler that is my determination to succeed. If it's people, get out of the way if you don't like what I'm doing; if my goals are too high for your tastes, then don't ask about them; if you're not going to be supportive of my savings and life goals, you're just another obstacle that I must overcome and prove myself to. For a better future for my child, I'm willing to give myself less in the present; if you can't see why then you really don't get me at all. I don't live like I'm broke, I live within my means, credit cards do not count towards my income so I don't depend on them to keep my lifestyle going; I'm trying to attain assets that appreciate and help me build up this empire I'm trying to start, not depreciate and keep me in this rat race.

Does this ever happen to you guys? Ever wonder what it's all for and why you keep going at it?
Just keep pushing, there was a reason you decided to get off the debt wagon, don't let anyone put you back on there.

Sorry for the lag time between posts, I've been joyriding in my new toy :) I've had my license for about 7-8 years now, but this is the first car that I have ever purchased. I have the insurance in my name, it is registered in my name, and every other piece of paper that had to be signed was in my name and no one else's :).

It feels good to be taking this step forward, but damn was it costly. Call me naive, call me a knucklehead, call me what you want, but I did not know there were so many costs involved with buying a car. The dealer told me when I was buying the car that the price did not include tax and tags. He was upfront about it, but I thought this would be about $100 total, at most.

Why does the DMV charge so much for license plates? Are these the same plates that are made by prisoners (are they still making these in prison?) And you get charged a transfer of title fee. To sign a piece of paper over to me and print out a new copy is $50. Are they trying to persuade people to take public transportation? By the way, the New York City MTA has proposed an increase to $3 ride for us strap hangers, not sure if it will go through but this may make gasoline cheaper than bus fare for the first time in my life.

So the registration, plates and title was $140 total, the insurance down payment was about $400, the taxes on the car were $160, inspection was $40, and of course I took it for an engine flush and cleaned the fuel injection for another $190. That is a pretty expensive weekend my friends. If your asking why the engine flush and clean the injectors if I just got the car from a dealer...I don't want to take any chances. It took me some time to save the money for the car and I plan to take care of this little puppy. The dealer gave me a 30 day warranty, after that it's all on me. Bad maintenance is a killer on many cars. Some people just drive until problems arise, they take no preventative measures. None of my readers of course :)

Seriously though, don't just change the oil and think that's all you have to do. Spend $50 bucks just to have a trusted mechanic look at the car every 20,000 to 30,000 miles, just to make sure everything is ok. If it's not, at least you know whats going on and what you have to fix. I still want to change all the spark plugs and spark plug wires, change the fuel filter and transmission fluid. These are relatively cheap fixes and should not cost more than $150-$200. This will happen over time as I don't want to overextend myself. I might also change the timing belt and water pump but these are a little bigger and of course more expensive.

I also have a friend who is a certified mechanic, he just doesn't have a garage. This will give me a chance to learn to do some stuff myself. Most guys would love to say at some point in their lives "I'm going out to do some work on the car", just feels good :)

If anyone else has any preventative measure I can take, please feel free to share.

Thanks for reading

I Love you Baby

We finally did it, we got our car. I posted earlier about purchasing a 1998 Ford Explorer as our family car, but we could not find a decent one that seemed to be worth buying. Either the mileage was somewhere in 180K range or the truck itself just seemed beat up and used more than a wet-nap at buffalo wing eating contest. So we found a 1999 Chrysler Concorde LXi for $2,900 and we talked the guy down to $2,700.

The Dodge Intrepid provided us with the trunk space that we needed (for baby stuff, groceries, luggage) and the interior room we preferred. The Chrysler Concorde is basically the family version of the Intrepid, not as sporty but the chassis and engines are the same. Different outfit, same car. All of the extra stuff that came with the LXi car trim, leather interior, sunroof, CD player, was just that...extra. I didn't need or want it, but it came with the car so I'm takin' it.

The car has a little over 100K miles, leather, sunroof, massive interior space, and a cavernous trunk. I mean this trunk can hold a stroller, car seat, 5 bags of groceries and in the unfortunate event that one of your homeboys gets kicked out by his lady he can squeeze in too :) The interior is big enough for 3 grown people to sit in the back with the car seat, and the wife and I have all kinds of room in the front.

I test drove it, felt great; got the CarFax report, all clean; good review on Edmunds and Consumer Reports (it has the 3.2 engine which is supposed to be great), and I'm working on the insurance today, I pick it up tomorrow. I'm a first time insurer, so I'll have to look around to see who gives me the best deal. Any thoughts??

Phase II of the road to independence is complete (Phase I was getting our own place, Phase III would be the house). Now we don't have to ask for rides anywhere or borrow anyone's car, we can work around our own schedule. WWOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

Thanks to everyone who listened while I bitched about not having a car, muchos gracias to all of you :) I've never had a sunroof so I'm looking forward to crackin' it open on those beautiful summer days. MEDIUM PIMPIN' BABY!

Thanks for reading

I love you baby

Time to switch it up a little from all the financial talk. I wanted to share some of what I went through when I found out I was going to be a daddy.

The wife and I were not actively trying to have a child, but we were not taking measures to prevent a pregnancy. We had a long discussion and decided that we were ready and willing to start a family, if it happened. Once I heard those words, "I'm late", I ran to the drug store and picked up a home pregnancy test and almost ran my ass all the way home after work. The test came out positive. It was like Christmas came early for both of us, we were happy to be taking this next step in our lives together. I was one of the few men (maybe the first) in my family who actually wanted a child and did not curse the world when my girlfriend told me she was pregnant. This was all a very new experience for me.

After a few days, a serious case of anxiety set in. Seriously, I felt like everything would fall apart if I missed 1 day of work. I was still living with my mother, trying to save as much as I could by working 3 jobs. My debt was down to a reasonable amount and I was managing pretty well. My girl was still living with her parents and going to school. For me, living separately or with her parents was not really an option. Not for any egotistical reasons like, "ain't no woman and child of mine living with somebody else" or anything like that. I didn't want to be a burden on anyone else. We decided that we wanted to travel this road, we didn't ask anyone else to come with us so we shouldn't hijack any one's personal space. Even though I've seen some of the fam cram about 7 people in a 2 bedroom, and I like a challenge as much anyone, I couldn't let it happen.

This really made me nervous to the point where all I could think about was money. Do we make enough to afford everything, can I still save money, where are we going to live, should we really move out, is it too soon, what if I lose my job, what if something is wrong with the baby. All of these plus 1,000 other crazy thoughts were running through my mind almost daily. Lucky for me, my wife is great at making to do lists and prioritizing. We sat together and figured out what needed to be done and in what order. To all the new daddies out there, this should be step 1 if you have not already done so. There is no substitute for a good wife, I'm a lucky man and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

This calmed down a lot of the anxiety and nausea I was feeling, yes we get nauseous too mommies :) The living situation was step 1. Once we decided that yes we had to move out, it was time to work on a new budget. We figured out what we could afford in rent, and then factored in utilities, cable, and possible baby expenses. My mom and her mom helped with the baby shower and they made sure people got us stuff we would actually use, I can't thank them enough. Savings was step 2 after we worked out all the furniture and what not. Emergency fund (rebuild), college account, everyday savings were next, in that order. The money was going to be tight once I factored in my remaining debt payments and my OK salary. I decided this was not going to work, so I put all extra money towards debt and started hustling more at work to get a promotion. I kept my 2nd job until 6-7 months into the pregnancy. It was bartending, so being at work til 4 in the morning was not ideal with a pregnant wife at home. After I quit, the crazy pain in my neck came right back. Going from three checks to 2 seems small, but I was hording money for so long after being deep in debt before that, it was culture shock. Making time for the family was becoming more important even at this early stage. The other job was real estate photography and it was only once a week. I kept this job for a while and it did help a lot, but still only 2 checks.

I got word that I would be promoted about 1 month before my wife's due date. WOOOOHOOOOO, "Friday night, just got paid". Still not rich but it relieved a lot of my financial worries. We were already moved into the apartment and were just waiting for the little angel.

I witnessed the entire birth...THE WHOLE THING!! Craziest, weirdest, coolest, most wonderful experience I ever had. I appreciated my wife in a whole new way once I saw her push this huge baby (she had her daddy's big head) through that little tiny...well you get the picture. Once she was finally out and they placed her on the little baby table to clean her up and make sure she was ok....it was like an out-of-body experience. She was so perfect, I couldn't believe I helped create this baby. I'm not ready for this, who do I think I am trying to be a father, oh this poor child.....

Because I was so focused on money, I didn't have time to get worked up about the parenting side of fatherhood. Fellas, your never ready. There's no spring training, no exhibition games, no warm-up, nothing. You just jump into the fire and take your licks. My wife took a while to recover from the birth (20+ hours in labor, GOOD LORD) and I was more than happy to let her relax and recuperate after watching what she went through. I thought everything that everyone told me was an exaggeration "your not going to sleep", "she'll cry for no reason", "you never smelled such things coming out of a person"...it's all true. There was no sleeping, plenty of crying (the piglet was Colic for the first 4-5 months), and days that just seem like diaper and formula filled blurs. For those of you who are religious, remember that God never gives you more than you can handle, and you owe it to your wife/girlfriend and baby to be the best man and father you can be.

I sucked it up and picked up a serious coffee habit to keep myself awake. I don't know how babies do it, they must come pre-filled with red bull or Jolt cola or something. It seemed like all she needed was 10 minutes naps every 4 hours to keep her energy up. I learned to cook, somewhat, so my wife would have some decent food to eat, and we read books about parenting together. Just make sure you learn as go along, and ask doctors all the question that your not sure about, even if they get annoyed. I didn't give a damn, this is my baby we're talking about.

It was all worth it, hard as it was. All the planing we did beforehand took care of most of the financial stresses. Doctors, books, our parents and research took care of most of the parenting issues. Babies are people too, and they have their own personalities. Remember that when your trying to figure out what your supposed to do and why she doesn't like you. They don't act the same way everyday and you are as strange to them as they are to you.

I know none of this will help with any anxiety any new dads are feeling out there. The feelings will pass once the baby comes. And that first day she comes to you or calls you "Dada" will bring out the little woman inside every man. Let the tear out, it's been in there for a while :)Everything else will seem small in comparison to your new munchkin.

Thanks for reading

I love you baby

I am taking the plunge and have registered to become a lender with Prosper.Com. I did a lot of research before doing this and it seems to that the pros outweigh the cons. There are some nice review posts by Frykitty at Get Rich Slowly, Tricia of Blogging Away Debt fame, interviews Prosper's biggest investor (the man has invested over $750K, he's worth listening to if your thinking about jumping in), and Jonathan over at My Money Blog does a 2 part review of Prosper; Part 1, Part 2.

There are also several forums, discussion boards, and message boards on the Prosper.Com site itself where lenders describe their experiences, both good and bad. They also go into detail about what to look out for, how to choose your borrowers, so on and so forth. For me personally, the pros are:

1) The chance to be The Bank. This just holds a certain level of satisfaction for me, someone who used to be deep in debt, now being able to lend money to those who need it. I think this will also give me more of an inside look into what lenders are looking for in me and what my information tells them about me as a borrower when I am looking for a loan. I think this can be a very educational and rewarding experience.

2) The chance to help people. Even though I plan to scrutinize any possible borrowers to the greatest detail, I still remember when I was down and out and could not get a credit card or loan from anyone, let alone a bank. So I do plan to take the occasional risk, not at first, but at some point. Everyone needs a helping hand, and just because someone has a low credit score, does not make them a high credit risk. It is a good starting point, but I plan to look a little deeper if it is a worthwhile cause. Income, job security, the purpose of the loan, etc. these will factor in along with the credit score to help make my decisions.

3) Possible high returns. As much as I want to help people and learn from this, I am also trying to make some money. I don't plan to double my money in a few weeks like some crazed day-trader :) but I would like at least a 10% return on my investments. This would make me happy with the risk I am waking as opposed to keeping my money at ING and earning about 4.5%. Now if these online banks start to raise their rates above say 5.5%, I will have to raise my required ROI accordingly to make this worthwhile.

But of course there are cons:

1) NO guarantees. This can be pretty scary, even if you only invest a small amount. Say you fund a portion of a loan with $50. Seems small, but if the loans defaults, you lose it... all of it. With stocks, if they go down 10% or even 50%, you can still sell and cut your losses. Online savings account are insured by the FDIC up to $100K. If a loan defaults, your only recourse is a collection agency. This doesn't always work because the borrower lost his job and just does not have the money to pay anything. Fifty bucks is still fifty bucks, I work hard for my money and this will be tough to "chalk it up to the game".

Again I think the educational value and possible returns are worth the risk, for me. You can invest at your own risk if you decide you want to jump on the Prosper train.

I will start with $50, then invest another $150 in a separate loan. I was going to go the route of 5 small $50 loans, but after reading all of the info I think it is best to do two good loans as opposed to 5 OK loans. Again, these are just my thoughts and everyone has their own investment style. I don't knock anybodies hustle, if your making money, keep makin' that money, play on playa.

From what I have seen so far, they have streamlined the sign-up process from what it used to be. You can get approved instantly if you provide the username and password to your linked saving/checking account. This is supposed to be a secure connection and site, and the info is erased once it is verified, but I've seen too many movies with guys hacking into sites and old hard drives being used to gather information for me to go this route. So I will do the good ole' deposit, withdrawal confirmation. This is when they deposit a small amount in your account, then withdraw a small amount and you verify these on their site. This can take up to 2 business days, but it seems safer to me. Once your account is verified, you can start transferring money and then fund the loans of you choice.

I will do a future post once I fund my first loan, and I will share any other useful info I can gather. Wish me luck.

Thanks for reading.

I Love you Baby

Before I start, I must admit that my "gym rat" days ended a long time ago. Still, I like to keep in shape. This is much more difficult to do since our little princess came around. Not that she gets in the way or that I'm not getting as much sleep as I used to, just being away from her and my wife for another hour is a little hard. My workouts typically take 45 minutes to 1 hour, add in my 2 hour commute (round trip) and time spent at work (8 hours) and that's 11 hours a day away from my wife and daughter.

I was taught early on by my mother to appreciate everything you have and to thank God for every day that you are alive. My beautiful wife and our baby girl are two of the most precious parts of my life. After work I look forward to going home to see them, going for walks together, eating dinner, and generally just enjoying the rest of the day with my family. The gym is usually the last thing on my mind. Now that my little bubby is walking, she runs to me as soon as I walk through the door as she says, dada, dada, and I get a hug and a kiss from the wife. Whats a Dad to do?

Not that I am obese but I have put on some weight during the last year (coincides with birth of the pigelt), how does one balance getting fit and enjoying family life?

Now after all the mushy stuff, another reason for not being able to work out is the sheer exhaustion that comes from raising a baby. No sleep, no time to relax, walks around the park, carrying her around the supermarket, chasing her around the same supermarket, picking up baby food, putting toys aways, taking toys out, explaining the intricacies of "Dora the Explorer", it will burn you out.

Being the goal oriented person I am, I push myself on those days when sleep is all I can think of, just because I love a challenge. Here is the workout I have managed to plan:

50 pushups in sets of 12-15
20 pullups/chinups in sets of 3-5
50 Bodysquats in sets of 12-15

I do these throughout the day just to keep the juices going, I know I won't build the most muscle this way but its better than doing nothing at all. Only on weekends with the baby watching can I do these back to back.

My goal is to get down to 200 lbs, I'm currently at 225, before our October Florida vacation. I had been eating much healthier but I fell off the wagon on the baby's birthday weekend. If you've been to a Spanish birthday party you know what I mean. Pork everywhere, rice and beans, cake, soda, chips, macaroni...excuse me while I grab a napkin :) But I'm back on that horse and I will ride it all the way to Florida!!

I do miss lifting weights, but if any of you have ever tried carrying around a baby after lifting weights for an hour, talk about "feel the burn" lol

Any parents or even aunts, uncles, sisters or brothers have any suggestions or workout tips ? How do you balance the two, fitness and family?

I'm baaaaaack :)

"Don't call it a comeback, I been here for years...."

After a long hiatus (not of my own choosing, we ran into some family troubles that I will disclose at a later date), I'm back and hopefully better than ever.

To my 3 loyal readers out there :), hope you still love hearing what I have to say and you haven't forgotten about me.

A lot has changed, my little piglet just had her 1st birthday, our finances are a little different, I have some more responsibility at work, and some other small stuff.

This was just to let everyone know I was back, I'm planning on posting at least 3X/week, maybe more, depending on work.

As part of my new outlook on life, I don't want the blog to be simply about finances. That will still be the bulk of the info you will read about, but I'll try to put more of a personal spin on it. I also want to cover some more sports-related topics, raising my little McNugget, trying to plan for a home purchase, wedding, and retirement all at the same time, and I would like to try to monetize the blog somewhat. It's free money so why not. If you guys have any suggestions, or if you don't like something I try I'm always open to suggestions and criticisms.

Thanks for reading

I Love You Baby

We have decided on a used 1998 Ford Explorer as our first family car. We were going to go with a regular sedan but with all of the stuff we lug around for the baby, an SUV made more sense.

We don't want to add any more payments to our budget so we are going with a used car and are paying cash. The cash came from the income tax refund we got this year. The baby was born last year so all of those child tax credits and earned income credits came in handy.

This is step two in our road to independence. The first step of course was getting our own place.
Step three would be a fully funded emergency fund, Step 4...The House.

The Ford Explorer offered us the best ratio of size to price. All other SUV's were either too small or just out of our price range. After reading countless reviews and consumer reports we decided on the Explorer. 1998 was just a good year for this vehicle, the '99's and 2000's had a lot of problems with the transmissions and electrical systems.

I also get car insurance at a discount from MetLife through my employer, so thats a pretty good deal.

No more asking for rides or asking to borrow anyones car. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Anyone have any experience with this car or any other Ford Explorer, please feel free to share your experience.

Thanks for reading

I love you Baby

I am by and large a buy-and-hold investor. I invest for the looooooong haul after years of trying to beat the market with penny stocks, quick flip stock tips, even investing in those spam-like faxes you always see lying around the company fax machine. I was convinced that watching 30 minutes of CNBC every morning before going off to work was going to make me rich. These guys were loud, authoritative and they would spit out numbers faster than an adding machine, they had to know what they were talking about. Well, about $4,000 of hard earned money (for someone making only about $25K/year and with tuition to pay), on top of a pretty heavy losses in my Yahoo pretend portfolio, I finally learned my lesson. You would think that being a finance major at one of New York City's finest investment schools would have saved me...not so much.

I gave up on investing altogether until a few years ago. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I have my Roth IRA currently housed with T Rowe Price. I do believe that fees do make a difference over the long haul so I wanted to go with Vanguard, I just could not afford the initial $3,000 investment or even the $1,000 investment needed to get into their Star Fund. I wanted to get in as soon as possible and T Rowe Price offers an option that allows users to invest as little as $50/month with the "Systematic Purchase Program" to open a Roth IRA. This seemed perfect for me. For all those Procrastinators out there who say they don't have the money to start and IRA, and you know who you are, it only takes $50 a month to start one with one of the top mutual fund companies around. It may not sound like much but its at least a start, and the sooner you start saving for retirement, the better. Again I am not a licensed professional and none of this should be taken as legal financial advice. I am working on putting up a disclaimer on the front page, until then I ask that you bear with these in the posts. Fidelity offers something similar with their SimpleStart IRA product. Fidelity funds are a bit more expensive than either Vanguard or T Rowe, and in my opinion they are not the best in terms of target-date retirement funds. If you can mix and match their funds(this would be the best option no matter what company you choose, I just don't have the capital to go this route just yet) to suit your retirement needs, they may be the company for you. T Rowe is not too far behind Vanguard in terms of fees so the decision was not too hard. I had to take advantage of all of the benefits that an IRA offers. If need be, I can always roll the IRA over to Vanguard when I have enough capital built up. The one plus to staying with T Rowe would be that their target-dated funds remain aggressive later in their life cycle (and mine) so I will still benefit from stock market gains as I near retirement, more so than I would with Vanguard. Again, due to the slightly higher fees, this may be negligible. I will continue crunching the numbers and let you in on my final decision. My IRA is strictly for retirement purposes, I do not plan on using this money for a house or for any kind of emergency, that is what my emergency fund is for. My Retirement 2045 Fund has a market value of about $1000 as of yesterday. I also have a 401K through my employer for retirement purposes.

My 401K is invested almost exclusively in index funds. They are not the best, it is managed by CitiStreet, but there is a company match which gives me an instant 50% return in itself. The 401K is funded as follows:

90% Stocks (Domestic, International, and Emerging Markets)
5% Bonds
5% Money Market

The reason I say almost exclusively in index funds is because there is no index offered by the plan that gives me any exposure in international markets, so I chose to go with American Funds New Perspective fund. This gives me the international exposure I was looking for, while still holding only a .47 expense ratio. The company matches 1/2 of the first 6% contributed by the employee, so I put in exactly 6% to maximize the company match and the rest goes into the IRA. The market value of my 401K is just over $4,500. Again, I have no plans on dipping into this fund for any purchases or hardships. You never know what the future holds but I will do my best to stick to this through preparation and careful planning. I also have a company funded pension plan which I will be fully vested in starting in 2010, I will wait until I am fully vested to include this in any net worth calculations.

My other investments consist of my ING Direct account, my Vanguard 529 and my holdings with Sharebuilder. The 529 plan is for the baby's college years and has a market value of about $230 as of yesterday. The breakdown is as follows:

Aggressive Age-Based Option: Aggressive Growth Portfolio
85%
Inflation-Protected Securities Portfolio
5%
Income Portfolio
5%
Interest Accumulation Portfolio
5%

ING (its a savings account so it's not really an investment, but it makes me feel good to say it is) is used for my emergency fund, used car fund and my daughter's savings account. With ING, there is at least a 2 day waiting period(it takes about this long for the money to be transferred from ING to your linked checking account) to access your money if you decide to withdraw, just another safeguard to prevent any impulse purchases. I know other banks are offering higher yields, but I have had this account for over 7 years now and they have been good to me. My Sharebuilder account is used only for long term stock purchases. Before anyone states that I should be fully funding my IRA before investing outside of this, I only use unexpected money* to invest with Sharebuilder. Share price is not something I look at as I buy no matter what the price, somewhat of a spin on dollar-cost averaging. I also have the Sharebuilder Visa they offer which deposits $25 into your account which every 2,500 points. You get 1 point for every dollar you spend, so my pay my utilities and cable bill with this card, takes about 6 months to build up enough points to get the money which is fine by me. I pretty much invest for free. This portfolio consists of 12 blue-chip, dividend paying stocks that have increased/maintained dividends for the last 5 years. Hopefully this can provide a generous level of passive income once I am older.

The holdings include Pepsi, General Electric, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, and Budweiser. The entire portfolio has a market value of about $500. Through dividend reinvesting I hope to build substantial positions with these companies. These companies are well established and are not going anywhere anytime soon and i don't plan on selling. I have given up trying to beat the market, I use it to help fund my retirement.

I ride out the highs and lows of the market now, that big drop in the market a few days ago was just opportunity knocking in my eyes. Don't try to beat/time the market, it's hard enough for the pros to try their hand at it. Single Ma has a nice post comparing the stock market to a relationship here. If you are going to try to pick individual stocks and time purchases and so on, make sure you do your research review all of the keys numbers for the companies you choose. This may be possible, but it is very rare. This is a big change for me and I have my wife, my research and the blogs I have listed under my Favorite links to thank for helping change my perspective. I have also read several books which I will be listing and reviewing later on. If I can give any adivice it would be to write your financial goals down on paper, then choose the best route to get there. For me, being able to spend time with my family is most important while at the same time securing a worry free retirement. This may be different for you, just make sure you stick to your goals after you they are written. If they do change thats fine, but dont let it be a sudden reaction to something that happened or something you heard. Sit and review your original strategy and revise from there.

I am working on a complete asset allocation chart so I can better show how my money is spread out, and also working on showing my net worth. I am new to blogging and I promise this will get better and more professional looking with time. Anyone who has any suggestions and criticisms please feel free to share. These may not seem like big numbers, but comin from where I did, this is a pretty good start. I hope you'll enjoy reading about our journey as much as I enjoy writing about it so far.

*On a side note, once our car is purchased all extra money will go towards the house down payment. The only after-tax investments that will remain in the budget will be the emergency fund, IRA, and 529. No sharebuilder, baby savings(only ING, her 529 will continue to recieve funding) will be cut out, and of course all debt will be paid off by that point. Look out America, here we come

Well, after about a year or so of reading in the financial blogosphere, I have decided to join the party. I am a 28 year old husband and father, trying to make a better and more fulfilling life for my family. I have a very loving and caring wife who is as smart as she is beautiful and we have a baby girl who seems to have a much older woman trapped inside of her. I will try to post pics at a later date, once I get better acquainted with this blogging thing.

We have been together for over 2 years and living together for a little over a year and we have plans on getting a house together in the next 3 years. We are working on getting our first car (used of course) in the next few months. Slowly but surely we are working on becoming a fully functional and independent family. Right now we still gets lots of help from both of our families, not financial but with babysitting and rides to the supermarket or borrowing a car for little trips.

My finances were shot a few years ago, being Hispanic and from the Bronx it seemed like a birthright. I did not really care until I realized that I could not get a loan for anything and that my credit card debt was more than half of my yearly salary. When I turned 24, I started on working on paying everything down and working on something of an emergency fund. When I got together with the woman who would become my wife, everything went into overdrive. She motivates me to do bigger and better things each and every day. She is 6 years my junior, but she has the mind and eloquence every husband dreams of.... shes pretty hot too :)

I am proud to say that the only debt we have left are a small amount on Target card we had to get to pick up some things for the baby, a collection agency I am still paying off( I still have about $1000 left) and my wife's student loan(she is due to graduate in the next few years).

I now have a Roth IRA set up with T Rowe Price, my 401 K is funded so I get the full company match, I have an emergency fund set up with ING (not fully funded but I'm still working on it), and i also opened up a seperate savings account(ING)and a 529 for my baby girl through NY State which Vanguard manages.

It took a lot of work to get this far. I had to work 3 jobs while still going to school full time just to get out of the hole I had dug. I know have my BA in Finance, proud graduate of Baruch College in New York, I've gotten my credit score up to a much more respectable score of around 580(up from 425 with several delinquent accounts 3 years ago), and I have somewhat of a cushion to fall back on in case of financial hardships. I know I have even more work ahead of me, but now I have my wife to help me along the way. Cheesy as it sounds, she really is my partner in everything I do and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I hope to use this blog to chronicle my family's financial journey and keep track of our goals and accomplishments. I will sprinkle more bits about our past hardships with time, and I will go into more detail on our goals as well(first would be the car of course and then getting that credit score finally over the 600 barrier). Our main goal is to provide a better life for our baby girl than we had, while still enjoying married life to its fullest.

I would also like to thank Single Ma over at http://singlemomandmoney.blogspot.com/ for her inspiration, I'm not a single parent but I understand how much her daughter motivates her now, and also Jonathan over at http://www.mymoneyblog.com/ for all of his very useful and always up to date info. You guys have both helped me more than you know.

And all the other blogs I've read, thanks and I hope to be as insightful as all you guys.
Any and all comments/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
If your wondering about the pink background, its my baby's favorite color :)

Baby I love you and I hope to make you as proud of me as I am of you.