October 30, 2007 Results

Another day, another day of no profit. Can't say no profit, I made money, but it was just the money I had lost the day before...LOL

Solitaire: 0
Poker: -11

Mortgage Update

Haven't had one of these in the last couple of weeks, but of course we got paid last night.

After paying the extra from the paychecks and some Paypal that had found its way into the CU account, we were able to pay another 3430.23 extra on the December payment. We also received a notice today that the big payment from the Survival tournament came into the Paypal account so there should be another payment by the end of the week that will kick the extra over 6000. Not bad in a month that we had so many extra expenses that we were worried we wouldn't be able to send that much extra.

Back to last month though, we sent an extra 8534.85 to the mortgage as well as the regular payment. It the 3rd highest amount of debt we have paid off since March (when I started keeping track).

Ok, for the dates:

Original Payoff House Date: January 2021 - Down 16 months
Official Payoff House Date: October 2009 - Down 1 month
Dream Payoff House Date: August 2008 - Up 1 month

The Dream Payoff House Date went up one month because its set at 6000 extra a month and we've only been able to pay what we had in the CU account at the moment. Hopefully, with the next Paypal coming very soon, that will go back down to July 2008.

October 29, 2007 Results

Ok, another not so good day in solitaire. I made back the losses earlier in the day, but didn't make any money overall. I made more in poker yesterday than I did in solitaire, not good!!!

Solitaire: 0
Poker: +11.50

Imaginary Mortgage amount: 50,836

November Goal

Ok, all the personal financial blogs I have been reading have been saying that you need monthly goals. So my goal for this month is to get the mortgage balance down to 45K. Right now its in the 50.9K range, so that would be another 5,000 off. That would be about 2800 in solitaire winnings, hopefully that will be possible. Hopefully, I will win the last round of the Survival and then I will just blow it out of the water and we will be below 40K before the end of the month....LOL

October 28, 2007 Results

Just a blah day yesterday, only made 50 dollars in solitaire:

Solitaire: +50
Poker: 0

Imaginary mortgage balance: 50,911

51K

Yep, Igot to mark the 51K off the board today. That makes 10 mark offs this month :-) We are now sitting in the 50K and haven't been able to get rid of 10K of the mortgage this month. Defenitely not too bad.

October 27, 2007 and October 28, 2007 Results

We were up at Susan's parents house this weekend so I didn't get a chance to play that much this weekend so not too good of results.

October 27:
Solitaire: 0
Poker: 0

October 28:
Solitaire: +50
Poker: -20

Imaginary balance: 50,984

October 26, 2007 Results

Another decent day in the solitaire world.

Solitaire: +175
Poker: 0

Going to start putting the imaginary mortgage balance on here as well (just an FYI about this if you start doing the math, we send 10% of everything we win to a Vanguard account for taxes. This will probably raise back to 33% once we get the statement back from the accountant and what he wants us to do):

Imaginary Mortgage Balance: 51,029

October 24, 2007 Results

Waiting on opponent on the 2000 dollar game, will be for a while...

Solitaire: +100
Poker: 0

53K and 52K

Forgot to mention that with the survival tournament winnings, both 53K and 52K went out with a flash. We are down to 51,210 as of this morning :-)

October 23, 2007 Results

Very nice results from yesterday and finishing up the Survival Tournament.

Solitaire: +2700
Poker: 0

Survival

Well, the Survival Tournament is now over for me. Yes, its only half way but I'm done. I manged to make it to the 2000 level the first half of the tournament so I'm done with the tournament, I just have to wait for the second half for someone to come and play me. I'm happy in the regard that I have taken away 3900 so far from this tournament and can possibly win 2000 more. I'm sad in the regard that I have to wait for the next Survival Tournament now.....

DDR

Ok, if you haven't ever played Dance Dance Revolution, I have to say, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR ARE MISSING!!!! I had seen DDR before, but have never even come close to thinking about playing it. Then, I read a blog about losing weight playing DDR, and mentioned it to Susan. She said, why don't we go pick it up for the Wii tonight. So we did. We played that thing all night long except for the brief break to watch How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory (funniest show ever!!!). After those were over, we ended up taking turns dancing until 11:30pm. I can't wait to get home!!!! It is a blast!!!!

October 22, 2007 Results

Not a good day in solitaire, but not a bad day either. I'm stuck at the 120 level again, so that's a good thing :-)

Solitaire: +150
Poker: 0

October 21, 2007 Results

Another Survival Day and another good day.

Solitaire: +550
Poker: +0.50

54K

Yep, 2 days later, 54K is gone!!!! I love me a Survival Tournament, and this would be why :-) That and some other one card tournaments have made for some very nice profits the past couple of days. Its looking more and more like we can be done with the house by May, if not even April.

October 20, 2007 Results

Another good day in the Survival and I actually placed in two poker tournaments, a first and a second :-)

Solitaire: +350
Poker: +25

October 19, 2007 Results

Any day of Survival Solitaire. Not as good as yesterday, but some of the other tournaments paid off well.

Solitaire: +225
Poker: -11

55K

Well, I was able to mark 55K off the imaginary list today. With the 175 in Survival money that has been won today, the imaginary balance left on the mortgage is now in the 54K range.

Woo!!!

New plan

Ok, Susan and I have a new plan once the house is paid off....

1. We will fund the Vanguard Money Market account until it hits 40K.

2. Put the next 30K in 3 index/mutual funds at a rate of 10K a piece. Funds yet to be determined.

3. Put 50K more in the Vanguard Money Market account in preperation of purchasing a new house.

4. Put the next 30K in 3 more index/mutual funds at a rate of 10K a piece. Funds yet to be determined.

5. Put the next 50K in the Vanguard Money Market account in preperation of purchasing a new house. We are able to purchase the house whenever we want after this step.

6. Continue to buy index/mutual funds or increase the funds that we currently hold.

October 18, 2007 Results

Someone finally played my 250 dollar Survival game. I ended up winning by a good bit. Then came the 750 dollar game. Unfortunately, I ended up losing it by a good bit...LOL. The good news is that the tournament is only a 1/4th of the way over and I've already won 698 dollars on it. Not too bad.

Solitaire: +300
Poker: 0

Survival News

And in Survival News, I'm still stuck at the 250 level. Since its bowling night, I might still be stuck there tomorrow...LOL

Investing

Susan and I have been on the phone with each other for the past hour or so talking about investing. What kicked it off was a question she had about justifying paying off the mortgage instead of investing the money. From what I can tell, since we are paying off the house so fast, we are saving just about the same amount of money in interest than we would if we would have invested that money instead. And, in fact, I don't really care about that. I care more about knowing that the house we are living in is ours!!!! It really is more of a security thing than anything else. If someone could show me where we could make 20,000 dollars more if we invested the extra money instead of paying off the house now, I would have to tell them that isn't really worth it. It really is worth 20K to me knowing that I own my house and the mortgage company can't come simply take it away.

Then we started talking about the different funds and how they work. We really are looking at doing index funds and trying to figure out exactly what the numbers mean. Like when it says the fund has made 8% over the past 10 years, does that mean it has made 8% ever year over 10 years or that it has made a total of 8% in 10 years. Very confusing. I'm really thinking its the average of 8% for 10 years, but I really need to do more research. I think they really do a lot of the same things the computer industry does, make it so alien to everyone else, that you really do have to have an expert to make this stuff make any sense. Maybe we really do need to go sit down with a financial adviser...I don't know....

Mortgage update

Got in enough Paypal over the past couple of days and the 300 dollar refund from Reed Realty to pay another 1468.77 to Chase this morning. This brings the month to date total to 8534.85 that has been sent to Chase. They can't be very happy with us this month.

So here are the new dates:

Original Payoff House Date: May 2022 - Down 6 more months
Official Payoff House Date: November 2009 - Down 1 month
Dream Payoff House Date: July 2008 - Down 1 month

Getting closer and closer. The new official balance is down to 57,388.06.

October 17, 2007 Results

Played a bit of poker, didn't do to well , that's what happens when your pocket aces go down to pocket eights all in when an 8 hits on the river. Yes, that was a WAAAA!!!

Survival Touranment is still going on, I got to play 2 games in it today, was stuck until mid day at 50, made it to the 120 level, got stuck there until about 9pm, won that level, now I'm stuck at the 250 level.

Solitaire: +175
Poker: -11

October 16, 2007 Results

Survival tournament continues in Solitaire. I'm stuck at the moment at the 50 dollar level.

Solitaire: +150
Poker: 0

House and Marriage

So we are actually starting to get pretty close to the end for the debt. The imaginary amount left on the house is now down to 55,824 after yesterday's solitaire and we had the deposit back from the beach house that we rented for our Anniversary, which was a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. I figured it would take them close to 2 months to send it back, and it only took them less than 2 weeks. If any of you want to rent a beach house in the Ft. Morgan / Gulf Shores area, I would highly recommend Reed Realty. They were super nice and answered any questions we had very quickly. To say the least, we had a great time. Hopefully, the next trip will be to Disney, but I'm sure we will have another weekend down at the coast first.

We had planned on going to Disney in April, but with it looking like we can possibly pay off the house in either April or May, I voted to postpone the trip again. I just can't imagine having to save for another trip with us being so close to being done with the house. Not to mention that I really want to be able to enjoy Disney completely debt free. That will be one great day. :-)

The other thing we have started to talk about is what we are going to do with the money after we are done with the house. We are planning to buy another house sometime, maybe in the 150K range so we don't have to write that big of a check. The other thing we are planning on doing is starting to invest. From reading other blogs and a couple of millionare books, it looks like we are going to be doing some mutual funds and maybe look at buying into the different index funds at Vanguard. Susan and I are still in the planning phase for that, but since we normally take a good 6 months to decide on any major purchase anyway, so the time between now and payoff will be used to decide exactly what we want to do with the money.

More to come later....

October 15th Results

It was the beginning of the Survival Tournament and that usually means pretty good results.

Solitaire: +400
Poker: 0 (Didn't play any due to Survival Tourney)

Survival Tournament

Its that time again!!! Its Survival Tournament time again in the Solitaire Rush. Hopefully I will do as well as I have been doing in them. It would be nice to pay another 3000 on the house after just one tournament and a couple of weeks.

In imaginary news, after doing the November budget and seeing that we can send another 1293 to Chase after we get paid October 30th, the imaginary mortgage balance is down to 56,349. Not too shabby. Hopefully before the end of this tournament, that will be down in the 53K range. Very nice :-)

October 14th Results

Played in a rather large 11 dollar tournament on PokerStars, 11 dollar entry fee, top payout was well over 18,000. I ended up in 873 but made 55 dollars off of it, so a nice 44 dollar profit. So my poker account is back over 200 dollars again...LOL

Solitaire: +225
Poker: +44

October 13, 2007 Results

Well blah, not too good of a day, but it is what it is. Pretty much just stayed even in solitaire and poker.

Solitaire: 0
Poker: +2.50

October 12th

Decent day in Solitaire. Not so much in poker.

Solitaire: +100
Poker: -22

Yep, here we go on the down swing on poker. Sad when you go all in with an AK and someone calls you with 87, flop comes AK8....I thought great flop, just don't get another....oh wait, there's the turn, yep 8. Now that sucks!!!!

House and such

So I'm getting excited that we are actually starting to get close to paying off the house. Excited enough that I have postponed the trip to Disney again.... The imaginary total (call it this because it includes the solitaire money won, but that hasn't been paid to us yet) is down below 58K today. It hit the 57Ks this morning when I was able to take out another 100 on the solitaire.

This really has me excited, and I'm also really excited about the possibility of getting a million in the bank. Yep, forget everything else, let's just skip to the million. Don't get me wrong, there is going to be celebrations all along the way, but as soon as we hit that first million, and I have no doubt we will, that will be a very good day. And then we hit the 2nd and 3rd million, that will be even better. If we can get that 3rd million in less than 20 years, I will be very very happy and will be able to retire. I have no idea if we are going to be able to make this happen, but for some reason, I truely believe we will. Just think, 3 million in the bank, 5% intrest....net 150K a year. And for what, for doing absolutely nothing, just letting money sit in an account :-)

October 11, 2007

Another good day on Solitaire. I'm really liking the tournaments with low entry fees, lots of people, and some pretty good pay outs.

Total won yesterday:
Solitaire: +490 (I must have missed a 10 dollar deposit, really thought it was 500)

October 10, 2007

Pretty good day in solitaire yesterday. I cleared 250 dollars total, this brings the month to date up to 1375. The vacation defenitely did a lot of good as far as the solitaire goes. I can see everything again. I laugh at this statement, but its true. Before the vacation I was having to think about what I was doing when it came to playing the solitaire, now I don't think, I just do. Its pretty nice being back in that place again. Good excuse to take another vacation too.....

I didn't have time to play any poker last night so yesterday's numbers were:

Solitaire: +250
Poker: 0

Yeah!!! Mortgage Update

The Paypal made it into the Credit Union account this morning so I was able to send some money to Chase. I sent 100 dollars to the Vangaurd Account (this is where the tax money goes until we have to pay the government) and was able to send the other 905 to Chase. This payment brings the official total down to 58,856.83. Unforunately, the dates haven't changed much, but they are still going down.

Offical Payoff House Date: December 2009
Original Payoff House Date: January 2023
Dream Payoff House Date: August 2008

Blah

Stayed up way too late again last night watching West Wing. Must get some sleep, and it doesn't need to be at work!!!!

Good thing is I have been able to withdraw 150 so far from WW today after some of the solitaire games closed from last night. I need to remind myself to stay away from the 25 dollar entry fee games, I would have had more if not for that durn tournament!!!!

Still no activity in the Credit Union account so I can't send a payment to Chase. Paypal needs to hurry up!!!

October 9th Results

Poker: +11.50
Solitaire: +135

Post 2

As of right now, we have an extra 45.45 to send to Chase for an extra house payment. There is another 1000 coming via Paypal in the next couple of days, so hopefully the money will be in the Credit Union account before the end of the week and I'll be able to update the official countdown to pay off Chase day. As of right now, the official countdown date is December 2009. This is based on sending Chase an extra 2000 per month on top of our normal house payment.

If we went back to just paying the normal payment, the payoff would be May 2023, not that would ever happen, it would have to be a very extraodinary circumstance that would make us go back to just paying the regular house payment.

Then, there is the dream payoff, which includes some very serious solitaire playing and winning to where we somehow pay 6000 extra per month on top of our regular house payment. That payoff is August 2008.

Official payoff house day: December 2009
Original payoff house day: May 2023
Dream payoff house day: August 2008

Solitaire, Poker, and Marriage

Hi. My name is Greg, I'm 34 (actually having to do the math on that one, its tough) live in Mississippi and recently got married to the most perfect woman. Ok, maybe she isn't perfect, she is perfect for me, and that's all that counts. And she has a pup. He's a bad pup though.

After reading some of the money blogs, I thought I might blog a little about myself. So you are probably thinking, what kind of title is Solitaire, Poker, and Marriage. Well, that would be the 3 ways I make money besides work. Now you are probably thinking I am crazy, but its true.

First, solitaire. There is this nice little site called World Winner where you can basically play solitaire against other people (they have a ton of other games as well, I'm just good as solitaire though) and if you are good enough, you can make some money. Don't get me wrong, most people on the site lose money, but so far year to date I've made just over 63,000 playing solitaire. Not too bad considering that is more than I make from work.....

The second doesn't really make me any money, it is just a distraction. Poker is fun, Texas Hold'em to be precise. I just love the game, it can catch my interest very quickly and pull me in. I just don't win any money doing it. I break even, pretty much all the time. I might go for days winning, and then bam, a down turn and there goes the profit.

Third, marriage. I know what you are thinking on this one, there is no way marriage can make you money. I would have to beg to differ, clearly you haven't met my wife. She can make a dollar go further than most humans can make ten dollars go. She really is amazing on the money front. When we first got married, I came into the marriage with nothing to show but 57,083.46 cents in debt. Not a pretty sight. Susan pretty much said, we'll face it together and then we can look at the 78K that she still owed on the mortgage before we got married. So a year later, a lot of Ebay and some solitaire money later, we are completely out of debt and have 59,761.83 left to go on the house. Not too shabby for just having our first year anniversary on September 30th.

So most of my updates will be about the daily results from solitaire, some will be about poker if I actually play any hold 'em on any given day, and then there is the marriage, the best part.

Anyway, so much for the first post.