Neville's Financial Blog

First post of the year!

Let's get started. For starters, I'm not going goal-less this year like I tried in 2007. That worked out OK, but setting clear goals is quite an important task. I was using some pretty flawed logic in that goal-less post.

Short Term Goals:

• Join the Austin Rock Gym instead of a regular gym. Two years ago I went indoor rock climbing every other day for about 3 months and saw big changes in my all around strength. Rock climbing is more fun than a normal gym, uses more muscles and this gym is only 4 miles from where I live so I can bicycle there...which bring me to:
• Buy a bike. I found a good trick to buying a cheap bike that will last. Go to Wal-Mart, buy one of those $100 bikes, then go to a bike shop and get a $30 tune-up. I didn't believe it at first, but it literally changes the entire way the bike rides and feels. I used to have one, but I left it at my old apartment when I moved, and within two weeks it was gone.
• Locate 3-D Printers around Austin. I've been interested in the newly emerging technology 3-D Printing (aka rapid prototyping) for a long time, and want to start getting involved with it in some form. I've already found a $49,000 3D printer I can use on the cheap. <-- Just the thought of that gets me excited!
• Buy a big stopwatch. Shouldn't be that hard :-) I've been timing myself when doing work, and it makes things so much more interesting! Suppose I have a bunch of orders to sift through on a Monday for HouseOfRave and Bodymonkey, I'll keep a mark on time and see how fast I can knock them out of the way. It keeps me from goofing off during the task, makes me work faster because I'm "racing" against the clock and makes the work more interesting. If I set a goal of 20 minutes for myself and finish before that, it makes me feel like I've "won" something, sounds dorky, but it works! I tried doing this with an egg timer, only to find out that egg timers tick REALLY loudly. Plus they only measure elapsed time which doesn't get you racing quite as fast.

Medium Term Goals:

• Learn Joomla. Joomla is a dynamic content management system. In a nutshell, you can build dynamic web pages with it and there's lots of benefits to using it. I usually download software, install it then play with it to learn it, however this time I'm viewing every Flash tutorial I can find about Joomla and learning it BEFORE I install it. I've alreay started all of this.
• Learn AutoCAD. Once I have 3D printers to use, it means very little unless I can provide a .stl file for the printer to print. I want to learn the 3D drafting system AutoCAD (very commonly used in architecture & engineering) so I can create and manipulate 3D files. I've already got my hands on it and installed it on my desktop. In the future I'll most likely send my AutoCAD work to a drafter, as this program takes talent to use very well, however it's always good to know what you're talking about when sending a project to an artist.

Year Long Goals & Wants:

• I want to fly on a private jet. Cheapest rates I've seen are $1,100/hour for a 6-seater Learjet. Purpose of this goal? None really, I just think it's a neat, rare experience.
• Take a Zero-G Flight. For $3,675 you go on a Boeing 727 and do 14+ parabolic maneuvers which make you completely weightless for about a minute followed by 1.8g's of gravity against you as you go up. How.....freakin.....awesome! This is really expensive and doesn't include lodging or a flight to the take-off location, so it might have to wait till next year.
• Go to Japan. I've been to Japan before...and seen THE AIRPORT. I'd like to take at least a week this year and properly visit. EVERYONE I know whose been loves it for the high intensity energy of the cities, the food, the culture and the absurdly dedicated work ethic (I could use some o' that).
• Re-Learn Spanish. All those years of formal training in Spanish through middle school, high school and college didn't do it for me. It's said that learning how to use between 100 and 200 essential words in any language is enough to be partially fluent, and this is what those "Learn Spanish" CD's teach. I've already started doing these courses, and after only 10 lessons of the Pimsleur Spanish course I swear I could have decent conversations. However the Pimsleur course teaches formal Spanish which works well in Spain....but since I live in Texas, this doesn't fly. Therefore this goal is to re-take a different Spanish course that offers a more Hispanic translation, I've been recommended to use the Rocket Spanish course.
• Spread the word about Jelly. It's a great way for independent workers to work together.
• Practice speed-reading more. No need to explain the benefits of being able to read a page of a book in 60 seconds or much less. I used to be able to do this in high school when I'd read about 2 books a week...mainly just on the bus. Nowadays I practice this by going to the public library and reading every newspaper they have REALLY REALLY fast. At first you hardly pick up any information, but over time you start absorbing more and more by simply scanning through. Since about 50% of an article in any news story is generally fluff, being able to quickly spot and pick up vital information so quickly is pretty useful. This means I need to go to the library maybe twice a week and practice for 30 minutes at a time (the rest of the time I usually read all the new magazines).
• Go to more city council meetings. I've randomly gone and sat in on city council meetings before, and sometimes they're boring, sometimes they're interesting. However you always learn about new city decisions much before they're announced. It can't hurt to attend more of these, you never know who you'll meet or what information you'll hear.
• Increase eCommerce income by 100%. This means HouseOfRave.com and BodyMonkey.com should both double their income from the corresponding month last year. This will be accomplished through recently changes in both systems and email marketing, both of which have already started.

That's all the publicly available goals I've got for now, I may add more later. Have a happy & prosperous 2008!
-Neville

Labels: Goals

After I was done with college, I've always struggled with staying focused on my own businesses, websites and various projects. When you don't HAVE to wake up early in the morning and work, sometimes you don't.

I've always had some sort of excuse for not working or being distracted. Even my recent stint at the loft was mainly an effort to be more productive. At one point I blamed the place I was living for being "too boring" and not stimulating enough, and then in another place I blamed it for being "too distracting."

I would often go to coffee shops or various places to "Liven up the atmosphere" to get more work done, but most of the time the difference between staying home and going elsewhere was very little...and when you go elsewhere, it often means transportation time, buying coffee, being distracted by happenings around you, making a stop to a restaurant for lunch etc. etc. etc..

After a while of doing this and only being semi-productive each day, I got used to not doing much work each day. So what I THINK is a lot of work really isn't even 3 solid hours worth.


So as of the last few weeks I've come to the stark realization that there is no substitute for plain, dumb, hard work. All the people I've seen who've really accomplished something have simply just worked harder than the rest. The big trend in business books now is to say "Don't work hard, work smart." From what I've seen, most people who've achieved greatness have done both at the same time.

Of all the little tips and tricks and motivators I've used over the years, the only one I've stuck to for a substantial length of time is making a to-do list the night before. So if it's Wednesday night right now, I should already be whipping up Thursday's to-do list.

Labels: Goals, Productivity

For 2007 I've decided NOT to set any goals.

When I was reading the book Good to Great, some successful guy said that people around him would always say, "THIS is going to be the year that (insert goal)" and it would almost never happen. However when someone just shut up and handled their business, good things started following very quickly.

When I was trying to draft some New Years Resolutions, I wrote some down...but they just didn't sit right.... So I decided I didn't want any. I still have long-term directions, but for 2007 I shall be for the most part goal-less.

Labels: Goals, Productivity

Almost 2006, so it's time to start setting goals. I made a poster board with goals and a sort of calendar to make sure I work towards those goals every month. Goals rarely get accomplished unless they are constantly kept track of.

I've also bought a giant cork board to thumb-tack inspirational articles right in front of my desk. I'll start putting up quotes, articles, pictures or anything that inspires me to work harder.

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I think a great financial move I've made is splitting my money into separate accounts. It really shows how much money I have for what purpose. I had too much cash sitting in my extremely low-yield permanent savings account (aka "No Risk" account), so I maxed my Roth IRA for the year by adding $2,000 to it, and threw $1,000 into an EmigrantDirect savings account.

I also recently opened up a 2nd Spending Account specifically for the holidays and larger purchases. I noticed every holiday season is much more expensive than other months, so I've been stashing a little money each week for a couple of months and built up around $800 for gifts and other holiday expenses.

It makes me feel good that I can buy gifts for family and friends without worrying about prices.

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The second scooter I bought has recently been fully registered and is now actually legal to drive. Almost immediately after I bought it, I got a ticket for driving with: No insurance, No inspection and No registration.

I've also got two parking tickets, each $50 a piece. In relation, it takes me $3 to fill an entire tank of gas.

I've also been yelled at several times for cutting through standing traffic. One cop said I was a "Traffic Unit" like everyone else and couldn't go through just because I could. I disagree. I'm not sure what kind of ticket I can get for moving through a line of traffic, but I'm willing to find out.

Despite $700+ extra dollars of additional costs (Not counting helmet, gloves etc), I have been able to easily absorb these costs thanks to my "Bills Account."

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Visit GoDaddy.com and see if yourname.com is available. If yes, buy it. I don't know why, but it just seems a good idea. It costs $9 or less per year. NevilleMedhora.com redirects to my original webpage, http://www.neville1.com/. Having a website throughout the years has really helped me in many ways.

Labels: Financial, Goals, Quotes

Labels: Goals, Quotes

Look to your right. See that goal for 3-31-200 that states I should "Have made $6,500 since January 1st 2005"? Well, it's far from complete.

According to this goal, I had 4 months to generate $6,500 and it doesn't look like it will be fully met. Let's predict I hit $3,000 by the 31st of this month. If I make only $3,000 every 4 months, I will be at an average of $12,000 per year. That's only $2,430 over the federal poverty level!!!

What the hell. Even though I'm still in college, I need to make more money on the side. This is ridiculous.

The 3-31-2005 goal is to keep me on track for my $11,000 by 4-30-2005 goal, which is FAR from complete. As for meeting that goal in two days, I have some income coming in soon:

• Approx. $250 check from work
• At least $400 from Ebay sales ending in a few days.
• Over $900 from my online business
• $300 from web design project

So I have a minimum $1,850 of income within the next week. I will still have only accumulated $4,454 since the beginning of the year. To meet that $11,000 goal I really need to kick my own ass and starting making more money, even if it resorts to using my crazy business ideas.

So to sum up:

Labels: Goals

My 2-28-2005 goal of making $3,500 was made in order to meet my 4-30-2005 goal of making $11,000. Unless I come up with two grand in the next 6 days, it looks like I won't meet it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I need more income! I realize I have school which keeps me extremely busy, but I need to form another steady stream of income that is very low maintenance like my current online business. It brings in between $500 and $1,000 per month with less than 20 minutes of maintenance per day.

Resumite.com is my other potential income stream, but takes a large time investment. Even with all the craziness of school I must still dedicate some more time to opening side businesses like in the past to meet my $11,000 goal!

Lots of money yet low maintenance...seems too perfect, but it's possible. I need to keep thinking!

Labels: Financial, Goals

My next short term goal is to:

Make $11,000 by April 31st, 2005.

This means I must make an average of:

• $2,750 per month
• $687 per week
• $98 per day

This goal is more than double my last 4 month goal, so something about my income must change. I must either work more, make more money from my online business or create a new income stream. I plan to do all three.

Labels: Financial, Goals

One of my goals was to finish Resumite.com by Dec. 15th. It is mostly done, but I need to add content and upload the sample sites. I am a bit dissapointed that I did not do this earlier.

I don't really expect to do any business with Resumite until I get back to school. This Dec. 15th goal was simply an arbitrary date I had picked. Next time I make a goal, it should be completed by a relevant date.

Labels: Goals

Analyzing myself, am I where I want to be right now? And am I on the track to being where I want to be in five years? NO. I have accomplished a lot more things in my life than the average college student my age, but it is not even close to enough. I have high expectations for myself, and whenever I meet them...I raise them.

I've had in my mind a few things to start which I haven't. I keep blaming school for interfering with my side projects, but that is no excuse.

I need to accomplish these few things within the next few months, definitely before I leave college:
-Videotape traffic patterns, contact traffic engineer researcher on campus and implement my traffic strategy on I-35 with a crew.
-Do research on starting my advertising company idea.
-Start Resumite Personal Sites and make it the largest of its kind on the internet. Fast turnaround, lots of services, upfront/cheap pricing.
-Trademark the name Resumite (even if it gets rejected, at least you now know how).

These few things are accomplishments I would like to have at least tried before I leave college. Even if they all fail they will bring in an untold amount of knowledge and experience. I also want to have the stigma of being a go-getter and someone who GETS THINGS DONE. Laziness and lack of ambition sicken me.

Labels: Goals, Personal

A million in liquid assets is an extremely lofty goal. Is it even possible? Of course. To make $1,000,000 in five years I will need to:

Save $200,000 per year
Save $16,666 per month
Save $3,846 per week
Save $549 per day

Keep in mind this is saving $X.XX per year and does not include expenses.

I mandatorily put away $400 per month for investing and permanent savings, and after I get paid (from any source) I put away 60% if not more. Since I started working, I have been putting away roughly $685 per month. My current savings per month needs to increase by 2,400% immediately to meet my goal by 27.

Labels: Financial, Goals, Productivity

Short Term Goals:

• Ideal Goal: By December 31st, 2005, I should have at least 3 different sources of steady income (not including a job). All sources of income should together average about $7,500 of dependable income per month.
• Minimum Requirement: By December 31st, 2005 I should have found a way to independently pay all my bills/expenses for myself and have money leftover for investing, savings, rainy day and spending. My liquidable balance should be slightly over $45,000 with an investment portfolio of at least $25,000.

Medium Term Goals:

• Have at least 4 different sources of income, balanced in different industries to survive good and bad markets.
• Accumulate somewhere near $1,000,000 in liquidable assets by age 27. This includes cash savings and stock.
• Get mentioned in at least 5 of these sources by age 27: CNBC, New York Times, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Register, The Financial Times, Yahoo News, Google News, Bloomberg, BBC, Wired, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics.

Long Term Goals

• Form Enwon into a conglomerate with at least 5 different subsidiary companies under the corporation. Companies will be balanced in different industries to survive good and bad markets. These would most likely include the liquor industry, asset management, 2 inventions in the consumer products area and real estate.
• Follow plan outlined in my aspirations

Labels: Goals

This blog will be dedicated to tracking my financial progress. Today I turn 22, let's see how far I can financially advance by the time I am 23.

Labels: Blogging, business ideas, eCommerce, Events, Financial, Goals, house of rave, Housing, Learning, Links, Meeting CEO's, Money Experiments, Personal, Productivity, Quotes, Transportation