The Finance Castle

For those of you (apparently there are some!) who have visited in the past few months, you’ve probably noticed that I had all but vanished for the good part of a year. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) my new job required my reactive my Series 7 license. If you’re familiar, you probably know that any outside business activity needs to be reported in those cases. The firm that picked up my license insisted that I not do any of said activity and as a result, I was forced to stop writing anywhere and everywhere for an indefinite period of time.

Which turned out to be early January 2010.

A recent change meant that my license was no longer necessary, and so I am once again allowed to write! Of course this still means that you won’t be seeing anything investment related around here, seeing as the whole experience has led me to err on the side of caution. There’s still plenty of other subject matter to cover though, including rebuilding my passive income empire that currently lies in ruins. You’ll notice that my last post involved our Adsense update.

From what I understand, the Adsense portfolio has continued to blossom and grow in 2009 (It’s no longer under my ownership for reasons stated above, but I turned everything over to my older brother who I partnered with originally). I also plan to once again pick up on writing if possible. While technically I can write about whatever I want, I enjoy where I currently work and would like to stay here (A mutual fund). So baby steps. For those of you still lurking around the blog I’d like you to know that I’m back, and hopefully we can pick up where I last left off.

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We’ve been doubling our efforts on the site portfolio and I personally have been working on some link building, updating content, and so on. After a few dreary months, it appears that our efforts are finally starting to pay off!

March Total: $142.72

We also brought in about $17.50 in link sales and $2.50 from Amazon (we sell books!). Overall I’m happy with the progress, and hope that some of our newer sites manage up get ranked and start up an income stream of their own.

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There’s one expense in life that you can’t avoid, only minimize, and it is almost always the one thing that you’ll spend most of your disposable income on, housing. I’ve gone back and forth on the issue myself, talking it over with the fiance. Here’s the options we’ve come up with so far:

Buy

When I say I’d like to buy a house, I mean in an inexpensive area and  without a mortgage. My constant aversion to debt really puts that out of the question, but there are some advantages to owning as well. Certainly the emotional satisfaction of owning a home isn’t to be underestimated. It would also likely be cheaper then renting over the long term, assuming my house didn’t fall apart and property taxes were reasonable.

Rent

Renting comes with its own unique set of pros and cons. On the plus side, rent remains fairly steady from year to year, and your costs are much more predictable. If a heater blows or your plumbing breaks, you just call the land lord instead of pulling out the check book. On the down side, you are somewhat putting money into a black hole, with no chance for appreciation. Still, this would be an ok option for me.

Build

This is an interesting idea that I’ve tossed around with my brother. The benefits of building include being able to make your home energy efficient and lower the future costs of maintenance. The downsides are many, including a much larger cost up front and various risks revolving around going over the costs of building and hiring contractors and so forth. If I did go this route, I’d likely by my own small house plans.

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Ever since graduating from college, I’ve always seemed fixated on the future. Everything has been about where I’m going next, what goals I’m going to accomplish, what meaning I’ll find just around the corner. I’ve always wanted to live in the present, but my future always needs TLC. I adjust my budget, make predictions, run various scenarios. If I want to travel the world, for example, there’s going to be a tremendous amount of planning involved. So I’ll rapidly fire off some questions in my head:

• How will I support myself (and my soon-to-be-wife) abroad?
• How will taxes work? Mail? Visas? Passports?
• Where do I want to go? Where is a good starting point?
• Is this what I want? Is this what my fiance wants?

It goes on and on like this for awhile till I scribble down my thoughts and file them away with the other lists  I may or may not ever reference again. Even as I happilly plug away at my day job and freelance by night, ever building an advancing (and time consuming) portfolio of income, I’m constantly looking for ways to expand. Growth at any cost, it seems like, but that’s not where I should be.

So to remedy that I’ve been indulding myself in some fun spring activities. I’ve signed up for archery lessons, will be helping my brother establish bee hives at a nearby friend’s house, and playing paintball next month. I’m happy with the pace I have going so far, and should focus more on having fun in the present while still keeping an eye on my overaching goals.

Perhaps in the end I’m being irrational. Forsaking all else in the name of financial security probably isn’t the best idea I’ve ever had

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There’s a reason frugality is often seen as a way of sacrificing your ability to do what you want, when you want, and saving money for emergency funds, investments, and increased earnings later on down the line. That’s because it is. Even if you pride yourself on doing low cost activities with that provide high fulfillment at little expense, you’re still (in most cases) looking at spending at least some money to do it. If you like hiking, you still have to put gas in the car to drive to the state park near you.  If you prefer sports with friends, you’ll have to cough up the money for equipment upfront, and you’ll pay to keep that equipment maintained.

Now this isn’t to say that not all hobbies should be forsaken in the name of the almighty dollar, but rather that you should set a specified amount aside for your hobbies each month and stick to it. This will allow you to keep saving, keep investing, and building upon your earnings and letting compounding do your work while still enjoying yourself. This means that I can happily watch my emergency fund build up while I take archery lessons, play paintball,  or even purchase wow game card codes (World of Warcraft, if you’re not familiar with the acronym.

So feel free to set aside some money for the things you like to do. It’ll make the journey to financial freedom that much easier.

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