aaannd it's down the drain again.

Wow, what a cute little net worth graph I've got going down there. Too bad it's soon to be utterly destroyed.

You may remember from my other blog that my foot has been giving me a lot of trouble over the last year (plus some). So I'm making an effort to get it treated and diagnosed. That involved an MRI that didn't really tell my Doctor anything useful, but did cost me $775. That's after my insurance paid...from what I can tell on my explanation of benefits, about ten bucks. Is that possible? I don't know, I find my bills very confusing all the time, and I consider myself a pretty informed person. I guess that's why there's a whole damn degree program called Medical Billing.

So, good thing I have the money saved to be able to pay for it, but shitty that I have to dig into my emergency fund.

What would have been better would a targeted savings account. I already have one for Taxes (even though it's currently empty), but I'm going to start one for Deductibles. That'll be $500 for my medical coverage. Right now that's the only deductible I have, but I'll add to it if I ever need to get car insurance or dental or anything.

Back to the drawing board!

I'm back!

And I've got Net Worth!!!

So, on Mint.com they added some new tracking tools. One of these was a net worth graph over time. They also added a way to exclude certain accounts from it, so after taking out my student loan (a depressing 25,000 dip in my worth), I get a telling graph of my progress over the last year. That's definitely trending up, folks. The red dips are my credit card balances for each month, but I'm paying it off every billing cycle, so it's not terrible.

thanks to Jim for putting this seed of an idea in my head a few months back. but, fyi, this is way easier than an excel spreadsheet.

what's the worst they could say?

The answer to that question is always "No." Sometimes hearing "no" is fucking soul crushing, but sometimes somebody is just telling you that there's no cheese in your burrito or something else not so bad.

Similarly, risking a "no" from your bank teller is not the biggest deal on the planet, so just do it. What the hell am I talking about? Fees, my friend, fees.

I used to never ask for extensions on research papers. I thought, "hey, it's my fault I didn't finish this on time, I deserve to be punished." Maybe that's true (probably). But other people didn't feel this compunction at all; why would I want to be the only one being punished? So I got over it and started asking and stopped getting docked for lateness. Lesson learned.

Now I apply this lesson to my banking transactions. When we went to Canada for vacation, I shifted all my vacation funds into my secondary checking account. That way I knew what I had set aside to spend and I could track my transactions separately. After we got back I transferred back the funds. Except the hotel charge hadn't cleared completely and the exchange rate changed before it did. Which left me one dollar short and incurred a $30 fee from my bank. I just went in and asked them to waive it, and they did. No problems.

Now I imagine if I tried to do this twice a year they might not be so nice, but I've established a good history with my bank, I haven't overdrawn once (before this) in almost three years, I deserve a little clemency. And so do you :)

It's National Save for Retirement Week!!!

Yay!!! To commemorate, I'm making my very first contribution to my retirement account this week! I opened my account last week with T. Rowe Price, using their Automatic Asset Builder program, which allows me to fund an account with no minimum investment as long as I have an automatic contribution every month of at least $50.

Some ways you could celebrate this week:

- check out that automatic asset builder link
- read through some of get rich slowly's retirement articles (bonus ones this week!)
- check out the changes that have happened to the American retirement system in this time article (highly recommended!) and a pointed response here.

It's never too early to start thinking about your retirement, and in fact, the earlier the better! And it's easier than you think!

some big spending in my future

Heeyyyyy everybody! Long time, no see, I know.

I'm gearing up for a trip to Montreal this weekend (yaaaay!), and trying to prepare myself. I've set aside the money I want to spend, and I'm fairly sure that I'll stay within it, but I have a little back up if I don't. I've just about replenished my small emergency account after I plundered it several weeks ago. I bought a new pair of shoes to handle the walking, and I'm stopping by the Gap Outlet to get a jump start on my winter wardrobe buying (it's pretty cold in Canada already). Even with all this, I feel like I'm in a good place going into the holidays. I just hope I can keep it that way, because I'll be taking some time off work.

In longer term news, this was supposed to be the week I started funding my retirement account. I think I'm in the position that I wanted to be, but I'm scared. It's a big commitment. Well, realistically it's not a big commitment. It's $50 a month. I'm already saving $100 a month, and I'm just planning on putting half in a rothIRA and keeping half in savings, so it's a small step. I think I may have just talked myself into just doing it.

So, I guess the take-away here (that's for you, Ann) is listen to Nike. It's not so scary if you just do it.

ACK!

I spent $50 at Dunkin Donuts in September!!! AAAAAHHH!

Man, I totally suck at controlling my spending these days. This is what happens when I don't go to the grocery store and I spend 4 bucks on breakfast every morning and ten bucks at lunch every day. Insanity.

Still trying to find a budget style that works for me, I feel a little at a loss, though. Cash? two checking accounts? daily allowance? weekly?

I haven't actually tried the envelope thing, maybe I should give it a go...

Holy Crap!

So, I forgot to call and get my name removed from the database for unsolicited credit offers the last time I got one, and I just got another one. Standard pre-approved, your credit is not perfect but this could be the card for you, blah blah blah. Most of the time I would have just thrown this away, but I was curious about the terms and conditions, what with all the credit consumer bill of rights hooplah that the credit companies are flipping out about. So I opened up the little booklet they sent about the card, this card marketed to a person with a current credit score of "fair" and a spotty history of on-time payments. I wish I were talking to you in person so I could make you guess what the APR was on this card. I think you couldn't guess. It's just so despicable, you wouldn't dare guess it.

59.9%!!!

HOLY CRAP. I can't even believe my eyes. I'm flabbergasted that this is legal. Even pay-day loan/check cashing scam-a-thons aren't that high. It's seriously fucking mind-boggling. Criminals. A bunch of criminals that all of us are forced to do business with because the damn FICO thugs have taken over our financial lives in the last two decades. How is this not loan-sharking? How is this not organized crime?

Oh...right, campaign contributions. It is organized crime.

Edit: In case any of you shared Jim's question, this is from the attorney general of Missouri's website: "Many consumers are suprised to find there is no limit on credit card interest rates (APR) under federal law. Those limits are set by state law, and card issuers are governed by the laws of the state they're based in."

figuring out how much I make

I spent a little time today poring over my check stubs for the past couple months. What I'm trying to do is to figure out down to the penny how much money I can expect to be bringing home every week. This used to be fairly simple, but living in the world of adults has complicated things a bit. I have health insurance, union dues, and my public transit pass deducted from my pre-tax dollars now on top of my income tax, medicare, and social securty. Some of these things change week to week, and 5 week months throw a bit of a wrench in my estimates, too.

wow...for some reason I have a weird craving for Tang right now.

Anyway, I think the object of this is to figure out just how much the difference between 38 hours and 40 hours a week is in dollars. Sometimes on a Friday during a week that I've come up short by a little bit of time, I find it difficult to persuade myself to stay the 45 minutes or an hour to get to 40. And this is dumb. I'd also like to understand exactly how much I have to budget with each week; up until now I've only been estimating.

In other news, I've come apart financially a little this month. Some unexpected spending coupled with some inattentiveness has created a frustrating cash flow problem that I really need to get on top of. Constant vigilance has always eluded me, but I will try harder. September and October, while they will be lucrative months, will also be expensive months. I've planned for some of this, and the other parts I'll just have to be extra frugal to cover.

the best laid plans.

So, some general or somebody during the Civil War (or some other war), said something like, "it's important to plan every battle. a battle plan is useless in battle." Whatever, you get the gist of it.

Part of what I did at the beginning of this month was set up a 6 month plan for my financial goals. Um, oops. I mucked it up almost right at the beginning. I couldn't resist getting my new camera. I've been dreaming about buying one since January, and as soon as I knew I would have the money saved this Fall, I couldn't wait to actually have the money. It was dumb, but I don't regret it. I've had to shift things around to compensate, but it's a temporary compensation. I borrowed a little bit of money from my emergency savings (and no, I don't think this is really an emergency, but I had to pay my cell phone bill somehow) and I'll be replacing it next week. The important thing is, I had planned on this purchase, I knew how much it was going to cost, and I knew where the money was coming from. So not exactly an impulse buy, but still way too impulsive. I should have waited until the money was really in the bank. I'm counting all sorts of chickens before they hatch, which many a tale has taught us is a very bad idea.

Another part of my plan will probably end up changing, as well. I'll probably be taking some unpaid leave in November, which I predict will push back my ability to contribute to an IRA until after the first of the year. Possibly it won't be that late, but I definitely don't want to start contributing before I'm stable enough to really keep up with it. And January is always a good time to start new projects, right? And it will have been about one year since my financial awakening, so it'll have a little symbolic weight behind it then, as well.

Oh! I almost forgot! We're finally having our long awaited financial seminar at work tomorrow! I'll be taking notes and blogging all about it afterward, so look forward to that!

In Absentia

Hey folks!

sorry I've been neglecting my blog lately. I think I'm a little ashamed of some of my behavior over the last few weeks, but that will be a topic for another post.

the topic for this post is my new blog. Yep, new blog. It's less businessy, more personal, and more photographic.

So, take a peek over there: intentsandpurposes.wordpress.com

see you on this blog very soon, though, promise.

This post has a lot of colons, sorry. New! Links!

Also, this post is very long, and I'm sorry about that. You don't necessarily have to read the whole thing, I'm sure there's stuff in the middle you can totally skip (but I'd like it better if you didn't).

I've spent the better part of two hours trying distill my short term financial goals into some sort of organized plan. It's harder than I thought it was going to be. I can't help but feel I'm missing some integral tools. My kingdom for a desk calendar! Either that, or I really need to learn how to use Excel. (As a side note, does anybody know of a free tool/software that makes financial planning easier? I know a lot of things that help you monitor finances, but projections is something I haven't seen)

At any rate, I've been cross referencing a googledoc spreadsheet and my day-planner to formulate a 6 month plan. The way I see it, there are two parts to my financial management. One side is the consistent income and monthly expenses. I've revisited my budget and I know how much spending money I have weekly, after bills and savings. The other side is the intermittent income and savings accounts. Estimating my occasional income is difficult, especially once I try to guess past 4 months from now. But I did my best, and I've established some target dates for savings.

There are a handful of things that I'm planning around this Fall:

1) By Sept. 1st I will need to pay $300 to hold my place at grad. school.
2) I need to establish an account for 2009 taxes (I owed $240 this year).
3) Trip to Montreal in October, trip to Florida at Christmas
4) I want to buy a digital camera.
5) I want to open a Roth IRA as soon as I feel comfortable doing so.

When I opened up my ING Direct account, I really opened 4. They make it very simple to have multiple linked accounts with nicknames. I now have "General," "Taxes," "Travel," and "Camera." I have $25 automatically debited weekly to the "general" account.

I've prioritized my goals thus: school payment, $600 in travel, camera, taxes. According to my really crappy spreadsheet projections, this is how the next few months will go:

August - I will continue to automatically debit into my general savings account, but I will dip into it to pay for school.

September - I'll be paid enough for my incidental work to fully fund my travel expense account for the rest of the year ($600). This will pay for the Montreal trip in October and my plane ticket for Florida. I'll also be able to fully fund the camera account and buy it! I suppose then I will put a new goal in its place.

October - While the general savings account will keep growing little by little, the travel account will be empty again. I'll open my IRA and start funding it at $50 a month. I'll also be able to put $250 into the taxes account.

November - I'll put $250 more into the taxes account, maxing it out at $500. I'll promptly forget it's there until April next year. By the end of the month I'll have just shy of $300 in the general account, which will probably help me get started on the travel expenses of going to Florida, and holiday expenses in general.

December - Keep on trucking along, probably deplete some of my general saving, but stay on track with IRA contributions. Start building travel funds back up.

January - Concentrate on funding travel account, looking forward to a possible European vacation late in the Summer of 2010.

So there it is, my 6 month savings plan, barring anything emergency related (which is likely, because my tooth is aching today). And even if there is some emergency (tooth related or not), my emergency account is waiting there to handle it.

The bigger question in all of this is, how do I keep the other half of this equation on track? I've been using my occasional income to cover my ass way too much lately, and this plan doesn't give me any wiggle room on that. I'm thinking of trying a cash system for a few weeks and seeing how it works out. I know in the past I've said I suck at cash, and I think I do. But possibly it might work out a little better than trying to shuttle money between two checking accounts. Then again, I could just start not bringing my other card with me everywhere, not to mention the Discover. I'm just setting myself up for overspending. One thing I know I cannot do anymore is get reimbursed by friends for anything (like a zipcar, or dinner, or movie tickets). I just can't deal with it properly. I put it on my credit card and then spend the cash, too. Not good. I have to be disciplined and really stick to it. Sigh.

Any reactions?

Wow, check out this cool graph!

This interactive graph is really cool. It's data compiled about how people spent every minute of their days in 2008. I like just clicking between the different groups and watch the shapes change. I'm really surprised by the relative times of tv and movie watching compared to computer/internet time. I think most people (especially young ones) are doing both at once (I am), so I'm curious how they took that into account. Also there's not a specific set for 'listening to music.' I wonder how that would look.

Oh well, not specifically financial, but interesting nonetheless.

just looking over things

I know I said I was going to put together a post on some short term future plans, but this isn't it. I'll try to get that together tomorrow and post it. For now, I've just been looking over my spending habits on mint.com. Even though I've generally gotten better at paying myself first via my two savings accounts, I have a lot of work to do.

The first thing I'm going to do is reevaluate my monthly budget numbers. I've had a couple adjustments in my expenses and I'd like to start from scratch on my weekly projections. I'm thinking of this like course correction. I'm on a boat! Of financial security!!!

Now onto the number crunching! Catch you on the flip side with a report....

Can I afford dental insurance?

Or can I afford not to have it? I just can't figure that question out. When I went to the dentist to get my two fillings a few months ago, he indicated I would probably need a root canal sooner rather than later.

The plan I'm looking at is through a giant reputable dental insurance company, and the premiums are about $40 a month. All preventative work is covered in full (two cleanings a year! I haven't done that since before college), and restorative (like my root canal) will be covered at 50%. I'm starting to think this is a pretty good idea. There are also various other plans available, but most of them look like "discount" plans that are a bit shady. With those sorts of things you pay them a premium every month, and you get a discount at participating providers. I'm wary of anything like that, because it's easy to imagine some basic restorative work costing more in the end.

I've been trying to control my expenses, but putting another $41 in my bills every month is going to hurt a little bit. Mostly it will hurt my savings. I was going to try to get $50 a month going to a retirement fund (I know you know, I just blogged about it). But not having to kill my entire emergency fund on a root canal I know is looming would be a good benefit. A great one, in fact. I'll need to make it 6 months without needing it for this to work to my advantage, though.

So, I guess I'd like some advice.

$492 per year to get free preventative dental care, and a 50% discount on my root canal (which alone could save me like $400 or something), or start my retirement fund. I know it seems like a clear choice, but is it really? It doesn't feel like a clear choice.

Summary

I thought that since I'm just about ready to make a big investment in my future, I'd like to devote a post to just summarizing how I got here from there. And then in the next post I'd like to layout plan for the short term future.

So, December 2008 I randomly (and I mean RANDOMLY, I have no idea what caused me to do this) bought a copy of Suze Orman's Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke. I guess I saw it there on the shelf and something told me it was the right time to think about money. After a quick read through, I realized that there wasn't any time to lose, and got gettin' on this blog. This is probably the biggest change I've made. I discovered my sense of urgency about the business of my life.

So where have I made the most progress since I've begun?

1) I don't overspend on food the way I did before.

I've made a habit out of going to the grocery and stocking up on breakfast and lunch supplies. I eat lunch out about once every few weeks now, compared to almost every day before. I eat breakfast out once every few months now, compared to every single day before. I also have my own coffee at home now. And I enjoy it a lot more. I sit on my porch with my cereal and coffee in the mornings after I water my plants. I like this ritual. It helps me start the day. I've also begun cooking dinner at home more (chipotle lima bean soup is simmering away as I type). I still eat out, but far more because I'm going out with friends, not because I just don't have anything at home. These changes have made a tremendous difference in my available cash. Before I was probably spending close to $75 a week on breakfast and lunch alone! I think it's more like $15 now.

2) I committed to my emergency savings.

Before I read Suze's book, I didn't even know this was a thing. Isn't that crazy? I had never even come across the concept of cash on hand. I think about that and it's such a palm-to-forehead moment (what a sad state of affairs when I was taught the supply/demand curve to perfection, but had no idea how to keep myself solvent). I have an advantage when it comes to my savings: I have two casual part time jobs that pay me large sums every few months in addition to my full time job. This means it truly is extra money that I haven't budgeted. It goes straight into my savings now.

3) I've started planning how to have enough money when bills come due without making myself broke.

Before (I think I need a name for this time..like BGU...before growing up), I would slap my whole last paycheck of the month down for rent. I came up short once or twice. Then I'd eat popcorn and rice for a week. If there was $250 in my account and I didn't have a bill that week, I'd buy new shoes. Or jeans. Silliness. Now I set aside a weekly amount for bills and let myself spend the rest. If the new shoes I want are $125 (and they are), I have to save up out of my spending cash. I don't get to just throw away half a paycheck on them without any effort.

4) I started paying myself.

In addition to my extra income, I decided to put away a standard amount every week from my regular paycheck. This helped me get my emergency fund back on track after my dental work. And now it's helping me get a new savings account going, which in turn will set my retirement savings in motion. I have this automatically debited on pay-day, so it's out of sight, out of mind.

5) Mostly, I got educated.

I know the steps to take to gain my financial freedom. I never thought I would be so interested in personal finance, but even if it hadn't become a bit of a passion, I needed to know this stuff. Everybody needs to know this stuff.

And I want to give you all some quick thanks for supporting me the whole way, giving me helpful links/tips, and making me feel like a success, even when I crap out and have some failures.

well, I did it.

whether you like it or not, I dumped some google ads down on the side-bar there. I'm doubtful I'll really make any money from it, but I figured I might as well try. I might tinker with the layout a little, though...it looks funny now...

um, Google Ads?

So my blog is now showing me a tab called "monetize." I don't think that was there before. Should I take them up on it? It really seems only fitting that I should make some money off of my finance blog, but would it be annoying to you guys?

yogurt and retirement

So, my first batch of yogurt is yogurting as we speak. As I type. I've been talking about doing this for about....3 months now? Well, here we are...it's 9 pm...and I have to wait 4 hours for it to finish. I'm an idiot. I suppose I could go to sleep and set an alarm...but that's probably not going to happen. I'm a little too excited about it, honestly. I have two dead bananas to blend up with some honey to finish it off, it's gonna be awesome. I haven't crunched the numbers to see if this is actually cheaper than buying, but I suspect it is. Especially since I can just use half of the half-gallon milk I usually get for my cereal. I need to check the price of the yogurt I buy just to make sure, though.

I also went to the grocery tonight and stocked up. Not sure how it's going to go, but I'm going to try to do a meal plan for my dinners from thursday to next tuesday. I think you're supposed to do that before you go shopping, but I'll just do it the other way around this time. I picked up a bunch of dry legumes (lentils, yellow peas, green beas, and lima beans), some rice, some veggies, and breakfast/lunch supplies. There should be enough to get through a week (and more).

As far as more hard money matters go, I started looking into retirement accounts on a whim today, and discovered there might be one that I can open up and start funding really soon. I'm really surprised and excited by the prospect. From what I've heard from both Suze and some blogs, it's a good idea to start with one of the bigger investment houses, because they do a lot of the work for you. I've looked at Ameritrade before (I'm a sucker for sam waterston), and today I checked out T. Rowe Price. I'm glad I did, it seems I was harboring some false assumptions about how much money you have to have to start your retirement savings.

As it turns out, that number is $0.00! I think I'm going to be able to open up my Roth IRA at T. Rowe Price next month! With their Automatic Asset Builder Service there's no minimum balance to open if you sign up for automatic debits of at least $50 a month. And there aren't any management fees. I really can't believe I can start investing with so little. Now that my emergency fund is a little settled, I feel really comfortable getting started with this. I'll start putting $50 a month into that fund, and about $70 a month to my short term savings.

Really, I couldn't imagine when I started this thing I'd be contributing to my retirement within a year. I guess I'm not such a screw up, after all.

toddling along and bitching about food

I've been on auto-pilot a little bit the last week. I don't think I'm overspending, but honestly I sort of stopped paying attention. I'm back on the "next week I'll figure it out" cycle, and I need to kick it. I have to get back on a good schedule of grocery shopping and cooking. If there's one thing that kills my budget every damn week it's eating out.

I read recently on get rich slowly about the lost art of meal planning. It makes so much sense to prepare ahead of time and have things on hand when you want to cook them, but it really seems like a joke even thinking about it. A generation ago I would have probably been married and bought a house by now, and even if I had a job I definitely would be home every night cooking and getting the laundry done. It's no wonder meal planning is a lost art; I don't even know where I'm going to be every night until I'm there. And cooking for 1 is such an enemy of frugality. Buying in bulk saves money, but I ate lentil soup for 5 straight meals last week (excluding breakfast) and wanted to throw the rest all over the windows. And if anybody out there wants me to make a few things and freeze them, listen up: I have 4 roommates. I can barely get an ice tray in there. I'm similarly limited in refrigerator space. Produce goes bad because I'm the only one eating it (this has been a problem for 9 years now), which makes keeping meat out of my cooking that much harder. This is all in addition to the fact that I'm not a very good cook and I don't even enjoy doing it by myself.

I don't think there's an easy answer to this, or I wouldn't still be struggling after all these months and years. But I'm going to try not to get discouraged. No matter how silly it seems, I think I'll at least research making meal plans. Maybe there's a good way to adapt it to my unpredictable lifestyle. I've never actually stocked a pantry with staples, so that might be in order, as well.

In other news, I'm posting from my computer at home! So that's an improvement.

Phail

Yeah....I suck at challenges, apparently. Having nice italian dinners (two nights in a row!) just turned out to be more important to me. So I went over by $40 (which went promptly onto the discover card).

Eesh.

But every paycheck is a new chance to succeed in my goals, so I'll be thankful for that.

What I did succeed in was my very first personalized financial plan for a friend! Thanks, Buddy! Not that I'm any sort of proper source for actual financial advice, but it was nice to be able to point somebody I care about in the right direction. And really at this stage in our lives, the first few steps are always the same: savings, debt reduction, controlling expenses. Not rocket science, but surprisingly hard to figure out at the beginning. And in the middle.

wow, phone blogging?

I can do it!

A Challenge

2 posts in one day?! wha?!!!

Okay...here's a challenge to myself. It's really gonna test my frugal abilities.

After buying lunch today, I have $99 to get me through next Tuesday (I get paid at midnight). This includes a trip to new york from Saturday morning until Sunday night.

Can I do it? hm...maybe. I'm letting myself cheat for the $30 bus tickets. Those will go on my credit card and paid off with my check next week. Tonight I'll be grocery shopping, and I sense a lot of beans and rice in my future. Funny...that's all I ate for lunch last week, too.

BAM!

Emergency account up to $1000! I've now officially met my first savings goal.

Fixing my laptop tonight...more and better updates to follow!

I've neglected my blog!

and, a little bit, my finances. but not completely.

I went a little insane last week. I spent almost my whole weekly allowance (which, if you're curious, is about $115) on one day. Almost immediately after getting paid, actually. My transgressions?

1) There was a sale at the gap. Three shirts for $30! Great deal, right? And not a huge deal as long as I keep things in order the rest of the week.

2) Well I did not keep things in order the rest of the week. Instead, I went to Henrietta's Table on a whim for dinner, and stupidly said "my treat!" The final tab...$60. Well worth every dollar. Probably worth even more dollars. It was the best meal either one of us has ever had (barring something I have forgotten eating in Italy). But would have made sense in a different week. As something planned ahead of time and not just with caution thrown to the wind on a high from payday.

So, Eesh, right? But it's okay. I kept things really tight the rest of the week (with some help from the treat-ee) and only had to break my rules a tiny bit. By that I mean I dipped into my "bills" account for some necessities yesterday and I'm promising all of you I'm going to put it back when I get paid tomorrow.

And the best thing about all of this is that all my careful cushioning is paying off. I fucked up a little bit, but it didn't endanger me at all. I just didn't have anymore mad money for a few days. So what?

Looking to the future: power bills are way low again (but I'm gonna keep putting a larger amount away to prepare for winter), and my cell phone bill will probably go down by about 38% thanks to a brilliant idea on the part of my sister-in-law. Tip: if you aren't on a family plan, get on one. More money for savings.

How are all of your financial lives? Is summer hitting you up for cash? I know my head is chock full of vacation plans that are competing for my every dollar....

finally...

I ordered a new hard drive for my laptop after a friend of a friend did a little home diagnosis for me. I should be able to post more after that...

Can you believe I've done this entire blog in free moments at work?

(I hope Mark doesn't read this)

Nothing urgent to update here...but I have a couple things I want to write down when I have my personal computer up and running.

See you on the flip side.

the benefits of a credit card

when you know how to use a credit card (like I do, now), it can really be a ridiculously convenient thing.

I just had to order my GRE scores for my grad school application. It costs $20!! Now, this being the week of rent and some other bills coming due, it just is a lot easier to put that on my discover, and pay it off on wednesday when I get paid.

I never thought a credit card could give me less stress. I suppose I grew up when I wasn't paying attention.

I should know about school within 6 weeks...I'll keep you guys updated. But I don't really see any problems arising...

in new york

So, my two checking account system isn't even fully in place (still waiting on the debit card from the new account, hoping the mail doesn't screw me over again), and it's already relieving a lot of stress. 

While it wasn't necessarily the best idea to come to new york after being here a month ago (financially), I don't feel super guilty or nervous because I have my bill money put away and things are looking fine. My emergency fund is not where it needs to be, but I'll start working on that again after the checking account system is going full swing. 

Also, I used my credit card for the first time yesterday for a metrocard. $10. Felt a little weird, but I know I've got a handle on things. 

And I filled out a new Fafsa to prepare for grad school. Oh! I put my application in on Thursday, I didn't update that here. I hear they have a 95% acceptance rate, although that wouldn't account for a surge in application as a result of the economic crisis, which I'm sure there was. At any rate, I met the Dean of admissions and I got a good feeling about it. So it looks like if I can find a way to pay for it, I'll be in school again in January. The financing will probably come almost fully from federal loans, but I'm going to try to work full time as long as possible so I can control the amount I'm borrowing. I have no idea how much it's going to cost me, so I feel a little in the dark about how it's going to get paid for. But I imagine that will become clearer with time. 

difficult things

I'm trying to get a revision done on my grad school application, and I thought I would take a break and post about it.

So, Suze Orman is the one who finally got me thinking about my financial health. I know she's a crazy personality, and goes on Oprah so much she'll have to fight Dr. Phil in the celebrity death match, but her advice is pretty solid and got me back on track. And what Suze says about grad school is worth thinking about. Basically, you should only do it (and possibly/probably go into debt doing it) if it is an orchestrated move in a career path. In other words, you should have a specific end-point in mind before you decide to go back to school.

I feel good about my choice. At the end of 3-4 years I'll be immediately marketable in a constantly growing field. I'll be qualified to make twice what I make now. I'll be in a lot more debt, but in a much better position to pay it off. And I'll get to visit my nephew every month if I want to.

Now I just have to get through the application. Without stabbing my eyes out.

Progress Report

Alright, back on the horse.

So, I have successfully set up my two checking accounts. Let me explain what I'm hoping my system will be like.

A couple of you (and many many people on budgeting blogs all around the interwebs) have told me about your cash based systems. Here's the thing: I suck at cash. Hard. I will blow through $80 in my wallet and have absolutely nothing to show for it. It's like cigarettes...if they're there, I'll smoke 'em. If they're not, I'm not gonna try to get any. Same with Coke Zero (yeah, Megan feels me on this). I don't really know why this is. I idly wonder if it's because my first several jobs were cash-based, and I just never really got used to managing it well. But it doesn't matter; what does matter is that I know that I'm better with plastic. Baristas can get as pissed at me as they want to, and I hate that Visa makes money off of me with every swipe, but this is how it's gotta be if I'm going to take care of myself.

So, enter the two checking account system. I've seen this work for a bunch of people, so I'm excited. It's really just a continuation of my former budget proposal. I added up all my monthly predictable expenses:

-rent
-phone
-cable
-power (I'm estimating high on this, but it should be on it's way down over the next few months)
-loan payment
-gym
-savings

I then divided the number by 4. $197. Every week when my paycheck gets deposited I'm going to leave that amount in my first checking account (the one I have checks for) and move the rest over to my daily account (the new one). This way it doesn't matter when my roommates cash the checks I write them, and that money is out of my hands before I have the chance to spend it. The daily account is for groceries, eating/drinking out, and shoes. I'm actually pretty comfortable with the weekly amount I have, I'm just hoping it works out in a practical way.

Also, I received my first credit card in a long time yesterday (yay)! As soon as the Sprint website comes back online, I'm going to set up automatic payments for my cell phone with my credit card. Also my gym payments. And that's all I'm going to buy with it. I'll build a great purchase/payment history and then be able to negotiate better rates in about two years.

And finally, I got the keys for my PO box. I'm going to start changing my address with all the relevant parties next week.

Fin.

getting positive

ok, sorry for the whine-fest. I was feeling very defeated, but things are looking a little up.

I called Suntrust and they very kindly faxed a copy of the documentation I needed, so I should be able to get another bank account set up.

Then I got brave and checked my savings account balance and was pleasantly surprised. It's not great, but it's not bad either. The automatic debits of $20 a week really started adding up. I did turn them off for a little while, but I'm going to be sure to start them up again once I get the two accounts set up.

And I'm looking into getting a PO Box, upon the suggestion of my brother. I'm offended that I have to pay extra money just to get my mail delivered to me, but if I have to do it I'll do it.

stagnating

So you may have noticed...I haven't posted in a while.

I confess, I'm feeling very stymied. I feel like I'm in a cycle of telling myself "Everything's going to come together next month." First it was April, because I had the Florida trip at the end of March. And then May, because I lost track of my spending in April and went to New York. And still, I don't really know what to do. I haven't been able to build up my savings, I've actually had to dip into it a lot. I'm further away from my goals than ever before. It's discouraging.

To make everything in my life more hellish, I think the USPS is out to get me. I absolutely cannot get mail delivered to my house. A missing transcript ended up costing me $25 in shipping fees. My old bank has mailed two letters to me enclosing an affidavit to prove that I paid them what I owed and neither of them have shown up. My credit card bill showed up, but my card never did. So I had to pay the initial annual fee over the phone (costing me $15 on top of the $60 fee) because I had to cancel the first card and get another one sent, nullifying the original account number. I still haven't received the second one. This is on top of never receiving three absentee ballots from Florida, lab results from my doctor's office, and probably some other things I don't even know about. If you sent me a birthday card, I didn't get it (unless you're my Aunt Julie).

Because I don't have the affidavit from Suntrust, I can' get a new bank account. And since I really think the two checking account budget solution is the only one I'll really be able to work well with, I'm feeling like everything I want to do is impossible.

And I have no idea what to do about my mail! There's absolutely no reason I should not be receiving it. I labeled our mailbox with everybody's names like the mailman asked me to, but honestly I think that's a ridiculous thing to have to do just to get my mail. If it's addressed to me at my address, why isn't it getting there? Is somebody stealing it? I just don't understand.

And to top it all off, I have to turn off my automatic debits into my savings now until I get everything straightened out. I feel like a failure.

Some Extra Income

I was inspired by this post on Get Rich Slowly to think about ways I could easily get a little extra income flowing my way. I already have two casual part-time jobs to help out, but they aren't very demanding on my time. I figured if I could do something that's useful to somebody on my own time in a flexible way, why don't I try?

I'm not a fast enough knitter to really be able to sell things, but I am a very good editor and I have experience proofreading and citing a couple friends' theses. So that seems like a good idea.

Before I try to advertise to strangers, I figured I'd see if anybody stopping by here knows people who could use proofreading services for a thesis or dissertation. It'll come cheap, and this way I could build up some experience and good references.

So let me know, okay?

quickie

short note about cost of living. I don't often think about the "cost of living" in the Boston Metro Area past rent. It's obvious to me that my rent is around 3 times as much as when I was living in Gainesville, but I had a recent object lesson in the smaller effects.

I bought deodorant. In Florida. The same kind I buy here. It was two dollars cheaper. Seriously. I never think about how all the little things I buy could be so much more expensive because of where I live. It's reason enough to seriously consider moving back South...

Compare the cost of living between two cities here. It's awesome.

more computer

ok, I've weighed some options about computer buying (based on all of your very thoughtful feedback, thank you) and I think I've figured out a good plan that's both cost effective and reward-based.

I've decided to try to install a new hard drive (even though it's been almost impossible to figure out which one to buy) on my old computer, and if I get my ass in gear and get into grad school I will sell it for enough to buy a netbook (or nearly enough). I am totally at peace with downsizing in the personal computer area. I've been subsisting entirely on my smart phone when I need a computer at home since December and it's made me realize I really don't need much. I have an external hard drive that has all my music on it. The only things I would need or want to run on my pc will be firefox, itunes, and open office. If I start school again it will actually be portable enough (like 1 pound portable) to use at school and at home. It really would serve all of my needs and I'm really hoping it'll work better and longer than my current laptop.

So now I'm saving for vacation in August. A real vacation, with no visiting of family involved (no offense).

computer lust

I think I found the first thing I really want to save for. After getting back from Florida, I thought the first thing I wanted to save for was a Wii (thanks, John). But after calming down and thinking more logically, I know what I really should and want to get instead is this!

I think when it's all said and done It'll be about $350. I think this is manageable, but I know I'll have to balance it against some of the travel goals I have. It's always in the back of my head to visit Seattle, and I also really want to make it to Montreal for a weekend before the end of the summer. If I choose to save for a new computer (and at this point my computer is non-functional and has been for about 3 months, so it's become a bit of a necessity), I will have to put off one or both of those trips another year.

Another alternative would be to buy a new hard drive for my current computer at about $75, and install and load it up with the programs I need. The problem with this is that I have no idea how to do it and it's intimidated me out of putting any financial investment into it. I don't want to just use my slight ignorance as an excuse to buy something I don't need, but I also don't want to put money into a fix that may not work. The computer was a refurb purchased two years ago, but I've had several problems with it since I got it, and I've had to factory restore it at least 4 times to keep it functioning. Honestly, I'm tired of it. And a mini netbook would meet all of my needs and be extremely portable.

I don't know....opinions?

automatic debits

I just set up automatic weekly deposits into my savings account! Yeah!

It's small, just $20 a week. But that's about $80 a month I wasn't saving before. And since it goes out right after I get paid, I'll never even miss it.

After a few months I'm thinking of taking whatever extra is in my emergency account and opening a roth IRA with it. At that point I'll have the automatic debits drop into that account instead. But retirement savings still feels a long way off....

I'm wondering how to handle short term savings goals. I'm interested in hearing how other people do it, so let me know if you have any plan in place. I'm thinking of getting a second savings account (maybe opening the lower commitment one back at my bank) and automatically dumping in there every week at some amount. I think for discipline's sake I should separate that money from my emergency money and my long-term savings. To be clear, this is money that would pay for any traveling I might do, expensive shoes, or any other purchase that is more money than I usually have on hand but want to get enough to save for it. Possibly there will be guidelines I set for myself with this spending, but I think as long as I'm contributing to my long-term savings at the same time, I shouldn't feel overly limited on what to do with that money. The ascetic life can be a sad one, that's for sure.

credit and debt

So, maybe this is suprising, but I don't have any credit card debt. Now, that's not technically a true statement, but functionally it's true. Let's just say, I don't have any credit card debt I intend on paying. I suppose that sounds scandalous. Probably a lot of people would call me a dead-beat. And I guess I was at one point, but at this point in time I'm making a practical decision regarding my credit report.

I'll give you a little run down of my credit history. And honestly, looking at it now it's not as bad as I thought it was then. At least when measured against the experience of other credit card users at the age of 20.

I started out with credit cards like a lot of people do: I got a pre-approved offer my freshman year of college. I think I took one of the first ones I got and opened an account to pay the last bit of my tuition and get some books. Now I probably didn't need to do that in hindsight (I did have a job and was getting scholarships and loans), but at the time I didn't have the spending skills I have now and I thought I needed the extra help. At around a 21% interest rate. Awesome.

It's hard to remember how the next two years went down. I know that I continued to work, my credit limit was only $300, and I don't think I bought anything major. I did go out to eat a lot, it was college. At some point I got two other credit cards. A Discover card with $1000 limit, and a capital one with a $300 limit. When I think about it now, I don't think my problem was overspending, it was paying on time. If you know me, you know I can be forgetful about this stuff. Dates pass me by. This is the first time in my life I'm using a planner, and really I only use it for a few things. So I got trapped in a bad little spiral of late payments, increasing interest rates, guilt, finance charges, and late fee compounded on late fees. Oh, and more serious guilt. In the end it probably only ever got to $3000 total. And that's a liberal estimate. Considering that most people end up with between 8 and 10 grand, I actually made it off a little easy.

By the time I was 21 I wasn't using credit cards for anything (I was maxed out and my credit rating was probably so shot I wouldn't be able to get another card even if I wanted one). But I was also getting calls from my creditors. With help from a generous Christmas gift from my parents I paid down my two smaller cards and just had the Discover bill left. I worked out a payment plan with them (their customer service at the time was actually very easy to deal with and they were more accomodating than I thought they would be) and paid off my balance.

Then there was one last thing, I had a big veternary bill that I couldn't pay cash. I used the Capital One and slipped right back into my little spiral. Now, remember the limit on that card was $300. I probably charged around $250 for the vet. At the last time they tried to collect on me that total had grown to about $1500. I know that's how it works, but some part of me still feels like it's ridiculous. It's functionally a 400% interest rate.

So here we are. That $1500 was charged off as bad debt in 2003 (If you're unfamiliar with the term, when a lender charges off your debt they've taken it off their balance sheets and will no longer collect on it. At least this is what it meant in my case, I think sometimes they will take you to court to try to get it, but perhaps that's before they charge it off). In the law of credit reports, that means it will cease to be reported against me at the end of 2010. In one of the stupid laws of credit collection, if I were to call them today and pay it off, it would be reported on my credit as a delinquent account for 7 more years.

So, we have arrived at my current decision. This is the only bad debt that I still have, and it is better for me to ignore it than to pay it. I've lived with bad credit for enough time as it is.

In slightly related news, this article really makes a good case for how despicable credit companies really are.

You all know that nobody is responsible for the credit card debt of a dead person, right? Pass it on to your grandparents.

quick updates

So I went to Florida for my newphew's first birthday last weekend, and I'm getting a little back into the swing of things.

Just a couple quick things for now, but just so you know I have 5 good posts planned for the upcoming weeks.

Number one: I got a rate email from my FNBO account today; it's down to 1.9% APY. boo. But I guess my loans are also being affected by the dropping rate environment, so I can't complain too much.

Number two: My emergency fund turned a little bit into my travel fund. That was pretty unintentional, but I knew it would happen. I didn't have enough time to save for both so now that fund has shrunk to about $600 (I'm not quite done figuring out what I need for this month, so that number may increase). I'm trying not to feel too bad about it, I'll just have to pump some more money into it over the next couple months to get it back up to $1000.

I will say this: Had I realized that the total trip costs would be around $730, the opportunity cost of it would have made me choose differently. But that will help inform my future travel plans, nonetheless. The next time I'll sit down with actual cost projections before I just commit to something I might end up not being able to afford.

Student loan insanity

My head is spinning a little bit from trying to predict how my loans will be paid off. I recently went into repayment (yeah! 1 payment down, 287 to go...or something) on the Income Contingent Plan, which basically gives you lower payments based on your income and forgives the leftover loan after 25 years.  To give you an idea of how good this repayment plan could be for a low income borrower, here's how the numbers work out with regard to my loan:

Standard Repayment (10 years) - Total repaid: $31,703 ($5,779 in interest)

Graduated Repayment (10 years) - Total repaid: $32,758 ($6,834 in interest)

ICR (my current plan, 25 years) - Total repaid: $21,765 ($4,000 LESS than my current principal)

Of course, this is assuming I never make more than $21,000 per year. There's also an interest capitalization cap, which I finally interpreted to mean that the interest accruing will not compound upon itself once it has compounded to 10% of the original loan (I'm assuming size of the loan when I entered repayment, not the original disbursed amount). Not sure how this would work if I switched plans at some point. 

See how I still really don't understand that? 

It gets trickier, too. At some point I should hopefully be making enough money that the ICR plan will become more expensive in total than traditional repayment. But then again, maybe I won't. Also, there's a public service forgiveness after 10 years making payments in a qualifying job. And public librarians count (so do librarians at public universities). I'm also planning on taking out more loans in order to go to grad school (to get the higher paying job) and I don't know how the extra loan will affect repayment of my current loan, or if the same repayment options will be available for the new debt. They're also enacting a new Income Based Repayment plan in July that differs slightly from my current repayment that I may want to assess when it's available. There's also the question of if I should be making extra payments now if I can afford them. If I'm looking at getting the remainder of the loan forgiven after 25 (or 10) years of repayment, it doesn't make sense. But if I will eventually be switching over to a standard repayment plan, the small payments I'm making now aren't really significantly reducing my principal. 

See how I still really really don't understand?

I do know one thing: the government is the best lender ever. I'm glad now that I was lazy and uninformed for several years and didn't consolidate into a private lender account. They give me a .25% interest rate reduction because I set up automatic EFT payments. There's also a rebate  of .25% of my interest accrued over this year if I make 12 consecutive on-time payments (which is impossible to mess up with automatic payment). That basically means they take .25% of my interest from this year and apply it back to the principal (I hope that's a yearly plan, and not just for the first year). By the time I consolidate with them in May or June I think my interest rate could be near (or under) 3%. And that's good news since I let an extra 25% of my original disbursed principal accrue in interst over the last 5 years of forbearance. I really should have been paying the damn interest, but c'est la vie. Can't go back and change that now...

ow. headache. 

Are you reading Get Rich Slowly? No? Start.

Empowerment

I think this blog was the best idea I ever had. It has really made me focus on the one area of my life that has been the biggest challenge as an adult, and it's made me feel so much more in control. I didn't really think a blog could do that. I feel proactive, I feel like I've got my shit together. I'm awesome. Seriously. 

But enough of that. 

I do want to share a couple of things that this has taught me in a general sense, though. The first being, this stuff isn't so hard. Even if you don't have any money. What is very hard is not being afraid of doing something with your funds. It's easy to feel like you've got it covered living paycheck to paycheck as long as collectors aren't calling you day after day. It's easy to just let it slide and not build up any savings or make a long term plan when you're in a temporary job and not really sure what your other long term plans are. It's really really easy to just not think about the road ahead of you when you're 26 and pretty healthy and aren't married and don't have kids. But once you decide to think about it, knowing what the plan should be and mapping out how to get there is a whole lot easier than it seems. And the younger you are when you decide, the easier that part is. With time on your side, money is secondary. I don't care what snobby Cantabrigians say about Suze Orman, she taught me that. Time is way more important, and I'm  miles ahead figuring this out in my 20's than if I waited a whole lot longer. 

Another thing I learned. Feeling in control of my financial life has spilled over into the rest of my life, and I think that this would probably true for most people. I mean, if I can be in control of my credit, my debt, my savings, and my investing, then I can also be in control of my career, my education, and my long term (non-financial) plans. And I don't have to be afraid of looking at my future. Because even though I don't have everything in place, I have a plan for how to get everything there. This sounds really motivational-speaker-y, but I don't care. I know I'm not really in control in a lot of areas in my life (or I'd be paying myself more), but I'm planning for emergencies and contingencies, so I feel like I can be ready for things. 

Third. The "tough choices" I'm having to make because of my income really aren't all that tough now that I have clear long term goal. And it's a goal that I made and formulated, so I feel really good about reaching the milestones I've set up. I feel worse now about not putting money into my savings than I do about not buying a new pair of shoes. Because me in the present can keep wearing the 25 pairs that are in my closet, but future me is really going to appreciate the contribution to her standard of living. 

did you read this far? wow. I figured all that rah-rah would have made you throw up by now. 

the last week

Man, this is a busy time for me. I had cousins visiting, a crazy time at work, and I'm gearing up to visit Florida next week. So, like I said. busy.

On Monday I officially dipped into my emergency fund for the first time. Which felt terrible. At least at first. I'm a little glad I waited to blog about it because it upset me so much.

It came in the form of very necessary dental work that cost more than I usually have on hand. I just felt so angry and disappointed at having to spend out of that fund almost immediately after I really got a measurable amount set up. But after I settled down (the drill in my head really shook me up too much to look at this reasonably) I realized that I should try to be a little more positive. The good thing about dipping into an emergency fund is that you aren't dipping into your daily bread. And I don't feel any financial strain, even after spending a bunch of money on two stupid teeth. I just have to put that money back now. Eesh.

In the "more progress" part of this post, I did two things this week to get a little further down the road to recovery. First, I opened my high-yield savings account with FNBO. It was really easy, and the regulations on the account are even better than my bank's account. No minimum, no monthly fees, and the same amount of transfers to my checking account. I'm really happy with the decision.

The second thing doesn't make me as happy, but it's still good. I applied for a new credit card and was approved. I went to the card offers page on mint.com and applied for one of their suggested cards for my credit rating. They were a little optimistic in the case of that card, it turned out, but I was approved for an HSBC backed Discover card. It has a medium-high interest rate and an annual fee or $59, but frankly I'm shocked I was approved at all. And I've come to terms with the fact that until I build my credit back I'm going to have a to pay a little more than some. When I've kept on top of this card for a year or so, I can apply for one with a lower interest rate and no fees or finance charges.

Looking forward!

a grocery dilemma

I went grocery shopping on Wednesday (the first day on my new budget). This is the first time in a very long time I was consciously trying to squeeze the most food out of my dollars and not get the fanciest local organic stuff available. I imagined trying to shop like my mom did when me and my brothers were little. Sale jelly, sale peanut butter, sale yogurt, sale bread, bulk cream of wheat, etc. Just the staples. And I did good; I got breakfast and lunch supplies for a couple weeks for $17.

But when I got home I looked a little closer at what I had gotten and was really frustrated. Everything I bought except for the cream of wheat has high fructose corn syrup as the second or third ingredient. This makes me even more angry at those creepy corn lobby sponsored HFCS commercials. They talk about "consumed in moderation" as if it's not used as filler in every single food thing you eat in one day if you can't afford the types of things that don't include it. I bet I would have easily spent closer to $30 on the same things if I had gotten the Stonybrook organic yogurt, the local traditionally produced jelly, and so on (not the natural peanut butter though, that stuff is gross). It's maddening.

I'm just glad I'm not raising kids on a budget like this. I would hate for my choices to be feed them crap or not at all. As for me, I think I'll just spend a little more next time.

The Budget Post

Okay, so remember at the beginning when I was all huffy about limiting my spending? Well as I've done more and more research into various savings and investing options, I've had to look at my income honestly. I mean very honestly. And honestly, I don't have the income for indiscriminate spending. I mean, I knew that. Of course I knew that. But now that my savings goals are very real and I've begun to understand the long term benefits of what I can put away now, it's become important to take a closer look at my spending. And to make a budget.

So, "budget" is such a crappy word. Trying to estimate how much I spend on food, clothes, books, coffee in any given month is basically impossible. And then trying to reduce those to have savings leftover is another level of impossible. So I'm going about it backwards this time. Now I don't know if this will work, but I think I owe it to myself to give it a real chance.

What I've done is basically this:

1) Estimate monthly bills - rent, utilities, cable, phone, student loan payment, savings (see how I called 'savings' a bill? that means I don't get to not pay it)

2) Divide that average monthly expense over 4 weeks (My friend Geoff is eager to point out that a month is actually 4.3 weeks, but this particular estimate works in my favor in the form of extra than budgeted income)

3) Subtract my bill amount from my after-tax paycheck.

4)Voila! I have my weekly allotted spending limit.

I'm not sure why I decided that this arrangement will be easier for me to follow, but I think that having a general budget allotment that is sort of all inclusive of many kinds of purchases (food, books, yarn, etc) I have less occasion for spending related guilt and budget screw ups.

Today is the first day of this budget, and I'm already kind of sucking. Oh well, if there's one thing I'll always have it's room for improvement.

Well, people, help me out! What strategies do you use to keep your spending under control?

older brothers

My brother pointed me to possibly the most awesome thing I've seen since I've started paying attention to my credit.

Credit Karma!

It's an ad supported website that gives you unlimited access to your TransUnion credit score! I've always been amazed and appalled that any company who wants to cough up a few bucks can get all your credit info but you have to either pay out the nose for it or only check it once a year. It's insane. Thankfully, somebody agreed with me and put together a service for it. Thanks credit karma.

A quick word about savings accounts and CD's and whatnot and interest rates. All of the accounts I posted a couple weeks ago are slipping in interest rate every month. So if you've been thinking of opening a new account, whether it's a money market, savings or CD, it seems prudent to do it sooner rather than later. I can only imagine that as the market continues to tank what banks are willing to give you as return will keep shrinking. And if the rates bounce back in the next year or so, you can always move your money to something better....then again all these shits are variable anyway, so screw it. we're all goin' to hell in a big fat hand basket YEAH! hhahahahha.

just kidding. sorta.

Getting-shit-done-ness

So this is something I've developed in the last few years. I forget sometimes that I used to avoid everything that had to do with money, credit, homework, any kind of work, or being reprimanded. I mean seriously avoid. The year I lived in an apartment alone I didn't check the mail for a whole year so as to not know who was chasing me down for money.

Times have changed.

So I found out recently that around 80% of credit reports have some sort of error. Looking over mine recently, I found one! I had been accidentally double charged for a medical visit which eventually was handed over to collections. A whopping $22. Seriously, who sends $22 to collections?!

So in my recently acquired getting-shit-done-ness I made the calls and successfully got it removed from my credit report! One little step down my road back to a good name.

If you're curious about how to fix errors on your own credit report, check this out.

And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, get yourself educated.

d'oh

So of course I decide to actually research high yield savings accounts after I've opened an account with my bank.

Oh well, I can always roll the money I've already deposited into a higher yield account and have the $250 in the savings account I just opened as overdraft protection. Yeah, see I was thinking of that all along!

Some high yield accounts I looked into:
ING electric orange
HSBC Direct
Dollar Savings Direct (highest rate - but has a $1000 minimum)
FNBO Direct

It's still a month or so off, but I think I'm going to go with the FNBO direct account. There's no minimum, it has a 2.6% interest rate, and comes with an ATM card so I can withdraw funds immediately should I need to.

omigod Savings!

So today I made a big step forward in this journey; I opened a savings account! Yeah!

My savings goal is to have 2 months living expenses available as an emergency fund. That's about $2500. I could probably stretch that a bit more than 2 months, which would give me some much needed wiggle room should something happen.

I got a fairly large paycheck from my second job and put it right in the bank. As a side note, I love banking on Saturday because they have free coffee from Diesel in the lobby, what an awesome perk! Ran into one little snag as I was opening this account, though. Turns out some fees were leftover from my last bank (I think I overdrafted right after I moved) and I still owe them 74 bucks. Eesh. Thankfully my little neighborhood bank let me open the account anyway as long as I promised to rectify that debt within a week and have a letter sent to them.

There were a few types of accounts I could choose from. The very basic one only requires 10 dollars to open and only has about $1 per month in fees with a minimum balance of 10 bucks. I went with the slight step up Statement Savings. It requires a $250 average balance but you can get overdraft protection associated with it. I figure this will help pressure me to keep most of my money in there, and also give me a little cover if things get tight, like they did right after Christmas. I really don't want to feel that kind of anxiety about not being able to pay my bills ever again.

We're really rollin' now...

plans are important

Ok, so some who know me (or at least one who knows me), understands my penchant for plans. I like to make plans. I'm not a crazy person who freaks out when plans change, but I like to have plans so that there is something to change in the first place. It also makes getting out of bed in the morning a little easier when I have an agenda.

anyway.

My first step in personal financial planning (at this point it's much more like financial management than planning, but there's my attachment to 'plans' at stake) was to make technology work for me in this battle.

Enter mint.com!

Basically, mint is a great little website that takes a lot of the painful parts out of budgeting. The magic goes somewhat like this:

1) make an account and attach it to your bank account (there's a whole 5 page thing about the security of this on the site, and I would suggest reading it because it makes sense)
2) mint downloads your debit card/credit card transactions every night and categorizes them into types of spending. you can re-categorize things when the software doesn't recognize a transaction, but it learns what businesses you shop at once you tell it.
3) watch the pie-graph go!

So there you go. With about zero effort I now have two months' history of spending trended out for me on easy to read graphs. It even lets you label cash you get out of the ATM. You can also add any investment accounts you have (for me, that's zero), or loans you have (my student loan sits there reminding me to pay it).

Seriously, this is the most useful thing the internet has given me in a while. It sends me emails when my checks clear and when my balance is low, but you can set it to your own preferences. I really advocate signing up and getting a look at what it can do for you. I know this just sounds like a commercial, but my bank's website is really annoying and hard to navigate, so this has just done so much for me.

Ok, I'll get off this particular soapbox now. Coming up: scheduling bills. Yeah....I've never done that. wheeeeeeeeeeee

ch-ch-ch-changes!

So maybe you all have noticed, as I have, that our motif for the year is Change. Sweet, sweet change has finally come to the White House, and my house. My little amount of change is in the form of a new dedication to dealing responsibly with my money, and a little bit of extra change in the literal sense. I finally have a few leftover dollars laying around some months and it's time to do something better with them than blow them on beer and eating out. Getting out of debt might be a good start.

Now, this isn't to say I'm basing my new frugal life on any kind of literal frugality. I'm 26 and I don't think I should have to give up eating out and spending time with friends. I also don't think I should have to give up buying supplies for my one creative outlet and hobby, knitting. I'm also one of those people who buys coffee every day and keeps saying "Man, if I got a coffee maker I'd save so much money." I won't give that up, either (though some sort of french press might end up on the shortlist, if only so I don't have to leave my house on Saturday mornings when it's 8 degrees). In short, I will not sacrifice everything I enjoy in my 20's so that I can enjoy my 60's.

What I will do:

1) Start some measurable amount of savings.
2) Monitor my spending to understand my own trends so that I can plan accordingly (not make unreasonable limits).
3) Raise my credit rating significantly over the next 3 years.
4) Be able to make travel plans without ending up a crying heap on my bed.
5) Feel confident that I will enjoy my 60's as much as I'm enjoying my 20's.

So there they are. My initial ambitions. I'm sure this list will grow, shrink, and/or change in any other way that seems prudent, but I think it's a good start.

intimidated

I should probably not look at too many other blogs while trying to start my own...