This past weekend, my wife and I headed to the great state of Ohio to attend the wedding of my best man. It was one of those trips that I didn’t hesitate to make, even though I tend to be someone who spends much on travel or vacation. And yet already this year we have flown to California, will be flying back to Ohio in September (for a family reunion) and November (for Thanksgiving).

When I went to book flights several months ago, I found a bit of a problem with flying from the Boston area to Cincinnati: Direct flights were over $500. Flights with one layover weren’t much better either, and honestly, how do people have time to spend the whole day flying somewhere, especially when I could drive the same distance in the same amount of time?

So instead, we opted to fly to the Akron/Canton airport, which even now still has direct flights from Boston for $200. We borrowed my mom’s car (thanks mom!) and made the 4 hour drive down to Cincinnati. Sure, we had to pay $50 in gas, but it was still nearly $800 cheaper than had we flown into Cincinnati. Even better, we got to spend father’s day with my dad.

We stayed at a hotel for $99 a night, not a bad rate, and saved about $50 total thanks to AAA. Food was of course mostly provided by the wedding events, although we did make a lunch trip to the Cheesecake Factory.

As for a gift, I was surprised to hear by my co-workers that $100 was the going rate for presents nowadays. So instead of putting together a few pans and dishes from their registry to total that amount, my wife went out and found some beautiful hand-made kitchen pottery for a much more reasonable price.

Overall it was a great weekend. I still believe in the philosophy my dad has tried to teach me, which is that there a certain things in life you should be able to just enjoy instead of fretting about the cost.

So I’ll be honest: The market scared me a bit this week. I do not believe this is the top; I do not believe we are in for a multi-year bear market; I do not believe gas prices will be $26 by this summer (but that’s another story).

I began last week with what may turn out to be a mistake: I sold half of my biggest winner, Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF). Here’s why:

As you can see, as of May 23rd the stock had lost a lot of its steam, and I was very worried it was forming a top here. I also was just astounded at how hot commodities were, and became worried that they were too hot, considering how much I was reading about them. The MACD lines had crossed, which sometimes signals a change in momentum. Lastly, I had just hit the mythical 100% number for my CLF holdings, and doubling my money always makes me feel greedy.

Why might it have been a mistake? Well, the stock is up 13% since I sold half, which is part of the reason! So what might have prevented me from selling? First, nothing about the fundamentals of iron and coal have changed, meaning Cleveland-Cliff’s main product is still in as high demand as ever. From a technical standpoint, the RSI wasn’t throwing off warnings yet, the stock was still above its 25 day moving average, and was ripe for a bounce off of its lower trend line. Whoops!

With that cash, I bought two stocks: Occidental Petroleum (OXY), an oil play that my mom (of all people!) made me aware of, and GrafTech (GTI), who makes electric arc furnaces. I don’t pretend to understand exactly what those are, but I do know that they’re part of a supply chain that is in great demand right now, and has a solid looking chart.

And that’s when I got scared. I am very happy with my performance so far this year, and being 100% invested during this correction just seemed to risky to me. So I sold all of Google (GOOG) and Helmerich & Payne (HP). Google hasn’t done a thing since it’s major jump on earnings a few weeks ago, and HP seemed to be stalling out on me.

Our analysts here are showing just slight signs of being worried, but their recommendation isn’t to start moving into cash, but instead to just reign in buying many new stocks.

YTD Performance as of 05/28/2008: Up 13.34%
Performance since inception (04/01/2007): Up 57.8%

Portfolio Holdings

Changes

5/22/2008	SELL	Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF)	93	132
5/22/2008	BUY	Occidental Petroleum (OXY)	96	104
5/22/2008	BUY	GrafTech (GTI)	25	430
5/28/2008	SELL	Google (GOOG)	566	31
5/28/2008	SELL	Helmerich & Payne (HP)	58	252

I feel bad. I missed my child’s birthday. Considering the fact, however, that my child is a subdirectory on a shared server, I don’t feel too bad.

I started this site just over a year ago, starting with my personal, um, personal finance history. My main goal with the site, at first, was to document my learning process as I began to study, and trade, stocks. I also touched on some personal stories which I thought taught good “life lessons”, such as how I was nearly robbed blind by unauthorized ACH transactions.

My day job is as a web content manager at an investment advisory service. Obviously, my company has played a big part in my learning experience when it comes to investing. I haven’t touched much on my actual job though, as it doesn’t have all that much to do with personal finance. But I do know a fair amount about search engine optimization and site monetization, as I deal with that almost daily.

I tried a few times to do that with this site. The problem, I found, is I had to turn the site into something I really didn’t like.

I only like writing when I feel I have something interesting to contribute. I only like linking when I feel that link also offers something interesting to read. I like writing accurate titles instead of ones that appear high on organic searches. I like voicing the contrarian opinion (invest in individual stocks!) instead of repeating the same dull advice of the masses (index fund!). I like venting about things that frustrate me, hopefully in a constructive manner.

What I do not like is writing about the same subject you see almost daily on other personal finance blogs (do we honestly need another list of how to increase your gas mileage, or a comparison between Roth and Simple IRA’s?). Speaking of which - I hate writing lists. 90% of the internet now seems comprised of lists. Do we really need to dumb down our writing that much? I do not like writing several posts a week that solely consisting of links to other sites, solely in order to increase my page rank. I do not like writing posts that serve solely as advertisements. And once again, I do not like regurgitating the same personal finance information you see all over the internet.

So where does this leave me? With a site that won’t make me money (although I was able to sell an ad or two, which was nice) or make me an internet star. It also leaves me ostracized from the personal finance (please find it in your heart to forgive me for using this term) blogosphere. But I’m fine with that, because what it does leave me with is a site I enjoy writing for, and hopefully one that at least some people find entertaining and useful.

I have to admit: I just wrote a list of all the personal finance sites I’ve read over the past year, and pretty much lambasted the ones I really dislike. Then I deleted that, because I’m the type of person who goes to those improv shows but can’t even boo the acts I don’t like (even when you’re told to cheer or boo to decide the winner).

Instead, this is a pretty easy way to find the sites I’m not a huge fan of: In the past month, have they offered $25 to sign up for an ING account? In the past week, have the mentioned a $100 Discover Card offer? If so, chances are I’m not a huge fan. My two problems with hawking these advertisements is that first, I have to read them over, and over, and over again on at least a dozen sites which all latch on to the exact same offer and then mention it every other day on their site.

Second, why do sites which supposedly promote financial responsibility keep pushing credit card offers down our throats? I love credit cards, and I’ve never had a balance in my life, but a lot of people who read these types of sites aren’t in the same situation, and I can’t help but chuckle at the hypocrisy of offering credit cards to them. Even if someone knows how to manage their spending on credit cards, it doesn’t exactly help their score when you try to get them to open up a new account every month. Banks aren’t much better either. Sure, it won’t effect your credit, but slinging your social security number all of the place and having accounts at ten financial institution for a measly $10 or $25 really doesn’t seem worth it - to the reader.

With that out of the way, I’d instead like to individually focus on a few sites that I really do like.

Advanced Personal Finance: This is a really high quality site. Sure, it has a fairly drab design (sorry!), and uses normal paragraph structure instead of a list every other post (gasp!). But it has solid content from a good writer, few ads, no empty posts just consisting of links, and is only updated when it has something interesting to say.

An English Major’s Money: I love this blog. Catchy title too. It takes the word “personal” in personal finance to heart, and more than any other site I really feel as though the writer lets you identify with her financial situation. It’s also the only site I can say inspired me to write more in their style.

Ask Dong: This guy is funny, to the point, and writes interesting posts. He also avoids all the things I hate.

Monogamoney: This is a newer blog, that I found when they left a comment on my site. It’s another clever name, written with a personal touch, and is very open in its writing.

Hmm … and it seems like that’s about it. I think part of the problem is that a lot of these sites don’t offer much to stand out from one another.

So what’s next for The Money Mythos? I’ll continue posting interesting personal finance stories as I happen upon them (or as they happen upon me). I’ll also continue updates on my stock trading, in the endless pursuit to show the average person that they can succeed buying individual stocks (up nearly 10% this year!).

Thanks for reading.

A few days ago in the coffee room at work, people were discussing what temperature they kept their houses at. Not surprisingly, the answers were all over the place. One young woman, who has a two year old at home, keeps her house at 72. Another kept her house at 70 but said it probably averaged 65 because of the drafts.

And yet there were several people who kept their house between 60 and 65.No doubt they were saving a fair chunk of change each month. For me, it would take some extenuating circumstances to force my thermostat below 66!

To be honest, I did have a slight hesitation about this in our new place. Not only do we have more square footage (about 2/3 more than our old place), but we also have a loft, and live on the third floor. I wear sweaters when at home, and almost always have a blanket on when watching TV or reading, but the second my nose or hands start getting cold is when the heat goes up. Generally, I’ve found 68 to be a very comfortable temperature.

Last month we bought an oil-filled radiator as our landlord told us the oil was running out. I was planning on returning it after the move, but I realized that keeping it in our bedroom and setting the rest of the house to 58 could possibly afford us some savings.

How much does it cost me to be comfortable in my own home? $10 a month? $20? Even $40? If the difference between 65 and 68 was a few hundred dollars a month, I might start to reconsider. But for anything less, I think I’ll remain comfortable.

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Some personal loans come with nasty catches like early redemption penalties. Find out how you can avoid these with help from The Thrifty Scot

A couple weeks ago, our company gave each employee $300 cash in an envelope. We drove to the mall and were told we had 1.5 hours to spend it all, or we had to give it back. What a very cool concept. Had I been given a $300 bonus, I most likely would have saved it. Instead, I was able to buy a few items I really wanted, but would never have bought with “my own” money.

Quite a few items came to mind when we were first told about this. I thought about splurging it all at Gamestop and buying six or so Xbox games, but I realized that was a bit excessive. I knew I wanted new running shoes, but didn’t want to fret with trying to find the right ones in an hour and a half. I briefly considered an I-Robot Vacuum, something I have always wanted, but unfortunately I just don’t think it would fare well in our apartment.

So here’s what I ended up with:

Shun 7″ Santoku Knife

I have wanted a nice, sharp knife for years now. When my wife and I got married, we received an expensive Cuisinart knife set, as well as an electric knife sharpener. I don’t recall the chef’s knife ever being particularly sharp, and the cheap knife sharpener probably didn’t help, but as of now it can’t cut, well, anything.

So I looked for the best knife I could find. First, I decided to go with a Santoku over a standard Chef’s knife, as they are supposedly more adept at cutting things like onions and peppers, but can’t handle cutting bones. Considering I never even knew you could cut a bone with a knife, I was happy enough with the Santoku.

As for the brand, I originally looked at Wusthof, the famous German knife brand. That was all well and good, but when I read that Shun was a Japanese company and had supposedly perfected the Santoku, I just had to have it.

And let me tell you – cooking with it feels like cheating. It’s an incredible knife, and I’m going to be sure to take care of it like a first born child.

Cost: $123 - $23 sale price - $14 gift card = $86

 

Keurig B60 K-Cup Coffee Brewer

I love coffee, and I need it. I drink, on average, three cups a day – probably about the norm for your standard office worker. In fact, I often have it around 9 or 10 at night recently, as I can’t seem to stay up past then without caffeine (yet I’m asleep thirty seconds after my head hits the pillow, no matter how recently I drank the coffee).

Anyway, I don’t drink coffee all that often at home. In the morning my commute is only seven minutes long, and at work I have access to a professional version of what I bought here. However, when I do need coffee at home (mostly during the weekends), I couldn’t find a reasonable way to make it. The problem is that buying a pound of coffee left me with old beans, as I didn’t use it quick enough. Making coffee in a coffeemaker left me with several cups extra, as my wife doesn’t drink coffee. I tried a French press, but didn’t love the taste and it was a pain.

I absolutely love this thing though. Thirty seconds to a cup of excellent coffee, especially compared to the terrible Dunkin Donuts I had gotten accustomed too. My wife even loves the machine for the hot chocolate and instant hot water for tea.

A bit excessive? Yes. I also wouldn’t have bought it if I drank coffee every day, as the cups for it can get expensive. But for my moderate usage, it’s perfect.

Cost: $150 – 20% coupon = $120

Dead Rising

Who doesn’t love killing a massive mob of zombies?

Cost: $30

I also picked up a cutting board and pizza stone, bringing the total to $300. The whole experience was a blast – we even got a nice lunch at The Cheesecake Factory after.

As for my real, end of year bonus I get in two weeks? Straight to savings!

Just a quick note to say that I am leaving for a small lake cottage in Michigan on a family trip, and won’t be returning until early August. See you then!

I just briefly wanted to mention my excitement at purchasing my first share in a stock yesterday. And by share, I mean that literally, as I purchased just a single share of the company BE Aerospace (BEAV), who manufactures airplane parts (such as seats).

It’s interesting because just a few months ago, purchasing a single share for $28.05 would have been ludicrous, as even a $5.00 commission charge would mean the stock would have to rise 18% before I made any money! Thankfully, Zecco has, at least for the, made commission fees a thing of the past.

So how did the order on Zecco go? Flawlessly. I put in a market order, clicked execute, and literally a half second later I owned a share of BE Aerospace. This has boosted my confidence in Zecco tremendously. I also placed a stop order for 20% of the price I bought the stock for, and that order looks to have been placed fine as well.

Unfortunately, my investments for the foreseeable future are going to be a bit limited. First, the stock market has been behaving a bit oddly as of late, and as I posted a week ago, the next few weeks look a tad uncertain. I am also still focusing on padding out my emergency savings account before saving money elsewhere.

While I find personal finance and investing fascinating, my true passion is technology. Therefore, I thought I would share a piece of software that recently rescued me from losing six years of financial data I had stored in Quicken.

It’s called Mozy, and it’s a small download you install on your PC (or Mac) that backs-up your computer automatically by uploading your important data to a remote server.

For a lot of people, the idea of saving their essential data on some remote computer owned by another company takes some getting used to, which is understandable. However, all of the data has high strength encryption, and the company itself has an array of backups of, well, your backups. You also gain the advantage of a remote server, which is that backups you might store locally on an external hard drive or DVD could be affected by fire or theft, while this cannot.

Best of all, it’s free, very simple to use, and requires little attention once you have set it up. For me, it backs up any new or modified files every night while I’m eating dinner. The backup process usually only takes a few minutes since it only backs up data that I have modified. The initial backup can take quite awhile depending on your connection speed and the amount of data you are backing up, but that’s only a one time deal.

Mozy’s configuration makes it easy to back up common files like your documents and spreadsheets. It even has a category for financial documents, so all I did was click a checkbox and I automatically had backups of all of my Quicken files. This was especially useful last week when I reformatted my hard drive and forgot to copy my old archived Quicken files I had hidden in a directory deep in my system. In literally two minutes I was able to restore that file thanks to Mozy.

So even if you already have a backup plan in place, I highly suggest checking out Mozy as a “fire and forget” backup system. Again, it’s free and gives you 2gb of space – plenty for all of your documents, and even some room for email and pictures as well.