Blogging Is Fun

Blogging – 18 Months & Going Strong

Gen Y Finance Guy Blogging 40 Comments

When this blog was born I promised myself that I would be in it for a minimum of 1 year before I decided if I would continue or not. Now 18 months in, I think it goes without saying that I am here to blog for the long term. I use the term blog loosely as this site is more a personal journal that I’ve made public to the world. As many of my regular readers know, most of the content is shared in the 1st person, with the occasional 2nd person point of view (for more on this check out this resource). Some posts have a bit of both…is that even allowed? First Person Narrator: Definition. First person narrative is …

Alaska

[Guest Post] Freedom Fighter Interview #23 – Maggie Banks

Gen Y Finance Guy Freedom Fighter, Interview 15 Comments

Today’s guest, Maggie Banks, hails all the way from Alaska. She and her husband have set a goal to reach financial independence in 2022. They have grand plans to raise a worldly family. For them a paid off mortgage and about $500,000 is all they need to live a comfortable life. And can you believe they eat Salmon weekly, that they caught themselves. I once got asked to leave a Costco for bringing a fishing rod over to the seafood section and pretending to fish…they are legit. With that introduction I pass the stage to Maggie Banks… 1 – Who are you and what do you do? What is your story? How are you fighting for your Freedom? Where did …

Mortgage Like a Bond

Paid Off Mortgage is Equivalent to a…Perpetuity?…Bond?…Dividend Paying Stock?

Gen Y Finance Guy Financial Analysis, Mortgage Snowball 30 Comments

Having a fully paid mortgage sure does get a bad wrap around personal finance circles. I constantly see arguments about money being super cheap and that paying off the mortgage will lead to a loss of the interest tax deduction. I won’t argue that rates are historically cheap and that eliminating your mortgage will lead to eliminating the tax deduction. First, remember that with the tax deduction you get 30 cents on the dollar. So, although this is a step up from renting (in my opinion, and situation dependent), if you don’t have to pay interest, why do it? Why doesn’t anyone talk about a fully paid mortgage as a bond substitute? Or compare it to that of a dividend …

Q1 2016 Portfolio Update

Equity Portfolio Update #2 [+7.2% YTD @ 3-31-16]

Gen Y Finance Guy Investing 11 Comments

We have officially begun a new year and with that I have decided to start a new quarterly series. As many of you know that have been reading for any length of time, every month I put together a very detailed financial report that details out gross income, expenses, net worth, savings rate, and progress on the 7 year 3 month mortgage pay off goal. Since the report already pushes 3,000 – 4,000 words a month, I thought it would be more appropriate to provide details of the equity portfolio in an entirely separate post. Also, I don’t really see the benefit of updating this on a monthly basis, quarterly should be just fine. One of the guiding tenets of this …

March 2016 Goal Check

Monthly Goal Check-in #3 – @ 4/1/2016

Gen Y Finance Guy Goal Setting 12 Comments

Didn’t March just start a week ago? I can’t decide which is more fleeting TIME or MONEY. If you’re not intentional with either, they can be gone in the blink of any eye, or so it seems. The difference is that you can always make more money, you can’t make more time. You see money can be SPENT or SAVED. Time on the other hand can only be spent. You can’t save time and once you spend it, it is gone forever. This blog spends a lot of time talking about money, but at the end of the day, money is a means to an end. It’s really about the FREEDOM that money provides in how you choose to spend your PRECIOUS time. …

Keep it 100

March 2016 – Detailed Financial Report #15 – Net Worth $368,985 [+16.1% for 2016 YTD]

Gen Y Finance Guy Monthly Financial Reports 17 Comments

GYFG here checking in for the March monthly financial report. If you have been reading these reports for a while you will notice that I introduce each month with the same intro month after month. I do this for two reasons, a) for the newbies to the site (which make up about 50% of the sites traffic) and b) to remind everyone what these reports are all about. By all means if you have read the intro at least once, then please feel free to skip down to the “Summary of March 2016” section where the new content begins (click the orange link to be taken there automatically). For those of you that are new around this corner of the internet, I …