Retire Early Finance Blog

Here's a short list of 5 things you can start doing today to help you put money away for the future:

Create a "loose change" jar for all your coins and at the end of each month, deposit the collection into a stock that you believe has hit "bottom" and has growth potential. Sit on it.
Decide today that you will eat out only once (twice at the most) a week. This may be hard for those coffee/latte folks out there.

Do all your bill payments online - as well as set up automatic payments direct from your checking/savings account. This will eliminate any late fees you may encounter, plus any postage fees.
Instead of going out for a movie - or renting a movie, borrow movies from your local library. You can't go wrong with a classic movie - especially a Hitchcock!
With gas prices shooting up, find out if any of your co-workers would be willing to ride-share. This is a great way to get to know people - and save money!

What are some of your tips?

Check out my blog for other money savings tips to get to retirement early at frugal retirement.

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Today I was going through my old favorites and came upon this 2002 article – You think like a million bucks. The article went on to list the most common characteristics of millionaires. Here they are:

“MILLIONAIRES SEE A HALF-FULL GLASS”
“THEY SEIZE THE DAY”
“THEY HAVE A MASTER PLAN”
“THEY FEEL ENTITLED TO THEIR MONEYBAGS”
“THEY KNOW THE UPS AND DOWNS OF INVESTING”
“THEY FIND WAYS TO MAKE MONEY DOING WHAT THEY LOVE”
“THEY KNOW THEY COULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN”

Back in high school I was out playing golf with my golf buddy and his dad. During our round of golf I told my friend and his dad that someday I was going to be a millionaire. Boy did I get laughed off the course. For about two holes they wouldn’t stop laughing and criticizing me saying, “Do you know how many zeros are in a million?” “Are you serious?” “I’ll believe it when I see it”. To this day I still remember that day, what I was wearing, what hole we were on, how they said it, and their doubtful attitude. Above anything their criticism motivated me more then anything to one day become a millionaire. I was only 17 at the time and I didn’t know how, but I knew I would.

Then came college...I still remember the class and teacher...quantitative methods and professor George. During one of our boring classes I was introduced to the power of compound. George laid out how by dollar cost averaging and investing $500/month from 22 to 30 that I could have $6.5 million by the time I turned 65 (@ 12% interest). I was AMAZED and so was the whole class. Everyone asked more questions that day then they did in the entire semester. He went on to explain that a person who invested from 30 to 65 would end up having less. That is when I realized...this is my ticket to becoming a millionaire. I’m going to invest $500/month right after I graduate college at least until I turned 30 (and I did!).

Finally, right out of college I went to see a “financial advisor” at one of the big brokerage firms in our town. I went in there with a bit of skepticism, and came away with an important tidbit that I carry with me today. He tried to get me sucked into one of his “HIGH Growth tech funds”, but the thing that stuck out the most was he asked me a question. He asked me, “what are your goals?” I said “what do you mean? For tomorrow, week, month, or this year?” He said, “No what are your goals for when you turn 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 75, and 85?” I said, “Hmm...I’ve never thought about that.” I went home that night and wrote out my life goals.” To this day I still have those goals and am working to accomplish all of them, which include financial, spiritual, physical, family, and educational.

Like the above article wrote about millionaires have a master plan. For me my master plan is my life goals. I know what I want to accomplish and by when. It’s in my yearly goals that I set out how I’m going to accomplish these goals to meet the next 5-year increment goal. If you haven’t thought about it, then write down your goals!! For me having a master plan has been the biggest compass for staying on track. Do you have one?

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Lately I've been reading some articles on becoming a millionaire. Additionally, I've also read many books in the past that address characteristics of millionaires and how to become a millionaire. But very few discuss the post end of becoming a millionaire. Now that you've got a million dollars in the back, then what now? For me in order to retire I'll probably need closer to two million to retire but my hope will be to be able to do these things in retirement.

- Spend time with family
- Run
- Read more
- Blog more
- Golf
- Buy a house on a lake or golf course
- Wake up early to watch the sun come up over the lake while sipping my coffee and reading a book
- Help maintain running trails
- Get more involved and volunteer for our church
- Let mom take a break more while I watch the kids
- Help dad at the farm

These are just a few of the ideas I had to do in retirement. What are a few of yours? I'd love to hear any of your ideas.

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Lately, I've been feeling prompted to blog about tithing 10% even though an individual may have a lot of credit card debt, auto loan, school loan, and home loan. I am a firm believer (contrary to Suze Orman) that a person should continue to give 10% to the church even though you may have a lot of debt. A lot can be determined by the character of a person while they are in debt to determine how they will act once they get out of debt. I know a lot of people may disagree with me on this, but I can account for myself how continuing to tithe while in debt has had great rewards for my wife and I. The Lord has blessed us many times over for our faithfulness in giving in the hard times and now we are trusted with a lot more. Now we are again tested in the good times if we will be faithful with what we have and continue to give. Since getting married I've really experience the joy of giving sacrificially and it definitely has been a learned trait that I got from my wife. Thanks honey!

I just wanted to get other people's take on tithing regardless of large amounts of debt and hear about any success stories or failures. All comments are welcome.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to subscribe to my e-mail updates

Check out my blog at Frugal Retirement

We'll today it has been 30 days since I started out on my first challenge to generate more income in my family's life then existed before. I set out on a goal to raise $500 and I'm proud to say I was successful in raising $635.



The biggest contributing factor to my success was without a doubt Craigslist. It accounted for 83% of my total extra income and at no cost. If anything by doing this challenge it has opened my eyes to the possibilities of what Craigslist can provide you and publicize.

Along with that is has gotten a lot of useless junk out of our house and provide more storage space for our family. Especially as we prepare to have a new baby!

Below is a list of my streams of income:
1) Craigslist - $525
2) Tax Lien interest - $8.90
3) Ebay - $51.52
4) Amazon books - $51
5) Online Survey - mysurvey.com

Now's it off to Chicago on Wednesday for a family vacation, which we'll spend the majority of my streams of income on! We are going to a Cubs game and hopefully hit a few museums! Hope you enjoyed my challenge.

Let me know if you enjoyed my challenge or having any other ideas!! Thanks for reading!

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Well the challenge is over! Here are the official results of “What % do you save?” It looks like on average people save 15% or more! That is astounding!!! Compared to the national average of 1% or less. Saving 10% or more is a key getting to retirement early and a lot of the poll respondents show that they realize this too.

Check out the poll results

Today I took the plunge and ordered Work Less, Live More: The Way to Semi-Retirement by Bob Clyatt. I bought it used on Amazon used books and I’ve been reading it every time I go to Borders or Barnes and Noble. As a person that is actively seeking to someday have the option of not having to work I thought this would be a great addition to my collection and give me some great advice. The book takes the perspective of perusing a semi-retirement, which is something I haven’t considered before.

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Today my sister, son, and I went to garage sales. Brings back fond memories as a kid going with my as my mom instilled in me being frugal and getting good deal at garage sales. Sometimes my mom and her friends took garage sales to an extreme, but I got the jist of it! Thanks mom!

This morning we didn't pick anything up for more the 25 cents, but we did find some great deals. Bought a squirt gun and a nice puzzle map of the United States. My parents use to quiz me every night before I went to bed on the states and their capitals. I figure this will help my son learn his states too. Then probably the best deal I am proud of snatching is a vintage 7up glass cup. I remember these cups when I was a kid. I think they came from Pizza Hut, but I'm not sure. I couldn't believe the price tag said 25 cents and I knew it was worth more than that so I looked it up on ebay when I got home! Found a list of two of them for $20!!

7up ebay glasses

Also on Friday I sold my golf clubs for $60, so that is a little more to add to my Multiple Streams of Income challenge. I'm now up to $635 total!!

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Today my 3 1/2 year old son and I are planning on going camping along the Missouri River tonight! This is our first time ever trying this and last night I practiced setting up the tent. Needless to say it was "fun", but took a lot of patience. Regardless, I just want to create a tradition with him that we can do the rest of our life and I hope he can grow to have a love of nature like I've grown to have. Especially after being raised on the farm! So its off to camping we go!

Yesterday in my masters class we discussed the “real” dollars spent on gas and how we’ve just crossed over the threshold that we were at in 1981 during the Iranian Crisis. People have been moaning a lot about how the price of gas is “breaking the camels back”, but in relative terms gas is at the same levels that they were in 1981.


Data provided from http://www.inflationdata.com/

Department of Labor – Inflation Hoax:
Now take a snapshot of the above inflation adjusted gas data. Then look at the rate of inflation in both 2007&2008 and compare it to 1980 & 1981.


Data provided from http://www.inflationdata.com/

Does something look a little odd here? To me something smells a bit rotten and that our department of labor is skewing the inflation numbers, because so much of our national debt is leveraged against the inflation rate and business are adjusted against the inflation rate as well. To me I really believe the Department of Labor is pulling the wool over our eyes and these numbers aren’t really factual. You and I both know that when we go to the grocery story that 1) Milk cost $2.55 last year and last week when I went to the store it cost $3.35, 2) Gas last spring cost $2.75/gallon and I just had to fill up on $3.54 gas today, 3) Fertilizer for my lawn last year was $5.80 for a small bag and this past weekend I paid more then $11. Now do those numbers look like 3%, 4%, even 5% inflation? Even a high school dropout can figure out that! Personally here is what I believe. I believe we the people need to take inflationary calculations into our own hands. Here is what I propose. List out 4 items that you will commit to track yearly on how much it will cost for those items each year. For example:

1) Milk
2) Bread
3) Gas
4) The same 3 homes in your neighborhood

Then you can figure out on your own…is the government telling us the truth? This puts the power back in your hands and helps you to make adjustments to your finances based on your factual data! As a result, you’ll get to retirement early and be able to hedge inflation while in retirement to sustain a comfortable lifestyle.

What do you think?

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Yesterday during some free time at work I thought for a second about my multiple streams of income challenge and thought...in all what avenues do I currently utilize to get to retirement early? Here is the list I came up with (in no particular order):

1. Craigslist
2. Ebay
3. Surveys
4. Blog Revenue
5. Amazon books sales
6. 40 hour/week job
7. 401k
8. Roth 401k
9. Wife’s 403b
10. My ROTH IRA
11. Wifes ROTH IRA
12. 529 plan for son
13. Ibonds (for son’s college)
14. Silver coins & coin collection
15. Company stock options
16. County tax lien certificate
17. Farming business
18. Home equity

Basically when I got to about 8 or 9 items I felt blown away. Then to come up with 18...wow! I realized we are already using a lot of different streams of income generation that are already generating $$’s or will be available someday (i.e. retirement funds, 529 plan).

You know the quote of Albert Einstein that says “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest”. I realize with 18 different streams of income, the power of compound interest, and being only 31 years old that these streams will eventually make ponds. Thus generating more income or retirement $$’s that I probably will ever be able to imagine.

I challenge you all to sit down and write out all the ways that you are creating avenues of income today or will be in the future. You might just be amazed at what you are already doing.

As always if anyone has any suggestions on other ways to create income streams, then let me know and I’ll investigate!! Thanks again for everyone’s encouragement as my family and I go on this challenge.

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This weekend my wife and I planted our garden in our new raised garden. Last year we had our garden flood multiple times and we didn’t have a very productive crop. Plus the top soil here is about 2 inches thick and then you hit clay so it wasn’t very good for irrigation. We have a lot of high hopes this year!

This year we planted tomatoes, potatoes, green onions, green peppers, green beans, zucchini, and peas. Had to ask the in-laws on how far apart and how many potatoes to plant in each hole. They’ve been gardening since Adam and Eve started, so they have pretty good knowledge about how to do it! I also put up a protective fence around the garden too, because we had a problem last year with bunnies eating our green pepper plant. They chew on that like its candy.


Hope it will look like this at the end of the year!


With that said today we’ve officially started our 30 day – Go Green challenge and over the next month I’ll be blogging about how our family is going green. Our garden is one other way that our family is seeking to raise organic food at home. I’ll also give some tips on what we are doing to go “more green” and the benefits. Just like the multiple streams of income challenge has been a great motivator I think that going green will really challenge our family to live more environmentally friendly.

Now for the Multiple Streams of Income challenge update – yesterday our baby crib bedding set sold for $51.52, which I added to the challenge. We are officially up to $565.43 on day #23, and we are going to push hard the last 7 days.

Lastly, we got good news on Friday that we had over paid our home insurance escrow and we got a big fat check for $193. That is $193 that is going straight towards paying extra on my student loan. Still have an objective to pay all of that off before the baby comes. It’s a lofty goal, but then again I doubted that I’d be able to raise $500 for my current challenge.

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Got some good news on the multiple streams of income! Listed a baby crib set last Sunday and this morning we only had 1 bid on it at $25. Just checked it and we have 3 3/4 hours left and we have two bids and it is up to $51.52!!!Awesome! We also have 9 watchers on our item so I'm hoping some people will jump in at the last minute and bid it above $60.

Also on Friday my wife and I listed three European pez dispensers sets on Friday, and we are hoping to start getting some bids on them. Currently no watchers, but we're hopeful.

Talked to a guy at work today and he said he was going to send me a referral signup for pinecone research so I can generate some more survey income that didn't exist before. I'm also going to re-read my book "Multiple Streams of Income" by Robert G Allen to try and get some more ideas.

On another note, yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble and read a few pages of Work Less, Live More: The Way to Semi-Retirement and it looked really good. I'm thinking about buying it used off amazon, but we'll see. Anyone else read this book by chance?

Lastly, this coming week I'll be starting my next challenge (overlapping with Multiple Streams of Income) called "30 day challenge - Go Green". My objective will be to move my family and house to living "more green". I'll give updates as to how we are living green and ways we are improving.


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Yesterday I read a great article from getrichslowly.org that JD took to one of his lectures at Western Oregon University. He produced a one page personal finance sheet and this perception from a pf book caught my eye:

The Three-Step Budget (Andrew Tobias, The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need)
1. Destroy all your credit cards.
2. Invest 20% of all that you earn. Never touch it.
3. Live on the remaining 80%, no matter what.

So that got me thinking...time for another poll. What % of your income do you save on a monthly basis. Check it out my new poll at Frugal Retirement. I'll be sure to post the results in about a week.

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8 years ago I heard a sermon on “owing no man nothing” and people from the church got up front and testified of what being debt free did for their lives. It was really powerful and encouraging to see people with real stories of how getting out of debt freed them of this bondage. Debt has so much baggage with it and restricts a person in so many ways. For example…college loans.

I graduated school 9 years ago in May. I still owe $6950, and I started out owing $15,000. Does that sound kind of ridiculous? For me it sure does? I’m almost coming up on my 10 year reunion and if I wasn’t so aggressively paying off my student loan, then I would most likely still have my loan at my 15 year reunion. What kind of bondage is a 15 year school loan? It’s a lot!!

My wife and I are having a baby hear in September and today as I write this I still owe $6950, and one of my wife and I goals are to pay off my student loan before we have our second baby. It is a lofty goal and I don’t how it is going to happen, but when we introduce this baby into this world we want one less debt to have hanging over our heads. As part of my 30 day Multiple Streams of Income challenge I plan on continuing even after the 30 days to generate income to pay off my student loans and eventually owe no man nothing!

Is anyone else struggling with debt out there? Make a plan (with your spouse if you are married) and plan to get out of debt aggressively. Then at the end of the day when capital one asks you…”What’s in your wallet?” You can yell, CASH!!!!

frugal retirement

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Yesterday my wife and I had a great discussion about keeping money, frugality, retirement, debt, and saving in perspective. Recently my wife and I have been following this blog about a couple that found out at 20 weeks into their pregnancy that their baby had under developed lungs and would be born with undeveloped lungs and would die soon after she was born.


http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

The blog gets about 40,000 hits a week and has had a huge impact on people all throughout our country. It really has impacted us in keeping all things in perspective pertaining to money and that it is only temporal. This family's faith in the midst of this adversity has been amazing!! Despite all that they have gone through in giving birth to their daughter who they lost within 2 1/2 hours of birth - it has been a testiment of how our Lord can use all things for his glory.

Even trials and dispair.

Even joys and triumphs.

Even money worries.

Even death.

Even life.

I just want to encourage you all, like I've been refined of lately, to keep all financial matters at the feet of Jesus. Money is talked about in the Bible more then any other topic, and its important to keep your character in check and search your heart on "are you trying to serve both God and money?" I know personally I fall into this camp sometimes.

I also ask you to check out this great video of the testimony of family about the whole experience and the impact it had on them. Thanks for listening!

http://withoutwax.tv/

Yesterday when I went to Starbucks with a co-worker to get a $1.87 coffee I overheard a customer say to the gentleman making her drink - "You guys are my closest family and friends. You Jim, Nancy.." She goes on to name off all the people working behind the counter and all the people that work on the second shift.

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous!! If you know one of the cashiers names, then fine...but when you know everyone that works there by first name, then you have a problem.



To me this relates a lot to the "Latte Factor" David Bach preaches so much about. I can't imagine what this lady's latte factor looks like if she knows all their name.

Anyhow, I admit that this is her choice to go there everyday, but I on the other hand choose to go only once every three weeks or so. I don't want Starbucks getting rich off me! NO THANKS, STARBUCKS!! Starbucks Your are NOT my family!!

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Did it again!! Through yet another means of just putting my stuff out there I sold a book on Amazon.com. Total sale price was $55, and with fees and shipping I’ll net $40. So I’ve added $40 to the challenge, which pushed me over the $500 Mark! I made it past $500 in extra income (cold hard cash) in just 18 days. I’m going to really push to $1000 these last two weeks.

Also as another stream of income I invested $2033 in a county bond yesterday that pays 12% interest through my local county office. I figure that will earn me $0.685/day interest so with 13 days left in the challenge then I’ll add $8.91 to my total. In all I’m up to $513.91. Overall, I’m really pleased with my progress.

Ebay update: We have one watcher our our ebay listed item, but no bids yet.

Craigslist – Yesterday my wife and I discussed about listing all of her unopened Pez dispenser collection. We don’t want the hassle of listing each individual Pez, so we are thinking about listing the whole collection on craigslist for one set price…$200 or $250. We’ll see what bites we get on that.

Check out my blog at frugal retirement

Yesterday I signed up for mysurvey.com as a part of my 30 day Multiple Streams of Income Challenge. This was based on one of the comments I received on the first day of starting this series. This morning I got my first survey which only took about 5 minutes. Wasn’t bad at all. This whole survey bit isn’t my most productive means for generating extra income that didn’t exist before, but the whole concept is that there are other ways for person to generate income by use of the internet, skills, or any means.

I got a comment just the other day from Nic saying the exact same thing, “I've been following your 'Multiple Streams of Income' series and must admit, you helped me kick it up a notch or two. I listed items on Craigslist and put out items for our yard sale that I would not have otherwise. The house and garage is about 1500 lbs lighter. Clothes have been cleared from our closets w/no intention of replacing them. We're living w/less and enjoying it more. Even our food pantry got an overhaul and food close to expiration went to the food bank.
Thanks Dicky, you da man! ”

For a lot of us its just a matter of getting off our behinds and doing something to get out of debt, get closer to retirement, or just provide some income for a vacation or holiday.

Multiple Streams of Income - Ebay update: currently on day 2 of 7 we still don’t have any bidders on our baby bedding. We’ve had quite a few viewers, but no bidders yet. I’m not worried yet.

Question for you all – has anyone else had some success in creating another stream of income? I welcome your inputs or comments! Also does anyone else have any other tips to generate some more income? If so, then send them my way and I’ll try them out! Again thanks for everyone's encouragement and help in pushing through this Series!!

10. That I should own a bike so I can bike to work

9. It would cost $50 to fill up my Ford Escape

8. Its not fuel efficient to accelerate quickly

7. Telling my 3 1/2 year old son to bike to preschool isn't an option

6. How to get free fuel

5. A gallon of gas would cost more then a gallon of milk

4. American auto makers really don't make fuel efficient cars

3. 20 miles per gallon isn't really that good of mileage

2. Paying $3.49/gallon really hurts!

1. Its not smart to comment to the cashier at the gas station on the price of gas - its not her fault

About 6 months ago I came across igoogle and have since fallen in love with it! I can create my very own dashboard as to the feeds or things that interest me. Take a look.

It allows you to add different gadgets and RSS feeds to your homepage so that you had have one desktop for all the things that interest you. As you can see from mine I have dating tips to jokes to blogs to financial tips. It really has a lot of great features that can make organizing information for you easier and quicker.

Along with that you can add my RSS gadget feed to your igoogle homepage by clicking on my +google icon in my “About me” description.


Check out how easy it is to do and find other things to add to your igoogle page!

We’ll here is the latest update. After two unsuccessful listings on craigslist of our baby bedding (at a high price – what? I didn’t say my prices were fair), I finally broke down and listed it on ebay. Wife just wanted it out of the house, so I agreed. Was asking a whopping $100 on craigslist, but I expect it to go for $60 on ebay. Then we’ll have to pay all the fees, so overall I’ll probably be able to add $50 to my challenge.



Today its day 16, which means I’m over the halfway point and I need to start pushing it into overdrive to not only get to $500, but push towards $1000!! I really have to dig and think of some more ideas on how I could generate some revenue or sell something. I’m wondering if I should scope out some garage sales for some resale items or what. I’m open to any ideas.

You know as I’ve gone 16 days in this challenge I’ve realized one thing – its helped clean up our house! It definitely helps to get clutter out of the house and get more organized.

Anyhow, today while I was doing dishes I was thinking this 30 day challenge has been a lot of fun! I need to think of another challenge to do to get to retirement early. What I thought of was “30 days to live more green”.

Over the past two years as I’ve become more environmentally conscious I’ve realized that there is great benefits both to the environment and my checkbook by living green. So my hope is to challenge me and you all on how I can live more green while seeking to get to retirement early. I have some more ideas for more challenges, but I won’t get ahead of myself.

Check out recent posts at frugalretirement.blogspot.com

You may have heard this countless times - but it bears repeating. One of the best things you can start doing today on your road to financial freedom, is to begin paying yourself first. Now, I don't just mean throwing money into the 401k or IRA or what have you. I mean that once you get that paycheck in hand, to set aside a certain percentage of money to go into a savings account.

There are many different savings vehicles. I use a money market. This way, the money earns interest - and can be easily accessed in case you need it. It's a good idea to have - at the minimum - $1000 in the event of emergencies. And, always try to keep that minimum. This will offset any "Murphy" visits and allow you to keep saving and you won't lose ground on your journey to freedom.

Ideally though - 3-6 months of living expenses and more is a goal you may want to set for yourself.

You may also select to be more risk-taking with your savings. Perhaps you know of a good stock? Or you'd like to try online banking?

Wherever you choose to put your savings - start paying yourself today!

Check out Frugal Retirement for more updates and tips to get to retirement early. You can also see how the 30 day - Multiple Streams of Income Challenge is going!

We'll today we are going to be leaving for the farm to see my Grandparents who are celebrating 67 years of marriage!! What a great accomplishment and testimony of committment to each other through it all. I truely look up to my grandparents for the blue print they've laid on long lasting, giving, selfless marriage. I also learned the majority of my money sense from my grandparents, because of what they instilled in me about what the Great Depression taught them. Its a lot of the little things like cutting up old shirts to make dish rags, making your own soap, cleaning up your entire plate at the dinner table, to using pots /pans that are so old that the bottom of the pan isn't flat but egg shaped, to having medicine in your medicine cabinet that expired in 1984 which they say is still good (ya right). Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!



Also going home this weekend to see if I can help dad with some of the fieldwork or atleast get the equipment ready. I always like being home and away from the city. I like walking out on the gravel roads at around 10 o'clock and seeing no light pollution, hearing no cars, and just listening to the crickets cherping. Its a great calmness that I feel. Plus I like getting up in the morning with grandpa and listening to the radio over a cup of coffee. We always have good talks over coffee in the morning while we rock in our rocking chairs!

Anyhow, its off to the farm this weekend!

Today was a very productive day for our family!! First off I added $40 to my 30 day Multiple Streams of Income challenge. I sold one of my old golf clubs on craigslist so that brings my total up to $465 on day 13!! I think I'll easily be able to make $500 and maybe even close to $1000. We'll see if I can come up with some more ideas on creating income.

On top of that I built a raised garden in our back yard and I am really pleased with how it turned out. Found some great "how to website" on building a raised garden, went to the local hardware store picked up the necessary lumber, soil, and nails and walla! In all it costed about $150 for everything, so hopefully the organic veggies are worth it and more! I'm sure we'll get multiple years of use out of it. My wife was extremely supportive while I was building it and was knocking on the window giving me the thumbs up. My son did an AWESOME job of helping me pick up the bags of soil, take them up to the garage, and put them in the trash! Mom and I were so proud of him that we gave him hot cocoa afterwards.

If you want to see more pictures of the garden then feel free to check them out at frugal retirement blog.

I'm looking for topics of interest from everyone on things they'd like to see blogged about to live more frugally, retirement, savings, economy, coupons, 401k, or any financial topics. With your feedback I'll post your topics of interest on frugal retirement

Yesterday I talked about making a list of things that need to get done, because I have so many ideas that come and go through my head. It was really good to do this, because throught the day I came up with probably 15 things that needed to get done or things I needed at the store. That way my trips to the store would be well spent and I would have to make multiple trips. I put the same piece of paper in my back pocket this morning before I head off to work, and hope to continue to add to my list.

Also yesterday I got a lot of good responses about my tranquil picture of a cabin over looking a lake. So I found another picture of a house overlooking a lake that is for sale for $799,000 that looked really peaceful. Its also a view from the cabin where Rachel Ray produced her first cookbook.



I'm also contemplating stopping my blog on savingadvice.com and blogging completely at frugal retirement because of the duplicate content. I also like what my "archived" buddy EnoughWealth said in his final post. EnoughWealth or check out EnoughWealth Blogspot

We'll the results are in on the "What do you consider the most important factor to get to retirement early?" poll.

Here are the results.


Along with that I publish a new poll. "Who had the biggest influence on your financial mindset?" Vote at frugal retirement.

The last three days have been horrible. I haven't had any time to do anything to add to my challenge money. I've been so busy with schooling and work that life hasn't allowed me the opportunity to blog or focus on creating another stream of income. However, I did have one e-mail on selling my golf clubs, which I listed on craigslist, but haven't heard back.

Last night as I was reading my son the "ABC Superheros" book got me thinking about writing a children's book. I discussed it with my wife about a week ago, but maybe I need to investigate that more. I have a good friend that is a great artist that would add a lot to the book. I'll have to do some more thinking and discussing with my wife.

Also lately I've been having visions of retiring early, living on a lake, sitting on my deck and just blogging for one of my retirement activities. It would be nice to not to have to show up for work, if I didn't want to, and watch the sun rise over the lake sipping my coffee and adding to my blog. This is just another vision of what I would like to do when I get to retirement early.

Lastly, last night my wife and I discussed somethings that needed to get done around the house and I finally felt like it was time to write a list of "things that need to get done" to help keep me focused. I have about six things on my list, which I'll keep you posted on.

I'm only on day 8 and I've made $425 so far!! Sold our media cabinet and side table on craigslist today. Put three more items out there tonight for sale - baby bedding, golf irons, and golf driver. Hopefully I'll get some bites on them. Priced the baby bedding kind of high, but everything I've listed on there has sold right away. We'll see though. Anyhow, I'm extremely pleased with the 30 day challenge thus far. Hopefully I can make some more money besides selling things online that can be residual income.

I've also includes specifics about my craigslistings on my frugal retirement blog.

Got a frugal tip for you all today. Walgreens is have a sale today only where you can get 15 free 4x6 photos. Just use code - TAXDAY to get them free and pick up at your local Walgreens.