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Book Review: “The Millionaire Next Door”

May 20, 2009 by Future Millionaire

Millionaire Next DoorI just recently finished reading “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas Stanley and William Danko.   This book is a great resource to get your mind thinking about what it means to become a millionaire.  It is not a how-to book, more a think-to, it’s meant to change the way you think about millionaires and who they are.

The book classifies millionaires and high income earners in two categories PAWs (Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth) and UAWs (Under Accumulators of Wealth).  It then goes on to make two more classifications, Offense and Defense.  The PAWs have a great offense and defense while the UAWs more than likely have a good offense but a poor defense.  Their definition of offense is someone who is constantly looking to make money and defense is someone who is constantly looking to save money.

As I look at my life and where I fall into the mindset of millionairs I realize that I am a great Defensive Coordinator for my family.  I horde money and constantly look for ways to save what we have, but not so aggressive about accumulating more.  My husband on the other hand is the Offensive Coordinator.  He can’t save a dime but he sure knows where to find money.

The book also points out that goals and goal oriented people are more likely to be millionaires than non-goal oriented people.  This is something I learned from my husband but I am working on trying to expand my goals and how I use them since reading this book.

It was a short read but a great starting point for anyone to get into the mindset of millionaires.  The biggest thing that the book mentioned was that millionaires are everywhere, and they are more than likely someone you wouldn’t think is a millionaire.

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How do I reach my 2009 goals if I don’t set intermediate Goals?

May 20, 2009 by Future Millionaire

I’ve recently just finished reading “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas Stanley and William Danko.  I’m always interested in how to better improve my financial well being.  One of the things that hit me the most was goals!  I used to really resist the ideas of goals.  I thought that the more care free, roll by the seat of my pants person I was I wouldn’t be tied down to something and risk failure.  However, I learned from my husband that you never really get anywhere that way.  There is no driving force to succeed and nothing to push you to excel.  So I started with making yearly goals last year.  I posted them on this blog and tracked them monthly.

I have created new goals for 2009 and they have also been posted on this blog.  However, it is now time for the next step…Monthly goals to help ensure I meet my yearly goals!  I know, it’s May already so why am I just now starting to make monthly goals??  Because I just realized how off track I am to meet my 2009 goals if I don’t even look at them more that 2 times a year.  My plan is to set Generalized monthly goals now, and then when I do my monthly update of my Net Worth I will expand on and set new goals for the upcoming month.
So here is the start of my new set of intermediate Monthly goals:

May:

  • Create a budget – ensure EVERY penny is accounted and spoken for.  Ensure a savings plan is in the budget
  • Order School books for CS 140 – expense this money to the GI Bill account once it has been set up
  • Post Book Report for “The Millionaire Next Door”
  • Join Pre-Paid Legal
  • Make a decision on Life insurance and start the paperwork (USAA or Zanders)

June:

  • Start Class
  • Re-evaluate the budget and how it’s going.  Start planing on expenses for the Child.
  • Verify on GI Bill website that I am taking a class this month (end of Month)
  • Post Book Report for Angels and Demons
  • Fill out a Will and get it properly signed and saved

July:

  • Lose 5 lbs
  • Take a third look at the budget.  Ensure that things are working and I am staying within the limits.  If not, adjust as necessary and/or find ways to cut back.
  • Create account to hold all GI Bill payments
  • Verify I am taking a class this month on WAVE
  • Register for another class from Park

August:

  • Lose 5 lbs

September:

  • Lose 5 lbs
  • Take Vacation to ‘Sin City’ to See Husband’s friend get Married.  Pay for Vacation with Cash Saved!

October:

  • Lose 5 lbs

November:

  • Lose 5 lbs

December:

  • Lose 5 lbs

Posted in Goals | 7 Comments »

Net worth and Goal Status

April 27, 2009 by Future Millionaire

Assets:

Cash Savings         53,310.9

Roth IRA  3,000 approx

TSP 1700 approx

Home Value (est) 449,050 averaging from zillow, cyberhomes and coldwell banker

==============================================================

Liabilities:

Mortagage 417,000

HELOC 120,000

==============================================================

Net worth =  -34,640

Right now we’re in the hole, but I’m not sure what my retirment account status is.  I am in the process of gathering all the information from both my accounts and my husbands accounts to get a better overall picture.

** A note about our liabilities.  We don’t have credit card debt.  We don’t see the point of paying someone else interest when I can just as easily save a month or two to get what I want.  We don’t have car payments.  Both my husband and I bought our cars with cash!  It is one of the best bargaining tools on the market today.  I havn’t seen a dealer walk away from cash when we put it on the table; they may have hemmed and hawed about financing but they won’t turn away cash.  So the only debt (liabilities) we have are the mortgage and the heloc.

As it is currently my status on my long term goals are as follows:

Mid term – Dave Ramsey’s baby step 4: 15% of income to retirement.

I am currently only putting 5% of my income only towards  retirement.  This is something I am working with my hubby to figure out how we can increase this ammount.

Long term – Save for a 1 year emergency fund:

Currently calculating what our monthly expenses truely are.  This number will be multiplied by 13 ( the actual number of ‘months’ if you get a paycheck every two weeks) to come up with the ‘magic’ number needed for this.

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Posting it out for all to see

April 18, 2009 by Future Millionaire

One of the things I learned about any goal or desire is that if you “put it out there” you are more likely to reach for it.  What that means is tell someone or write it down or even post it on the internet!  This is part of the reason I post my yearly goals for everyone to see.  I am starting a new trend now of actually figuring out what my net worth is and making longer term goals.  With these I will post my progress just like I do with my yearly goals.  I may change and adjust my yearly goals to start to meet my long term goals as each year progresses.

Since this is new for me my current long term goals are set up with a status of “Coming Soon”, almost like a movie attraction.  I will take the time over the next week or so, collect and analyze the information and post the results from that.  I will also try and make a post to explain the changes in my long-term goal status.

This idea will not only help me keep on track but will allow other people help keep me accountable.  More coming soon.

Posted in Random | 2 Comments »

A change in direction

April 16, 2009 by Future Millionaire

Originally when I started this blog it was all about tracking my success and failure in the stock market.  I’ve learned that the market is no place for someone like me who cannot devote a lot of time to it, after all I do have another full time job that requires more than enough of my time.  So I am taking this blog in a different direction, my thoughts.  I’m sorry to anyone who is looking for stock information from some of my previous posts but I learned that the best financial decision for me right now it to leave the market alone.

So, as for things that have been happening to me since my last post: I’m pregnant!  This will be our first and my husband and I are very excited.  No, we do not know what it is going to be I want to be surprised for my first.  You wouldn’t believe how many people get angry with that decision.

My 2009 Goals have been posted, even thought they are not market centered I still felt compelled to create other goals for my life.  I never used to be a goal setter and my life really just drifted around.  Talk about same old, same old – day in and day out.  If you don’t have something to look forward to it is very difficult to see past today and dreams become “someday”.  URGENCY!!!  That’s why I have created goals.  Give me something to look forward to, to strive for!

Ok.  I have rambled enough for this time around.  Leave a comment if you like.

Posted in Random | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

How did I do on my 2008 Goals?

January 15, 2009 by Future Millionaire

2008 Goals

  • I will become MCSE Certified by the end of the Year.
  • I currently weigh 190lbs. I will weigh 145 by the end of the Year.
  • I will set up a working network at home to include but not limited to: Domain Controllers, File Server, Print server.
  • I will have 6 months of profitable trading on think or swim papermoney.
  • I will take at least one class per semester at George Mason University.
  • I will save at least $5000 in a high interest savings account ING or Emigrant Direct.
  • I will document my success and failures for my 2008 Goals.
  • I will start a journal of my daily activities.
  • I will attend at least one marriage seminar to improve the quality of my marriage regardless of how good I have it.
  • I will attend at least one ‘better my understanding’ class to improve myself as a human being. This is not a desire to change who I am only to build upon my desire to be a great person.
  • I will limit my time on computer games to weekends and no more than 3 weekdays a month.
  • I will take 1 vacation with my husband this year that requires us to leave the current time zone.
  • I will organize and file ALL paperwork in a timely fashion to relieve both home and office of paper clutter.
  • 10 years, $1Mill Dollars. I will solely make $1 mill by the time I’m 36.  This is on top of the salary I make with the government.

These are the goals I set out for myself in 2008.  Now that 2009 is here it’s time to look back and see how I did.

I did not become MCSE certified.  However, work sent me to become MCITP 2008 certified.  This is the newest version of Microsoft certifications.  So while I didn’t actually accomplish this goal I did one better and got the new certification.

My weight has been something I’ve fought since I’ve been out of the military.  I am currently 186 lbs and looking to gain more from being pregnant!  This is not an excuse for not reaching my goal this past year because I didn’t even try to lose weight!  *Note to self – Make goals you acutally care about!*

I did not get a network set up at home either.  I have all the computers I need but I just got lazy and found too many ‘other’ things to fill up my time.

I took a break from trading in October of last year so in my ups and downs of trading I did not meet this goal.

I did take atleast one class a sememster at George Mason!  I am looking to change schools to better meet my schedule in 2009 but chalk another goal up as accomplished.

I have actually doubled the ammount of savings in my high interested account from my goal.  I have $10,000 in ING!!!

Epic Fail on doucumenting my 2008 goals and daily journalling.  My excuse was always my life is too busy to bother with daily updating…hmmm….lets see where that got me.

My husband and I did not go to a marrage counseler this past year but we do have a marriage escape scheduled in March…so I will hit that for 2009.

I completed the Landmark Curriculum for Living this year.  It has taught me many things about myself and who I am for others.  It was very eye oppening and very difficult to swallow sometimes.  Who knew I was in controll of so much!!!

Ah, computer games.  I have been VERY successful with keeping my addiction to gaming to the weekends only.  It helps to only play one addicting game but realizing I have other responsibilities to take care of has helped me to direct my gaming addiction.  :)

Epic fail on Vacations this year.  Because of the shift in the markets and my hubby starting a new job we opted to forgo the vacation this year and save for a dive trip sometime in 2009 or early 2010.. Roatan, Honduras here we come!

My home office is a complete clutter with all the papers that still need to be filed!

I have $35,000 saved and I am 27.  It’s a start but I need to kick it up a notch if I am going to make a Million in 9 years!

So now that the results are in let’s see how I did:

14 goals

5 were met and 1 is on track.  6/14 = 42.8% that’s not bad odds.  But when it comes to personal goals I think I can do better in 2009!

Stay tuned for my new and improved 2009 goals.

Posted in Goals | 1 Comment »

A man is NOT a financial plan

January 15, 2008 by Future Millionaire

Ladies – We have got to stop believing that there is nothing we can do for ourselves financially. There is no reason why you can’t know what is in your bank account or how much is left in the checkbook before you go shopping. In fact there is no reason you shouldn’t know how to balance your checkbook!! The better off we are at understanding money the easier it will be to support our families in the event that something major happens (IE: husband can’t work due to injury/ laid off). There is no reason we can’t assist the monthly income with some ‘extra’ money in the stock market.

My eventual goal is to stop working at my daily job and trade full time. But let’s be honest with ourselves, I can not do that until I can reasonably replace my income with trading returns. And let me tell you I have a LONG way to go to make that happen.

Enough of my beginning rant, lets all learn about trading together as we look at my successes and failures in the world of options.

Posted in Random | 1 Comment »

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