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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.

Some various notes and maybe a rant.

December 19th, 2009 at 07:24 pm

My luck as far as finding money has changed for the better lately. I used to find money all over the place. Then suddenly I was lucky if I found a penny on occasion. Wednesday I found a dollar bill and Thursday I found a 5 dollar bill. Whoever lost it had it crumpled up
about the size of a quarter. Only bad thing is that it probably belonged to a little kid. I think its a shame how I see people all the time letting their little ones run around with cash crumpled up in their hands. The odds are that they are going to lose it.
In this particular case the money found a good home. ME! :-)

My nephew that had a stroke a short time ago had surgery yesterday to fix whatever caused the stroke. He had 2 options and chose the surgery. The other option was
free experimental medicine. He chose the surgery cause he wanted it over and done with. I really don't know which choice I would have made myself. It would definately be a tough choice to make.
Nephew's surgery went well to the best of my knowledge, but I haven't had contact with him today. He should be already home, resting right now.

Well I'm heading to work very soon. Its a bit nightmarish at Christmas time working in the toy department of a Wal Mart store.
I'm sure that this is all part of the punishment for past mis-doings in this or some previous life.

My boss made me change my work schedule.
Most everyone else doesn't think its a big deal. But to me it is a big deal and
adds a lot to my stress level. They used to be very happy that I work in the evenings and on weekends. At one time that worked in my favor. Now they say things changed and they want me to work earlier and no longer have Mondays and Tuesdays off. I'll get whatever days off they decide to give me. And I wont really be "The Toyguy" anymore. Technically I am still in toys but they don't really want anyone working in toys so i'll be working all over the place. They are nice about it in that they gave me total control about changing my hours. But that control means either changing it to what they say or not working. Makes me feel so good to have choices.

Take care everyone.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Some various notes and maybe a rant.”

lizajane Says:
December 20th, 2009 at 06:06 am 1261289192
1261289192

Total control of....nothing! Sorry to hear about the work woes. Was your found money in the store?
toyguy1963 Says:
December 20th, 2009 at 06:40 am 1261291256
1261291256

Thanks Liza. Yes I found the money in my store. The dollar actually when I was working and the 5 when I was a customer buying some groceries.
Ironically I used to find money mostly when shopping in K-Mart
baselle Says:
December 20th, 2009 at 08:27 am 1261297629
1261297629

Sorry to hear about the work stress. And a lack of control really generates a lot of stress. Will your stress ease up after the holidays or increase because sales will fall off?
I'm not surprised you used to find money in one place - I'm finding my Safeway floor is a mini-coin ATM!
DeniseNTexas Says:
December 20th, 2009 at 02:38 pm 1261319905
1261319905

Sorry to hear about the work stuff going on but hopefully that will all improve. Interesting tidbit about finding money where I work - if we keep it, we can be fired! Even if it's a penny we're to turn it in! Rat bastahds... lol
Jerry Says:
December 25th, 2009 at 09:30 pm 1261776657
1261776657

I hope your nephew is doing better. It's a hard decision on something like that... free meds are nice, but if it is experimental you never know if it will work and it won't be covered by insurance. Surgery may have been covered, but it may not be cutting edge. I hope that his procedure goes smoothly and leads to a resolution of his problem!
Jerry
toyguy1963 Says:
December 26th, 2009 at 06:22 am 1261808548
1261808548

Thanks for the comments everyone. Denise I think there is a similar rule at my work about finding money but its not strickly enforced and one of those things that the rules are a bit blurry.

my nephew's surgery went well and as far as I know solved his problem. Time will tell but so far so good.

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The Toyguy's Blog

Chugging along at a snail's pace.

Some various notes and maybe a rant.

6 Responses to “Some various notes and maybe a rant.”

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