[...] is based on personal experience. But my financial life is not without weaknesses. Last January, I tallied my discretionary spending to see exactly how much these weaknesses cost me. This year, I’ve done the [...]

[...] know the value.” I am wondering how much money JD of Get Rich Slowly will make when he sells all his comics down the line. I am also wondering if there are many people who buy comics as an *investment*. The [...]

[...] Get Rich Slowly has a list of 10 Ways to Save Money on Books that repeatedly suggests a visit to the library: I used to spend thousands of dollars a year on books, most of which I never read. Recently I’ve begun to trim my book spending. I spent nearly $3000 on books in 2003, but that number dropped to $700 last year. How did I do it? Through self-discipline and some commonsense tricks. [...]

When I saw that, I just smiled and thought “Yeah, his personality does seem like a pipe smokers.” Take it easy JD and may you enjoy at least a couple of good smokes this winter season!

[...] 2006 Discretionary Spending: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Get Rich Slowly JD spends $3000 on comic books a year. Awesome (but bad for your wallet)! (tags: money finance comicbooks) [...]

My net worth includes real property and associated debt. It doesn’t include any of my wife’s finances, however, or any of the assets/liabilities that she tracks. (Remember: we keeps separate finances.) Because I track the house and the mortgage, it’s in this number. I figure as long as I’m staying consistent with which numbers I’m using, I’m doing okay.

At some point, in preparation for a future entry, I’ll actually sit down and computer our household net worth, which will be much higher, I think.

Especially if collect perennially popular series. Some of the comics you have may already be worth more than you paid for them, because of the limited release nature of comics.

So what you might want to consider is purging your comics archive once in a while. Sell off some of the ones that might be kind of rare, but something you aren’t likely to read and read again, or something you don’t think will really “appreciate” by comic collection standards.

Don’t just leave it as an addiction, make it a full-fledged hobby! If you do it right, who knows? It might end up paying for itself.

Do you really get a chance to read $50 worth of books a month if you’re also reading comic books and watching $50 worth of Netflix DVDs and iTunes downloads? I’d love to see some sort of estimate on the cost per hour, if only to see how many hours you estimate you’re spending this way. It sounds like you have more fun than I do!

It seems to me that here is a good place to adopt “pay yourself first.” The money’s there–if you’re not fully funding your IRA, that’s a bit of a problem. What I’d do is fully fund my IRA and then see what’s left over, so, make it a goal to cut out enough of this discretionary spending that you can free up enough cash to make up the difference between what you’re currently contributing and the limit. I’d propel my progress toward that goal by automating maximum-level monthly contributions to my IRA and then trying to work out the entertainment expenses within what’s left.

Really, I just wanted to say that I think this was a great post, one that humanized your blogging persona both my admitting a financial weakness and by giving your readership a sense of what you like. This post really drives home the fact that ultimately our finances are driven by our personalities and behaviors.

A lot of that savings came from realizing that my local library carries a lot of new trade paperbacks comic collections. With a branch of the library only about a mile from my home, I was easily able to start saving money.

You can definitely save some money by cutting the AMOUNT you are eating (and any good wellness program should do this, at least to an extent), but I would make the goal to break even, not to save over all. Otherwise you jeopardize the success of your wellness program, just to put a few more dollars in your IRA.

Expect being well (in every sense of the word) to cost you money – from food, to gym equipment or memberships, and personal trainers, and even the emotional wellness expenses like comic books. Don’t short-change your wellness and weight loss goals, because your health is worth more than money.

Best of luck!

- Bill

I like bestwebbuys.com/books for finding cheaper books. This site will search all the major online bookstores and ranks them for you (with shipping). I got through college this way and never paid more than $150 per term for books. You can save > 50% sometimes. Try it out.

Dustin

I have a semi decent comic collection, but I have them all in plastic bags (after reading them of course). I had considered them an “investment” but that is only if there is someone else out there to purchase them from me.

As with selling anyting there needs to be soneone willing to buy at the price you want.

So is there a debt repayment category or are you out of debt (excluding mortgage)?

Like Peg said, I wouldn’t be too sure. It depends on which comics you are buying. There are some on ebay in excess of $1K each.

http://search.ebay.com/superman_Comics_W0QQcatrefZC6QQfromZR10QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ3QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsacatZ63QQsbrsrtZl

http://collectibles.search.ebay.com/batman_Comics_W0QQcatrefZC6QQfromZR10QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ3QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsacatZ63QQsbrsrtZlQQssPageNameZWLRS

I do actually know someone who came up with the down payment for his house by selling his comic book collection.

What about clothing expenses? I’m assuming you don’t buy clothes often?

Thanks for sharing such specific numbers and thoughts. It doesn’t make me feel so guilty when I enjoy the things I buy.

I’ve never tried that restaurant but I love Nikolas? or Nikolai’s in the East Burnside area of Portland. Their coffee is amazing.

Do you keep all of your comic books? Or do you resell them? Perhaps reselling them can bring down some of the cost. (Just don’t resell a future collectible!) Or perhaps you could donate some of the comic books to a local library, then they become a charitable contribution, and maybe some other people will benefit…..?

Marvel was really good at this with the X-Men, I had a huge X-Men jones. They would make references to something and then actually put an apostrophy, saying “*To understand what Gambit is saying, check out X-Force 7″ or something like that. When the story lines got too convoluted that it seemed like even the writers couldn’t follow what they were doing, exept to reccommend more comics, I jumped off–somewhere around the Phalanx Covenant, if anyone remembers that X-Men title.

I then transferred this addiction, unfortunately, to regular books. It was pretty bad for awhile, because I worked at bookstores for about five years. I would wind up spending about half my paycheck there–thankfully, I didn’t have rent to pay.

I still love books, but the way I’m dealing with it now is to buy things at the thrift store or used bookstore. I’m getting to the point where I refuse to pay full price for the things, because I see how I can either get something at the Library, or find it for two thirds of the price at the most (including shipping) if I do a little savvy online shopping.

Although I have hooked up with some of my old bookstore friends, and am thinking about getting a job with one of them at a big chain bookstore, probably around March. I think I can restrain myself, I’ve gone in and out of there without the urge to buy, and I’m getting spoiled with the used book pricing I’ve learned to shop for.

I use MS Money and have been for the past couple of years. Have you ever tried MS Money? If so, how would you compare it to Quicken?

FT
http://www.MillionDollarJourney.com