When considering my next bit of personal finance software I have a few requirements:

1. Clear Display of my Cash Available to Spend, across select accounts
2. Clear account of my Net Worth across all accounts
3. Easy transaction management
4. Easy budgeting
5. Ability to run reports on PC that help me understand my spending trends.
6. Easy manipulation on my handheld device

Two applications floated to the top of the pile, one before the other. The one at the top was YNAB. The second is Ascendo Money which only came into contention after I heard about it on a YNAB forum.

You Need A Budget

This application is built on some fundamental concepts. It says run your life according to your budget, not your bank balance. Budget every dollar and stop living from pay cheque to pay cheque. Initially I was sceptical of the approach however once you get into it the sense starts coming out.

Practical Example

• This month I think I am going to spend $5000 on Entertainment. This means that all I have allocated to spend on entertaining myself (films, parties) is $5000.

• If however I went to one less party then I may have only actually spent $4000. There is still $1000 carried forward. This money is not used elsewhere, but it’s job has not been fulfilled. This $1000 is there to greet me the following month and I can choose whether to still only budget $5000 (which means only $4000 of new funds being allocated) or whether I want to lower my budget based on my spending performance, to make the allocation more accurate.

• Lowering the budget means that instead of $4000 I put in $3000 of new funds. The $2000 that I have saved on my budget can be used to facilitate anything I want- whether to put into an emergency fund, or to roll over as a buffer for my next month’s budgetary consideration.

• The more accurate I am in budgeting my expenditure, the more I can potentially save on my budget. Saving on budget builds a buffer that is rolled over into the next month’s budget. When I spend according to budget and not according to bank balance, I can potentially have $10,000 in the bank that is unspent, but is budgeted for something else. Eventually this type of adjusting over time will allow me to break the cycle of living pay cheque to pay cheuqe, because I would have freed up enough money to defer spending my salary, and just spending my buffer. Can you imagine a time when you spend December’s Salary at the end of January, and not the beginning of January?

Budgeting has never worked for me, however this is a fresh approach. I think I have been doing it wrong before I met this application. In the past I would budget my bills and then if any excess is left it goes unmanaged- until it turns to zero. This application says sure, budget for your bills, but budget for the excess. Actually, the expression they use is “Give Each Dollar a Job“. That way, your spending is tied to the budget category and you can clearly direct your funds. If you overspent in a category, you can analyse it and figure out if you need to make a bigger allocation next time. The programme goes as far as to encourage budgeting for a rainy day- as well as saving monthly towards those big expenses, like vacation and insurance premiums.

YNAB requires some time to sit and give serious consideration to what you are undertaking. Budgeting every dollar may seem like a small feat, but don’t be fooled. It gets even more interesting when you are resolute and stick to your budget. You will fall of the budget, but the system is built to help you compensate for the fall (called rolling with the punches). I love the concept, love the approach and think the execution is sensible, once I have done my part to think it through.

Now here is some rather ugly truth. Learning the concept, testing the programme for about 2 weeks and getting an acceptance of the method is free. You know what isn’t free? The application. The desktop application costs U$60 and the iPhone and Android apps cost U$5 each. There is no Blackberry support and the mobile apps cannot work without the desktop application. Essentially you would have spent U$65 on this application.The application is attractive and fluid; it also seems to have an active community. I can understand (kinda) where the extra money is going- but the core application is not worth U$65. For that type of money I would have expected cloud syncing but that is not included.

Ascendo Money

This application has no frills. There is no guiding principle, there is no real community- no instructional classes or videos. It is just an application that allows you to enter all your accounts, set up categories, budget per category and run reports. As a matter of fact (and I feel bad for doing this, a little) if you try out YNAB for a week (and request an extension if you so desire) you can set up Ascendo to feel exactly like YNAB.

I still have some refining to do, but I get everything I want done. Unlike YNAB Ascendo gives me a 30-day trial for both desktop and blackberry apps immediately. After that, if I want to purchase, I get both desktop and blackberry applications for U$30. Both. YNAB offered a Cyber Monday deal by selling the desktop application for U$39 but you still had to spend U$5 for the mobile apps.

The Verdict

I am a Blackberry user. I was content with the absolutely no frills Money for Blackberry- Ascendo is a huge leap forward. Additionally, the customizability of the application to feel like a YNAB clone without violating any copyrights is phenomenal.

However, if you use iPhone and Android maybe there is no comprehensive no frills solution. In that case YNAB may be best. But if you missed the Cyber Monday deal, well, lets hope you don’t mind spending U$65 for what a disciplined techie can do in excel. Remember, the methodology is free, the application is far from it.

I want to go through a list of my Top Decisions for 2011.

6. Subaru Legacy

I had an old car and sold it to acquire a newer car. I wanted problem free driving for at least two years. I think I may get just that. Sure the car speaks and displays in Japanese, but it is a sweet ride. It took a bit of sacrifice, but this may have been one of the best decisions I have made in 2011. This model is a station wagon, but it has so much cargo space with the lie flat seats. I was able to carry the full length of trunking in my car, along with all my other networking tools! Every day I discover a new reason to love the extremely thoughtful design and features.

5. Plantronics Voyager 520 Bluetooth Headset

I bought my original headset in November 2010 but lost it soon after. I bought replacement in January 2011. It has been a wonderful purchase. Talking and driving was no longer a hazardous exercise and it was excellent quality. Unfortunately, I have misplaced it again, though this time in my house instead of on the country road. Since my car supports Bluetooth I may not replace it.

4. Maximum PC Subscription

Subscribing to this magazine was an excellent idea. I am more glued to this than I am to Maxim and Harvard Business Review (both fine magazines too.) I have learnt so much about my favourite hobby and the new trends. I have even used this magazine to solve some real issues my customers have. I am still hoping to one day get a tablet to try out some of the solutions for building a media network in my house.

3. Gas Station Shades

I actually wanted Ray Bans, but opted instead to spend $1000 on gas station shades. One of my better decisions. No more squinting while driving. My eyes can now comfortably be wide open. I still have the perfect Ray Bans in my wishlist in case someone wanted to get me a gift I would truly appreciate.

2. Casio Waveceptor Watch

I wanted a watch with Atomic Time, solar power but still a classic look. This watch delivers, repeatedly. Admittedly when I received it I had a little trouble with the time-zone. That issue is fine now that the US has turned off DST. When they turn it back on I will stop being lazy and reset to the appropriate time-zone.

1. Godzilla

I received all the parts for Godzilla this year. It wasn’t cheap, but then high-quality rarely ever is. However, I play Star Wars The Old Republic on ultra settings and I do not back down from a challenge. My machine is awesome and provides a welcome break from my day. I had gone without a capable machine for almost two years and in just six months I cannot imagine what my life would be without it. I am happy I made the decision to dig deep and come up with the parts.

It isn’t all about the type of exercises you do. It is important to consider the weight you are lifting, the length of the rest period between sets/reps and whether you are going for low intensity or high intensity. I feel more progressive when I do high-intensity so that is the style I prefer. Additionally I try to challenge myself, but within reason, so I occasionally lift heavy. My trainer is excellent though so he switches up the sets every month and determines the weights and number of reps etc. Hopefully after six months I can do this on my own…but till then…

Every workout day starts with cardio. I use the stair-climber. Ten minutes is the recommended time but I typically go for fifteen. Your body needs to get warmed up, you really should not start weight training cold.

Chest and Abs

To warm up I do push-ups. Then I do the following exercises in super sets of two at a time.

1. Bench Press (Standard) + Lat Pull Down
2. Bench Press (Incline) + Inverted Lat Pull Down
3. Butterfly + Dumb Bell Row (or is it rolls?)
4. Crunches + Leg Raises + Pull Over

Legs and Back

Warm up by doing a set of free squats.

1. Leg Extension + Squats (bar bell)
2. Leg Press + Inverse Leg Extension (idk what this is called)
3. Calf Exercises
4. Dead Lift

Shoulders, Arms and Abs

Sometimes I don’t do additional warm ups for this- I just stretch often.

1. Bar Raises (not sure the real name) + Side Lateral
2. Shrugs + Bent Over Lateral
3. Bicep Curl + Hammer Curls
4. Tricep Extension + Cable Pull Down (Abs: front and both sides) + Leg Raises

*The correct names for the Shoulder/Bicept/Tricep exercises eludes me at the moment.

There are slight variations per week and larger variations per month. I try to keep the rest between exercises minimal. I typically do three sets of each exercise and except the abs do reps of 10. Given that on the second and third set the weight is progressively heavier the repetitions may decrease, though I try to keep them above 8 but certainly not less than 6.

I would not recommend any woman follows my workout plan. This plan is for persons who want muscles. I tend to believe women should focus on cardio and abs more than weight training. I have seen women use weight training but the weights are extremely light. This is a decision between you and your trainer.

Breakfast

My breakfast is usually high in fibre. I have a manual mix of cereals. I use Morning Flake combined with Aveeno Quick Oats combined with Raisin Bran. The reason I added the Raisin Bran is because I really like raisins. It makes the cereal mix palatable. Sometimes I may add a banana to breakfast as well (I like banana.)

When doing weight training your appetite naturally increases. Consequently I also added a pair of fried or scrambled eggs and some whole-wheat bread. I do not normally butter my bread- but that is a preference. I never skip breakfast. It is the most important meal of the day, especially since dinner after working out is so small.

Lunch

Lunch is the largest meal in my day, unless I go out to eat with friends in the evening. Let me start with a disclaimer. I do not eat Fried Chicken. At all. Anything fried except fish is not consumed by me. I avoid Pork, but I love Jerked Pork so I am not always successful. I love lasagne, I eat it at every chance I get- but those occasions are rare.

My typical lunch consists of:

• Ground Provisions: Banana, yam, sweet potato, dasheen, pumkin etc.
• Steamed Vegetable
• Cooked Meat (or baked)
• Orange Juice

Where possible I avoid rice. If you live a sedentary lifestyle like me rice just sits on your stomach idly. Sometimes I have a ‘cold plate’ with the above. Cold-plates consist of fresh vegetables, example lettuce, carrots, tomato, cucumber, beet root as well as corn and green peas. That makes the meal over-the-top healthy. Unfortunately, that meal holds me for all of 2 hours, maybe 3.

Snacks

Snacking is important. Healthy snacks are ideal. I haven’t figured this out yet. Recently when I was banned from eating most foods (by my doctor to treat gastroenteritis) I found eating fruits to feel quite rewarding. Bananas and apples were my snack of choice. I often have salted peanuts- but if you are hypertensive this may be wrong for you. I have granola bars sometimes as well, but those bars feel pretty gimmicky.

What usually happens though is that I snack on something filled with sugar and no protein or health value- buns, bulla etc. In my ideal world I would snack on fruits and nuts only, especially if raisin is a fruit.

Dinner

The basic concept of dinner is that it needs to be completed by 8pm. Eating after 8 at night is called late night eating in my (and my trainer’s) book. It should not occur. How is your body going to effectively burn the calories you ingested when your activities have come to a halt?

When doing any kind of exercise, but particularly weight training, the meal after eating determines the rate of muscle growth. Consequently I have a high-protein dinner. I used to have a tuna sandwich (I only have whole wheat bread, remember) but I don’t really like Tuna and I can’t eat it without copious amounts of mayonaise. I like Turkey breast sandwiches, which increase in value when I add lettuce and tomato. Currently however I have a banana, soy milk and oats protein shake. I figure I will do that after training so that I cut the belly fat a little faster. On the weekends I still have the Jamaican/Caribbean traditions of soup on Saturday and Rice and Peas plus meat on Sunday. I haven’t and probably won’t give that up however, I have a much lighter lunch to compensate.

I still go out with friends and kinda close my eyes to my diet on those occasions. It is so easy to be unhealthy- to have that patty, burger or pizza. However, if I happen to fall off the wagon I get back on it. The aim is to have a plan and stick to it but you don’t have to be obnoxious.

I try to limit my fat intake but they are a part of life. Thankfully because of my high-intensity workout my body’s metabolic rate seems to take care of the extra calories that need to be burnt post-workout. Let me go through my workout routine next.

I used to have an app called Money for Blackberry. The app was an interesting idea (but lacked PC support, a necessity for me.) It gave the ability to track your net worth from your blackberry. It manages your transactions (you enter them as they happen) and helps keep you fully aware of your expenditure. I had found that I have more money during the month when I counted those pennies. Sometimes the balances wouldn’t reconcile neatly with my bank, sometimes I wanted a relatively advanced report- but just seeing instantly the dip in my net worth worked for me.

I read an email from a company called YNAB about a man who lost 28lbs just by constantly measuring his weight. Not exercise or diet, just setting a target, and measuring. There is something that happens when you set a target for yourself and regularly check your progress. That is one of the reasons my Mystery Shopper programme at work enjoys success. We have a target, we constantly check it- and we create the required pressure to ‘encourage’ adherence to the target.

I know this is anecdotal; I appreciate that criticism. However, I have seen in my own life that when I apply discipline and awareness I get results.

Awareness

I regularly check my weight. I look at whether my arms feel flabby or whether they have some definition. I observe how big my stomach looks each day. It is a gruelling exercise.The act of observing my imperfections with brutal honesty does something to me. It makes me uncomfortable.

It makes me want to increase my cardio warm-up from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.

It makes me want to push heavier weights and overcome the inherent challenges.

It makes me imagine what it would feel like when I have a six-pack- then I harness that and avoid the soda.

Positive pressure is created. I use the constant awareness to keep focused on my goal and to enhance my diet and exercise. Let us talk about that next.

Diet. Exercise. Awareness. Discipline. (D.E.A.D.)

The irony was intended. However, if you don’t have a healthy diet (not an expensive diet, but healthy), regular exercise, full awareness of your status and discipline to stick to the plan then you will not change. I wanted better for myself. I wanted to be a better person, mainly out of love for myself and life. I always strive to be the best (Age Quod Agis) and just having an average body was’t my way.

Eating the right types of food most of the time, for the right purpose is basic. You can lose weight by just managing what you eat alone. If you stop eating meat and have a high fibre diet, you will lose weight, automatically. Similarly if you exercise regularly (and ferociously) you will lose weight. You are guaranteed to lose at least 10lbs, though you may not lose much more. Same can be said for Awareness- counting your calories, regularly checking your weight causes a psychological discomfort that makes you eat less, take the stairs instead of the elevator and other clutch reactions to what you are both aware of and uncomfortable with.

Discipline

The one item that brings the whole plan together is discipline. If you do any of the other items alone, but lack discipline you will be unsuccessful. Sometimes you will feel tired, sometimes you will fall off the wagon- but you have to get back on it. It is for this reason that I have challenged myself with “12 Days of Fitness” and “6 Months of Personal Training.”

I used to be an avid fitness buff in 2010 to early 2011 but I had curtailed my adherence for about eight months. I said it was work and finance related, and it probably was, but I hardly even jogged on the home treadmill, which is free. When I finally restarted recently I was alternating weeks. Sure, the reasons seemed genuine. I was in another country for one week, working on a conference for another, vacation overseas for another. These are all outside of my control. However, I didn’t seek out a gym elsewhere; when I travel I don’t stick to my diet- all within my control.

Consequently, I have decided that I am going to do 4 consecutive weeks of exercise, dubbed 12 days of Fitness. The aim here is to break my mind and schedule back into accepting the gym as a critical part of my week. Once I have achieved this I will graduate to six months of Personal Training. I anticipate it will take me six months to achieve all my fitness goals and learn the methods my trainer uses. After that period I should be able to “show off” at a boasy gym like Gymkhana. I wouldn’t use their methods (I have my own) but I would use it for the status it affords.

Discipline is #1. Set a target and stick to it. Simple to say, hard to achieve. In the next blog post I will go through Awareness, another critical pillar that when paired with discipline unlocks some amazing results.

**DISCLAIMER – I do not endorse the video I pulled from Youtube. I will explain my exercise routine in detail in coming posts.**

I’ve really come a far way in a week. I have constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed the case a couple times. I think I have reached a position where I am somewhat comfortable with the build. I have also had time to evaluate the case I chose and the configuration.

Mistake #1: Turning the Radiator Wrong

My initial build was quite problematic because at the end I could not close the case. The Antec Lanboy Air comes with an intake fan at the back of the case which happened to be the best place for the radiator. The team at Antec allege that radiators belong at the top of the case- but that is if you are using a small PSU that is top mounted- none of which was true for my build.

To add insult to injury I turned the radiator with the large piece at the bottom (2:20 on the video I posted or the picture below) pointing outside, because otherwise it would rest on the back-plate (with the USB/Ethernet/Audio ports.)

Can't Close the Case

The initial build took me between 7 and 9 hours. The reconstruction took less than two hours. The solution was:

• Move the power supply tray to the top of the case
• Move the motherboard down
• Keep the H70 Cooler’s radiator on the back but turn it in the direction with the bump staying in the case.

Mistake #2: Extra stock fan

All reviews suggest that the Antec case is more more about customization and modularity than cooling. It certainly looks cool- but I have yet to see if everything the case promises will be realized. They claim that the creation of positive pressure (through blowing all fans inward) will prevent dust bunnies because the hot air and dust will escape through the vents. The reason I went liquid cooling is because I knew that the stock fans and air would not be enough to achieve the temps I am seeking. However, will this no dust idea actually work? Time will tell.

I had to reposition the fans a bit to facilitate the cooler and for a few days I was running with a fan down. I have now put that fan next to the hard drive bay, to blow at nothing. It feels…uneven. I have two fans blowing forward and one fan blowing across- it feels pointless. I am going to get one more fan to make it feel at least even. In a few weeks I will let you know if I have a dust build-up.

See video below for the ‘ideal scenario’ for my case. I am not going to get more than one additional fan.

Mistake #3: Trusting the Old Drives

In addition to the 120GB SATA 2 Drive I bought to run the OS (the one element of budget in this build) I had three internal hard drives and one external drive from a previous build.

1. 1TB WD Sata (fell and died a year ago)
2. 500GB WD Sata 2 (was still fine by all accounts)
3. 200GB IDE (I was pleasantly surprised to know that the motherboard supported one PATA)
4. 500GB WD External USB 2 (always on)

I planned to use the SSD for the OS and core windows applications only- and then use the 500GB for applications. Fortunately I had accidentally installed Steam and Starcraft 2 to the SSD. I unfortunately installed the MS Office and Picasa to my new “Application” hard drive. I thought the 200GB IDE was going to be unreliable so I attempted to copy all it’s contents to the 500GB and then format it. I attempted to do this while playing single-player in Starcraft 2. That is when the 500GB internal drive crashed.

The 500GB came back up on Saturday but it caused my entire system (the same one with the hexacore processor and 8GB RAM) to go at snail’s place. All indicators showed that I wasn’t using a third of the RAM or 5% of the CPU processing power. The bottleneck was in the hard drive. I unplugged both faulty drives- and now I am on the road again.

This means that I have to buy a new set of hard drives. I am toying with the idea of buying a 1TB mechanical SATA 6GB drive for my applications and then 2 2TB Sata 3 drives for my media. If I had the 1TB then I would be assured that the bottleneck would be the SSD, which is fine with me. I would have to uninstall and reinstall my non-OS applications but that won’t take a lifetime.

For those following the blog (who want to know how much I have spent so far) I wanted to do this quick tally.

*Prices are quoted in Jamaican Dollars

Parts: 133619.64

Customs and Freight: 32797.17

Somehow customs got a hold of the invoice for the case and decided to ensure I paid for the case twice (after freight and their duties and taxes.)

The total- in case you haven’t done the math is 166416.81.

I have built or recommended bling systems before- but I think I have stumbled upon a real prize that has no rivals. Okay, yes, if it were built on Intel with Fermi it would have an easy rival- but my intention was not to go for broke. The aim was to get a monster machine that is fit, agile and cost effective.

I received confirmation this morning that all my parts are either in or on the way to Miami. I am unable to cancel the purchase, which means I am stuck with them. No turning back!

Here are all the parts in transit. I plan to reuse a couple bits from my older (dead) system- namely the dvd burner.

Case and Power Supply

Antec Lanboy Air

Corsair 850W 80+ Silver Certified Power Supply

CPU and Cooler

AMD Phenom 2 X6 Hexa-Core Processor

Corsair Hydro H70 High Performance CPU Cooler

Motherboard

MSI AM3 AMD 890FX Chipset Motherboard

Memory and Hard Drive

Corsair Vengance 8GB Dual Channel RAM

OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD Hard Drive

Graphics Card

XFX ATI Radeon HD6870 1GB 256bit Graphics Card

Input Devices

Razer BlackWidow Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Razer Deathadder 3500 High Precision 3.5G Infrared Gaming Mouse

Operating System

Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium

Good Times Incoming

Those are the parts coming. I should receive everything by Tuesday June 7, 2011. I plan to do a video unboxing and assembly. My next blog post will be two videos (one of the unboxing and the other of the assembly.) After that I will overclock and see how much performance I can squeeze from Godzilla.

I wasn’t kidding when I said the event will be televised.

After much waiting (and ridicule) the time has finally come for me to return to the high-performance PC game. If I get my way, then I will assemble this prize in two weeks with a comprehensive video detailing my excitement. (Put it Pon Youchbe!)

Sourced from Amazon.com

To whet your appetite for the monster that is about to invade Kingston (taking Satellites out of the sky and causing massive blackouts) take a look below at what is in my cart. I hope to order everything by next Monday, April 25, 2011 (in commemoration of the ressurection of Christ?)

Motherboard: MSI AM3 USB 3.0 + SATA 6Gb/s AMD 890FX Chipset Motherboard 890FXA-GD70

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 Six-Core Processor 1090T (3.2GHz) AM3, HDT90ZFBGRBOX (Black Edition)

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit

PSU: Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850-Watt HX Professional Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply

CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series H70 High Performance CPU Cooler

GPU: XFX ATI Radeon HD6870 1 GB DDR5 2DVI/HDMI/2x Mini DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card

Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Mouse: Razer Deathadder 3500 High Precision 3.5G Infrared Gaming Mouse

Sourced Locally

I already have a mechanical hard drive with Windows Vista on it from a previous build. Therefore, in the interest of cost and speed of acquisition I opted to fore-go buying a SSD and Windows 7 on the same cart.

My brother has had some success with finding high-quality cases locally. I am going to shop around locally. I want a case that has cable routing, lots of fans and is not noisy.

I have a 24″ Widescreen HD Monitor waiting to be connected to a real machine. I think I am going to connect it using DVI and not the HDMI interface though.

For the Future

OS Drive and Programme Files: OCZ Technology 120 GB Vertex 2 Series SATA II 3.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD)

Media Storage Drives (x2): Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition