I Can’t Believe I Have Been Blogging for 5 Years!

August 5th came and went without me even thinking about the fact that I it is the anniversary of when I started this little site! It is weird to think about how engrained this site has become in my life…it is just something I “do.”  I was so oblivious that the date was coming up that I wrote a post that would be perfect about how my financial life has changed about a month and a half ago.  Wow that would have been perfect lol!

Instead I decided on continuing the list I created last year about my favorite posts throughout the years:

Favorite Posts from 2008

• Everybody Needs a Will
• My Greatest Asset is My Wife
• Education is Not Always Tax Deductible
• It only took about 20 days before I told The Wife about my blog
• Are CDs worth it?  Maybe I should do a follow up on the topic since I would LOVE to have some of those interest rates today
• Who Cares that the FDIC raised the insurance limits
• Socialism is never a good idea
• To Know Thyself is the Only Way to Overcome your Deficiencies
• Simplest Personal Finance Advice for Newlyweds
• The Wife and Finally Implement a Plan and Build a Financial Road Map
• 15 vs 30 Year Mortgages why I like Longer

Favorite Posts from 2009

• Goals for 2009 – Funny for me to read it.  As much as things have changes some things have not!
• The Wife and I almost get ripped off while on vacation!
• Forget your RMD? You can beg the IRS for Forgiveness
• Accountability Leads to Success – Easily one of my favorite posts of all time that doesn’t have to do with my personal life
• Life Insurance and Annuities May be Right for Retirement
• Top 10 Reasons you need a Will ASAP – This is when I found out my father was having major surgery
• A real life story of how lack of diversification destroyed a client’s retirement
• Life is More than Finances – 14 hours spent at a hospital for my father’s surgery
• A reminder that an average of 10% investment returns doesn’t guarantee success
• Planning for Children with Special Needs Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
• Colleges are the Next Big Bubble to Burst – A theory I am still believe in but am waiting for it to hit
• 9 Months and I paid off $12,000 of Credit Card Debt!
• My First of many posts about Whole Life Insurance
• An apology post I had to write
• reasons a 401(k) is better than an IRA – My first of many posts about how there are very few bright line rules in Personal finance
• Comparing the United States against Marx’s Communist Manifesto
• Announcement of a Child The Wife and I were Expecting, the subsequent loss of that child (still hard for me to read today) and The Wife’s views on the situation.
• New York Defaults getting thrown out because of bad service (and bad attorneys)
• 2008 Tax Statistics prove that Multiple Streams of Income Are Key to Success
• Lesson Learned the Hard Way – Some Lenders do Not Apply Extra Payments to Principal
• Buying Life Insurance on a Child Part 1 and Part 2 (advice where I eventually practiced what I preached)
• Using Whole Life Insurance to Build a Pension Like Stream of Income
• Ode to my Dog
• Living Paycheck to Paycheck Could Cost you Your Life
• There were Never Good Ole Days when it Comes to Personal Finance
• I don’t Understand Personal Finance Blogging – A problem I still have today
• What did African Americans Think President Obama was Going to Do? Some fun, “Evan you are a racist” type of comments
• Four Words in Personal Finance that PISS me off and The Wife Says them ALL the time – She has since stopped saying them as we got older

Favorite Posts from 2010

• Goals and Objectives of 2010
• The Wife’s Post about Messing with my Manhood
• The Basics of Personal Finance are the Same Regardless of Income Level
• Is There Anything More Important than Money When Talking about a Job?
• Three Common Qualities of High Net Worth Individuals’ Balance Sheets
• Good Humanitarian or PF D-Bag?
• The Very First Start of my Dividend Investment Portfolio
• My first attempt to narrow down my Dividend choices
• Defending Financial Planners
• A Million Bucks is still a LOT of money
• Asking Whether the Health Care Bill was Constitutional – Boy did I miss the mark on this one, huh
• What is Valuable May not be Worth Anything
• Coming up with a theory on Cell Phone Insurance
• A real life reminder of wanting financial freedom – Side note this guy has since changed jobs and is loving life!
• My Easy Fix for Illegal Immigration
• We are expecting a child! – VERY welcomed after the shit we went through in 2009
• Most People that Tell you that they don’t want to be wealthy are LYING
• Faith Based Investing May be a Terrible Idea
• Some People may Need a Nice Car
• People who Refuse to Change What Makes the Miserable Drives me Nuts
• How I try to overcome paralysis by analysis
• Why Teachers Anger me –  I still get comments on this post every so often lol
• Would you Opt out of the Social Security Ponzi Scheme?
• A letter to my unborn son on my 2nd Blogging anniversary
• How I have to keep myself Cash Poor
• Are Generation Y-ers Different? Do I follow the stereotypes?
• My Theory on whether Money Buys Happiness
• Get off your Ass and Follow Through with your Business Idea
• If you have a Child with Special Needs Please Check with a Financial or Legal Professional
• I don’t understand the Early Retirement Extreme Movement
• Example of a High Net Worth Balance Sheet that Inspires me
• Do I think about Money too much?
• Do You know what You spend per year?
• Introducing my Baby Boy! I can’t believe how little he was!
• Review of my 2010 Goals

Favorite Posts of 2011

• 2011 Goals and Objectives (written in 2010)
• Past Wasn’t as Good as you Remember it
• I came up with a new way to track and share my net worth – I updated it every month but only share a few in this list
• Practicing what I preach when I bought Life Insurance on my Child
• Stop Bitching and created a Second Stream of Income
• It is Okay to Just want things
• My Favorite thing about paying off debt
• My Biggest Fear Laid out there for Everyone to read
• Investment Services Don’t make Sense
• Sharing my First Experience Being an Entrepreneur
• Do you Compartmentalize Spending Decisions?
• Are you the Kind of person that Best to Win? Place? or Show?
• June 2011 Net Worth Update (half way through the first year) – Up 33.6%!
• What You Think Someone Else Wants at Death is Irrelevant
• What do you Do at Night? I try to make money
• Is Something Valuable if No one Knows?
• The difference between liberals and conservatives when it comes to Equality
• Insurance Products should not be a 4 letter word
• My Unlikely Financial Hero
• Is your financial ship run by one captain or two captains?
• A cool Scotch tasting experiment my friends and I did – one bottle was free while the other was $130 (and a few in between)
• An update to my family’s cash flow chart
• I feel guilty when making unneeded purchases
• Why I am not a huge fan of Revocable Living Trusts
• It is probably about time to Grow the Fuck Up
• My Trip to Atlanta for my 30th Bday
• Am I a complete Hypocrite or an Opportunist?
• There are other Dividend Stock Lists besides the Dividend Aristocrats
• No Research Reasons why I like Mature Dividend paying stocks
• Don’t assume your time is worth money
• Happy First Birthday to my Boy!
• Great discussion on Unequal Distribution to Future Heirs
• Reviewing how I did on my 2011 Goals and Objectives

Favorite Posts of 2012

• Why the Hell are there New Pension Plan Participants?
• You have Absolutely No Patriotic Duty to Pay High Taxes
• Don’t be a Sheep When it Comes to Your Finances
• My Experience at a Storage Auction
• A Reminder why buying life insurance early is important
• Our House is on the Market – Another chapter in my life is going by
• There are Some Business Models I don’t Understand
• Thoughts on Professional, Personal and Family Relationships
• Responding to Someone Calling you Cheap
• There are NO Money Rules
• I don’t get he Hype about the Facebook IPO – Only time will tell if I am correct
• The Secret Business I am dying to open up
• What the Hell is Wrong with Some People – Emergency Fund vs the Smart Phone Statistics
• How I Invested my Child’s Money – I hope to share this with my son one day
• Where Would You Invest if You didn’t Trust the Markets?
• Why I Purchased Whole Life Insurance on my Child and Why I think Everyone Should at least consider doing so also
• What Monthly Expenses Exist Today that Weren’t There in the Past 
• Why do People Care About the New Health Care Surtax
• The 401(k) Doesn’t Need to be Overhauled
• Where did all the NFL Owners Obtain their Wealth?
• My 85 Year Old Client Provided More Inspiration than she’ll Ever Know!
• Comparing Mortgage Rates and Payments a Generation Later
• Where Does Capitalism End and Price Gouging Begin?
• Reasons why I didn’t like using a Buyer’s Real Estate Broker
• If You are an Employee Your Right to Complain is Limited
• A Housing Sale and Purchase Update 
• After 5 and a Half Years I sold my Home and I don’t think I made any actual real profit
• How did I do with my 2012 Goals and Objectives

We are only halfway through the year but here are some of my favorite year to date:

• 2013 Goals and Objectives
• My First Post Written While Not Owning my First Home
• Stop Lying to Yourself About What You Spend
• I Bet Against a Stock for the First Time
• We Finally Bought a House
• Starting an Investment Club
• The World Lost a Great Personal Finance Role Model
• Do You Consider Little Increases in Monthly Subscription Decisions
• Seeing Personal Finance Bloggers Just Treading Water Bums Me Out
• Life Insurance May Be Taxable
• I am excited to buy My Niece’s Birthday Gift – Investments! 
• Millennials Do NOT have New Job Rules
• Surprise Men and Women Approach Investments Different
• Back from Aruba  – Pros and Cons of All Inclusive Vacations
• Another Reason I hate my 401(k)
• Don’t be a Jerk if you have kids Get Life Insurance
• Taking a Look at my actual prosper returns over 6 years
• Capitalist Class – Something to Strive For!
• Listing all the jobs I have had over my lifetime
• Is Anyone Stupid Enough to Care if a CEO’s Salary is $1
• How Much do We Really Know About the Businesses we “know”
• Caring Less about the Financial Stupidity of Others
• Quality vs Quantity over Time which do you choose?
• Why is Everyone Attacking Apple for Overseas Profits not being Taxed
• It Makes Perfect Sense that the Rich Benefit More from Deductions
• Should Tax Money Be Used to Stop Consensual Sex?
• First Thing You Need to Understand When You want to Open ANY Business
• Can’t Believe How Much My Financial Life Has Changed
• Actual Results of my First Time Betting Against a Company
• I am not Convinced that the American Dream isn’t a Nightmare
• Do You have a Right to Choose Your Child’s Degree or Major
• The Detroit Bankruptcy Should Teach You that Nothing is Guaranteed
• How Much Money at one time Would Change Your Life

It is interesting to me that my favorite posts have little to do with me or even estate/insurance planning, but rather about shit I don’t get in this world!

Hopefully, here is to another year!