October, 2015 Net Worth: $86,973

Assets

Cash

• Cash/ Savings/ Checking: $41,444
• Certificates of Deposit: $9,540

Personal Investments

• Brokerage Account #1: $23,108
• Brokerage Account #2: $10,398
• Savings Bonds: $2,710

Retirement Accounts

• Roth IRA: $8,063
• 401k: $0

Other

• Vehicle: $1,000

Liabilities

Unsecured Debt

• Credit Cards: $130
• Student Loans: $9,160

The post Update: October 2015, Net Worth “Destination Financial Independence” appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.

Finally, with the help of family, I finally landed a job and although it’s not a job in the industry I went to school for (actually the job doesn’t require a degree, and since I had one it almost ruined my chances of getting this job) it still pays close to $50,000 a year, much more than $9,000 a year I was making at my part-time job.

This job isn’t glamorous and consist of physically hard work, but it has opened the door way to me for many financial opportunities. Thanks to the increase in income from this job I’ve been able to begin paying down my student debt more aggressively and about a week ago set up a 401k account to start contributing to!

Yes! Finally, I’ll have a 401k! One thing I want to point out is that my employer unfortunately doesn’t have a matching program for contributions to a 401k. This is because they provide a pension to employees, but an employee has to be employed there for a minimum of five years before they can begin receiving the pension benefits.

Now that I have finally set up a 401k account I plan on contributing the maximum amount allowed to it each year, which is $18,000 as of 2015 and the IRS just announced that it’ll stay the same in 2016.

The post I Finally Started a 401k! appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.

July, 2015 Net Worth: $77,346 (+$2,424)

I did a little better this month compared to last month. The reason for the increase is has a lot to do with the recovery of my brokerage and retirement accounts. Back in June, the stock market was down which in turn lead to a decrease in both my brokerage and retirement accounts. Luckily, they recovered in July.

Assets

Cash

Cash / Savings: $46,580 (+$1,402)

My cash savings is up $1,402. The increase is from money I earned from my job primarily.

Certificates of Deposit: $9,526 (+$14)

I received $14 in dividends in July.

Investments

Stocks (Brokerage Account): $22,224 (+$523)

The value of my brokerage account increased by $523. This was due to an increase in the market.

Bonds: $2,710 (+$0.00)

One of these days I’ll go on the treasuries website and update the value of these.

Retirement

IRA Account: $8,084 (+143)

The stock market increased, creating an increase in my IRA account.

Personal

Automobile: $1,000 (+$0.00)

I don’t believe this amount will change anytime soon.

Liabilities

Debt

• Credit Cards: $442 (+$90)
• Student Loans: 12,276 (-$433)

The post DESTINATION FINANCIAL INDEPENDENTS: JULY 2015, NET WORTH appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.

June, 2015 Net Worth: $74,922 (+$100)

My net worth was only up $100 from last month. The reason for such a small increase is primarily because of the decrease in the stock market, causing a large decrease in my brokerage accounts and IRA account.

Assets

Cash

Cash / Savings: $45,178 (+$1,078)

My cash savings is up $1,078. This increase is from income I received from my job and money I received from items I sold at a garage sale.

Certificates of Deposit: $9,512 (+0.00)

I did not receive any dividends from my CD, so this amount remained the same from last month.

Investments

Stocks (Brokerage Account): $21,701 (-$804)

My brokerage account is down $804 this month. This decrease was caused by a decrease in the stock market causing some of the shares I own to decrease in value.

Bonds: $2,710 (+$0.00)

I left this amount the same as last month. Although in reality this amount probably has slightly increased, all my savings bonds are in the form of paper. To find out the actual amount would require me to individually type each one in at the Treasury Direct website, which in other words is very time-consuming and I was lazy.

Retirement

IRA Account: $7,941 (-$166)

It always hurts to see a decrease in an account but I have no control over the stock market.

Personal

Automobile: $1,000 (+$0.00)

My awesome car! This value probably won’t change too much within the next couple of months.

Liabilities

Debt

Credit Cards: $352 (+$14)

For first time readers, I pay off my credit card in full every month. So in June, I spent $352 on my credit card, $14 more than last month.

Student Loans: $12,709 (-$7)

I only put $80 towards my student loans this month and with the interest they’ve accumulated this month, the total amount is only $7 less than last month (kinda depressing to think about).

The post DESTINATION FINANCIAL INDEPENDENTS: June 2015, NET WORTH appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.

Welcome to the first addition of the monthly Side Hustle Series! This month, in an attempt to make a few extra bucks and to reduce some clutter in my life, I decided to try selling some of my possession’s that I rarely use or don’t use at all anymore.

Craigslist: ($0.00)

At the beginning of this month I decided to try listing a few things on craigslist, which turned out to be unsuccessful. The people that did respond to the items I had listed would ask me a bunch of annoying questions about the items I had, but nobody actually purchased anything.

I did get one offer on one of the bigger ticket items I had listed, my Snap-on toolbox, but the guy wanted me to ship it to another state (it’s a very big roll-away toolbox) and pay me through Pay Pal. This seemed like a lot of work and I couldn’t tell if it was a scam or not and ended up turning the guy down.

Rummage Sale: (+$141)

It was my fathers birthday last week so I stopped by his and my step-moms place to visit and wish him a happy birthday. While I was visiting they told me about a neighbor hood rummage sale that was going on in their neighborhood that upcoming weekend and that they were taking part in it.

I immediately asked if I could bring over a few items of my own to sell in the rummage sale, and of course they said yes. The rummage sale was this past weekend and I may have brought over more than just a few items… more like two car loads of stuff would be more precise. I priced everything extremely cheap and ended up getting rid of a bunch of stuff! I ended up making around $141 from the two-day rummage sale, which is more than I had before.

I brought over a bunch of stuff so I don’t remember everything I sold. Here’s some of the general stuff I did sell:

• A bunch of my DVDs
• A bunch of my old textbooks from college
• My snowboard
• Snowboard case
• Snowboard boots and goggles
• A pair of boxing gloves (I had two pairs for sale, the person that bought the first pair took two right-handed gloves which I didn’t realize until the person that bought the second pair ended up returning them because they were both left-handed gloves)
• Paintballs
• A bunch of baseball caps that had been piling up in my closet.

So that puts the starting balance of my Side Hustle fund at $141. Not to shabby for a rummage sale and I got to get rid some clutter!

The post Make Money from a Rummage Sale – Side Hustle appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.

Well, I personally don’t want to put my life on hold so I can go to work everyday to make a mediocre wage while making somebody else rich.

I decided I would no longer fantasize about someday traveling the world and actually do it. No more of the same old excuses like “first I need to get a good career and make a lot of money” or “I can’t because I have bills and student loans to pay.” These excuses are weak. I refuse to wait until I’m old and gray to finally enjoy all the experiences and thrills that life has to offer.

I been wanting to do this for awhile and like many others I read The 4-Hour Workweek, but I never put together a plan on how to I’m going do it. So, I’ve constructed a deadline of when I’m going to drop everything and leave the 9 to 5 life behind. The Deadline is January 1st, 2017. This gives me a little over a year to get all my affairs in order and get done what needs to be done for this deadline happen.

I decided in order for this to really happen I would need to have a detailed plan in place. This plan lists exactly what needs to be done and how to do it.

The Plan… 

1. Reduce Clutter

In order to drop everything and just leave, I’ll have to get rid of all the excess stuff in my life that have no meaning and just take up space.

Sell Everything. By selling everything I don’t need and rarely use I’ll be making some extra cash and at the same time reducing clutter. I’m currently listing two items a week on craigslist. By only listing two items a week on craigslist instead of trying to sell everything at once I won’t be overwhelmed.

Donate Everything Else. Whatever I can’t sell I plan on donating to charities.

Throw Away Everything Else. Things that can’t be donated will be thrown away.

2. Mobilize My Income

In order to fund my adventures, not have to worry about money, or go broke while traveling, I’ll have to mobilize my income. Now this is a tricky one and will be somewhat difficult. I’ve have no experience when it comes to making money online or running a mobile business and decided to do some research in this field.

If you Google search “How to Make Money Online” or “How to Make Money While Traveling” you get millions of results. Many of the results are unrealistic or only pay pennies on the dollar and are not worth doing. There are a few I discovered and want to give a try.

Blogging. This blog for instance (I currently make no money from this blog, and do not intend to anytime in the near future). Besides this blog, I’d love to start a blog to document and write about my travels.

Teaching English. When traveling to non-English speaking counties that I plan on visiting for awhile, I could pick up a job teaching English.

Travel Writing. While traveling, enjoying good wine, and going on wild adventures, and having the time of my life I could write some awesome articles for some cool websites about my travels and experiences.

Freelance. I’m no expert at online marketing or web design, I am however decent at it and know more than the average person and could offer these type of services to others.

Find a Job. I could always find a temporary job while traveling and who knows I might discover a job I really enjoy and learn new skills.

3. Open A Bank Account for Travel Expenses

I’m going to open a bank account specifically for funding my travels. The deadline to drop everything and just go is January 1st, 2017, my goal is to have $10,000 in this account by that time. This is going to be extremely difficult but doable.

As that deadline gets closer I’m sure this list will go. Whether or not I’m actually able to save up $10,000 or not in my travel fund is to be determined.

The post How I Plan To Mobilize My Life and Travel appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.

Here it is, my very first post for this blog! One of the reasons I created this site was to document my net worth every month. I figured by documenting this every month for the whole world to see I will hold myself more accountable for how I save and spend my money. My other intention, is the hopes that my net worth will increase each month and inspire others that they too can reach their financial goals.

I’ve never been a big fan of having to wake up and go to work everyday or having to rely on a job to pay the bills and survive. I recently graduated college this past December, and within the last month started my first full-time job and lets just say I don’t jump out of bed every morning excited about going to work. This encourages me to save more of what I earn so I can someday become financially independent.

So here are the numbers for May…

My net worth this month was $74,822. This is the first time I’ve ever added up all of my assets and liabilities and I was actually surprised to see the net worth as high as it is.

Here’s how I came to this number…

Assets

Cash

Cash/Savings: $44,100

This is high for me. Normally I would have more invested in something with a higher yield, but because I’m saving to eventually buy a house and possibly a newer vehicle in the near future, I have a lot of my assets in cash.

Certificate of Deposit: $9,512

I opened this CD a little over a year ago and it matures in August. I’ll probably move this into higher yielding CD at maturity considering interest rates are a little better now than they were when I opened this.

Investments

Stocks (Brokerage Account): $22,505

My brokerage account consists of individual stocks that I’ve picked myself. I’ve always enjoyed researching and buying shares of publicly traded companies.

Bonds: $2,710

All my bonds are Series EE Savings Bonds.

Retirement

IRA Account: $8,107

My IRA consists of a mix of bond and stock index funds. Now that I’ve graduate college and will be able to work full time, I plan on contributing the max contributions to this every year.

Personal

Automobile: $1000

My car, a beater, is actually valued on KBB at $1,650 but if I had to sell in I really don’t think I could get more than a $1000 for it. I’ve had this car for awhile (since I was 16) and hopefully it’ll last me for awhile longer.

Liabilities

Debt

Credit Cards: $338

This month I racked up $338 on my cards. I pay these off in full every month, I only use credit cards for the rewards I receive from them.

Student Loans: $12,716

I’ve been trying to hammer away at these. When I first graduated college this past December, I had over $17,000 in outstanding student loans. The interest rates are pretty low, the highest one at 4.5%.

I got my first part-time job when I was 16 and since that time I’ve been trying to save as much money as I could. Until this past December I’ve always been a full-time student and believe it or not have never made more than $14,000 a year.

The numbers above are real and they prove that it’s possible to save money no matter how small your salary is. If you can manage to save a portion of each pay check and make smart investment moves you too can be on your way to financial independents.

The post Destination Financial Independents: May 2015, Net Worth appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.