Finally, a response. It came over a week ago in the form of a phone call from the 'second guy' I tried to contact. We'll call him Mike. Almost immediately after Mike calls, the 'first guy' called to set up an appointment as well. Sorry dude, you had a couple of extra days head start and you still missed the boat...
My wife and I met Mike last week, and we did the basic get-to-know each other. He took some notes on what our goals are, and where we want to be in the next few years, stuff like that. Then he gave us some basic forms for tracking our spending and also for calculating our net worth. I've tried to find duplicates on the web, but so far I've come up empty handed. Visit any financial website and you'll find similar forms, just not the exact ones given to us (not that you'd fail if you didn't use the exact forms we got).
During our hopes and dreams conversation, I told Mike that my overall plan was to outgrow him. I think he took it well. I'll post my 'big goal' later, but-like I told Mike-he'll either have to quit his job to work for me full time, or he'll have our account taken from him because it's too large for him to handle!
During our conversation, my wife asked the perfect question. "Not to sound dumb, but what is it that you're going to do for us?" I thought it was the perfect (and absolutely not-dumb) question! He replied with a basic rundown of the products he sells (insurance and mutual funds) and how he helps people develop budgets. It was this question that got me thinking, "Why do we really need this guy?"
The answer I've come up with is 'accountability.' Originally, this blog was to serve as a mechanism of accountability for our spending habits. Unfortunately, the inconsistent and wacky posts of the past have left us with a big fat zero for this blog keeping us accountable. I also wanted someone to handle the finances for us. Not paying the bills, but putting our money in places that would get us some decent returns. After all, I bought Bank of America near it's 52 week high in 2007 (and carried it all the way to the bottom).
There's a lot of things floating around in this post. I'll expand on them later. But for now, we have a financial planner, and we're meeting him again on Thursday. More to follow...
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
If at first you don't succeed...
Try, try, again, right? The first time I tried to contact someone at Raymond James it was at one of their adviser's websites. So this time, I went straight to Raymond James homepage and found another one in my local area. Hopefully they'll contact me!
A quick tirade: Not returning calls is one of my major pet peeves. If you make me work for your business, you're out. I'm having the same problem with grad schools. I have a state university that's about 10 minutes from work, and 20 from home. No one there will call me back about their program, so instead, I'm going to wind up driving 6 hours every week to attend another school that's more expensive! I'd rather go there anyway, but that's not the point of this rant.
Now, I need to come clean on our finances soon. There's been quite a few changes.
P.S. Anybody that regularly reads this from the website, I apologize for all the ads. Especially the one between the post and the comments link. That's annoying. I'll get that fixed soon too!
A quick tirade: Not returning calls is one of my major pet peeves. If you make me work for your business, you're out. I'm having the same problem with grad schools. I have a state university that's about 10 minutes from work, and 20 from home. No one there will call me back about their program, so instead, I'm going to wind up driving 6 hours every week to attend another school that's more expensive! I'd rather go there anyway, but that's not the point of this rant.
Now, I need to come clean on our finances soon. There's been quite a few changes.
P.S. Anybody that regularly reads this from the website, I apologize for all the ads. Especially the one between the post and the comments link. That's annoying. I'll get that fixed soon too!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
No News...
I'm a little disappointed that no one from Raymond James has contacted me yet. It's been two days since I requested that someone contact me online. It's like my dad used to tell me: "If you want to make a million dollars in this world, all you have to do is call people back..."
I'll give it a few more days, then the strongly worded letters start coming out :)
I'll give it a few more days, then the strongly worded letters start coming out :)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Starting Over...
Given the fact that I haven't posted here in a couple of months, and that quite a few of the past posts were pretty lame and without merit, I've decided to start over. I'm contemplating deleting the past few posts, but I'll probably leave them there for awhile.
Now, getting on to the meat and potatoes of this post. I've decided it's time to seek some outside help. I have haven't been consistent enough in our finances to be able to achieve the goals I've wanted. With that, the quest for a financial planner began about two hours ago.
I had originally planned to go with Edward Jones. I have a couple of friends that use them and are satisfied, or at the very least, not disappointed. I, however, selected Raymond James. They have received numerous awards over the past few years, and last year (2008) they were selected as JD Power & Associates Full Service Investor Satisfaction survey winners (the only firm to receive perfect marks).
We'll see what happens after the first appointment. I suppose the greatest significance of this isn't that I've selected Raymond Jones, but that I've finally swallowed my pride and started searching for some outside expertise.
Now, getting on to the meat and potatoes of this post. I've decided it's time to seek some outside help. I have haven't been consistent enough in our finances to be able to achieve the goals I've wanted. With that, the quest for a financial planner began about two hours ago.
I had originally planned to go with Edward Jones. I have a couple of friends that use them and are satisfied, or at the very least, not disappointed. I, however, selected Raymond James. They have received numerous awards over the past few years, and last year (2008) they were selected as JD Power & Associates Full Service Investor Satisfaction survey winners (the only firm to receive perfect marks).
We'll see what happens after the first appointment. I suppose the greatest significance of this isn't that I've selected Raymond Jones, but that I've finally swallowed my pride and started searching for some outside expertise.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Free Tax Preparation Service
If you need assistance doing your taxes, the IRS has legions of volunteers that are here to help! The program is called VITA - Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. VITA Representatives are people that have volunteered to help others prepare and file their taxes with the IRS (and their state of residence).
They can't handle everything, in fact they may turn you away and tell you to use a 'paid preparer.' But, if you have 'simple' taxes, like a W-2 and some interest statements, they can definitely get your taxes done for you at no cost!
If you're like me and want to account for every penny, explore each line of a 1040, and actually claim sales tax paid as a deduction instead of income tax paid (if it's worth it), then your best bet is to stick to a paid preparer or software package.
Now, if you're needing someone to gurantee the accuracy of your return, a paid preparer is who you should use. Because their services are free, VITA reps aren't liable for incorrectly filling out your return. They do have several quality review steps that are conducted to ensure that your return is prepared correctly, but it doesn't mean their trying to find your lowest tax bill. Bottom line, if you want someone to help you fill out a 1040EZ, then VITA is probably the way to go. But if your tax return is a little more complicated because of itemized deductions, lots of various sources of income, or a personal business, you are probably better off using a software package like TurboTax or TaxCut or a paid preparer like an accountant.
For more information on the VITA program visit the IRS website for the program. Or call 1-800-829-1040 (1040 - I'm sure no pun is intended) and find a VITA site near you.
They can't handle everything, in fact they may turn you away and tell you to use a 'paid preparer.' But, if you have 'simple' taxes, like a W-2 and some interest statements, they can definitely get your taxes done for you at no cost!
If you're like me and want to account for every penny, explore each line of a 1040, and actually claim sales tax paid as a deduction instead of income tax paid (if it's worth it), then your best bet is to stick to a paid preparer or software package.
Now, if you're needing someone to gurantee the accuracy of your return, a paid preparer is who you should use. Because their services are free, VITA reps aren't liable for incorrectly filling out your return. They do have several quality review steps that are conducted to ensure that your return is prepared correctly, but it doesn't mean their trying to find your lowest tax bill. Bottom line, if you want someone to help you fill out a 1040EZ, then VITA is probably the way to go. But if your tax return is a little more complicated because of itemized deductions, lots of various sources of income, or a personal business, you are probably better off using a software package like TurboTax or TaxCut or a paid preparer like an accountant.
For more information on the VITA program visit the IRS website for the program. Or call 1-800-829-1040 (1040 - I'm sure no pun is intended) and find a VITA site near you.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Getting Started in Forex Trading
Well, I made $30,000 in the Forex market today! Yeah right, wouldn't that be nice... Actually I have no idea what I'm doing, but Forex trading is sounding kind of interesting. So, I figure I'll learn a little about it.
If you don't know what Forex is, it's the Foreign Exchange markets where currency is traded. Basically when currency needs to be exchanged for different kinds (like dollars to euros), it's done through Forex. The idea here is to take my U.S. Dollars, trade them for Euros when I can do it 'cheaply' and then convert them back to dollars later, and make a profit doing it.
Here's an example (not entirely accurate given current exchange rates): I take 100 Dollars on Monday, and given current economic conditions, trade them for 75 Euros. The next day, economic conditions change, and I can trade 75 Euros for 125 Dollars. I do so and, in turn, pocket a 25 dollar profit.
Now, this really happens on a much smaller scale, fractions of a cent (called pips), and much faster, minutes or seconds apart between trades.
There are all kinds of sites for learning, practicing, and brokering Forex trades. I'm going to begin learning how, right now. Hopefully by the end of the month I can begin practice trading. And, by the end of the year, I'll be the richest person on earth, owning my own private island (or at least be up $50).
If you're interested in learning how to trade on the Forex market, check out these sites that I'm looking at:
http://www.forexpeacearmy.com
http://www.babypips.com
Let me know about any experiences you've had with the Forex.
If you don't know what Forex is, it's the Foreign Exchange markets where currency is traded. Basically when currency needs to be exchanged for different kinds (like dollars to euros), it's done through Forex. The idea here is to take my U.S. Dollars, trade them for Euros when I can do it 'cheaply' and then convert them back to dollars later, and make a profit doing it.
Here's an example (not entirely accurate given current exchange rates): I take 100 Dollars on Monday, and given current economic conditions, trade them for 75 Euros. The next day, economic conditions change, and I can trade 75 Euros for 125 Dollars. I do so and, in turn, pocket a 25 dollar profit.
Now, this really happens on a much smaller scale, fractions of a cent (called pips), and much faster, minutes or seconds apart between trades.
There are all kinds of sites for learning, practicing, and brokering Forex trades. I'm going to begin learning how, right now. Hopefully by the end of the month I can begin practice trading. And, by the end of the year, I'll be the richest person on earth, owning my own private island (or at least be up $50).
If you're interested in learning how to trade on the Forex market, check out these sites that I'm looking at:
http://www.forexpeacearmy.com
http://www.babypips.com
Let me know about any experiences you've had with the Forex.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Credit Score
As the new year begins I've decided to take a more active interest in my credit rating. Especially with the economic conditions the way they are.
I've also been receiving notices in the mail lately telling me that my credit line for card x or card y has been lowered. At first I just figured we'd finally spent ourselves too far, but a quick search on Google reveals that plenty of others are getting their credit limits cut too. It hasn't had an impact so far, except for one card. I had to make an extra payment to avoid going over my limit.
Normally, I don't care what my credit score is. I don't need it, unless I'm buying on credit. My eventual goal is to get the point that I don't need to buy on credit ever. Not everyday items, luxury items, cars, or even our home. But, as ambitious as I am, I realize that I have at least a few more years of needing credit. So I better keep that score high. Right now, it's a chilling 650. Before we did our last big credit card refinancing (which didn't work out very well), it was 720+. I'm quite disappointed at the huge drop. It's up from last month, where it was only 644. Hopefully our recovery will happen quickly.
Beginning next month (or the month after), I'll post a nice graph showing the change from month to month.
I've also been receiving notices in the mail lately telling me that my credit line for card x or card y has been lowered. At first I just figured we'd finally spent ourselves too far, but a quick search on Google reveals that plenty of others are getting their credit limits cut too. It hasn't had an impact so far, except for one card. I had to make an extra payment to avoid going over my limit.
Normally, I don't care what my credit score is. I don't need it, unless I'm buying on credit. My eventual goal is to get the point that I don't need to buy on credit ever. Not everyday items, luxury items, cars, or even our home. But, as ambitious as I am, I realize that I have at least a few more years of needing credit. So I better keep that score high. Right now, it's a chilling 650. Before we did our last big credit card refinancing (which didn't work out very well), it was 720+. I'm quite disappointed at the huge drop. It's up from last month, where it was only 644. Hopefully our recovery will happen quickly.
Beginning next month (or the month after), I'll post a nice graph showing the change from month to month.
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