Personal Finance Land

Ever since I started habitating in a cubicle for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week I have been seeking a way of escape.  I have a decent job.  It’s okay pay and the people I work with are really gracious….and that makes it bearable.  But I longed for a way to escape the cubicle.  Not to just trade my cubicle for a corner office.  i don’t want that necessarily though being paid more at the moment would be great.

My goal is to escape entirely from having to go to a job from 8-5, to work on whatever I want.  I want my freedom back but I don’t want to be poor either.  So I’ve been listened to Robert Kiyosake’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Cashflow Quadrant and realize that he makes a lot of sense.  I first thought that his system would be a get rich quick scheme but it’s not at all.

He advises people to not work for money but have their money work for them in investments such as real estate, stocks, or business systems.  Basically, his advise is to pay off your debts, live below your means, store up cash and look for ways to invest it so that your money makes money for you and reinvest the gains until you have enough coming in each month to live off of.  That’s my plan for getting out of the cubicle.

I highly recommend it so check it out.

One of the ways in which I hoped to earn some passive income has been taken away from us.  We wanted to save up for a down payment of another house and rent out our townhouse for a little passive income.  But the neighborhood association voted while we were on our honeymoon that the owners cannot rent out their townhouses unless they are currently doing so or have a hardship (which that seems sort of subjective).  I guess that I will have to look for other income streams.

Last night my wife and I won a Visio 37″ flat screen TV in a raffle at a dinner to support the high school where she teaches at.  Needless to say we are stoked and after setting it up this afternoon it is awesome.  I don’t think we would have ever purchased one because we don’t watch a ton of TV and we don’t have cable, though we have entered into an agreement that while college football is on in the fall we will have cable so I can watch my Auburn Tigers play.

One thing I didn’t expect was that we get HD channels over the antenna which is so much clearer than analog.  It is well worth the money spent on the raffle tickets for the TV.

In my recent past I have not been concerned about money, I just made sure what was going out was less than was coming in.  But things are changing rapidly in life….gettin’ married, inheriting a mortgage, startin’ a real job, and realizing now that I have to start saving for a baby (hopefully), their college, and retirement……..plus all the things I want to do and places I want to go in life.  All this financial stuff gets confusing.

So the point of this blog is to share my wife’s and my financial goals, share ideas/articles that were informative, and share how we are succeeding or failing in saving and growing our net worth.

Here are a few of our financial goals (some long and short term):

1. Grow an emergency fund to $15,000
2. Start a RothIRA and fully fund it by the end of the year
3. Save for a downpayment on a house
4. Rent out our townhouse for some passive income
5. …….whatever else we think of