Bon Voyage Frozen Tundra!

So today I leave for San Francisco for a long weekend. I’m flying down with the Guy but I don’t think we’re going to be seeing much of each other while we’re there, because both of our best friends live out there whom we never get to see. Friday I’m checking out Stanford business school, visiting a class, taking a tour and having lunch with a current student. Then the rest of the weekend I’m with my best friends M and M. No plans other than maybe a wine tour with the Guy and his friend, and hopefully seeing other college friends who live in the Bay Area too. This little weekend sadly serves as my winter vacation as well. I’m going to have a lot of travel expenses this year visiting schools, so no fun trips planned that aren’t also functional. So, I won’t be posting as I take full advantage of this break from work and the sub-zero temperatures.

Also, I updated my Financial Goals... Feels good to be making positive progress on all of my active goals. And getting a lot closer to never again carrying a balance on my credit card. Hooray! Have a great weekend!

Tricky Tactics

You know how it goes when you have one of those blow out weekends? You know, an unexpected expense comes up on a day you had already planned a big dinner, or a purchase you had planned ends up being double, and then next thing you know you’re uttering those deadly “what the hell, I’ve already blown it” words in your head and you find yourself at Macy’s or at the premium gourmet grocery store throwing things into your cart with abandon. Yeah, the worst. You feel defeated, so you assume the “why not” mentality. So I’ve been trying to think of a good tactic for when I get into those temporary spending ruts. I think the main thing is to get back in the right frame of mind. If you can do one small belt-tightening thing after a blow-out day or weekend, it might help swing the scale and remind you of the journey you’re on, and why you’re doing it. Like, maybe skip the wine at the big dinner or order a less expensive entrée. Or transfer more money into your savings.

On another note, the Guy invited me to a wedding in Chicago about a month from now, which is kind of a big deal. This is the first time I’ll be meeting all of his real friends, and I want to make a really good impression. His last girlfriend was really beautiful, and in contrast, I am… really smart. I’ve heard that his friends and family still refer to me only as the name of the Ivy league college I attended. As in, “So you’re still with Ivy girl, huh?” When you hear “IVY” you do not think beautiful. So I know I will want to go shopping and get a new dress (new shoes, jewelry, etc.) for the weekend. So I’ll try to tighten my belt even more between now and then to save up. Eating out is an easy one, so that’s probably where I’ll focus. Although it will be hard since I’m going to San Francisco this weekend to visit my best friend.

But the way I see it, this whole personal finance road to wealth is a lifelong marathon, not a sprint through your twenties. It’s all about getting smart and forming the right habits, not about one weekend where you mess up or even one event where you really need to splurge.

How To Make A Million Before You Turn 20... or 30.

On the subject of business... this was an interesting article I ran across about tips from five young entrepreneurs who made quick fortunes on various businesses. Everything from greeting cards to internet ideas, British jams and social networking for high-schoolers. “Their common thread: preternatural business sense and demon drive to turn ideas into reality.” The variety of enterprises they (and many older business-men and women) have engaged prove it’s more that “demon drive” and the faith to believe in your own ideas.

Blog Basics, Apparently.

I have been tagged in a meme. Being relatively new to the blogging community, I had to wikipedia what a meme was. OH. Thanks, Piggy Bank Blues. Here goes, the list followed by my new adds:

The Strategist Notebook ~ Link Addiction ~ Ardour of the Heart ~ When Life Becomes a Book ~ The Malaysian Life ~ Yogatta.com ~ What goes under the sun ~ Roshidan’s Cyber Station ~ Sasha says ~ Arts of Physics ~ And the legend lives ~ My View, My Life ~ A Simple Life ~ Juliana RW ~ Mom Knows Everything ~ Beth & Cory's Mom ~ A Mind Forever Voyaging~ enjoying the ride ~ Jennifer's thoughts ~ Mom of 3 Girls ~ Amanda ~ Don't Make Me Get The Flying Monkeys ~ ExPat Mom ~ Just Jessie ~ Wilson Six ~Krisitn ~ Nuttier Than You ~ Shonnte ~ Summer's Nook ~ Laura Williams Musings ~ Melissa's Idea Garden ~ Confessions of an Everyday Housewife ~ Blah Blah Blog ~ Stop the Ride! ~Soap, Blings & Girly Things ~ It's All for the Best ~ Keeping Feet ~ Junky Love in Freehand ~ Getting Out of Debt ~ Free From Broke ~ Money Matters ~ Arohan's Investing Life ~ My Investing Blog ~ Finance and Fat ~ Iowahippiechick ~ ~ Cathlawson.com ~ Making Cents Of Debt ~ DebtDiet ~ MakingMoneyJournal ~ Life Liberty & The Pursuit Of Money- Mrs Micah- Brightside of Debt- Fiscal Musings -Paid it Down and Moving Forward- Phoenix from the Ashes -Canadian Saver- The Good Life on a Budget- Last One In Line -Finding Financial Peace- CT Mom- Beachgirl's Budget Blog~Saving For a Home of My Own~My Money and Politics -We So Rich -Clawing Our Way to Financial Health- Piggy Bank Blues-Ms. Miniducky - bookish on a budget - MFA or Bust - Brown Eyed Girl and Money - Frugal Zeitgeist - Rich Money Millions


Now I'll add a few favorites of my own, both personal-finance-related and other.
Feminist Finance - Captain Finance - Ms. MiniDucky

Cupcakes Take the Cake - Chocolate & Zucchini

Enjoy!

Weekend Luxuries

A non-money related post on how much I live for the weekend. This has been an incredible one. An entire weekend spent with the Guy, went to a food & wine show and scored lots of free samples, tasted fabulous wines, ate out at a cool new restaurant in town, Guy's treat, slept in, watched a Lost marathon on the couch, went to brunch, saw friends, met new people, more wine, making cupcakes today, hosting an Oscar party tonight.... pretty perfect.

$54,000,000,000,000

Twelve zeros. It’s a weird number to look at. That would be the national debt. And we regular-joe consumers thought we were screwing it up. That figure, according to Alan Quasha of Quadrant Management in this article is 3.9 times our revenues as a nation. I have been watching and listening to NPR and CNN a lot about the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the impending recession. I still haven’t deduced what exactly this means to me and what, if anything I’m supposed to change about my life. I got on board with blogging about my wallet and my goals before there was any panic in the air about the economy. I started because I wanted to be more conscientious about how I spent my money and what my priorities were so I could 1) stop worrying about it and 2) start getting better at building my net worth. (And I’ve stuck with it because it’s kinda fun). So net net, I think I’ll stick with that plan and not worry too much about the nation. I’ll leave that to Obama next year :o)

Happy Weekend, all!

The Tax Return Report + Work Challenge

I’ve already gotten my prepared tax return back and filed, and the report back is more favorable than I thought! $2,038 return altogether ($1,607 federal and $431 state).
I could contribute another $1200 into my Roth IRA to hit the $4,000 maximum for 2007 and the deadline is April 15th so I have some time, but I don’t think I will end up doing this. I’m already feeling pretty good about my Roth monthly deductions, and I think I could really use the money to get whole on my emergency fund, so that’s probably what I’ll do.

Add in whatever small amount comes in with Mr. Bush’s rebate checks, and that might be a nice little boost.

Also, I’m taking up Krystal’s Challenge over at Give Me Back my Five Bucks to not buy my lunch or any snacks while at work until March 31. I have to say I’m pretty good at this already. I take my lunch most days, also bring healthy snacks from home, and (because I work for a food company) there are usually surprises left out in the office for those days when a craving strikes. It takes so long to walk all the way down to our cafeteria that I’m usually not motivated to do that either. So I don’t think this will be too terribly hard. But a month’s a long time, so we’ll see.

Insane Outrageous ?*%! Are-You-Serious Prices

I admit it, I’ve written before about how I’ve traded up and spent way more on certain brands or experiences, even though I know the actual product or service isn’t that much different than it’s non-premium alternative. Some of the pricey items on this new list of the priciest items made my jaw drop… and made me laugh a little bit at the absurdity of people who really think that these products are worth it. The article also talks a little about how it’s not really that insane – that companies can actually price that high and keep the business afloat. A few highlights…

Most Expensive:
Dessert – Serendipity Restaurant in NYC $25,000
Pair of Jeans – Earnest Sewn and Van Cleef & Arpels $11,300
Dinner – Almas Caviar at a London Hotel $2,000
Facial – Spa Radiance in San Francisco $750
Bottle of Water – Bling H20 $40

Uh Oh

Forbes.com just cited New York as the world’s #4 most expensive rental market, and noted that it’s “not at all uncommon for people to spend over half their take-home pay on housing” there. As someone who’s thinking about moving there in a year or two, that makes me swallow hard. Although I’ve read lots of other pf blogs from New Yorkers, and you guys do a lot better than me in my cheap Midwest digs. Kudos. Interesting, but not surprising, that every other city in the top 10 most expensive rental markets was outside of the U.S.

Side Business?

Thought I'd start Monday off with a wacky idea. A friend of mine owns a custard shop with her husband. She grew up working the counter at the custard shop, and decided one day, when she was financially viable enough to get a loan, to buy the place. This has recently inspired me to daydream…. what if I had my own little side business? Because I am in no way ready to commit to a location yet (especially not my current one), this side business would need to be portable. And it would need to be something that afforded me with deep satisfaction, since I would have to spend so much extra time and energy to keep it going alongside my normal job (and writing aspirations).

What affords me great satisfaction is not custard, but cupcakes. I’m from the South originally, and while I never quite submitted to the mother/grandmother’s voice in the head telling me that my personal worth was tied to my execution of the perfect grits / biscuits/ red velvet cake, to me, baking is pure pleasure. The aromas, indulgent tastes, working with your hands to physically transform ingredients – it’s one of the most relaxing and rewarding activities. And the cupcake is the perfect representation of the nonessential, wonderfully playful treat.

So now my daydream revealed: I should start a cupcake catering business (that would of course eventually transform into a cutesy retail empire). Why cupcakes and why I think there is a demand for a cupcake catering business right now? Jamie Fahey of the newly-opened Atlanta Cupcake Factory was recently quoted in a cupcake-themed blog saying: “The world has become such a harsh place in so many ways and cupcakes bring comfort and a sense of well being to many people.”

I feel a little like a girl with a lemonade stand right now, but what the hell, I’ll try a little pricing exercise to see how much I’d have to sell my cupcakes for to make a profit. First the expenses, on the smallest scale: I figured around $100 for one-time start-up costs (business cards, portable storage, etc.) and then around $18 per dozen for ingredient/décor costs. This might be a little high for the flour, vanilla, etc., but I’d rather overestimate my costs than the opposite.
After doing some research, I find that cupcakes range anywhere from $2-$4, but I think $2.50 / cake sounds about right for me. If I gave a slight discount per dozen $28/dozen, I’d have to sell about 10 dozen to break even on the enterprise, and from there it’s all profit positive. Plus, I would have the pure pleasure of having someone else pay me for playing in the kitchen. Next steps, I think will be to create a portfolio and start capturing some of my past work. In order to do this I will have to overcome my strong dislike for taking pictures of food. Small price to pay!
More to come on whether this side business ever gets off the ground…

Give Yourself a Break.

Happy weekend. Just a lovely Sunday afternoon settling in on my couch, admiring the lovely v-day roses from the Guy, and fully absorbing the Times & the Strib. Nothing pertinent to blog about from those two lovely papers today. But all in all, I have a feeling of contentment when it comes to where I am today. Read Living Almost Large’s post about not feeling overwhelmed, and this really resonates.

Started talking to the Guy a lot more about my finances. I was griping a bit about how much I spend, and he reminded me to put things in perspective – that I spent a fraction of what he (and many of my peers) did, and that I wasn’t doing all that bad. (And while yes, we have entirely different priorities when it comes to money, this was encouraging.)

Sometimes I’m bummed that I still haven’t been able to curb my spending habits to the levels of some of you more frugal pf bloggers out there. But hey, I’ve gotten my credit card balance down below $1000 again, which feels really nice. I’m definitely on target to beat my goal of balance-free by 4/8. At the end of the day, money is a really emotional subject – I think that’s partially why I blog about it – and it helps to give yourself a pat on the back every now and again.

Dividends are a girl's best friend.

Filed my taxes this morning! Check it off! It felt good to get up early on a Saturday and get something accomplished.

Also, just caught wind of this female-investing-focused online resource from Citi called Women & Co. – it seems to be primarily retirement-focused, which was disappointing to me… I realize most people don’t have financial panic attacks until they start thinking about retirement, but there are so many other important aspects of financial freedom and wealth management. If you happen to be a Citigold customer or a Smith Barney client, you have a free membership, so let me know if anyone checks it out. I won’t be paying the $125 annual membership fee to join on as a non-customer…. must be some really value-added advice.

But what really caught my eye was the print ad creative: “Dividends are a girl’s best friend.” Too cute.

You Are What you Spend

So I haven’t posted this week…This week at work has kicked my butt. Early mornings, late nights. And the only time I tried, blogspot deleted my post accidentally and I got demoralized. Anyways. Last Sunday I saw this great article in the Times about true currency – the amount of time you have to spend at work to gain the right amount of purchasing power. The argument that the article makes is that income isn’t the right metric to compare level of financial wealth – instead, household consumption is a better metric. As international imports have driven COGS down, economists argue, people have greater purchasing power, so the gap between the wealthy and the poor is only 4 to 1 instead of 18 to 1 based on income. I don’t know if it’s entirely encouraging, considering the level of debt that we’re facing as a nation due to this purchasing power. But at least the stratification seems less dire.

You are what you spend. If that’s true, I’m a bottle of wine. I’m supposed to be watching what I spend this month, and for the most part I’ve done pretty well, except for alcohol. The only truly nonessential thing I’ve bought besides drinking/socializing with friends was a $20 purse at Target. Considering how long I carry bags, a really great investment! Again, I think the questions are around priorities. I’m not going to stop socializing with friends, but I think my biggest opportunity is to minimize the bar tab when I’m already out. One drink only challenge?

Credit Score Surprises

When I finally got my credit report (which looked good, although I didn’t opt to pay the $9.95 or whatever it was for my actual credit score) there were only two surprises: apparently I still have my American Eagle credit card open from when I was oh, sixteen (balance-less, thankfully). And, two, I am still recorded as an authorized user of one of my parent’s credit cards. I forgot I had it, but I do have it buried in a drawer at my place – my parents wanted me to have it as a last-ditch safety net of sorts. In case of emergencies. However, I started wondering if this affects my credit rating in any way, and started investigating. Not that I necessarily think my credit rating is better than theirs, but now I’m curious. The answer I found: up until now, yes – you were associated with the credit of the actual user. So you have the perks of their line of credit, but also have all of their credit flaws attached to your record as well (late payments, etc.).

But according to WikiAnswers, this will be changing this year, and the use of authorized user accounts will no longer be involved in the computation of the FICO score, and there will probably be a negative impact as a result:

The '08 version of the FICO scoring software, available in September 2007, will completely bypass any accounts listed as Authorized User. Fair Isaac expects that about 30% of consumers will see a drop in their FICO score as a result of this.

These two sources also paint the other side of the picture – the “guilt by association” effect of being an authorized user... we shall see when this takes effect.
BCS Alliance
Bankrate

Awesome Site for Frugal Food: CookThink.com

Ever since English Major’s Money blogged about batch cooking, I've been wanting to give it a shot. I'm thinking it will hopefully help with my compulsion impulses – when something is in front of me, I want to consume it immediately. So while it saves on planning and money, I'm hoping it might help with the calories too.

Before I got started I found this website: that helps out with inspiration. You can select your “mood” and CookThink spits out recipe ideas that match how you’re feeling. Everything from “grassy” to “spontaneous” to “elegant.” The more interesting way it works when it comes to frugal cooking: you can search based on ingredient, so you can figure out what you can make for dinner with what you already have in your pantry. Here’s what I tried:

• Spicy Penne with Shrimp and Mint
• Chicken Kebabs with Broccoli & Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

YUM!

Romance Under $5

Amazing - at my caucus location last night, only 58 people were there at the last election. This year, around 400 people voted!

Now that the politics are over, it's time for love. This year my Valentine's Day plan with the Guy is simple: I'm going to Whitecastle. For those not in the know, on 2/14 they dress up the place to a white tablecloth style restaurant and you can eat sliders with knife and fork if you like. I've actually never been, so I'm excited for the cute kitsch of it all. Even more excited to not have to spend oodles on a romantic dinner. Romance is not about spending dollars.

More ideas for cheap romance:
Visit an Architectural Salvage store / Long Drive to find a Star Gazing Spot / Bake Cookies Together / People Watching at a Coffee Shop / Play Board Games or Card Games together / Create a “Theme Night” Ex. Paris: Baguette, cheese, French wine

Any other good ideas out there?

Super Tuesday

Woohoo, super Tuesday. Regardless of the results [go obama!], I will be most excited to see the record turnout of people participating in govt at the primary level.

(And if you happen to live in my fine state of MN, here's your caucus locations!)

Plus... Feb Goals & Beyond.

Feb:
- File taxes
- Ban on elevators. I'm going to take the stairs whenever there is an option to do so
- Minimize "nonessential" spending; set "weekend" budgets

& Beyond:
- My new goal is to pay down ALL credit card debt by my birthday, April 8th! What better birthday present! I can't wait to get onto my other goals... :o)

Questions to Ask Yourself

Over the weekend, I came across the show The Millionaire Inside, and started watching "debt confessions" on late-night TV... in my near slumber-stupor, the moderator of the program seemed unreasonably harsh. They kept posing these impossible questions: "What is more important to you - your home or your business? What is more important to you - changing jobs to something you love or getting married?" Insane!

Glad I'm not at the point where I need to be answering such questions. However, it does raise the all important question of choices and priorities in my own financial life. It's nice to phrase this as a tradeoff. Too often I make choices by assuming that I have to do something, because it's part of me. For instance, I'm not going to stop all of my weekend social activity to save money, because I'm in my early twenties. It would be foolish for me to be a hermit until I have reached 100% of my financial goals, because then I'll be in my early forties... and it's less fun to dance on the bar then.

However, I can start posing the priorities/choices question: what is more important to me now? Having 3 more drinks? Or being able to pay off $30 more of my credit card? Taking cabs all over town? Or being a little closer to having my emergency fund whole? Or even questions among questions: going out to a concert or being able to eat out once more this month? I think I'm going to focus on making better choices within my priorities (being social, but practicing some good cost avoidance while I'm out there!)