2million's Personal Finance Blog

My Journey to Financial Freedom

September 1, 2006

2million's One Year Anniversary

Wow - time flies - It was one year ago this week that I published my first post that started 2millionblog! What a ride it has been so far. I have learned so much from my efforts to keep this...
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September 5, 2006

August 2006 Net Worth Update (+$18,689)

What a month! Investments faired well, I vested in my pension, and I made the most frivolous purchase of my lifetime as a sign of commitment to my fiancee. In the end I added $18,689 to my net worth ($1,261...
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September 6, 2006

Saving Money the MacGyver Way

Last week, during a downpour, I had a fender bender. As I was slowing down, my car hydroplaned and I ended up hitting the guard rail. Luckily, no one else was involved and the car was drivable after the accident....
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September 7, 2006

$13k O% Balance Transfer from Capital One Credit Card

Well I bit again. Back in June I signed up for a 0% balance transfer from CitiCard for $26.5k, now I signed up for a $13k 0% balance transfer from Capital One.Since I no longer have any major financing moves...
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September 11, 2006

Repair or Replace HVAC?

The house I purchased in June has a gas pack heating/cooling system that was installed around 1993. I had it inspected while I was purchasing the property and a rust hole was discovered in the heat exchanger. I tried to...
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September 13, 2006

2million is moving....

2million is moving to www.2millionblog.com I finally bit the bullet and have setup some permanent space for 2millionblog. Unlike many of my peers, I loved using blogger and had planned on continuing to use it for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately,...
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September 14, 2006

I am Cash Poor

No surprise here - as I suggested when I was setting my 2006 goals, I knew I was going to be spending a lot of cash this year. A quick glance at my August net worth readily reveals I now...
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September 15, 2006

1st Discussions on our Wedding

Well, I knew it couldn't last forever. My fiancée has finally turned full speed on wedding planning. She had been distracted by other projects for at least a few weeks; however, she has suddenly decided we need to book a...
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September 18, 2006

Asset Allocation

Back in early 2006 when I reviewed the returns from my net worth in 2005 I realized I needed to spend some time looking at my asset allocation. Here is what my asset allocation looked like in March: I took...
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September 20, 2006

Stock Asset Allocation

After checking out my total asset allocation, I decided to drill a little further and look at my stock investment allocation. After a poor performance last year, I realized that my stock allocation was almost entirely in large-cap stocks and...
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September 21, 2006

What do Pharmaceuticals and Housing Starts have in Common?

Interesting. This guy claims there is a 79% negative correlation between housing stocks and the relative performance of pharmaceutical companies. If this holds, could mean good things for pharmaceuticals during the next couple of years. I have made large investments...
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September 22, 2006

Saving on Dining Out Expenses

In a somewhat impulse purchase, I picked up the Enjoy the City 2007 coupon book for the Raleigh/Durham area this week - I got it for $10 (normally $15) and the coupons are good through December 2007. I am a...
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September 24, 2006

Repaired HVAC

Despite a lot of great advice to the contrary, I opted to have the heat exchanger replaced this week on the gas pack (HVAC) unit on my new house instead of getting a whole new HVAC system. A couple things...
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September 26, 2006

Living Like a College Student

It has been about five years since I joined the working world and it is a good time to reflect on the one mantra I have been trying to live by the last 5yrs. It came from one of my...
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September 27, 2006

Cheapest Soft Drinks

I was in Target this week and noticed they had Pepsi products (4) 12 packs for $10. If you bought (4) 12 packs you also got a $5 Target gift card. As long as you treated the $5 gift card...
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September 28, 2006

Annual Charitable Contributions

I was cleaning house yesterday (at least with my financial records) and took a look at my charitable contributions so far this year. I realized the end of year is closing fast and I need to address my remaining charitable...
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September 29, 2006

EmigrantDirect's Savings Rate is Decreasing

Just got notice: EmigrantDirect's savings rate was decreased effective September 30, 2006 to 5.05% APY. Interesting. The rate wars are calming down a bit. Might be a good time to start locking in longer term rates....
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