How I track my money

Many people track there funds several different ways. When I was younger, I used to use an excel spread sheet, however that became too cumbersome after having a couple of accounts and especially after having stocks where the number can magically go up or down without any funds actually going in or leaving.

Now, with the wonder of the internet, I primarily use Mint.com.  Mint is really a wonderful website, capable of tracking typical savings/checking accounts, credit cards, loans (student, car, and mortgage), investment accounts, and even retirement accounts! They also have a few really nice options as well. Because of the sheer quantity of people who use the website, they clearly have a vast amount of information. With that info, they are capable of comparing your information to the national and state averages (perhaps local as well, I think they've switched things up recently).

They also have a really wonderful way of setting goals and deciding how much you want to save and by when; they can predict dates, and how much you'll need to save by or in some cases, like retirement, how much money you'll need.  In my case, I'll need $5,374,523 to save for retirement. They got this number by my current age, retirement age, desired annual income (in today's dollar) for retirement and what type of investment style I have (assuming 3% inflation and that I'll live until I'm 95 years old).  

Or perhaps a better example of saving for a car fund; they give you a way of estimating how much money you'll need to save by either you entering it or typing in what type of car you want (new or used & estimating the sales tax). After that it'll tell you the sales tax amount, if there is a trade in you want to enter, and how much you'll need to save to have it by a certain date or how long it will take if you can only save a certain amount. Lastly, you'll link it to an account and they'll let you know if you're falling behind, jumping ahead, or just staying on track.  :-) 

Regarding the transactions, they do a great job of classifying how much I'm spending and where too. Only a handful of transactions ever get unclassified or miss-classified. From that, you'll be able to see what and how much you spend your money on.


The only downside to mint, in my opinion, is some of their 'suggestions' they offer.  Like the credit cards they recommend due to my spending habits, refinancing the house, etc. Many of them are not the best suggestions after digging into the deal and really seeing how it compares to what I have already, of course, that may be also because I'm not the typical person when it comes to money.

Overall, I really think mint is a wonderful site, perfect for keeping tabs on what you're spending by use of a budget and seeing if it's reasonable. Also, their blog is chalk full of great idea's, tips, and graphics. Definitely a must have for those who are in need of seeing what they have, trying to plan ahead, and get out of the rat race. Also, it's great for couples because you can really see what the big picture is and get both of you interested in what you have.  Side note, they also have iPhone/iPad/Android apps as well for those who are tech savvy.  And don't worry about security, you can't control any of your money or access your passwords in clear text from the website either, so if someone does manage to hack in, they'll only be able to see what accounts you have, but not actually control any of your money.  :-)   This is a perfect way for everyone to understand what's going on with their money for the New Year and maybe even make (money) New Year resolutions.

How do you keep track of your money?  What money New Year resolutions do you have?  For us, it's to open an (Roth) IRA (and max it out) and to really start paying down the student loans heavily. We know we wont be out of debt any time soon, but at least it is a start. Maybe in a year we can check back in and see how everyone really did?

Amazon Experiment

The last "major" purchase I did on Amazon was my electric toothbrush (which I love by the way) I purchased it solely with gift cards I received either as birthday presents or side-gigs (primarily surveys). I thought that this was a very interesting experiment since doing so allowed me to not get excited about the next newest and fanciest toothbrush, but allowed me to see all of the features, really look at the reviews, and evaluate what I wanted from it and what it was capable of.

Now I'm doing it again. I am currently saving up Amazon gift cards to purchase a garage door opener. The garage door opener I am looking at is approximately $200 to $250 and I have already saved up to $80 in the past 2 months going about this slow route. Approximately $60 was from credit card cash-back and $20 was from surveys. I imagine that my credit card cash back feature will end up being the main contributor to my goal. While I know the cash back isn't necessarily free money, in fact, I have to spend a lot of money to earn that money, it is money I would have otherwise spent and was returned back to me, so for this purpose I'll consider it "free.” I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Net Debt - July 2013

Student loans: -$78,707.91
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$136,028.01
Total Debt: -$214,735.92


It has been forever since I have last blogged, however, since then I've paid off my car loan debt and now I'm only left with student loan and mortgage. Currently I am paying about $100/mo to pay down the interest and hopefully that will increase in the future! It would be amazing to have my student loans down to 75k before the year is over. I guess we'll see if that's possible and depends a lot on certain things on our side.

Net Debt - Sept. 2011

Student loans: -$77,809.34 (+0)
Car loan: -$2,837.21 (+163.31)
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$138,506.89 (+543.45)

Net debt: -$219,153.44

Doing Surveys - Making Money

I was just given a $50 gift card from Express, for free. I was able to do this by filling out surveys online. Your first reaction might be, "There's a catch”, “I have to jump through a lot of hoops to do this”, or "I wont qualify." Over the past few years (June 2010), I have been doing surveys online in my free time and during that time; I've been gifted cash, gift cards, shampoo, deodorant, facial cream, among other products. I usually get to keep these products although sometimes I do have to return them (infrequently though).

The two main survey companies I work with are MySurvey and e-Rewards. Both are completely free, both have given me samples to try out, and both have given me enough points or credit to redeem for cash, amazon gift cards, or express gift cards (although I could have also gotten hotel points, airline points, among a vast array of other options). I love both of these companies for different reasons. 

Mysurvey is open and free to everyone; they'll notify you of many of the surveys that you receive however, some they wont so you have incentive to continue to log in daily. They also have monthly give-a-ways, which to my dismay I have never won. :-(  Many of the surveys are easy to fill out and you'll frequently see the same questions across many of the surveys making it easier and faster to fill out. I don't get spam from them or their affiliates. However, to earn points from them is a long and slow process unless you do the longer surveys, which can take up to 15 minutes. When you first sign up, you'll get more short surveys, but the longer you are with them, the more long surveys you'll get. I think it took me a couple of months to start getting consistently long surveys among many short surveys. Looking over my history, I seem to redeem about $10 cash (although lately I'm doing amazon gift cards), every 1-2 month period. I'd say it's easy work to get an extra $120 a year. I recently decided to also put all of that money towards amazon to purchase a new kindle. Nothing better than a free kindle. :-)  

E-Rewards is different than mysurvey, in that it is not open to the public and you have to be invited to use it. I frequently get emails from them and I can adjust how many I get per week. Their surveys you tend to either qualify for or not and frequently, I find that I don't qualify. However, even if you don't qualify they usually credit you a small amount, usually around $0.25 to $0.50. When you do qualify however, the amount is usually much higher, in the range of $5 to $25. When you have a certain amount of money built up you're able to redeem. Their rewards however are more limited. Personally I don't like to redeem for airline or hotel points, which is their main options, I much rather have cold hard cash. However they do have a few stores, which I enjoy shopping at occasionally when they have nice discounts. So, I opt for the Express gift card. They do have different levels of the gift card, but I usually try to aim for the $50, just so I don't have to fuss with many different cards and I can usually go ans pick out at least one or two things that would end up being completely covered by the card. How frequently do I redeem? I'd say I get $50 gift cards from express every 5-6 months, which is about the same as mysurvey, just clumped up into one pot.

So between the two survey companies, I make about $200 a year and free products as well. :-)  The survey's require little time to take, I usually do them on the weekends now and maybe occasionally during the week.  The samples that I try out are usually anonymous, so I have no idea who made them, what scent/flavor they are in (until I open them), etc.  However, I do appreciate them, currently I'm using "Body Wash 407," and it smells wonderfully.

Making money doing what you know best, tutoring

It's easy for many of us to forget that over the years we have gone to college for X amount of years and we may be thoroughly trained in a certain subject or field. While we may take certain subjects for granted, like calculus, history, politics, economics, etc., others are just beginning their journey into that field and need a helping hand. And this is where your knowledge can generate money by tutoring them.

This is how I got started by tutoring.... An email was recently sent around my department from an individual’s father, looking for a guiding hand for his son who will be taking a course in the fall semester in college and wants a head start since he'll have a heavy load. I looked at my schedule over the next 5-6 weeks and discovered that I could probably take on the additional load of tutoring a few times a week. So I replied back by offering my assistance and my online resume by LinkedIn showing my accomplishments in teaching and tutoring and the subject matter from the past (and of course what I'm doing currently as well).

They wanted to know what my rate would be per hour and I dug around looking at www.payscale.com for tutoring rates average and then I discovered another website, www.universitytutor.com where you can search locally for tutoring in a wide range of fields, their rates, travel fee's (if any), etc. While there were many people to teach the subject, physics, the rates I discovered were in the range of $15 to $30 per hour. Wow $30/hr., that's better than what I get paid at my day job! I looked at the tutors around our area, and all of them offered to tutor a wide range of subjects but none had specific training in physics besides just the entry level, so I replied back offering $25 - $30 per hour. Needless to say, they took the $25/hr. rate.

Now, 5 tutoring sessions later, and only spending about 6 hours with the student, I've earned nearly $150. And in the next few weeks, we'll be going at a faster pace, which means, I have to tutor him longer per session so I'll be raking in the money!


I did sign up for the University Tutor website and I really hope I'll be able to pick up a few hours a week from them as well.

The U.S. Debt Clock

With all of the debate about the our nations debt I decided I wanted to really see how it was split up and where everything was and to my great desire, I found an incredible website which shows that and much more.


http://usdebtclock.org/

This website will show you real time U.S. National Debt, which includes things like credit card debt, mortgage debt, interest, state debt, local debt, food stamps, etc, along with where it is split, for example, per person, per tax payer, per family, medicare, medicaid.  It's AMAZING!

Then to top it off, they also show different countries debt, state debt, and they have a time machine! For both back in time and forward in time! Ah, time machine, how I wish we could actually use you and go back in time to where the debt was actually going down.

For those of you who are interested, I thought I would just push that out there for everyone to see and hope you'll get a chuckle out of it.  And I hope everyone here will be debt free faster than what that clock shows!

Don't forget to be awesome everyone.

Net Debt - August 2011

Student loans: -$77,809.34 (+0)
Car loan: -$3,000.52 (+835.97)
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$139,050.34 (+178.20)

Net Debt: $219,860.20

About the car loan, if you notice, I'm pushing as hard as I can to have the car loan paid off as quickly as possible and I'm on track to have it paid off by new years. My actual car loan payment is only $172, so I actually paid an additional 4x as much. Although I could probably pay it off completely now, college will be starting soon, so between that and my college tuition bill, and some other bills that we are planning for, that would drop our cash reserves to almost nothing and we would have to start dipping into the emergency fund.

I've also picked up a side gig tutoring! So, at the moment, I have the pleasure of tutoring and making an extra $25 per hour, which I tend to be doing about 3-4 hours a week. So an extra few hundred dollars a month isn't too shabby, and I probably would be wasting that time anyway, so I'm happy at least to be making money from my wasted time. :-) I want to keep a running total of the money made from tutoring, so I'll be keeping a total there and hopefully this will encourage everyone to get a side gig and make some extra money and help pay off that debt faster, save for the future, or what ever you want to do. Of course it wont pay me more than my current job, but at least it definitely compliments it nicely.

Net Debt- July 2011

Student loans: -$77,809.34
Car loan: -$3,836.49
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$139,228.54

Net Debt: $220,874.37


It has been several months since my last net worth update and you'll likely see some dramatic changes that have happened in these numbers. So, let me explain a few things from top-down.

The student loans have been on deferment so I haven't made any payments to those; however, I have another 4 years or so left in school. So I will likely try to pay off at least some of the higher interest loans that are sitting at 6% and of course pay the interest while in deferment so it wont get added into the total again once I graduate.

Next the car loan. I was a naughty boy; I got into an accident and it was my fault and sadly, I totaled my beautiful car. Although I was starting to save for a new car, I didn't have enough saved at the time to purchase a car, hence the car loan. The car we did purchase though, I did extensive research into in regards to recalls, overall cost of ownership, mpg, etc. and will hopefully last a long time and save us some substantial money (over the life of the car) as the previous car was a gas guzzler. Likewise, you can see the loan amount is small, I'm hoping to have it completely paid for by the end of this year. Once it has been paid for, I will begin the process of saving for another car, hopefully save $12,000 or more and get a reliable car when needed.

Lastly, we purchased a home! Yay! We love our home and the mortgage principle and interest is actually less than the rent, however because we only did 3.5% down, we have a larger monthly than our rent due to the taxes, escrow and insurance along with all of the other prepay things. :-(

I am a bit disappointed with myself because we didn't pay 20% down, but I'm not sure when we would be able to save 20%. The home we purchased, as you can see wasn't an overly expensive home, and we plan on living here for AT LEAST another 5 year or so until my wife and I both finish our Ph.D.'s. Afterwards, we are hoping that we'll both be able to find a job locally, however, we are prepared, if necessary to sell and move.

However, I don't care much because we now have the freedom of doing what we want in our home. It is an energy star home (I'm too green not to go energy star) so our utilities seem to be staying around the same even though there is a lot more space in the home than the apartment.  We've also retrofitted in water saving devices into the home like the aerators and shower heads which  you can see all of those things in my previous post on how to save money, water, and the environment.  Likewise, because it is my own home I can do a lot more car repairs and maintenance at home saving us additional money!

Would you give money to your state to help bail them out?

Mint.com Personal Finances

I came across this image this afternoon and began to wonder, "Would I give $185.62, or how ever much your state is in debt per capita, to my state to help it get out of debt?"


Which really made me think, well, what would they spend my money on?

Well according to the other graphic I found which shows average state budgets, 40% of the state spending goes towards education among several other categories.  That is significant and I didn't even realize they spent that much! Certainly, the biggest chunk of my change would go back into the education system.  Is that good or bad?  Well, I think funding education is always a good move. And I don't have kids.

So all I can think of now are the countless people who would probably say "No, I wouldn't spend that money to help the state get out of debt, I have my own problems." But then I remember as a child going to school and my school having countless trash cans in the hallways collecting water from the leaks or my brother who went from K-12 completely on austerity budget.

I don't think that's a good environment for any child and I think I would pay that money even though my own debt load is high, if that meant giving the state a "2nd chance."  Of course, I wouldn't give it to them without strings. I would want for them to promise us one thing: Don't get into this mess again. Create a realistic budget, spend properly, pay back debts and look into the future so the state is never in debt again, as I plan to be as I dig my way out.

What do you think?

MCC requirements in Texas...

While purchasing a new home I discovered a few incentives that I thought, at first, I was eligible for. Therefore, for those of you who are now in the market, I'd like to show you a few things that may put a few bucks in your pocket or keep them there! 

Mortgage Credit Certificate, or better known as the MCC program...

"Allows the homebuyer to claim a tax credit for some portion of the mortgage interest paid per year. It is a dollar for dollar reduction against their federal tax liability."

~http://www.tdhca.state.tx.us/homeownership/fthb/mort_cred_certificate.htm

The great thing about this is that while it doesn't save you money, it does extend your salary up to $166.66 per month or $2,000 per year! Who doesn't like having an extra 2 grand in their pocket?!?

So, who's eligible? That's the tricky part, the rules aren't too complicated, but they are strict and the household has to be in a low-income bracket to begin with:

• The household has to meet income and home purchase requirements; 
• For Texas, it can vary by place, but frequently what I've seen the complete household has to be 80% below the statewide median income or an area of chronic economic distress.
• To find out what the median income is go to this website: 
• http://www.ffiec.gov/geocode/
• Enter the address and click on the "Get Census Demographic" on the bottom and you'll find the Median Income Family
• Have not owned a home as primary residence in the past three (3) years;
• Meet the qualifying requirements of the mortgage loan;
• Will use the home as their principal/primary residence. 
• Sadly, this wont work for those of you who wish to rent the home out. :-(

Some of the costs associated with this fee is a $75 non-refundable MCC Commitment Fee & 1% origination fee.

Granted that 1% origination fee could cost several thousand dollars, but keep in mind that this MCC credit is for the LIFE of the mortgage. In other words, it's possible that within the first year or two that you'll make that fee back and then the rest is free money from the government!  

Lastly, an important part of the MCC rate is that it varies by how much your home costs in Texas, so lets see what the limits are: 

• 30% of the annual interest paid on mortgage loans under $115,000 
• 25% of the annual interest paid on mortgage loans between $115,000 and $140,000
• 20% of the annual interest paid on mortgage loans between 140,000 and $210,375

There is also a cap on the program so I highly recommend applying for it as soon as possible, so that you'll be able to receive the funding, because once it's out of funds, it's out!

Example:

Let's say you want to buy a home in the medical district of San Antonio, TX.

1. I googled apartments near the medical district of San Antonio, and found the Villas of Oak Creste. 5315 Fredericksburg Rd 78229

2.  I went to http://www.ffiec.gov/geocode/ and typed in an address 5315 Fredericksburg Rd 78229 and found the MSD, Tract code, and most importantly, their demographic data:

3. I took their 2010 Est. Tract Median Family Income: $57,627 * 0.80 = $46,101.60 so everyone who lives under your new roof would have to have a combined income of less than $46,101.60 per year.

Therefore, lets say you and your wife combined make $45k, great, you've never owned a home and you're preapproved for an FHA loan. Great! You'll probably qualify for this credit!

Now how much will you get from this credit?

Lets say your mortgage is $140,000.00 with an interest rate of 4.75% (you after all have an amazing Credit Score right?), with 25% from the MCC Credit, you'll probably have an additional $1,662.50 yearly added to your salary or $138.54 per month!

Mortgage Amount:	$140,000.00
Interest Rate:	4.75%
Total Interest Paid First year:	$ 6,650.00
Mortgage Credit Certificate Rate:	X .25
Tax Credit Amount:	$1,662.50 $2,000 (max)

The major disadvantage to this program is that it counts everyone's income. My wife who isn't even a citizen, currently working as a student on an F1 visa, her stipend counted placing us just a couple of thousand dollars over the income required. I was disappointed. 

Readers, have any of you applied for the MCC? Received it? Tell me about your experience with the MCC, I'd be glad to hear about it!

Net debt - August 2010

Student loans: -$80,880.95 (+551.43)
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$80,880.95


I'll give up on my Alexa rating for now.  It's a bit depressing to see it continually worsen.  Anyway, as of late, I've been reading a few financial books, right now next to my nightstand is "Smart Couples Finish Rich" by David Bach and "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas Stannley and William Danko.  I'm also trying to write up a review for "The Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach as well.  I can't express my sorrow for being so lame on this blog lately.  It's been amazing how busy I've been.  But here's some good news!

I still have an colossal amount of debt, however it's been a pretty linear paying everything off and if I keep up, in under 6 years I should break even in my debt.  I've also set up a few goals for myself.  This coming Spring I will become a PhD student (assuming the university accepts me) and with that in mind, my job may be slightly more risky since they don't necessarily support it 100%.  As such, I'm saving up 6 months of expenses and also trying to save up for a car.  My current car has been a little bit erratic with not accepting gas (what kind of car doesn't like gasoline!?!?), idling gone wrong (cleaned the throttle body and that helped but still acts up), and much more.   Ideally, I'll have enough saved to pay outright when the time comes.  Otherwise, I'll keep that money for other big expenses that come along without dipping into the e-fund.


Other than that, things are going great!  Work has been keeping me busy, but I'm still able to read and get some things done outside of work.  We had a great time with some friends recently.  Invited them over for a big Asian night.  We made sushi and meso soup, they brought over dumplings and bubble tea.  A great time for a cheap time with friends.   After the fact I was thinking it would have been really great to watch bad kungfu movies, but we actually only played card games.

Net debt - July 2010

Student loans: -$81,432.38 (+739.57)
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$81,432.38

Alexa ranking: 5,333,428 (-63,107)


So my Alexa ranking went up a little bit (probably because I haven't been very active blogging) but the past month has been filled with doctors appointments, studying for my GRE exam, and similarly wrapping things up for PhD school.

I expect the next month to have a few more blogs than the past month.  But as a general summery of the past month: Financially, I've looked into IRA's and 403(b), figured out a plan to pay off one of my student loans while I'm in PhD school, and looked to see if I could save a few bunch on internet (looks like Time Warner Cable is the cheapest).  I've also looked at replacement cars in case something bad happens to mine.  Work has been treating me well, I'll be talking to my boss about my salary increase as he and I discussed earlier.  And at home it's great as usual, found some great recipes in a new cookbook (Vegetariana: A Rich Harvest of Wit, Lore, and Recipes) that we've been using.  It also has some great quotes and factoids!

Credit cards

To help simplify my life and make it less stressful, I have canceled all of my credit cards except for one, Chase Freedom.  The two cards that I canceled (mainly because I wasn't using them) were Discover and Costco's American Express.

The customer service of these two companies were very pleasant and the Discover company even told me that this may affect my credit score by closing the card and suggested I maintain it even though it's inactive.  They also informed me the obvious that there is no annual charge and that it wouldn't be closed due to inactivity unless I was at risk and since I wasn't, they would keep it open for me.  Thanks Discover, but no thanks.

I have a lot less to worry about now that they are out of my wallet and mind.

Net debt - June 2010

Student loans: -$82,171.95 (+397.19)
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$82,171.95

Alexa ranking: 5,270,321

Gah, so my networth didn't break the mark I wanted to this month of 70k, but there's good reason!  This past month there were many large purchases, one was the my fiancee's wedding band, a years worth of unlimited world via skype, parts for my car so it's finally fully functional, and my years worth of insurance (both auto and renters).  So although I didn't make it this month, I'm sure I will coming months.

Net debt- May 2010

Student loans: -$82,569.14
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$82,569.14

Alexa ranking: 12,675,786


Yes, I still have 82.6k worth of student loan debt, but it's getting chipped away one day at a time and I'm making a tremendous amount of payments each month usually putting in more than one payments worth each month.  Which will hopefully save me a ton of money.

Saving money on utilities for renters (and owners) - Part 1 Water

Earth day was recently here and with that in mind I'd like to put in my two cents on how to save money for rents who may think it's a challenge.

Water
Water, next to oil, is one of the most important resources that's very difficult to renew. Yes there are desalination plants, water purifying systems, distilling plants and equipment, etc, but all of those require tremendous amounts of energy and money to clean large amounts of water. So we should be aware of this and try to conserve as much as possible. How did we do it here in our apartment? For our faucets we used an aerator as shown in the picture. This aerator is actually the one we use here, it has a flow rate of 0.5gpm (gallons per minute) which is considerably better than our old one which was 2.2gpm, a 77% reduction!  We still have clean hands and toothbrushes so don't worry!  We don't even notice it anymore.  It's really a great thing.  We use this in all of our faucets besides the kitchen one because we don't want to wait forever to fill up the pot with water.

Shower head is next on the list.  I love taking long showers so this was a huge saver for us.  And I can thank this shower head for saving us approximately 10950 gallons per year!  This guy will flow at a rate of 1.5 gpm compared to our old one which I think was 2.5 gpm.  So needless to say this saved us money right off the bat and we saw savings right away.
Perhaps you're worried about installing these items?  Installation is a cinch and completed in just a few minutes.

Our last water saving device that we currently have is the toilet "bank".  It's called the bank because it saves water in its pouch so that there is less to fill after you flush.  This can save up to 0.8 gallons per flush.

I wanted to install one other device into our toilet which would make it a dual flush, one for the liquids and one for the solids, however my partner in crime thought it was a bit much.  Coming from Europe, I was surprised by her reaction against it!  All of these things are under $35 and can be found on amazon's website.

The last few things that deal with water would be things like the dishwasher, laundry machine, etc.   Our solution to this is just to purchase things that are water saving and running the machine at optimal loads.

Energy
My next post will be about energy!

Net debt - April 4, 2010

Student loans: -$83,259.83
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$83,259.83

Money passing through the time....

We all know and love compound interest. So let me tell you an idea of compound interest passing through the generations....

When I was younger, my grandfather told us to work hard and do well in school and do what you loved. Regardless this got me thinking....What would happen if your money, today, was saved and over the course of say 65 years?

As it grows, compounding year after year until the day you retired? A small chunk of change, could grow to be a very large pile of change! What would you guess $5,000 invested for 65 years growing at an annual rate of 8% could turn out to be? Answer: $743,899.23 is present day dollars or $119,199.50 in 65 year dollars with a 3% inflation.

Although, not much, $5,000 still is a sizable amount of money in 65 years. Now for your child to be a "true" millionare in present day terms in 65 years accounting for a 3% inflation, you'd need to invest a bit more money, around $42,000 (without inflation that becomes $6.25 million).

A great idea, I think, would be not to plan so much for your childrens retirement but rather for your grandchildren's. This would allot for soooo much more time. What do you think?

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!