Bluezy - The Personal Finance Blog

Mum & CJ, 11/2005,

There was a vicious, unsubstantiated rumour about town saying Bluezy has an offline life....well, that rumour is true!

It's been 5 months since my last blog post. CJ is now 2 1/2 years of age, wearing 10T shoes and a size 4T in his shirts (he's got the Scottish Highland build...you know, the build of the gorgeous men who throw boulders at each other for sport). I've also been at my first paralegal job for 5 months. Time passes quickly.

Of all my accomplishments in the past 5 months more savings goals completed and/or increased:

1) CJ's 529 - Goal 2K...Completed
2) CJ's Coverdell (2K)..Completed
3) HSA ($3650)..........Completed
4) 2006 Trad IRA (4K)...TO DO
5) Emergency fund (25)..10K to go

I'm also putting prayers towards a relocation plan back to Arizona. I lived and worked there in 1999 - 2002 and loved it. I have family there as well. Florida is not the heaven it is portrayed to be on the Travel Channel. It is rough to make ends meet. Pay is not up to standard and the cost of living is pushing the middle class out of the cities. The area around Sedona is breathtaking and might be the perfect place to live while working in Phoenix/Scottsdale.

Until the next post, Cheers all!

CJ at 6 months of age

As of March 7, 2006, I officially resigned from my beloved position as legal assistant to a fine attorney parcticing will contests, trust and probate litigation and matters of undue influence, to become a full-time paralegal working in elder law and medicaid. Whew! What a culture shock...going from litigating estates worth 6-9 figures in USD to those in the last years of their lives needing assistance for hospice or nursing homes. It is going to take me a while to adjust to this change.

Financial changes for me this month are as follows:

A) Closed my Emigrant Direct account.

B) Closed that horrible PayPal account. (More on this situation late)

C) In the process of closing my HSBC account.

---I guess you can tell I'm done rate chasing, eh?---

D) Closed my IRA accounts with Janus after 10+ years.

I do not have a good report for many of the incidents listed above. However, to make a long story short, Paypal finally released my funds and I was able to get back my funds into my checking.

More later my friends! Next blog entry will include my new portfolio info as well as new allocations for my IRA.

Cheers all!

Updated my new ShareBuilder account to the following allocations to increase diversity:

(Bonds) AGG - IShares Lehman AGG Bond
Funds - IShares

(Foreign Markets) EFA - Euro Asia
Index MSCI - IShares

(Real Estate) ICF - Cohen & Steers
Realty - IShares

(Natural Resources) IGE - Natural
Resources Index - IShares

(US Stock Index) SPY - S&P 500
Index SPDR and QQQQ - Nasdaq 100 Index

Monthly, I will purchase $25 toward each fund until I secure a full-time position in a law firm. At the time of new employment I intend to increase each fund purchase until a goal of $5000 is reached.

Cheers to all and to all, and good investing!

Next post...playing catch up with my retirement!

Better late than never, eh?

I was thinking this first entry should show an overview of my financial goals for 2006. Goals that have already been completed will be marked as such:

1. Complete my paralegal training. done

2. Obtain full-time employment.

3. Obtain health insurance for CJ and I. done

4. Open my first brokerage account done

5. Open CJ's 529, savings, and Treasury Direct accounts. done

6. Pay off all credit card debt, never to return. done

7. Get our emergency savings account organized with enough funds to take care of CJ and I for one year.

Therefore, as of February, 2006, 5 out of 7 goals have already been met. I've been richly blessed my friends, that is all I can say.

Cheers until next time!