After seeing Iron Man this weekend with my brother (It was great escapism entertainment) I came up with some simple steps to succeed like Tony Stark:

1. Get Super Educated

2. Inherit Billion Dollar Company

7. Get the right woman

Success! It’s so simple : )

I'm 300K in debt. Gulp. I'm 24 and day traded away a fortune. Now I'm trying to crawl back to zero. Why not subscribe to my RSS feed and join me on this journey. You can also subscribe via e-mail. I appreciate tips and feedback! ~ DebtKid

Sleep.

It’s really important, right?

The last few nights I’ve finally gotten enough of it, and now I can’t seem to get my fill. I hadn’t had a good nights sleep in over a week, and I think it finally hit me this week. I’m absolutely exhausted, with no concrete reason I see yet. I don’t feel great, but I don’t have any specific sicky symptoms either. I’m hoping I’ll feel better tomorrow.

Cash Situation

My business’ cash situation is better than it’s been in a long time. I made some good decisions in April, and May is likely going to be the most profitable month ever. I’ll start payments with the IRS this month, so it’s just in time.

But it begs a new question, one that I’ll be thinking about the next few weeks for sure. What do I do with any extra business cash? In my view, it really comes down to either investing or debt repayment. Both have trade-offs. And when I say investing here, I’m talking about investing into my current business, not stock type investing.

I may be the world’s worst stock investor, but when it comes to business investment, I’ve done well the last year or so. Some of my ideas are starting to finally pay off, and should continue too into the future.

I know I’m going to get a zillion comments saying, “pay down the debt!!!”. And yes, I will continue to do that, but that’s a very short-sighted and knee jerk answer to this question. Sure, I could pay more to the IRS, but that could limit my ability to potentially pay off the IRS much, much quicker. Same thing with my other debts, I could pay small amounts off….for 20 years, or I can continue to re-invest in my business and maybe pay everything off much quicker.

As I write this, it’s becoming more clear to me what my thoughts on this are: I need to reinvest (wisely) into my business. While not doing so might be at the short term level less risky, over the long term I believe my only chance of paying this all down quickly is by making significantly more in my business.

I have lots of ideas that I write down all the time on business expansion, it will just be a matter of picking one and executing it well. Or, reinvesting into my current projects and trying to maximize their value. We’ll see.

Oh, if anyone’s interested in my mattress quest, here is my goal chart (getting close!):

I got tagged by BeingFrugal with the MEME about “when life gives you lemons….”

Well, you know the rest.

I’ll share a little about what it was like losing my house, and what I did to try and make the best of living in my office for two months:

My Lemonade Story (oh, I loved that Lemonade Stand game as a kid!)

I’m an optimist. Sometimes that’s a bad thing, like when I was *optimistic* that I could turn $50,000 into $1 million day trading currencies. That was some bad optimism. But sometimes it’s a good thing.

When my house sold (I did a short sale during the foreclosure process), I didn’t have a place to live. I didn’t have any money. What I did still have was a small office where I had been running my business the previous few years.

Choose your own adventure!

I decided the first night there that this was going to be an adventure (it was), and not a pity party. I slept on a camping pad, on the floor, and really tried to pretend I was in summer camp.

It worked.

I wasn’t miserable. I got a little buffer because I had to go to the gym each morning to shower. I tried to think of it as the dorm experience I never had in college. I had a little shower bag and I would walk to the gym before my employees showed up. I really made the situation into a game. I got caught once (an employee came in early), and I almost thought I was getting arrested once (the SPD is everywhere), but overall I tried to make the best of it.

I slept in my car some nights when I was too tired to make up my bed. And yeah, that wasn’t the most fun, but at least I had somewhere, you know? Many people don’t have an office, or even a car to sleep in each night. Plus, the whole living in my office thing is a pretty darn good entrepreneur story. It will just be allot funnier when I’m actually out of this mess!

I’ll tag: No Debt Plan

Debt is a four letter word

My Debt Blog

LIFE GAVE ME SOME LEMONS - IT’S OK, I MADE DELICIOUS LEMONADE - MEME Rules: * Copy and paste these rules to your blog post. * Link back to person who tagged you. * Write about an incident in your life you first thought was really bad, but ended up being a blessing. * Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. * Let each person you tagged know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. (* And if you want to - link back to this original Lemonade Meme post too.)

end official rules stuff

I’ve know this for a while….but I’m a risk taker.

In fact, in many situations, I have little to no avoidance to risk. What I think I’m finally starting to learn is how to channel that attraction to risk in a healthy manner.

I used to “trade” FOREX….lots of (unhealthy) risk there. But that was more of an addiction than an actual business venture. In my business, I take risks by launching new products or initiatives. Sometime they work, most of the time they don’t.

I think I have to be an entrepreneur. I think I would go nuts if I didn’t have the ability/time to work on businesses I think could grow. My problem right now, is I am kind of going nuts sometimes because I lack the capital to grow my current businesses as fast as I would like. But, at the same time, it’s a good lesson on patience and planning.

Even if someone offered to loan or invest money in me (why anyone would do this based on my past is beyond me), I would decline. I need to focus on paying down my debt, and growing my business.

But back to risk.

I like it. I like knowing that something I create or build has the potential to change my situation faster than just doing the basic good personal finance/frugal steps I’m also doing.

Now….off to (free) dinner with my brother.

How exactly does one be confident without being cocky?

It’s one of the biggest struggles I deal with. I was brought up never to brag, and to some extent, resent those who do. Now, that last sentence felt a little braggy on my part. Thus, you see my struggle. I want to be humble, yet not a doormat.

I went to a tournament party last night and was surrounded by lots of new people and many acquaintances. It was pretty bad. Right when I thought I was maybe doing better in social situations. I just felt like a jerk most of the night. A girl would ask me a perfectly open ended question (where did you grow up?) and I would turn the question back to her in a matter of a sentence or two. I don’t like talking about myself to people I don’t know right now.

It’s risky talking to new people. I have to constantly filter what I’m saying. Now, you might think, “everyone does that! that’s just America” Well, it’s never really been me. In most situations, I don’t have a filter, and I’ve always liked it that way. Now….now, everything is filtered.

Anyway, getting back to the being too cocky part. Being my age (24) and a small business owner, everyone is impressed. God knows I wish they weren’t. But, on the other hand, if it weren’t for my past transgressions (losing a quarter million), it would be impressive. And, I’ll be honest, I am impressed with myself and how I’ve handled my turnaround thus far. I still have a huge ways to go, but I’ve never given up, and don’t intend too. BUT, I can’t even share that with a new person….so you see my conundrum. What I’m really proud of is what I’ve talked about here on the blog the past year. My business is just an outward expression of this which I can’t talk about.

So, any suggestions on how I can be more confident without sounding like a greedy, cocky, businessman? (bear in mind, many of my social situations of late are church related) I’m at a loss…

I participated in my very first “blog carnival” this week. Yay for me. Let’s have a party…

But seriously, I feel like I’ve been getting to know a lot of personal finance bloggers lately, and by the most part, it’s a fantastic group. I really feel that meeting them, and my readers here are a big help to my whole motivation and direction to get out of this mess I’m in.

So I had a general overview piece about p2p lending that can be found over at Moolanomy. Pinyo is a top notch guy and if you haven’t checked out his site I’d recommend doing so.

Baseball, yes! So, my bother got tickets for an upcoming Seattle mariner’s game! I’m pretty excited, I’m not a huge baseball fan, but actually going to games live is a blast at Safeco. We got a steal of a deal on the tickets (friend of a friend had them, sold them to us cheap), which is good, because apparently baseball has become quite expensive these days.

Off to do some late-night business strategy work….I’ve got a zillion ideas going right now and trying to figure out if any of them can fit into my business budget. Most likely not….which is too bad ’cause they are darn good!

I love movies. Especially when you can so perfectly relate to a character. This weekend I watched “Elizabethtown” a hilarious, fluffy romantic comedy from Cameron Crowe.

The main character is a young shoe designer who just cost his company nearly 1 billion dollars.

OK, so I didn’t quite lose 1 billion, but I really want my story to follow this movie…

My story should go like this…

1. Guy gets girl - When he finally tells the girl (Kristen Dundst) about his 1 billion dollar mistake, her response is: “That’s your big secret? That’s it?”

I only hope whenever I meet someone and have to explain my quarter million dollar mistake that she responds the same way. Hopefully she’s as cute as Kriten DundstKirsten Dunst as well….he he.

2. Guy puts life in perspective - It takes a trip to Kentucky for the funeral of his father, but guy learns what’s really important (family, love, intimacy, laughter, etc).

I feel I’ve got this lesson down pretty well. I wouldn’t be here without my family and their support. Not just through this mistake but earlier ones in my life as well.

I’m still a little weak in the “love” area. And I don’t just mean mushy, romantic love. Lately I’ve been able to “feel” much more….but I’m still not emotionally where I’d like to be. Maybe it’s strange to have emotional goals, but I’d always been an emotional person until the past few years. 2007 was like year of the Robot for me. Stone cold Debtkid….yikes.

Coming this week

• Q1 Financial Reports - Revenue should be in the 20K range for the first quarter
• IRS Meeting - I’ll be chatting with my IRS agent, try to setup a face-to-face meeting
• Possibly completely restructuring how I pay myself from my business (due to a potential w-2 half-time job)
• I will try and talk to a girl I’ve wanted to ask out for ages…
• I will likely fail on the last point
• But gosh darn it I should try…right?

If you’re visiting here from JD’s fantastic site, you’ll need a quick catch-up on my story:

but first, don’t forget to subscribe silly.

1. I thought I was the next Warren Buffet and traded away over $250K mostly using credit.
2. I hit rock bottom and started this journal to document my journey back to zero
3. I short sold my house after it went into foreclosure. I have some pride issues sometimes.
4. I work alot. But I have too if I’m ever going to get out of debt. For the most part I really enjoy working.
5. I lived in my office for about 2 months after selling my house. Good times were had. I became a little anal.
6. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with everything, but then I get nice comments like this from readers (see Shel)
7. I sometimes like to rant about women (and my lack/difficulty in dating)

Well, that should at least get you started. My most current update? My Ch. 7 Bankruptcy went through, and my personal finances are actually looking pretty good now. I’m meeting with an IRS agent next week to map out the 18K that I owe them. Should be fun! Thanks for visiting…

and don’t forget to subscribe….

Link: story on coping with financial mistakes @ GRS 

I just need to be alone.

I had a friend in town this week, staying with me for 4 days. I started to get completly brain stir crazy in the evening of Day 2. The fact that I couldn’t work as much as I normally do, combined with the fact that I was always around someone…it drove me nuts. I have an employee working til 5 today….and then I am free! Oh, freedom.

I can’t function without alone time. I’ve gotten so acclimated to spending the majority of my time alone (and not talking to anyone), this week was a complete overload. It will be at least a few days before I’m back up to speed.

And to top it off….it’s been a crazy week outside of my social life:

• I got my paperwork into the IRS (meeting next week)
• my Alpha business is having a huge week and another big call with a client tomorrow and
• I may be accepting a half-time W-2 position.

Congrats to Randall from CreditWithdrawl for winning my dumbest purchase ever (a Nintendo DS Lite). I hope you get more use out of it than I did. It will go out in the mail tomorrow. It feels good to get that off my chest.

TaxCut Premium Online + efile

A friendly marketing rep offered my 2 copies of TaxCut Premium Online + efile on behalf of H&R Block. It seemed like a good offer, so what the heck. I realize they are getting more out of this situation than I am, but I’m a sucker for free stuff. I’m taking one, ’cause I’m cheap and still need to do my personal taxes this year, but the other one I can give away to a reader here ($29.95 value looks like from their website). Just leave a comment on this post and I’ll use random.org to pick a winner at the end of the week.

This Week Craziness…

This next week is going to be pretty big/crazy for me. My Alpha Business (aka new name for “project a”) is getting a work out from a big client, and I have a friend coming into town to visit that doesn’t know my current situation. He’s a close friend, but I don’t feel the need right now to concern him with my past and current troubles. Maybe someday, but not now. Regardless, it’s going to be a bit of a eventful week. I’ll also be chatting with the IRS. I got all the paperwork they requested in last week, and now I want to follow up, make sure they got it, and go for a face to face meeting probably in about a week.