And the Horrible Pie Chart Truth Will Set You Free

Alternate title: Save Money, Lose Weight, Play More Video Games

After playing with Mint for a few weeks, and fixing some of the (few) mis-labeled transactions, 2 things became abundantly clear:

1. Owning and improving a home in the DC area is expensive as balls.


2. I am spending enough money on fast food and coffee to lease a Kia.

The home improvement isn't that troubling, assuming anyone ever buys or sells a house again. Ever.

But the fast food spending is killing me (quite literally) in several ways. First, there are many better ways to utilize $310/month than Panda Express and Starbucks. Second (and I haven't done the legwork on this) I suspect there are healthier dining options extant.

Enter the magic of the internets. Starting Columbus day (no time to grocery shop before then) I will harness the self-improvement (and waist-line reducing) power of Joe's Goals, ING Direct, and self-loathing to banish fastfood and Starbucks from my (weekday) life. This should help me save money (for to pay off credit cards and buy a 40GB Playstation 3) and bring sexy back.

I typically spend ~$5 on breakfast/coffee and $10 on fastfood lunch and dinner. My thinking is that I can replace $125/week of fastfood with ~$50 of groceries, saving $75/week. Tracking my (hopefully) good behavior on Joe's Goals, I plan on dumping the first $35/saved each week into a no-fun ING account that will go towards credit cards. The other (possible) $40 will go to fun.

I'll check back in a month and let you know how it's going. If you don't hear from me, I'm probably at Pentagon City mall gorging myself on Kung Pao and Orange Chicken.

Covestor now has $100 million worth of brokerage accounts...

....Zach and I are a small fraction of it.

TechCrunch highlights that Covestor users have a combined amount of $100 million in brokerage accounts.
We have previously highlighted Covestor (link to tagged posts) and just figured I would mention it since it seems to be a growing phenomenon.

As opposed to being a fantasy stock site that doesn't use real money, this site shows if you really can't spell stock or market...


And yes, the A/C unit on top of the car has nothing to do with the post...

Financial Freedom

Having trouble getting the money you need to buy that new Cheverolet? Are you tired of paying 20% on that credit you used to buy your green Crocs? Were you one of the millions of suckas who got a neg am loan with a 1.00% teaser rate that you thought was going to be the rate for the life of you loan? IF YOU ARE....NOW THERE IS RELIEF.

You've seen him fight people in the ring...now the 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair is fighting for your finances!

Re: Get Rich With Big Ern

For a better way to track Zach's investment progress, I suggest he sign up for one of two (or both) sites that allows people to track investments online:
Cake
Covestor

Please refer to my previous post for more info.

I signed up for both, but Covestor was the only one I could (manually, they did it) import my portfolio into. I have 5 invites to Covestor if anyone wants one, otherwise, I submitted my e-mail and received an invite the next day.
If you'd like to track my investments on Covestor (you have to sign up and have your portfolio imported first): tarfelroy

Another cool thing about Covestor, if Zach used it, is the option to add Blog Widgets. So, Zach can add widgets that highlight the stocks he just bought. Or, to prove to us he is a credible investor, he could have added a widget with his investment record.
Two examples of widgets (stocks I actually own):



Obviously, one I am doing well on and the other I am not. I am long on both of these stocks and with my current strategy, will sell them in about 3 months (gain or loss).

I'm not blogging about investment advice in this post, just adding my suggestions about how to effectively communicate investments and track investment history. Good luck, happy investing.

DISCLAIMER: If Covestor turns evil, steals all your info and your money, don't blame me.

The Secrets of Other People's Success....

Or the not so secret secrets?
I'm not even sure if that makes sense....

Along the lines of Zach's hotly debated post about investing, in Fred Wilson's A VC blog, there was a post discussing online social/web financial services. The post mentioned Mint (which Zach and I both signed up for and have started playing around with), Wesabe, Geezeo, and Buxfer.
He also highlights two social/web financial services sites that track your online brokerage accounts, Cake and Covestor. Then, you can share your trades with others as well as see what other people are doing in the market. I'm assuming there are people who share their trades to the public and others who require you to be in their network to see their activity. Just a guess.

Either way, it is an interesting idea. Here is the link to the original post: A VC

I think I might sign up for one or both and check it out....

UPDATE: Covestor requires you to apply (which I did) and Cake doesn't support my brokerage yet (optionsXpress). So, I guess I'm on hold for these accounts...