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About Me:

Patrick

Single male in Ohio born in 1963. I'm "the toyguy" because I work in the toy dept. of a large retail store.

2011 Goals:

- Pay myself back into my savings account the money that I used to pay off my mortgage.
- Put $3000 into a Traditional IRA again.
- Put $1000 into a Roth IRA.
- Add at least $2000 to my Antarctica fund.
- Add $400 to Emergency Fund (At end of 2010 I have $2526 in this fund)
- Put at least some money into my car fund. I have a car fund created at ING with about $25 in it but need to start saving for a future car purchase.
- Go to Scotland for a week in May for a ghost tour and stay a few days in New York city.
- Might have to have another expensive roof repair. Last year or so I had to have half the roof done and was very satisfied. But I think I have to have the rest of the roof done now.
- Take a short trip to New Orleans for Halloween.

2010 Goals:

X- Pay myself back for latest car repair (rear breaks)
X- Add $400 to my E-Fund
(Added $410)
X- Continue putting whatever money I can into IRA fund for 2010 and 2011.
X- Put $3000 into IRA for 2010
X- Have income taxes done before end of March
X- Continue paying at least $100 extra on Principal of my mortgage each month
X- Continue putting whatever extra I can afford into my Travel Fund
X- Have to call Tours of Terror to make arrangements for Ghost Tour in Scotland for next year.
X- Try to take a trip to west Virginia in Spring or early summer.
- Take a short trip to Phoenix Arizona if I can get very low cost tickets. (FAILED. Couldn't get cheap enough airfare)
X- Figure out exactly when I can pay off the rest of my mortgage. It might be this year or the end of next year.

"Lofty" 2010 Goals:

X- Pay off my house completely by November. This one is not so lofty cause I will be paying it off sometime regardless. November will be the absolute earliest though.
(Paid off end of October)
X- Start an Antarctica Fund and save at least $1000 in it. I want to go there someday but its very expensive and my Travel Fund alone will never be able to handle it. (Put in $1200)
- Put at least an extra $1000 into my 2010 IRA than stated above but put it into a Roth instead of a Traditional.
(Failed. Never got around to this one)

2009 Goals:
X- Pay myself back $344 for muffler repairs on my car from December of 08.
X- Add $400 to my E-Fund.
X- Continue saving for a total of $4000 for 2009 IRA.
X- Start saving for total of $3000 for 2010 IRA. (Saved $690)
X- Have my first ever yard sale when the weather starts getting nice this spring.
X- Try to take a real vacation around July or August possibly to Costa Rica.
X- Pay at least $100 extra per month to Mortgage principal. I plan to pay off my mortgage completely before the 20 year mark which is about 3 years from now.

2008 Goals:
- Continue using Quicken to keep my checking and other accounts in order.
- Save at least an additional $400 into my
E-Fund (DONE) which currently has $1,200 in it. My overall goal for E-Fund is $12,000.
- Slowly work on building up a car fund. (VERY SLOWLY)
- Save enough into Travel Fund to take a good vacation in October. (Saved enough money but cannot travel this year)
Save $4000 for 2009 IRA contribution.
- Continue my "Paper (clutter) Challenge"
- More to come as I think it over.

That scratchy feeling

August 13th, 2008 at 05:02 pm

I really do have the travel bug right now and need a scratching post of sorts.
I do have a fairly good travel fund saved but for reasons above and beyond my control I can't use it right now. I'm going to continue saving in it so that I can eventually have a grande vacation somewhere. For now I'm just dreaming a little of far off places.

So I was wondering (as a means of scratching my itch a little) what interesting far off places have you all been too? And most of all where are you saving up to go? What sort of things are you hoping to someday see?
I enjoyed Christina's blog about her trip to Morocco. That kind of fueled my fire a bit along with my "stay at home" vacation coming up this week.

My "DREAM" trip right at the moment would be to go to Antarctica. I've seen some amazing pictures from there.
So far I've been to Egypt,Italy, briefly in Switzerland, Greece, briefly in Turkey,
Uganda, Romania, London and Paris.
I'm not quite as brave as Christina was. I travel mostly in tour groups. There are so many ways to travel and I think everyone has their own preferences of how they feel comfortable. I am traveling a bit more on my own and have been to London for example a number of times on my own. Its probably the easiest to go without a tour group.
I'm looking forward to hearing any adventures or dreams of travel that you all have to share.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “That scratchy feeling”

sillyoleme Says:
August 13th, 2008 at 09:55 pm 1218664555
1218664555

I've never been anywhere too exotic... but I liked Orange Beach, Alabama for a beach vacation. Even though they were still cleaning up a bit from storms when we went, the water was so clear on the beach, and there were fish literally 10 feet out, you could see them running into your feet!

I'd love to go to Ireland one day. A coworker just went to Alaska via a cruise, and she said it was absolutely beautiful.
toyguy1963 Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 04:13 am 1218687187
1218687187

Thanks Sillyoleme for the comment. Yeah travel in the USA is good too. I've been to the Grand Canyon. Thats a beautiful place to visit right here in the US. I'd like to see California sometime and Seattle.

I've heard good things about visiting both Ireland and Alaska. But I have a huge mental list of other places I'd go before either of them. Still they both are beautiful.
HouseHopeful Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 11:33 pm 1218756813
1218756813

What type of tour groups? My friends and family aren't into travelling, but I am. I'd love to visit Egypt!
toyguy1963 Says:
August 15th, 2008 at 04:10 am 1218773411
1218773411

Hi Househopeful. I've used a few different tour groups for various trips. The one I used for Egypt was Globus and I personally thought they were excellent. A lot depends on what kind of a vacation you might want. For example if you want a real young group probably Globus wouldn't be the way to go. They have a variety of ages but more older than younger. Also if you want to do more action type travel you would need a tour group like Adventure Travel for example. I've heard that they are good too but they seemed kind of expensive to me and probably a lot more active than Globus was.

Definately go to Egypt Househopeful if you get the chance. Its an amazing place. BUT definately use a tour group of some kind there. Its a lot safer that way.

Hopefully I answered your question ok. If you want to know anything more let me know.

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The Toyguy's Blog

Chugging along at a snail's pace.

That scratchy feeling

4 Responses to “That scratchy feeling”

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