Quantcast Finally Frugal: April 2011

The bumpy road to financial independence. . . .

 

Monday, April 18, 2011

Pseudo-advice. . .

I am naturally drawn to those '10 best. . .' or '20 best. . .' of whatever, whether it be '10 best places to retire' or '5 best cities to find a job', or what-have-you. I'm not sure why I love them so much but they catch my eye and my mouse click at the same time.

Here, though, is the most idiotic 'best of' list I think I've ever seen: 100 Best Money Moves.

The vast majority of these "money moves" involve some form of consumerism, whether it's purchasing the 'best' video camera, obtaining the 'best' rewards credit card, or buying a $350 thermostat to 'save' money on heating and cooling. It's absolutely maddening that marketers are basically advertising to us by pretending to give us money advice!

Here's some advice, and it's free: Save more money. Pay down debt. Avoid ridiculous consumerist 'best of' lists.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Look to the right. . . .

and you'll see my handy dandy Debt Reduction Progress bar, which I update every month or so. Since I can't figure out how to put the bar into an actual post (why the HTML works in the sidebar but not in my post is a mystery to me. . . .) I wanted to include the current numbers and percentages in this posting so I can look back later and see how far I've come. It seems that each month the percentage of repaid debt falls by just 1%, though my math-muddled mind seems to believe that this will increase more quickly as the debt amounts fall?

So, with that, here are the current numbers:


Second Mortgage Debt: $31,400::::$26,257 (84%)

Student Loan Debt: $61,762::::$56,387 (91%)

Primary Mortgage Debt: $167,500::::$158,016 (94%)

The first number is the original debt amount, the second number is the amount I currently owe. The percentage reflects the percentage of the original debt I still owe. The reason I like the percentages is that when I get demotivated and depressed and discouraged (as happens periodically) I can look back and see that I am actually making some progress, slow though it may be.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A Day Late . . . .

And a dollar short. . .

Where was THIS guy during the housing boom?

Sorry for the silence, readers! I had (minor) surgery in March and boy did it throw me for a loop!

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