Hooray for casinos!!

Even though the casino can be extremely fun and addicting, it can also really get to you when you realize that your 2 grand in. Have you ever been in a situation where your night goes by so fast and you keep telling yourself " I'm only down x and I can come back", then you realize that by the time you told your self this 5 times, the score becomes, CASINO : 1 YOU: 0. Yes, the casino has officially won that night, you have just been another victim of "the attack of the casinos".

Well let me say that you can't expect to beat them over an extended period of time. All their games like craps, video poker, roulette, slots, keno, my favorite..Texas hold em, must be regarded as being strictly entertainment because the odds in these games are always tilted against the player. The house enjoys an advantage in those games on virtually every bet, so players are bound to ultimately lose(exception to hold em and other poker type games where its mainly based on the players). And i think that everyone knows this fact, however people still go to casinos thinking that they can "beat" the system and become the next millionaire over night. It is mathematically impossible to keep winning for an extended period of time.

BTW casinos love these kinda people who think that they can beat their game. Yes, their game! One thing to keep in mind when your gambling is, have fun. I know you guys are thinking, no one goes to gamble to have fun, well no, they don't, but keep in mind that your bound to lose so try to make the best of it while losing. :)

The race to $0

Doesnt that sound great? Forget trying to save, im trying to get to freakin zero. On my last post, i was talking about my plans on owning a home at the age of 25 and how im currently at -6k. Well my friend henry and i are trying to make our way into the postive networth here. He puts up a post similair to mines and he gives us a little update on his Net worth, check it out.

Henry says that he should be hittin the positive mark sometime in 3-4 months but im gonna try to get there within the next two months, i think i can do it i just have to stick real tight with my budget. This means no more frequent stops at mcdonalds or if any at all. :(

How i plan on buying a home at the age of 25

I originally wanted to make this post about my top 10 goals, but when i looked at the list i realized that majority of my goals were leading toward owning a home. The toughtest part of buying a home is coming up with the downpayment so thats what im going to concentrate on. So heres what i came up with.

My Stats:
current saved so far: $0
Projected saved : $50,000

Buying a house:
My current status is at -6,423.23, this includes credit cards, car loans and whatever i felt like i owed.My goal is to have at least 50k saved up for downpayment on the house so here is the plan. After this december, i should be completely debt free! So i can start investing my money in an mutual fund. My general idea on how i plan on going about this is %75 percent of my check goes to the savings and the rest goes to paying life. Now heres all my sources of income:
Estimate per month while in school
1.) Work1 1,200
2.) Work2 600
3.) refund check 3,400 x 2 (once per semester)
4.) Girl friend's refund check 1,400 x 2 (once per semester)
*note: Basically, we're getting married so her refund check is going into savings also : )
-------------------------------------------------
Total amount in 8 months = 24,000

soooo....take %75 of this, which comes to 18,000. Now keep in mind this is only 8 months out of the time im in school. So lets also consider 1 month for winter break and 3 months for summer vacation, comes to 4 months.
Estimae per month while out of school

1.) Work1 2,200
2.) Work2 600
-------------------
Total amount in 4 months = 11,200

..and %75 of this comes to 8,400.Okay so we'll combine these two, only taking %75 and i get (18,000 + 8,400 = 26,400). I can save up a total of 26,400 per year if i can stick to this rule. Now, lets say i were to invest this in a mutual fund. According to a compound interest calculator this is what i got:

Inputs:
---------------------------------
Current Principal: $0.00
Annual Addition: $26,400.00
Years to grow: 4 years
Interest Rate: 5% *(fairly pretty low)

Outputs:
---------------------------------
Future Value: $119,476.67 *(Sweet!)

So, in conclusion i can have $119,476.67 by the time im 25. Now you guys are thinking....wait a minute, what about rent, food and all the other crap life has to offer. Well, i happen to have my room and board completly paid for til i graduate and that also includes food. So, this is pretty really realistic for me, i just have to stick to it.

Things to remeber:
-Keep up good credit score
-Keep researching the martket
-Keep girlfriend

Save $1000's by investing in pre-paid legal

The average cost of a lawyer is estimated to be around $200 - $350 per hour, and this does not cover any kinds of other fees that might be attached. Now tell me who do you know that can pull out couple grand out of their pocket at any given time, cause thats about how much it would cost to get a lawyer. The solution to this is Pre-paid Legal. Pre-paid legal services refers to individual or group employee benefit legal plans in which members pay a monthly fee in exchange for access to a range of legal services on-call.

There are a number of reasons for choosing a pre-paid legal service.

Let me ask you this, have you ever..

Been overcharged for a repair?

Received a speeding ticket?

Been audited?

Purchased a home?

Tried to return a defective product?

Lost a security deposit?

Signed a contract?

Prepared a will?

Been in an accident?

Even though most people find themselves in these situations, the majority do not seek the advice or help of a qualified lawyer because

1.)It may cost too much.

2.)They may not know where to begin.

3.)The process is intimidating.

By having prepaid legal, you can call and talk to a lawyer about anything and get legal advise on how you should handle certain situations. Well theres a saying that goes like this," If you don't know your rights, you don't have any! ". If having prepaid legal services means having protection for me and my family and this only costs me 17 dollars a month, then its worth the investment cause you never know what lurks around the corner. When you get into a situation where you know your being taken advantage of, sometimes all it takes is a letter from a lawyer to end it right there. You just never know thats gonna happen.

This past summer i had a car accident(right after i bought my car btw) and it was %100 not at fault, but guess what, i had to pay the damage of my car which came to a total of 2200 dollars because of two things.

1.) the driver did not admit to hitting me on my side

2.) there were no witnesses

I later found out that all I needed was a lawyer to handle this situation and i would have saved 2grand simply because I didnt know what to do and how to approach the problem when it happened. So learn from my mistake and get prepaid legal because i dont know what else you can buy for $17 thats more important. You can check out their site by clicking here

Here are some general benefits of having prepaid legal:

*Writing a will for you and your spouse.

*Creating trusts.

*Court representation on charges such as DUI.

*Mediation in neighbor disputes.

*Representation in real estate transactions.

*Review of contracts.

*Divorce.

*Discounts on legal services through a network of attorneys;

*Free legal services, such as the preparation of a property deed or simple will;

*Access to a database of legal forms and documents.

CBCNEWS has an article Pre-paid legal services: Worth the money?, you should check it out.

Top 10 Jobs in America

CNNMoney.com has an article that Lists the top 10 bests jobs in America. MONEY Magazine and Salary.com has researched over hundreds of jobs while considering their growth, pay, stress-levels and other factors, and these careers ranked the highest:


1. Software engineer
2. College professor
3. Financial adviser
4. HR manager
5. Physician assistant
6. Market research
7. Computer IT analyst
8. Real Estate appraiser
9. Pharmacist
10. Psychologist


WOOHOO! Go software engineering! The job comes to an average of 80,500 a year while starting is at 44,800. So the pay is decent and definitely enough to make a living on(leaves a lot of room for investing). Coming from an S.E perspectives, I think the greatest thing about it is that it gives you the room to be an artist. I like the fact that your in control of your own implementation (for the most part) and it makes you feel like you own a part of an application if not the whole thing, and thats a great feeling :)

Heres some interesting facts about S.E from Money Magazine:


1. Software Engineer

Why it's great Software engineers are needed in virtually every part of the economy, making this one of the fastest-growing job titles in the U.S. Even so, it's not for everybody.Designing, developing and testing computer programs requires some pretty advanced math skills and creative problem-solving ability. If you've got them, though, you can work and live where you want: Telecommuting is quickly becoming widespread.The profession skews young -- the up-all-night-coding thing gets tired -- but consulting and management positions aren't hard to come by once you're experienced.

What's cool Cutting-edge projects, like designing a new video game or tweaking that military laser. Extra cash from freelance gigs. Plus, nothing says cool like great prospects.

What's not Jobs at the biggest companies tend to be less creative (think Neo, pre-Matrix). Outsourcing is a worry. Eyestrain and back, hand and wrist problems are common.

Top-paying job Release engineers, who are responsible for the final version of any software product, earn six figures.

Education Bachelor's degree, but moving up the ladder often requires a master's.


If you want to see the rest of the list, it goes to 50, check it out on CNNMoney.