I Love New York (and the Times)!

Okay, it's been under wraps for a bit in the NetworthIQ shop that our illustrious leader, Ryan Williams, was interviewed about NetworthIQ for the New York Times many weeks ago ... it's been killing us waiting to hear if and when the article would be published and whether or not we'd even get mentioned. Lo and behold, it definitely got published and wow, did we get a few visits from curious people all over the world! What's really cool is seeing the print version (thanks to Neville for scanning it)!

I have to admit I became an instant addict ... hitting refresh every 10 seconds on the little stat page I have that monitors the user count and usage statistics on NetworthIQ ... every blip on the radar made me jump ... hitting 1,000 users today was the ultimate icing on the cake.

Now the pressure is on even more to get the rest of the new, super-secret features out on the NetworthIQ site ... break out the cola and the Red Bull, it's gonna be one heckuva ride!

There's No Place Like Home

Well, we finally made the move and survived the whole experience, despite the fact that we're still sitting on two houses now ... one we're living in and one that we will shortly be listing, hopefully in order to sell it before the first mortgage payment kicks in on the new one. I hate the idea of juggling all this financially, but the idea of missing out on the house of our dreams (at an interest rate that was pretty darn good) and timing things with the start of school (making it easier on the kids) ... well, it kind of forced my hand.

What's really amazing is how much different I feel when I come home now ... despite the boxes and laundry pile and mess in the living room. Our new home is so much lighter, more open, yet more cozy and comfortable ... and I didn't have to lift a hammer even once to do a home improvement project. This is our third house, and the past two have both been "fixer-uppers" ... fine when you have no children or just one or two, but when you have a family like ours (6 kids, 2 dogs), the idea of yet more home improvement projects becomes incredibly daunting. The relief of that pressure alone is worth the trouble of the move. :-)

So, here's the question to the masses: How many of you have juggled a house purchase like this, buying one before selling the other? (And I'm not talking on a contingency...) What kind of problems did you run into? Regrets? Advice?

I'm banking on the strong sales market in my area right now and the good interest rates to make this whole thing happen smoothly ... on top of the fact that the home we're selling is something of a rarity in the area it's in (large square footage, recently updated, larger yard, yet under a critical dollar ceiling for the new construction just up the hill).

With the move now over, I'll try to post more often in between unboxing the things of daily living ... and post on our Vonage phone service and Verizon FIOS high speed fiber internet service, both of which have proven to be quite amazing.

Hood To Coast

Okay, that whole "time-shortage" post from over a week ago nailed it spot on ... where has all the time gone?

Part of the issue was the 24th Hood To Coast Relay ... the largest relay race in North America. What a rush! This is the fifth year I've participated, and it has yet to disappoint. Our team placed 294th out of over 1,000 teams, finishing the 197 mile relay in just over 26.5 hours with an average pace of 8 minutes per mile. I hadn't trained as much as I should have, and I'd gained some weight since last year (ah, the Thanksgiving pies and Christmas cookies did me in), but managed to make it through my segments of the course. Here are some photos from a couple of team members ... Photo Set A / Photo Set B.

On top of that, the final preparations for the house move have made it interesting around the house ... "Now, where did the utensils go? Are they in the box in that pile, or did they get moved over here? So, who wants pizza?" :-)

As part of the move process I've ditched standard telephone service in lieu of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone service and, I have to admit, I've been very impressed already. I signed up with Vonage and their site, service and ease-of-use have been fantastic. If you want a referral, let me know and I'll send one your way ... highly recommended. I'll also be using Verizon's FIOS fiber internet services at the new place, so more feedback on that coming soon, too.

NetworthIQ is still going strong, and we have a number of new features to add in the coming weeks ... ideally in time to get out of beta sooner than later. Our first ever newsletter comes out in the next few days and we're hoping to see more activity as we remind everyone that tracking your net worth is a monthly (or more frequent) exercise ... an exercise that can help keep your finances healthy (or at least keep you consciously aware of them).

All for now, yet always more to come ...