Ok, this will be fun for me. I accidentally came across this blog a few weeks ago when I decided to see what the latest personal finance blogs were. Cool thing is: I have a lot of the same views as the owner here - but I don't practice as much as I feel I should.
I would like to post my finances, and a dash of my personal beliefs, and see what comes back from the community here.
Income:
3756.15/mo Wages
450/mo Rent (+/- 100/mo due to bi-monthly fees/work orders)
Expenses:
687.26/mo Mortgage
141.81/mo Insurance
35.00/mo Internet
449.56/mo Loan (25k @ 1.9%)
89.00/mo (2x cell phones)
8.39/mo Netflix
1900.00/mo Food/Clothes/Entertainment/Gas/Maintenance/Vice/Left over goes to investments
All else becomes assets
My Rent goes into an account that is only for Maintenance of the property.
I should try and one day figure out better numbers for the Food/Clothes etc category. I smoke a pack a day, I drink two drinks a day. My wife drinks one drink a day on average. We eat healthy, but wastefully at times. We are at below average weight, our diet is more protein and fat, not so much carbohydrates. We are a family of four. I used a cheaper signature loan to pay off two car notes, and invested the rest.
Assets:
29882.30 Bonds in TSP (G-Fund)
4000.00 Cash "under mattress"
2971.93 Savings Acct.
25786.36 Physical Silver (1142 Toz at today's price)
2781.00 Physical Gold (2 Toz at today's price)
91900.00 House (estimate Zillow.com)
Liabilities:
21925.03 Loan (1.9%, funded vehicles and used the rest to invest)
126758.79 Mortgage (refinanced at 3.75%, bought in Aug 2006 at 138,000 @ 6.5%)
I am in the Army with 14 years in the military. I am worth 100k/yr public, 120k/yr - 300k/yr private sector depending on specialty and location within my field.
Short version of my beliefs: I don't trust the US dollar will last much in its current structure, which is why I have more assets in physical metal, but I don't believe it will take long to fix it. I personally will wait for a good correction and switch to another US currency issue to rebalance my assets back into stocks and take advantage of the confusion and revaluation (I used to own a lot of stocks for a while, I dumped it all in 2006 and switched to the current configuration - I just didn't see the housing crash as clear until later, and was fixated on getting out of the military and having a house to start a family with).
I left out my housing and other benefits, which I can calculate myself in addition to feedback. I am a WO1 (W-1) and a 350G in the Army with 14 years. I would like to retire as soon as possible (and then start doing something that I enjoy, like teaching). I may do a couple years in the private sector to stash some cash after finishing with the military.
Thoughts/Comments/Attacks/Misc. welcome.