Chasing Dollars

One thing I'm not going to do is reveal my identity or my line of work here.  These reasons are primarily personal, and I'm probably being overly cautious, but on the other hand I don't think who I am or what I do matters.  But I would like to shed a tiny bit of light on myself so you at least get a feel for what goes on around these parts.

I have been in the industry I'm in for nearly six years, working in various capacities and positions.  As of January 1, 2006, I own my own small business providing relevant services to other companies in this industry.  From the business, I pay myself a set salary which is somewhat small but subject to all normal taxes on both the employer and the employee side of the equation, and I'm also able to take distributions from the business that are not subject to self-employment tax.  (More about that later.)

I bought a home in late winter of 2004 and have lived in it ever since with my fiance.  She is a teacher.  We have a joint checking account into which we deposit a reasonably set amount each month that covers groceries, dining out, and other things we do together.  Apart from that, we manage our finances separately.  She has no ownership interest in the house, or at least that's the case until we get married–our state automatically qualifies the marrying spouse with 50% of the real estate owned by one spouse.  We have no plans to change our money management strategy between us.  And on this blog, I'll talk about my finances only.

I bought a vehicle in July 2005 and am not upside down on the loan, though I owe more than I'd like to owe. 

I have very recently started saving for retirement.  Through my business I'm eligible to participate in a profit-sharing Keogh plan (I currently contribute the maximum and as an employer I also contribute 25% of my salary as a match) and I also have a Roth IRA that is very nearly fully funded for 2005.  My current focus in on managing our wedding and honeymoon expenses while building my emergency savings to about $12,000.  I hope to do this by the end of July.  

I have accounts in a number of different financial institutions and I hope to make this simpler over the coming months.  I'd also like to begin investing in a regular brokerage account and not necessarily only in tax-advantaged retirement accounts. 

I use Quicken to manage my finances and have a sort of love-hate relationship with the product. 

That should give you a bit of background on where I am in my career and finances.  I hope that provides some context for the rest of this blog. 

Hi! Welcome to Chasing Dollars. I’m your host, and I’m glad you’re here.

t seems that starting personal finance blogs is a new fad. Maybe it’s part of this Web 2.0 thing; I don’t know. But why did I start this blog? For a couple of reasons:

• I enjoy reading other personal finance blogs. To see others making smart decisions with their money inspires me to do the same with my own. When I first started making appreciable amounts of cash, I made some pretty stupid decisions, some of which I’m still paying for. I don’t mind sharing those mistakes with the world–anonymously, of course; everyone needs their protective blanker–in hopes that it might prevent someone from making a similarly poor decision.
• Posting my financial information and decisions publicly makes me accountable for my own goals and statements. It’s too easy to commit myself to something in my head and then break that promise to myself–after all, who knows but me? I can rationalize anything to myself given enough time. But if I say that I want to increase my own net worth by 25% this year by saving not less than $2,500 each month, I know the blogging community will kick my ass if I do something contrary to that course. The collective body of readers shames me into sticking with my decisions. And that’s a good thing in my book.
• Reflecting on finances regularly helps me see things I might otherwise miss. You might look at something I’m doing with my money and have a good idea about how to do it more efficiently or cheaply. You might say, “Yo! You’re an idiot for investing in x while you still haven’t done y.” Or, just by re-reading my own entires, I might catch something I do could better.

So I’m hoping we all have fun here, have great discussions, help each other along the way, and generally enjoy ourselves. Let’s begin! Thanks again for visiting.