Retirement Blahs

At about 20 months of early retirement, I was starting to get the blahs - the retirement blahs. Here are some of the factors which led to my blahs.

Eating healthy. Since retiring, I've made a conscious effort to eat more health, e.g. more vegetables, fruits and whole grains and less of meats and high fats. I've also been cutting back on sweets, soft drinks and alcohol.

I'm sure my heart and body appreciates the diet upgrade. However, I miss the fun of eating whatever I want, whenever I want and then having my glass of wine in the evening.

Increased exercise. I've been exercising at a rate of 6-7 days a week for the past few months - three days of weight training, two days of aerobic workout, and one to two days of tennis each week. It's been great for increasing my strength and stamina and I can feel the difference.

However, I starting to feel the monotony of exercising every day and being a little sore most of the time. I'm looking forward to a break, but am concerned that relaxing the schedule may drift into giving up exercise.

Financial challenges. As with many others, we've seen the value of our savings and retirement accounts decline significantly. This recession has been the gift that keeps on taking, taking and taking. As is probably true for others, I'm tired of this recession. It has taken a toll on my retirement accounts, my attitude and my spending habits.

I just noticed that I did not publish my usual quarterly update for Q2 2009, which ended on June 30, 2009. The blahs made me not do it :-) and I'll belatedly post the update next week.

It seems that I'm experiencing several plateaus simultaneously, in weight loss, strength increase, and investment gains. Not seeing consistent gains on a weekly basis is a little frustrating and is probably contributing to the blahs. Improvement will likely require more intensity, and I'm not ready to do that in all areas.

For now, my solution will be to recognize what has been accomplished and take a planned break for each of the areas. For example, I should celebrate the weight already lost, and achieving zero debt by paying off our mortage. In addition, I will do a review of the strategies for each area, and make changes as needed. Hopefully, these actions will help me get out of the blahs.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday segment.

This is not financial or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Great Knowledge Portal

"When I was a child, I had to walk one mile to school, uphill both ways." ~ grandfather to grandson in old joke

My four year old daughter doesn't realize yet how much easier it will be for her to do research. When I was in school, doing research involved going to the library, finding the right books or periodicals, reading each one, taking notes, and distilling the information to a few key points. It would easily take several hours to research a question.

Today, there is the Internet. I consider it the great knowledge portal. Factual information is accessible instantaneously and is usually pretty accurate. A while ago, we were talking about the great Duke vs. Kentucky NCAA East Regional Final in which Duke was losing with 2.1 seconds left. Grant Hill threw an inbound pass the length of the court to Christian Laettner who scored to win the game 104-103. I recalled that Laettner had dribbled before taking the shot and everyone else thought it wasn't possible. It only took a few minutes to look it up on the Internet that evening and I verified that he did dribble. Amazing shot!

Today, I use the Internet to solve many different issues, especially when doing repairs around the house. For example, when our cars or appliances have a minor problem, I can usually find a manual and possible solutions on the Internet. Recently, I was able to do an easy car repair myself and save $250. Also, I was able to find out why some silicone caulk did not harden after a day. In the past, I have also used to Internet to repair issues with our stove and bath faucets.

Also, I find the Internet is very useful at documenting and sharing broadly an issue that is occurring in real time. For example, when the digital TV conversion occurred on June 12, 2009, our converter stopped receiving some channels. Checking the Internet that evening, I learned others had the same issue and found the solution for retuning for the missing channels.

The caution that I would give my daughter is that the good research still involves active involvement by the user. The information on the Internet is not always correct and it does take some previous basic knowledge to know what is relevant.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial or education advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Money Making Opportunities that aren't for Me

Since taking early retirement, I have seen a number of enticing money making opportunities. I am suspicious of ones that sound like easy money, are able to done by anybody, or require initial fees to get started. Therefore, I don't even consider investigating them. Here are some general examples that I won't consider:

Make lots of money from home. The ads typically show $500 a day for activities like assembling ads, data entry or typing. Working full time for 220 days a year would earn $110,000. While there is probably someone who has done this, I don't believe I would be able to make this kind of money by doing the specific jobs from home.

I don't even click on these ads, because I am concerned with viruses that may be at the site.

Investment strategies with consistently superior returns. I have read about people who have turned tens of thousands into millions of dollars and are selling their system to others. Investments include real estate, stocks and collectibles. In my opinion, just because they have done it, doesn't necessarily mean I can reproduce their results. In fact, there is often a disclaimer that everyone may not get the same results.

Cheap stocks. People are sometimes attracted to penny stocks, i.e. selling under $1, because the of the opportunity to leverage a large number of shares. While $100 only buys 3 shares of a $33 stock, it can buy 1000 shares of a $0.10 stock. In the first case, a $1 increase creates $3 profit, while the second case creates $1000 profit. Although cheap stocks offer more theoretical potential for big profits, I have found, in my experience, that lots of cheap stocks just get cheaper.

Movie extras. These ads sound neat. Get paid $100 to $200 to hang around a set for a day and be in a movie scene. However, getting access to opportunities involves registering and paying a small fee. Personally, I don't believe in paying a fee to get a job.

I guess I'm conservative when it comes to making money:-) For now, I will continue to stay invested in the stock market in both my company stock and a diversified portfolio, and focus on looking at hourly part time job with companies that I know in our area.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial or employment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Undergraduate Degrees that Pay the Most

As I wrote in Making College Part of a Wealth Building Plan, I believe that it is important to major in an area that can lead to a high(er) paying job. For information on salary by major, PayScale.com has compiled a list the Best Undergrad College Degrees by Salary. Seven of the top ten paying degrees are in Engineering, with the other three being in Economics, Physics, and Computer Sciences. Median starting salaries for these degrees range from $53,400 to $65,700, with mid-career median salaries ranging from $94,500 to $109,000. The bottom ten paying degrees have median starting salaries from $33,400 to $37,000 and median mid-career salaries ranging from $41,600 to $56,600.

To me, college is about preparation for the working world. Given the high cost of a college education, it makes sense to me to consider a degree that provides a higher return. After all, the cost of getting a top ten paying degrees is no often different than the cost of a bottom ten paying degrees.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial or education advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Drawing Down our Household Inventories

In the past,we sometimes stock up on an item when there is a good sale. During this recession, we have been consciously working on reducing our inventory as a strategy to save money. I had already committed to using my current clothing inventory in 2008. We are now applying the reduce inventory philosophy to other areas such as paper goods, canned goods, frozen foods, and toiletries.

Paper goods - Over time, we've stocked up on paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates and cups. We likely have enough to last several months or several parties. In addition, we have enough wrapping paper and cards to last several birthdays and holiday events.

Frozen foods - The main frozen food item is various meats that we have purchased on sale and frozen for later use. As rule, we don't purchase many pre-packaged processed frozen foods, for healthily eating reasons.

Canned goods - We have a number of basic foods, e.g. stewed tomatoes, and specialty foods, e.g. green chilies, in our canned food pantry. We will be drawing these down as we eat at home more often.

Toiletries - We probably have several months supply of soaps and shampoos. I have at least two years supplies of shaving items, e.g. razors and shaving cream. In addition, we have over a years supply of toothpaste, floss and mouthwash.

Clothing - As I written before, I'm cutting way back on clothing purchases, since I probably have ten to twenty years of inventory. Before retiring early, I was a conservative dresser and thus, most of my dress and casual clothes will likely be in style for twenty to thirty years.

With the exception of my clothing, reducing inventories will only reduce expenses for several months. In addition, we will still occasionally make purchases when there is a really good sale. However, we have still noticed some savings, with the side benefit of a bit less clutter in our storage areas.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Links To Carnivals From July 21 to 27, 2009

Here are the links to the Carnivals in which My Wealth Builder participated from July 21 to 27, 2009:

Carnival of Financial Planning #99

Carnival of Twenty-Something Finances

Festival of Stocks #151

For some interesting articles from the blogosphere, check out these Carnivals and give the hosts some recognition for their hard work.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial or investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Stock Buy List - 7/27/09

As the market rally continues into the nineteenth week, I've decided to update my buy list, in anticipation of a good buying opportunity in the future. For background, see My Stock Picks for Q1 2007 for a description of the Modified Unemotional Investor Growth system. The Top 10 system is a direct application of the Unemotional Investor Growth system described in the book The Unemotional Investor by Robert Sheard.

In this update, no stocks passed all the Modified criteria. However, four of the Top 10 picks appealed to me and are listed below in the table.

	My Wealth Builder Buy List - 7/24/09
Stock	System Used	Target Buy Price	Target Shares
Express Scripts (ESRX)	Top 10	less than $65	50 or less
Rock Tennessee (RKT)	Top 10	less than $40	50 or less
Research in Motion (RIMM)	Top 10	less than $70	50 or less
Elbit (ESLT)	Top 10	less than $60	50 or less

The target buy price represents the amount (or less) at which I hope to acquire the stock. Since the market is still volatile, I am hoping to make some purchases below the target buy price. However, if the market and these stocks continue to advance, I may be willing to buy into the rally.

Disclosure: At time of publication, I do not own any shares of the stocks mentioned.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial or investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Preparing to put Funds Back into Stocks

Since the beginning of 2009, I have been selling into the rally and hesitant to buy stocks. I did plan to make purchases during a pull back, but it seems the recent window of opportunity passed quickly as the Dow rebounded and advanced past 9000.

At this point, I am beginning to believe that the stock market has bottomed and will be higher at the end of 2009 than today. Here are my reason for being more positive:

Emerging market economies. While the U.S and Europe are still in recession, it appears that countries such as China, Brazil, Thailand and other emerging markets are already in recovery. Economic improvement in those regions will help the global economy too.

Surviving companies are much stronger. This recession has eliminated a number of weak companies, allowing the surviving companies to gain market share. In addition, the remaining companies have improved cost structures as they prepared for this recession. When the economy emerges from recession, these companies will be positioned to better benefit from the recovery.

Government programs perceived to be anti-business are being delayed. Until this week, it appeared that the passage of new government programs with significant increases in spending was inevitable. However, as the negative impact on the deficit becomes more evident, Congress has become reluctant to pass these bills quickly and will use more debate and discussion to shape these programs, hopefully in a way to benefit business growth.

For now, I am still not ready to go "all in" into the stock market and prefer a "dip the toe" approach. Initially, I will buy calls on some stocks that I think may advance sharply with earnings reports. Also, I plan to buy ETFs for Brazil, Thailand and emerging markets. Finally, I will be updating my stock buy list, using my modified Unemotional Investor Growth system, to help identify potential stock purchases when I'm ready to make them.

Disclosure: At time of publication, we own the iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ).

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Close Calls with Death

In today's segment of Reflections and Musings, I am thankful that I have lived as long as I have. In hindsight, I've had several close calls with death from in my younger days. I consider myself lucky to be alive today.

Here are my close calls:

As a teenager, I had a ruptured appendix, because the symptons were not diagnosed correctly. I spent a few weeks in the hospital and took about three months to recover. If I had born a generation earlier, I might not be alive today

In my twenties, I was the passenger in a car that ran off a 4 foot embankment at fifty miles per hour. The car flipped on its top and slid for several hundred feet. Everyone walked away with barely a scratch.

Also in my twenties, I had an allergic reaction to seafood while at a sports tournament. Luckily, one of my teammates decided my condition was serious and called an ambulance. The emergency room pumped me full of adrenalin, eliminated the swelling, and probably saved my life.

In my early thirties, I was training for a marathon and was barely missed being hit a car, by only fractions of a second. In another instant, I would have been run over and under the car.

I sometimes think about these incidents to remind myself that no one ever knows when one's time is over. Therefore, while I make plans for living to our nineties, I also am thankful for and enjoy every day that I have now, because I know that I am already lucky to have made it this far.

For more on Reflections and Musings , check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial or life advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Rediscovering my Early Interests

As I advanced in my career, I became more narrowly focused on skills, information and activities related to my work. As result, I slowly stopped doing many of my extracurricular activities. Now that I've retired early, I have extra time to reacquaint myself with my childhood hobbies and interests.

Here are the one's I've rediscovered so far:

Sports - From the age of 7 to 30, I was regularly playing in a variety of organized sports including football, baseball, tennis, rugby, softball and volleyball. By my forties, I was only playing an occasional pickup game of tennis.

Since retiring, I've joined a gym and workout 5 times a week. I'm also playing outdoor tennis once a week and will be rejoining an indoor tennis league this fall.

Kit Building. As a child, I loved building models of World War II airplanes. On the first Saturday of each month, I've started taking my daughter to the Kid's Workshops at Home Depot to assemble the woodworking kits they provide for free.

I still have some unbuilt models from my childhood in storage. When I find them, I may start building them again.

Stamp Collecting. I started a stamp collection as a child, which continued through college. However, I stopped collecting not long after working. My father-in-law is an avid stamp collector and is helping me work on my collection again.

Volunteering. I did a lot of volunteering from high school through my mid-thirties, including being the president of several organizations. By my forties, I was no longer doing any volunteer activities.

I've started volunteering at our local parks, in a non-leadership role, to earn activity perks for my family in the future.

Here are some activities from my youth that I expect to rediscover:

Coin Collecting. As a child, I loved looking through loose change and finding old coins. Although it is nearly impossible to find old coins in change nowadays, I will likely take out my old collections and look through them in the future.

Pinball/Foosball/Pool/Video Games. As my ability shows, I spent way too many hours doing these activities in college. They were stress relief outlets for me. However, as I got older, I rarely ever played these games.

We have both a Foosball table and pool table in our house, which I hope to spend more time playing soon.

Fishing. I loved fishing at our local lakes when I was kid. Using bread and worms as bait, I'd catch blue gill and catfish. It was a great way to spend a couple hours in the afternoon.

Here are some early interests that never became hobbies, but I may do now:

Fossil collecting. As with most children, I had an interest in dinosaurs and collected a few small fossils. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find them in my parents house, which may mean they no longer exist.

I currently live in an area with an abundance of fossils. I may take the opportunity to do fossil hunting.

Magic. I've always had an interest in magic tricks. However, I've never had the time or patience to learn and practice a repertoire of tricks. Now I may have the time :-)

The one activity from my early adulthood that I don't plan to do again is to run for public office. While I enjoyed being a candidate in late twenties and early thirties, I would not enjoy doing it nowadays. Besides, there are too many other fun things on my list that I want get to first.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

A Gift of Retirement Funds

As a mental exercise, I calculated how money invested today would give my four year old daughter a nest egg of over $100,000 at her retirement. Interestingly, depending on the actual returns, a relatively small lump sum investment of $10,000 can lead to a significant sized nest egg.

The table below show how much a $10,000 initial investment is worth for different years and different average returns.

	Average Return
Years	3%	5%	8%
10	$13,439	$16,289	$21,589
20	$18,061	$26,533	$46,610
30	$24,273	$43,219	$100,627
40	$32,620	$70,400	$217,245
50	$43,839	$114,674	$469,016
60	$58,916	$186,792	$1,012,571

For a 3% average annual return, the target of $100,000 will not be achieved. However, at an average return of 5%, the account is worth over $100,000 at 50 years and almost $200,000 at 60 years. At an average return of 8%, the account is worth over $100,000 at 30 years and over $1 million at 60 years. For reference, the historical returns for bonds is about 5% and for stocks is about 8%, even including the dismal returns of 2008.

Of course, this is not a perfect retirement solution for our child, or else I would have done it :-) First, unless the money is put in a trust, there is no guarantee a child will wait sixty years to access the money. Second, if the child dies before 60, they do not get to use any of the money. Third, this example does not account for taxes on earnings. Fourth, in sixty years, $100,000 and even $1 million will be worth much less than , due to inflation.

However, even with these issues, the potential large value in the future makes the idea worth considering. An option may be to help our child to fund a Roth IRA as soon as she starts earning wages in her teenage years. If she's industrious, she may be able eligible to contribute $10,000 in two to three years, which we would probably donate as parents.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Wasted Money

Last week, I forgot to return four DVDs to the library on the due date. Luckily, I remembered on the day after they were due, but I still owed $8 in fines. Since I rarely have overdue items at the library, I was a little angry with myself. The payment was a penalty, and I didn't get any additional benefit from it. The $8 was literally wasted money. Here are my top three wasted money traps that I try to avoid:

Late fees. Libraries aren't the only ones that charge late fees. Just about every bill, e.g. credit card, utility, and mortgage, charge a fee for paying after the due date. When we had a mortgage, our total late fees could easily add up to over a hundred dollars a month, for the convenience of paying after the due date.

My spouse's solution is to pay bills in the week we receive them. In the rare instance we miss a payment due date, I call the biller and ask for forgiveness of the late fee. Usually, we are given one since our payment history shows we are consistently on time.

Penalties. These are incurred for ending a contract early, e.g. cell phone contract, early CD withdrawal and in some cases, an early mortgage payoff. Our remedy is to avoid contracts with a termination penalties and only commit money that is not needed to CDs.

Government fines. Parking tickets, traffic tickets, and late payment of income taxes fall into this category. One can avoid wasting money in this category, by following the rules. While at times I do exceed the speed limit on highways, I try to keep it no more than 5 MPH, which seems like the norm.

We target to pay zero in each of these categories each year. In most years, we have been successful at achieving zero. Hopefully, we'll get back on track in 2010.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Links To Carnivals From July 14 to 20, 2009

Here are the links to the Carnivals in which My Wealth Builder participated from July 14 to 20, 2009:

Festival of Frugality #186

Economy and your Finances Carnival

For some interesting articles from the blogosphere, check out these Carnivals and give the hosts some recognition for their hard work.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Obama Bait and Switch

To me, elected Obama acts very different from the promises of candidate Obama. Personally, I'm not surprised, because I didn't believe candidate Obama since his historical actions didn't support his promises. However, some who believed in candidate Obama's promises may be disappointed now. Although probably not complete, here is my list of candidate Obama's comments (bait) and subsequent actions (switch).

	Comparison of Candidate to Elected Obama
Category	Comments as candidate	Action after elected
Attitude	Hope and inspiration	Slow and painful economic recovery
Legislation	Bipartisan	Partisan
Taxes on health insurance	No taxing of health insurance premiums	Open to tax on employer paid health insurance premiums
Budget	Eliminating earmarks (about $17 billion) will not have an impact on the budget	Asks for $100 million in cost savings for the 2009 budget
Pork	Would eliminate pork in bills passed by Congress	Approved a $787 billion stimulus package with a significant amount of pork

So far, the only promise President Obama seems to have kept is his payback to unions, as demonstrated by the bankruptcy proceedings and outcomes of GM and Chrysler, which put union priorities over legitimate bondholder claims.

Even after being elected, I continue to see bait and switch tactics from the Obama administration. To pass the $787 billion stimulus package, President Obama urged quick passage since the impact would be seen right away. Now, the story is that the stimulus will take up to two years to have an impact. If so, for Congress to spend a month to create a better economic stimulus package?

President Obama again urged quick action on the health care bill, because of the necessity to have an impact immediately. (Bait) However, in six months, I won't be surprised when Mr. Obama switches and says that it may take another term, and maybe two to three more :-), as President before any health care bill shows any effect. (Switch)

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial or policy advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Article on Causes of Mortgage Foreclosure

Being an engineer, I love to read about data based conclusions and how they should affect decisions. New Evidence on the Foreclosure Crisis by Stan Liebowitz in The Wall Street Journal has analyzed foreclosures form the second half of 2008 to better understand the causes and determine whether government intervention will help reduce foreclosures.

Based on his analysis of the 30 million mortgages, Mr. Liebowitz concludes that the main reason for foreclosure is negative equity (285,305). According to the article, only 12% of mortgages have negative equity, but they account for 47% of foreclosures. The second and third reasons for foreclosure were unemployment increase (183,447), and a sub-prime credit rating (148,697), respectively. Fourth on the list was a down payment of less than 3% (130,014), Interestingly, a reset of the mortgage to a higher interest rate (60.492) was the fifth highest reason and significantly less in occurrence than the top four.

Thus, the zero down payment purchases during the housing bubble, the subsequent housing market crash and the increase in unemployment during the recession are likely the main causes of rising foreclosures. Based on Mr. Liebowitz's analysis, it's likely the percentage of mortgages in foreclosure will continue to grow, until housing prices stop declining and unemployment stops increasing.

Unfortunately, Mr. Liebowitz notes, the current government programs of reducing mortgage interest rates and creating stimulus packages do not appear to be helping with either solution, as they are not reducing negative home equity nor reducing unemployment at this time.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Links To Carnivals From July 7 - 13, 2009

Here are the links to the Carnivals in which My Wealth Builder participated from July 7 to 13, 2009:

Money Hacks Carnival

Carnival of Pecuniary Delights #15

Carnival of Financial Planning #97

Bobo Carnival of Politics

Carnival of Twenty-Something Finances

Festival of Stocks #149

For some interesting articles from the blogosphere, check out these Carnivals and give the hosts some recognition for their hard work.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, investment, or family advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

GE Removed from Core Holdings

I've dropped General Electric (GE) from my list of core stock holdings, which now only consists of Google (GOOG) and Amazon.com (AMZN). When I posted my core stock holdings on September 10, 2007, I believed all three stocks had: 1) A business model with significant growth potential; 2) A product that is future focused; and 3) A passionate leader with staying power.

The financial crisis of 2008 showed that I was mistaken about #1 for GE. The crisis revealed that the company was overly dependent on earnings from GE Capital, and that most of their earnings growth in the 80s-90s was likely due to the financial businesses, and not the core industrial businesses. In fact, it now seems to me that the industrial businesses were languishing even prior to the recession. The declines were just being masked by the gains of GE Capital during the financial bubble.

Without great returns from GE Capital, it appears to me that the company won't be able to effectively implement the infrastructure and environment initiatives that need to create business success. Therefore, I have sold the majority of the GE shares owned at a significant loss and will be looking to sell the remaining balance in the next few months.

Disclosure: At time of publication, we own shares of Google and General Electric in our trading accounts and Google and Amazon.com in our managed accounts.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial or investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Asking for Reader Support

Today, I'm asking for support to help My Wealth Builder increase readership and revenue. If you are a reader of My Wealth Builder, here are some ways to help, at no cost to you:

Let others know about great articles. In the digital world, I consider word of mouth to be excellent advertising. So an e-mail of or link to an article by a reader provides great exposure for My Wealth Builder. For reference, each article allows easy e-mailing by clicking on the envelope icon at the end of a post.

Include My Wealth Builder in a blogroll. More links means more exposure. If you have a non-commercial personal finance blog and are interested in putting My Wealth Builder in your blogroll, here is the link exchange process used by My Wealth Builder.

Buy through affiliate links. At the bottom of left sidebar are the affiliate links of My Wealth Builder. Currently, I have chosen to associate with only one affiliate sponsor, Amazon.com. For buyers who access Amazon.com via the link in the left sidebar, My Wealth Builder is paid a sales commission for the referral. However, the commission does not affect the buyer's cost, since Amazon.com pays the commission from their profits.

If you can help, thanks. If you can't, I still appreciate very much those who read My Wealth Builder. They have already helped My Wealth Builder become a great personal finance blog. Thanks.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial, blogging, or advertising advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Tell Fritz

On Friday night's Nightly Business Report, Fritz Henderson, GM CEO, shared that a Tell Fritz website would be available for comments from the public. I thought it would be an opportunity to share some thought's with GM's CEO. To my surprise, when I googled "Tell Fritz," I found out the website does not yet exist.

To me, this is the representative of the overall problem with GM. Great talk but no delivery. Personally, I don't have the time to look for the website next week. So I will Tell Fritz today on my blog:

The Tell Fritz site should already be available. In today's digital world, web sites should be up and running by the time a company mentions them. It shouldn't take more than a few days to put up a good web site.

I don't believe a word you say. GM has a history of not delivering on promises made. Why should I expect this time to be any different? Paying back $50 billion in loans ahead of 2015 or breaking even by 2010 sound like hollow promises to me. If GM can't have a simple web site functioning by the time the CEO mentions it, I don't expect them to deliver on more complex goals with longer lead times.

Ford is the only American car maker I trust. Ford made the tough choices and took the action necessary to survive this economic crisis. In addition, Ford produces cars that consumers want to buy. To me, GM sold out their non-government shareholders, their bondholders, their dealerships and old GM customers to survive, but haven't developed a sustainable business model for the future.

Mr. Henderson, that's what I think. I won't spend the effort next week to submit my comments, but I expect that many others will probably send similar type comments.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial or business advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

A Return to Calendaring

A phenomenon I've experienced during early retirement is the loss of routine, which I thought would make scheduling easier. At first, I tried to eliminate the use of a calendar, which I rigorously used during my working years. Without work, I thought it would be easy to manage all the activities and events without keeping a calendar. However, after a few months, I realized that a calendar was needed, because I no longer had a routine, and therefore, could not easily remember all the upcoming events.

This summer, I'm adding back reviewing each week in advance, to make sure we don't miss any of the fun activity options that are available. Earlier, I had identified Free Summer Activities for our Four Year Old and More Free Summer Activities for Kids which included free movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Until last week, we were not able to attend due to other commitments and vacation.

However, this week we had a open Tuesday morning and I didn't remember the free movies until I drove by the theaters when returning from my workout. By the time I returned home and drove back to the theaters, both movies had filled up and there were no more seats. In this case, all was not lost. We were able to still see the movie on Wednesday, since the same shows are offered each day.

This experience made me realize that the loss of routine may make rigorous calendaring even more important, because many more options available, since work is no longer in conflict. In the past, work took first priority and other activities were fit in when there was time. Now, how we fill the entire week is a our choice, and thus, consciously knowing the options is more important.

I will probably even return to doing a To Do list for the future projects I want to get done :-)

For more on Reaping the Rewards , check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial or planning advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Preparing our Child for Job Market Uncertainty

When I started working in the 1980s, career stability was just starting to change. While I ended up working for a single company my entire career, many of my classmates have worked for five or more companies. In addition, many of the fastest growing jobs, e.g. computer programmer, didn't turn out to be as stable as expected.

Raising Kids to Thrive Amid Chaos in Their Careers by Sue Shellenbarger in The Wall Street Journal discusses three qualities that can help my daughter be successful in the uncertain working world of the future.

Adaptability - It's been said that "Change is the only constant." Enabling our daughter to be ready for change will be important. The article shares how teaching children to make choices based options and developing critical thinking skills can help develop this characteristic.

Exploration - Be willing to look for and try new things. This skill can be developed by creating a kitchen for the mind that encourages and allows our daughter to easily find new interests.

Entrepreneurship - I think this the the toughest one to teach and learn. To me, entrepreneurship is about taking an idea, based on consumer needs, and turning it into a new tangible product that others want.

It will be much more challenging world for our daughter that it was for us. While developing these capabilities do not guarantee career success, I expect they will give her advantages that will significantly improve the possibility of being successful.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial or parental advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Possible Scenario - A Long Bear Market

Two articles post on CNBC.com, Art Cashin: Dow Trapped in 17-Year Cycle and Market Halfway Through Bear Market Cycle: Rosenburg, share a scenario that the current bear market may last another seven to nine years. Mr. Cashin believes the stock market is a little over halfway into a 17.6 year bear market cycle, based on historical trends. Mr Rosenburg reports that economic fundamentals are still very poor and may require up to nine years to recover.

Since there hasn't been a capitulation, or significant discouragement with stocks, I can see how this bear market might continue for a while. Although I hope this cycle ends in less than seven years, I do agree that the indices will likely be in a bounded trading range for the next 1 to 3 years. Therefore, I will be adjusting our stock ownership plans in the following ways:

Buy on dips. I will make purchases during pull backs, like the one that is currently happening. The challenge is to be disciplined enough to wait for pull backs, as described in My Plans for the Stock Market Pullback.

Sell into rallies. Since I expect the bear market to last a while, I will consider any rally to be short term. Thus, once purchases achieve gains of 5-10%, I will actively look at selling the positions.

Keep some long term holdings. We will maintain investments in our managed accounts (about 10%) and my company stock (about 30%) as a hedge against the start of a new bull market. Thus, if I'm wrong and the market continues to advance, we will have some participation in the gains.

While this approach does not guarantee positive gains, I will feel better if we are able to take some profits during rallies and then have less invested during the subsequent down trends.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance , check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial or investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Happy Hour Deals - Beer Prices Lower than in a Store

Recently, I've noticed great happy hour prices at some of the restaurants in our area. A local Mexican restaurant has 12 oz draft Dos Equis for 99 cents. A national chain pub restaurant is offering $2 draft pints every Tuesday on a wide variety of imports and domestics. A regional chain restaurant has $1 pints every day after 3PM on a smaller selection, based on information over the phone from the hostess.

In our stores, a six pack of beer regularly retails for $5.99 for domestics to $8.99 for imports. For comparison, the table below shows the six pack equivalent price for the happy hour prices.

	Price Comparison
Location	Happy Hour	Six Pack Equivalent
Store	n/a	$5.99 to $8.99
Local Mexican Restaurant	$0.99 12 oz	$5.94
National Chain	$2 Pints	$9.00
Regional Chain	$1 Pints	$4.50

To note, the calculated six pack price doesn't include gratuity, which would increase the price 15-20%. The regional chain restaurant still has a particularly low price, which makes me suspect the hostess gave me the wrong size glass. However, if the size is truly a pint, $1 is a great deal.

Since it's after 3PM, I guess I'll need to visit regional chain restaurant and personally confirm the information I received over the phone:-)

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial or entertainment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Links to Carnivals from June 30 to July 6, 2009

Here are the links to the Carnivals in which My Wealth Builder participated from June 30 to July 6, 2009:

Carnival of Financial Planning #96

Festival of Stocks #148

Carnival of Family Life

For some interesting articles from the blogosphere, check out these Carnivals and give the hosts some recognition for their hard work.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, investment, or family advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Early Retirement Planning - Our Important Age Milestones

A Retirement Timeline by Emily Brandon of U.S. News & World Report writes on milestone ages for retirement contributions, retirement withdrawals, medicare and social security.

Overall, I thought is was a good summary of effect of age on one's retirement planning. As someone who retired in my forties, I consider the following three ages to be most important for financial planning:

59 1/2 - IRA and 401K withdrawals can be made without penalty and are taxed as ordinary income. In addition, I can exercise a tax strategy called Net Unrealized Appreciation.

70 - Although one is eligible to start at 62, waiting until 70 will maximize the amount of the monthly social security payments, which would be about 75% higher than at 62.

70 1/2 - Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) payments must be taken from traditional IRAs and 401Ks. Roth accounts are excluded from RMD payments.

59 1/2 is important because we need sufficient savings in our taxable accounts to pay for living expenses from our retirement age until 59 1/2. That way we can avoid a penalty or a 72-t payment schedule for using funds from a retirement account. 70 is important since we will want to have sufficient retirement savings from 59 1/2 to 70 to delay taking social security until the payments are at the maximum. Getting maximum payments may be important should our lifespan exceed our estimate of mid-90s. Finally, 70 1/2 is important because we want to minimize the amount of funds in IRAs and 401Ks, since they are subject to an RMD. Otherwise, we may be forced to make taxable withdrawals, even when the funds are not needed.

While I still need to do the calculations, I believe our early retirement will be successful if we have enough funds, allocated appropriately, when we reach each age milestone.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

A Crisis Wasted

"It's the economy, stupid." ~ Bill Clinton campaign slogan

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before, " Rahm Emanuel said in a 2008 interview To me, the Obama administration has taken this statement to heart in a highly partisan way, from the $787 billion so-called stimulus package to the disregard of bondholders in the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler. It continues with the health care initiative and the continual deficit spending. However, they forgot to account for really dealing with the economic crisis before us. They must have expected the economy to turn around, in the course of a normal cycle, as experienced by the Clinton administration. Unfortunately, this hasn't been a normal recession, and I believe the actions taken so far by government will extend versus shorten the recession.

I had hoped that President Obama would have used the opportunity to to build strong bipartisan solutions, which is how he promised to work when campaigning. However, just like his promises of not raising taxes on 95% of workers, and not taxing employer health benefits, hope for a bipartisan governing has been quickly dismissed. Instead, it seems we have partisan politics as special interest groups receive pay back and pork for supporting the winning candidates.

While the rhetoric continues to deftly deflect responsibility, I expect that people will soon start judging the Obama Presidency on results, specifically how the economy is doing. A year from now, it will be difficult to continue using cleverly worded statements to cover up policy failures of the past few months. Hopefully, the administration also realizes this and will start taking meaningful bipartisan steps to solve the current economic crisis.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial, economic or policy advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Owning versus Renting a Home during Retirement

I've always planned on owning a home during retirement, with the mortgage paid off. Home ownership without a mortgage seemed to be a financially prudent plan in retirement. However, I am starting to reconsider home ownership in retirement, since it may significantly reduce our flexibility, e.g. ease of transferring to a new location.

Recently, I met a private boarding school teacher, whose housing is provided as part of employment. Besides the benefits of not paying for maintenance, and avoiding the crash of housing prices, his family has the flexibility to move without the burden of selling their current home. As a result, his family is already considering plans for future international residences after their youngest graduates from high school.

My conversation with the teacher inspired some thoughts on not owning a house in retirement. The main benefit is the flexibility to live where ever we would like, without having to sell our current home. Thus, we could easily choose to live close to our adult children, where ever they might go to school or work in the future.

Some might argue that renting would expose us to rising rent costs, especially if there is higher inflation. However, having our mortgage paid off does not eliminate housing costs. We still have property taxes, repairs, and maintenance costs which can be quite high, being 15 to 20% of our annual budget. And these costs also rise with time.

Since our daughter is still in pre-school, we'll keep the house at least until she graduates from high school. For now, we like the stability of living in the same neighborhood and same school district until she is ready for college.

However, once she is in college, there will be less reason for us stay in our current home. At that time, it may be beneficial to sell our home, both for financial and lifestyle reasons.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial, home ownership, or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Has this Recession Changed our Children?

Growing Up in a Recession by Susan Berfield in BusinessWeek talks about how kids are adapting to the recession. The stories focused on well-to-do families that were now adjusting to more middle class lives, e.g. letting the nanny go, foregoing flying to New York, and struggling to pay for private college.

Based on reading this article, I think this recession hasn't significantly changed our children yet. It seems many are only doing with less, versus doing without, which I think does cause change. At this point, this recession seems to be of similar impact to the recessions of 73-75 and 81-82, tough but not life changing. For perspective, children during these recessions became part of the future generation of consumers that drove the U.S. economy in the 1990s.

To me, when kids start working to cover household expenses, or choose supporting the family over going to college, I'll believe they have changed. Until that happens, I think most children will view this recession as a short detour, and believe life will shortly be back to normal. If the recession has truly reached bottom, they will probably be right.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC