My Financial Journey

How to go about frugal landscaping – Part II

March 5, 2007 MFJ Comments 4 comments

In Part I of this series I talked about some high level things you can do to save you money and increase your chances of success when going about landscaping. In this part I am going to talk about where to get some of the supplies you will need and how to save money on them.

Mulch
Mulch is an important part of most frugal landscaping plans. Mulch is not only a cheaper alternative to things such as gravel or stones, it is a lot less likely to cause you issues if it creeps out of your landscaping and into your lawn which it most likely will do. Think 2 inch rock in lawn mower versus piece of tree bark. Mulch is also much better for your plants and flowers as it is a natural material which will help retain moisture (less watering) and slowly break down and release nutrients for your plants and shrubs.
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A lottery winner that isn’t a complete disaster yet

March 2, 2007 MFJ Comments 1 comment

There is a recent article on CNN profiling Brad Duke who won the $220 million dollar power ball in 2005, unlike most lottery winners it looks like he has a somewhat solid plan for his money and didn’t just go blow through it in the first few years. He has a plan to grow his $85 million (that’s what he got after taking lump sump and paying taxes) to $1 billion dollars by 2014 and has currently grown it to $128 million while still giving over $1.3 million to his charitable organization, taking all his friends on a trip to Tahiti, paying off his mortgage, and giving each family member $12,000 per year (maximum gift without tax consequences).
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My Financial Journey Best of February 2007

March 1, 2007 MFJ Comments 0 Comment

February was a good month for My Financial Journey and here are some of my favorite posts from the previous month

February 1 – Asset Allocation – If you are young why wouldn’t you be 100% stocks?
February 12 – The true cost of owning a home – or reasons why renting isn’t all that bad.
February 14 – How to go about frugal landscaping – Part I
February 17 – Clothes as an investment??
February 19 – The fine line of Frugality
February 23 – Pay off Debt or Invest for Retirement
February 27 – 20%+ guaranteed return on your money in 2 easy steps.

$100,000 in principal by Age 30 2006 Recap

March 1, 2007 MFJ Comments 0 Comment

I just realized I never checked in on my progress for 2006 for my $100,000 by age 30 goal. I know I was ahead of schedule, but figured it would do me good to get a detailed list of goals vs actuals. Plus it will make it easier for me to keep track of my progress in 2007
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Retirement NestEgg Report – February 2007

February 28, 2007 MFJ Comments 1 comment

Well another good month for my total retirement nest egg as I broke the $50,000 barrier. It was due entirely to contributions though as my investments all were in the red this month, partially due to yesterdays little dip. As much as it’s fun to see me break the $50k mark I’d love it if yesterdays trend continued for a while and we went into a major bear market as I’d love to pick some more investments up on the cheap. One thing to note is that I now have a new retirement plan on the list as I recently switched jobs. Anyway here are the numbers.

My Roth IRA – $11,080.30 (-2.52%)
Wife Roth IRA – $13,984.38 (-1.68%)
Old Employer Traditional 401K – $11,807.45 (-1.05%)
Old Employer Roth 401K – $12,797.47 (+12.20%)
Current Traditional 401k – $617.67 (new)

Roth/Traditional % = 75.29% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $50,287.27 (+2.77%)

Personal Finance March Madness Round 1 – Reasons why you should not save for retirement vs 13 Personal Finance Helpers

February 28, 2007 MFJ Comments 0 Comment

FreeMoneyFinance is having his March Madness battle royal tournament of personal finance articles. If you aren’t familiar with the concept read below

Here we go with the first round of Free Money Finance March Madness (if you wonder what’s going on in these posts, see my article announcing March Madness and/or click on my March Madness category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject.) I’ve listed each “game” (one post versus another) in segments along with the wording provided by the author when the post was submitted. Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two as commenters have the chance to win a free book. Here we go:

Anyway my article on “Reasons why you should not save for Retirement” is squaring off against Suspension of Disbelief’s “13 Personal Finance Helpers” in Game 31. If you like my article go and tell FMF about it in the comments and while you are there vote on all of the articles in the first round. You have two days to finish up your votes.

I have 3 other articles in the tourney, but their games have yet to come out. Just by commenting over at FreeMoneyFinance you have a chance to win a free book, so head on over to FreeMoneyFinance and join in the Madness

Festival of Frugality #63 Recap

February 28, 2007 MFJ Comments 0 Comment

The 63rd Festival of Frugality is hosted over at Stingy Students. Stingy went with a stars of Food Network theme. I’m a pretty big fan of the food network, especially Alton Brown (partly because his food is usually very practical and you learn a lot in the process). Some of the other chefs are fun to watch, but you probably won’t find me even know where to get half of the ingredients they use. Anyway my article on the Fine Line of Frugality is located under Ina Garten.

Here are some other articles that I enjoyed
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