It's Just Money

Goals 2007 Review

Wow, where did the year go?  2007 was an eventful year, and overall a really good one.  Way back in January, I laid out my goals for the year.  Let's see how I did:

Financial:  My goal was to increase my net worth to $200,000 from $154,321.  Overall, that would have represented an increase of 31%.  Well, as of Friday, December 28, my net worth stood at $196,020.73, a 27.02% increase.  Technically, I did not reach this goal.  Frankly, I'm not too disappointed, as I am still satisfied with my results.

Professional:  I aimed to complete the CFP coursework and pass the comprehensive CFP exam.  Check!

Spending:  I used to maintain a daily expense tracker.  My goal was to restart the tracker, and keep myself accountable on a daily basis.  This didn't happen.

Non-Financial:  Lose the gut!  Yikes, long way to go.  The weight loss blog has been neglected.  The good news?  I have lost some weight.  I still have a long way to go, but I am about ten pounds lighter than I was a year ago.

There we have it.  Not a perfect year, but overall a successful 2007.

I started the year as an avid blogger.  As my CFP studies required more of my time, I began to neglect the blog.  At times, I thought I was going to close shop.  I appreciate those who have stuck with me, and continued to read what I have to say.  I don't anticipate that I will become the avid blogger in 2008 that I was a year ago, but I will definitely keep it alive.

Happy New Year to all of you.  Best wishes for a safe, happy and successful year.

2007 Year End Net Worth Update +$4,541.20

I suppose I have a few more days before the year is officially over, but I wanted to do my end of year tally to see how I am finishing.  My last update was at the end of October, so the change in value is for two months.  Not a bad increase of $4,541.20, especially given the decline in market value of most of my mutual funds in December.  However, in general a net worth increase of less than $2,500 per month is not enough.

Totals and notes below...

Volunteered a bit of my time last night

And I really do mean a bit.  About a week ago, I got online and decided that I wanted to find an organization or two that does work with homeless, poverty stricken families, or kids from low income communities to help them learn about finding work, managing their money, and all that stuff.

I began my search online at volunteermatch.org and idealist.org.  I found a few organizations that sounded really cool, so I emailed about four different organizations.  One contacted me back right away.  They have been around for a few years, but are very much a start up.  The director runs everything out of her apartment.  I'm not sure what will come of that at this point.

Two others have not contacted me.  The other one that wrote back is a group called Chrysalis.  Their mission is exactly what I was looking for.  They do resume, job training, budget and money management classes for homeless and economically disadvantaged individuals and families.

Is Mona Vie a Scam or the Real Deal?

Someone I know has recently become a distibutor for Mona Vie, a juice which purports to give you increased energy, boost your immune system, rid you of any joint pain, feed the hungry and bring peace to the Middle East.

She has encouraged me to try it and become a distributor, but I have politely declined.  The distributor part.  I tried the juice.  It's tasty.  I didn't really stick with it long enough to see any noticeable health or energy benefits, so I can't speak to that part.

It's sold through a Multi-Level Marketing program.  Let's face it, I'm not enamored with the idea of MLMs.  I pretty much assume they are scams, unless proven otherwise.  There have been too many, from Amway to Quixtar, there were the long distance phone ones from about ten years ago, and the super blue green algae.  Remember all that crap?

So, I did a bit of digging.  Not a lot, but I wanted to know what the fuss was all about.  Online, there were a lot of positive things said about the juice itself.  How many of those online comments were by distributors of the stuff, we have no way of knowing.

I guess I have two problems with this juice: