About Me
My personal finance journey didn’t really start until I was laid off from my job in January of 2010. I had always been a good saver but never really kept track of anything until I was no longer working. That’s when it hit me that I need to make sure my financial house is in order for peace of mind more than anything.
Until I found my current job my journey had pretty much flatlined, but that’s expected when money is only going out and not coming in. After starting this job I started to try and save as much as possible and started paying off the debts that I did have. Recently I’ve started to try and really focus on the debts which I am glad to say should be paid off sometime late in 2012. It all depends on how often I’m able to work. My retirement investments are the main source of my asset increases as of now. Once the debt is gone I’ll be saving more money in my after-tax dollars than I will be saving for my 401k. I’m excited for that point because my ultimate goal is to be able to “retire” debt free by 40. I have a long way to go but it’s definitely possible. I've begun to invest in a taxable brokerage account to build up my freedom fund where I no longer have to work for money.
I’m engaged to a wonderful fiancée and we will be getting married in June of 2012. Thanks to my wonderful job and financial discipline we’ll be paying for the wedding and honeymoon in cash, well actually on credit card to get the rewards and then pay off. I can’t wait for my new life with Lynsy to start in June and for our journey to continue.
For more of my story check out "How Getting Laid Off was the Best Thing for my Finances"
Until I found my current job my journey had pretty much flatlined, but that’s expected when money is only going out and not coming in. After starting this job I started to try and save as much as possible and started paying off the debts that I did have. Recently I’ve started to try and really focus on the debts which I am glad to say should be paid off sometime late in 2012. It all depends on how often I’m able to work. My retirement investments are the main source of my asset increases as of now. Once the debt is gone I’ll be saving more money in my after-tax dollars than I will be saving for my 401k. I’m excited for that point because my ultimate goal is to be able to “retire” debt free by 40. I have a long way to go but it’s definitely possible. I've begun to invest in a taxable brokerage account to build up my freedom fund where I no longer have to work for money.
I’m engaged to a wonderful fiancée and we will be getting married in June of 2012. Thanks to my wonderful job and financial discipline we’ll be paying for the wedding and honeymoon in cash, well actually on credit card to get the rewards and then pay off. I can’t wait for my new life with Lynsy to start in June and for our journey to continue.
For more of my story check out "How Getting Laid Off was the Best Thing for my Finances"
Sounds like you've given a lot of thought to the unemployment situation, so I am by no means trying to criticize your decision. However I do think something that's often forgotten is that unemployment benefits are paid from insurance policies which nearly every employer funds as part of their payroll processing. So while you are working, your employer is paying unemployment tax on your behalf. If you get laid off, you aren't necessarily getting a "handout" in the form of unemployment benefits -- you are simply cashing in on your insurance policy.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I'm not trying to scold or nag, but this is something you might want to keep in the back of your mind if you ever find yourself in this situation in the future. Of course there are always going to be some people who abuse this benefit, but for those who have held long-term jobs and find themselves suddenly without a paycheck, I see no shame in someone claiming unemployment benefits which they helped support during their employed years.
I meant to take that part off of this page, but forgot about it until your comment. It didn't belong and I was a little frustrated at the time because when I started the blog they kept extending and extending the unemployment benefits. Obviously being laid off was a huge drag but I can't complain too much because it's led me to a great job where I get paid well and has led me to DGI and trying to reach FI at an early age. It really taught me that no one is going to take of me and my family so I need to do my best to do it. You do bring up good points about unemployment because it is an insurance policy. I hope to never have to worry about it again or at least not until I reach FI and then they can do whatever they want if I'm still working this job.
DeleteThanks for stopping by!
Hey, have you ever thought about getting a domain name and hosting this website?
ReplyDeleteIt's something I've thought about but haven't looked too much into just yet. I've been much more focused on building my portfolio although I probably should start getting that going. Unfortunately passiveincomepursuit.com is already taken so I'd need to come up with a new name that's available. Who did you register through and get to host it? About the only one I can name off the top of my head is godaddy.
DeleteThanks for giving me some more homework to do while the markets are closed.
Let me know if you need any kind of fancy and cheap website work.Sorry for solicitation and a great website btw.
DeleteGreat inspiraton for all dividend investors and all who wants to make money with dividend stocks. I did it too. Sure my private wealth is a little bit higher and my yearly income in a five-figure range but I also started at nearly zero. Thank you for your great work and check out my dividend growth portfolio and learn how I work.
ReplyDeleteI just hope that the site can help people out and provide motivation and focus. And if it can help convince people that by living below your means and investing the difference you can reach financial independence that's even better. I'll check out your blog soon.
DeleteThanks for stopping by!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHi there PIP (do people call you that? If not they clearly should!)
ReplyDeleteInteresting story you have. May I ask what line of work you are in currently? I'll have a read around the blog more over the next few days to find out but just thought I'd drop a note to say hi and be a bit nosy.
Thanks!
Andy
Andy,
DeleteNo one does, but it always reminds me of Twas a Midsummer's Night Dream.
I work in the oil field on rig sites. I'm an MWD Field Engineer. Essentially I put tools down the hole that tell them the direction they're drilling and the formation they're drilling in. It's an easy job when things are running well and it pays well, but that pay comes because I'm gone from home a lot.
Thanks for stopping by!
That sounds ridiculously interesting compared to most jobs I can think of! Sorry for the slow reply... there is no "Follow comments" option on here I could find.
DeleteWhat are your thoughts on peak oil, global warming and so on? Do you ever post on or are interested in such topics? I presume you are familiar with ERE who used to post quite a lot on the subject...?
Andy,
DeleteNo worries on the slow reply. I need to see if that's even an option on Blogger. I'll most likely be making the switch to WP this year so it'll open a lot more plugins for the blog.
As far as peak oil, I need to read up more on it but they've been calling for peak oil since before I was born and we still find more. Almost every single industry relies on O&G products whether it's for distribution, manufacturing, or packaging of their products so demand will continue to be high. I think we can make bigger strides against global warming, or climate change as it's now being called especially during the cold winters, if we improve the efficiency in our energy uses. There's still plenty of life left in the O&G industry and given it's a fairly cheap energy source the developing world will keep the demand coming. It's hard to justify going with the more expensive energy sources, even if they're better environmentally, when a good portion of your populace doesn't have electricity or cars. O&G will step right in and provide the cheap energy source to solve both of those problems.
I've read some of Jacob's stuff on it and it probably wouldn't hurt to brush up on the subject. Although I don't expect any kind of material change over the next 10 years which is hopefully all I'll be relying on the O&G industry for income. ;)
Thanks for stopping by!
Also, as far as the job goes it's really nothing special. It was really interesting at first because it was something new but I'm at a crossroads where I can coast along with the tools that I'm currently running and reach my financial goals or I can try and learn some of the other tools that we have that are honestly a lot more work and no worth the headache for the slight bump in pay you get to run them. Plus from the other people I work with I hear you get stuck into only doing those jobs which are usually just nightmares. To get a job started with the tools I run, it's 4-6 hours. There's some that it usually takes 18-24, so you're not getting all that much sleep.
DeleteThanks for the detailed replies on both subjects... I guess job wise it must be kind of similar to most things. Website programming was far more interesting to me a few years ago than it is now. Can't say it's not a handy skill to have when I started the blog though :)
DeleteI agree with you when you say about the O&G situation not changing much over the next 10 years. I think it has to start changing at some point though. It will be interesting to see how it pans out!
theFIREstarter,
DeleteIf you do the exact same thing for very long eventually you'll tire of it. Or at least that's been my experience so far.
One thing that can keep the O&G industry strong is if a conversion to NG vehicles actually takes place. They're working on the build out of fueling stations here in the US but it's definitely not a mainstream thing. Mainly some conversions of trash trucks and 18-wheelers. I'll be curious to see if that change continues or fizzles out.
I have worked in the oilfield as well. I was gone all the time. I got laid off after 6 months. I went from making 350 a month to a training salary of $40000/year. I was quite the jump .
ReplyDeleteI started to invest in 2010 as I decided I had to do something or I will be working until I am 6 feet under. At a job, you can have the life sucked right out of you depending on the attitudes of your co-workers. Also, an employee has to do pretty much what the boss says even if it is dangerous. If you refuse unsafe work, then you will like lose your job also. I decided to start investing and it has made a huge difference to me by reducing stress a lot..
Investing Pursuits,
DeleteWhile I actually really enjoy my job tasks, the fact that I can blog while working doesn't hurt, it's management that is a real bummer. Although that tends to be the case at most jobs. This is the first slow down in the oil field that I've had to deal with and it's pretty scary. If oil prices stabilize or increase then I think I'll be fine but there's just no telling what will happen is prices continue to decline. I'm just glad that I have a relatively huge portfolio plus dividends to fall back on if need be. It's really helped to ease my mind and decrease my stress knowing that we'll be fine for several years if that happens.
Thanks for stopping by!