Saturday, February 27, 2010

Tiburon Car Repairs!

So today was a day of repairs!  About a year ago when I got my car during a cold New York winter, I broke the regulator of my drivers side window.   Even more recently, I brought my car to the mechanics for repairs and while there, my other regulator broke.  So it was time for repairs!  The mechanic quoted the parts for around $250 and then 3 hours of labor.  I managed to buy the 2 window regulators online for $138.  I completed the repairs with my trusty 11mm socket and screwdriver (and occasional help from my lovely girlfriend assigned the official task of window holder and watergirl) in 2 hours.  Saving me a whopping $350!  And I got to enjoy a great day outside in the sun working on the car which I always enjoy.

I know in Texas it was a great day today, how about you guys?  Anyone else do some home or car repairs?

Net debt - Feb 27, 2010

So as of Feb 27, 2010, this is my financial situation:

Student loans: -$84,026.74
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$84,026.74

A note about the above finances. The student loans are at a weighted rate of around 6% ($32,241.50) for my government loans, and around 3% ($51,785.24) for my private loans.

How's your net worth going?  I hope it's going up!

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Thursday, February 25, 2010

My "first" real post

My first real post wasn't actually on this website, it was on my buddies Free Money Finance, and I'd like to say thank you to him.  I've been interested in money my whole life, seeing compound interest in other things before money, and once I saw that it translated over, I was pretty happy.  Within the past few years I've become increasingly interested and active managing my money and then I chatted with FMF and he sort of convinced me that I could start up my own blog.  So here's my outreach and an intro to what my finances are now.  In the future I'll be posting my "Net worth" updates each week on Friday, not to get my posts up, but simply because I receive them each week and I feel like it'll encourage me even more so to hit chunks out of it bit by bit.

Below is what I emailed FMF and what he posted!


Help a Reader: Getting Out of Debt

Here's an email I recently received from a reader:
I'm currently 25 going onto 26 soon.  My net worth is currently -$73,520 roughly and although that's (really) bad, I'm not in a horrible spot overall but want advice. 
Currently I have :

  • $3k in emergency fund,
  • a few hundred in my savings/checking (which I'm trying to have a base of 1 to 2 thousand)
  • no credit card debt.
  • a few thousand in stock
  • ~ -$52k private student loan @ 3.1%
  • ~ -$32k government student loan @6.8%
Currently I'm paying the minimum on the government and paying an additional $300 each month on top of minimum for the private.  The reason why I'm paying more on the private than the government is because of a new rule that just happened for people who work for the government or public service which allows for your student loans to be wiped free after working there 10 years which is what I'm doing currently.  Also that 300 dollars will allow me to have it paid off in about 5 years instead of 10 and saving me a lot of money.  Also, my job allows me (actually forces me) to save for retirement 6.5% of my pay along with them contributing an equal amount. 
Also, I'm hoping in the next year or two to get married. The ring I've priced out is going to cost somewhere around 3 to 5k.  I think my folks will give us some money for the wedding as well which I'm hoping we won't go over, but still planning on doing it all myself.  Each year at my current job we get a COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) "raise" but once the fiscal year starts I'm hoping to get a pay raise of 25 to 50% of what I make now, apprx 35k which will bring me up to (at least I'm hoping) 50, preferably 55.  Planning on this raise money to set aside a portion for budgeting a ring/new (used) car since mine is starting to go and also mainly the student loans again.  I'd like to have almost no debt by 30.  Idea's?  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Am I nuts?
I believe the main question here is how to get out of debt by 30. Think he can do it?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Welcome!

First of all, welcome! This is my new blog, one that I would like to share with the world and was inspired by many of my blogger friends out there. I'd like to use this blog to convey my thoughts about money, finances, my own personal life, perhaps any other things that come to mind.

So the blog is titled, Job's money - Free by 30. This isn't for the workplace, or about stealing your works money, I titled it more for the fact that "Job", is a popular word that gets tagged, along with "money", so hopefully this blog get more hits from google and other search engines. And the last part, I hope is obvious, "Free by 30" it's my personal goal to be debt free by 30. I'm currently 25 so I have 5 years to go!

While you look through my blogs, I'd like to remind you that I am not a CPA, accountant, or for that matter, that I work with money at all. I am a trained physicist and you should not take my blog as the final word and I will not take any responsibility for money made or lost by you. Remember, it's your money, you choose what to do with it and always use common sense. My next post will tell you what sort of situation I am currently in and where I'd like to go.