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."
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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!
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!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
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?
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.
Oh well, not specifically financial, but interesting nonetheless.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
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....
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....
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