Glad you like it!

Nope – no mortgage, but only because we don’t have one ;) We prefer renting vs owning.

https://eliteedgemoney.com/2016/01/we-sold-our-house-no-more-mortgages/

Ouch!

Yeah – one of the reasons we went so quickly as we did was because we had someone to help watch the kids while we were out shopping around. No way you can concentrate and make rational decisions with them around!

I agree they’re not assets-assets, but I like seeing them in my overall financial picture especially since they’re items you can easily sell and convert to cash – which is an asset (unless you only choose to put in “income-producing” assets, in which case that wouldn’t fit either). I don’t put any of my other belongings in there – not even my coin collection or website values which would def. skew things – but thankfully we’re all allowed to track whatever we wish anyways :)

Thanks man :)

A few years ago a car I owned broke down right in front of an auto dealer. Wife and kids were with me, and I needed a reliable car. To make a long pathetic story short, they totally fleeced me. Don’t bring your kids along when buying a car!

Thanks for replying and checking out my site, J. Money! Toastmasters has been great… when I started 2 years ago I was super nervous but after being a club president and giving two dozen speeches I have improved greatly. It’s not really “public” speaking per se since you only have an audience of 10–20 people you already know, typically, so it’s a good segueway into more anxiety-provoking environments.

As for my education, financially I find it a very interesting topic. I still live with parents and have all my degrees (AA, BS, MA, starting PhD next month) from public community colleges / universities. This is so much cheaper than going to private institutions or moving away (though not as exciting). It must be awful to come out of undergrad with $100K+ debt which is quite common with pricey private institutions. Alarmingly, what is becoming more common is that people incur debt without ever finishing their degree! Might be a good blog post topic.

I can definitely understand the “slippery slope” dilemma, and I too think the VTSAX index fund will continue to yield more than 3.45% annually. Heck, it yielded much more than this over the past 10 years, even considering the 2008 crash.

I am glad you turned down the offer for your blog—I am sure it wouldn’t be as good. So many blogs turn bad when revenue generation becomes the #1 priority.

Best Regards,
Richard T.

Thanks man :) Yeah, actually just got an offer for the blog and my other project which raises the worth substantially more, but I never count on any of that until it’s actually a reality so that’s why I don’t include that stuff (I turned down the offer, btw).

As for liquidating some assets to pay for the car, it’s too slippery of a slope for me – I never like touching investments cuz it would tempt me too much to make it OK to do for other stuff down the road. And I honestly don’t mind taking on some debt and paying for the convenience of it since I know I can pay it off at any time and manage it responsibly. Plus, my investments will make much more than 3.45% anyways over the years :) And actually gonna spend some time and try and get it refinanced lower too as soon as the chaos winds down….

thx for stopping by btw – just checked out your site, your background is pretty impressive! especially in the speaking stuff – always admire that about people as I hate it. Keep hustling :)

Ouch :( It seems more and more dealers/people are actively going out of their way to give out free car reports online to help woo customers and it certainly helps! Now whenever I see one that doesn’t show it red flags automatically go up, haha…

But I agree – def. worth paying for :) I always take the car to my mechanic too before purchasing when buying through private party and that gives me peace of mind too, even though they don’t always catch everything. And if the seller doesn’t feel comfortable with it then it also sends up red flags!