I started reading All Your Worth and my post about it is not showing up. So go read my last entry.

You know I started a Vegas post and never finished it. Too much business to tend to this week. It's crazy.

Anyway, yeah we had fun and we are back. More later... (I have to vent about those timeshares later - are they out of their minds?????? LOL. Was interesting. It was easy on us, but I had to share some of the funny, and insane aspects. They put us up in a nice room though and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Timeshares are horrible deals, but the "sit through a presentation for a free vacation" thing is not 1/2 bad. In this case it was THREE nights so the 3 hours "wasted" was hardly noticed. & we had REALLY nice accommodations).

Well, I got my books in the mail today (cashed out my Wish List since everything was on sale really cheap the other day and I needed to buy a few things for free shipping).

One book I got was "All Your Worth." I know this book is spoken of like it is the Holy Grail of personal finance. But I was raised with a very high level of financial literacy so most of these books almost bore me (as I have mentioned before). The subject is interesting, but rarely find these books terribly enlightening. (& I know I am BLESSED to already have known much of this stuff). Plus the 2-Parent Income Trap (same authors) bugged me quite a bit. I didn't really jive with it.

This book has my attention a bit though. & I really want to work through it because I think this could be a really good book to pass on to struggling friends. Because I identify with it so much. I could have never formulated such a book but it speaks well my unconscious spending habits.

#1 - First thing they say is no counting pennies here. Go for the big stuff. (Um yeah, that's me). Not only can it often make little sense but it can be really psychologically damaging. If you really struggle with budgets this book is for you. For sure. {I've always formulated and budgeted as a guideline but never particularly followed a strict budget. Just too constricting if you ask me. This book says, that's okay!!!! & I knew it was, but I think more people need to hear this!}.

#2 - This whole idea of balance. Well that is so "me" too. I always thought that was rather obvious though. Balance is important in all aspects of life. Of course it is the same with money. But I think they put into words well what I thought.

At first I was skeptical that the "50/30/20 rule works for most of the people most of the time." I was thinking all along, why would it? Personal finance is very individual; very personal.

But as I run through the #s and ponder it, it actually does make sense.

For one, I thought, well, this has got to be average over time. There is much time in our life where we saved little (college) and where we saved most of our income (2 incomes). & then there are times we saved little again (When we had kids). But as I ran through the #s I would say we have averaged around 50/30/20. I share this though to say I wouldn't get too caught up in the #s in one point of time. If you do go down to one income and can't save much, you would be best to save a lot beforehand, and plan to catch up afterwards. Etc., etc. The numbers should be kept in mind in terms of keeping balance; as far as never being too off balance.

For us, I had a goal in my mind to put 15% to retirement before I would consider letting go of 2 incomes on a permanent basis. The interesting thing with our other savings that would put us right at 20%. IT was my goal all along.

The other VERY interesting thing is I calculated our "needs." We're at about 60% today. The interesting thing psychologically is we worked really hard, unconsciously, to get that to about 50% of my income before dh stopped working. We allowed for a bit more (temporary), but quickly settled to 50% with raises and such. Anyway, when we had kids and our health insurance skyrocketed out of control, it is the one thing that stressed me out majorly. It has been the total bane in my side. Interestingly, it kicked our "needs" from 50% to 60%. Yeah, no wonder that is the thorn in my side. I knew we were out of balance. But I feel there is little I can do about that for now. Just hope it gets better when dh works again (if nothing else we can spread out to find better insurance through employment).

I've only read one chapter of the book thus far too, so bear with me too...

Anyway, at the same time, I didn't need to read the book to know we were out of balance. & we were already working hard on rebalancing.

I also had issue if dh did return to work. If he got a part-time job we could easily put 60% of his net check to savings and 40% to wants. (No need to up our "needs" at all). That would be quite an increase in lifestyle/wants. Yet we would be about 45/20/35. I was pondering how this would put us out of balance in the least. In the short term it wouldn't. I think we would be MORE in balance. Life would be simpler and we would be saving more. BUT I did ponder it a bit and realized I wasn't saving all this money to leave it to my kids. I think at some point if that was sustainable, we would cut back our working hours. Or we would retire early. Etc., etc. Eventually we would probably move back towards 50/30/20. I think there may be something to it. It really seems to be the "balance" point over the long haul.

Anyway, it's interesting. I'll try to read another chapter tonight.

Oh, and I was totally lost on the savings portion. (Only one chapter read thus far, maybe it gets clearer?). I really got the impression they were talking about 20% savings for retirement only. I got stuck on the stuff you save for the future that eventually will go to needs, wants, and maybe even retirement. Since most of it was rather long-term (5 year plus horizon) I just included it in savings. Maybe it gets clearer... Maybe I overthink.

I did find an exception to the 50/30/20 rule. When you are spoiled rotten by family. LOL. Without preschool, seriously, our wants are at 10%. & I am not sure they have ever been terribly higher. We did pinch so many pennies before kids. & probably even more since. I don't know. Does everyone need 30% wants? I like to think for one we are very happy with non-material things. I think some of that is true. I've never felt particularly deprived. But on the flip side, we get a lot of "wants" for free. Just look at our travel itinerary this year. Or how often we get to eat out for free. It's a pretty sweet place to be. It makes the 30% way too high for us, as an example. I am sure there is stuff in the needs section leaking over to the wants too. We don't "need" such a big house. So as much as I like to think the wants matter little, I think for us they are quantified in different ways. When you are spoiled rotten that # could go down. & hopefully the difference goes to savings. That is what we have been working towards...

I enjoy this blog - pretty interesting stuff once in a while. Local...

Anyway, how scary &/or depressing is this?

http://sacrealstats.blogspot.com/2007/11/craigslist-trolling...

Well, some of it is depressing. Much of it is just, "duh."

I have no idea what is up with the $1k energy bill either. Particularly since the weather here has been terribly mild until about LAST WEEK!

Lots of greed and materialism and luxury, for sure...

I am honestly surprised that no one I know has admitted to severe financial whoas. I know my co-workers are rather conservative and cautious. & my good friends. But plenty of neighbors and acquaintances who are clearly in way over their heads. They aren't talking... I guess I have some sort of morbid curiosity.

I also know quite a few people (like my co-workers, and some local relatives who don't understand how cheap this market is from our perspective), eyeing me the same way. We're young, we have a really nice house, and my spouse doesn't work. Must mean TROUBLE. Trouble or "rich". Or both. Wrong on both counts. Just planners...

So you know I could be entirely wrong. But perusing Craigslist is about what I expect from many people that I know. We'll see...

I am just curious how the whole thing plays out in the long-term, for the area. California is unique. We aren't even near where house prices were in 1999, 2000, 2001. It is unfathomable how people can be in SO much trouble. And real estate is still worth 50% more than it was 5 years ago. ???? Sorry to say this is only the tip of the iceberg for many, many, many people...

I know for one, most people assume we paid WAY more for our house than we did. Like the fact you could buy a pretty decent house here in the $100k range less than a decade ago has completely flown people's minds. IT's just, surreal. Does it take rocket science to realize it couldn't go up and up and up forever?

P.S. Still no one on Craigslist wants my ugly chair. Until my ugly chair is taken; not sure how desparate these people really are. (1/2 joking).

Kind of a boring month (phew...)

*Allowance I have to square away. Dh bought and returned some stuff along with Christmas stuff and not sure if those figures are right. I bought some clothes/books/CD. CD was for kids so will probably move that to misc.

*Auto - paid annual AAA dues & also squeaked in right at $300 for gas. I think we drove to San Jose 3-4 times and same for December. I don't intend to make many drives January - April. Phew. But still amazed we squeaked in the budget. I left it high for rising gas prices and such.

*Christmas - mostly kids and cousins. & stocking stuffers, etc. Phase 1 over. December = memberships and charity expenses.

*clothing = belts for BM, socks for me, a shirt to match BM's friends' gift - they like to wear matching clothes.

*Dining - actually were closer to our $30 budget this month.

*Groceries were rather on the high side this month, but below $500 budget. Included Thanksgiving dinner so makes sense.

*Insurance = flood & additional life insurance

*Misc. - we usually budget $150 but ebbs and flows for unexpected things and christmas and vacations and such. Tried to keep it low this month. Was just for gym, a trip to the movies, and to replace BM's melted mattress pad.

*Utilities have settled much lower with balanced billing, lower cable and newly metered water. Phew! Just got our November gas bill and it was under 1/2 of last years' bill. Thanks to mild weather mostly. I think our electric will edge upward because it was *off* for a while (charged too little) and gas will probably edge downward - with the balanced billing. (Next time they re-evaluate the monthly charge. We have separate gas & electric companies).

*Vacation - I don't have the totals yet. Will have later today. Will be another $100 at least.

Even so, with all the extra money we brought in November (focus groups and credit card rewards) we spent far less than we brought in.

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I was looking at comparison reports to last year (something I didn't have enough data to play with before). It is really cool how much we have saved this year compared to last year. Will have to share that at year-end.

I really love Quiken. Shows exactly where all our money went all year, last year, etc. Since accountants tend to deal more with historical data I guess there is more of an excitement factor for me as I have more data to play with.

& I am up a whopping $140 for November!

Hey, up is better than down...

Up just under $25k for the year. Already posted I have little doubt that we'll hit $25k by 12/31. Will get a big retirement contribution and vest to 100% in less than 30 days. Now, that will be reason to celebrate!

Which might just put me up to $30k for the year, the upper end of my goal. The stock market decides the rest...