What I would do if I won the lottery

I was thinking about this today, and I think that this question has less to do with what I would spend the money on and more to do with how I would choose to live my life if money were no object.

I think that after I did all of the obligatory things (pay off debt, max out retirement contributions for the year, go on a spending spree, etc, etc) that I would take a lot of time for myself to enjoy life for awhile by playing video games and traveling...and then I would start teaching.

Not teaching for a paycheck (although that might happen anyway) but teaching for the sake of teaching. I want to educate young people on personal finance matters, and help them prepare for life after they leave the nest and enter the real world. I could be a great teacher, and there is quite simply a TON of things that I could teach young people that would be more useful to them in their everyday lives than say...basic chemistry or calculus.

The other option that I might consider doing is "fee based financial planner". I ENJOY managing money, creating budgets and calculating expected returns. It's fun for me. :-) If I didn't have to spend any time worrying about my own financial situation, then I think I would like to take the time to help other people with theirs.

The only reason that I'm not pursuing either of these careers right now is because being in the military doesn't allow me to change career paths like that, and because I would be very uncomfortable either creating a basic finance class or financial planning business without significant funds to rely on for basic bills. In other words, my financial security has not yet been secured enough to where I would feel comfortable taking that risk.

What about you? What would you do if money were no object? What would you occupy your time with if you didn't HAVE to have a job to pay the bills?

January Networth And Goals for 2007

I am back from my long holiday with family with an update. I know that the two or three of you that occasionally wander through my blog have missed my horribly boring financial posts terribly. ;-) Here is the latest picture of my networth:

As you can see, things are going well. Or at least, well enough. Progress is being made. My networth has actually increased by $8770 since my first post here on Blogger. Most of that is from three simple things.

1) Automatic deductions from my paycheck to go into the TSP (retirement) account.

2) Paying all of my bills on time automatically through online bill-pay and other such forms of money handling.

3) Lastly, through Elissa having a job.


That last one is HUGE, btw. With Elissa working, we have made significant inroads towards paying off her car (currently charged to the MBNA Mastercard) as well as saved a lot of money on the other side of the equation in the form of extra savings accounts scattered over the globe. These savings accounts are earmarked for things like....new computers when our current ones no longer work...car repairs...car upgrades...etc, etc. Basically, all of the things that I have been denying myself for the past few years because of my obsessive desire to get out of debt and live frugally to do so.

On the other hand...if Elissa wasn't part of the equation, it's entirely possible that the liabilities side of the equation wouldn't be quite so out of whack...but I'm trying to think positively here. Plus, she can only do so much damage on that side of the equation, which is more than balanced out if she continues to work past the time when we get all of that crap paid off.

So, that being said...this is as good of a point as any to put down a goal for 2007.

My goal for our family for 2007 is to more than double our current networth from $23,725 to approximately $50,000.

Think that goal is too ambitious? I don't. And here is how I plan to do it.
Note: all amounts rounded to nearest $25

Regular contributions to retirement accounts for 2007 (TSP and Roth) = $4100
Regular bi-weekly payments to mortgage principle + extra payments = $3850
Regular Ford payments to principle, plus extra principle payments = $4000
Regular Prosper Loan payments to principle = $550
Regular Contributions to Emergency fund (minus Prosper payments) = $725
Regular Investment in the Stock Market = $1050
Regular Additions to "Car Fund" = $775
Regular payments to principle on USAA Mastercard balance = $1450

For a grand total increase in Networth of (drum roll please......) =$16500

Now, that's just my portion of the puzzle. Elissa is also kicking in $300 per paycheck to help reduce the balance on the MBNA Mastercard, which, when lumped together with my $225 allotment from my paycheck towards that balance equals an additional $10,500.

So.

If Elissa continues to work, and I continue to put my money where I've been putting it, and Elissa does the same....and if we can somehow avoid the majority of the financial traps that come up in a year, we could theoretically increase our current networth by $27,000, bringing us to a grand total networth of $50,000.

Of course...I'm counting on the stock market to help us offset the depreciation of our vehicles. I'm also assuming that our house will either stay level or increase in price. But, considering that all of the numbers listed above represent just what I currently pay out each month, I don't think that it is unreasonable to think that I could double my networth this year.

The real challenge is going to be trying to double it AGAIN next year! *lol*

I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

~Scott