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September 1, 2005College Football Opening Weekend - Wager for Week 1The season begins!I recently decided to keep track of my collge football wagering to see how it benefits or hinders my progress to reach my personal finance goals. On Monday I funded my Bodog sportsbook account with $100 of fun... September 2, 2005Just donated to Hurricane Katrina ReliefI just made a $25 donation to hurricane relief via the Red Cross. I have been glued to the news media for the past couple of days and shocked at the disaster. I am half tempted to drive down to... Frequent Flyer Miles/Hotel Points Results for August Business TripMy nearly 4 week trip resulted in a nice inflow of points and miles.ProgramAmount EarnedBonus EarnedTotalDescriptionSkymiles7142714214284all airline flights on delta for tripAAdvantage9000900reward for 2 budget car rentalsUnited1000010002 stays at Hilton hotels @ 500 per stayHHonors57645161109252 stays at Hilton hotelsPriority Club11180156172679712... September 3, 2005My Personal Finance GoalAs I mentioned earlier my primary goal is to reach a net worth of $2 million excluding my home. I have been steadily working towards this goal since I starting working in 8/2001.One of my goals for this blog is... Just sent a check in to my Merck DRIPAfter last week's news of the Vioxx award in Texas I decided it was a good opportunity to add to my Merck stock position. At roughly ~$28 a share, Merck is now sporting a dividend yield of ~5.4.%. Forget everything... September 4, 2005A Bit of My Personal Finance HistoryHere is a chart of my net worth reported via the Net Worth Over Time report in MS Money:The months of 7/02 , 7/03, 9/03 are inaccurate because I purchased a 3 bedroom home in 7/02, refinanced the 1st mortgage... September 5, 2005My DRIP StrategyMy DRIP strategy is pretty simple, not necessarily smart.I take savings monthly and simply direct them to DRIPs that usually meet 2 criteria:1) are "under water" and2) still look like reasonably attractive investmentsI don't always do this but as a... September 6, 2005Results - Wager for Week 1Wow! What a game. It was closer than I hoped but it is a great start to the football season. With this 1st wager I have effectively made a 100% return and the season has just started. The smart thing... I am currently homeless....As I posted earlier I bought a 3 bedroom house in July 2002. I had been working for about 1 year and I realized that decided that the next big step in my strategy for reaching my goal of a... Why 2 million?I could try to give a long insightful breakdown of why I think $2 million is the amount I need to be financially free, but I won't. I'll give you a quick breakdown instead.If I assume a conservative rate of... September 7, 2005Tracking My ProgressI am trying to determine the best/easiest way to report my monthly progress. I would like to report a easy to create net worth chart with assests & liabilities, etc. I would also like to have it similar to other... List of DRIPs I participate inHere is a quick list of DRIPs I currently participate in:DRIPEst. Value% Bellsouth$38006.73%CMS Energy$9001.59%ChevronTexaco$7001.24%Duke Energy$21003.72%Edison International$5000.88%ExxonMobil$28004.96%General Electric$28004.96%IBM$2570045.49%Lowes$9001.59%Medco$1000.17%Merck$37006.55%Medtronic$36006.37%Pepco Energy$4000.71%Pfizer$1080019.12%Proctor & Gamble$16002.83%Total$56500I will slowly add posts to give some rational for each of these investments. All of them reinvest their dividends except... September 8, 2005Gas SpendingI was complaining the other day about the amount I was spending on gas to some co-workers so I thought I would pull out my gas spending from MS Money. I am not sure whether some of the avg increase... September 9, 2005Comparing Gas Spend to Gas PricesI found raleighgasprices.com which had the best information I could find on local gas prices (turns out lots of cities have these sites as well). It didn't have avg historical prices, but it did have a 3 yr chart with... September 10, 2005CF - Wagers for Week 2 Background on my bad habitOk I have 2 picks so far for week 2 - VA Tech (-20.5) and Michigan to win. You may notice I have been moving more and more money into my account. This allows me... Free Books!Just found this link on slickdeals.net this morning:Free Book ProjectI have not downloaded any books but I plan too - I have been looking for some audio books to listen to on the way to work and the local library... September 12, 2005The upside to high gas pricesI like most people get angry and fustrated everytime I have to put gas in my car. We are all at the mercy of oil prices and oil prices haven't been kind to us recently. Even Bill Gates and Warren... September 13, 2005Housekeeping ItemsSome housekeeping for the blog I have been working on:-offically picked a title "2million - My Journey to Financial Freedom"-modified the template to get rid of some of the icons that I wasn't crazy about-reduced the footer-signed up for Feedburner.com... September 14, 2005This Blog's DisclaimerOk before I continue, I thought I ought to post a disclaimer for the blog.2million.blogspot.com's Disclaimer:The information provided on this site is not financial advice and I am not a financial professional. This is a journal that details my investments,... Making Room, Making MoneySince I recently moved out of my house, I have come to realize I have a lot more stuff than I thought. I have been trying to get rid of it and generate some extra cash. I have a large... Inspiration for the dayI saw this quote on Motley Fool the other day and I love it - I need to tuck this one away for when I am thinking about a value investment decision."Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when... September 15, 2005Just got my Sharebuilder $50 bonusBack in the beginning of August I read this post over at mymoneyblog.com about a scheme to get a free $50 investment from ShareBuilder. Sounded perfect to me, but there was one problem, I wasn't a member of Costco. However... September 16, 2005CF - Results for Week 2, Picks for Week 3Background on my bad habit.Recap of Week 2:Account Balance: $255Deposited 9/8/05: $50 + $10 bonusTrans DateWagerTo WinResultDescription9/7/05$25$21.74WonVT(-20.5) over Duke (VT 45, Duke 0)9/9/05$10$3.57LostUM over ND(ND 17, UM 10)9/9/05$5$4.55WonLSU over ASU(LSU 35, ASU 31)Current Balance: $331.29Net Deposit: $200, Current Profit: $131.29Picks... August 2005 Net Worth Update (+$2,050)Ok here is my 1st net worth statement. This is my second worst month of the year for me so far.Balance Sheet:Jul-05Aug-05Change% ChangeCash & Equivalent$ 4,347.87 $ 5,317.73 $ 969.86 22.31%Saving$ 17,473.35 $ 36,034.15 $ 18,560.80 106.22%Brokerage / DRIPs$ 38,885.49... September 17, 2005Hedging Against Energy Prices, Part 1:Exxon Stock Performance vs Gas PricesA review of my current hedging strategy on energy prices.When I started my job in 2001 one of the strategies I planned with my savings was a hedge on rising energy prices. I ended up investing a modest amount in... September 19, 2005Reducing Dining ExpensesI spend a fair amount every month on dining out expenses. I go out to eat lunch everyday with a group at work and my girlfriend and I usually go out 1-3 nights a week and I typically pick up... September 20, 2005Signed up for the HSBC Online Savings AccountI received a flyer in the mail yesterday from HSBC for an offer to sign up for their Online Savings Account currently yielding 3.75% APY that included a $25 bonus. Since it is .25% higher than Emigrant-Direct (my main savings... Emigrant Direct now at 4.0% APYJust got an email that Emigrant Direct is raising their rate to 4.0% APY guaranteed till year-end. This is great news - another extra couple $$ in interest this year.I find it interesting that this increase happened in lock step... September 21, 2005Just Earned an Easy Amex $10 Gift CardFound this link on slickdeals.net this afternoon. Watch the 5 min tutorial, answer a few question in the Amex Open Network survey and they claim they will send you a $10 Amex gift card within 6-8 weeks. I love freebies... September 22, 2005Bought 2 small gas tanks last night at Walmart...Call me crazy but I was walking around the local Walmart last night after work and decided to purchase (2) gas tanks for $3.12 apiece + tax. The adjacent gas station still had gas posted at $2.59 a gallon which... September 23, 2005CF - Results for Week 3, Picks for Week 4Background on my bad habit.Recap of Week 3:Account Balance: $331.29Deposited 9/17/05: $50 + $10 bonusTrans DateWagerTo WinResultDescription9/16/05$10$9.10WonVT(-34) over Ohio (VT 45, Ohio 0)9/17/05$10$6.90WonPitt (+10) over Neb (Neb 7, Pitt 6)9/17/05$25$10.04WonUF over Tenn (UF 16, UT 7)Wow! 100% track record -... September 25, 2005Hedging Against Energy Prices, Part 2:Chevron Stock Performance vs Gas PricesEarlier I took a look at my Exxon investment as a hedge against the rise of energy prices. The result was a very compelling argument for an investment in Exxon (XOM) to hedge against energy prices.I have also made investments... Hedging Against Energy Prices, Part 3:An Improved Energy Hedging Strategy?The first and second posts in this series look at my Exxon and Chevron investments and how well they have hedged against my increased monthly gas spend as a result of higher gas prices.This post details my proposed idea to... September 26, 2005Never lose money - W Buffett"Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1." Warren BuffettThis quote is very powerful to me, here's why:Question:If you have $100000 and in successive years, you are +20% and -20%, your end result is:A. >$100KB. C. Even... September 27, 2005New Weekly Reading Material from Yahoo!FinanceYahoo!Finance launched a new section last week for various Yahoo!Finance columnists. This list of names is impressive: David Bach, author of the Automatic MillionaireKen Dychtwald, Ph.D., aging guruRobert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor DadSuze Orman, that loud annoying talk... September 28, 2005Welcome to 2millionblog.comThis blog reached another milestone today, it now has a new web address @ www.2millionblog.com. It will still redirect right to this site, but hopefully the new domain name will be easier to remember.I ended up registering the domain through... September 29, 2005CF Results for Week 4, Picks for Week 5Background on my bad habit.Recap of Week 4:Current Balance: $417.33Trans DateWagerTo WinResultDescription9/22/05$10$7.69WonVT(-10) over GT9/24/05$5$4.35WonUT(+7) over LSU9/26/05$5$5.00LostToledo (+14) over FSUBlew the week with the Toledo pick - Monday evening I realized I was perfect the past 2 weekends and felt like... September 30, 2005My tank was on EmptyMy tank was on Empty last night coming home from work and I was shocked to see gas prices were headed up. The cheapest price I could find was $2.99/gallon so I opted to drive home and use the "reserve"... | About 2millionblog.comA personal finance weblog of my journey to reach my goal of $2 million + the value of my primary residence.
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