Old School Coinage

Today I'm going to bring you another fine lil ditty from my draft folder circa 2015.  I wrote this after running one chilly fall morning. Brrrr. It's cold outside.  Think 40-50ish degrees fairenhieght with a brisk breeze.  As I stepped into the solace of the school building all I could think about was the warm shower that awaited me.  Nothing is better than a piping hot shower after a long cold run. I quickly hopped into the shower and was rewarded with a blast of cold water.  Yikes I shouted with gusto.  I quickly retreated and let the shower continue to run while I began brushing my teeth.  After a solid 5 minutes the reality set in....this was going to be one cold morning shower. Now, I could go into detail about cold shower taking methods here, but I'll spare you the bore.  Let's just say it involves a lot of jumping and screaming. While gulping down my hot coffee I had time to reflect on that mornings unfortunate events. ...

Most people have already made and given up their New Years resolutions by this point...whereas I'm just starting.  Procrastination for the win I suppose. Financial 1. Make an additional 10k of unplanned income:  This goal is pretty lofty for our family but with my wife's bonus and my random side hustles I'm aiming to make an extra 10k this year. 2.  Pay our mortgage down below $100,000:   This goal is incredibly unlikely to happen as we sit currently at $148k, but that's no reason we shouldn't try extremely hard to eliminate our arch nemesis! 3.  End the year with 15k in the bank:   Lately we've been waffling between 5 and 15k for our emergency fund.  This is mostly due to us cash flowing my schooling.  Although I won't be done I'm hoping we can find the discipline this year to build up extra cash reserves and keep them:) 4.  Shore up my retirement/estate planning:   This probably means I need to get a will set up and more life...

10/2/15.  That is how long ago I began this post.  Admittedly I only got as far as the title.  BUT that is how long I have been thinking about the issue of whining in America. *And no this post isn't whining about whining, so shove it haters.  It's a rant, and if you think its whining you are probably someone who needs to read and take heart of what I am about to say... Today more than ever we have an epidemic in America.  The whiner.  The whiner has infected our schools and brought about the downfall of public education. How? Well let me tell you. The whiner is an expert at getting something that he/she does not deserve.  Here is a typical day in the life of a whiny butt student, Winnie. Winnie the whiner wakes up when he/she feels like.  Winnie slowly drags him/herself to school and enters 1/2 hour late.  Not a problem, Winnie thinks, I'll just go grab my free breakfast and then head to class.  Winnie enters the lunc...

That's right long time loyal readers who have been holding out hope that I did not die...it is I!  Old School.  I would apologize for leaving in such a haste with nary a goodbye but that isn't like me at all. No.  Old School does not apologize, but he will explain (am I typing in the third person?)   I've really got to stop doing that. What I went away to do... Start another money blog Start a fitness blog Start a reselling blog Stop blogging Started reselling So, yeah.  You could say I have varied interests. The point is that even with all those other started (and failed) ventures, I still longed for this blog.  A blog where I could let down my hair and tell the world how it really is.  A place where face punching (MMM) is acceptable.  A place where I don't have to be my buttoned up professional self, if such a person even exists. It's been a over a year since I've written but here I am, back at the keyboard, crac...

What is up folks?  This is the post where we look back at the past year and see just how much the Old School Family spent.  This will be the second annual spending review so here I will compare 2015 to 2014...pretty cool since I never even used to track expenses.   EDUCATION: $ 12,695.00... this will not be broken down per month This is a new category that did not exist in 2014 because I wasn't going to school.  I am proud to say that I am in school now and doing well.  I also didn't technically spend 12k, because some of this was reimbursed, but I will stick with this number because it gives me a big picture idea of what education costs and makes me appreciate it much more. HOME: $4721.00 ....... Per month: $ 393.41 This is no longer our biggest expense (education took that cake), but this does not include mortgage payments any longer.  Mint somehow boofoo'd up that and I have no idea where the mortgage payments went (I seriously have been l...

Merry Christmas everybody....whats that?  I missed Christmas already...well then...HAPPY NEW YEAR...wait, we aren't there quite yet. Ummm....Happy time in between Christmas and New Year when everyone and their pet roosters go shopping.  I kid you not about the rooster.  I saw it sitting on some guys shoulder when we were out shopping. Lets look at that net worth from December! - $106,650.04 That is a difference from November of... + $3972.28 It is always fun to end the year on a positive note and we managed to do just that.  We celebrated our anniversary in December and my wife's birthday by going to a Bulls game in Chicago.  The whole experience was about $400.00 including tickets, gas, food, a hotel, and a very nice breakfast.  We were going to spend some more time, but lost interest when the weather turned sour and my wife became slightly sick. Oh well.  Not the most frugal experience, but we did get to see a great game which went into...

This post is going to be short and sweet, and late.  Very, very late.  Needless to say I was pretty busy during November.  I was writing finals, taking finals, and planning out my 5th year anniversary trip among a host of many other tasks. In October we saw a net worth of...  - $111,361.71 My net worth for November was... - $110,622.32 That is a difference of... + $ 739.39 This is normally the part of the post where we take a look at the amount of money in each account.  I will not be doing that this month due to being so late in the posting that the data I get from Mint would not provide a very accurate picture of where we were in November.  We will take a look at the goals though. GOALS: 1. Read ten books by the end of this year:  4 /10.  This past month I read a Tom Clancy novel.  I really enjoy Clancy novels and anytime I get my hands on one usually read it within two weeks, no matter how busy I am. 2. Savings:...