2017 Goals

2017 Goals – Go Big or Go Home – But Focus

Gen Y Finance Guy Goal Setting 26 Comments

In any given year I usually have a dozen or so goals. But sometime during the middle of 2016 it dawned on me that maybe less is more. If I set less goals, I could shoot for a much bigger outcome. I could be more focused. Less really could be more. For 2017 I have several themes: Slow Down – Mrs. GYFG and myself have been pushing very hard for a long time, but this past year was like no other. Our careers will still be plenty demanding, but we are going to make an active effort to slow down a bit. For me in particular, it shouldn’t be too hard, we finally completed the massive deal we had been working on …

Goal Check #11

Monthly Goal Check-in #11 – @ 12/1/2016

Gen Y Finance Guy Goal Setting 9 Comments

The theme for November has been to focus on health and fitness. All of the financial goals have either been exceeded or are on autopilot to success through the end of the year. As I shared earlier in October, I placed a $1,000 bet with a co-worker, with the winner who loses the most weight winning. The bet was officially agreed on 10/7/16 and I had a starting weight of 228.4lbs (I will spare you with the before pictures…for now). Let’s just agree that I didn’t start at my leanest. That said, it will be fun to compare the before and after pictures when we make the final weigh in on 12/21/16. Below is my current weight loss trend over the …

Options or Equity

The Details Behind Our $105,000 Investment

Gen Y Finance Guy Financial Analysis 58 Comments

One of the perks of joining the executive team at the company I work for is either being granted options or the opportunity to get equity (i.e stock) in the company. Not everyone gets a choice, but I am fortunate to be in a position where I get to choose. There are pros and cons to each, which I plan to walk through in this post. My hope is that by the end of this post I will have made a decision. As you can imagine there is a risk/reward trade off between the two options. For those not familiar with options, an option is a derivative of stock, meaning the option derives it’s value from the underlying asset (i.e …

Book Wish List 2016

12 Books for Your Christmas List This Year

Gen Y Finance Guy Words To Live By 19 Comments

I wasn’t and avid reader growing up, in fact I really didn’t start reading (voluntarily) until 2011 (I was 25 then). Now I read 40-50 books a year and spend about $1,000 every year on books (I actually just paid $1,000 for ONE book, but we will save that for another post). I’m currently working to put together a new resource for you guys, it will be a detailed reading list by category that currently contains the 230 books I have read over the past 5 years. Buying books is one of the best investments you can make! Jim Rohn said that “if you want more, then you must become more,” and one way to do that is to fill you mind with new …

Freedom Fighter Interview 29

[Guest Post] Freedom Fighter Interview #29 – Amber Tree Leaves

Gen Y Finance Guy Financial Freedom, Interview 8 Comments

Today we have our last interview in this Freedom Fighter Series that we started last year. And today’s guest is writing from across the globe in Belgium. He is a fellow options enthusiast and is shooting to reach financial freedom by 2029. 1. Who are you and what do you do? What is your story? How are you fighting for your Freedom? Where did you start, where in the journey are you, and where do you ultimately want to end up? My name is Amber Tree Leaves. As you probably guess, this is not my real name. I prefer to blog in full anonymity. It gives me a secure feeling and I do think it enables me to be a little more …

November 2016 Financial Report

November 2016 – Detailed Financial Report #23 – Net Worth $486,544 [+53.1% for 2016 YTD]

Gen Y Finance Guy Monthly Financial Reports 7 Comments

GYFG here checking in for the November 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 November 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 …

2017 GYFG Budget

The 2017 GYFG Budget – Projected $440K Income w/63% Savings Rate

Gen Y Finance Guy Monthly Financial Reports 10 Comments

It’s that time of year again, where Mrs. GYFG and I look at the year ahead and plan our 2017 finances. I’m not sure if I have articulated my philosophy on budgeting in prior posts or not. So, it might make sense for me to briefly touch on the topic. You won’t find many articles on this blog about budgets or budgeting. That’s not because it’s not important, it’s just not something I personally spend a lot of time with. For the most part it is a very short conversation. Personally, I create a budget once a year, but it is a high level view of our personal P&L. We create this as a road map for the year ahead, it’s not …