Automatic Plan - Whatever it is...

I've decided to automate my finances as much as I can, following David Bach's Automatic Millionair book. I've read David's book a while ago, and I thought it was the most simple, yet, very easy to follow ways to increase my networth to my first million.

I've been trying to "time the market" when it comes to investing, even though back of my head believed that I can't time the market. Therefore, discipline methods to my madness is required. This David's way is one of the best "discipline" method when it comes to investing.

Well, thinking it is easy is one thing...putting it into an action is another. Only auto pilot financial item I have going is my 401k plan. Applying this experience, I have decided to automate few financial items first.

Automatic plan remind me some guy from infomercial saying "Set it, and forget it". I won't forget it, but at the end of each year, if certain accounts needs rebalancing, that's what I will do.

1) Automate my Roth IRA to match my direct deposit, which is every two week. This mean, every other Friday when I get paid, automatically, I am putting $200, which by early January of 2008, it should max out my Roth IRA Contribution. This auto draft into my Vanguard Roth plan. This goes for both my account and my wife's account as well.

2) Automate mortgage payment, with 1/12th additional payment at the end of the month from my checking account each month. This way, at the end of the year, it is equivalent to making one full extra payment. This should increase equity value of my house.

3) Automate my son's 529 contribution. Make $150/mo contribution to his 529 account.

Man, 3 main things I had to automate...it took total of 30 minutes to automate above 3 items. 30 minutes. Why didn't I do this earlier?

I believe anything that will increase your networth, automating your finances will definitely help anyone get to where they need to be.

Separation with CABLE

This was a tough one. For the first time in 15 years, NO MORE CABLE TV.

For past 15 years, I've been almost married to my cable TV. My life evolved around cable TV, especially ESPN during those years, and for past 5 years of married life with a house and a kid, HGTV, TLC, Discovery Channel, Food Network, Nick Jr., Disney channels were added to my everyday life.

From Time Warner to Comcast to Charter, everywhere I went, cable TV was part of my life. Latelly, more and more, I felt like my time was being wasted on watching TOO MUCH cable, and it was time to step up to the plate and cut it...cold turkey.

By cutting ties with cable TV brings 2 financial benefits:
1) Save cable bill. This allows me to save about $50/mo in cable bill. I have not decided what I am going to do with extra $50/mo. but I will think of something.
2) Time. By limiting number of hours I spend in front of ESPN, HGTV, and Food Network, this allows me to actual do other things during those saved time. This will definitely allow me to focus on my hobbies, including digital photography and guitar (I am starting off in both hobbies).

People around me thinks I am little crazy for not having Cable at home, but I am still ok. I have FREE TV - Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS I can watch for free.

Next couple of months will be tough - I may need to implement 12 step program - but the benefits of saving money with time will make my life more enjoyable. This is a journey...sometimes I have to make some sacrifices along the way, which will results in better life style.

Introduction

Ah! Finally my first blog.

Blog focused on finance, money, and wealth.

I've been wanting to create my own blog to capture and highlight my own wealth and finances, while hoping to provide useful information to others who happens to drop by to read my blog entry.

For some time, I've been reading up on other financial and money blog sites, and gained greatly deal of information I was not aware of, when I thought I knew a lot of when it comes to money and finances.

My goal is very simple. Keep a journal of my journey to...you guessed it "FINANCIAL FREEDOM". Along the way, share ideas, provide useful informations to whomever happens to stumble upon my blog. I have not found decided on which direction this blog take, but as I enter more entries, I commit to finding a way to make it useful and entertaining to myself and to the readers.

I know there are tons of finance and money blogs out there, but at least this blog (journal) will keep myself on track to my goal, which I plan to outline in this blog to share.

Title of my blog site to reflect the quest to million +, starting from a penny! Even though my journey would not be starting from a penny, but the goal would be the same. Getting to a first million, and then more.

So, let's get started.