The month of the birthdays continues... Both of our children’s birthdays are in March, so each weekend is usually filled with something relating to them. This week will be their combined birthday party with their friends and cousins. Last week we saw “The Lorax” as part of our son’s presents. The movie was hilarious by the way! The majority of the week was spent with our son fighting off a nasty stomach bug that caused him to have to miss school for a few days. I’m looking forward to a weekend where everyone’s health is back to normal. As many of you already know from my prior post, the week started off on a good note with the closing of our home refinance! That activity saves us about $100 per month on our budget. Also, the way the … [Read more...] about Weekend Wind Down 3/10/2012
Check Out My Guest Post “The Satisfaction of Doing Your Own Home Projects”
I’d like to kindly invite everyone to please take a moment to head over to the blog Invest It Wisely to read my guest post entitled “The Satisfaction of Doing Your Own Home Projects”. As many of you know, I recently decided to take on putting hardwood floors in my house. I am not handy at all and I had a little apprehension about doing the project. But because I am also cheap (sorry, frugal), there was no way I was going to pay what they were asking for professional installation. So this post is about getting over the fear of trying something new, saving a little bit of cash in doing so, and learning some skills that will help me with later projects in the future. Please give it read and leave me your comments! … [Read more...] about Check Out My Guest Post “The Satisfaction of Doing Your Own Home Projects”
Adventures in Refinancing, Chapter 5
I’m very proud to announce that this chapter will end our story on getting a refinance. As of Monday, we finally closed on our new mortgage under the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP)! Here’s what has been going on since last time: Our Home Appraisal: So after the initial consultation and deposit, there was not a lot to do except wait until the estimator came back with his appraisal of our house. And so we waited, and waited, … And after 8 years of not “really” knowing how much our house was worth, we finally received an official home appraisal as part of the process. How did we do? Bum-badda-baaa (victorious trumpets sounding ….): … [Read more...] about Adventures in Refinancing, Chapter 5
Weekend Wind Down 3/03/2012
What a long and stressful week! Both my wife and I had some pretty hectic schedules these past few days, but it’s all good. This week was also very special because we celebrated our son’s birthday! He’s a great present “getter” because he opens each present as if it’s the best present he’s ever received. Unfortunately I think the week is going to end with Mrs. MMD coming down with a cold. I’m glad to announce we finally got the estimate back on our house and will be closing on our HARP Refinance soon! We also finished installing our hardwood floors. Both of these will be expanded upon in upcoming posts next week. … [Read more...] about Weekend Wind Down 3/03/2012
What Exercise Has Taught Me About Money
Exercise has been a strong part of my lifestyle for a long time. It has taught me a great deal about self-discovery as well as given me the confidence to accomplish things I never thought would be possible in my life. Below are 12 lessons that do not only apply to exercising but also to my ambitions for wealth: … [Read more...] about What Exercise Has Taught Me About Money
Weekend Wind Down 2/25/2012
I am very glad to be home from western NY. This week MMD was on the road away on business for the latter part of the week. My apologies for not being able to post like I regularly do on Friday. Mrs MMD and I have a lot to do this weekend. Our son turns 7 soon and we still need to buy his birthday presents. We’ve also got our hardwood floor project that we started last weekend to get done now that the last of the boxes we ordered have arrived. Thank you to anyone that selflessly posts “how-to” projects on You Tube. You have no idea how much help you have been! … [Read more...] about Weekend Wind Down 2/25/2012
Is It Time to Change Up My Retirement Portfolio?
If you believe at all in the January Barometer (financial-folk-lore that if markets do well in January, the year will be good), then we’re in for a great year! The S&P 500 is up approximately 8% this year and most of the economic reports seem to be more upbeat than they have been in recent years. So what is there to worry about? Well, in the words of Warren Buffett: • “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful”. Looking for Safety: When my 401k dropped nearly 50% during the Great Recession, I decided it was time to stop playing offense and beef up my defense when it came to how I invest my money. … [Read more...] about Is It Time to Change Up My Retirement Portfolio?
What is Shorting a Stock?
The first time I watched the Oliver Stone movie Wall Street 2, I was confused about something: Josh Brolin’s company, Churchill Schwartz, makes a ton of money when the company that Shia LaBeouf works for, Kellar Zabel (KZI), starts to dramatically fall in stock price. Contrary to conventional investing, how is it that someone gets “rich” from stock prices going down? How Shorting a Stock Works: Although there were a lot of factors at play in the movie, the basic answer to this question is that Schwartz was “shorting” the Kellar Zabel stock. What does that mean? Let’s look at a simple example: … [Read more...] about What is Shorting a Stock?
