Posted by Tim Stobbs on January 7, 2011
Investing for me has always been a weird relationship. At some points I love doing it and others I don’t care about it at all. Up until recently my choice of investments were more or less irrelevant to my plan since my savings far out paced my investment returns. Let’s face it when you only have $50,000 in investments a 1% difference in your return is only $500/year which pales in comparison to saving about 50% of your family income. Yet as I start to close in on paying off my mortgage I will in the next few years have a larger cash flow going to investments which will soon accumulate in a large enough investment balance where my investment choices will start mattering a lot more.
So in preparation for that fact I’m thinking about developing a system to go with my net worth updates that would allow me to more easily track what contributions I’ve made in a given year. That would then allow me to actually track my pure investment return rather that the current contributions and investments growth. Currently using my existing statements isn’t an easy process since my investments are spread out over multiple companies. Yet with a simple spreadsheet I do think I can manage to track their growth and contributions.
Also I am concerned about tracking enough information to make such a sheet useful, but not making it too much work to update. Otherwise it will turn into a chore and I will likely avoid doing it and thus ruin the entire purpose of the spreadsheet.
Yet I don’t think I’m the first person to do this so I am wondering if how you track your investments. Do you just use your quarterly or monthly statements, a program or just a simple excel sheet? If you have a spreadsheet feel free to email or link to a copy in your comment. I think I should be able to find something that would be a useful template to build what I want without having to spend much time doing it.
Posted by Tim Stobbs on January 6, 2011
This weekend will likely be brutal as I try to adjust four time zones and about a 30 C temperature change so now I will taste the not so good part of a winter vacation. The return back to reality. I have to admit I did have a lot of fun on this trip as it really was a very good escape from my life. Yet at the same time I am looking forward to going home.
Why? Well, I find it nice to visit places like Hawaii but at the same time I am starting to miss a few comforts of home. For example, I dearly miss my own bed right about now. I awoken just about every morning here with a slightly sore back from the mattress being a little too soft for my taste. Also I miss my kids, I didn’t really miss them for most of this trip, but now I’m ready to see them again. Strangely enough I also have missed writing every day as I only did the one other post while on vacation so far.
Overall despite the crappy weather where I live in the winter I actually enjoy living in Regina for the most part, so while a break from my life was sort of nice I do want to go home. I suppose that is why I don’t particularly need to always have escape type vacation from my life as I rather enjoy the majority of how I’m living right now. Yes there is stress and endless things to do, but the reality is even on vacation you really don’t escape those. You just delay them for a while.
A warm winter vacation is sort of like a drug. It gives you a little escape for a while and then reality is still waiting for you when you get back. So while I enjoyed this trip I don’t think I will fall into doing this every year. As it just becomes a pointless exercise in avoiding things just for a little while. I would much rather over the long term save up enough that I can retire early and then perhaps at that point look at taking my trips on the off season for months at a time. That’s the great thing with early retirement, rather than a week away I can actually think about months away if I want.
So which do you prefer: shorter but nicer vacations now or longer vacations when you retired? Or do you find the middle ground between the two?
Posted by Tim Stobbs on January 4, 2011
I’m currently on vacation while I write this post. It’s basically my own fault that I didn’t actually finish writing all of my posts prior to getting onto a plane. So I’m writing this from my hotel room in Honolulu, but that works out well since I’ve noticed so far on my trip that I’m under my budget by a lot. Which is why I am starting to think I’m frugal to my down to my bones. I just can’t be any other way.
For example, we noticed right away after arriving breakfast around here can be a very expensive event, but you can also get bacon and eggs every morning. My wife and I both agreed that really isn’t our style since we typically eat lighter meals for breakfast and then eat a nicer supper. So we found a grocery store and picked up some fruit and yogurt for a couple of breakfasts. We’d rather save the money on that and not be in a rush to get out of the room in the morning and then put the extra budget amount into supper. It’s just how we like things.
It also seems to apply to my shopping habits. My wife so far has a dress, ring, necklace and a few other items to take home perhaps totaling under $90. In my case I’ve spent $15 and have just two items. My problem I’ve noticed is I like to look a lot prior to buying and think about what I really would like to take home with me and then find the best deal. It’s not like I can’t afford the pay the money, I just find it hard to overspend on something I know I can find a better deal on. So I wait and will likely do more shopping later in our trip once I’ve settled on what I want and what is a decant price.
So even with my being well under budget I still look for a deal on coffee to take home and I’m fine with that. I’m just accepted I will likely always be frugal down to my bones. It’s just how I approach life. So do you find it hard to spend on vacation or do you find ways to enjoy some things on a dime and then just blow the money on other things?
