Comments on: Guilt Free Money http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/ johnath in blog form Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:11:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Harei http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-205221 Harei Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:44:05 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-205221 Any which way we look at this "animal", it boils down to gathering our real money numbers and placing then in front of us in a meaningful way so that we can see the real flow of our cash in numbers that can easily add up to our actual financial bottom line. Call it a budget or call it "my Kangorilla" it's still our method by which we take ourselves out of the dark when it comes to governing the flow of your cash. There is a growing community of money control freaks around this relatively new little website called Out Of The Dark (OOTD) which is completely anonymous and free to use, located on the web at: http://www.myexp.org/OOTD_gate.php I started using it about three month ago, and it is too good to be free. And as a self admitted money control freak, for the first time I find myself in good company. Any which way we look at this “animal”, it boils down to gathering our real money numbers and placing then in front of us in a meaningful way so that we can see the real flow of our cash in numbers that can easily add up to our actual financial bottom line. Call it a budget or call it “my Kangorilla” it’s still our method by which we take ourselves out of the dark when it comes to governing the flow of your cash.

There is a growing community of money control freaks around this relatively new little website called Out Of The Dark (OOTD) which is completely anonymous and free to use, located on the web at:
http://www.myexp.org/OOTD_gate.php

I started using it about three month ago, and it is too good to be free. And as a self admitted money control freak, for the first time I find myself in good company.

]]> By: ak http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-35964 ak Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:13:17 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-35964 also I should add that we have no credit card debt. We pay it in full every month. also I should add that we have no credit card debt. We pay it in full every month.

]]> By: ak http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-35963 ak Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:11:54 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-35963 Thanks for the post. Very helpful. I just spent the whole day crunching my numbers in Quicken, which has taken me some time to understand. I was shocked and dismayed to learn that my husband and I spend about $1,000 more every month than we earn. But we each put money away in our 401K -- and that is not accounted for in this cash-flow analysis. We never go down to zero in our checking -- there is always some residue there, so I was confused to find out with Quicken that on a month-to-month basis, we are actually in the red. Some additional info: We are also saving $400 a month with an automatic transfer to savings. The three months I looked at, we had some unusual expenses, like city taxes and other things that won't happen every month. Also we are expecting a huge tax refund this year. My dad tells me not to worry -- we have only been married 6 months, and he would expect us to be deeper in the hole when in fact he says we are ahead because we are saving for retirement and building an emergency fund (albeit slowly). But I have caught a fever for personal finance and I want us to be excellent. We don't have very high salaries, and I want to make up for it by being smart with our finances. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I want to get us on the right track. many thanks. AK Thanks for the post. Very helpful. I just spent the whole day crunching my numbers in Quicken, which has taken me some time to understand. I was shocked and dismayed to learn that my husband and I spend about $1,000 more every month than we earn. But we each put money away in our 401K — and that is not accounted for in this cash-flow analysis. We never go down to zero in our checking — there is always some residue there, so I was confused to find out with Quicken that on a month-to-month basis, we are actually in the red.
Some additional info:
We are also saving $400 a month with an automatic transfer to savings. The three months I looked at, we had some unusual expenses, like city taxes and other things that won’t happen every month. Also we are expecting a huge tax refund this year. My dad tells me not to worry — we have only been married 6 months, and he would expect us to be deeper in the hole when in fact he says we are ahead because we are saving for retirement and building an emergency fund (albeit slowly). But I have caught a fever for personal finance and I want us to be excellent. We don’t have very high salaries, and I want to make up for it by being smart with our finances.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I want to get us on the right track.
many thanks.
AK

]]> By: Katrina http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-8551 Katrina Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:35:12 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-8551 Fantastic at last a plain old common sense approach to <a href="http://http://debtfreeplaybook.com/blog/23/if-only-debt-was-this-funny/" rel="nofollow">debt debt managementt </a>.Spending without guilt what joy and suddenly work can no longer be seen as a cruel and harsh punishment for living. Thank goodness for your advice now people will have to seek a replacement nou nou. keep writing Fantastic at last a plain old common sense approach to debt debt managementt .Spending without guilt what joy and suddenly work can no longer be seen as a cruel and harsh punishment for living.

Thank goodness for your advice now people will have to seek a replacement nou nou.

keep writing

]]> By: Scott Hove http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-922 Scott Hove Wed, 03 May 2006 06:02:11 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-922 I was very interested in reading your comments on guilt free money since I'm currently on some projects related to this. Do you have (or did I miss it) any suggestions for putting some of your money to use "for something bigger than yourself" - charity, etc.? I'll be interested to learn. Scott Hove http://www.scotthove.com I was very interested in reading your comments on guilt free money since I’m currently on some projects related to this.

Do you have (or did I miss it) any suggestions for putting some of your money to use “for something bigger than yourself” – charity, etc.?

I’ll be interested to learn.

Scott Hove
http://www.scotthove.com

]]> By: Miko http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-451 Miko Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:55:24 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-451 Getting here a little late, but better late than never. Many thanks to Steph for setting up an LJ feed for your blog. ^_^ I've generally found your advice to be helpful on a number of topics, and the gods know we need all the good advice we can get right now on money topics. So expound away! Getting here a little late, but better late than never. Many thanks to Steph for setting up an LJ feed for your blog. ^_^

I’ve generally found your advice to be helpful on a number of topics, and the gods know we need all the good advice we can get right now on money topics. So expound away!

]]> By: Jules http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-400 Jules Wed, 01 Feb 2006 08:39:17 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-400 I like it! Sound, sensible advice. Keep it coming. I like it! Sound, sensible advice. Keep it coming.

]]> By: meandering wildly in all directions » Blog Archive » How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Market http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-234 meandering wildly in all directions » Blog Archive » How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Market Sat, 19 Nov 2005 04:36:09 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-234 [...] Okay. So. You’ve got your brain clear on the whole budgeting scam, and you’re ready to start tackling the bigger questions. You know you should save. You have heard about Freedom 55 and that sounds nice enough. You don’t know anything about stocks and bonds and mutual funds and derivatives and secondary markets and e-trade and selling short and day trading and you are sort of worried that you’re going to have to learn about some of that. Or worse, much worse, you know a little about some of those things, and you’re buying stocks based on P/E ratios and dividend yields, without actually knowing how to read a balance sheet. If you’re Canadian you’ve heard of RRSPs and are certain that they are something responsible people have, or maybe you have one but still don’t quite get what makes it different or what to do with its contents (they have contents?) Back that truck up. We’ll get there. The whole point of the anti-budgeting rant was that you shouldn’t have to work that hard just to manage your money. The same goes for investing, and doubly so, because working too hard is going to cost you money. [...] [...] Okay. So. You’ve got your brain clear on the whole budgeting scam, and you’re ready to start tackling the bigger questions. You know you should save. You have heard about Freedom 55 and that sounds nice enough. You don’t know anything about stocks and bonds and mutual funds and derivatives and secondary markets and e-trade and selling short and day trading and you are sort of worried that you’re going to have to learn about some of that. Or worse, much worse, you know a little about some of those things, and you’re buying stocks based on P/E ratios and dividend yields, without actually knowing how to read a balance sheet. If you’re Canadian you’ve heard of RRSPs and are certain that they are something responsible people have, or maybe you have one but still don’t quite get what makes it different or what to do with its contents (they have contents?) Back that truck up. We’ll get there. The whole point of the anti-budgeting rant was that you shouldn’t have to work that hard just to manage your money. The same goes for investing, and doubly so, because working too hard is going to cost you money. [...]

]]> By: Belasarius http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-187 Belasarius Fri, 04 Nov 2005 13:31:51 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-187 Very good advice and pretty much what I've been doing. One thing that I might suggest that was very helpful to me. If you belong to a credit union or use a bank that doesn't charge for additional checking accounts, I opened a separate account for my mortgage and had enough money to pay that plus taxes split off into it with every paycheck. That account was ONLY used for those purposes, so even if I messed up a bit and went over in my regular account, the mortage money was guaranteed to be there. Given the rather expensive consequences, I found it worked rather well. Very good advice and pretty much what I’ve been doing.

One thing that I might suggest that was very helpful to me. If you belong to a credit union or use a bank that doesn’t charge for additional checking accounts, I opened a separate account for my mortgage and had enough money to pay that plus taxes split off into it with every paycheck. That account was ONLY used for those purposes, so even if I messed up a bit and went over in my regular account, the mortage money was guaranteed to be there. Given the rather expensive consequences, I found it worked rather well.

]]> By: beltzner http://blog.johnath.com/2005/10/12/guilt-free-money/comment-page-1/#comment-127 beltzner Fri, 14 Oct 2005 02:54:48 +0000 http://blog.johnath.com/?p=18#comment-127 Personally, I'm waiting for the next article on financing strategies. Particularily to do with the best way to finance new cars. Anything in my future, Dr. Money? Personally, I’m waiting for the next article on financing strategies. Particularily to do with the best way to finance new cars. Anything in my future, Dr. Money?

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