Aug Income & Expenses

enjoyed reading as always

Expenses $7,234

for 1 month?! standard?

When do you expect to finish payment on your mortgage? Have you considered using a 529 plan? As far as expenses go this might be one of the big ticket items along with your mortgage and having that streamlined might be nice (along with the tax savings).

I also enjoyed the read. strange, seeing as it is personal accounting, but there it is! I like the attitude.
Def cut out cable imo.
And for your next business trip, why not just sleep in the car? maximize the return on that investment. and go to public swimming pool for shower ($10)

On September 02 2012 21:16 Silver_nz wrote: I also enjoyed the read. strange, seeing as it is personal accounting, but there it is! I like the attitude. Def cut out cable imo. And for your next business trip, why not just sleep in the car? maximize the return on that investment. and go to public swimming pool for shower ($10)

+1 lolol

Great read though, patnah!

Your headphones; have you tried taking them into a bose store? I took in a broken pair that was obviously my own fault and they gave me the newest version of that model for the difference in cost betweem mine old model and their new model.

On September 02 2012 18:06 thewh00sel wrote: Internet/Cable- 130 electric- 360

omg wtf?
those cost $30/month both

interesting read... very important practise

your car is financed? wtf?

On September 03 2012 07:56 Ket wrote: your car is financed? wtf?

+2. I thought that was investing 101...buy whatever car you can in cash.

ah, just remembered i already asked about that before since its always my knee jerk reaction anytime someone buys a car with finance:

On March 27 2012 13:16 thewh00sel wrote: Show nested quote + On March 27 2012 12:02 Ket wrote: lol sounds really boring being responsible for a family and careful with expenses. btw.... car payment = bought car on finance? what sort of interest do u have to pay on car finance? Car interest is obviously rape, I think around 5%, but considering that the money is leveraged meaning I get to use the difference in my bankroll, I think I get a better than 5% return on the money not being used to pay it off. I'd like to be free of a car loan by the end of the year though, it's one of my top goals.

it still seems to me that getting a car u can't afford with cash is very likely to be a suboptimal decision, a much bigger spew than "splurging" on $18 headphones. If leveraging for poker roll is important then at least I hope you've got a mortgage for as much money as you could possibly have got it for, since mortgage rates are obv much better than car finance rates. Also, playing poker with a roll that is effectively borrowed money, isn't that stressful to say the least?

hope u don't take this kind of critical feedback the wrong way.. since you're posting your family's finances publically it seems exposing it to public scrutiny could be a solid benefit and you could get great advice. Not that I'm claiming to be any sort of authority here on sound financial advice (the things i've been doing to my finances would indicate im far from it actually lol..)

On September 03 2012 09:54 Ket wrote: it still seems to me that getting a car u can't afford with cash is very likely to be a suboptimal decision, a much bigger spew than "splurging" on $18 headphones. If leveraging for poker roll is important then at least I hope you've got a mortgage for as much money as you could possibly have got it for, since mortgage rates are obv much better than car finance rates. Also, playing poker with a roll that is effectively borrowed money, isn't that stressful to say the least? hope u don't take this kind of critical feedback the wrong way.. since you're posting your family's finances publically it seems exposing it to public scrutiny could be a solid benefit and you could get great advice. Not that I'm claiming to be any sort of authority here on sound financial advice (the things i've been doing to my finances would indicate im far from it actually lol..)

The feedback's good, and besides keeping myself accountable is one of the primary reasons I'm writing about my finances. The next year should be pretty interesting as I try to go from a large debt-load to 0 (apart from our mortgage). Currently I am throwing as much free cash as possible at the car loan with the highest interest and when I have spare $ or have enough equity in selling the bigger car, we will be downsizing it. Hopefully around Christmas. Kind of annoying as my plan in April was to sell it and have one car...but my wife backed out and is scared to stall out driving a manual (sigh). If I knew that going into the transaction of purchasing the Honda Fit I would have gotten a $2,500 POS car for myself and had my wife get a prius or some other fuel efficient Automatic. It's hard to run a tight ship financially when you aren't the only one making the decisions, and have to compromise on stuff. Trying to get her to understand that the car loans are a financial emergency is tough.

As to leveraging with the mortgage, we really had pretty deep pockets around the time we bought the house, but luckily I had a little foresight and went with the 3% down FHA loan. Been looking at my finances from all angles as of late. Might even try renting out my house and moving somewhere closer to both the strip and my wife's new job so we can ditch a car. Doubt she will go for it though.

Are you still planning to attempt to retire early?

Or generally try to move up stakes so you can up the savings and hopefully generate significant more income from which to potentially retire early?

On September 03 2012 08:41 TheTrees wrote: Show nested quote + On September 03 2012 07:56 Ket wrote: your car is financed? wtf? +2. I thought that was investing 101...buy whatever car you can in cash.

not necessarily... auto finance is supppppper cheap atm - you can get pretty sick deals at like 2-4% sometimes lower at certain dealerships running specials.

On September 03 2012 17:32 xdrb wrote: Are you still planning to attempt to retire early? Or generally try to move up stakes so you can up the savings and hopefully generate significant more income from which to potentially retire early?

I see two as the same. I mean, as pro poker players I think a lot of us are semi-retired anyways, but I'd like to build up enough of a BR where I feel I'm fully rolled for 10/20 again and also have some sort of passive income so that if I chose to I would only need to make enough money playing poker to spend on luxuries.

On September 04 2012 00:09 thewh00sel wrote: Show nested quote + On September 03 2012 17:32 xdrb wrote: Are you still planning to attempt to retire early? Or generally try to move up stakes so you can up the savings and hopefully generate significant more income from which to potentially retire early? I see two as the same. I mean, as pro poker players I think a lot of us are semi-retired anyways, but I'd like to build up enough of a BR where I feel I'm fully rolled for 10/20 again and also have some sort of passive income so that if I chose to I would only need to make enough money playing poker to spend on luxuries.

Makes sense. What type of figures are you aiming for in regard to BR & portfolio to do that?

On September 04 2012 23:17 xdrb wrote: Show nested quote + On September 04 2012 00:09 thewh00sel wrote:   On September 03 2012 17:32 xdrb wrote: Are you still planning to attempt to retire early? Or generally try to move up stakes so you can up the savings and hopefully generate significant more income from which to potentially retire early? I see two as the same. I mean, as pro poker players I think a lot of us are semi-retired anyways, but I'd like to build up enough of a BR where I feel I'm fully rolled for 10/20 again and also have some sort of passive income so that if I chose to I would only need to make enough money playing poker to spend on luxuries. Makes sense. What type of figures are you aiming for in regard to BR & portfolio to do that?

I think I'll do an allocation of income post for my next blog entry and my goals for the next year or two to answer this question better, but for now I'll leave you with a simple answer: Priority 1 monthly expenses obv, beyond that: Most money thrown at BR until I feel like I'm not in danger of depleting funds any time soon, followed closely by money thrown at debt and house payments until I reach a certain equity level in my house to get rid of mortgage insurance premiums, followed by investments in a brokerage account and further bankroll growth to reach 10/20+ stakes. Percentage of what goes where will be based on certain req's that I'll come up with and lay out to make it easier to manage risk while attempting to grow wealth.

Sounds good. Looking forward to it.

Your posts have actually started getting me more closely tracking my finances and interest in building wealth, so I wanted to let you know that I appreciate it.

Even though I'm the only occasional poker player.