Before I got married, I realized I was a grown up and needed to start providing for my family. One area of this that interested me was money. I read many books about personal finance, and I learned things but nothing gave a clear plan or convinced me of what to do. I'll go through some of these books and my thoughts.
David Bach - Teaches to automate saving, investing, and giving. He teaches to use automation to make things easy. For example, pay off your mortgage by having the mortgage company do automatic withdrawls.
Suse Orman - I read her book The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke, and I was more confused. She teaches people how to improve FICO scores and use debt 'wisely'. I liked this book at first, but I realized there were some problems. I'll go into those at a later time - but it amounts to she doesn't really say anything except how FICO scores work.
Robert Kiyosaki - Rich Dad, Poor Dad. This book is great. He talks about how owning a business, being an investor will lead to success. He is big on owning real estate. I like the philosophy of the book a lot.
A read a few other books, but none were notable. My brother recommended The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and I was hooked. This book offered a nearly complete plan of handling money and how various financial product like life insurance should be done. The plan is stop borrowing money, get out of debt, and the build wealth.
The other books are more palatable to most people because it means making small changes, but they also have small effects. The total money makeover can result in significant changes with huge results. Sacrificing to win is often required, and I agree that it is worth it. I soon read another book of his, Financial Peace, checked out his radio show, and learned about his more in depth course Financial Peace University.
After hearing his show and so many real life examples, I know that this is a plan anyone can do to be successful. On the other hand, the plan in the Automatic Millionaire might work for some people.
Another part of Dave's plan is to become a better person, this includes church life, marriage, family, work and many other aspects to your life. He recommends books on various topics.
more to come...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Science vs. Religion
There seems to be a lot of discussion about Religion and Science recently, and I wanted to throw my 2 cents in the ring. I am Christian, but I believe that science doesn't conflict with my religion. I also believe the extreme views on either side of this issue is where the problem is.
Evolution and the Genesis creation - The story of creation in the book of Genesis declares that everything was created in seven days. This is a story to help us understand how the world came to be, but shouldn't be read literally. Our concept of time has no meaning to God. I think 7 days is simpler than 15 billion years for a story.
I am reading a book called What's So Great About Christianity, and the author goes into depth about these issues. I agree with about everything he discusses, and it is a very interesting book.
I'll post more about this later.
Evolution and the Genesis creation - The story of creation in the book of Genesis declares that everything was created in seven days. This is a story to help us understand how the world came to be, but shouldn't be read literally. Our concept of time has no meaning to God. I think 7 days is simpler than 15 billion years for a story.
I am reading a book called What's So Great About Christianity, and the author goes into depth about these issues. I agree with about everything he discusses, and it is a very interesting book.
I'll post more about this later.
Why things happen
I was married on August of 2006, and I was living in San Diego. My wife and I investigated buying a place to live. We quickly learned that a house was out and a condo would be the only possible option. We soon learned that a condo would be at least $350k. Needless to say that convinced us that buying there wouldn't happen. Furthermore, financially succeeding would be almost impossible there due to rent and hosuing costs.
Before we were married we discussed moving up to Washington, where her family lives. We intended to move up there in 3-5 years (2009-2011). Around March of 2007, we decided to move up to Washington that summer. This was a difficult thing to do because I was leaving my friends and a great job, but I was confident that I was doing the right thing.
We moved in with my wife's parents in June and soon both of us were becoming frustrated by not having found jobs yet. It took us a little while, but we both ended up finding jobs we like. Now to to last week and my post about providence. I was offered a position as an analyst and this included a significant pay increase.
I am convinced of a few reasons why things seem to be going my way. These are in no particular order:
1. I am committed to learning and self improvement. I read books, fiction and nonfication, about various topics to learn new things and encounter new ideas. I disagree with some things, but the discussion is good.
2. My relationship with God has dramatically improved. I started attending Chruch again about a year ago, I pray more, I am reading the bible completely, and I am involved at church. Evergreen Christian Community in Olympia is an incredible place.
3. My wife and I want to start a family. Nothing seems to motivate you like a baby.
4. I am on the road to financial freedom. As I have posted before, I follow Dave Ramsey's baby steps. Currently we are on step 2. I also listen to the radio show as a podcast every day. It is about 40 minutes long, and I am amazed by people's story of stupidity and then hope when people call in debt free. I want coordinate an FPU class at church to extend this.
5. My wife is incredible. We always make decisions together and we both have a vote. She also makes good food.
6. At work, I strive to take responsibilities and lead. At USD, I got 3 pay increases and 2 promotions in 2 years. At FHS, I got a promotion after 7 months.
The common themes here are self examination, improvement/change, and commitment.
Before we were married we discussed moving up to Washington, where her family lives. We intended to move up there in 3-5 years (2009-2011). Around March of 2007, we decided to move up to Washington that summer. This was a difficult thing to do because I was leaving my friends and a great job, but I was confident that I was doing the right thing.
We moved in with my wife's parents in June and soon both of us were becoming frustrated by not having found jobs yet. It took us a little while, but we both ended up finding jobs we like. Now to to last week and my post about providence. I was offered a position as an analyst and this included a significant pay increase.
I am convinced of a few reasons why things seem to be going my way. These are in no particular order:
1. I am committed to learning and self improvement. I read books, fiction and nonfication, about various topics to learn new things and encounter new ideas. I disagree with some things, but the discussion is good.
2. My relationship with God has dramatically improved. I started attending Chruch again about a year ago, I pray more, I am reading the bible completely, and I am involved at church. Evergreen Christian Community in Olympia is an incredible place.
3. My wife and I want to start a family. Nothing seems to motivate you like a baby.
4. I am on the road to financial freedom. As I have posted before, I follow Dave Ramsey's baby steps. Currently we are on step 2. I also listen to the radio show as a podcast every day. It is about 40 minutes long, and I am amazed by people's story of stupidity and then hope when people call in debt free. I want coordinate an FPU class at church to extend this.
5. My wife is incredible. We always make decisions together and we both have a vote. She also makes good food.
6. At work, I strive to take responsibilities and lead. At USD, I got 3 pay increases and 2 promotions in 2 years. At FHS, I got a promotion after 7 months.
The common themes here are self examination, improvement/change, and commitment.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Providence
What a week. A lot of things happen, and I can only praise God for all he has done for me. There is a lot going on, and things all seem to make sense all of a sudden.
We are following the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps to get out of debt, we are looking to buy a house soon, and we want to have kids. My wife told me earlier in the week that she thinks she is pregnant (we won't know for a few more weeks), and this is wonderful news. However, it makes me think about how I will be able to provide for my family.
Well, on Tuesday I was presented with a new job opportunity at work, and this seemed came out of the blue. By Friday, I had interviewed and was offered a job. This came with a significant salary increase. This f course means we will be out of debt sooner, and I will be in a better position when m wife stops working.
Another cool thing happened this week which some of my last posts were about. My Mom's quilting group was featured on Friday's ABC World News as the Person of the week. Her group at church quilts blankets for cancer victims. I didn't even know she was doing that.
On Friday, the Universty of San Diego beat U Conn in the NCAA tournament which was a huge upset. Go Toreros!
I find this very interesting that this is happening at the same time as Easter and when we are finish up a class at church about our talents and God's gifts.
Praise the Lord!
We are following the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps to get out of debt, we are looking to buy a house soon, and we want to have kids. My wife told me earlier in the week that she thinks she is pregnant (we won't know for a few more weeks), and this is wonderful news. However, it makes me think about how I will be able to provide for my family.
Well, on Tuesday I was presented with a new job opportunity at work, and this seemed came out of the blue. By Friday, I had interviewed and was offered a job. This came with a significant salary increase. This f course means we will be out of debt sooner, and I will be in a better position when m wife stops working.
Another cool thing happened this week which some of my last posts were about. My Mom's quilting group was featured on Friday's ABC World News as the Person of the week. Her group at church quilts blankets for cancer victims. I didn't even know she was doing that.
On Friday, the Universty of San Diego beat U Conn in the NCAA tournament which was a huge upset. Go Toreros!
I find this very interesting that this is happening at the same time as Easter and when we are finish up a class at church about our talents and God's gifts.
Praise the Lord!
More from ABC News
Here is the clip of my Mom's quilting group on ABC.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4499198&affil=whtm
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4499198&affil=whtm
Friday, March 21, 2008
USD beats UConn
I was able to watch the end of the USD-Uconn game in th 1st round of the NCAA tournament. We score with 1.2 seconds left in overtime to beat powerhouse UConn 70-69. It is pretty amazing when a little school like USD can win one of these games.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=284000036
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=284000036
Mom on ABC news
My mom's quilting group will be on ABC World News tonight. There is a story on ABC News right now, and she in the photo for the article.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
US Soccer games
Some good news today for US Men's Soccer fans. USSF announced a friendly with England at Wembley today.I want to go big time, so we'll see if there is a way to make this happen.
If SoccerByIves.net is right, they will announce we are playing Arenitina soon. THis means we will play Poland, England, Spain, and Argentina in the coming months.
Finally we are starting to play decent teams on a regular basis.
If SoccerByIves.net is right, they will announce we are playing Arenitina soon. THis means we will play Poland, England, Spain, and Argentina in the coming months.
Finally we are starting to play decent teams on a regular basis.
Monday, March 10, 2008
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