If you read my blog I’m guessing one of four things is true about you. 1) You have at least a moderate level of interest in personal finance. 2) You could care less about personal finance, but you at least moderately enjoy my stick figure drawings. 3) You could care less about personal finance and my drawings, but you have at least a moderate level of interest in my personal life. 4) You ended up here by accident and will be leaving just as quickly as you came (I hate you fourth-category person ).

Since this is a personal finance blog, and most of us have an interest in the topic, I thought we could talk a little bit about the how we became so stinkin’ nerdy.

There is nothing inherently sexy, or even all that appealing, about money. We’ve already decided money has no intrinsic value, so why the heck do I find it so fascinating? I mean, it wasn’t always this way. Heck, I didn’t even know how to transfer money from my savings to my checking account until I was 22 years old! Twenty-freaking-two. (my mom always made the transfer for me)

In just three months, I went from college student; never paying rent, car insurance, or really any bills for that matter, to a federal agent who suddenly had all sorts of financial obligations and commitments. I couldn’t even spell 401K, let alone understand the importance of one.

It wasn’t until about three months in to my job that I decided I needed a game plan. I had a conversation with a close friend about Roth IRA’s and he gave me a PF book to read, Smart Couples Finish Rich. The book was meant for married couples, but that didn’t keep me from reading the thing front to back in two days. I was immediately hooked.

Who-woulda-thunk-it? Apparently you can get “rich” without having to be a millionaire. In fact, if I manage my money properly from age 22 to 65, I could retire with millions upon millions of dollars. I hopped on the internet, started reading some blogs, and decided to chronicle my own PF journey.

And that’s how it happened. In about seven days time I went from not giving a hoot about personal finance to starting a blog called Punch Debt In The Face. Crazy.

How did the start of your PF journey come about? What motivated you to get your life in order? What keeps you motivated as the initial excitement wears off?

p.s. in other depressing news, Los Angeles Counties Board of Supervisors just gave the okay that anyone who throws a frisbee or a football on the beach can be subject to a $1,000 fine. Never thought I’d have to say to my kids “When I was your age we use to be able to dig holes in the sand.” <—-also a $1,000 fine. Dumbest. Rule. EVER!!!!

While I like to consider myself adventurous, I’m not really one to take huge risks. In fact, every time someone asks me if I have a desire to go bungee jumping or skydiving I tell them the same thing; “Heck no!”. The way I see it there are really only two outcomes to skydiving. You fall for a minute or two and land safely, or you die.

“But Ninja,” they’ll say, “The feeling of the wind blowing past your face is incredible”. I bet it is, but if I want to feel wind on my face I’ll just stick my head out the car next time I’m driving. Big risks just aren’t my cup of tea.

I read the other day that “careers” are things of the past and the typical employee nowadays change jobs every two or three years. Not so much the case for this guy. I got my current job fresh out of college, and 4.5 years later, I’m still here. Unless someone calls me up out of the blue one day and offers me a six figure position, I probably will be here for a while longer. (those of you that have six figure job openings feel free to offer me one )

I like to pretend that I’m pretty risky when it comes to my retirement investments. Bonds are for wussies. I’ve got so freakin’ long until I retire, I’m stocks all the way baby. But even though all my investments are in stocks, they are still in relatively conservative funds. I don’t have an actively managed account. I don’t own individual company stocks. And I don’t buy and sell according to market fluctuations. Instead, I invest in three pretty boring Vanguard Mutual Funds (VTSMX, VGTSX, NAESX for those that care). Nothing too exciting about that.

About six months ago, I started getting antsy. I wanted to do something I’ve never done before, but I just couldn’t figure out what that “something” should be. Then it hit me. I need to buy three iguanas….

Oh who am I kidding. I didn’t buy three iguanas, or one for that matter. I just wanted to throw you a little curveball .

Sadly iguanas are not in my immediate future, but what is in my immediate future is a new business venture. Six months ago I had an idea (hopefully a good idea). Since I don’t have the required skills/knowledge/abilities to make this idea a reality, I had to hire people to do it for me.

Never in my life have I made a couple thousand dollar investment in something that wasn’t at least moderately safe. I wish I could go in to more details about the business, but for now I have to keep things hush-hush (I probably shouldn’t even be writing this post…haha). Not knowing if I just made the best or worst investment of my life is both extremely exhilarating and incredibly scary (kinda like skydiving I suppose). Two weeks from now I will find out if this six-month journey was one worth taking. Wish me luck

What risks have you taken lately?

P.S. A handful of you know what this venture is. Please be respectful and keep your lips locked. If you want to ask me any questions shoot me an email, DONT put it in the comments.

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If I walked in to a Nordstrom and found a pair of shoes I liked, but decided the $100 asking price was too much, do you think they’d sell ‘em to me for $80? Not a chance. Most US retailers don’t negotiate price. If you aren’t willing to pay the sticker value, you best start looking elsewhere. In Korea, however, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Today I am going Skiing… no I’m not playing hookie from work, it’s Saturday here. I made sure to pack warm for my time abroad, but I never even thought about the possibility of hitting the slopes during my stay.

Fortunately I had a good jacket, warm pants, thermal socks, and some sunglasses. I had pretty much all the gear I needed for my mountain day, everything except gloves and a beanie that is. Looks like I had some shopping to do.

Just about every street in Korea is littered with street vendors. They sell everything from fried meats to paintings. Football jerseys to fake purses. If you are looking for it, a street vendor has it. Oh! I even had a woman approach me asking me if I’d like a “massage”. Something tells me she wasn’t just offering a massage if ya know what I mean. Sorry lady, I’m happily married and prostitutes aren’t my thing.

During my epic journey to find some decent gloves and a beanie –tuques for all you Canucks– I realized a few things about myself…

1. I get terribly uncomfortable when the vendor hovers me while I’m looking through their various products. In fact, I get so uncomfortable that my visceral reaction is to put down whatever I’m looking at (even if I want it) and just walk away. I know they mean no harm, but I prefer shopping without something looking over my shoulder telling me “This one very nice, I give you good deal”.

2. I have no idea which vendor I should go to. Every street is lined with dozens of booths. How do I know which one I should go to? It seems like they all sell the exact same things. I get overwhelmed by the options and start loosing interest and motivation to keep looking. (It’s kinda like when you are super hungry but there are a million restaurants nearby and you can’t pick which one you want to go to.)

3. How do I know if the product is legit? Obviously the quality of a beanie is not of great importance, but gloves are a different story. If they don’t insulate well and are not completely waterproof, they’re as good as garbage. I tried on a million different types of gloves, but since none of them are made by North Face, Burton, or REI it’s impossible for me to know if they’ll actually do their job on the mountain. I ended up buying a pair, sure hope they don’t suck!

4. Lastly, the most important thing I learned about myself during my Korean shopping extravaganza was that I absolutely suck at negotiating. Well that may not necessarily be true. I negotiate advertising rates for my blog, I negotiated the purchase price of Girl Ninja’s engagement ring, and I will definitely negotiate like a boss when it comes time to putting an offer in on a house. But I absolutely suck at negotiating small, petty, and already affordable things.

I found a pair of gloves that seemed pretty decent. The asking price was $25. I knew in my head (and from what everyone else tells me) I could easily knock a few bucks off that price. But guess, what. I gave the lady $25 and walked away with some new gloves. So what if I could have negotiated her down to $20 or $15. I got a good deal, and she probably got more than she was expecting. It’s a win-win. Besides, those same gloves at Target or Sports Authority probably would have cost $40, not to mention the vendor here in Korea probably NEEDS that $25 a heck of a lot more than I do.

How can I love negotiating so much when it comes to larger transactions, but clam up like a little kid when it comes to trivial things? Am I the only person that sucks at negotiating with street vendors? Should I let emotions (sympathy) be a part of the negotiating process, or just try to get the best deal possible?

So last night, after watching the most exciting/frustrating football game of my life (UW vs Baylor), I went outside with my future brother-in-law/former college roommate and smoked my first pipe. He asked me to be the best man in his wedding (so pumped for it!) and got me a wood pipe as a gift.

I smoked — well if you consider two or three puffs “smoking”– my first cigar earlier this month with my dad in Las Vegas. I hated it. I’ve always thought pipes were “classy”, not to mention I love the smell of pipe smoke (reminds me of my Grandpa), so I was excited about the gift.

I was pretty nervous to smoke the pipe, however. If it was anywhere near as nasty as the cigar, I knew it would become nothing more than a sexy paperweight.

While smoking a pipe definitely takes a lot of finesse/skill/patience/matches, I was surprised at how mild the cherry tobacco flavor actually was. I mean, I hate alcohol, chocolate, and coffee because the flavor is just too much for me, but I could hardly taste or feel anything as I drew from the pipe. Kinda neat.

I still don’t really know what I’m doing, but I look forward to spending time with my future bro-in-law again as we sit out on the porch, smoking pipes and pondering life.

Here’s a shot I took as we were about to go outside….

Have you ever smoked anything before? Why does smoking a pipe seem so much cooler than a cigarette or a cigar? Any pipe smokers have any tips or advice for me?

p.s. I’ve never smoked a cigarette. Only taken three puffs of a cigar one time, three weeks ago. And will probably smoke from my pipe once every two or three months.

p.p.s. I also took Engagement pictures for them on Wednesday. It was the first time I’ve taken anyone’s engagement pics. It was really rainy but we had a lot of fun. Here are a few of my favorite shots….

Life insurance is arguably the most boring personal finance topic known to man. In fact, it’s so boring I’ve only talked about it once before. It’s time to try to make life insurance less miserable, and more tolerable. Are ya with me? (If you aren’t with me, this should be right up your alley).

Since Girl Ninja and I are both young, employed, and relatively healthy we have personally decided that life insurance is not at the top of our priority list. But just because we haven’t made it an uber-priority, that doesn’t mean we don’t have some protection.

Four years ago, when I started my first day of work, the human resources office shoved a bunch of paperwork my way. Without really knowing what I was doing, I ended up making some pretty responsible decisions. I began contributing 8% of my gross pay to my 401K and I signed up for not only the standard life insurance policy my agency offers, but also a little bit of additional life insurance coverage.

Ask me how much life insurance coverage I have? Wait, don’t ask me. I have no freakin’ clue what my coverage is. Ha! How’s that for staying on top of your finances? I’ve been paying for life insurance for the last four years and have no idea what I’m actually getting out of it. Let me go run the numbers.

………

Okay, I’m back. Apparently, if one of you crazy blog stalkers actually tracks me down and de-skins me, Girl Ninja will get a pay out to the tune of $162,000. Nobody tell her that, or I might end up missing tomorrow

Since we have no dependents and no financial obligations, we don’t plan on beefing up our life insurance coverage in the near future. Once Girl Ninja turns into a baby factory though, it’s time to man up and protect our household (literally, since we will probably own a house by that time). It’s not like I’m familiar with
Insurance Jobs UK . Insurance confuses me

We would likely go with a 20 year level term life insurance policy to cover myself (I don’t like whole life insurance at all). I’m thinking $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 in coverage should ensure my families well-being in the event I pay an early visit to the big man upstairs. A quick quote says a million dollar policy would cost us $35/month and a $2MM policy runs $66/month.

If I die while Girl Ninja is a stay at home mom, that puts a lot of stress on her. But if she has a few million in the bank she should easily be able to sustain the Ninja house until she finds herself a new suitor (this whole conversation is kind of morbid isn’t it?). I’d be a pretty happy person if I was able to still take care of my family even after I was gone.

We will likely take out a $500,000  to $1,000,000 policy on GN. That way, if something happens to her, we can use this money to subsidize the new childcare expenses we’d incur as I continued to work.

Okay, enough about talking about hypothetical death. It’s depressing. BUT HOLY COW! A million dollar term policy is pretty stinkin’ cheap. I think I’m paying something like $22 a month for that $162,000 policy, so I should probably cancel it next open season and just buy my own million dollar policy for ten extra bucks. Time to quit being lazy, and start protecting my family.

Do you have life insurance on anyone in your household? If yes, how much. If no, why not?

If you like whole life insurance over term, tell me why.

Why is life insurance such an incredibly UN-sexy topic?