Back again

At least I keep trying right? In a brief moment of sobriety I came up with all these ideas and all these plans about what to do.

Highlight: She said "you smell yummy"

Fat Pants

That's all I can wear nowadays.

I have three pairs of pants (excluding sweats and track pants) that are work-appropriate and they are all fat pants. Two pairs of jeans and one pair of "diaper pants" as my wife calls them. She calls them that because they are really baggy, especially in the rear.

"It looks like you took a crap in them" she says.

I never tuck my shirts into my fat pants. Why? Because they would show the fact that even these so-called fat pants are too tight. When I wear my fat jeans, they always leave an imprint on my skin after I take them off. I can always see where the big button pressed against my flabby pooch.

And they are always too long. The worst part is that the inseam is always smaller than the waist. I just came to the realization that I'm wider than I am tall and that scares me.

As much as I hate my damn fat pants, I love my damn fat pants.

Another try

It's been almost eight months since my last post, and I'm sorry to report that I was unable to make any progress on any of my goals. My only positive is several lucky investments that are yielding good returns. Here's a snapshot of where I stand:

• My weight: 219. It only looks like I gained 5 lbs, but in reality it's more like 10. I managed to drop below 210 over the summer and spent the last 3 months putting it all back on.
• My health: Not so good. Ive spent the last three or four months eating anything and everything. Not to mention that I've been drinking A LOT of beer.
• My money: Adding a backyard to a brand new house is very expensive. There was the cement patio, the sod, and the fence. My original 27k now looks more like 18k. On the bright side, my stocks are up $1600 since April (AAPL, SIRI, ING, RMK, and QQQQ). I also have $12000 over at Emigrant Direct which will start getting regular deposits at the beginning of the new year.

So that's what you get when you spend eight months over-spending, over-indulging, and playing World of Warcraft obsessively.

Next step: come up with a plan.

its still exists!

I going to get back into this...more to come tonight!

Double Failure

I lost $800 in the stock market this week. I also gained 3 pounds, even though I hiked, ran, and walked. WTF?

Ok...I did finish my taxes, so that's one goal I met. I also set up the Emigrant direct account, which I'm going to use as my main savings account. So I did a couple of good things, but I didn't meet my real goals.

I did the complete opposite of increasing my bank deposits and decreasing my fat deposits. I'll try not to spend the whole day sulking....

Tax Time!

I finally got my taxes done! I usually do these as soon as I get my W-2 forms, but I knew this would be the first year I would actually owe money. The good news is that it was less than $25! This tells me that the deductions on my paycheck are almost dead on, meaning that the government isn't making interest on money it owes me. What's funny is that so many people (myself included in years past) think that a refund is free money - but nothing could be further from the truth!

Tomorrow: did I meet the goals I made last Friday???

New link

If you are looking for a site that has simple and easy to understand explanations of economy terms, Moneychimp is for you!

I was trying to figure out what the trade deficit is and came upon a really nice explanation of it on this site. Here it is, along with an explanation of the GDP.

Good Times, Bad Times

Doing well healthwise....I've been exercising almost everyday and even woke up with sore muscles.
Bad times in the stock market though. According to Yahoo Finance, an increase in the trade deficit has sent stocks plumetting, which means a $200 loss for me in the last 2 days. Maybe it's time to cash out and wait this out....or is this the time to buy? More bad news means that the market will eventually bottom out. and things should start getting better after that. But who knows?

I hate losing money in stocks.

Off to a good start!

I'm getting the week of to a really good start, and I feel confident that I can lose those two pounds by Friday.

I started off by going on a hike with PS Yesterday. It was probably 2 miles each way with an elevation gain of 2000 feet. I hiffed and puffed thought the first third or so but eventually warmed up. The view at the top was incredible!

Today we woke up and went on a 5 mile walk/jog. Again, it took me a while to warm up, but I started feeling really good and jogged a good portion of the way back.

Here's the smoothie we had when we got home:

3 cups OJ
1.5 cups baby carrots
1 scoop of protein powder.

put all ingredients in a blender on high for about one minute - sit back and enjoy it along with your runner's high!

Playing investment advisor

I helped one of the younger gals at my work set up her 401(k) and felt pretty good about it. She had a TON of questions and I was actually surprised by the fact that I knew the answer to almost all of them. If I didn't have the answer right there and then, at least I knew where to look for it! After a while, other people overheard our conversation and started to crowd around, which led to a lively discussion about investing and retiring.

I guess its kind of nerdy, but it felt good to help others with their financial future.

Status Report

Here's how I'm doing as of today:

(sorry about the white space - I have no idea why it's there!)

	Day 1	Today	Goal
Weight	215 lbs	212 lbs	170 lbs
Body Fat	39%??	36%	20%
Net Worth*	~25k	$27,441	1m
401(K)	~25k	$25,563	1m

Goals:

• To lose 2 lbs by next friday. I want to be at a solid 210.
• To create the new bank account I mentioned in my last post. Also by next Friday.
• To finish my taxes. I've been putting these off because this is the first year I have to pay!