When I started writing this blog a year and half ago, I was in a much different place from today:  My oldest daughter had just turned one year old, I just finished Rich Dad, Poor Dad (which I wholeheartedly DO NOT recommend as a personal finance learning resource), and I discovered the Personal Finance blogosphere.  I was dissatisfied with my job and I wanted to pursue other potential careers.  So I started writing.

Over the last 18 months, I’ve written about various subjects, from “Adventures in Frugality” to vermicomposting, and my wife was kind enough to chime in a few times along the way.  But as I said before, things are much different today.

I’m now the happy father of two beautiful daughters, my finances are in better shape than they have been in the past, and I’m busy searching for my next job.  I tried keeping a 5-a-week writing schedule, but I found myself getting burned out often and increasingly unhappy with the quality of my writing.  And, on top of that, the hours I spent preparing articles could be spent on more profitable adventures as well as increased family time.  So I’ve decided to change things.

My journey is far from over, but the path has changed a bit.  I’m not going to abandon this blog, nor will I abandon the friends I’ve made over these past months – I’m just going to write when I have something worth saying and not stick to some arbitrary schedule. Some of my best work are articles I wrote over the course of a few weeks – tweaking, editing, and rewriting until I had a solid product.

I hope that you’ll stick around now that the game has changed, but I understand if you’d rather read new content every day.  If you need something consistent to read, please stroll through my blogroll and read what some of my friends have to say.  And if you do choose to stay with me, thank you.  I hope that with this change I’ll be able to provide you with a better product.

Thank you for helping me arrive where I am today and I look forward to sharing this new leg of my journey with you!

Photo by: npslibrarian

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

A few weeks ago, I heard about a new social bookmarking service that was starting up. I’m not usually into following “social-whatever” trends, but this one caught my eye. The service was curiously named Tip’d and it offered Digg-style voting for finance-related topics. I signed up and immediately fell in love with the service.

Niche sites such as Tip’d are great if you don’t feel like wading through the noise in the Digg community. As a reader, it helps you find what you’re looking for faster. As a publisher, you have a better chance that your content will be seen by the eyes you’re targeting. Add to that a strong application, a growing community, and a nice visual style, and Tip’d quickly became one of my favorites.

Tip’d boasts nearly 1800 registered members and a growing list of partner sites helping to continue to grow the site. With the public release, they also introduced a few new features and improvements:

• Private messaging between users
• A 3-minute edit window for story submissions
• 12 categories for organizing the stories
• A new server to speed up user interaction
• And a “Topple” button, just in case some spam slips through the cracks

I encourage you to give Tip’d a look and find me while you’re there. My username is ThatOneCaveman. While you’re there, feel free to promote your favorite articles from my blog and others so Tip’d can grow and continue to offer the best of the finance world right on your desktop.

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

I’m not one to normally sign up for the so-called “social networks” because I’ve found it takes way too much time to keep them updated. But after months of resisting invitations and such, I’ve finally signed up for Twitter. (Thanks to Financial Ramblings for pushing me over the edge.) :)

You can follow me at:

http://twitter.com/ThatOneCaveman

Please leave your twitter profiles in the comments and I’ll be sure to follow you, too!

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

This mini-rant was spurred on by a comment left at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity…

For the last 20 months, we’ve been inundated with political messages attacking and supporting the candidates for President offered up by one of the two major political parties. All the news coverage has led us to believe that we’re going out today to decide who will be the next President of the United States. And, because of that, some people in strongly red or blue states are staying home because they believe their vote won’t matter. While they may be correct that their single vote won’t change the outcome of the Presidental election for their state, there are many state and local-level issues on these ballots as well.

For instance, in the state of Illinois there is an issue on the ballot asking whether the voters think we should call a Constitution Convention to revisit and revise our state’s constitution for the first time in 38 years. If an Illinois voter stayed home because he was sure Obama would carry the state, he would have missed the opportunity to vote on this very important issue that has the potential to dramatically affect every individual and company in Illinois. That is just one illustration out of hundreds of potential state and local-level issues that will also be decided today.

I have seen local-level issues in the past decided by a single vote. Out of a district of thousands of potential voters, only 83 voted on the specific issue – and it ended up raising everyone’s taxes! So if you think your vote doesn’t matter, that you’re just one vote out of millions, suddenly that one vote is more important when it’s out of hundreds or even tens.

So please, go out and vote today if you’re registered. Your vote certainly does matter. Don’t let someone else take control over your life just because you couldn’t be bothered to stand and wait in a line for a little while.

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

I realized this morning that I’ve been writing about myself and my present for two days now and haven’t told you who this friendly caveman is or how he got here.

Who am I?

I’m a 27 year-old, married caveman with a beautiful one year-old daughter. I am a software engineer and have been with my current employer for nearly 4 years. In that time, I’ve gathered one promotion that provided a hefty raise. Recently, I’ve felt my entrepreneurial spirit tugging at me, so I’ve decided to start my own computer consulting business on the side.

How did I get here?

My story starts in my senior year of high school. I worked my butt off through high school and got good grades. Those grades bought me a full scholarship to a state university. Graduating college with no debt was quite a bonus!

The Cavewife, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as fortunate. She went to a private university and paid out of her own pocket. Her parents did not support her education, so she was forced to work throughout school and take loans to cover the remaining balance. To her benefit, she graduated with about one year’s worth of tuition in loans – not too shabby! So when we got married, that debt officially became “ours.”

Unfortunately, I graduated right in the middle of the bursting tech bubble and getting a good job was no easy task. After school, I held an IT job, and then moved to retail temporarily after getting laid off there. Then I moved on to a “favor” job from a fellow church member at a company’s help desk. Knowing that was to be a short-term position, I used it to leapfrog into a better job. That job provided me with a security clearance which I used to move to where I am today. After nearly two years, I finally made it into the position I’m at now, which I can honestly say is the first job out of college that I actually wanted and allowed me to do what my degree said I could do.

My wife had similar troubles. She graduated with a BA in Accounting. Unfortunately, with just a BA, there isn’t all that much a company will let you do right out of college. She applied to many local accounting firms, but none would hire her. Eventually she had to settle for a teller’s position at a local credit union. After a couple of years there, she was finally hired by a larger company as an accounting clerk. While that job paid more, it was far from fulfilling for her and she got dragged down by it all.

Then a miracle came! We found out in April 2006 that we would soon become parents. Inside of my wife, a little, beautiful cavegirl was growing. We discussed the challenges and opportunities this presented us and we finally decided that it would be best for her and best for the family as a whole if she quit her job after the baby was born and become a stay-at-home mom. We knew it would be difficult to lose her income, but it would also likely cost us more to put the baby in daycare than she was earning. So now, she stays home with that one year-old cavegirl and manages our house and expenses.

It is certainly nice knowing there’s an accountant at home!

Over the course of the nearly five years we have been married, we’ve bought and sold our starter home and have since moved into a larger home that is better equipped to handle a family. I consider this house to be a good investment, even if the mortgage payments do make things a little tight right now. That will change as time progresses and as we get smarter about handling our income.

Addendum: How I didn’t get here

Notice that throughout this entire article, I never once mentioned credit cards. There’s a very good reason for that: we always pay off our balance every month. It’s not always been easy to do, but it’s something we decided from the very start so that we wouldn’t get over our heads. I can’t imagine what the debt graph would look like today if we had let that balance ride… It’s certainly the smartest thing we’ve done in our financial lives.

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com