Where did The Angry Millionaire go?

Where is Angry?  Can you spot him?  Do you know where he went?  Please do not attempt to find me in the picture above because, simply, I am not there.  You may try to find Waldo if you wish… I know he is there somewhere.

I know it has been forever and a day since I have posted and a lot has gone on since then.  This post is kind of a welcome back post.  It has been way too long since I have posted here.  Since my last post, many things have happened, some good and some bad.  I am glad there were more good things than bad.  Here is a list of things that has happened in my life over the course of a few months.  They will be obvious if they were good or bad:

• Still over $84K in debt.
• Grandmother passed in December 2012.
• Obtained my USCG 3rd Assistant Engineer license.
• Resigned from Military Sealift Command.
• Offered a job by the world’s second-largest offshore oil and gas well drilling company.
• Currently in the pre-hire process and plan to start work by the end of May 2013.

 I will be touching on these subjects in my future posts.  I thank each and every one of you that have asked my how I am doing and when I am going to be blogging again.  I am looking forward to having the internet access to post here more frequently.  You can also keep in contact with me on Facebook and Twitter.  I am posting quite often there.  

It is time to continue this quest…let’s go!

To your financial health — Martilyo!

Hello from the Mediterranean!

I want to start off by apologizing for not writing more often. I am currently at sea, stationed aboard the USNS John Lenthal T-AO 189, a fleet replenishment tanker owned by Military Sealift Command. If you read my last post, I gave up my law enforcement career to go back out to sea as a 2^nd Electrician. I was an electrician in the U.S. Navy for almost 10 years. I am just now getting my “sea-legs” back and adjusting to sea life again. Even though there are many recent changes that have happened in my life, one change is still holding true. That change is my desire to become debt free.

My 1 year anniversary…financially speaking…

I started this financial journey 1 year ago this month. Last August, somehow, I became self aware of my life and especially my finances. I kept trying to figure out what happened. I used to be a young early 20′s sailor that had no debt and was building a good retirement through a traditional IRA. In a blink of an eye, I am now in my upper 30′s with a ton of debt and no clear path to retirement. It had seemed as if I was ran over by the consumer debt train and never knew it.

I didn’t vote for change, I voted for POSITIVE CHANGE

One day I thought to myself, “What the heck happened?” I realized that something had to change and had to change for the better. I sat down at my computer and created 2 spreadsheets. On the first spreadsheet, I listed every debt I owed, the balance, minimum monthly payment and interest rate. I was OVERWHELMED at the total debt I owed. I felt embarrassed, ashamed and even sick to my stomach. $122,000+ I crunched and re-crunched the numbers. Could I really owe over 6 figures of consumer loan debt? You betcha! I realized then, my family and I had to make some serious financial changes.

Create a budget and you have created a path to financial freedom

My second spreadsheet I created was one that I listed out all of my bills that I had to pay on the 1^st payday and 2^nd payday of the month. It was like putting a puzzle together and not knowing what the puzzle was actually supposed to look like. However, after a few hours, one thing became frighteningly apparent… After the bills were paid, there was not much money left over. I used this rough draft of a budget to figure out where my money was going and what I could do to make it more efficient. The most important part is that I was now able to tell my money where to go instead of it going where ever it wanted to.  Visualize your debt!

Pressing fast forward…

Once I created my spreadsheets, and realized that I was in serious financial trouble, I turned to the Internet to find help on getting myself out of debt. I was searching for all the money gurus out there that could assist me in my task of becoming debt free. After spending much the morning and afternoon at Barnes and Noble, I found a book, written by Dave Ramsey, called “My Total Money Makeover.” It was exactly what the doctor ordered. As I read it, it had felt like it was written for me. I could not put it down! The craziest part was that the things he wrote about was nothing new. It wasn’t some secret or “fly by night” way of getting out of debt. It was simply common sense laid out in order. How could something be so simple to do and yet so financially smart? Mr. Ramsey said it best…personal finance is 80% behavior and 20% mathematics. This is so very true.

My current financial status

After leaving my $56,000 a year law enforcement job and currently getting paid over $90,000 a year, I will tell you that my debt free plan is progressing a lot faster now. The $122,000 of consumer debt that I owed a year ago is now under $77,000. So far this year, I have reduced my total overall debt by almost $15,000. Not too bad considering I have only been out at sea since late June of this year. Since being out at sea, I have reduced my debt by over $2000 a month. I am also working on obtaining my United States Coast Guard 3^rd Engineer’s license, which will increase my salary to around $150,000 a year. Regardless of the government’s effort in fixing the economy, or lack there of, I am fixing my own economy. How can I do all of this? It is called hard work, dedication and diligence. I don’t need a handout, a tax break or a subsidy. Even though all of those things would be nice, the only thing I really need is time. Give me time and I will give you the effort. I will get the result. I will accomplish my goal. I will become debt free. I encourage all of you to fix your own economy. Stop giving your hard earned money away. Start telling your money where to go instead of it going just wherever. Join me in my quest to become debt free and enjoy building wealth and not debt!

To your financial health – Martilyo!

Many of you were wondering where I disappeared to.  You might wonder what is up with the picture of the ships and helicopter above.  Well, the short answer is…I got a new job!  I know you all must be shaking your heads and thinking… “You just moved to Texas and got a new job there! What gives?”  That is correct.  In a nut shell…I got out of the US Navy in 2002 after almost 10 years of service and opened a retail computer store from 2002-2005.  I then closed my business and became a police officer for the city of Norfolk from 2005-2011.  The economy and the work climate became horrible and I needed a change.  I needed a positive change.  I applied for and was hired as a police officer in Lewisville, TX.  My family and I moved to Texas in early 2011.  While this was a positive change and the economy couldn’t have been better compared to Virginia, I felt something was lacking.  I am not sure if I was just tired of the type of work I was doing or what.  Even though I really improved my family’s well being something was just a miss.  Long story short… a friend of mine from my first Navy ship, USS INDEPENDENCE CV-62, got in touch with me and told me about Military Sealift Command.  Military Sealift Command, MSC for short, is a US Navy organization.  MSC is responsible for the replenishment of US Navy ships at sea.  MSC ships deliver cargo (food, parts, etc), fuel and ammunition to the Navy.  Employees of MSC are government civilians and also United States Coast Guard certified merchant mariners.  My friend said I could do exactly what I did in the Navy (shipboard electrician) but be a civilian doing it.  I was interested…

Blessings and sacrifices?

I read up on MSC and I really liked what I read.  The pay, the benefits, the travel, and everything I read was so much better than the Navy.  So how is something a blessing and a sacrifice at the same time?  Lets look at the benefits of the job I would soon be partaking in:

• Pay – Working for MSC I have the opportunity to double my police officer’s salary and make more money than I ever have in my life.  Over 6 figures.  Yes, you read that right…
• Retirement – My 10 years in the Navy will not have been worked in vain.  I can use these 10 years towards federal retirement.  So it is like being hired for a job where you already have 10 years tenure.
• Medical – My full coverage PPO health insurance by Blue Cross Blue Shield is $264.00 a month.  Most health coverage I have had at other jobs were double that.
• Life insurance – The government offers really good term insurance for pennies on the dollar.
• Thrift Savings Plan – This is the government’s version of a 401K.  They have a 5% match for your 5% contribution.  Who doesn’t like free money?
• Job security – Is there really a such thing?  I figure the government isn’t shutting down the Navy in the near future, and they will always need food/fuel/supplies and such so I feel pretty confident the job won’t be disappearing anytime soon.
• Travel – The one thing I did enjoy about the Navy was the travel.  I have been to so many places and there is so many more places to see.  Asia?  Europe? Middle East?  You betcha!

Ok, so what is the catch?  What are the sacrifices?  Separation from my family!  Being a sailor again means I will be at sea.  MSC has a 4/1 month rotation.  You have to be attached to a ship for a minimum of 4 months before you can take a paid 30 days leave.  That is a long time when you have a 9 year old daughter and a family that you love dearly. Before I even considered working for MSC, I sat down with my family and we discussed the pros and cons of the job.  We felt that the pros definitely out weighed the cons, at least for now.

So what does all of this boil down to?  Pretty much, you guessed it… money.  By making so much more income than I did before, we can get out of debt even faster!  We can buy a house that we want and provide our daughter a good college education.  We can build a large and secure retirement.  No Walmart people greeting for me when I am in my 70′s…  Being debt free is really important to us.  It is time to stop the financial leaks and kill all the financial leeches that are keeping us from financial freedom.

Where I am today

I was hired by MSC as a Second Electrician in the beginning of May 2012 and hung up my police uniform.  I am writing this blog post from Norfolk, VA… Yes, the place I moved from just a year and a half earlier.  I am only here until I am assigned a ship in the very near future.  My family will reside in Texas for now and when I return from deployment, we will decide exactly where we want to buy a house.  Preparing for my first deployment is exciting and scary all at the same time.  Just to think, I was in the US Navy for 10 years, got out and did my own thing for 10 years and now I am back getting ready to sail again, but this time as a well paid government employee.  Stay tuned for more to come!

Have you been stepping up the ladder of success as I have been trying to?  What are your blessings and sacrifices?

To your financial health — Martilyo!

Today is a good day,  Today I write to you about the latest credit card we paid off!  Our USAA $6,000 limit (USAA 6K) MasterCard finally bit the dust.  Now the method I used may be somewhat controversial to most of you and it wasn’t an easy decision to make.  However, I knew my decision has to be based upon facts and mathematics and not emotions.  We used my daughter, Natalie’s 529 College Savings Fund to do it.  What?!!!!  I know most of you must think I have lost my mind.  Let me explain.

The Math

Last week or so, I was looking over our debt and budget.  I then decided to look at the small amount of investments that we have.  Looking at Natalie’s 529 college savings fund I noticed that of the $5568.86 balance, I had contributed $4750.00 of after tax money.  So it had only made $818.86 over 9 years.  This equates to approximately $91.00 a year or $7.58 a month.  That is roughly 1.6% interest a year.  I consider that a horrible investment.  Now lets take a look at our USAA $6K MasterCard.

Our MasterCard had a balance of $5233.84 at 11.9% interest.  Our minimum payment was $105.00 a month and we were being charge almost $60.00 a month in interest.  Now my thought process at that time was to use the money in the 529 fund so we could pay off the balance and save almost $60.00 a month in interest and have $105.00 a month that we could use to pay on another debt.  Mathematically speaking, this was very good financial decision.

The Emotions

Looking at this emotionally, was I robbing my daughter of her future education?  Was I stealing from her?  At first, my wife, Ruby, did not like my proposal.  After we sat down and talk about it as a team we realized that the math did not lie and it was indeed a smart financial decision.  We figure that since by being in the debt that we are, it was not smart to make any contributions to her college fund.  Besides, the money invested would not be doing her any good right now anyway and it would really help us out.  This is the plan we came up with and executed.

The Decision

• Withdraw only the principal money from Natalie’s 529 account ($4750) and leave the remaining interest ($818.86) in the account to grow future interest, no matter how little it will make.  By withdrawing only the after tax principal, we should be able to avoid paying any penalties.  (Please check with your tax professional before making and financial transaction as we have)
• Take $483.84 from our monthly debt snowball and the principle from the 529 account ($4750) and pay off the USAA 6K credit card.
• Use the $105.00 a month saved from not having to make the payment on the credit card and apply to our debt snowball.
• Benefit from not being charged almost $60.00 a month in interest.
• Make future plans to make large contributions Natalie’s 529 account one we are debt free.

Progress Report

As of April 2012, we have paid off 34.12% of our total overall debt.  We currently owe $47,170.22 in credit card debt.  $29,263.96 of that debt is currently at 0% interest.  We are trying to pay off as much as we can before the interest starts charging again.  We currently have a total of $80,739.01 to pay before we are officially debt free.  Seems like a lot until you see that we owed $122,554 back in August of 2011 when we started this journey.  

How have you been doing on your debt free journey?  What were your hits and misses?  Any really good news to celebrate about?  Let me know!  I am interested…

To your financial health – Martilyo!

photo credit: Betts/Bloomberg

I have been asked by a few of my friends to reveal my “secrets” on saving money.  Just as there is not a “secret diet” to lose weight, there is not a secret method to save money.  It is common sense.  DO NOT SPEND MONEY!  However, we all know that this is impossible.  There are everyday expenses that have to be taken care of.  With this being said, I have made a short list of the some of the things that I do to save money.  Please feel free to comment below and add some for yours…  Remember, its not only how much money you make, it is how you spend it.

1. I use a budget.  I get to visually see where my money is going and how I spend it.  If I budget $200.00 a month for entertainment, I try to spend at or under $200.00.  Looking at your finances on paper can be a real eye opener and it just might make you realize just how much money you spend on (enter name of expense here)
2. I try to conserve utilities.  Turning off lights when not used and using natural light during the day can save on your electric bill.  You may want to invest (budget) for CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) that provide the same if not more lighting for a fraction of the electrical cost.  However, these bulbs cost more than regular light bulbs, so it will take some time to get a return on your investment.  I changed out my bulbs with CFLs and I do notice a substantial difference in my electric bill.  Another idea is using a programmable thermostat that adjusts the temperature of your home when you are sleeping or away.  I adjust our thermostat manually.  When we buy our next home, I am seriously going to consider a new learning thermostat from Nest.com.  Check out the video at http://www.nest.com  If you are tech person like me, it will have you drooling…
3. Reuse and recycle.  We do not buy kitchen trash bags.  We reuse our plastic shopping bags from WalMart and other fine retailers.  It irritates me knowing I am buying something just to throw it away.  Some things you really can’t get away with not buying to throw away… (don’t squeeze the Charmin)
4. Leftovers… I know that people get tired of Turkey on the 5th day after Thanksgiving, but if you plan it well, you just might not have to throw away any bird.  I like to make Italian meatloaf.  I buy 3lbs of good quality hamburger and divide it.  The first half I make a regular loaf.  The other half I make meatballs.  The first meal we have meatloaf and (insert name of sides here)  The next day we have an “Italian” submarines with melted mozzarella.  The 3rd day?  You guess it… spaghetti with meatballs.  If you plan correctly, you can do this with just about any food.  Rotisserie chicken leftovers become chicken tortilla soup, chicken chili and chicken salad.  The bones I use for chicken stock.  Now that is efficiency!
5. Dining out – You can really save money by limiting your dining out.  I fully appreciate the break from not “slaving over the stove” and having a nice dinner at a favorite restaurant.  However, when I go out I seldom order a beverage.  It is usually water with lemon.  Ever wonder why there are not any drink prices on a menu?  It is because the restaurant doesn’t want you to know that you are paying $3.00 or more for a glass of fountain soda.  Does this make me cheap?  No, it makes me financially responsible.  I also save money by skipping the appetizers and the dessert.  Usually any entree you order will have plenty of food to make you full.  Sometimes I will order an appetizer as my entree or I may just have dessert.
6. Haircuts – My wife, Ruby, has been cutting my hair for almost as long as we have been married.  I am not picky on style.  Just shave it all off… We purchased a set of Whal clippers over 15 years ago and have been using the same pair ever since.  I save an average of $390.00 a year on haircuts.  Cha-ching!
7. Kill the cable – We used to have cable TV.  We had the fancy schmancy digital/DVD/internet based kind of cable.  My bill would be almost $150.00 a month with Internet.  What I had noticed is that my daughter never really watched it, but instead, watched her cartoons on my laptop.  So I decided to forgo the cable and get Netflix.  If there is something we really have to watch, we grab a movie at Redbox for a little over a $1.00.
8. Drive a used, paid for car – I have a 1998 Honda Civic EX 4-door with almost 202,000 miles.  It gets around 28MPG city and almost 35MPG highway.  That is pretty good gas mileage for a 14 year old car.  I paid $2500 for the car and have about $3200 in it after a tune up and fixing a few issues here and there.      I am saving quite a bit of money because 1. It is paid for, so no interest on a loan.  2. I only have liability insurance since it isn’t worth very much. 3. It still gets good gas mileage and 4. It has depreciated about as much as it is gong to.  Another good thing about driving my “debt beater” is that if it gets a scratch or ding, I don’t stress over it.  Who cares!  Think about the 1st parking lot dent, scratch or ding your $30k new car received.  Stressful huh?
9. Jippy Lube – Another way I save on automobile expense is that I change my oil every 5000 miles instead of 3000.  Jiffy  Lube is a big proponent of changing your oil every 3000 miles.  Why?  Because they make more money. This is not the 1960′s and this is not your father’s oil.  Motor oil technology has advanced over the years and have been formulated for longer drain intervals, even longer with synthetic.  I use Amsoil synthetic motor oil and change it every 5k.  5k is an easy number to remember.  I also rotate my tires every 5k miles as well.  If you buy a “lifetime” tire balance and rotation from places like Sears auto, it will save you money after your second rotation.  I paid $69.00 for a lifetime balance/rotation and most dealerships charge around $40.00 per rotation.  Once I hit rotation #3, I just saved a nice amount.
10. Cheap entertainment  - Let’s face it.  Entertainment can be costly.  If you do not watch what you spend, it can really break the bank.  As a family, we like to go to .75 cent movies at the “dollar” theater on Tuesdays and $3.00 rollerskating with free skate rental at our local skating rink.  If we decide to stay home we will break out the Monopoly board and I will give everyone a financial spanking!  Another cheap entertainment idea is the library.  I like to take my daughter, Natalie, to our local library.  We have a nice one with tons of reading material.  They even have DVDs, audio books and magazines for check out.
11. Clothing at thrift stores – A place I never thought you could get a good deal was a thrift store or second hand store.  I cannot tell you how many new clothes I have bought there.  Many of them have never been worn and still have the original price tags on them.  $3.00 shirts and $5.00 jeans?  You betcha.
12. Return excess stuff – I remember when I had a costly illness called Stuffitis.  I would wake up every Sunday and grab the morning paper and go crazy with the sale ads.  I would take a pen and “go to town” circling everything I wanted to buy at Best Buy.  I would rush there, buy everything I had circled and came home with bags of “stuff.”  I did this because “stuff” was on sale and I was saving money…  Next thing you know, my closet was full of “stuff” that had never been opened, never use.  Just sitting there collecting dust.  This is when I knew I had “Stuffitis.”  Now, every time I see something that has not been opened or used, I take it back.  Less clutter that way.  Besides, if I every really “need” anything, I can just go buy it again.

Well, there you have it.  These are some of my “secrets” for saving money.  Feel free to share them and yours as well.  Below this article is an area for comments.  Please don’t be shy and leave a comment.  I would love to hear about the ways you save money.  Remember, sharing is caring…

To your financial health – Martilyo!

I am still trying to figure out where 2011 went and why it was in such a hurry!  As I blink again, it is February 2012.  Seems that the older I get the faster time seems to go by.

I remember being in Naples, Italy on New Years Eve 1998.  I was a sailor in the US Navy, stationed aboard the USS Thorn DD-988, a Spruance Class Destroyer.  Thorn was in command of a Nato battle group.  In our group, we had ships from Germany, Turkey, and a few other countries.  On New Year’s Eve, we were docked right next to a German communication ship which us U.S. sailors referred to as the “German spy ship.”  I remember when they threw a 220 volt cable over to our ship and brought over their beer machine.  We definitely “partied like it was 1999!”

Our Captain warned all the sailors that if we went out in town and it became the New Year, not to stand under any windows.  In Italy, they celebrate New Years by throwing “old” things out the window and replacing them with something “new.”  This mean tossing your old sofa out from an apartment window 3 stories up is quite common.  I remember going out in town on New Years Day and seeing all of the “carnage” from the night before.  The streets were loaded with “old” stuff.  I even remember seeing a baby grand piano smashed to pieces.  It was also quite common to see people coming along and “salvaging” the remains.  You know what they say…”a man’s junk is another man’s treasure…”

2011

I would like to take a look back and see the good, bad, and the indifferent that went on in my life in 2011.

The good

• I obtained a new job, making $14,284 (currently) more per year than previously.
• My new job has annual pay raises and cost of living pay increases, which my last job did not.
• I moved to Texas, just north of Dallas, where the economy is better and the cost of living is a lot less.
• In August 2011, I made a decision to get out debt and started The Angry Millionaire blog.
• I took control of my money and debt and now control it instead of it controlling me.
• My life is much more organized.
• I set goals for myself and hold myself accountable.
• I feel like I am self aware and in control.
• My income taxes are paid and tax returns are up to date.
• I paid off my student loan and kicked Salle Mae out of my house!
• I should have a tax refund this year!

The bad

• I gained back almost all of the 37 lbs I lost the year before.  This is due to the lack of exercise and not maintaining a healthy diet.
• While taking control of my finances and debt, I filed all of my delinquent state and federal tax returns for 2008, 2009 and 2010.  I ended up owing around $1000.00 to the state of Virginia and almost $6000.00 to the federal government.  I learned the price of not taking care of business.
• Paying off my back taxes killed my emergency savings fund and I had to take cash advances off of my credit cards.  Now my credit cards are maxed again, which is okay since I do not use them for daily expenses.  I feel like I am back to square one, but I am not.  My taxes are paid and not coming back.

The indifferent

• Instead of using cash to pay for Christmas, I ended up using my Best Buy card.  You may ask, why?  The reason is 0% interest.  I have 2 years to pay my balance in full before I am “whacked” with the ever growing finance charge.  I had spent $1100.00 on all of my family’s gifts.  Not too bad I guess.  
• I used to think credit cards are evil and they can be, if used improperly.  I read many personal finance blogs and I see where people are using credit wisely and benefiting from it.  Whether it would be interest free financing, airline miles or cash back, you can benefit if credit is used wisely.  If you use your credit card, pay off what you spent on your next statement or in my case, keep track of the interest free financing promotional end date.
• I stopped contributing to my 457B deferred compensation plan at work about 4 months ago to use the extra money on my debt.  I felt uneasy about doing this even though Dave Ramsey is a big supporter of this debt reduction method.  I was contributing the minimum 4% of my annual salary to receive a 3.76% match.  I am not sure why it isn’t an equal 4% but I am sure the city has their reasons.  As of January 31, 2012 I received a 3.813% pay raise and decided to start investing 4% back to my 457B to get the city’s match.  Since the 4% contribution is not taxed, my pay raise will cover almost the whole contribution and I should not see a noticeable difference in my pay.  Same pay and retirement contribution with city match…I say that is a win win win!

Looking forward

•  I foresee 2012 being a very good year.  I have a few undisclosed projects in the works that are designed to increase income and reduce debt.  Once they mature, I will let you all know the what, where, when, why and how.
• I have added a new monthly goal for myself and that is to read 1 book a month a month and to make a blog post synopsis.  The current book I am reading is Quitter by Jon Acuff.  Jon takes you on a journey to in “closing the gap between your day job and your dream job.”  So far I am impressed with this book and I make this a recommend read for everyone.
• Since I am not an organized person by nature, I have to work extra hard to stay organized.  I have also realized that with organization comes motivation.  The more organized I am the more motivated I am.  I have taken on the challenge of reducing the amount of “stuff” I own.  Whether I sell, donate, or throw away the excess, it has to go!!!

I want to thank everyone that has supported me and this blog through my trials and tribulations.  I have been collecting tons of blog ideas for the upcoming weeks.  I hope you enjoy every one I write!  How has 2012 treated you up to this point?  Let me know!

To your financial health — Martilyo!

I want to start this post off with an apology.  I am sorry it has taken me over a month to post a new article.  I really wanted 2012 to start off with a BANG! and unfortunately, it was a dud.  So, instead of fighting with myself to get January rolling, I decided to take a very short sabbatical and re-prioritize my life.  I needed to find a new “anger” to use for motivation.  I believe I have found it and I feel like I am back on track!  Thanks goes to the ones that have inquired about my “whereabouts” on Facebook and Twitter.  I am glad to know I was missed!

I have decided February is my January, so to speak.  I am currently working on my end of year closeout blog post to tell you my big hits and ugly misses for the year and where I am planning on “going” for 2012.  I see 2012 being a great year as long as I can focus, prioritize, and follow through with my goals.

Enough said…on to working on new and interesting blog posts!

To your financial health – Martilyo!

Does your job feel like a bad relationship?  Was your job perfect in the beginning and then became unbearable over the course of a few months or even years?  You are not alone.  Hating your job, just like being in a bad relationship is not healthy.  What makes a job/relationship bad?  It may have to do something with compatibility or outside influence.  Look back at past relationships and think about your compatibility with that person.  Were you compatible?  If you were, what issues kept the relationship from growing?  Were there outside sources that eventually ended the relationship?  Employment is no different.  A perfect job may be ruined by outside issues or you may find out that the job/relationship just really isn’t for you…and that is okay.

In the beginning

Remember your first day of work?  I bet it was fresh, exciting and you felt really good inside.  You wished the day would never end and you couldn’t wait to return to work the next day.  You attended new employee orientation/human resource benefits class, which would have bored a mime to death…but not you.  You were excited!  You wanted to know about the benefits, health care coverage and their tuition assistance program.  ”Bring on the retirement Power Point,” you yelled with enthusiasm!  You couldn’t wait until your 401K “kicks in” so you could get your employer’s match… Sounds just like a new relationship huh?  Perfect.

Fast forward a bit

You have been with the company for a while.  Things are not as perfect as they once was.  Your boss’s mood is on a Prozac roller-coaster, his boss is a bipolar dictator and the people you work with would rather spit on you than give you the time of day.  You wake up everyday wondering what the hell happened.  What happened to this once perfect job that you were ready commit to until retirement?  Just like a bad relationship you are trying to figure out how to fix it or how to cut your losses and move on.

Plan B

If your job, just like a bad relationship, is not working out and you wake up everyday being miserable, you must decide what you need to do to regain your sanity.  Do you change departments?  Companies? Professions?  Location?  You must figure out what changes you need to make to put your life back on track.  Nothing is worse than the dread of going to work when you hate your job.  Keep in mind the following when figuring out your “Plan B.”

• Do you possess the skills and experience to change professions?  Are they profitable?
• Are you open to relocating to an area with better pay and cost of living?
• Would you be able to make more income or have better benefits if you changed companies?
• Are you ready to make short term sacrifices for long term gains?
• Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?  Open your own business!

Being single

Being single or self employed may be an option.  Especially if you are the entrepreneurial type.  Have you ever been at work and told yourself that if this was “your company” you could do things 100% better?  You feel your customer deserves better than they are receiving.  I personally know many small business owners and many of them came from companies that treated their employees and their customers poorly.  These entrepreneurs did not care for the company they worked for and wanted to treat the customer like they wanted to be treated.  So they did their homework, started their companies, quit their dead end jobs and the rest was history…a profitable history.

Trust me, being a small business owner is not as easy as I made it sound and it is not for everyone.  Maybe it is for you.  If you think about going into business for yourself, do a lot of research, planning and implementing.  Your plan is to be successful with your business and not something you just want to “try.”

Live in the now, focus on the future and never look back

If you decide that it is time to end this bad relationship/employment, be prepared.  Do your homework, get all your questions answered and never just take a “blind leap.”  Expect the unexpected.  I know that is really an impossibility, but try to be prepared for every worse case scenario you can think of while you are transitioning jobs or becoming self employed.  Try to have an emergency savings fund of at least 6 months worth of expenses.  One of the worst case scenarios would be quitting one job and getting hired by another, only to find out that the new company changed it’s mind and decides not to hire you.  Now you are officially unemployed.  Not a good place to be.  Just remember, there are only 2 direction you should be going…up and forward.

My experience

In 2009, my current job in Virginia was getting bad.  The economy had taken a serious nose dive.  I was a city employee and it seemed that the current city leadership (term used loosely) were making poor economic decisions and some of them were legally questionable.  The inevitable “tightening of the budget” took some of our employee benefits away, including one that cost me $6000.00 a year.  The city froze our yearly step and cost of living raises.  Many times, senior supervisors were taking their frustrations out on subordinates.  Many senior supervisors were eligible to retire, but due to lack of their own financial planning, they could not afford to.

In November 2009, I started to tinker with the idea of moving out of Virginia.  A ex-coworker of mine had moved to McKinney, Texas a year before and he could not stop talking about how great it was.  So, I decided to take a short 3 day trip to the Dallas, Texas area.  I “surveyed” the land, climate, cost of living and economy.  I felt as I hit a home run!  I loved everything about the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  In April 2010, It was time to bring the family out for a “look-see.”  My family and I took a “spring break” trip to Texas.  I think we must have hit almost every attraction, mall and city in the North Dallas area.  We did a lot of evaluating and quickly decided that Texas was for us.

In September, 2010, I was surfing the web and applying for employment in the North Dallas area.  I was selected to test for a position in the City of Lewisville, TX in November 2010.  I was hired in December 2010 and went to work in January 2011.

Was it a good change for us?  Well, lets see…  By moving to Texas, I received a $12K raise, yearly step pay increases, cost of living pay increases, lower cost of living and much better local economy.  I do not have to pay any personal property tax and there is not a state tax in Texas.  Yeah, I can’t complain.  :-)

Have you ever had a job that was like a bad relationship?  What did you do about it?

To your financial health — Martilyo!

This is Fay, and I write the blog Canadian Cheapo’s Shopping Adventures. I am very excited that Martilyo has invited me to guest post on The Angry Millionaire!  I joined the blogosphere very recently and it’s been amazing to connect with other penny pinchers across North America.  Even though I’m from Canada, the concept of saving money is pretty universal, i.e. Don’t spend more than you make.  Over the years, I’ve honed my shopping techniques and made saving money my own art form. I’d like to share some of my favourite tips with the Angry Millionaire readers.

Canadian Cheapo’s shopping tips

1.  Use coupons
It’s a lot easier to save money with coupons in the United States than in Canada, where very few stores offer coupon stacking.  However, in general, coupons are too valuable to ignore.  The easiest way to obtain coupons is to shop at stores that hang the coupon tear-pads directly in front of the product.  Other ways include clipping the inserts from the weekend newspaper or printing them from coupon websites. Sometimes I even call companies with comments or questions using the phone number printed on the product’s packaging.  In return, you may receive a high value coupon for your effort.

But always make sure you actually need the item for which you have the coupon and that you have the space to store what you want to buy.  You can go from “Extreme Couponing” to “Hoarders” pretty quickly!

2. Shop with a calculator
Divide the price of the item by the weight or number of units in the container to obtain the unit cost.  This is the only way you’ll know if something is truly on sale.  Sometimes buying in bulk at a warehouse-type store is cheaper, but other times it might be more feasible to buy a smaller sized package at a store that accepts coupons.

3. Use technology where applicable
Use deal forums such as Red Flag Deals in Canada or Fat Wallet in the US, where fellow shoppers share their deals.  Also sign up for flyers, email offers or loyalty cards from stores where you shop most frequently.  I have separate “shopping” email account that I provide when asked at the checkout.  I use Hotmail because of the “Sweep” feature.  I have tried most of the free email accounts and Hotmail is the only one that allows you to delete all the messages from a particular sender with two clicks without having to set up filters.  It’s beneficial to receive direct emails from your favorite stores.  You could receive special offers with a bar code and these can be scanned at the cash register right from your mobile device.

4.  Make a shopping list according to the sales
Part 2 of the tip above:  Using store flyers, either in paper or online formats to make your weekly grocery shopping list is the easiest way to comparison shop.  My list is like a budget, because I can approximate my total cost before I even set foot in the store.  I also take this opportunity to organize my coupons and write them on my list.  That way I don’t forget to use them and I’m not shuffling slips of paper at the checkout.

5.  Use credit wisely
I use credit instead of cash so that I can build up Air Miles, one of the most popular rewards programs in Canada.  When selecting a credit card, look for the features that you will benefit you the most.  This could be either rewards points or cashback.  Just don’t use a card without any features, that’s a waste.  Remember to check your statements weekly and make a payment when you get paid.  This breaks down the payment into smaller chunks and you won’t be stuck with a large bill at the end of the month.  Using this method, I have never carried a balance on my credit card!

For more of my shopping tips and tricks…

Read my Blog: http://canadiancheapo.ca
Follow me on Twitter: @cdncheapo
Like my Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/canadiancheapo

Happy Saving!

Fay

November seemed to go by faster than October did… Maybe because 2011 is coming to an end?  I remember the days of being in grade school that 3 months of summer break seemed to last FOREVER!  I blinked and 2011 is almost gone!  Okay, enough of the reminiscing…Let’s take a look at my over all debt ending in November:

NOVEMBER DEBT AS OF 11/30/2011

Credit card #1  $  5,700.00
Credit card #2  $  7,332.80
Credit card #3  $10,615.95
Credit card #4  $  8,061.00
Credit card #5  $13,285.00
Credit card #6  $ 2,377.00
Credit card #7  $ 2,377.00 (different account same balance as #6)
Student loan    $ 1,200.00  PAID
Auto loan         $14,993.00
Equity loan      $ 20,612.18

Total              -$85,353.93

October’s ending balance was -$88093.53, a difference of +2,739.60 in total debt paid in the month of October and a total of 26.47% of debt paid off since June 2011.

BIG HITS

• I have completed my November goal and paid off my student loan 1 month early!  I kicked Sallie Mae out of my house as fast as possible.  By paying off my student loan, I am adding an extra $65.00 a month to my debt snowball.  I kicked my eBay selling into overdrive and sold a few things to help out my income.
• I was also able to pay off over $900.00 to the Commonwealth of Virginia for back taxes owed by not taking care of my taxes on time.  The price of not taking care of business…very costly.
• The Angry Millionaire’s Alexa page rank has gone from 479,727 to 281,173 in less than 1 month!  Overall, my page rank has gone from 18+ million to 281,173 since August 18, 2011.  My blog is really becoming popular!  My goal is to complete the Yakezie Challenge with a Alexa page rank of less than 200,000 by April 12, 2012.  If things keep going they way they are, I see myself completing this challenge by the end of the year!  Page rank is important because is shows where you rank among your peers.  It is also used by advertisers to determine if your blog is worthy to advertise on.  A secondary goal of any blogger is to be paid for writing, whether though advertising or freelance writing.
• The Angry Millionaire won another Blog Award from TotallyMoney!  This time, The Angry Millionaire won a “Social Butterfly” award.  This award has to do with my social impact measured from Twitter followers and Klout score. – I was truly surprised and I want to thank you, my readers, for helping me achieve these awards.  I truly hope you enjoy reading my “scribblings” and if there is a topic you want me to write about, please let me know.
• The Angry Millionaire Facebook page hit 150 “Likes” and I drew another winner for a $15.00 Amazon.com gift card.  Congrats to Courtney King!  Enjoy your gift card.  Want to enter?  Just like The Angry Millionaire’s Facebook page.  Next drawing will be at 200 Likes and will be for a $20.00 Amazon.com gift card.

BIG MISSES

• Time management.  I am working on a new venture that could turn out to be very profitable.  Even though I am hoping my time invested will pay off times a gigazillion, it has left little time to write about life and personal finance.  It has left even less time to workout.  One of my goals was to work out at least 3 times a week and I only worked out 1 time in November.  BIG FAIL.
• Feng Shui – Feng what???  I STILL need to rearrange and organize my office.  It still feels very cluttered and harmony of productivity is not flowing as well as it should.  I have labeled this task “low priority” mainly because I have bigger fires to content with, however, I feel that I would be much more productive if my surroundings were better organized.  It is the same effect when you are driving your freshly detailed car.  It just makes you feel good.  Your production is increased directly by how you feel!
• Promotion of my Amazon.com gift card give away!  Another one of my November goals was to obtain200 Facebook likes on The Angry Millionaire Facebook page.  I didn’t hit 200, however, I did hit 150.  I think I may have set this goal too high.  Maybe I should focus on just 1 like a day.  Why is this important?  It has to do with blog popularity and how you rank with your peers.  I am just going to say slow and steady wins the race.

Looking forward

With my student loan being paid off and having extra paycheck in the month of December, I plan on saving for my $5491.39 federal tax bill that is due on February 9, 2012.  After that bill is paid, I can go back to a routine of focusing my debt snowball my credit cards.  Two the credit cards ($20K total) will start charging interest of 12% sometime in May, 2012.  I am really benefiting from the 12 month 0% interest from Navy Federal Credit Union.  I hope I can move my debt around in May 2012 and continue the benefit of 0% interest from another company.  Obviously I do not plan on “card surfing” forever, just long enough to get my bills paid off.  0% interest helps pay off bills faster.  I am saving money by doing this, but my FICO score is really taking a hit with all of the new inquiries.

How did your November pan out for you?  Was November a better or worse than October?  Let me know!

To your financial health — Martilyo!