Reevaluating

As is evident by my lack of updates recently, I’ve taken a leave of absence from regularly writing on this site. I was entirely unsure where I wanted to go with it, so I felt it was best to stop for the time-being and ponder things over.

In the meantime, I’ve been slowly putting together a PDF that will provide an overview of my personal finance philosophy. My goal is a relatively short document that effectively summarizes what I feel are the most important aspects of succeeding financially. Whether or not it will go down in history as a monumental achievement remains to be seen.

Now if you’ll excuse me, the relentless stream of philosophy writing and reading that needs completed is demanding my attention.

Until next time, stay classy San Diego.

2009 In Review

It’s hard to believe that the 2000s decade (or the “Aughts”, as my econ professor would say), are drawing to a close. As many people are probably doing now, I’m spending some time reviewing this past year and outlining some plans for the new one. The following is a self-reflection of some areas of progress in 2009.

1.) I started this site:

Early in the year I had a vision of building my own financial advising business, and I figured this would be a good way to build some credibility around my name. Now I’m back to questioning what I want to do with my life, but since I’m still immensely passionate about personal finance, I have no intentions of discontinuing this site as of now.

2.) I read:

A lot. I suppose every job probably has its unique perks, and when you staff the front desk of college library over summer break, the perk is quite a bit of time to read. I probably read around 20-25 books this year, some of which were really influential (I hate to throw around the “life-changing” term, but it could actually apply to a few of them).

If I could only choose 5 to recommend, it would be these:

A. Walden- Henry David Thoreau.

This is widely considered a classic for a reason. I wrote some about it back in October.

B. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt- Edmund Morris.

I’m not that much of a history buff, but it’s hard for me to imagine someone with more vigor, and who accomplished so much, as our 26th president. Not only is reading about “The Bull Moose” extremely enjoyable and interesting, but it’s inspirational as well. Roosevelt is my idol.

C. Your Money of Your Life- Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.

This is undoubtedly one of the most underrated personal finance books out there. I’d consider it a must for anyone who wants to be more conscious about how they manage their finances. I wrote about it this summer.

D. The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food- Michael Pollan.

I know, I know; reading about food initially sounds about as exciting as reading about the history of tax reform. I gave Pollan a shot though, and I was quickly hooked. After reading these two books, I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that the way we grow and eat food here in America is an absolutely enormous problem. Read either (or better- both) of these books, and you’ll never think about food the same way again.

3.) I doubled my emergency fund:

And recently wrote about doing that here. Cool people have emergency funds. Do you?

4.) I simplified my investments:

I moved some money out of individual stocks, which I honestly didn’t know enough about to justify ownership, and increased my holdings in Vanguard ETFs. For probably 95% of individual investors, passively managed funds (not traditional mutual funds or individual stocks) are the way to go. And absolutely nobody does this better than Vanguard.

Vanguard rocks my socks off.

5.) I joined Toastmasters:

This was my single best decision of the year. Less than a year ago, I’d get nervous just thinking about the prospect of speaking in front of a group. Thanks to my awesome Toastmasters group, I’ve come a long way in overcoming my fear and slowly improving my communication skills. I’m still a bit nervous before speaking, but not nearly as much as before, and I’ve gained a lot of courage to acknowledge my nerves and do it anyway.

~

This isn’t an exhaustive review, but I’m sure nobody would want to read the entire thing. Next week I’ll write about my ambitions for the coming year. Until then, happy new year!!!

Hydrocodone Adventures

My intention for this weekend was to write a post journaling the progress I made in 2009, financial and otherwise. It didn’t happen. I guess I underestimated the power of prescription painkillers…

This past Friday I had a shoulder arthroscopy to repair the damage caused by three dislocations over the past few years. Between that and semester finals, it wasn’t a very delightful week. Now that I’m on the mend and have over three weeks of down time, I plan to do some reflecting on the past year and some planning for 2010.

And as long as I’m taking hydrocodone around the clock, I’m going to be doing plenty of sleeping as well.

Until next time, happy Holidays!

Finals Week…

College students face a cruel irony during the days leading up to finals week. Just when we need it the most, the motivation to be industrious is suddenly in very short supply. A barrage of tests and papers (3 and 1, respectively, for me) stands between you and that glorious drive home. With finals in the rearview mirror, a Goo Goo Dolls CD to sing along too, and almost a month of family, friends, food and relaxation ahead, it’s almost hard to describe how exhilarating that trip home really is.

Alas, work is still to be done. That’s why, as I write this on a Saturday night, I kind of look like the guy in the picture below:

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my ethics self-assessment. If anyone has any good insight on deontological ethics and its application, I’d be glad to hear it!

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Make Progress with MITs (Most Important Tasks):

Big ambitions often fail to get the attention they deserve in the day-to-day grind- it’s commonplace to become swamped with routine responsibilities. I realize that for people who feel stretched thin enough as it is, the notions of lifestyle design and long-term goal-setting may seem impossible.

There are some techniques though that nearly anyone can employ to make time for these pursuits. One that I recently read about and implemented for myself is Leo Babauta’s Most Important Tasks (Oops, I guess it was mentioned here earlier)..

It’s really simple. Before you go to bed, identify one or several MITs for the next day. As the name implies, these are your personally identified most important actions that you need to take.

I’ve been designating goal-related actions to be MITs. They are steps that should directly enable me to move closer to achieving my goals.

Things like work, errands, and appointments are all important as well; you definitely don’t want to blow these things off to write your future best-selling novel. However, they will get done whether or not you label them as MITs. Things like writing 1,000 words, getting in an intense workout, or working on your project motorcycle are more MIT material.

We often know what steps we have to take to move closer to our goals, but it’s far too easy to let day-to-day obligations zap us of the energy and motivation to work on them. By precisely labeling what steps we need to take and when, and making ourselves accountable to take those steps, we can ensure that we give our goals a fighting chance.

The morning is often a perfect time to get MITs accomplished, especially if you wake up a bit earlier than the rest of the world. If you’ve spent 5 minutes in the online personal development world, you’ve probably read about the benefits of becoming an early riser. While I don’t think it would universally benefit everyone to the same extent, waking up likely will provide plenty of benefits.

By the time I’ve spent the greater portion of the day on other matters (work, homework, errands, etc), it’s tough to buckle down and work on my goals. This is especially true when they are long-term in nature and no immediate benefits are likely to be realized. For this reason, I like to wake up earlier than my first scheduled obligation and get something accomplished. I’m not the type that can roll out of bed and immediately began doing creative or otherwise mind intensive work, but I do enjoy working out first thing in the morning. I consider a strong morning workout to be an MIT, so it feels good to get this accomplished before anything else.

I used to be a fan of morning classes, that way I could get them out of the way early and have the rest of the day to do whatever. But it was often hard to get much quality work done in the afternoon- I’d often be sluggish and less motivated to sit down and do work than I was in the morning. Because of this, I now prefer later classes. I can spend the mornings working on the things I deem to be most important, school-related or otherwise. I’ve found that how I spend my time before noon is an extremely good indicator of how the rest of the day will unfold.

Some people may not be like this, either because of personal preferences or other circumstances. That’s perfectly fine. It doesn’t really matter when MITs get done- what matters is that they do get done. Just make sure that you’re doing all you can to carve out the necessary time to work on what’s most important to you, whether that be at 5:00 A.M, over the lunch hour, or while you’re burning the midnight oil. Your future self will thank you.

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