Stock Picks Update May 2013
Hello Sophisticated Spenders!
Here’s an update on my crazy stock picks.
they are good, bad and ugly!
I had some awesome picks and some pretty horrible picks.
I’ve held on to my shares of Fannie Mae only because they are a government backed company. I’m hoping they will eventually make a comeback.
I’m not going to sell any of my losers until I decide to sell some winners (to cut down on the amount of taxes owed). For instance, if I sell my shares of American Express (gain of $166.11) I will also sell my shares of IPI (loss of $151.20) and only owe capital gains taxes on $14.91. That’s a tax strategy that most people use.
Here’s the snapshot:
Do you have any stocks??? How are they doing???
2013 Mexico Numbers (and Pictures)
Hello Sophisticated Spenders!
Here’s a quick breakdown of all of the money spent while in Mexico last month.
I bought an awesome Groupon for the hotel room. We stayed at the Wyndam Cabo San Lucas for 4 nights and only paid $299 total (not $299 each)!
And we avoided all timeshare presentations like the plague!
My flight was pretty high at $450 tho.
Enjoy!
April cabo trip money spent on food:
Day 1: $15.00 regan, $14 Dallas, $16 shuttle, $25 dinner mi casa, $92 liquor (card), $20 silver, $7 tshirt, $40 horseback riding
Day 2: $30.01 lunch/dinner (room), $5 margarita
Day 3: $50 boat trip, 15 braids, 10 shots, 14 margaritas, $5 party boat tip
Day 4: $5 tip horse dude, $20 lunch/dinner, $21 souvenirs
Day 5: $3 tip bkfast, $41.26 total room extra charges, $18 shuttle, $15.50 tequila
Grand total $451.76
I was ok with the amount of money spent this time because we had lots of fun!<
Here are a few pictures!
Contrary to popular belief, budgets can be quite fun! But they are tricky to set up sometimes. These are some of the things I need to add to my monthly budget. I hadn’t added em because they normally fall around tax time or bonus time. So I normally pay them with a lump sum. But it’s better to just budget for these items throughout the year so that all bonuses or tax refunds can be used for something more fun (or building your business).
1. Auto: Auto Insurance, car maintenance and registration. These items really add up. I finally did my calculations and I should be setting aside about $100 a month for this!
2. Christmas/gifts: I really try to shop for gifts throughout the year but it’s pretty tough. And I think, the earlier I start shopping, the more I spend. This year, I plan on using a set budget on Black Friday and then that’ll be it for me.
3. Vacations: when you set a vacation fund with a target date, it makes you work harder to get there and you can watch it grow with excitement. But I don’t have any huge vacations planned at this moment.
4. Health Care: Since I work for the Feds, I use the FSAFEDS program. It’s where they set aside a set amount from each paycheck (pre-tax). And you can get auto-reimbursed when you make a copay or pay for a RX. Or you can fax in the receipts. Having to fax in the receipts is kind of annoying sometimes. But it’s worth the tax savings for me. So see if your employer offers any type of health savings account!
5. Costco/other memberships/subscriptions: These little suckers add up! But all of my memberships and subscriptions are totally worth it to me. And they add up to around $10 a month.
Are there any things you totally forget to budget for?
Hello Sophisticated Spenders!!!
2 years ago today, I started a little ol blog.
It was called Sophisticated Taxpayer.
And now it has grown to SophisticatedSpender.com!
We’ve grown from around 6 readers per day (my mom, Jany, Karin, Shirley, Andrew, Kamilah and Erin) to over 1,500 per month!
I’d like to thank Jany for introducing me to blogs (I never even know what a blog was). And I’d also like to thank Jay Money over at BudgetsAreSexy and Brad Chaffe at EnemyofDebt for actually inspiring me to start my own blog.
Inspire is a pretty important word to me.
To inspire is to actually move someone to take action. And I am lucky to have so many awesome people in my life right now who inspire me to do great things.
And I hope I inspire at least 1 person to do or start something pretty cool.
I’d also like to thank my readers!!!!
Thank you for reading and for your comments.
I am giving away $50!!!
Leave a comment saying what you like about the blog, tell someone about my blog, or follow on facebook or twitter.
Let me know in the comments if you do the facebook or twitter or share thing.
I will use random.org to pick a winner next Friday May 24th!
Thanks again for reading!!!
~CrystalH
Hello Sophisticated Spenders!
I hope you enjoyed my first post. I totally forgot that I originally called the blog Sophisticated Tax Payer. A lot has changed since then. I’m actually considering changing the name again!
Here is my second post:
About Me!
Welcome back!
Now I will take a step back and let you know what makes me qualified to give advice on finances! I live within my means, I don’t carry any credit card debt, I’m very good (not cheap) with my money and I’ve been doing my own (very complicated) taxes for well over a decade now. I’ve been a day trader, a self emoloyed real estate agent (with a home office) and I’ve been a landlord for around 5 years. I’ve also done a $55,000 renovation on that duplex back in my hometown of Chicago-go Bulls! I want it so that everyone who subscribes to this blog is in a better financial position than before they began reading. I want you to learn from me and I want to learn from you!
First challenge-declutter, declutter, declutter!
Go through your home and your budgets and do some major decluttering. Be more selective of who receives your hard earned cash! And be more selective of the items who take residence in your home. And I recommend starting small and keeping track of the “stuff” that you are getting rid of. Side note-I really hate “stuff”. But there will be a post all about “stuff” a little later! I bet you can easily find 50 items to donate and it’ll take you less than 30 minutes to do so.
So for every day (till next Monday) I want you to get rid of some “stuff”. It can be anything-I went thru my bathroom drawers and found a whole bunch of expired medicines and shampoo that I no longer used as well as make-up, hairbrushes, those little toilitries we love so much from hotel stays. I’ve gone thru my dresser drawers, all kitchen cabinets and drawers. My home office, piles of mail, papers and periodicals are next on my list.
So tell me- what surprising “stuff” have you found while going through your “stuff”. And do you even miss the “stuff”. (it’s ok to donate gifts that you received and don’t like/use too)
I highly recommend donating everything that you can. Turbotax has an excellent calculator for tabulating the value of your goods and they are VERY generous with their numbers!
Hello Sophisticated Spenders!
This week we are going back in time because it is a special week for SophisticatedSpender.com!
My two year blogiversary is this thursday!
So I have reposted my very first blog post from May 16, 2011.
I will also repost all of my posts from that week so you can see how the blog started and changed and how corny I used to be (well, I guess I still am)!
Enjoy!
Welcome To My Blog
Hi All!
“The tax code’s complexity often leads honest Joes to make costly errors while sophisticated taxpayers find loopholes to exploit.”
I’m here to lead us all on a journey of not being on the wrong side of that equation. We will practice good financial planning and use our credit for good!
Are you ready???????
The STP
Friday Five: Salary
Hello Sophisticated Spenders!
Ok, so my attempt at trying something new failed miserably. Lol
Please stay tuned for next weeks new feature: polls!
I’m being a little nosy and would like to start asking my awesome readers a few questions.
Until then, I have only one thing to say…
Happy Mother’s Day Mom and to all of the mother’s out there!!!
Tips On How To Pay Less Taxes
Hello Sophisticated Spenders!
I read a really great quote yesterday:
Taxes are revenue neutral. The taxman takes and the taxman gives. Do what the government wants done and you get tax breaks.
~Robert Kiyosaki
I posted that on my Facebook page which led a comment asking for me to elaborate and here’s my response:
The government wants us To buy a house-there is a text credit for that.
They want us to have kids-there’s a text credit for that.
They want us to start our own businesses-there are HUGE tax benefits for that.
Become a landlord-there are lots of tax benefits for doing that too!
Invest in the stock market-if you lose money, you can write that off and if you make money you pay a lower tax rate on capital gains (15%).
The government wants us to save for our retirement, send our kids to college, and I bet there’s more that I don’t even know about…yet!
Too many of us are sleeping on all of these opportunities to reduce our tax rates.
What do you think??? Do you agree or disagree???
Hello Sophisticated Spenders!
Are you building wealth or collecting a paycheck?
I want you to look at last months paychecks. Now tell me where all of your money went.
I’m on a path to building wealth and here is a snapshot to where my paychecks go!
1: No credit card debt-I pay off my credit cards in full every month. If I don’t have the cash to cover it, I’m not buying it. Bottom line! And I earn awesome rewards while doing so.
2: TSP and Roth tsp-this is the government’s version of a 401k and Roth 401k. I want to be comfortable when I retire.
3: Stocks-right now I’m pretty random with my stock picks. I may join some type of investment club soon!
4: Savings account-I have a few target goal savings accounts. For vacations, gifts, etc.
5: Emergency fund-any number you feel comfortable with for emergencies!
6: FSAFeds-the govt version of a health savings account. A way to pay for all medical expenses tax-free!
7: Insurance-I carry insurance on my homes and car. I totally need to step up my life insurance game tho!
8: I pay an extra $500 toward the mortgage on a piece of investment property. Why? Housing is the biggest expense in retirement. I’m planning on knocking both of my mortgages off by the time I retire.
9: Student loans-I need to double up on these payments so that I pay this off in a shorter amount of time too, especially since the interest that I’m paying is no longer tax deductible.
10: Passive income generating endeavors-I’m aggressively saving up for my next couple of business ventures. I have a few in the works. I’m also saving up to possibly get my real estate license here in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area. It’s always smart to invest in yourself!
I’m not perfect either. I’ve made some stupid purchases too! A newer car that I totally didn’t need, a low interest tsp loan to pay off one of the mortgages on said investment property because I did the no money down thing-which I totally recommend you don’t do!
U can’t build an empire by giving away all your money!
What are you doing to build wealth???
Friday Five: Winner!
Hello Sophisticated Spenders!
Happy Friday!
Well, my pile of crap is gone and it only took me 14 minutes and 14 seconds to clean up.
So the winner is my awesome neighbor Mel!!!
Congratulations!!! And thanks for your vote!
Cleaning up that pile was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life (because I hate cleaning). I actually think it was harder for me to walk around the stupid pile instead of just picking it up. Approx 1/3 of that stuff is now in the trash.
Now I need to make another plan (or contest) for cleaning the rest of my house.
Or is it cheaper to hire a maid????
Did you take on a huge pile of stuff this week??? I’d love to hear about it!
