401K Bonehead Investment Move: Part 2

Thanks to Luke and Beth for the advice on the 401K. Luke gave me some fairly comprehensive advice that Beth basically agreed with. Here's what he said:

IF you have future 401k investments going in, I would suggest starting from there, with future funds, to begin the process of diversification.

Having 50% in company stock is far to high, but it doesn't mean you should sell all of it and that goes for the other 50% wrapped up in a REIT. How much wiggle room do you have with selling company stock? Do you have free reign to sell $8000 from the REIT at any time? Are there any restrictions in your plan? What are the minimums for your selection of funds? What are some of your funds you can chose?

Let me know and lets see if there isn't something that can be done.

I would think you could slowly begin the process of picking funds for future monies as well as over time, liquidating your company stock and REIT positions down to 10% a piece.

Let me know a tad more.

I like Luke and Beth's advice to start by changing the future allotments. I was in a mid-level panic, and going to change everything at once, but this seems like a more measured approach. My company stock portfolio page gives some suggestions for "Short" through "Long" term investment mixes. This is how they suggest you split your allocation for a "Long-Term Portfolio":

Stable Value 6%
Large Company Value 11%
S&P 500 Stock Index 12%
Large Company Growth 11%
Small Company Value 8%
Small Company Growth 8%
International Growth Stock 24%
International Value Stock 10%
Real Estate 10%

I'm basically going to follow the above advice, but because I'm so heavy in Real Estate right now, I'll shift that 10%, for the next year or so, across the rest. And... DONE!

Now, in answer to Luke's question: I just confirmed that I do have the option to change over all my company stock, and I can diversify it across the other funds listed above. I can also change how I allocate all my past investments in REIT. So, I guess the question becomes: how fast do I move money out of the company stock and/or the Real Estate? Any advice is much appreciated.

So. I've been off the radar for a few days, and I spent a good portion of that in the Emergency Room. I FELL IN THE SHOWER, and did a bit of damage to my lip and bruised the entire left side of my body. That was late in the evening on the 4th. After we got home, I went to take a shower, slipped, fell, took out the shower curtain and managed to earn myself three stitches. All while sober. It was very sad. Then, the next day, my girlfriend had a bad fainting episode that required an EMT call, so I spent all of the 5th looking after her. Really, really shitty. I'm incredibly sore, and I can barely move my left arm.

So, how's the old spending? I'm not really sure :) There were some emergency cab rides and miscellaneous comfort items that I bought, in a very "screw it" mood. My account says I spent $37.38, so I'll go with that. With respect to "Mission Impossible" (this is Day 19 of 26):

MISSION REPORT
Total Spent: $168.66
Total Remaining: $16.00
Percent Spent: 91.33%
Percent Time Elapsed: 73.08%

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So Poor...

Man. I have about $80 to last me two weeks. Hilarious. I keep telling myself that I'm making great progress on the bills, and honestly, my summer's been good. I'm paying off huge chunks of debt, and I'm having a good time, although I definately don't go out as much. It's just I'm SOOOOO poor.

June-August are going to be the hard months. After that, not only will the fun summer events be about over, I will have paid off MY CAR!! Thank you Jesus.

I hung out with my sisters in Milwaukee this weekend. We decided to do a "just siblings" weekend, for the most part, althought we spent much of Sunday with our mom. It was her birthday, so we took her to the Milwaukee Zoo. Zoos are great places to take disabled people, because they're very handicap-accessible. We got my mother a wheelchair and she had fun pointing out the monkeys and lions to my two-year-old niece. We kept it to a minimum, spending-wise. My eldest sister is in debt, also, and we've been good about keeping each other in check when we go out. She's a surgeon, but she's in her residency and doesn't make that much money yet, and she's accumulated a gigantic credit card bill. Even though she'll be making 500k pretty soon, she wants to get the credit card paid off before that, just to show herself that she can be responsible with her money. We discuss our debt with each other, and that helps us both.

But, $80!!!!! LOL. I'll survive. I'm off to do some grocery shopping to get a lot of noodles....

I just got access to my grades from last semester, so I can submit a claim for my books and tuition. It takes a while for that to process, but hopefully I can get that in a month or two. Goal for tomorrow--submit my tuition reimbursement information.

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Just checking in

I've been concentrating on my book and other projects of late, and so I've deliberately set aside my daily posts for "Indebted 2 You".

So what's up in my financial life? Well, I'm a week from my paycheck, and completely broke. I think I have about $40 in my work account. My sister never came through with the promised $100 check, which I guess I better just write off. I put a $14 meal on my credit card last night, and I advanced $40 to my Wells checking account to keep that from overdrafting. Overdrafting costs me $10 a day and goes on my Wells credit card, whereas advancing the $40 cost me 10%, or $4. I have about $19 of that advance left in my Wells Account.

And to be honest, I don't know if this is the month that my car insurance withdraws on the 12th or the 15th, and if it's the 12th that's going to cost me another $10.

Also, I think I lost my cash card. I have to go home over lunch and double-check for that, and if I can't find it, I'll have to cancel it(I'm on hold with a Pizza shop I was at on Sunday, checking to see if I left it there).

It doesn't look great, but it's honestly not horrible, either. Next month I'll have to plan for about $140 in gas with our new and improved pricing, but I'm also going to bike to work, so I hope I can mitigate some of that expense (also good health, environment, etc).

I've been eating at home a lot more, and when I don't eat at home, I try and have an inexpensive lunch (grilled cheese and soup, baby! $2.77!).

More later...

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iSleep

Ohhhhhh...I slept 12 hours last night. So much better than sex. I've been in a really bad caffeine=sleeplessness=no excercise=sleeplessness=bad food=.... cycle the last couple of weeks, and I had to break out of it. I spent too much eating out this month, but because I kind-of thought I might do that, I actually budgeted for it. I have $250 to see me through to April 15th. It's not much, but I know I can do that. I know, I know, that leaves me with $0 in my accounts, BUT I've paid off a decent amount of debt, AND I normally add to my credit cards by the end of a month, so this is actually pretty good.

I had an argument with Discover this morning. They said my interest was going up to 10% and I said "Not by the terms of our contract," and it turns out they had the wrong contract on file, but I had called them enough that they were able to piece things back together. But that was only after going through several 'front lines' of defense, the stonewall customer service reps who are only there to tell you to go away. It's pretty maddening. I was so confused I actually called up this blog during the conversation, and I was like: "Look, I'm looking at my financial blog right now, and I KNOW I had this conversation before, because I spent several days getting an iTune and Wallmart account set up so that I could make small purchases every month to keep my APR. It says so right here!"

It's good to have records, even as informal as this.

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Such a loser...

God. Okay, here's a problem, and it's has EVERYTHING to do with my expenses. I can't get myself to do anything. I've sat at my desk ALL DAY today, and I haven't done anything. Not one thing. I've had a few nice sit-down chats with friends at work, a nice long lunch, but I haven't actually accomplished ANYTHING. I've surfed the Internet, I've done a lot of personal chores, but not one speck, not one iota of actual work has occurred. I think I probably worked about 5 hours this week, and I'm serious. I get stressed out just sitting her, doing nothing. The less I do, the more I get stressed, the harder it is to start. I could at least be working on my writing, but I don't. Nobody checks on me. Nobody asks about my work. Nobody expects anything from me. I can go for months, peform one small task, and everyone will think I'm doing a good job. I'm so stressed about this, but I can't seem to make any connection to my job and my compensation and my approval rating. That's not true, actually. I know that people hate my work ethic. I know I'm a joke. A well regarded joke. A joke people like to hang out with. I'm a joke who people want to be friends with, but a joke nonetheless. A big f-ing joke. I AM A HUGE F-ING JOKE.

My god. What do I expect to happen in life? Is this a sense of entightlement on my part? Am I truly that bored? Is this apathy or laziness or is there a difference? Gen X couldn't give an F? And it's not that I LIKE that I don't do anything. I hate it.

Day's done. I'm going for a run. No lessons learned.

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A different day

I've been snooping and I realize a lot of those numbers (for my debt) are substantially off. I'll go home tonight and get the correct digits.

My irresponsibility is multifaceted, but I do try and get better. This is an example. Other things that I've done: I've automated all my payments, so I no longer get late fees for anything. Bill Pay is one thing Wells Fargo has given me that seems to have my best interest (verses their best intere$t) at heart. I've set it up so all my payments go out on the 15th, when I get paid. I haven't, of course, adjust these payments to cover anything but the minimum on my credit cards. I know I have to do that.

I'm one of those people who's always busy. This is how my mind works. I've always got projects, I'm always doing things with friends. Currently:
- I'm writing a book
- I'm editing a friends book
- I'm taking an English class at the University of MN
- I'm applying for graduate school (a VERY big blog will come up about that)

I don't take time to:
- Clean my room
- Work out as much as I should
- Do minor repairs on my car. I haven't changed my oil in probably 10,000 miles. I checked it last night and realized it was empty. I dumped a few quarts in to bring it up. (Tires need to be replaced, spedometer doesn't work. Sadly, this isn't a bad car. 2000 Honda Civic).
- Almost every year, I take too long to renew my tabs, so I end up getting a ticket for overdue tabs. In fact, I'll often get TWO tickets for overdue tabs. This year, I didn't pay the overdue tickets for the overdue tabs, my license got revoked, and I got a ticket for driving on a suspended license. This shit is not unusual for me.
- Taxes. My tax preparation method is to buy a bottle of wine the night taxes are due, drink a good portion of the bottle, blaze through the taxes as fast as I can. I believe my record was 15 min in 2003. God knows if the numbers ever work. I usually leave a form out. I often send something in late.

I have to go to a meeting.

Ciao.

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