The Second Part of the Equation

When naming this blog Money Health and Wealth the general idea behind it was that the only true way to enjoy wealth is through the collection of money and the maintenance of ones health. Seeing as I have started to right my financial ship I would be remiss to not take the necessary steps to improve my health. Coming to this realization I will be joining a gym this week and planning a workout program and some short term and long term weight, strength, endurance, and overall health goals. Here are a few goals I am thinking about including but will be refined as I do further research and set forth an actual plan.

• Lose 25lbs and maintain that weight
• Increase endurance to the point of being able to run for an hour
• Lower Cholesterol through exercise, and prescriptions if necessary
• Strengthen injured knee

Looking Forward To Getting My Uitilites Bill

Being excited to receive a bill might seem odd, but with our new budget in place I have already received every bill and paid every bill this month with the exception of the Utilities. We currently have $150 budgeted for the utilities, however due to coming in under budget on a few other line items, we have $216 left in the budget. The weather has been exteremely hot so we have had to run the air conditioner more than I would like, but I think we might come in on budget, or possibly run over the $150 but come in under the $216.

The real reason I want this last bill to come in and be paid is that once every budget item is paid it appears I will have hundreds of dollars left over to sweep from the account and again apply to my wife's student loan, which we have already paid down by $1618 this month. An other big chuck out of that balance this month will make reaching the goal of having it payed off at the end of the year that much more possible.

Losing the Credit Card = Finding Money

As it stands now we have no credit card debt (still have the accounts but have pretty much decided that we are done using credit). Last month we paid off the end of the month balance and switched to a cash system for July. Half way through July the cash system is working great and allows us to better track our spending. When we were using credit cards we werent going further and further into debt every month, it simply seemed like we were forward financing our life by one month and that we allways had just enough after paying the mortgage or rent and all other bills to pay the credit card off, but nothing more. The new cash system and budget we have in place has shown us where we were wasting money and has freed up literally hundreds of dollars this month to start paying down my wife's student loan and finishing funding our IRAs for 2007. By losing the plastic we have found a lot of green.

American Psychos

You may or may not recognize the guy in the picture, but its Patrick Bateman, the homicidal narcissist from the movie American Psycho, and even if you did recognize him you are probably wondering what this guy has to do with personal finance. Well, on the surface nothing, but abstractly his character from the movie represents the infamous Joneses.

In the movie Patrick is well educated, wealthy, self involved, and has virtually everything one could want. Most would say that he is the person to keep up with. However, all of his Wall Street friends are just the same, and any time one of them gets a new business card, a larger condo, etc. they are all thrown into a fit of jealousy. Despite the money and power they each have, they always feel they have to have more to be accepted. One line in the movie that is especially telling is when Patrick's girlfriend asks why he even works on Wall Street since he doesn't need the money and he replies by saying "I just want to fit in."

I don't work on Wall Street, and it isn't the 80's, but a personal goal of mine is to be a different type of American Psycho. The Psycho that doesn't feel pressured into buying things he cant afford, that carries no debt, that progresses through life with a plan, and that takes care of himself well enough to enjoy the wealth his habits should provide for.

This blog will serve as a way to hold myself accountable for my goals relating to money and various other things as they come up. I also hope people find this site and leave comments so I can learn from others while providing my opinions.