Basically, I've decided to take the summer of 2009 to finally get off my butt and make myself better. I know that's kind of vague, but I mainly plan on focusing on two aspects of self-development: financial and physical.
I guess if you are too lazy to read the whole post (it's not that long), read the last two paragraphs
Financial
I'm a pretty educated person financially. That education only begins with my bachelor's degree in accounting. I know a lot about investing, though I don't know a lot about certain areas, particularly options and derivatives. But in terms of what the average person needs to know to keep themselves in good shape, I consider myself very informed.
Despite all that, I've found myself in quite a spot financially. Here's a quick summary of my current assets and liabilities:
Wachovia checking account: $500
ING Direct savings and checking account: $1700
Mastercard: $400
American Express: $1100
Stock portfolio: $4600
Though I have nearly $7000 in assets, only about a third of it is in cash, and I have over $1500 in credit card debt. To complicate matters a little, once I pay off my credit cards next month, I'm going to have less than $750 in savings left over. Of course, I can always fall back on the large stock portfolio I've built. However, this is a last resort for two main reasons: First, selling stocks would come at a cost. Though I use a very low cost brokerage ($4.50 a trade), the majority of the stocks I own are in small amounts, and $4.50 doesn't look so good when you're only selling $70 worth of stock. Second, I see the stock market in the beginning stages of another long-term growth period, which makes this just about the worst time to sell (though not nearly as bad as a few months ago)
In any case, I have a couple other things to look out for: I'll be renting an apartment for the upcoming year. The lease started May 16 and is a 15-month lease. We managed to get it pretty cheap ($790 a month split three ways) and so including cable, internet, electricity, water, and everything else, I'm thinking I'm on the hook for around $350 a month til next August.
In addition, all those students loans that I didn't have to pay back while I was in school are going to come due now that I've graduated, which sucks because I'm still in school (read: not making money).
Improving my financial state will consist of two main actions (for the time being): get my finances in order and spend as little money as possible. As for making money, I'll get back to you on that. All I know right now is that I have a job at the local golf course, though if they continue giving me hours at the current pace, I'll struggle to make $750 this summer.
Physical
I've always looked and felt "decent" physically. I like to think my body has a lot of potential. As one example, I was around 180 pounds (I'm 5'11") when I enrolled in a weight training class in high school. I lost 15 pounds within a couple weeks, before my weight went back up to around 175 with the muscle I gained. Ever since then, my weight has bounced between 170 and 190. As high school ended, I became less active, as I played golf and baseball on the varsity level while in school and hardly play anything regularly in college. Throughout college, I've struggled to keep my physical state consistent while trying to balance the demands of an infamously rigorous academic program, among other things such as jobs and fraternity.
This summer, I have two main goals: become more physically fit and become more proficient at specific sports.
Becoming more physically fit will be a little more challenging given my financial ambitions. I could join the local gym with my friend for $49 a month, but even that is a little steep considering I could blow 20% of the cash I have left just on that. The current plan is to use the free stuff I have available. We have a treadmill in the basement, as well as freeweight dumbbells up to 25 lbs. My mom claims we're getting an elliptical soon too. I've also been using some free, no equipment stuff such as 8 minute abs. If you think that's funny, click the link and try to do the entire eight minutes without stopping.
In any case, I also plan on relying partially on my second physical goal to achieve the first goal
The sports I want to get better at, in order of importance, are: golf, tennis, and basketball.
I was an all-county golfer in high school and consider myself pretty good. Right now my handicap is a 7, though it's rising since I barely played at all last summer and haven't played a whole lot so far this year. Luckily, my job at the golf course means I get free golf until my arms fall off. Let's hope I manage to break par (which is my ultimate goal) before that happens.
I took a beginning tennis class last semester, and my natural athletic ability has gotten me to an OK level, but I think I could get pretty good with some practice.
And finally, I've always been pretty good at basketball, though I haven't played much in college. I was one of the last people cut from the JV team my first two years in high school and pretty much gave it up after that. Unfortunately, since I stopped growing at the age of 13, I wasn't the big guy in high school that I always had been and therefore didn't have the requisite ball handling skills to make the team. Oh well.
It should be noted that I sprained my ankle pretty badly about a month ago. The weakness and stiffness are improving steadily, but I still can't move like I could before the injury. Hopefully that works itself out soon.
So, that's the plan. It's a little sketchy, and maybe a tad ambitious, but I think if I can do it, I'll be very satisfied with this summer.
I don't really know how this blog thing is going to pan out, but I want you to know this: nothing I do over the next two and a half months is going to be extreme at all. For instance, I'm not going to refuse to go out with friends lest I end up spending a couple dollars. I am going to avoid expensive pursuits, but I'm not afraid to toss out 20 bucks to go to a baseball game. Also, you're not going to see me trying P90X, not only because it's expensive, but that's not the way I want to spend my afternoons.
So in summary: I'm trying to get my finances in a good spot, and I'm trying to become physically better. And I'm writing it all here for you to witness. I hope you can learn something from my successes and failures.
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