I'm Back!

GUYS. Guys guys guys. HEY YOU GUYS! I got a job!! A real one. My first real career track job. It's a great fit for me, I get to work with a good friend, and it will really help develop my expertise in my field. I really couldn't be happier.

 But the best part? I get to climb back up on the wagon of financial planning. I've missed this blog. I've missed the ability to plan my savings goals, debt reduction goals, and my life in general.

 I won't know all the details of my health insurance and retirement fund through work until I start in a couple weeks, but there are other things I can start wrapping my mind around. Like my month to month expenses that shouldn't change too much. I'll use this list in order to frame how much I can expect to put in my 403(b), IRA, emergency cash savings, and medium term savings. It will also be the amount that I'll use to set my emergency fund savings goal.

 So here they are:

• Rent 
• Car Insurance 
• Gas 
• Student Loan payments 
• Renters Insurance 
• Gas 
• Electricity 
• Cable/Internet 
• Charitable Giving 

And there are other things I need to get a better understanding of my spending in a month to month way:

• Groceries 
• Eating out
• Clothes and like make-up and stuff that I buy at CVS every other day.

I'd also like these targeted savings funds:

• Travel 
• Car maintenance 
• Teeth (though this could be wrapped into the emergency fund) 
• Gifts for family/friends 

I have a bit of catching up to do -- a haircut, some car work, fleshing out of a professional wardrobe, maybe a couch and a trip to a friend's wedding -- but after the summer is done I think I'll be in a really good place to get some solid financial clean-up done. Can't wait!

Craptastic

That's about the right word to describe my spending situation. I just suck at this right now. I'm trying not to get discouraged, but I feel like I'm in a spending tailspin and I can't get it under control.

There are just all these things that I really think I *need*. And while "need" is usually just another way to say "want," I just keep finding myself needing to buy stuff to handle all my stuff. I spent $200 today on shelving and organization supplies. But I've had cardboard boxes at the foot of my bed for 4 months with nowhere to put anything and people are coming to visit and it's driving me crazy! I have a small room and the clutter is making me feel helpless. And all these solutions are expensive! At least for me.

I also bought a bike last week. With all the accessories (helmet, lights, lock, rear rack), this has set me back about $600 so far, and I still need to get bigger bags to put on the rack to actually carry the stuff I need to bring with me. I know I could have spent less. I feel guilty for not looking for a used bike (I mean, this isn't a "new" bike...it's an old frame with new parts built by Bikes Not Bombs). But I also know that if I'm going to commute 6 miles to work every day, I need something dependable and comfortable that I actually like riding. Which I got.

I'm being so defensive. I know it's because I could have done this differently. Or saved, instead of borrowed from my loans. I don't know what to say. Grad school has really messed up my habits, it seems. At least now I can honestly say I'm through with any big purchases. Not including whatever medical costs I incur this year (which will definitely be around 500 bucks.)

Here's what I'll do: try to concentrate on the positive. I have my emergency fund still. I'm still contributing to my retirement fund. And I'm back up to a full 40 hours a week. I can fix this, I can get back on track.

how do avoid a paper you don't want to write.

Wow. So much money news in the past...what has it been? Four months? Yeah.

Well, I started school, and that has changed a few things about my life in general and my financial life in particular.

So, loans. I'm paying for school with some more federal direct loans. This is making me a little nervous, since they've already given me 68% of my undergrad debt in new loans. Don't freak out! Ok, freak out a little. I didn't use all of it for school, the rest is just sitting in a bank account untouched until I figure out what I'm doing for summer, then if I don't need it to support me during an internship or anything, I'm giving it back to them. But by the end of grad school I will have increased my total debt to about 260% of it's pre-grad school amount. eep. I don't like it, but I don't think I have a lot of other options. Hopefully the outcome is a public sector job with great benefits and a good career track after I graduate, and only paying on the loans for 10 years before they get forgiven. That will still have me paying 200% of the undergrad amount. But the decision is made, and that's that.

Now, as a result of school I've also had to reduce my hours at work. I'm now at 36/week, which thankfully doesn't affect my benefit contributions, but it does affect my paycheck. So far I haven't really felt those effects since I've had more than enough occasional work with UMass to make up for it, so I'm grateful for that. I have had to go through some vacation time to be able to participate in my current internship, which is frustrating.

I've kept up with my monthly retirement contributions. This does strike me as a little silly since I'm borrowing money from my future to pay for school now, but putting money away for the farther future, but I think this is still the smart way to go. I would be borrowing the money in either case, and it's not like I would be paying my tuition with that $50 a month. It will be a net gain down the road.

I've also kept up with my regular savings. It's not a very large amount because I split it with the retirement fund, but it's there in case I need it. And it had enough to cover the income tax I owed this year, which came in at $250 total. Thank goodness I'm back in school, because I would have had to pay more like $900 if I didn't get the tuition deduction.

I also moved into a new apartment at the beginning of February, which took it's own little financial toll. Mostly I came out even because I didn't have to put a last month or security on my new place and I got the last month back from the old place. While I should have used that for savings, I used it to buy all new furniture. And I like my new furniture, so whatever. The apartment is a little cheaper, further away from work, but closer to school.

Now it's time to try to figure out what is gonna happen with my summer. I have a couple applications for internships in, and I'm hoping one of them works out. If not I'll stay in Cambridge and probably start looking for a library job. Or at least something that pays me a little more so I can worry and/or work a little less and save a little more.

As far as the spending side of my equation goes....well, it's still not great. I've been buying new clothes and shoes with the excuse of thinking I might need them for conferences and/or new job opportunities. That's a little bit true and a little bit of a rationalization. I'm doing a bit better on food most weeks, I think, but this one was a bad one. Splitting my time between Cambridge and JP makes keeping up with bagged lunches a little difficult, but I also could just try harder.

So....that's the update. Just sort of trucking along. But next I need to get renter's insurance....

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!