I remember my early days of learning about investing. My first interest came when I had my first great paying job. My first job in a cubicle surrounded by engineers. A friend had me listening to Savage… late night guy, whats his name. I don’t know if he is around anymore. Anyhow, I began an avid listener to the Dave Ramsey show. Then during months of ongoing slack in the job. Lulls between engineering trends allowed me the free time to read up on several financial blogs. A few blogs weren’t specifically about finances, but most of them could have had a ring of finance to them.

On to now, having my butt in the situation I have with a house mid-construction at various levels. Knowing that if I just finish the fix up, I could be freed of the burden. While either being free and clear and at minimum a 100/mo profit with a property OR managing the property myself and charging 1,000/mo with a 600/mo mortgage and clearing $3-400/mo.

Either would be great, then I could move into a more temporary, nearer to work situation. Even with a bit of initial loss, I would enjoy the change. This house is a bit more than I currently need/want. Especially while under construction. After finished, I can anticipate a furnished house, with game room for board games. TV in the living room with a working kitchen, washer and dryer and a tub to relax in at night. But I don’t have any of that shit now.

Now, if only I could do any/all of these things, then I could wage war on really saving the cash for investments that I need in order to survive.

1. save 3 months expenses (I am a contractor for engineering design),  I need ~1700/mo to survive my bills and minor bottom dollar expenses. $5,400
2. [Note 1] trade-in truck (owe ~18,000), I expect to lose 2-3,000 on trade-in. I must go to dealer with crappy credit. But wrap it into a 12,000 car for a 15,000 loan and pay 300ish/mo. Savings total: $100/mo
   1. This also leads to much cheaper fuel. The current truck @ 13mpg, will be replaced by 30-40mpg. Reducing gas from ~300/mo to $120/mo $180 savings.
3. quit tobacco. flat-out, $200/mo loss
4. setup the mortgage, water bill, truck, and phone bill all to automatic billing. I need to save cash for this. But savings of $50/mo
5. fix house, while living here… rent one room for $400/mo

Any of those things would be dramatic. Having an extra 200 to go towards the monthly investment list does wonders to the projections.200/mo for 10 years should sum up to $34,400.

[EDIT 1_2_2017]

[1] I bought a 2014 Chevy Cruze with total cost of ~19,000. Borrowed 3k from Dad for a 2k down payment (1k helped other bills & tint for windows). 

The car was 11.5k plus 4.5k rolled in (underwater by $4,500 on the truck) plus the 2k down payment plus tax and such. 

The payment, sadly, increased due to shite credit rating (449) by 24/mo. Insurance also raised by 10 bucks. Yet mpg is around 2.8x better. I have ran overall (including many hours at idle and in bad traffic) at 25 mpg (520.1 mi & avg speed of 14.6 hahaha). 

Typical mpg ~33 avg and upwards of 42 if I maintain avg speed of 45 mph, without too much stopped traffic.