Making Me a Millionaire

Where Do You Stand?

So today I was curious to find out where exactly my husband and I stand compared with people our age and compared with people who make around the same amount of money.  I did a little bit of Googling and discovered some handy tools on CNN. At age 30 and an annual income of $145,000 this is where we stand:

With our current net worth hovering around $300k, I’d say we’re doing pretty well compared to others who are our age.

However, compared with others who have a similar income, I guess we’re not doing as well….

A grade of “B” is not bad but there are definitely areas that we can improve on.

Based on the Financial Health calculations, I need to:

• Allocate more money into stocks
• Decrease the percentage of money we have in company stock
• Increase our life insurance benefits

So I’ve learned that we are doing well for our age but for the amount of money that is coming in we should be doing better.  My guess is that since most people who are making $145K are probably older than us, they’ve had more time to accumulate their assets and therefore have much higher net worths.

After we move, I’d like to straighten out our investments and invest in more stock.  My husband will be participating as much as he can (we’ll have to figure out what the best contribution amount will be)  in the employee stock purchase program but I’d also like to diversify our investment portfolio.

Happy Holidays!

Well, in the last few weeks, we’ve been completely swamped.  After sending my husband off to NYC for his first project, I packed up the house and headed home myself for the holidays.  With all the stress of the holidays looming overhead, I’ve been frazzled and distracted.  So distracted that I left my 4 month old MacBook Pro at the airport!  Luckily, after many frantic calls to the airport, TSA found my laptop (along with 32 other laptops that were left behind that day before noon!) and they will be shipping it to me over here in NY.

What have I learned from this?

1) Always put a password on your laptop

2) Always back it up before you go on a trip

3) Never have auto-login for your email account or anything else

4) Always be thinking about your valuables when you go through a security line at the airport.

We’ve had a crazy busy Christmas this year and spent quite a bit of time with family.  Being around all these babies makes me want to have one soon even more!  Yesterday we also went to see Avatar in 3D at the AMC IMAX theater.  I usually try not to watch movies in the theater unless they’re action movies or visually stunning.  Avatar was both and I would happily pay to watch that movie again.  It was probably the most amazing movie I’ve ever seen and it is definitely one that will revolutionize film making.  If you’re planning on seeing it, just to give you an idea of the costs, you can watch the matinee show (first show of the day) for $10 per person.  Regular tickets go for $14.50 and in Manhattan they are going for $17.50.  I know, it’s expensive!  But definitely well worth it!

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the holidays!

An Act of Charity

We’re back from New Orleans!  Had a great time there although we ran into a few storms which made it difficult to walk around.  I’m glad to be back home though and to start the research/planning process of our move.  My husband started work today but we’re not sure exactly when he’ll officially be on the road.  Once he starts traveling, we’ll make a trip to Seattle (which takes the top spot in places we are considering to move to).  When it comes to places with no state income tax, Seattle is really the only one on the list that we are both willing to move to.  Las Vegas comes in second but I don’t find it to be a family friendly place.  Ideally, we’d love to move to California but I think we’ll wait a few years for that because if we moved now, we probably wouldn’t be able to afford a very nice place to live in there.

So back to New Orleans.  We went with a group of friends which made the trip lots of fun.  But it was heartbreaking to see such poverty everywhere.  We also went to the lower ninth ward which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and it was really an experience of a lifetime.  I recommend stopping by there to anyone who visits the New Orleans area.  It’s incredibly sad but it brings you closer to the event and allows you to see how terrible the destruction was.  It’s been 4 years and the area still has not been rebuilt.  Homelessness was everywhere and it made us wonder how many of the homeless were victims of the hurricane.

We went out for lunch on our last day and decided to pack all our leftovers into a box and offer it to the next person we saw who could use a good meal.  Just seeing the look on the man’s face when our friend handed him the box and how he immediately began eating ravenously was one of the greatest feelings.  It felt so good to know we weren’t wasting food by leaving it at the restaurant and that we were offering food to someone who was hungry.  I encourage all of you to consider doing something like this the next time you are at a restaurant and haven’t finished your meal.  There are plenty of people out there who would love to finish it for you!

The only thing that disturbed me was the fact that we had to use a styrofoam box for the food.  I doubt it got recycled.  I’m going to have to start carrying biodegradable boxes or something!

Before I sign off, I’d like to share a photo I took of steps leading to where there once was a house.  It was a heartbreaking image for me.

Down to 1 Car

Sorry everyone I know I haven’t been blogging with as much frequency as usual but we’ve been very busy over here with all the changes.  Thanks for giving me suggestions on where to move to.  We’re still trying to figure that out and we’re in the process of trying to sell one of our cars.  With my husband traveling all the time, we won’t need 2 cars so we’re going to sell one of them and save some money from that!  He’s also starting work next week so we need to get most of this stuff done soon.  Then on top of that, we’re leaving for New Orleans today for a trip that was planned a while ago and we’re trying to book our tickets back to NY for the holidays.

I’m pretty excited about selling our car.  We’re hopping to get around $23,000 – $24,000 for it and with that money plus some money we have in savings, I’d like to pay off the additional home loan we have.  By doing that, we’ll save over $7,000 in interest on that loan, reduce our insurance payments, eliminate maintenance costs and gas!  We’ll be left with one car which we’re currently leasing (i know big mistake) and once our 3 years are up, hopefully we will have saved enough to just plop down money for a good practical family car.

OK I’m off to New Orleans.  Hopefully I’ll have some nice photos for you all!

A New Job and Big Changes

My husband got the job!  He actually starts next week so that’s pretty fast.  We didn’t expect for him to start until after the holidays but I guess the sooner the better right?  Because the sooner he starts working the sooner we’ll get a paycheck and the quicker it will be for us to get back on our financial track!

With this new job, he will be consulting and will basically be flying places every week and living out of a hotel.  It’s a great job for him but this is scary because it means I’ll be alone during the weekdays and it changes our lifestyle dramatically.  The good thing about this is that we’ll be able to earn air miles and hotel points like crazy and he’ll have an allowance for food so we can cut out a big chunk of food expenses.

So since he’ll be working wherever the project needs him, we can live wherever we want!  We’ve been looking at states that have no income tax because well…we don’t want to have to pay income tax!

States with no income tax

• Washington
• Nevada
• Texas
• Florida
• South Dakota
• Wyoming
• Tennessee
• Alaska
• New Hampshire

We’ve also been looking at California (I know bad idea) because good weather is important to us.  I know that’s a terrible reason.

But of the list above, the most appealing to us right now is Seattle.  My only concern is..you guessed it…the weather!  I also don’t like the fact that their winter sunlight hours are so short and that Seattle seems so far away from the rest of the country.  A flight back to New York to see my family would be rough.

Do any of you have suggestions on good places to live and raise a family in the near future?  Things that are important to us include big city, good eats, diversity, good weather, family friendly place, preferably not as much traffic, good schools.

Using Elfster to do Secret Santa

My husband and I come from large families so the holiday season is one of stress, chaos and near bankruptcy.  My brilliant sister one year had the idea of doing a Secret Santa exchange for our family and ever since then, that is what we did.  It saved us the stress of having to get gifts for so many different people (especially when we have in laws and coworkers and friends to shop for too) and the financial burden was a bit lighter.  Since we’re not getting gifts for everyone in the family, we’ll do things like send each other cards and give each other stocking stuffer.  Everyone in my family really enjoyed doing Secret Santa and this year we are doing the same with our group of friends.  We’ll have an exchange party and open our gifts there while celebrating the holidays with each other.

So how do we do our Secret Santa exchanges?  We use Elfster!  Elfster works for us because I live far from my family and many of our friends.  Everything is done online.  Here’s how it works:

1) Create an exchange on Elfster. – add all the people who will be part of the gift exchange.  Set a deadline for signing up and set a date for the exchange.

2) Build a wishlist.  Elfster is great in that you can search for products and link directly to them on your wishlist.  Since I have an amazon wishlist, I link directly to that.  I love that you get to create a wishlist because then people will get you something you want rather than buy you a gift you may not like and have no use for.

3) Elfster draws a name for you. This will be the person you need to get the gift for.

4) Throw an exchange party! If everyone is in town, it would be fun to have a party and see what gifts everyone receives.

I don’t recommend doing Secret Santa if there are young kids involved.  It’s more of an adult thing for those of us who already have pretty much what we need and are just looking for gift giving fun rather than stress.

Do you do Secret Santa or White Elephant or any other gift exchanges?  What do you prefer and what do you find to be the most economical?

$25 Target Gift Card Giveaway

I have a $25 gift card to Target to give away!  If you’re interested in entering to win the card, please do the following:

1) Subscribe to my RSS feed.

2) Leave a comment on this post letting me know you subscribed.  Be sure to leave your email address too.

The drawing will take place at noon on Friday, December 11 and I will mail out the gift card the following Monday.

Friday Favorites

Well, it’s Friday.  It’s a big day for us because my husband is at an interview right now for a job.  Of the many jobs he has applied to, this is the only place he has heard from so far.  He’s on round 4 of the many interviews for this job.  Let’s hope all goes well!  Aside from that it’s Friday so it’s a good day to list my favorites of the week.

After combing through my favorite blogs, here are a few articles that really stood out to me:

• Pet Owner?  The HAPPY Act Might Bring You Tax Deductions - 20SomethingFinance
• 2010 Income Tax Rates: What’s Your Bracket? – FiveCentNickel
• All About Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) – MoneyUnder30
• Financial Infidelity – Why It Happens and How to Confront It – OwntheDollar
• Common Questions About 529 Plans – PTMoney
• Government Spending: State by State – Shrinkage is Good
• 5 Effective Ways to Protect Yourself From Rising Inflation – MoneyNing

Anti-Aging Beauty Smarts

As a female who is turning 30 next year, I’m beginning to notice things like fine lines and saggy skin and scars that seem to never go away.  Although these are very subtle changes right now I fear that in another 10 years I will look like a completely different person!  I’ve decided to *gasp* look into anti-aging products.

Now since my husband is still out of a job right now, there is no way I am going to spend $100+ on a small jar of  cream extracted from kangaroo poo and infused with diamond shavings or whatever hot anti-aging product that claims to take 20 years off your face.  All I can do now is think prevention, prevention, prevention!

So after digging around online, here are some things I will do to keep myself from turning into a raisin.

1) Sunblock. 35+ SPF.  I’ve been putting it on my face and my hands everyday since my hands are starting to look veiny  and Angelina Jolie-like.

2) Sleep. OK I know this is hard for a lot of people but I try as best I can to get 8 hours of sleep.  Even if I’m busy, I’ll usually make sleep a priority because I’m the type of person who cannot function properly if I don’t get at least 6 hours of sleep.  Sleep is important because it allows your body to heal and repair itself.  Without sleep, not only would we be tired, weakened and sick but it would be reflected in our faces and skin.  They don’t call it beauty sleep for nothing!

3) Antioxidants. Antioxidants are not only important in repairing damage to the skin, but they’re also good for preventing cancer and other health problems.  I’ve been loading up on blueberries, raspberries, green tea, pomegranate seeds, tomatoes, grapefruits and as many greens as I can.

4) Sunglasses. With 100% UV protection.  I like the fact that I’m shielding the area around my eyes from UV rays and I’m not squinting as much if the sun is shining in my direction.

5) Humidifier.  Now that it’s winter, the air is pretty dry and my skin dries out very fast and starts peeling no matter how much moisturizer I put on it.  I noticed that after I got a humidifier and ran it everyday, my skin did not dry out the way it did before.

6) Exercise. Exercise is so good for you that there is no doubt in my mind that it has anti-aging benefits.  We all know that it keeps your heart healthy, keeps your bones strong and promotes longevity.  There are many studies that show that exercise may also have anti-aging effects.  Although this has not been proven yet, why not go ahead and keep your body and heart young with exercise?

7) Skin cream with Retinol. Retinol is one of the few vitamins out there that have proven to be effective against aging.  I usually don’t buy into claims made on packages of moisturizers unless there have been studies on the ingredient and it has been proven effective.  Retinol is one of those ingredients.  I use the RoC products and you can usually get a tube at around $20.

Water. I’m trying to drink more water to keep my skin (and everything else) hydrated.  We all know that water is good for us and our health and when I don’t drink enough of it my skin looks dehydrated.

That’s all I have for now.  Once we have steady income coming in again, I will definitely look at things like chemical peels and microdermabrasion.  I’m really not into the whole Botox thing and I think I’m way too young for that anyway.  Do any of you have any suggestions on cheap or free ways to prevent/repair the effects of aging?

NetWorth Update

November was a good month!  Everything was in the green for me and my net worth increased by quite a bit thanks the stock market doing a little better.

My goals for the month of December:

1) Keep our dining expenses below $400.

2) Keep our grocery expenses below $400.

3) Put another $2,000 into savings.