Since returning to corporate life about a year ago, I have also just had my 2nd child, Siena.

Seeing that I have added to my existing lack of time problem, rather than reduced it, I still have trouble finding adequate time to do all of the financial things I want to do. (Let alone get around to paying the taxes!) I do spend at least 1-2 hours a week organizing my financial life. That can range from monitoring my finances and bill payments, to filing papers, to opening new accounts on occasion.

Since I began this site, Lending Club and SmartyPig have become important saving and investment vehicles for me.

I have also opened a Whole Life Insurance product for my husband as a retirement vehicle, and one for my daughter as a college and retirement vehicle down the line. (This is made possible through loans and dividend payments, more explained here). I actually ended up with Ohio National as the company for these rather than Mass Mutual, but either way you would want to pick a very high rated insurance company if you are considering this option, and research more about using the cash account for loans because the options vary greatly by company. For what I selected, the benefit is that I continue to earn a dividend on the cash value of the account, even if I take out a loan, so I can borrow against it for a good overall rate, and then can also continue to earn. Once retirement approaches, I can borrow against the loan for certain increments, which aren’t considered taxable income, and then have the remaining loan paid off upon death. This takes an advisor to get right, so don’t attempt all of the calculations for one of these on your own.

Yet, after all of those options, I still find managing anything stock market related to be something I don’t want to spend more of my time on getting exactly right. I have a Roth 401K at my current employer which I rebalance and monitor about once every 3 months. Now that I’ve been there a year, I have to increase my savings there to 4% to get the company match (an obvious no-brainer). I mostly move between funds and when volatile I may move some of the balance into a stable account.

Beyond that, I haven’t played with the stock market since dabbling in high school. And I don’t want to. So, while I know its been around for a while, I was very excited to noticed the Betterment.com investment site one day while logging into Mint.com. Betterment charges a fee like all mutual funds do, but I equate it to be similar to a fund in terms of investing. Its an easy way to invest in the stock market with brokers that make things simple and transparent. So far, I have invested a bit in a Roth IRA there. The earnings are not staggering (like they are at Lending Club), but hey are positive. I have only been invested about 1 month, so I will continue to montior and see if it provides a valuable return for the fee.

I think more and more sites like this will start to emerge that empower people to invest without an in-person broker, with varying fee structures and return strategies. I can’t wait to try out more of them as them emerge, so please let me know of others in the comments below!

You can earn a free $25 by starting a new Betterment.com investment account.
(Note the $25 only applies to a regular investment account, not a Roth IRA)

Random Posts

• November 17, 2009 -- The Infamous Kirby Vacuum Trust Buster Alert
• June 16, 2010 -- Healthy Way to Combine Finances When Married
• January 16, 2010 -- Move Your Money Local Banking & Choosing to Spend Local
• October 11, 2010 -- Review of LearnVest – Personal Finance Tools for Women
• July 6, 2011 -- Best Goal Tracking Tools for 2011

While doing a project for my current job, I stumbled across this wonderful site that represents 11 key categories of well being and allows you to rank their importance to you. It then visualizes the countries that best fit your criteria across the world, in sort of a flower visualization design. It is not only beautiful, but highly functional and useful for those that care about this sort of thing. I was intrigued myself, having lived in and loved New Zealand, to see it high up on the list for me. I must admit I was also surprised to see Canada, as it is really just around the corner from my neck of the woods.

How does this relate to my journey towards financial freedom? I think its important to constantly re-evaluate if my life is going in the direction I want it to, and this can largely be impacted by the opportunities, government, quality of life and financial system that surrounds you. This chart serves as a starting point for me to explore other places that we may want to visit or possibly move to in the future if our dreams align with our actions. Which one can only keep hoping and working towards.

Random Posts

• December 4, 2009 -- Tips for Sticking to a Budget
• November 22, 2009 -- Review of SmartyPig Online Savings Account and Budget Tracker
• October 12, 2010 -- Business Electronic File Cabinet: Review of ShoeBoxed.com
• November 2, 2009 -- Review of Free Online Password Storage Tools: Mitto.com
• January 31, 2012 -- Easiest Online Investment Options

Even if you are 40, aggressively investing in yourself in a whole life insurance policy can be a great option in this volatile market due to the high dividend returns compared to other investment tools, and the amazing death benefit that can be carried on to your children tax-free.

Since I last wrote a post I have been investing in my current full time job Roth 401K, but guess what the year to date returns are? 4%. Great. I haven’t known what’s next for my retirement savings. I know that I need to find other alternatives to the 401k, as the earnings are so volatile. I know that I’m not saving towards retirement aggressively enough.

My recent choice – whole or permanent life insurance. Good returns, tax free retirement withdraws and interest free or low loans later in life. The most amazing part is the death benefit included that you can pass on tax-free to your children and grand children. So many benefits. You must read carefully about them before you decide for yourself, but I think they are a great alternative with tax-free retirement income potential.

Resources

• Pick up the book Tax Free Retirement by Patrick Kelly to learn more. (Most of its obvious, but the meat is in the last chapter explaining the amazing benefits of whole life insurance.)
• Find out the differences between Universal and Whole Permanent Insurance Options

I’m planning on opening this for my husband, myself and my children even! I’m looking to use Mass Mutual as they are A++ rated and have good dividends over the last 30 years (over 6% to 9%). I found this PDF on their site showing their returns over the past 30 years.

This may actually be a better alternative to a 529 as well. After I get this next chapter of an alternative retirement savings figured out, my next plan is to set up whole life insurance for my daughter as a borrowing option for when she reaches college as well as a great retirement vehicle for her.

I actually stumbled upon this as my grandparents are starting one for me as part of annuity and they get to transfer their dollars tax free to me to fund it. What a wonderful thing to be able to do, I hope to continue that pattern with my children and grandchildren.

Random Posts

• November 30, 2009 -- How to Find Sustainable Happiness
• June 22, 2010 -- Can You Have Too Many Long Term Savings for Spending Accounts?
• January 1, 2010 -- Review of Conspiracy of the Rich Book by Robert Kiyosaki
• January 28, 2010 -- Confidence, Purpose and Marketing: Ingredients for Success
• October 12, 2010 -- Business Electronic File Cabinet: Review of ShoeBoxed.com

Reviews Goal Tracker Software and Online Tools

In 2011 the online goal tracking tools that are out there grew and improved.

I published this post a year ago, but it is so popular that I wanted to re-publish it in hopes that it is still useful, and I have updated some of these for 2011. I still believe the tools that track S.M.A.R.T. goals (show below) are going to be the most possible to attain.

There are many online tools available for keeping track of and measuring progress on your goals. Many corporations have started to incorporate goal systems (Success Factors is one example) and S.M.A.R.T. goals. Not all goal systems utilize this method, however, it is widely accepted as an excellent way to achieve results with your goals. The following is a look at how to measure your personal goals and a review of some of the best online tools for measuring your goals.

So, what are S.M.A.R.T. Goals?

S – Specific (the more specific the better)
M – Measurable (The criteria that you will use as measurement that you have completed a goal, such as getting your degree, etc)
A – Achievable (Do you currently have the skills and resources needed to reach this goal?)
R – Relevant (How does this goal tie to your passion or purpose?)
T - Time-dimension (When will you aim to start and finish the goal, will there be milestones to reach along the way?)

Many of these goals start with the questions (that you then fill in the blank for):

• Why do you want to achieve this goal?
• Next ask yourself, what specific benefits will come with achieving it?
• When will you achieve it by? (time factor)
• How you plan to achieve the goal?

There is a growing philosophy that if you share your resolutions or goals with others, your friends, family, or a social community can help encourage you to stay on track and keep your goals alive. The same often holds true for other areas in life, such as getting in shape, isn’t it more fun to do when you have a friend that will meet you at the gym and hold you accountable for sticking to your work out goals? So, some of the online tools focus on the social sharing element of goal tracking.

Best Online Goal Tracking Tools of 2010:

GoalsOnTrack.com Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars $48/year subscription

This simple, easy to use tool does a great job of allowing you to track your goals, visually chart your progress and see reports, create specific action plans, manage daily tasks associated with your goals, track specific time spent, as well as keeping a journal for your additional thoughts and inspirations that you want to capture. You can assign visual pictures with your goals, set overall categories with specific goals beneath that category, and assign any type of progress metric you want to show your measurement (dollars, percentage, etc). It follows the S.M.A.R.T. goal model. You can print out your goals, your daily tasks, and really use this tool to get on track. You can set email reminders, import and export your tasks to CSV or for iCal format, and much more. Just check out their full list of features on the site. This tool costs money, yet I believe its worth the investment if you want a full suite of highly effective goal tracking tools.

SuperViva.com Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Free
SuperViva is a social sharing goal or “life” tracking site that allows you to create goals to share or keep private. SuperViva was created in 2006 (runs ads and accepts donations to support it). It allows you to set up weekly reminders to check in with your list of goals. Super viva offers something closer to the SMART goal method by allowing you to group your goals, set specific goals within an overall list, assign what “Life Dimension” your goal applies to (Personal, Family, Finances, Community, etc) and also set the start and completion dates, priority, effort needed and budget needed. You can mark a goal as completed, on the backburner, or remove it. There is a section to find ideas from the community and ‘get inspired.’ Nice overall concept for a free tool, however, I find it difficult to navigate and you cannot visually see and chart your progress on a goal.

Goalmigo.com Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars Free

Goalmigo is also a social sharing goal tracking tool. You start by adding your goals, and adding who is going to help hold you accountable or your ‘Supporters’ for your goals. You enter your completion date, and can set up reminders in day, week or month increments. A great feature is that you can assign a tracking log (they have some already listed such as weight, calories, etc). You can assign tags to help you to share your goal in the social environment. Once you set your goals, you can mark them as complete and also add milestones in your “Log” which display in a bar chart format. Beyond that, you can visually see a reminder of how long you have remaining to complete you goal such as “One Month Remaining”. You can also add notes to your goals. There are ads on this site, but otherwise its a pretty clean and user friendly interface.

eLifeList.com Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Free

eLifeList is another social sharing tool which allows public or private goal tracking. What’s awesome about this tool, is that it has very useful categories and goals already entered in it. I’m not sure if there are from the community or were created ahead of time, but they can help you get started. You can add descriptions, photos or videos to your list, and also set reminders to be sent to your email. The site is pretty user friendly, though some of the features you don’t edit until after you’ve set the goal, such as reminders. I would think you’d create everything when you are creating the goal. You can mark the goal as complete, and see a progress indicator (from 0-100%) of how far you are toward reaching your goals. From the design of the site, it appears to be focused on a younger demographic (perhaps college students?). Overall, it does the job for simple goal tracking.

LifeTango.com Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Free
LifeTango is a very clean and effective goal tracking tool. As the other tools, you can choose if you want public or private goals. You can sort by priority, date, and other categories. You have to manually update the progress you are at in your goal by a percentage from 0-100%. Ongoing, periodic goals are considered “Tasks” and are tracked using their “Task Tracker” (as opposed to goals that you want to assign a specific due date for). And example of a Task Tracker goal would be to workout every day for 1 year. You would then set these recurring tasks and mark your progress daily. They assign stars that you click on to indicate that you have completed your recurring task goal (kinda cute like when you were a kid and got stars for getting something done). There is also a fun little sticky note for “reminders”. Overall, I like this site for their Task tracking but I think it is a little confusing for tracking larger picture life goals.

Stickk.com – Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Free

Stick is a tool meant to motivate you to stick to your goals through the use of accountability with other people and putting a bet or monetary value at stake if you don’t meet your goals. It is much more focused on coaching and pushing you to achieve your goals than any of the other tools. You start by setting a goal (Referred to as a Commitment Contract, much more formal and committed sounding!), then setting the ‘stakes’ or what’s at risk to complete it (You literally have to pay out money to your selected charity or person if you miss your goal deadlines), then you ‘get a referee’ or a person in your life to to push you meet your goals, and you can also add friends to help you achieve your goals. Many of their pre-set goals are around losing weight, quitting smoking, or other life-changing habits that it often takes a ‘coach’ to help with. However, it can be used for other goal tracking as well. You can set the category, whether it is a one-time or recurring event, get reminders and view your progress. Oh, and you don’t HAVE to set a “Stake” of financial value, you can still use this tool without the pressure of a stake. For many people though, I can imagine that this method (fear of losing your money!) works great for actually getting them motivated and on track. This is by far the most unique of the tools I’ve seen.

43Things.com Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars Free
I saw this mentioned often as a goal tracking site, but it really isn’t. This site is really just a simple social site to measure trends for goals and resolutions with the answer to 1 question: “What do you want to do in the year 2010?”. To me, it seems similar to Twitter and many other social sharing tools, so who knows if it will be used a lot. Cute idea, but not that helpful for achieving your goals.

42 Goals [rating 3.5/5] Free or $5/mo
This fun tool is web based and shows a calendar of your goals. Its easy to use, and show progress and charts along the way. It also has a social element.

Joes Goals [1.5/5] Free
I’m not as impressed by this tool as 42 Goals or others, but it is simple so it may be worth a try if you want something calendar based and easy. It does have some clever concepts such as tracking negative goals or vices.

Props to Former Fat Dudes for their suggestions on setting goals.

Which one to choose?
You decide. Just keep in mind, when searching for a goal tracking tool, I would recommend determining if you simply want to have to do lists, or if you are ready to have specific goals with associated tasks. Goal tracking is about all of the small tasks (from your TO DO Lists) that add up to one overarching goal. Sometimes, you may have random TO DO’s that don’t really seem like they fit into any goal, but you feel that they have to get done anyway. Go ahead and add them to the list and perhaps even do them, but first consider: WHY am I doing some task if it doesn’t help me reach any of my goals? This can lead to the type of self reflection that will ultimately help you to reduce the amount of mindless, or purposeless tasks that you are doing, and help you to find the best use of your time.

Let me know your thoughts on these tools or if there are some great ones that I have missed.

Random Posts

• December 4, 2009 -- Tips for Sticking to a Budget
• November 16, 2009 -- Carpe Diem: Is It Possible to Seize the Day?
• June 22, 2010 -- Can You Have Too Many Long Term Savings for Spending Accounts?
• November 22, 2009 -- Review of SmartyPig Online Savings Account and Budget Tracker
• June 23, 2010 -- Stop Chasing After Happiness – Choose Happiness

The above are some of the most popular posts from the last 365 days of my journey towards financial freedom.

It is amazing to me that is has been 365 days since I have started my quest towards financial education and ultimately, financial freedom.

What have I learned?

1. I have to make a continuous commitment, at minimum weekly if not multiple times a week to do something to better my financial knowledge or take action to improve my personal finances
2. There will always be hurdles in getting to my goals, but tracking progress with them and plugging away will get me closer to them every day.
3. I should not make assumptions about my finances. I assumed that I could not quit my FT job b/c I wouldn’t find health coverage. That was wrong. I assumed that I would never be able to retire, but after looking at some of my better investment choices, I’ve decided there might be a glimmering hope for retirement one day.
4. Despite the difficulty motivating myself to do something so boring, I want to continually improve my knowledge of taxes, inflation and investing.
5. Overall, I’ve learned that life will only get more complicated, and its essential to have your finances manageable to have a chance at staying ahead in today’s world. I know that I will not be financially free immediately, but I am conscious about making the right decisions with my money, job, and choices to ensure that one day, this goal will be achievable for me.

Random Posts

• January 19, 2010 -- Review of GratitudeLog – “The Happiest Place on the Internet”
• August 8, 2011 -- What Country Should I Live in? A Better Life Visualization
• February 4, 2010 -- Many Popular Financial Advisors Don’t Have Kids
• March 11, 2010 -- Making a Choice Between Entrepreneur or Corporate Life
• November 30, 2009 -- Free Financial IQ Quizes

For a while now, I have, rather pessimistically, been saying that I will never retire. Mainly because I haven’t been saving as much or as often as I should (I am currently the sole income in our household), and because most of the investment accounts that I have attempted, from mutual funds to stocks have gone in the negative.

I’ve decided to look further into this with my amazing returns (14-15%) from Lending Club (This is not the average return at Lending Club, the average is around 9% I believe. My returns are based on taking on more risk and opting for quite a few longer term loans.) All of my prior assumptions were that I would not even be able to reach the 8% return that most investment calculators use for predicting your retirement date.

Right now, if my Roth IRA at lending club continues to perform with my carefully selected loan options, even given an expected default rate over time, I would get well over 12% returns. So, perhaps things do not have to look as doom and gloom now that I have found a good investment vehicle?

This chart shows that I would have to save hardly ANYTHING every month with the funds I currently have in my No Fee IRA retirement savings, plus the help of social security at $15K/year (will that be an option when I retire?).

According to this chart, all that I need to do to retire and live off of $80K/year plus $15K Social Security (well over what I currently live off of), is keep earning those incredibly high returns. Is it possible? Only time will tell.

But over at Mint.com, I tried their GOALS retirement calculator, and they will only let me plug in 11% as the maximum return amount. According to Mint, I will need to contribute $150/month at the 11% return rate to retire at age 65, comfortably. So, my conclusion from all of this is, I’d like to have a goal of saving at least $150/month when we turn into a 2-income household next year sometime. I would also like to have a few more diversified investments, preferably under IRA protection. For those of you that don’t know or have a Roth IRA, you MUST read up on it, it is by far the most useful investment option for anyone under 45 at least, and in 2010 only you can convert your Traditional IRA to a Roth this year and choose whether you want to pay the tax consequences this year or split and defer tax consequences to the next two years (2011 & 2012). More Info.

I encourage you talk with your tax or investment professional before taking my advice at face value.

Random Posts

• January 10, 2010 -- Truly Free eBooks for Wealth, Inspiration and Education
• January 13, 2010 -- Review of YNAB 3.0 You Need a Budget Software for PC or Mac
• November 11, 2009 -- Review of Wallet for Mac: Desktop Password Storage Tool for Mac & iPhone
• July 13, 2010 -- Financial Check In – Celebrate Progress!
• July 1, 2010 -- My Best Investment So Far: Lending Club

www.Shoeboxed.com is an amazing site that helps you de-clutter your paper mess, mainly geared towards small and mid to large sized businesses. For a sole proprietor like myself, this is seriously useful!

In a nut shell, you send your receipts (and anything you need to keep documented for tax purposes, etc) to them in pre-paid secure envelopes. They scan them and file and categories them for you. You can manage your categories and get reports on your receipts online.

A while back, I wrote an article for Wisebread on how to go entirely paperless at home. Though these guys are geared at business, its equally useable for home-based paper and clutter elimination! Another great step in the way to getting more organized and reducing your paper piles and file cabinets crammed full of receipts that you can’t find! I highly recommend this tool, so I am including their banner ad on my site for a while for you to give it a try (free trial). Their pricing is free for the limited version, and goes up according to how many receipts and the usage you need.

It also works well with Evernote for managing your online files.

Random Posts

• February 17, 2010 -- Launch of my New Business, OnTimelines.com
• November 2, 2009 -- Review of Free Online Password Storage Tools: Mitto.com
• December 4, 2009 -- Tips for Sticking to a Budget
• January 13, 2010 -- Review of YNAB 3.0 You Need a Budget Software for PC or Mac
• January 29, 2010 -- Having a Clear Life Vision

I’ve recently discovered a site, LearnVest, which is geared towards helping women improve their personal finances. LearnVest offers a variety of tools, from daily email tips to online tracking of your budgets and personal goals. Their budgeting tool is really attractive and easy to use. One of the best features of the site is that they offer useful checklists for step-by-step, manageable ways to make a personal finance goal and reach it. Awesome.

According to LearnVest’s info below, I am not alone in this quest to try to figure out and manage my finances better. It’s a life-long journey that you have to commit to. But there are plenty of tools that can help nowadays!

Women have come a long way financially over the last three decades. Women today make up half of the professional work force and are found to buy or influence 80% of all consumer purchases in the United States yet they continue to lag behind men when it comes to managing their personal finances.  According to a 2006 Prudential financial poll,  80% of women say that they plan to depend on Social Security to support them in their golden years and 38% of women 30-55 years old are worried they will live at or near the poverty level because they cannot adequately save for retirement.  So even today–despite coming so far in many ways–too many women are still ignoring their finances.  LearnVest provides a solution that is relevant and timely – it is something women need.

Saving for retirement is not the only solution that will allow people to retire, and social security may not be an option at all for someone like me, ‘retiring’ in 30 years when all the baby boomers have practically cleaned out the social security funds. Retirement is a larger issue because of the culture of our society, and the large debt that our entire society and economic structure has created over the past 100 years. We have to own our own finances, but some people, especially those later in life, need responsibility from their employers, from the government, and from society as a whole to develop new, more efficient, programs that take better care of our elderly and do not separate the wealth and class system even further than they do today. For instance, even with me aggressively saving for retirement, which I unfortunately cannot do right now, the online tools that I have used suggest that I will never reach the goals that I want to retire and live at a ‘comfort’ level at which I live today.

One of the goals check lists that I tried out was a little to simple for me at this stage, but I wish I would have had it a year ago when I was trying to tackle all of this “on my own!” Its important to note that not all of thier advice or ‘to-do’ lists are 100% fitting for you or your lifestyle. For instance, the “I’m Ready to Tackle My Debt” checklist has “Cancel a Credit Card You Don’t Use” as the 8th step. I had thought this would be the financially responsible thing to do also, but after much research and actual experience, I realized that your credit score actually takes a hit when you cancel a credit card. AND, you do absolutely should NEVER cancel a credit card that you have had a long time, because the length of time your card has been open helps your score. So, before following any financial advice, even a step by step program, I recommend that you do your own research and make sure its the right step for you. Review your credit score every year by using free tools or the free site where you can actual get a free copy of the whole report.

(UPDATE: LearnVest informed me that they do have a warning for you about the impact to your credit score when you decide to complete this step)

Overall, the LearnVest site has a lot of quick, getting started options for those that don’t know where to begin with topics from having a baby to investing. For someone like me, who has already spent a lot of time learning this stuff the last year, the site was a little less useful. And of course, the stuff I really wanted to know, like how to be a more educated investor, was only offered as a “premium” service. At less than $10, it could definitely be worth the investment though, hard to say unless I try. And I realize they have to make their money somehow by offering such a great set of online tools.

In general, this site is a very attractive, user-friendly site that offers a lot of tools for you to improve your Financial IQ. Give it a try: LearnVest.com.

Random Posts

• April 1, 2010 -- Opening Financial Accounts Online – Easy to Difficult
• November 8, 2009 -- Best Kept Secrets of How to be a Millionaire & Other Trust Buster Phrases
• November 16, 2009 -- Carpe Diem: Is It Possible to Seize the Day?
• November 13, 2009 -- Advice for the Young, Fabulous and Broke from Suze Orman
• March 11, 2010 -- Making a Choice Between Entrepreneur or Corporate Life

It has been a while since I have wrote. I haven’t known what to say. My confidence and diligence has waned.

I was so proud of myself for rolling over my 401k from my former employer. And just as I did, the market took a dive that it has still not recovered from.

That’s right, my mutual funds, even with a few helpful bond indexes thrown in, are down about 8% for the year. Just a quick ‘run the numbers’ calculator will tell me that even with a positive 8% return every year, I won’t be retiring until I’m 125 or so. But it is sad to me, that despite my diligence and research, despite trying to actively manage my financial life for the past year, I still can’t control the market, I can’t control the unpredictable future.

I have since rolled out a large portion of this ‘loss’ into a Lending Club. I’ve tied up my funds for 60 months lending out the money to other people. I am quite excited to actually get a amazingly good (15%!) RETURN ON INVESTMENT from the No Fee IRA, rather than my remaining 401k over at Vanguard that pulls in a negative to date. I was hoping to wait it out, then decide what to do with it. The economy has to be recovering, right? At some point? The stocks have to bounce back up right?

It seems to me that consumer confidence will never recover to where it was once in early 2000. Or at least, it may take 20-30 years like it did in the great depression. People will continue to save for many years to come. People will continue to distrust the stock market after getting so burned.

So then, what are our choices for investment? You certainly have to get creative. I can’t wait to find more unique and innovative opportunities like Lending Club and SmartyPig. They combine social media tools with great earnings and allow individuals to connect online.

What creative investments of 2010 do you know about? Please share in the comments!

Random Posts

• November 23, 2009 -- Review of Free Credit Score Analysis Tool: Credit Karma
• February 11, 2010 -- Recovering PC User Tells All: Why I Obsessively Love my Mac
• January 12, 2010 -- Does Opportunity Come to You or Do You Have to Create It?
• January 31, 2012 -- Easiest Online Investment Options
• December 4, 2009 -- Tips for Sticking to a Budget

TIME

We all know this to be true, and I have said this repeatedly, but it never gets old.

Time is your most important asset. It is a gift. How you choose to use it every day is up to you.

It often seems like time disappears in non-choice related activities and distractions. But every moment you are making choices with how to use your time.

Random Posts

• February 17, 2010 -- Launch of my New Business, OnTimelines.com
• February 23, 2010 -- How to Choose? Pay Off Debt, Save, Invest or Build a Business
• November 9, 2009 -- Eker’s Jars and the Millionaire Mind Philosophy
• January 31, 2012 -- Easiest Online Investment Options
• July 30, 2010 -- Selecting Life Insurance for Someone in Late 20′s

Amazingly, I am nearing the 1 year mark since I began this journey and this blog toward financial freedom. I have made a lot of progress, and yet most of it has been geared at an awareness that I can and will learn what I need to learn to be able to succeed and thrive financially. Nonetheless, one of the most important aspects of gaining financial freedom, passive income, is still a far away goal for me. I have finally started earning close to $300/mo in my retirement savings account (converted to a Roth IRA this year as well!). I have it split between a Mutual Fund and Lending Club. This is a huge success. However, that is money for later. I don’t have as much to invest right now into Lending Club or other investment vehicles that earn passive income. So, what I need to invest in is the business building online goals that will generate sales. This is where I feel that I am falling behind where I had hoped to be from last year.

Though I have been convinced again and again of the need to produce products and services that create wealth through recurring sales, getting to the point has been difficult for me.

I have done a few experiments and found that it is indeed possible to make passive income online through automated sales systems. I haven’t made a lot, and I’ll tell you why. I haven’t been able to narrow down my focus. I’ve written about this before, but it is a key area of weakness for me. Multi-tasking all the time in my lifestyle has made me rather scattered at times.

With the help of some great online goal tools, I have set some very specific goals for 2010-2011 for where I want to grow my business. Guess what? They are not what I am spending my time on. What am I spending my time on? I’m either working the old-fashioned way, hour by hour, or doing personal things like cooking, cleaning, being with family, etc. I have broken out of tradition by going out on my own, and not working directly for a corporation, but I have lost some steam in my passive income generating business efforts. All of the free time I do tend to have lately, I have been, well, enjoying. I’ve been gardening and being with my family. Not bad things at all. However, I do feel that I have gotten side-tracked and I want to schedule back in more time to really pursue these interests.

I’ve managed to make exercise a part of my routine despite many failed prior attempts, so there is no reason why I can’t schedule in some real business building time.

Random Posts

• January 9, 2010 -- Are Commodities The Right Investment Choice?
• December 27, 2009 -- Free Timeline Template for Mac iWork Pages or Microsoft Office Word
• July 1, 2010 -- My Best Investment So Far: Lending Club
• October 30, 2009 -- Review Free Online Budgeting Tools: Yodlee MoneyCenter
• November 18, 2009 -- Budgeting for the Holidays and Avoiding Holiday Impulse Buys

Another financial to-do is almost complete for me today. I have a health exam to qualify for Term Life Insurance. It seems like a morbid topic, at 28 to be planning for death. But I have a 2 year old daughter and a family that is dependent on me. Plus, my thought on all of this is to start the financial habits now so that I can move on to bigger and better things in my financial life.

I debated quite a bit about whether I needed it, whether I should get Term or Whole Life insurance. Term insurance is basically just a monthly payment that you will never see again that protects your family by paying out a cash value upon your accidental death. Different policies have different rates and terms as to what type of death qualifies. The term insurance that I selected protects against all types of death.

Whole life insurance is when you pay the monthly maintenance fee, but also pay more that goes into basically a savings account that earns a certain percentage interest – right now between 2 & 4% usually. This can be nice for people that don’t have great habits for savings or retirement investing.

Some basics on life insurance that are helpful can be found at: http://www.insurancefinder.com/lifeinsurance/aboutlifeinsurance.html

My agent suggested that as I get older and earn more, I convert $100 of my $500 policy to whole life insurance so that the interest helps pay for the premiums over time. We’ll see.

So, moving on. I didn’t know what length of time to select the term insurance for, or the amount. I decided to opt into 20 years because at that point my daughter and even my next child should be fairly independent. I also selected the $500,000 coverage. The idea is that I can keep the same monthly premium over the next 20 years, so opting for a little higher pay out than what I might need now ensures that I can keep the same plan in the future and keep the premiums lower.

As you get older and especially as you get any additional health problems, your qualification for life insurance decreases, and your premiums go up. So, I’m locking in a reasonable rate for it now.

I am very cautious to add insurance, let alone a new monthly payment to my financial world. Nonetheless, I feel good about adding life insurance right now. I had it previously at my employer, but lost it when I left. Having it separate from my employer ensures that I will always be covered moving forward.

I did have to tell the insurance company I won’t be piloting an airplane or sky diving in the next 2 years. Darn it, right when I was thinking about taking the plunge!

Random Posts

• July 6, 2011 -- Best Goal Tracking Tools for 2011
• November 4, 2009 -- Review of Free Online Password Storage Tool: Passpack.com
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• June 22, 2010 -- Can You Have Too Many Long Term Savings for Spending Accounts?

Since I began this journey, I made a commitment to myself to continue to check in and work on improving my knowledge and application of financial matters. Boy is it exhausting!

Today I finally squeezed in finishing some of my legal documents – I now have a Living Will, a Power of Attorney for Medical stuff, a Will, and a Memorial Planner Information. I still need to spend a little more time on the concept of Estate planning, but I’m not in a huge rush yet as I don’t have that amazing of an estate.

So, let me take a moment to celebrate, YIPPEE!

Okay, I still have to get them all notarized and filed away safely. Sigh, another financial TO-DO.

Next Up on my Financial To-Do List This Month:

1. Look into refinancing my home. I just took it off the market as it is not selling. I have an inquiry into my mortgage provider to see if its possible to refinance after you take your home off the market or if they have some type of waiting period. Rates are certainly low, so I do hope I can. Seeing as I have had a major career shift, and the value of my home has probably gone down significantly since my last mortgage, it should be interesting to see if its a real financial possibility for me to re-fi. Crossing my fingers.
2. Convert my Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA at Vanguard. I’m willing to pay tax consequences this  year if it means that I get to move my Traditional IRA Funds (that were previously my 401k when I was a corporate gal) to a Roth IRA.
3. Set up a Roth IRA at Lending Club. I’m going to roll at least part of my Vanguard money to Lending Club. My experiment with Lending Club panned out to be an awesome choice that I can really support. I am excited to find an investment opportunity that doesn’t make me want to cry and pull my hair out unlike my experiences with Fidelity and Vanguard.
4. Get life insurance. I can’t believe I still haven’t gotten around to this. Need to get it done – I’m going to opt for the $500K policy I think. But I do need to do more research into this area.
5. Snore. Okay. I find this stuff painfully boring and awful. Thank you to this website for reminding me to stay on track with it. It’ll be worth it one day right??!!

Random Posts

• July 30, 2010 -- Selecting Life Insurance for Someone in Late 20′s
• October 27, 2009 -- Top Free Online Budgeting Money Management Tools
• April 14, 2010 -- How to Rollover a Complicated 401K
• November 30, 2009 -- How to Find Sustainable Happiness
• October 13, 2010 -- Could I Really Retire at Age 65?

With the volatility of the stock market, I have been interested in other investment opportunities. They can be hard to find.

So far, I am very pleased with the peer to peer lending model offered at Lending Club I can honestly say that its simple to set up and use, and is providing me an average return of 15% so far. I’m so impressed in fact, that I would like to invest in this option rather than my 401k. At least for a bit.

Diversification always sounds like a good idea, but it isn’t lately in both real estate and no matter what stock or fund I seem to choose. But peer to peer lending feels good because I’m helping out someone with consolidating their debt, and I’m earning a little interest for doing it. A win-win.

Plus they give bonuses often for your investments, as well as for referring friends and family.

UPDATE: 1 year later – I have successfully been investing in this for over a year and am very happy with my returns (over 15%) and the tool itself. I really haven’t found any other worthy investment that is easy to get started and earns this kind of return. If you know of anything besides the volatile stock market – let me know! I am eager to continue to invest in things like this.

Random Posts

• February 6, 2010 -- Should I Invest in a 529 College Savings Plan? If So, Which One?
• December 14, 2009 -- Store & Share Family Addresses & Events Online
• May 11, 2010 -- 2 Months Later – A Look at Non-Corporate Life
• November 5, 2009 -- Review of Online Personal Data Organizer Tool: Orggit.com
• October 13, 2010 -- Could I Really Retire at Age 65?

I’ve written a few posts on this blog on the topic of happiness, since as we all know, ‘money can’t buy me love’ – or happiness for that matter. Financial freedom will free me to have time, and I still believe it to  be the first step to focus on the intentional life that I want. But if I’m not in the right place mentally, its useless to have financial freedom. I keep searching for ways to attain what I’ve been calling sustainable happiness.

Yesterday, my husband, quite nicely mentioned to me that one thing I might have a hard time doing is living in the moment. This is why I married him, because he is all to good at this. And it is a quality that I want more of in my life, but struggle finding because of my personality type and ingrained habits.

Today I happened upon and took a short quiz on Oprah’s site, the happiness test, and after answering just a few short questions in this quiz, the insight that I received as my result was amazing to me. To the point where I printed it out in large text and put it on my wall. I reached the category right under the you are always happy category. Here’s what my result said:

You need to recognize the difference between chasing after happiness and choosing happiness.

Happiness is not outside you; it’s not a destination; and it’s not about “getting there.”

When you stop chasing happiness, you allow yourself to be more present, more available and more open.

This way you find happiness wherever you are.

The old saying “Life is journey, not a destination” has a similar meaning. Its not about being happy. Because if I reached the elusive happiness consistently, I wouldn’t be growing or changing, and I would become bored eventually anyway.

The overall concept that I am hearing applied to my life is this:

I need to LET GO of my need to control everything and this will allow me to be able to enjoy the moment.

I need to have faith that tomorrow will bring joy and sorrow alike, but that I will have the strength and courage to not only survive, but also come out a little bit smarter, and happier, than I was before.

I’ve realized, that’s all that I can really ask for.

Related Posts

• April 6, 2010 -- 5 Months in, I’m a Lot Closer to “What I Want”
• January 19, 2010 -- Review of GratitudeLog – “The Happiest Place on the Internet”
• January 6, 2010 -- 5 Steps to Happiness with a Personal Finance Twist

A while back, I wrote a post that I still find to be an extremely valuable, but somewhat idealistic, way to manage your finances on Eker’s Jars budgeting. One of the accounts he recommend setting up is called a Long Term Savings for Spending account. He recommends saving 10% of your income towards this ‘jar’ and you can divide it into sub-jars if needed.

I also found and use the amazing site SmartyPig for Long Term Savings for Spending accounts. This amazing system has gained so much in popularity, its now being bought out by BBVA Compass.

So, now that I am fortunate enough to be making a little more income with my new business, I am eager to get beyond debt and expense payoff, and focus a little more on the long term savings for spending accounts. However, I think I have gone of the deep end. When I actually make a list (ie mini savings accounts) of all the things we want to save for, it is daunting and frankly, way more than 10% of our income. I have reached $5K in a Contingency Fund and have decided that is enough for me to warrant putting funds towards long term savings for spending now.

Here’s All the LTSS Funds I’ve Got Set Up:

I’m thinking this is largely because of the stage of life we are in. Not quite thirty, wanting to make large purchases and build a family. We have our house on the market, and ideally would like to have 60 to buy the next house we want. But that is so unrealistic when you actually look at the numbers. Needless to say, I’ve decided that Eker’s Jar’s needs an upgrade that should be different based on your AGE and/or STAGE in life.

Also, I have so many graduations, weddings and gifts, that my jar for GIFTS is truly for gifts, not charity or giving in the sense that Eker intended.

So, ideally I would like to mimic the jars theory that Eker has, but in reality, I believe it is better suited for a higher income, slightly older demographic than my family.

Random Posts

• December 26, 2009 -- Online MLM Recurring Passive Income Stream Techniques: Trust Busted
• November 26, 2009 -- Despite the Economic Future, I’m Still Thankful
• December 31, 2009 -- Is There Still Any Reason to Use Cash?
• November 10, 2009 -- Sometimes its Okay to Lose Focus
• July 30, 2010 -- Selecting Life Insurance for Someone in Late 20′s

Joint and Individual Accounts Keeps Couple Finances Fair and Fun

The following is a guest post by Shannon Pray.

I’ve been married for almost a year now. Prior to being married, we were engaged and kept our finances separate. We decided that if we were going to be married and sharing a home and many expenses for the rest of our lives, we needed to come up with a system for combining our finances. Having talked to other friends in similar situations, I’ve found that there are a number of different ways people have come up with to make this work.

Unique Ways Couples Manage Finances

1. For one couple I know he owns the house they live in and she pays a set monthly rent and utilities, etc. This system may or may not change when they get married this fall.
2. For another couple who has been dating for a long time, they own the home together and keep track of spending and work it out at the end of each month. This couple alternates who gets to pay for things when they go out with friends or on dates.

For a long time we were pretty similar to the second couple. We alternated who paid for things when we went out and we both wrote separate checks for rent and utilities. This worked while we were dating and when we were engaged, but as we were getting ready to get married and really start a life together, we decided we needed a new system. After discussing some different options (total combination, partial combination, zero combination) we came up with our plan:

Joint Income, Joint Account PLUS Individual Accounts

1. We decided to do some math on how much money we spend on rent, utilities, cable, food, eating out and entertainment in a typical month.
2. We took that total and divided by two. That’s how much money we each put into our joint checking account each month from our paychecks.
3. I get paid monthly, so I put the whole amount in on the 2nd of the month, he gets paid bi-monthly, so twice a month he transfers half the total.
4. We kept our individual accounts for savings, gifts, and our own decisions for what to do with it.

The main problem with combining our finances entirely was that we have different spending patterns. I love to buy shoes and clothes, he’s much better at resisting and only buying things when he needs, though every once in a while he “needs” a new golf club. I like to have dinner or lunch out with my girlfriends; he’s less likely to meet the guys for a similar event. He’s more likely to play round after round of golf in the summer, I am generally uninterested. While it’s possible that our various spending patterns would even out, I didn’t want to feel like I couldn’t buy things I wanted because in essence he was paying for them. Likewise, I didn’t want him to feel guilty about playing golf or grabbing a game with the boys since it was my money too. And, a biggie, I didn’t want to be able to look at our account online and see where he’d gotten me presents from, or vice versa.

In the end, we opened a joint-checking account with Charles Schwab because I’d heard great things and because they do high-yield checking, which was somewhat exciting to us. Interest on a checking account?! There have been some pros and cons to using Schwab checking, but overall we like it. In any case, we each have a check card, so we can use it whenever we need for whatever we need. I’ve come to realize that money is something we need to be able to talk about, so we’re working on that front. We discussed what we thought were appropriate things to use the check card for and we’re both pretty good about sticking to that. I do use it if I’m picking up groceries; I don’t use it if I’m buying lunch out with my girlfriends. Sometimes, by the end of the month we’ve overspent and then we each use our personal checking accounts to make up the difference on rent or cable or whatever it is. We’re still working out some kinks and reigning in our spending, but overall this system works for us. He always gets to pull out his joint-checking card and pay when we go on dates, letting him maintain a feeling of being a provider (he does after all provide half of the money in that account). I get to buy outlandish shoes out of my personal account and not feel guilty about spending his hard earned money on them. Mine, yes. His, no. When we’re buying things for our apartment we generally use the joint account, and when I take a weekend trip with my girlfriends I use my personal savings.

Communicate Openly About Money

One thing we’ve learned in this process is to talk pretty openly about our finances. We discuss large ticket purchases that might be coming up (house, furniture, international trip) and how we plan to pay for them and what sort of savings strategy we need. We hash out how to best attack out debt rather than keeping it as some hidden shame. Our system is not perfect, and I know it is far from the only one out there, but it works for us. We have our combined-life financial plan, but we also still maintain some freedom to make independent purchases without answering to one another about them. And, he never knows when I buy him presents because they don’t show up on our joint statement!

Random Posts

• January 16, 2010 -- Move Your Money Local Banking & Choosing to Spend Local
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• November 11, 2009 -- Financial Ignorance and Conspiracy of the Rich
• January 18, 2010 -- Lesser Known But Great Personal Finance Blogs of 2010

About 2 months have gone by since I left the corporate grind. Amazing. Time has flown by. So far, so good. My fears proved to be wrong, and I am surpassing my expectations for generating business. I have some really supportive clients and new referrals and have started a part time gig as well for an ecommerce firm in Denver. I actually have more work than I probably should for the true balance that I am looking for in my life. So the key for me now is making sure to take time for other important things. It’s not all roses, as I am really working hard, but its so much more rewarding and I am learning and growing every day.

I haven’t been updating this blog as much lately and that is for two main reasons:

1. I’ve created a new blog that I intend to spend more professional writing time on for my re-branded business leadonlinemarketing.com
2. I am stuck at the investing stage of finding financial freedom

Investing overwhelms me. It seems the more I learn, the more choices there are. There is always a lot of risk. Take my 401K rollover for instance. I was so proud of myself that I managed it so well and got some nice mutual funds at Vanguard. Without knowing what I was doing, I ended up ‘buying high’ and losing about 800 in value in 1 week with the dip in the market last week. Awesome. I am so disillusioned with the stock market. I already was, but time and time again I continue to be. I’m sure its great for the really well educated investor, but for me, who only has SO much time to devote to finances a week, its hard. I try to dedicate at least 1-2 hours a week since I began my journey towards improving on and/or working at our finances. There are so many directions that this goes.

Overall, the main barriers for me for my next step in this journey are being able to make truly WISE investment decisions, and learning when to pay off debt, when to take out debt and when to save. It seems to be a constant balancing act.

There are 3 TO DOs are on my list of financial matters in the coming months:

1. Finalize a will / power of attorney / living will
2. Get life insurance coverage for myself since I am self-employed
3. Setup automatic transfers for new retirement vehicle (though I’m not sure I want it to be in a mutual fund!)

Related Posts

• December 6, 2009 -- Why You Might Want to Start a Brick and Mortar Business

In responding to a comment on this site, I noticed a sentence that I wrote a few months back that still resonates strongly with me:

As Americans, the only way to get out of a recession/depression is to face our fears, and start doing, not just saving.

So many of us have been burned by loss of jobs, loss of their home, loss of their health care, etc that people are struggling to get by and losing hope. But we cannot lose hope as a collective. What our happiness, our lives, our families, our economy and everything around us needs is for us to have HOPE, motivation and drive to move things FORWARD.

If you are frantically saving and paying down debt, good for you. I’m not saying that’s bad. But getting your finances in gear is not all that is needed to make your life, and all of us as a collective’s lives better, what is needed is to start DOING.

If you don’t spend any money, the economy can’t get any better. Spending, in the right ways, is a very good thing. Spending and doing creates jobs and wealth in an economy. We just need to be more conscious about WHERE we are spending our money and what impact it has on our lives. Put your energies into putting your thoughts and what you might want to do and making them a reality. You will never know what could be unless you try.

I am now a firm believe that where your energy goes, results show.

If you’ve lost your job, see it as an opportunity to DO. Check out this video: http://www.lemonademovie.com/

Random Posts

• November 8, 2009 -- Best Kept Secrets of How to be a Millionaire & Other Trust Buster Phrases
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• December 26, 2009 -- Online MLM Recurring Passive Income Stream Techniques: Trust Busted
• August 8, 2011 -- What Country Should I Live in? A Better Life Visualization

Rolling Over a Traditional and Roth 401K Plan

I have 2 types of accounts in my 401k from my previous employer – a tranditional 401k and a Roth 401K. After doing some research and weighing my options, I have decided to roll over my 401k into  Vanguard due to the lower fees and a variety of investment choices. I still do not feel educated enough to trust my 401k funds to a fully self-managed account with individual stocks and bonds, so the fund option is still appealing to me at this stage in life. Hopefully, one day I will have the time and knowledge to invest more specifically and strategically. For now, I plan to put some research into the  funds, diversify wisely and monitor my investments.

How a Roth 401 Works

Some organizations allow you to invest all or a portion of your “after-tax” dollars in to a Roth IRA type of 401K, called a Roth 401K. This can be good for some investors because the earnings will not be taxed at withdrawal. The withdrawal rules can get tricky, with options such as the 5-year rule, but I do not plan to withdraw (or otherwise called a distribution) any time soon.  There are many more things to consider to fully understand the Roth 401K, and it does vary in rules from the Roth IRA. I recommend going to Roth401KInfo.com as a starting point for information or consulting your financial advisor. Another interesting point is that employer matching funds cannot be contributed to the Roth 401k – they have to go to your traditional 401k. I didn’t even realize this. Apparently the laws allowing Roth 401Ks will be re-evaluated in 2011, so they may not be available forever.

Here Are My Steps to a Complicated 401k Rollover

1. In order to roll over my 401k, I had to sign up for 2 new accounts at  Vanguard, both a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA. The folks at Vanguard were quite helpful on the phone.
2. I then had I believe 3 different phone conversations with someone at Fidelity discussing the process of rolling over my Roth 401K. At one point, he was convinced that the earnings on my Roth 401k would have tax implications because of my rollover. He said because I didn’t have the account open for at least 5 years, the earnings could be taxed. This made absolutely no sense to me as the whole point of a Roth 401K or Roth IRA for that matter are that you put after tax dollars into them in order to NOT have to pay taxes on the earnings in the future. Or at least that is MY understanding of them. A rollover should still be a tax-sheltered process and should not count as a distribution. After much debate, he agreed with me and initiated the request.
3. Mailed documents have been sent to me that I now have to send to my former employer for approval. I find this odd since I no longer work there, why would they care about my rollover?
4. After these documents have been processed they go back to Fidelity and then Fidelity will cut me checks for the rollovers addressed to my Vanguard account.
5. I have to send the checks with a cover letter and instructions that I create to Vanguard in order to process the funds.
6. I then will have my money in a Money Market fund temporarily that earns basically nothing until I figure out what funds to invest in.
7. I invest my funds into a new portfolio, in 2 different accounts, the Traditional IRA and the Roth IRA.
8. Then, now that I am self employed, I figure out if I want to contribute to my new Vanguard accounts on a regular basis or find out more about SEP and Keough plans.
9. Pass out from exhaustion.

If you find this of interest, here’s a few resources on Roth IRAs and 401K rollovers:

• http://www.roth401kinfo.com
• http://banking.about.com
• http://www.investopedia.com

Random Posts

• December 14, 2009 -- Store & Share Family Addresses & Events Online
• November 10, 2009 -- Sometimes its Okay to Lose Focus
• November 18, 2009 -- The Happiness Project and the Happiness Project Toolbox
• August 6, 2010 -- Catching Up on Goals for Achieving Passive Income
• September 23, 2010 -- Creative Investments Of the Future?

Day 161 of my First 365 Day Journey to Financial Freedom

On day 1 of my 365 Day Journey towards Financial Freedom, I charted a short list of what I wanted in order to find a more ‘sustainable’ happiness.

In reviewing my list, I am proud to say that I am a little, or maybe even a lot, further along in my journey than I would have predicted. This blog, and my dedication to not lose my drive and focus, have helped me stay on track and get inspired. This transformation of my life is real, and I want to thank those that are reading and following me along in my journey. I hope some of my stumbling thoughts have helped you.

Let’s take a look at what I said I wanted and if I am now doing or feeling these things:

Excerpt from First Entry Oct 26th 2009

To begin my journey, I wrote a list of some of the key answers to the question: ”What do I want?” Here are my answers in no particular order:

I want to be FREE to move my life forward

Through much reflection, I’ve learned that freedom is really a perception. Though I felt very stuck for many years prior to starting my journey, I was only as stuck as I allowed myself to be. Things don’t always move or change as fast as I want them to in order for me to feel more free, but many things have changed. Most namely, I quit my FT job and I am choosing to pursue my own business! That is a big step for me toward my freedom.

I want to get my POWER back

The main thing I was looking for was an inner confidence in what I am and what I will add to the world. In my journey so far, I’ve learned that success is almost entirely based on your confidence, attitude and sense of purpose.

I want to WRITE

I am writing – a lot! I’m writing on this blog, I’ve written articles that have been published on Wisebread and in magazines, and I’m in need of a lot of how to guides and documents for my new business. I also cannot wait to write a series of ebooks on SEO & usability and other web marketing tips I’ve learned along the way.

I want to LOVE what I do for a job

Guess what – I now do! I didn’t love the politics where I used to work, they impeded on me enjoying my work. The design and business building of what I am doing is super fun, but my passion is lead generation and marketing. I was discussing it with my husband and realized its a matter of an inner desire to help others combined with a need to influence. Successful online marketing is all about beauty, simplicity and influence. Beyond this, I am looking forward to getting into the health industry once I have started being more successful with business building.

I want to feel comfortable and at PEACE

Not quite there yet. I move at such a fast pace, and I have a 2 year old for goodness sakes. Finding time for balance of mind, body and spirit is always a bit of a struggle. Still an important goal for me however.

I want to take CONTROL of my own destiny

I feel that I am doing this much more than I used to, though many things always still seem up in the air. I have realized that you can only control things so much, and after a certain point you have to trust and believe that things will shape themselves for you.

I want to spend more QUALITY time with my family and activities I want to do

I don’t know that I am spending MORE time, but the time I have with my family is better spent with me happier. Step in the right direction.

I want to find SUSTAINABLE happiness

Sustainable? Not yet. Happier? Yes.

I want to live an INTENTIONAL life

I think everything I am doing is getting me much closer to this. The largest thing that I have to do is manage my most precious asset, time, as best as I can and filter out what is and is not a priority toward my intentional living.

So, overall, I think I am a lot closer than I expected to getting where I want to be at this stage in my life. Hooray!

Related Posts

• June 23, 2010 -- Stop Chasing After Happiness – Choose Happiness

One thing that has suprised me so far in my journey to financial freedom is the laborious process for signing up for certain types of accounts to manage and improve my finances.

Since I started this blog, I have been reading and learning a lot, but actually opening accounts has been a bit of a nightmare. Noneless, I’ve had success and ease with a few of them:

Awesome & Easy Financial Accounts I have Opened So Far

SmartyPig Savings Accounts – I am so impressed and in love with this simple banking model.

1. The process to open the account was so easy and all online.
2. I have many simple savings account goals set up
3. I have small but recurring transfers being sent to my specific savings goals
4. I earn 2% interest
5. Not to mention if I should choose to buy a gift card with one of the savings goals (ie wedding season!), I get a bonus cash back.

529 College Invest Account with Vanguard

1. I opened this account entirely online and funded it through ACH from my daughter’s expired CD.
2. I diversified the options of investment allocations
3. I’m planning to monitor it on a monthly basis.
4. I have recurring transfers set up, which will increase slightly automatically annually. Done and done.

Key Bank Business Account

1. This was the best website I could find in my local area for information on the full features of a free business account, rates, fees, online tools, etc
2. The online sign up process was simple
3. I didn’t like having to wait 7-10 days for the follow up paper work
4. Other than that I am happy with this account so far.
5. Added bonus is they are going to give me a few hundred bucks promotional money

What I’ve Learned About IRAs & 401K Rollovers

IRAs are not very easy to open online. Also there are tax implications with converting to a Roth from a Traditional, rollover processes, etc. I have more to learn here before I’m done.

I’ve opened a TradeKing account and tried to figure out how to transfer my Traditional IRA over and then convert it to a Roth IRA. There was a $50 charge to do that and they said I had to re-apply all over again. So, I am in uncomfortable territory here and its making me go slower.

Additionally, I considered rolling over at least a portion of my former employer 401K to Lending Club. I really want to get started with LendingClub as well as some very well researched stock trading. LendingClub has something in its documentation with its partner company for IRA’s, Entrust CAMA, about a $150 annual fee that I’m not too happy about. So, I need to read over the documents for IRAs and fees with a lot more attention to detail before making a decision.

But I’m still a novice, scared investor. The 529 is easy because its fund based, but I of course will pay management fees. I’d like to not have to, but I don’t want to be a super active day trader either.

So, all in all, investing and investment accounts are scaring me, but I don’t really want to go pay an advisor, so I’m going to have to overcome this fear and figure it out sooner than later!

How do you overcome your lack of knowledge with investing in uncharted territory?

photo by: ndevil

Related Posts

• November 22, 2009 -- Review of SmartyPig Online Savings Account and Budget Tracker

Use Your Calendar to Schedule Out Blocks of Time

I use a very simple, but extremely effective, method of planning out my day that has helped me immensely when I worked in the corporate environment using Outlook’s calendar feature, but also will be an essential part of my success as an entrepreneur.

I wanted to share it with you, because whenever I have told others about it, they find it very different and a helpful way to organize their time to be the most efficient.

Schedule Out Your Time Visually – Here’s What I Do:

I plan out my week ahead of time, by putting blocks of time on my calendar labeled with “tasks” or “big picture” labels for what I need to accomplish. I have been consulting long enough now, that I have a sense of how much time it takes me to accomplish things. Though it is not fail-proof, it works. This time management technique also helped prevent me from having my calendar TOO filled up with appointments and meetings when I worked in the corporate world. Not that it completely prevented it, but it helped others respect my time when they looked at what I was doing on my calendar to schedule appointments.

Schedule Out Your Time Visually – Here’s What You Can Do:

1. Determine how long on average it takes you to accomplish your work in 1/2 or 1 hour increments
2. Schedule your time out ahead of time in blocks on your calendar (Use tasks or simply appointments)
3. Adjust as required

To some, this concept may seem to simple or maybe you already do something similar. We all manage our time differently. There are many advanced task options, categories, and other time management options in Outlook and other office clients that help immensely as well. This technique that I listed above has been the single most helpful way to manage my daily work load that I have found. Now, to manage multiple clients and multiple time frames for projects, I use a project planning tool.

A Note on Monitoring Your Email Inbox

One last thought that I have heard  from many works wonders in freeing up your time to be more efficient with the workday.

Only check your email at certain intervals in the day.

Let’s say you block off 15 minutes in the morning, before lunch, after lunch, and about 1-2 hours before you leave. If this is a possibility for you, it can extremely help you focus your time and stop allowing for constant distractions.

What other techniques do you use to organize your calendar?

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Overcome Fear to “Win Some or Learn Some”

Today is my last day at my job, and I am taking a step into the unknown. For the last four years, I have worked at the same full time position. In my last post, I outlined the logical and emotional reasons for making a decision on what to do next with my life and career. I also explained that, if all fear was pushed aside, I would choose to follow my heart and do my freelance web design and online marketing, as well as build other business ventures.

The fearful side of my still keeps saying, are you crazy? In this economy?  What happens if you fail? How do you know you will succeed?
And of course, the truth is, I have no idea what is coming next. All that I can do is keep my mind in the right place, and put my best foot forward.

Fear and doubt have a tendency to sneak back into your mind at the most stressful and insecure times in your life, when what you really need are feelings of confidence and strength.

For me, though I still experience feelings of doubt and fear, I am now able to recognize my fear as a trigger for the fact that I am out of my comfort zone, and that this will be a good learning and growth period of my life.

The Steps You’ll Need to Overcome Fear and Doubt:

1. Recognize the emotional trigger that caused you to feel fear, doubt, etc
2. Accept that there are some logical reasons for the feelings
3. Acknowledge that, though there are some reasons that you are feeling fear, there is also the strong possibility that things will go the way you want them to
4. Accept uncertainty and the unknown as a constant part of life
5. Think positive and be confident in your decisions
6. Move forward with your best foot forward
7. Mission Accomplished: Fear is Overcome

What are the Possible Outcomes of Pushing Past Your Fears?

1. You Get What You Hoped or Even Something Better
2. You “Fail”, but You Learn From Your Mistakes and Move On

Or, in the words of Jason Mraz: “You Win Some or Learn Some”

I’ve made my decision to give it a try. I have the ability so I am going to take a 2 month test period to see if I can truly build my businesses to support my family.

Here’s My 2 Month Plan:

• I already have a few new and a few big projects lined up, including my other recurring work for clients.
• I am going to re-brand my business, which is currently called AGR Web Designs, to Lead Online Marketing. This will include moving from a sole proprietor model to an LLC, a new website/branding/blog, etc strategy, marketing and better packaged offerings. I have also started to get better with software for my invoicing an estimates (I may to a post/review on those tools)
• I may also do a bit of additional part time work during this time as I build my business
• I will continue to build my timeline/planning templates business
• I’m considering building another small site that focuses on wordpress and/or thesis design, as this market is really booming and I enjoy working in that area

I am afraid, but I am also very excited. And though it is a slightly uncomfortable place to be, it makes me feel more alive and happy about my career than I have been in the last 4 years.

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Well, its official. I have turned in my two week notice at my current position and I am pursuing other options. We have enough of a padding to last long enough for me to sort this out. (My fear is talking there)

I’m very happy about this first decision and I have lots of options. Nonetheless, I am very much struggling with this life decision. The lucky part is that I can actually make this choice with the career path that I have in web design and online marketing. Here are my options:

Option 1: Accept a FT Corporate Job - The “Logical” Choice

Pros

• Steady income to support my family, benefits (health, dental, paid time off)
• Opportunity for learning from others and new environment
• Career growth potential
• Escape from the cubicle and florescent lighting

Cons

• Not enough time to do my freelance work, be a mom, take care of the house, etc
• Potential to be ‘more of the same’ in terms of politics and personalities
• 401 K hasn’t been a reliable investment vehicle for retirement

Option 2: Accept PT Work + Freelance/Businesses - The “Tempting” Choice

Pros

• Flexible hours, variation in work
• Ability to pursue many projects and avenues (web, businesses, writing)
• Pontenial to be happier by feeding my creative outlets, feeling of acomplishment
• Ability to help many small businesses and increase networking
• Ability to be there for my daughter more, especially when she is sick

Cons

•  Inconsistent income, no protection from month to month, no paid time off
• Have to work at ensuring I have additional work
• Location of jobs may vary, though remote is very possible in my industry
• Administrative duties increase, have to take care of own taxes, health, investments
• Might be lonely working alone majority of the time

I want to live every day as if it was my last. I want this thing called life to matter. And I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to do that if I can’t do more of the things that I want to do with my time. Having a little 2 year old means that I don’t have any ‘down time’. The time I have is absolutely precious.

But whether I’m following my heart and whether I’m taking care of my responsibilities might be two separate things. I am the sole bread winner right now in our household. Is this just a timing issue or is it the right time to make the leap?

I’ve made a hard choice which is to quit my job to start to really craft the life that I want to lead. But now I need to get more specific and really play out what my life will look like depending on what path I choose.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned it is that there are no black and white answers. I’ve  also learned that people are willing to be flexible working with you if they truly value what you offer.

Often times its fear that prevents us from taking a leap. If I can get past the fear, what choices would I make?
Option 2 hands down. Can and should I overcome this fear?

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Dying  Your Hair at Home without it Turning Green or Orange

Rainbows Might be Pretty, but Its Not What I Have in Mind!

This post is for the ladies, but if you’re a guy, send it to your friends, girlfriends or wife, they’ll thank you!

First off a note: Use this ‘advice’ at your own risk. I take absolutely no claims for your own use or misuse of hair dying products. This post is simply a few tips I’ve learned that have helped me save some money without compromising my style too much.

I have experimented with dying my own hair for years now, and I’m not going to lie, I have had some green and orange experiences.

For the dying products that I use, I like to go to Sally’s and get the professional grade products. They are very cheap, and if you know how to use them much much much more affordable than the boxed kind at the super market. Plus, the boxed kind often don’t work or leave you with the orange/green issue.

If you have golden toned hair, use products with gold in the title. If you have more grey or ash colored hair use products with ash in the title. I personally avoid all ash related products as they without a doubt can turn my hair green. I’d prefer orange to green anyway.

When things typically go wrong and leave you with orange or green hair is because you are trying to do something too drastic to your hair, your hair is over-dyed, or you aren’t using products that go well with your hair. If you get products at Sally’s ask them to help you find what goes with your hair type.

There are so many chemical factors that go into dying hair, this is why many people would prefer to go to a stylist, they don’t want to mess around with their hair and potential side effects. I forgo this to save money and take the risk. I have it down pretty well at this point.

My Most Recent Results. Not too Bad.

Using the Wella hair dye products with the developers at Sally’s has been consistent for me.  Typically I use a 1:2 ratio. One part dye to 2 parts developer. For doing highlights, I can get away with using just 1/2 ounce and 1 ounce developer. So that ends up costing me about $2 or so per time for the dye and developer used. The developer works this way: 10% will do more deposit and less lift, so its good for dark colors. 40% will do more lift so its good for lightening hair. I typically use the 40% developer for adding golden highlights to my hair.

I use a cap for highlights and then cover my head with aluminum foil. I sometimes add heat with a hair dryer to speed up the process. It can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes to get the results I want with lightening. I check often to see how its doing.

Its always good to do a sample on your hair before doing the full thing. This will prevent many many problems.

The typical rotation that I like to use to save money on hair expenses is this:

Month 1:

• Professional Hair Stylist: Color, 3/4 Highlights and Cut. Cost: About $145 + Tip
• Wash with slightly nicer than lower end Color Enhancing Shampoo / Conditioner. Deep Condition Once / Week. Cost: $15-25

Month 2:

• Semi-permanent hair shine or rinse wash to enhance the color. Cost: $5-10

Month 3 or 4:

• Do my own hair highlights with sally’s products. Cost $5 (Once you’ve purchased all the products needed, its very inexpensive to continue, but you will need to buy a brush, cap, plastic gloves and the color/developer at first)

Month 5 or 6:

• Semi-permanent hair shine or rinse to enhance color. Cost: $5-10
• Hair cut. $30-50

Month 7 or 8:

• Depending on how it looks, its back to the salon or I’ll do it myself again.

You get the gist. Again, this system isn’t perfect, but it helps me to save a lot of money without compromising on my style.

photo by mogret

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• March 19, 2010 -- Overcoming Fear of Failure and the Unknown
• July 13, 2010 -- Financial Check In – Celebrate Progress!

In my pursuit towards financial freedom, I have been able to narrow down my goals and realize key elements that I want to focus on for my career and life style.

I have now managed to categorize and budget my expenses, long term and short term savings accounts, and I have begun to understand tax rules and how they affect investment accounts and options.

Nonetheless, I still find it difficult to determine the order and priority to assign to saving, paying off debts, investing, and business start ups.

There are so many competing philosophies on this topic, and I believe that there truly is not any one answer. Most advisors and financial ‘gurus’ will base their recommendations for you based on your risk tolerance, age and stage in life, and other factors. Lately, many advisors are much more conservative in their recommendation that you save and save and save your money for emergencies.

Here’s a look at what our short term plan is to balance all of these categories:

Save

Short Term Savings for Spending: I am doing a better job of setting aside small amounts towards short term savings goals including a wedding gift fund, a car maintenance fund and a tuition fund for my husband’s college.

Long Term Savings: We also are saving towards longer term savings goals such as our contingency fund, software business expenses and my daughter’s education fund.

Pay Off / Reduce Debt

We are selling out house in an effort to reduce our debts and get to a level where we are more comfortable with our savings options. It hasn’t sold yet though (bummer!). I’m also looking forward to renting and not owning for a while so that we have a bit more flexibility with where we live.

Besides this, I used some of our tax refund to go towards our car loan. One of our goals is to pay off our 7 year car loan in 1.5 years. That will involve some aggressive payments. According to the calculator I used something like paying $150/month more than what we owe. I am considering setting up a bi-weekly payment also for this to help reduce the balance and interest paid. This will allow us to begin paying off our new student loans for my husband’s college expenses. They aren’t huge, but we’d like to be able to make that transition. So, paying off the car loan debt is definitely a focus for us.

Invest

I invest in my 401k, but it mostly depresses me to follow it. No matter how I allocate it, it vastly under peforms the S&P 500 index fund.

Beyond that, I am in the process of transitioning my Traditional IRA to an online brokerage. I also am opening up a Roth IRA, but realistically won’t be able to contribute to it until our home is sold.

I’ll be moving my daughter’s certificate to a 529 College Invest plan in April.

Building Businesses

I don’t plan on building just one business, I plan on having multiple, including the consulting business that I already operate. I want to focus my efforts on business opportunities but once they are developed and running well, I would like to diversify and branch into other businesses (hopefully product based) for multiple income streams. This is not an overnight thing, but I firmly believe that this is possibly the most valuable thing I could be spending my time and some amount of investment on. Plus, I think this is what America needs right now. More start up small businesses, more entrepreneurs to get things moving.

As much as I am happy to be making efforts in many financially-savvy categories, I do still struggle with balancing and prioritizing them. I’d love your insight on this.

photo by calliope

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Since I began this blog I have narrowed down my focus towards determining that I want to start more businesses that are product rather than service based. I have now taken that leap with my new, still working out the kinks website; ontimelines.com.

Based on the wonderful feedback from this website, I have realized an area that I really want to focus on further and offer help to others: Planning and organizing. I love the simplicity that a time line can offer for planning and visualizing your goals.

In the short term, this site will offer custom, beautiful templates for PC and Mac office tools for everything from wedding planning to childhood milestones to fitness scheduling. The site will include packages of timelines, checklists and plans for every day use. My long term goal is to offer an online tool as well.

So, you may notice a slight decrease in my blogging on this site, but it is not because I am not working on my journey to financial freedom, I am just redirecting some of my efforts into action!

If you have suggestions on what to do or add, I’m happy to hear them.

Happy planning!

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Photo from Apple.com

Alright, this post is just a shameless plug for my iMac on the Leapord OS X. But really, this computer has allowed me to use so many organizing and helpful tools so that I can expand both my business and improve my use of time. I know this is a bit off topic, but I just have to share some of the reasons why my Mac has made it possible for me to progress my quest for organizing, budgeting, and overall happiness since I have owned it.
For years I have wanted a Mac. I just never was ready to take the leap until Parallels (and Boot Camp) arrived. I bought my first laptop mac, but was quickly scared by my failure to get Boot Camp working and quickly returned it and went back to the comfort of my PC.

Now, I know that most Mac converts already know this stuff, but a lot, and I mean a lot, of PC users don’t. So, I’m going to share my version of what you’re missing out on if you still own a PC.

Photo from Apple.com

What PC Users are Missing:

• I can use my mac and PC software at the same time
• I don’t have to buy or install virus software all the time, that comes with the mac worry free
• I don’t have to worry about backing up my files. I just plug in an external hardrive and Time Machine does all the work without me thinking about it. If you want to revert, its actually FUN to enter into the time machine which looks sort of like a star wars show and go back in time to a previous edition of a file, etc.
• Built in video, fun tools, iPhoto, and so much more. I’m not kidding, the list goes on and on with the features that PC’s are leagues behind on.
• Expose is awesome to be able to view multiple windows that you are working on at once and the dashboard widgets are also an easy and simple way of keeping your workspace clean, but allowing for quick access to widgets of your choice.
• There are many applications that come standard with the Mac and many free or cheap ones to install that just run, there is very little to do to get your apps running.

Trade Offs – What Will I Loose if I Switch from a PC?

• Old software that isn’t compatible may not work. Its unlikely though. You can get Parallels to work with XP or a newer version of windows, which works with most old software.
• Add on software tools do have an upgrade cost associated with them, such as Parallels. For some reason Parallels tells me I don’t have enough 3D video memory for optimal performance, which surprises me as I got my mac not 6 months ago.
• You have to adjust to folders and icon sorting, as well as a slightly different way of using applications, but the newer version of PC operating systems like Windows 7 and Vista are moving in that direction anyway.
• That’s all I can think of off hand. You can still use Microsoft Office if you are addicted to that. However, I have also become a large fan of iWork and the Mac Office tools. UPDATE: Please see the comments below about compatibility issues if you are an avid Microsoft Office and software user. You may not be able to make the switch if you are, because it just plain wouldn’t be worth it.

If you can, I say ditch the PC. Its worth it.

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• February 6, 2010 -- Should I Invest in a 529 College Savings Plan? If So, Which One?

There are many savings and investment vehicles to choose from when it comes to saving for your children’s college. They range from ESAs to CDs, and in some states, you can invest in a 529 savings fund.  I have been confused and intrigued by the 529 College Savings Plans since I had my daughter, but have made it a goal to start one by April 2010 when her CD expires. I’m not clear what states these are available, but they are where I live in Colorado.

529 plans are more than just savings accounts. These state-sponsored college savings plans were established by the federal government in Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code to encourage families to save more for college. They offer unique state and federal tax benefits you can’t get from other ways to save, making them one of the best ways to save for college. – College Invest

Benefits of 529 College Savings Accounts are Numerous:

• Possible state tax deductions from contributions
• Savings are tax-free
• High contribution limits
• Withdrawals and account options are flexible for your needs

Why not invest in something stable for my daughter and get a little help at tax time? Here’s a summary of what I’ve learned about what’s available and how to select a 529 College Savings Plan.

There are 4 plans to choose from. Some of the plans available, such as the one from Vanguard, offer a range of investment options for your funds with varying levels of risk. The main concern I have is that I would rather have a stable return with little risk, and have the tax incentives than have a volatile savings plan for my daughter’s education savings.

Great Resources:

• Smart Choice College Savings Plan eFirstBank.com – Offers a money market and a 1 year savings option.
• Vanguard’s Direct Portfolio College Savings Plan – There are options for all risk levels, use their Risk Tolerance Allocation Tool to find out your level
• Scholars Choice College Savings Program – Offers a variety of investment options through Legg Mason Global Asset Allocation, LLC. and thier financial advisors only.
• CollegeInvest Stable Value Plus – A partnership with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of Connecticut (MetLife) to offers a guaranteed fixed income college saving option
• Comparison of the difference between 529, Coverdell Savings ESAs, UTMAs and more for 2009. Compare College Savings Options. [PDF]
• CollegeInvest.org – Full Detail on the 529 Program Options

One thing is certain, don’t bank on your children getting a scholarship, start saving today. As parents we don’t have to do everything for our children, but what we can do makes a huge impact. I know it did for me, as the help my parents have given me has been invaluable.

Please note, this post is not to be considered financial advise. I do not take any responsibility for your investment or financial decisions. Please see my policy for more details.

UPDATE 3.29.2010: Yay! I finally opened and funded this account for my daughter through the College Invest website. It took me about 20 minutes to fill out the application, decide if I wanted to also enroll in the UPromise (shopping cash back that is directed and linked to your 529 account), and read over all of the documentation. I opted for the Vanguard fund after all, as I allocated a diverse mix of investment elections and plan to monitor it over time. I also set up a small recurring monthly transfer that will increase yearly by a certain amount. Progress!

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