January 2016 Progress

February 1, 2016 cb3 Leave a comment

In with a Bang

To say that I wasn’t ready for the holiday to end and work to being again would be putting it mildly. I could feel my body getting tense the day before. Now we’re back to the races and I get a little busier each week.

Of course, with the transition from holiday back to routine we let a lot of things slide. Grocery planning only got done one week out of the month. We also tried to cram in social nights with neighbors and friends to try to hold on to a little bit of the break feeling.

We also settled on a vacation for the year and will be heading to the beach during the kids’ spring break. The condo has been booked and we’re really looking forward to the trip.

Current Goal Status:

Financial goals:

Reduce overall outstanding debt (including mortgage) by 15%.
1. Debt reduction for the month was 0.54% which puts us on track for a 5.84% overall reduction for the year. This is currently below target, but we’re just getting started!
Make contributions to investments (taxable and retirement) of 15% of salary.
1. We contributed 11.90% of our January income to investment accounts including 401k, 529, ESPP, and Brokerage. This will increase next month since I increased my ESPP contribution and will also increase 401k in March.
Eliminate outstanding credit card debt.
1. I was happy to note that we did not get charged interest on the January statement for the balance transfer card even though the introductory period ended on Jan. 22.
2. This balance should be paid off in Feb. by a combination of ESPP proceeds and other deferred compensation that comes on the 15th.
Eliminate remaining student loan debt.
1. The only progress this month was the regular payment leaving a balance of $5700.
Make a contribution to an IRA.
1. No progress here… yet!
Generate revenue from a new income stream.
1. No progress here… yet!

Expense Goals

Ok, so January flat out sucked for meeting these goals. Here’s the damage:

Meet the $800 per month grocery budget
1. We were over budget by $334. this is partially due to holiday spending and partially due to only planning weekly meals one week out of the month. Gotta do better.
Reduce dining out to $400 per month (2015 – $600)
1. We didn’t meet this one either, but we were under the 2015 average by $12. Woo! Again, a consequence of poor meal planning.
Reduce entertainment/alcohol to $250 per month (2015 – $435)
1. This one is also over budget by $265. Hosting social night gets expensive.

Personal Goals:

Meditate at least three days a week
1. I managed three days for the month. Work ramped up and I’m still not back on track for a good schedule.
Take walks at least three days a week
1. This I’ve managed to do and my step count is up to 60k per week. My average week in late 2015 was 45k steps.
2. I’m also getting a ton of stairs going up and down the ladder for the DIY project.
Spend at least seven days camping
1. Nothing this month, but plans in place for June and maybe October.
Go kayaking at least one time
1. Brrr. Not yet
Take one family vacation
1. We booked a condo in St. Augustine where my wife used to go as a child. We also got a room for her parents to go along. This added $2200 to our expenses this month, but I know that cash is coming in to cover it.

DIY Project Update

Just a quick update on the progress for the living room renovation. In the two weeks that we’ve been working on the ceiling, I’ve managed to make it within a few rows of having one side done! That includes one false start where I made it about 16 rows up and we realized there was a mistake that made one end not align correctly.

I’m really happy with the way this is coming together. It looks much better than the stomp textured ceiling. We’re also going to be replacing the overhead lights and the ceiling fan. I’m estimating around $300-400 for the new fixtures.

I love power tools!

Get It Together

Ok, now that we’ve gotten over the holidays and have started getting back into the grind, I’m confident that we can do much better in February. The only thing that my put a little dent in our plan is that I’ve been asked to commute into the office two days a week. That’s an 18 mile drive which could mean thirty minutes or an hour and a half of driving each way.

Cheers!

-cb3

Investing, Personal Finance, Stocks, Strategy

It’s Almost ESPP Time

January 25, 2016 cb3 Leave a comment

Every Six Months

At the end of January and August of each year, my attention is brought back to the company Employee Stock Purchase Plan. I’ve gotten my email reminders that the window is open to make any adjustments for the next period.

It also makes me excited because the last period vests on the 31st and shares are purchased on my behalf with the amount that I’ve contributed. Cool!

What is ESPP?

Here’s the definition from Investopedia for anyone who isn’t familiar with an ESPP:

DEFINITION of ‘Employee Stock Purchase Plan – ESPP’

A company-run program in which participating employees can purchase company shares at a discounted price. Employees contribute to the plan through payroll deductions, which build up between the offering date and the purchase date. At the purchase date, the company uses the accumulated funds to purchase shares in the company on behalf of the participating employees. The amount of the discount depends on the specific plan but can be as much as 15% lower than the market price.
Read more: Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) Definition

Why I Like It

My company’s plan does use a 15% discount on the purchase price of the stock. It also selects the purchase price from either the first day of the period or the last day of the period, whichever is lower.

That means that I can sell the shares on the day they are available in my account and make around 15% profit for a six month investment at minimum! Those returns are really great. Yes, I will pay short term capital gains on the profit (difference between purchase price and sale price) but I’m still getting better returns than most investment options. Remember, this is for a six month period. That makes for a 32.25% annualized return.

Now, if the purchase price from the beginning of the period is used and the current price is higher, returns will also be higher.

Example

Let’s say, for the sake of example, that my company’s stock price at the beginning of the last period was $75 and is currently around $40 (It’s been a tough market for a lot of stocks the past nine months).

So, my purchase price this go around will be $40 minus the 15% discount which gives me $34. Let’s also assume that I’ve contributed $3400 this period. I will be purchasing 100 shares at $34. The next day when me shares are available, the stock is still sitting at $40 and I sell immediately making $600 profit (minus brokerage fees)!

If the situation had been reversed and the period had started at $40 and ended at $75, I would still be buying 100 shares with my $3400 since we select the lowest of the two prices and discount it. Now, however, I’m selling at $75 for a $4100 profit!!

Potential Downside

Now, one of the drawbacks can occur if you decide to hold your shares. Let’s say $75 was the purchased price after discount and you held. Now the stock moves down to $40. It may or may not ever recover and you have taken a loss on the position.

My personal belief is to sell the shares immediately if the value of the purchased shares is greater than 1% of my overall investment portfolio. I want to be diversified and not holding a large percentage of company stock.

If the holdings are less than 1% of my portfolio, maybe I would hold for a bit if I believe strongly in the direction of the company. Who knows, I haven’t gotten there yet. Besides, I have debt to eliminate!

How I’m Using My ESPP

In the past, I’ve used the gains from the ESPP investment to go toward debt reduction. Then I take the amount of the original investment and roll it back into my long term investment account to reallocate.

Since I am trying to pay down debt and I haven’t been accruing any interest on credit cards, I’m actually contributing more to my ESPP than I am to my 401k. I know most finance gurus may argue against this, but it’s a short term approach and I will be increasing my 401k and IRA contribution once the consumer debt and smaller loans are gone.

This time around, I may actually take the amount that I contributed and also apply it to debt reduction. This would effectively reduce the amount that I contributed to investments in 2015 since I would basically be making a withdrawal to do so, but it might be worth it to see those debt balances disappear.

Conclusion

It took me several years to figure out the best approach for leveraging ESPP. At my last company, I just held it all until we need to make a downpayment on the house (some of the shares were underwater as I described above).

Now, with the sell immediately plan, I feel that I can take full advantage of this powerful tool. In fact, I just increased my contribution to 8% which should maximize the amount that I can contribute this year.

Like a good friend once said, ‘never turn down free money’

Cheers!

-cb3

DIY Projects, Expenses, Goals

Where Has the Time Gone?

January 19, 2016 cb3 Leave a comment

Almost Two Weeks?!?

Hard to believe that I haven’t made a post in twelve days. Life sure went into overdrive in a hurry. The full-time job is back to requiring it’s regular load of hours. The kids now have an additional evening activity (swim lessons: extra expense but necessary). We’ve also decided to tackle a little bit of DIY renovation.

Background on the Renovation

Before I get into the meat of this post, I want to set the stage a bit so you understand our current situation.

We’ve currently been living in our home for around six years and most of the furniture either came from our apartment or was hand-me-down. We have some antiques from family, some craigslist items, and some stuff that came with the house. The last time we bought new furniture was the dining room set in 2008.

We also have two small children and three dogs (at one point it was four). Needless to say, the sofas are starting to show the abuse they’ve received. It’s been mostly OK, but when we came back from holiday visits we found a large rip in the top of the ottoman and a lot of stuffing had been pulled out (Jack Russell’s love to pull stuffing out of things).

It’s time for some replacements.

And That Leads To…

“We should fix up a least one room in the house to look nice”. Yep, the first thing through my mind was dollar signs. My wife even said as she laid out her idea that she could tell I was only thinking about how expensive this was going to be.

There are two bits of good news. First, we had prepared for this a bit by asking family members to contribute to furniture instead of buying Christmas gifts for us. Second, I’ve laid out the financial projection for the year and I know that I can spare around $1500-$2000 and still make my goals (if everything goes according to plan). If we’re really good about keeping the monthly budget, there may be more room.

The plan is to put up a plank board ceiling in the living room. It’s a cathedral ceiling and I estimated around 400 sq ft. Based on the material she wants to use, that should cost me ~$650. We’ll also need about $50 in paint. The second part is to put together some in-wall book shelves (which i’ll probably just hang with French cleats). I haven’t estimated the cost of materials there, but I think we’re still OK.

Bonus

We had a slightly serendipitous moment last weekend while having dinner with friends. I almost didn’t go along but was glad that I did. One of our friends just moved in with another and had a load of stuff in a storage unit. He needed help moving the bunk beds to their condo. He also mentioned that he had an almost new leather sectional with recliners that he wanted gone. Since we were in the market, I said I’d take a look.

The couch wasn’t a good fit for the living room, but we also had a dingy old couch downstairs in the den and this one was a perfect replacement. I asked how much he wanted for it and he gave it to us in exchange for the use of the truck and not having to pay for the storage unit anymore. Basically, it was free!

Getting Messy

I was lucky enough to have MLK day as a holiday and made use of the three day weekend by getting started on the DIY. We went and picked up the planks for the ceiling and paint on Saturday. Total cost of materials so far is $660.

We spent part of Saturday and Sunday painting the planks. We did 180 total one at a time. Once we got a rhythm going it really wasn’t too bad. I think we spent around five hours on painting.

Yesterday I took advantage of the project and ran some speaker wire along the ceiling in preparation for some wall-mount room speakers. I know there are a lot of wireless options out there, but I still prefer a wired speaker to the receiving device. Call me old school.

I also managed to get a few planks up so that we could make sure we liked the color and that the hanging technique was going to work out. We’re going right over the stomp ceiling with the planks without scraping any of the drywall clumps off. I’m using construction adhesive on the back of the planks and a couple of brads from a finishing nailer.

Off to Work

It’s time to go focus on the day job. Hopefully, I can get back in a routine and post regularly. I’ve got to keep you guys updated on this project. We’ve got another lead on a friend that is downsizing and maybe we can score a couch for the living room on the cheap.

Cheer!

-cb3

Personal Finance, Strategy

Considering a Balance Transfer

January 7, 2016 cb3 Leave a comment

Food for Thought

As I mentioned previously in my December report, I have a balance on credit card with a 0% interest introductory offer that expires on Jan. 22. A bit of background is here in my flashback post to some items that lead up to the blog. I thought this would be a good time to write a post about one’s options in such a situation.

Option 1 – Transfer to another 0% intro card offer

This would be my preferred option if I can find one with 0% intro and a $0 transfer fee. According to Nerd Wallet, it looks like the only option is a Chase Slate, which I already have since the 2014 transfers. Since I’m already an account holder I would pay a 3% transfer fee which lines up with all of the other offers. That would cost me $215.40 in transfer fees.

The only option we may have would be for my wife to apply for the Chase Slate and put the card in her name only. Her score is also in good shape and she hasn’t applied for anything since March of last year. Since we’ve been in aggressive pay-down mode, we also have a low credit utilization.

Option 2 – Transfer to personal loan

This is an option that I haven’t explored fully and honestly it’s because I don’t believe we’ll go this route. For due diligence, it’s here since it is technically a viable option.

I’ve received several of the pre-qualified mail offers from local banks and most appear to be offering unsecured personal loans at around 5.99%. There’s probably a loan application fee associate with this and I would end up paying around $40 a month in interest.

There are also several sites such as Lending Club and SoFi where I’m sure we could get a competitive offer over the banks. However, I would still be paying interest on the balance each month.

Option 3 – Do Nothing!

As crazy as it may sounds, I may do nothing. The reason that I’m thinking along these lines is due to a couple of extra income items coming up in Feb.

First up is ESPP purchase on January 31. Based on the spreadsheet that I use to track it, I’m estimating around $1200 return on the six month investment. My current plan for ESPP is to use the gains to pay down debt and then to roll the base investment amount back into my investment account. The base principal was counted in last year’s total invested cash, so I really don’t want to cut into money that has already been counted as invested.

Good thing the second event is our first half bonus. This should infuse an additional $9000 into our cash flow. Normally I don’t like to count on money that hasn’t hit yet since this value could be adjust based on company year-end results. I’m fairly confident we’ll still get enough to clear the entire balance.

Are There More?

I’m sure there are options here that I haven’t considered. I am by no means an expert when it comes to this type of thing, but I’m learning. I will say that no matter what happens, I can’t wait to get rid of this balance.

What other ideas would you consider?

-cb3

Hiking, Lifestyle

Sunday Fun Day – Smithgall Woods

January 4, 2016 cb3 Leave a comment

Last Hurrah of the Holidays

It seems like the holidays had come and gone in a blur. Hard to believe I’ve been away from work for almost two weeks. We had plenty to keep us busy with family visits, dinners with friends, and hosting a small New Year’s Eve with neighbors.

The one thing we were missing was a little outdoors time. We’ve had a ton of rain around here for the past couple of weeks and have been pretty much indoors the whole time. Luckily, the weather cooperated and cleared up for the last day of the break.

With the Christmas decorations packed away with scary efficiency, we set our sights on a hike and looked for a destination.

Where to?

When we look for a day trip destination, there are two resources that we like to use for our area. I’ll paste links for those here:

50 Hikes in the North Georgia Mountains

This is a great resource for those looking to get away from the city and head up into the mountains. The trail descriptions are great and the difficulty assessment is very handy for us since we have younger children.

[amazon asin=1581571453&template=iframe image2]

60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Atlanta

Another great resource that we use when we’re looking for something a little close. There are a lot of local parks and great trails listed. There is an entire series of these written detailing a lot of areas in the US.

[amazon asin=0897327098&template=iframe image2]

Outward Bound

We settled on entry number 32 in the 50 Hikes in the North Georgia Mountains book. It’s listed as the “Martin’s Mine Meander at Smithgall Woods”, but there are several other loop trails off of the main trail.

The entrance listed in the guidebook (and in Google Maps) is no longer the main entrance to the park. We had to double back and follow the state park signs on the highway to get there. It looks like they closed to old entrance and converted the road into the main trail through the property.

Since we had the children with us and also had to get back home in time for dinner with another friend, we opted to only hike the main trail as far as the covered bridge. The first hill from the visitor center was a little strenuous, but the rest of the hike was pleasant.

We arrived at the covered bridge with mostly no complaints and the children enjoyed playing down on the bank of the trout stream for a bit. Our daughter looked for rocks and found a couple of pieces of micah. The boy decided to dig a hole.

All in all, it was a really good day for a hike. It was a little cool at first, but as we got moving it felt good. It was nice to be out of the city and back into nature if only for a couple of hours. The kids were champs and we completed 3.09 miles round trip. Total hike time was 1 hour 47 minutes.

To top it all off, we got to come home to the pulled pork that I had smoked the day before (maybe a future post on that). It was delicious!

I’ll leave you guys with about 30 seconds of river Zen.

Cheers!

-cb3

Note:

I’ve used a couple of affiliate links in this post because these are products that I really enjoy and want to share. The only time you’ll see me use affiliate links is when I have something to share that I’ve used and have first-hand experience.

Expenses, Goals

December 2015 Progress

January 1, 2016 cb3 2 Comments

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2016. December ended pretty much as we expected. Work was luckily quiet for the last week and I was able to take a couple of weeks out of the office for the holiday. We took it easy at home for the most part but did travel for a few days to visit family and friends.

It almost didn’t feel like the Christmas season with all of the warm weather and crazy amounts of rain that we had. Getting into a festive mood was a little difficult but we managed to push through it and made some good memories for the kids. Hopefully, we’ll see some cold soon… at least for a little while.

Current Goal Status:

Reduce overall outstanding debt (including mortgage) by 10%.
1. At the end of December, overall debt reduction is 10.6%. We met the goal for the year!
Make contributions to investments (taxable and retirement) of 10% of salary.
1. Combined saving in investment accounts totaled 10.37%. We met our goal for the year!
Eliminate any monthly interest payments due to credit cards.
1. December returned us to a no interest month. That finished the year with 8 of 12 months having no interest accumulation.
2. The $2200 remaining on the credit card was eliminated by the proceeds from the RSU sale.
3. Our last remaining credit card balance of $7180 is on a 0% interest promotional offer card that runs out on January 22. I’ll need to figure out how I’m handling that. There will be a follow-up post on this topic.

Total expenses for December climbed to $8763 which was right in the middle for the year. Net cash flow after paying off the credit card balance was still pretty good at ~$800.

I’ve already posted my Goals for 2016 which I may update to include a couple more personal goals for the year. We’re also talking about making some repairs/changes to the house which could affect that. More on that later.

Hear’s hoping that you have health, wealth, and happiness in 2016.

Cheers!

-cb3

Goals, Strategy

Goals for 2016

December 24, 2015 cb3 2 Comments

Bring on the New Year

Here we are. Already at the end of 2015. It’s hard to believe how fast this year has flown by. It’s also pretty cool that I’ve managed to track my expenses, stick to my plan and meet my goals for the year.

Now it’s time to formulate a new plan. I’m fairly confident that we could take the same goals from 2015 and re-apply them. After all, if I continue to do that then I’m only 9 years away from being debt free (In order to do that, I would need to reduce debt by 10% of the 2015 starting balance each year which is approximately $24k. If I use this years starting balance, I need 11.7% reduction to maintain the pace).

Accelerate the Finances

I’ve done a little back of the napkin analysis and based on a few factors, I think we can be more aggressive in 2016.

Financial goals:

Reduce overall outstanding debt (including mortgage) by 15%.
Make contributions to investments (taxable and retirement) of 15% of salary.
Eliminate outstanding credit card debt.
Eliminate remaining student loan debt.
Make a contribution to an IRA.
Generate revenue from a new income stream.

The first two are pretty simple and I believe easily accomplished based on what I learned last year. I’m trying not to spend extra income before it arrives, but I know what my ESPP and RSU schedule is and around how much I will receive. Most of that money is earmarked for debt reduction which is how I plan to accomplish the second pair of goals.

The next goal is more for the mental victory than anything else. I’m not maxing my 401k contribution yet, so this is technically not a priority. I think it would feel good to make the contribution even if it’s just $50.

Finally, I want to establish another income stream. Right now, most of my income is generated by my full-time job. I know that my investment portfolio is earning dividends, but I haven’t started tracking those. I’m not sure what form this new income stream will take at this time, but I do have a couple of ideas to explore.

Decelerate the Expenses

I’ve looked at a couple of areas on our variable monthly expenses and it looks like there are some easy wins to be had.

Expense Goals

Meet the $800 per month grocery budget
Reduce dining out to $400 per month (2015 – $600)
Reduce entertainment/alcohol to $250 per month (2015 – $435)

If we can accomplish these, we should be able to free up around $5500 in cash flow. We just need to make sure to stick to the meal planning schedule and have groceries ready for the week. I’ll be setting up a spreadsheet to track progress on that and help with accountability.

Let’s Talk Business

I’ve been reading a bit about business entities and the various benefits afforded to them. This year I plan to create my first business entity and being to explore what I can do with that.

While I don’t have any firm plans for what I want the business to accomplish quite yet, this exercise is more about learning the process at this point.

What about Chuck

When I started the blog, I talked about the canoe dock and what it means to me. That place is capable of centering me and I love the way I feel when I’m there.

This year I’m adding some personal goals as well in order to find that state of being more often. In 2015, I only took a total of six days away from work. That was back in March. With the crunch of project deadlines, the last half of the year was a bit stressful.

For 2016, I intend to take a little more time for myself.

Personal Goals:

Meditate at least three days a week
Take walks at least three days a week
Spend at least seven days camping
Go kayaking at least one time
Take one family vacation

The first two items might be challenging as I’m not very good at establishing new routines. I’ll need to set up another spreadsheet to track progress and keep me accountable. There may also be apps that I can use on my phone to help.

The last three items should be pretty easy to do. My wife and I already have plans to hike part of the AT while our daughter is at summer camp. We also have a family vacation already scheduled.

That’s at least two weeks away from work which is much better than last year.

State of the Blog

My goals for the blog really haven’t changed much. I still want to continue to document my progress and record stories about relevant events in my life.

I have gotten a couple of comments from real people (Thank You!), so I know that I’m starting to reach an audience. If I could grow to ten comments in the new year, I think that would be just fine.

Happy Holidays

Thanks for stopping to see what’s happening here and I wish you the best in 2016.

Cheers!

-cb3

Expenses, Movies

The Force was Strong

December 21, 2015 cb3 Leave a comment

Pricey Gratification

Last night, I took the family to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I’m not going to go into any details about the film, but I will say that it was everything that I had hoped it would be. We plan to see it again soon… for a couple of reasons.

This is the first time that the kids have had to stand in line prior to going in the theater. We arrived about an hour early but the line wasn’t too bad. We managed to get the seats we like. I did relay to them that I remembered standing in line for Empire Strikes Back when I was around my daughters age and what a special memory it was. She didn’t seem impressed, but I hope they’ll look back on it fondly.

It’s a good thing that I tucked away a little of the money from the RSU sale for a special occasion. We bought tickets for a Regal RPX showing and, my goodness, there was a little sticker shock. For two adults and two children, the cost of seats plus the Fandango fee was ~$68. Whoa! That’s almost twice what we pay for a conventional showing. If it had been any other film, I’d say it wasn’t worth the up-charge.

Throw in snacks and beverages (oh, they server beer and wine here now too) and we hit over $100 for the evening. Next time, we’ll be a bit more restrained and I think it will just be the two of us for a date night.

Intensity

As far as the film goes (no spoilers here), it was a little more intense than the original three. My eight year old daughter is a bit sensitive and I think there were a couple of sequences that we kinda of rough for her. She handled it well, however, and we talked about it when we got home.

Out four year old boy, on the other hand, was a champ. He was a bit obsessed with the TIE fighters getting shot down as I don’t think he realized they were the bad guys (Admittedly, he has a strange affinity for Darth Vader, so maybe he’s on the Dark Side).

All in all, everyone had a good time and we thank J.J. Abrams for providing exactly what the Star Wars universe needed.

May the Force be with You

-cb3

Expenses, Goals, Investing, Strategy

2015 Year in Review

December 18, 2015 cb3 Leave a comment

As we wind down 2015, I wanted to take a look back at the Goals for the year and how we did. I’m also going to talk about what went well, what didn’t, and a few of the surprises along the way.

This may be the first year of my life that I’ve ever been able to view my financial health holistically. It’s also the first time that I’ve ever written down financial goals for myself. I’ve tracked every dollar each month as well as goal progress along the way. Sitting down and Drawing My Picture has been a powerful tool indeed.

Financial Goals 2015

I started the year with three pretty basic and achievable goals.

Reduce overall outstanding debt (including mortgage) by 10%.
Make contributions to investments (taxable and retirement) of 10% of salary.
Eliminate any monthly interest payments due to credit cards.

In 2014, I had only managed to reduce my overall debt by a little more than 2%. Not wanting to spend another 49 years working on the problem I set my sights on 10%

I also wanted to continue to contribute to investments at least a little. I had a general idea of how much I would be making over the course of the year and what my previous year’s total spending was so I also set a 10% goal (pre-tax included) here. I did reduce my 401k contribution and increase my ESPP contribution to help generate some extra income for debt reduction.

Coming into 2015, I had pre-existing credit card balances of approximately $20,800. Towards the end of 2014, I had done some balance transfers to 0% offers so $12,300 of that total was not generating interest and $8500 was. Tackling the $8500 was my top priority since it was costing me an extra $180 per month in interest.

I’m happy to report that at the time of writing, all goals have been met for the year. Debt reduction is at 10.65%, investment contributions are at 10.38%, and I only paid interest on a credit card four months out of the year. I thought I had eliminated interest after March, but the extra Vet bill led to a $38 charge on the November statement.

Year-End Balance Sheet

Let’s take a look at the balance sheet for the year. I’ve intentionally left out the cash accounts (Checking/Saving) since these have relatively low balances and will fluctuate a bit by year end.

The ‘Other Assets’ listed is the estimated value of our house according to Zillow. I hesitate to use it in the balance sheet since it is an estimate and not a very liquid asset at all. Asset value increased by 7.53% this year which is mostly due to contributions and an increase in estimated home value.

The remaining $7180 of credit card debt is sitting on a balance transfer card with a 0% introductory rate that will expire sometime in January. I need to review the terms of the transfer and make a plan to deal with that before the interest starts. I do have an ESPP coming up on Jan 31 that will eliminate the balance if everything goes according to plan.

Overall Net Worth increased by 44.32%. That’s a really incredible number to see, but it makes sense when you look at the fact that I’m both adding assets and decreasing liabilities.

Cash Flow

This is the first year that I’ve tracked Cash Flow. I can say that I was very surprised to see the numbers at the end of the year. It’s eye-opening (and slightly alarming) how much money is going out the door. Here’s a summary (Income and Investments include pre-tax contributions to retirement accounts)

I’m confident that we can lower expenses next year. Right away, I know that we’ll be spending around $6000 less on outstanding credit card debt (~$13000 this year with $7180 remaining). We also had two larger purchases of a replacement laptop ($3000) and a Vet bill ($4000).

It’s possible that I can be a little more aggressive with my goals for 2016, but I don’t want to set myself up for failure so I’m still working on finding a balance. We may also be able to fund a family vacation next year which will help with the mental health aspect for the rest of the family (I think I’ve only taken 5 or 6 days off this year).

The slightly alarming bit is the fact that our total income included bonuses and RSU sales. If it hadn’t been for that, we may have ended up adding to debt instead of removing it. I need to get us to a point where we’re not dependent on extra income and everything can be handled by regular salary.

Expenses We Can Control

There are a few areas of expense where I know we can make a difference. I tallied up the monthly average for variable expenses and found the following items are over budget on average:

Pets and Electronics both have outliers that are skewing the average. Both should be much lower next year. The top item is basically anything we buy at the grocery store. We’re only slightly over budget on that but if we can cut it by 10% that’s around $1000 in savings.

Dining out should be half of what it is. One of the key challenges for us is having a weekly menu and getting the grocery run done. If we can make a better effort to be consistent there then we can easily cut this in half and save $3500 or so.

Entertainment and Alcohol includes things like movies and hockey tickets as well as trips to the package store. I’m cutting back on the craft beer and will be re-focusing some hobby time to brewing again in 2016. Honestly, I’d like to see this number cut in half too but a 10-20% reduction will be great.

Combine those reductions with the unexpected expenses and credit card payoff and we could reduce expense by up $18000. Stretch goal would be to make it under $100000 total expenses for the year, but we are still in debt reduction mode so I’m not as focused on that.

2015 – Year of Success

Well there you have it. As of right now, it looks like I was able to meet my financial goals for the year. Woohoo!

I’m looking forward to 2016 and will be updating my goals for the new year in a few days.

Cheers!

-cb3

Bonsai, Expenses, Lifestyle

Bonsai Class – Pine Workshop

December 14, 2015 cb3 Leave a comment

A Little Background

I’m pretty sure that I’ve already mentioned my major hobbies on the site. Growing things, in particular bonsai, is one of my core activities. There are a couple of reasons why I’m drawn to this.

First, it is the antithesis of what I do for a living. The organic natural processes help me balance out a life that revolves around technology. Second, it gets me outside for little bits of time each day. This is especially important since I started working from home a few years ago. Finally, it requires discipline and patience. This is counter to how my brain typically works, so in a way it’s a type of mental exercise to help me perform better in other areas.

Why I Needed This

The workshop had a very reasonable price of $55 which I had available in my discretionary fund (my wife and I each have personal checking accounts separate from the main account where we funnel a set amount of money each month for fun). It also involved about six hours away from the house which was harder to do without feeling guilty due to the amount of time that work has been requiring the past couple of months.

Eventually, my mental health needs won and I reserved my spot. Being able to unplug for a good portion of the day and focus on learning something that didn’t involve computers was a huge relief. I was long past due for a little time for myself to re-establish balance.

The Class Itself

This class was centered around Fall maintenance work on Japanese Black Pine bonsai. The discussion did reach other topics such seasonal work for Spring and Summer as well as fertilization, but mostly we focused on the Fall work.

The first thing we did was to take a look at our trees and work on removing any old needles from the previous year’s growth. These are fairly easy to identify by the position on the branch and the fact that the color is starting to fade and may be yellowing.

After the old needles are clear, we can take a look at the new growth that developed during the summer and prune any excess shoots down to a pair. Ideally, we want a pair of shoots of equal strength that are sitting side by side instead of top to bottom.

Finally, we can get in and perform any wiring necessary to develop that shape of the tree. There was an afternoon session on wiring, but I had other obligations for the evening and needed to get home. I had already participated in the wiring class a couple of years ago and feel like I have that under control.

What I Took Home

Well, I didn’t take home another tree! It was tempting, but it’s really not a good time for me to make the kind of investment that it would take to get the kind of tree that I want next. Most of my trees are what I consider project trees. It will be several years before any of them are show worthy. Eventually, I’d like to add a bigger specimen that is mostly refined and just need minor adjustment and maintenance. That can be a costly endeavor, so for now it’s on the ‘one of these days’ list.

I also came home with a greatly reduced stress level. I wasn’t worried about email or work the entire time I was out. It also prepared me for a laid back night out with the family to the local minor league hockey game! Fun times.

Cheers,

-cb3