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.