August Net Worth: -9.74%

So it looks like after all the wedding expenses , a little post-wedding Honeymoon spending & household spending, my Net Worth has decreased by a little less than 10%.

As of right now, I think of that as a mixed blessing. The wedding expenses began to pop up out of nowhere during the last week of the engagement. At the same time it could have been much more expensive than it was. I think our aggressive bargain-shopping helped us out.

My wife and I just went to a wedding this weekend that had at least 300 people in total (ours had about 180 guests) and it boggled my mind how much everything must have cost. My wife initially told me that the couple was paying for the wedding themselves. Afterwards though she informed me that the groom's parents had picked up the tab for the fairly lavish reception. My guess is the reception alone was in the low 5-digits and that's with no alcohol and no DJ.

In other news my wife just got a decent-paying job however, after the first week, she came to the determination that she hates the work environment with a passion. I almost passed out this weekend when she said she was planning on quitting [Today]. Luckily I talked her out of it and she is back on the job hunt, while still gainfully employed (whew).

Now, if only I can get my computer running again along with a reliable schedule - I'll be set.

Progress Report - for week ended 7/13/08

Here are my goals for July 2008:

1. Break even or Increase Net Worth - it will be a nail-biter till the end to see if this goal can be accomplished. After spending $300+ last week on my car this week I have no real pressing expenses other than the expense of setting up my website for my business which appears to be up and running now per the Ohio Secretary's website.
   
2. Set up website for business - Just need to contact my webmaster and start the ball rolling. I plan to start with a minimum investment but I'd like to hold off until payday this week just in case anything comes up while I'm low on funds.
   
3. Set up checking account for business - At this point, mainly waiting on my next payday before I set this one up. Also need the paperwork back from the state for my TAX ID number.
   
4. Get business cards for business - really just need to nail down the logo design - hopefully this week - and I should be able to wrap this goal up.
   

My focus has been all over the place lately; 1) on the impending wedding, 2)on my impending business, 3) on a charity project I'm supposed to do for the church of my relative. I always tend to do this - start a bunch of different projects simultaneously and then end up having mediocre results on all - I really need to cut this habit out if I am to have any success in the future. Time to start living by that Zen focus - give all your energy & your time to one thing that is happening(or can happen) right now...everything else is meaningless in comparison.

For those of you reading - wish me luck! Thanks in advance.

June results/July Goals

This is basically just a recap for June:

1. Publish Debt Freedom book (online or otherwise) - FAILURE - Got a little input from a family member that the book needs a lot of work. So it looks like publication won't be happening this month. I did send in my forms for the LLC but because a minor omission (forgot to add LLC at the end of the Co. name) the powers that be in the great state of Ohio sent the form back to me - along with my check. You'd think the fact that I was filling out an 'LLC application form' would make the LLC part inherent but, what do I know - especially about state bureaucracy.
   
2. Join (or start) an entrepreneur's group - SUCCESS - I just went to great group last week and I plan to check out another one this coming week and a 3rd at the beginning of next month. I'm pumped. Hopefully the next two are as great as the one I went to on Thursday!
   
3. Post at least 25 blogs this month - FAILURE - As I look at my blogs for June it looks like I've published 21 so far including this one. Close yet no cigar I guess. handling last minute wedding issues hasn't exactly helped the matter either.
   
4. **Subscribe to Inc Magazine - SUCCESS -Done - yup I finished this simple goal way early. Maybe as a confidence booster for my other goals.

This month is going to be tricky - it's just slightly over a month before wedding nuptials so I think most of the goals might center around that. Did I mention that my 401k went down from last month? That's with me contributing + my company contributing 50% too - it still went down - almost makes a brother want to give up the long-haul investing mentality but I digress.

Goals for July - here we go:

1. Break even or Increase Net Worth - this will be a task indeed with all the wedding spending that's likely to occur in the next 30-40 days.
   
2. Set up website for business
3. Set up checking account for business
4. Get business cards for business

OK that last goal - the business cards is kind of just a 'gimme' goal - the rest though will be a challenge to say the least, especially since goal #1 is in direct or at least indirect competition with goals # 2, #4 and probably #3 as well. Oh well, if I can just remain focused and centered I think I have a chance of making it through.

June Net Worth: -2.17%

Man, oh man - word to the wise - DO NOT try and start a business the same time you are trying to pay for a wedding.

I've decided to take down the actual Net Worth graphic as I am working on Networking and may make this site a little less 'anonymous' in the process. Thus, I don't want everybody I meet to know my 'bidness' shortly after handing out a business card.

That being said, this past month has been rough 1) with gas prices rising every day 2) new, unexpected wedding costs coming out of nowhere and 3) trying to start a business/LLC to market my upcoming book - things have not been all peachy keen as I would like.

Unfortunately, I think it will get worse before it gets better. I expect this coming month will be nothing but wedding expenses, possible business expenses & increased gas prices with a hint of inflation thrown in for good measure.

If only I can find a way to start making money from the book before it's published. Right now with all the craziness going on in my life I don't expect to publish until say September 2008 at earliest right now.

Progress Report - for week ended 6/29/08

So, here on the last day of the month - are my goals for June 2008:

1. Publish Debt Freedom book (online or otherwise) - FAILURE - Got a little input from a family member that the book needs a lot of work. So it looks like publication won't be happening this month. I did send in my forms for the LLC but because a minor omission (forgot to add LLC at the end of the Co. name) the powers that be in the great state of Ohio sent the form back to me - along with my check. You'd think the fact that I was filling out an 'LLC application form' would make the LLC part inherent but, what do I know - especially about state bureaucracy.
   
2. Join (or start) an entrepreneur's group - SUCCESS - I just went to great group last week and I plan to check out another one this coming week and a 3rd at the beginning of next month. I'm pumped. Hopefully the next two are as great as the one I went to on Thursday!
   
3. Post at least 25 blogs this month - FAILURE - As I look at my blogs for June it looks like I've published 21 so far including this one. Close yet no cigar I guess. handling last minute wedding issues hasn't exactly helped the matter either.
   
4. **Subscribe to Inc Magazine - SUCCESS -Done - yup I finished this simple goal way early. Maybe as a confidence booster for my other goals.

Well it looks like I'm hitting .500 - which as far as my goals go is not exactly great. Haven't figured my goals out for the coming month yet but, I'll get to those as soon as I can - a lot of wedding planning is finally coming to a head.

April Results/May Goals -2008

My goal for April was:

1. Add $3000 into Wedding Savings account. - FAILURE

I think I might have set my hopes a little too big for our wedding savings. Moving into new places didn't help the matter either. I think this month I will go back to the old strategy.

That being said - here are my goals for May:

1. Write a book about Debt
   
2. Increase budget on Wedding account to $7500
3. Put at least 3 items on E-bay to sell
   

Hopefully the three-pronged approach will help me achieve a little bit better. It appears it might be my potential A.D.D. that sabotaged the 'single goal' experiment/idea. I've had so many things going on that i really didn't have tome to devote to this.

Progress Report for week ended -4/27/08

So again my goal for this month has been a singular one:

Add $3000 into Wedding Savings account.

So far it's been kind of rough going. Although my fiancee hasn't done that much to help this month I really have no one to blame but myself for my Thus far disappointing results. So far I believe we've put together about $700 for the account - at the same time the fiance did find a good deal on a caterer so that should save us about $1000 or so.

I think next month I'll switch back to either a multi-goal format or more specific goals because I think I may be a little over-optimistic to think I can raise $2,300 in the next 48 hrs.

Progress Report for the Week ended 4-20-08

Here is the goal for April:

Add $3000 into Wedding Savings account.

So far it looks like we may be falling short of this goal by a bit. We've currently added about $321 to this account at this point. We've been a little bit hampered by moving as well as moving expenses.

I personally am 80% moved in at this point. But I need to do things such as switch over Internet service (I'm at my new neighborhood library currently) and redo my address before I can completely regain focus.

Luckily a few weeks ago my fiance & my fiance's mother were able to lock down catering for just under a grand so that should save us at least $300 bucks. I also already reserved and paid for the honeymoon so that's another variable we can put to rest. Once everything's moved in - we should be able to re-focus.

Progress report - for week ended 4/13/08

Here again is the goal for April:

1. Add $3000 into Wedding Savings account.

Well so far I personally have made $221 of progress in this area. Hopefully, the fiance will start contributing some too. I read a great book by Dan Kennedy the NO B.S. 'guy' and it turns out I actually know someone he quotes in the book. Small world.

I've been trying to sell some of dust-collecting junk but, at the same time I'm trying to move as well. This is not an excuse I'm just saying. OK maybe it is an excuse i need to cut that out I guess.

March Results/April Goals

So I made a bit of progress in the past month.

Goals by the end of March 2008 -

1. Decide on a part-time business to focus on for at least 2 months. - FAILURE - to be quite honest I have not had enough time to focus on a business - or maybe it is I just have not devoted enough time to that focus. Either way I have not yet found the million-dollar get rich quick on night's and weekends scheme that I've been dreaming of.
   
2. Save $2750 or more into Wedding savings account. - SUCCESS - I met this goal and then some. If I had a little more help from the misses we could have doubled this goal but, you'll hear no complaints from me.
   
3. Do local and regional taxes - SUCCESS - I did them - mailing them is another thing altogether.
   

Now here come the goal(s) for April:

1. Add $3000 into Wedding Savings account.

I'm going to try something a little bit different this month. Instead of focusing on a lot of little goals to get muddled I will focus on one slightly impossible goal. We'll see how that works out.

Progress report for Week ended - 3/23/08

So here's the status of my goals so far for the month. Lot's of progress on goal #2 :

Goals by the end of March 2008 -

1. Decide on a part-time business to focus on for at least 2 months. - I believe once the 2nd job ends at the end of the upcoming week, I will try and re-focus on maintaining this blog and increasing readership.
   
2. Save $2750 or more into Wedding savings account. - SUCCESS - As of today, the wedding account is at approximately $3777 - the balance will increase even more on Monday after I deposit some extra money I got this weekend.
   
3. Do local and regional taxes - I have a million excuses for not getting to this as of yet. none of them that good - I think I'll have to set a specific date or else I won't meet this goal.
   

I'm really pumped now that the wedding account is actually starting to build up some cash. Shortly - we might have to switch to a different bank though because earlier this month I learned interest accrues quarterly - rather than monthly. Our interests earnings thus far since opening the account = $0.09, I think we can do better it's just a matter of finding a bank that is both me and my fiance's town.

Progress report - for week ended 3/16/08

So here's the status of my goals so far for the month:

Goals by the end of March 2008 -

1. Decide on a part-time business to focus on for at least 2 months. - I keep changing my mind on what I want to do. I guess right now I have quite a few distractions going on so it's kind of throwing me off. Maybe i should just focus on publishing my book...we'll see.
   
2. Save $2750 or more into Wedding savings account. - As of today, the wedding account is at approximately $2464 - and with a a few deposits this coming week we should outstretch that goal. Both me and my fiance got our federal tax returns back so we got a nice boost.
   
3. Do local and regional taxes - OK today I looked at the forms but got bogged down with cleaning, watching movies and Procrastinating. Next weekend - definitely.

I've had a lot of distractions the past week or so starting a new job and all and then having extra tax return money in my pocket. Hopefully this coming week everything will settle down a tad so I can focus on meetings these goals by the end of this week which is very doable.

Progress Report - for week ended - 3/9/08

So here's the status of my goals so far for the month:

Goals by the end of March 2008 -

1. Decide on a part-time business to focus on for at least 2 months. - I'm leaning strongly towards an artistic area - involving drawing specifically - but, after working on it a little this weekend I'm not sure If I have the energy and the patience to give it my all like I would like to.
   
2. Save $2750 or more into Wedding savings account. - I was well on my way to accomplishing this goal until last weeks car trouble intervened. I did get my state tax return ($100) back though so assuming my federal return is not too far behind I should be able to still meet this goal with ease.
   
3. Do local and regional taxes - I haven't begun to look at the forms although I know I need to. The Ohio Blizzard of 2008 distracted me quite a bit Friday, Yesterday as well as today: it took me about an hour and 4 people to get my car freed from the snow today.
   

Overall, the main thing I'm concerned about at this point is making a good first impression at my new job tomorrow as well as determining if this is something I can feel fairly stable doing full time for the next few year(s) or not. We shall see.

February results/March Goals

So all of my job related goals for the past month finally paid off it seems. I did get a job within my company which was the ultimate goal.

Goals by the end of February 2008 -

1. Apply to 10 full time jobs that have a starting salary at at least 90% of current income - SUCCESS - I believe I achieved this. Obviously I stopped tracking this week.
   
2. Go to 1 or more job fairs - SUCCESS - I did go to a job fair that wasn't all that fantastic. Luckily, I have a new job.
   
3. Interview for at least 3 jobs at current company or similar-sized company -SUCCESS* Technically*, I would have had 3 interviews within my company if I hadn't gotten the new job. I got an invitation to an interview within my company this week and I happily explained that I had already accepted a job.
   

I am relieved and happy to say the least that my search for a full-time job was completed in a little over a month's time. It could have been much worse. I thank God and all who've helped me in this last month or so.

Now it's time to switch modes a little and focus more on alternate income.

Goals by the end of March 2008 -

1. Decide on a part-time business to focus on for at least 2 months.
   
2. Save $2750 or more into Wedding savings account.
   
3. Do local and regional taxes
   

The above goals should all be achievable - I have about 4-5 ideas for part-time businesses, some involving partners, some without partners. The Wedding savings account took a hit today when the alternator in my car went bad and it had to be replaced - a $240 hit to the wedding account (with my fiance's permission) and a soon-to-be $292 hit to my savings account - once I pay off my credit card tomorrow. The local and regional taxes are ironically the most complicated tax forms I have to fill out so I've been procrastinating on getting them in. I already finished up my State and Federal taxes at the beginning of last month so hopefully, the IRS will be getting some money to me - any day now. It's kind of weird to me how the big government forms are so easy yet the small government forms are so complicated - you'd think it would be the reverse but I guess not.

Wedding Budget

So me and the fiance, talked out a budget (again) for the impending nuptials here's what we came up with:

Wedding:

Church & Reception Hall $500
Cake $400
Dresses* $1,150 (5 @ $200 each, 1 @$150)
Tuxedos* $950 (5 @ $150 each, 1 @ $200)
Photographer $1000
Flowers $300
Car rental $180
Preacher(s) $300 (2 @ $150 each)
Piano & Guitar Player $100
Singer $100
Cocktail reception $1,300 (130 people @ $10 each)
Invitations $125
Bells $100
Extra Rings $400 (2 @ $200 each)

Total: $6905

Honeymoon:

Hotel, Flight and transport - $2,000
Spending Cash - $1,000

Total: $3,000

Grand Total: $9905

The Debt/Debt-Freedom Rollercoaster.

So over the past 3 months I have gone from Debt-free to indebted to Debt-free again and now I am again in the Indebted category.

It's like a bad debt-rollercoaster: One minute I'm high in the air and financially free, the next moment I am plunging back down into debt-hell.

I'd like to stop this debt-rollercoaster and get off on top, or at least on level ground.

I guess part of the problem is that I've lost my focus and intensity. I used to have signs up everywhere that had my goal:

PAY OFF ALL CREDIT CARDS/DEBT BY BIRTHDAY

I had this sign up everywhere - Above my computer, on top of my big TV. Below my little TV, by the fridge, it was an avoidable goals and my mind never lost sight of that goal for too terribly long. and when I missed this goal, I made a new goal:

PAY OFF ALL CREDIT CARDS/DEBT BY 8/23/07

I also put this sign up everywhere and I got excited because even though I didn't make the Birthday goal, I was not that far off at all from it when my birthday came and went. In the end, I paid off my debt (the first time) about 3 weeks ahead of my re-scheduled goal and 2 1/2 months after my original goal.

Now I sit with a much smaller amount of debt but still - it keeps coming back after I pay it off - I guess the goal now is to build up an emergency fund that will stand the test of time over minor $1000+ emergencies that will undoubtedly come up over the next several months as me and my fiance plan out wedding and try and come to a compromise on expenses. I might have to raise that emergency fund to the 5-10K range - which will take a lot of work and most likely another job.

I guess it's time to put up another set of signs.

Web Video of the week: Bride to be...

OK this Web Video has little to do with finance but looks a little like what I saw transpire in the last 24 hours:



I love you babe...please don't become a Bridezilla - thanks!