Because this is eFIPO’s final Blog of the Week I decided to save one of my favorite blogs for last. This blog was one of the main reasons why I started blogging in the first place. So, without further adieu eFIPO’s Feature Finance Blog of the year goes to:

AllFinancialMatters- A personal finance blog dedicated to discussing such topics as budgeting, asset allocation, 401K, IRA, cash flow, insurance, financial planning, portfolio management, and other areas in personal finance.

JLP, the writer of AllFinancialMatters, is one of the granddaddies of personal finance blogs. His writing style is extremely informative with a personalize touch of wisdom. I’ve been reading his blog since July 1^st, 2006 and everyday he writes something new and entertaining. People use AllFinancialMatters as a benchmark to grade finance blogs and he is on the very top of the pedestal. I know his content in the upcoming years will be as rich as the years before. I would like to personally thank JLP because he was the main reason why I started eFIPO.

My favorite post this week - What Kind of Millionaire Do You Want To Be?

Also check out his final post -”This Is My FINAL Post“.

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Mutual Fund Performance (All grouped together)

• Friday, December 22, 2006 Full Value $10,881.66
• Friday, December 29, 2006 Full Value $11,125.85
• Increase of $244.19 which is a ~2.2% increase.

Individual Stock Performance (All grouped together)

• Friday, December 22, 2006 Full Value $2344.10
• Friday, December 29, 2006 Full Value $2401.75
• Increase of $57.65 which is a ~2.45 increase.

Stock trading for 2006 is complete and I didn’t receive what I originally anticipated earlier this year. It turns out both my stock and mutual fund portfolio didn’t push up in the last month like I thought. They finished strong with an average of over 15% growth this year which is still a very nice return. My mutual fund balance on January 1^st, 2006 was $9548.45 and finished on December 29, 2006 with a balance of $11,125.85; which is a yearly return of 16.5%.

My individual stock portfolio had some real winners and some pretty big laggers. Circuit City had a pretty solid year till mid October. They dropped nearly 17% in one month and dropped even more in December. My stock portfolio balance on January 1^st, 2006 was $2042.78 and finished with a balance of 2401.75; which is a yearly return of 17.57%. Not too shabby with three bad stocks.

Here are my Superman stocks for this year in order of performance.

• DELTA AIR LINES INC: 89% return
• IAC/InterActiveCorp : 30.5% return
• Adobe Systems Incorporated: 30.33% return
• Sun Microsystems, Inc.: 23.74% return
• HONDA MOTOR CO ADR: 23.47
• Google Inc.: 20.80% return
• GEN MOTORS: 20.17% return

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Yesterday, I was asked the question “What would you do with an extra $10,000?” When I started to really think about it, there are tons of things I could do with that kind of money. What would you do with it? Buy that new TV you always wanted? Save it? Invest it? Pay down some credit card debt?

My first thought was to pay off my student loan debt. Would that be a smart financial decision? Probably not. That was a loan so I could leverage myself by paying for my education without using any of my own money. Another reason why it would not make sense to pay off my student loan quickly is the tax benefit and the low interest rate. After thinking about all the advantages, why would I want to expedite paying off a near interest free loan?

My second thought was to put $6,000 into my online savings account and invest the other $4,000 in my individual stock portfolio. This would be great way to increase my net worth and help build my retirement portfolio. I would then have $6,000 which I could use at my own discretion.

Then I thought of how I can use this money to get a higher long term return, and leverage this money as much as I could. Real estate is one of the only ways that you could purchase a big asset with little or no money. The $10,000 could be used as bargaining money for a down payment on a rental property. There’s a town house community that I’ve been looking at that would be perfect for this kind of investment. I could purchase the property and immediately rent it out to an Atlanta commuter or a fellow college student.

*eFIPO’s Rule* Always think outside the box when it comes to personal finance. There’s never just one way to solve a problem. Learn how you can turn a little money into lots of money.

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The eFIPO Podcast also known as “Voice of eFIPO” is approaching. If you would like to be involved in our first podcast, please either leave a comment or email us. Our first Podcast will deal mostly with young politics but it will tie in personal finance. We are allowing two more people to be involved in the podcast. You must have a microphone with Skype or a domestic phone line (I would prefer Skype). It will be a twenty minute discussion and it’s going to be a lot of fun. So get involved!

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Is there one particular retail store you purchase all your electronic products? If you answered yes to the previous question, are you enrolled into their reward program and credit card? A lot of retail stores such as Best Buy, Circuit City and BrandsMart offer credit cards that award you gift points when you purchase in-store products and services and outside purchases. I like to shop at Best Buy and Circuit City, but I decided to get the Circuit City credit card because it rewards you 5% on every purchase versus the 4% through Best Buy. BrandsMart only you gives you 2% for purchases at BrandsMart USA ewww. What a bad deal. All three companies’ credit cards offer a 1% return for outside purchases which isn’t that bad.

Here’s a quick breakdown on your rewards points if you purchases a $1000 at all three retail stores.

• Circuit City -$50  Winner
• Best Buy- $40
• BrandsMart- $20

Another reason why I decided to go with the Circuit City card is because I have a lot more money invested in the company. I truly believe if you like a store enough to purchase products from them on a regular basis, why not purchases shares in the company? It’s a win-win situation.

This is a quick and easy way to save some money while rewarding the consumer for company loyalty. Customer loyalty is going to be the concentration for retail stores to make their profits in the upcoming years. *eFIPO’s Rule* Just because you signed up for the credit card does not mean you can go on a shopping spree. Respect credit cards and they will respect you.

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I’m hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Christmas is always a great time to show some people how much you appreciate them with a gift that requires some deep thinking. This year my father and mother or “Santa” purchased me “Why We Want You to be Rich“audio CD by Donald J. Trump, Robert T. Kiyosaki. Even though there were many mixed reviews about this book (mostly negative) there’s a ton of great information in the book. First thing that I loved about it was the topic of financial education. Financial education should be taught at every school in America. It amazes me that someone can learn how to become a doctor and still not know how to balance a check book.

Second thing I liked about the book is its controversial topic of social security and Medicare. Because both of these authors are so popular they can spread an unpopular message and make it a hot topic. I like the fact that they think “gimmies” are the reason why America is failing. Right now, I’m reading the book Atlas Shrugged; which revolves around the notion that socialized programs makes people lazy and unsuccessful. I’m a total believer in reforming our social programs in the U.S. because they are designed to motivate laziness.

Third topic that I liked about the book was fact it wasn’t an investment book. When I originally read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I was kind of disappointed that it didn’t really teach me how to become rich. All it taught me is to think outside the box and not to become a corporate robot. All of Robert T. Kiyosaki books are educational and motivational references. They are not “how to become rich” books, but more on the lines of “what knowledge do rich people have”books. The line that they hammered in my head throughout the audio book is “You can give a man a fish and he eats for a day. You can teach him how to fish, and he’ll not go hungry the rest of his life.”

So instead of just reading all the negative reviews about the book, decide for yourself and either buy the book or audio CD’s. In my eyes it was an interesting book.

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Merry Christmas everyone! Have a great day.

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I decided to change the format for Blog of The Week. Every week I will post my favorite new blog discussing either politics or personal finance. This week I will start with finance and next week will be politics.

eFIPO’s Feature Finance Blog

The Money Tortoise- A Slow, Steady, and Successful Approach to Personal Finance. I was introduced to this finance blog through the Get Linked! button on the bottom right of eFIPO’s webpage. I’ve been following this blog since he sent me the email. I enjoy reading a realistic approach to personal finance because it grounds me sometimes. I occasionally write a few articles on how to get your net worth to increase faster by using an individual stock portfolio to get bigger returns, but it involves a lot more risk. Russ writes a clear way to develop your net worth with a slow and steady approach. My favorite post this week” What if You Can’t Go Slow & Steady?

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Mutual Fund Performance (All grouped together)

• Friday, December 9, 2006 Full Value $10,971.00
• Friday, December 22, 2006Full Value $10,881.66
• Decrease of $89.34 which is a ~1% decrease.

Individual Stock Performance (All grouped together)

• Friday, December 9, 2006  Full Value $2368.40
• Friday, December 22, 2006  Full Value $2344.10
• Decrease of $24.3 which is a ~1.2 decrease.

The mutual fund was the big shocker last week. If my mutual fund would have stayed the same (in terms of share price), the fund could have produced my 20% return for the year. On December 15^th I received my dividends and capital gains for the year which awarded me with $510.72. That’s a nice payment, but all the shares in my mutual fund went down in value by about 4%. The only real positive from this situation is that I purchased the funds at the discounted price.

My stock portfolio is floating around the 15% return area which is okay but not wonderful. This will be the smallest return I’ve received ever in my stock portfolio. I’ve done a few risky investment moves this year that have either helped or damaged my portfolio. The big pusher was Delta that gave a 110% return this year! My three let downs were Vonage, Whole Foods, and Circuit City. They’ve lowered my overall portfolio by 8.4%. Ouch! All of those stocks are considered to be volatile growth stocks, so hopefully they will perform next year.

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The big move is finally over and now I can live my normal life again! After many, many hours packing, moving, painting, cleaning, and unpacking, I can finally take a rest. Here was my schedule for the past week.

Friday

• Packed from 11:00 AM- 4:30 PM
• Worked from 5:00 PM -12:30 AM
• Packed from 12:45 AM- 2:30 AM

Saturday

• Same schedule as Friday

Sunday:

• Packed some more from 8:30 AM-10:45 AM
• Picked up U-Haul at 11:00 and started loading up the truck
• Filled the whole truck and brought it to my parents house by 2:30 PM
• Unpacked the whole truck by 4:00 PM
• Returned U-Haul at 5:00 PM
• Drove back to my parents’ house to move boxes downstairs and in my new room and finished at 10:30 PM

Monday

• Painted from 9:00 AM to 4:40 PM
• Worked from 5:00 PM to 1:00 PM
• Painted from 1:15: AM to 3:30 AM

Tuesday

• Painted from 10:30 AM to 4:40 PM
• Worked from 5:00 PM to 12:30 AM
• Painted and cleaned from 12:45 AM to 2:30 AM

Wednesday

• Woke up at 7:00 AM to go to a conference with my dad till 5:00 PM
• Worked from 6:00 PM to 1:30 AM

Thursday

• Woke up at 1:15 PM < Thank God

My new tenants moved in yesterday and gave me my first rent check and it felt incredible. During the past week I’ve spent more than $1,700 on the house. The new fence I had built cost me $980, new faucet for kitchen cost me $100, all the paint and painting accessories cost me $200, the carpet cleaning cost me $220, the cost of labor free. I have to thank my girlfriend, my mom and my friends that helped me out, because without them I would have easily spent $3000.

My computer will be set up soon (right now I’m using my girlfriend’s computer), so I will be posting on a daily basis like before. Thanks for still reading my website while I was going through moving hell.

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