End of July Wrap-Up and August Goal: Budget Itemization

I’ve updated my July net worth – woohoo, +7% to $41,600. Most of this was my end of year bonus. I also took down the estimated value of my car from $9,000 to $7,000. It’s probably still a little high, especially in these anti-SUV times, so I’ll keep recognizing the depreciation over the next few months. Spending-wise, I blew it a bit with my friend’s visit at the end of the month. Otherwise, I think I would have come in at my budget. As it is I’m quite a bit over.

As for August goals – there’s just one – Budget Itemization! Seven sexy syllables that I’m going to be immersed in for the next few hours and committed to for the rest of the month. I’m trying out a bit of a budget rehaul:

1) I have committed to trying the “envelope” style budgeting for one category: eating and drinking out at restaurants. This is the one category where I always overspend and I think actually seeing the money disappear will help out a lot with reigning in spending.
2) I’m also going to work on a WEEKLY budget for restaurants - $50 a week (that includes everything from food to drinks to coffees out.
3) Next, I’m going to get really detailed about my current budget categories. Instead of “entertainment,” I’m going to start itemizing movies vs. books, etc. That way in the next few months I’ll have even more new information about how to save smart.

All in all, I have a pretty positive attitude about my financial outlook for the rest of the year. I’m getting better at least! Also, the Guy and I were thisclose to scoring free tickets to Lollapalooza in Chicago this weekend. We didn’t win them, which may have been a financial blessing considering all of the gas and expenses we’d have incurred to go. Still… it would have been fun.

My Personal Financial History

I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile – I was inspired by Living Almost Large’s Weekly round-up for the PFBloggers. And I’ve finally penned my personal financial history – mostly my job outlook and what I’ve learned from my family. I’ve only been on this personal finance journey for a year, and still have a lot to learn!

Looking back on it, I have worked a lot of jobs. In high school I was a hostess, sometimes waitress at a small chain steakhouse, and at one time an administrative assistant for a local business owner. Oh and clothes folder extraordinaire at American Eagle. In college, I was an after-school nanny for two kids of Harvard professors, babysitter at a local church’s morning care program, towel folder and card swiper front desk gal at a gym, and that’s just the non-professional jobs.

I also interned at a small business publisher in Boston as an editorial assistant. The following year, I was the assistant to a Sony Pictures publicist. And now finally I’m settled into my first post-grad job, working in marketing for a consumer-packaged-goods firm.

None of these are what I’d really like to be doing = writing. I haven’t been audacious enough to pursue this aggressively. I’ve felt the need for a financial cushion before I get to venture out into the non-salaried land of writing the stories and truths I love and think are meaningful to share. I do think it’s important – I just wasn’t raised to rely on my parents for too long. My only worry is that I won’t actually take a break from building that cushion once I get too far down the road.

Though we were more of a doing-just-fine than a well-to-do family, and I wouldn’t quite say my brother or I was “spoiled,” my parents were definitely very giving – they were “we want you to have it” people. Clothes or gadgets or sports gear or some other little trinket, they indulged us, and enjoyed doing it. We weren’t wealthy. Though their sacrifices weren’t always visible to me, I know they must have made them to give that way. That’s one of the things that keeps me a bit scared of becoming a parent – I’m not sure when I’m going to be ready to be that selfless. I think that’s one of the things they taught me: the pleasure of money – being able to spend freely on others, giving them things they like. They didn’t have a lot of self-restraint when it came to buying us things we wanted, and I don’t either now when it comes to gifts. I way overspend on gifts, and I guess that’s where it comes from.

My mom was very diligent about the checkbook – my mom handled all of our expenses. She would do them all at once and mail them off right away. I think that’s the only real lesson imparted that I remember: a general take-care-of-it-first conscientiousness about putting finances in order. Our home was also pretty modest, and I remember it was a very exciting day (and very much known in the house) when my parents had paid off the house. But there was not a great deal of nuance beyond that, and I have had to learn a lot on my own. I do feel like a bit of a bootstraps budgeter at times, but recognize that I’ve had it really good in a lot of ways – no major setbacks and lots of lucky breaks.

That’s my very simple personal finance history. What’s yours? In four paragraphs or four sentences…

Weekend Reflections from LA

Just had a fantastic weekend with a friend from school who was in from LA. We had a lovely time, really great fireworks display on Saturday night, a night out downtown at an open-bar sponsored by the MBA association. A day out on the boat, skiing and tubing (my arms are so sore, it hurts to squeeze my toothpaste now). And questionably great conversation: the nuances of how to order frozen custard recipes off the menu, our theory on how Bush created reality TV (“No Stupid Star Left Behind”), and what makes a good parody movie (I can tell you it’s not Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story). And at brunch Sunday morning we also talked about my blogging. We had a nice discussion of standards of life in various cities and where you get to make choices, and where you just have to cope. My LA friend pays $1400 rent for a 1BR similar to mine in Santa Monica (I pay $950 living thisclose to the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis – the Manhattan of the Midwest). Looking at living anywhere other than I live now is going to be a reality check. (Sidenote: this was a nice instruction manual on predicting exactly how much more or less expensive your new city will be, from Punny.org)

My LA friend also posed the question as to what percent of my gross income I save. She reports saving 10% of her gross income. I wasn’t really sure offhand, so of course I had to come back and calc’ up a lot of different percentages – when I do total it all up, I found that I am saving about 15% of my takeaway pay (after taxes, 401(k), healthcare deductions etc). That doesn’t feel bad, but knowing that she saves 10% of her gross is probably a bigger number. AND she lives in a more expensive place. So that is rejuvenating me to try to ramp this up. For August I’m already planning on 16% and I think my goal will be to reach 19% by the end of this calendar year.

Also, thanks to Ellen from Wormbook for pointing out that the resource I was looking for in my last post is actually called Buxfer!

Bucks for / fer / phor?

Help! This weekend I heard some friends talking about “bucks – fur” (my phonetic rendering of what it sounds like they were saying), a website that helps roommates, sig others and friends tidily divide up what each owes towards certain shared expenses. This would be an online forum where you enter in who buys the milk and bread the most in a shared living environment and end up at a more “even” total of who owes what. Not that I want to micromanage yet another element of my financial life with the Guy, but it might be nice to try out instead of doing the mental tally.

Has anyone heard of this site and can anyone share the actual web address? My initial searches have turned up empty.

Increasing Automatic Deductions.... Bit by Bit

Automatic deductions work really well for me – in fact, any tactic by which I can trick myself into saving more money is what works best. I have a hard time keeping to a budget, only because I don’t like tracking it. It’s easy for me to say no to myself. But it’s hard when saying no to myself means saying no to someone else, i.e. the Guy or friends. So by upping these automatic deduction amounts gradually, hopefully I’ll be able to ramp up without being budget Nazi. So for my business school savings account, I’ll up the current $100 a month that I contribute to $125 a month. For travel, my transfer isn’t automatic yet, but the bi-monthly $50 I contribute will now be $60 and 75 per deposit.

Otherwise, I’m really looking for other tricky strategies to get myself to save more without feeling it. The $5 bill tactic pointed out by Boston Gal from the Globe was interesting, but I never (NEVER) pay in cash – always on a card to get the points. So that won’t really work for me. Ideally I want something that takes no time, no discipline, just tactics… ha, any ideas?

People Currently Reading...

I think I found something else to add to that financial wants list - the Amazon Kindle. I am just not a gadget geek, have no desire to wait in line for the 3g iphone, but as someone who has been carrying a book around everywhere [even movie theaters!] since she was seven, THIS is technology I can use.

Also, decided to add a currently reading gizmo to the site... still on Jane Eyre, but always looking for good next-read's. :)

Also, if you haven't seen the People Reading blog, you've got to check it out - currently featuring random Californians encountered on the street and sidewalks reading. I'm at my blog quota, but if I weren't, I would definitely start one of these for the Twin Cities.

My Financial WANTS

I read an interesting piece in the blogosphere of late about emergency funds and how they create this negative psychology around anticipating catastrophes at every turn and create a poverty mentality. That got me thinking about the right way to set up your goals to motivate you to save positively, and not discourage you about where you are, where you want to be, and where you may never be. That’s depressing, whew. For my goals:

Emergency savings – $9,000 really is three months of my current salary, so that one is based on a pretty typical principal.

Business School Savings - $50,000. I realize this is actually way higher than I can actually achieve. I sincerely doubt I’ll be able to save this much before I go to school. However, this is the amount that I would feel really good about going into school to sustain a semblance of my lifestyle without taking on excessive amounts of debt. For me, it’s more important here to acknowledge the real total rather than set an achievable end goal. In the end, I will have to take on tons of loans to go to school. Everyone does it. (Sigh) I’ll do it too, and I’ll be okay. What is important for me in the meantime, is to set achievable short-term goals along the way to that total amount, i.e. upping the ante on my automatic savings each month.

Travel Goal - $2,500 This is the bare bones amount to have a real South American adventure. I honestly don’t think I can do it for less. So this is more about budget setting than anything else.

Wedding Goal - $? I can’t even think about how much I’m going to need for this right now. I should probably take it off, because I’m not even contributing to this yet, but it’s a reminder that I really should be saving if I want to pay for my own wedding and get married anytime in the next decade.

Those are the big ones – the NEEDS – that I’ve chosen to prioritize but I also think it’d be great to set a few other positive goals, to recognize that I’m trying to save, cover my needs, and be more frugal so that I can enjoy some of my WANTS. And as long as you save and budget for it, you can enjoy these fun things that cost money. So, a short list of my financial WANTS.

+ A Personal Trainer for a Year
+ A Dog, complete with Dog Walker for weekdays
+ A few more of my favorite magazine subscriptions (right now it’s just Vanity Fair)

Right now I’m not saving specifically for these, but once I’ve finished up with my travel goal, I’ll choose one of these as a positive savings goal to tack on. Any other strategies for keeping yourself on the positive side of saving?

Why Women Don't Rule the World

I’m going to need a new suit for business school (and later) job interviews. My only suit is from my senior year of college when I was frankly, a bit of a porker, left over from rowing crew and excessive amounts of beer-drinking. Now that I’m marginally svelter, I couldn’t keep the thing up with a belt. So, I started doing research on how much I can expect to spend, and I ran across this bit by Laura Solon, a UK writer from the Guardian and she is just irresistible. Am now convinced that I should raise my children in London, so that they will be just as witty and charming:

Why don't women rule the world? Is it because we live in a patriarchal society that forever perpetuates the glass ceiling? Is it because women don't support successful women? I think it's both, but I tell you what doesn't help women in their cause: women's suits. Hillary Clinton's peach trouser suit. Deborah Meaden's beige number from the Dragons' Den promos. All the ones worn by women in the government. They are awful. Really awful. They are so awful that they could be a contestant on The Apprentice, where they'd annoy Margaret so much she'd swear.

The law of women's suits is: it doesn't matter how much a woman spends on a suit, she will almost always end up looking as if she bought it from a Next Seconds shop where it was nestling on a rail between a chenille turtle-neck and a plus-sized taupe thong.
The only way to wear a suit is if a) it's Chanel and b) you're a Parisian woman who weighs six ounces and sleeps safe in the knowledge that if global warming continues and lions start living in France and she's chased by one, she could save herself by hiding in the gap between her fridge freezer and the wall.

Maybe one day I will care about the brand name of my suit. I am going to business school in the next few years, and despite my thoughts on the matter, maybe I *will* lose my soul after all, and become the kind of person who has a comment on the suiting collections at Bergdorf vs. Saks. My actual price-hunting revealed I should probably budget around $400 at least. My two winners:

J.Crew $460 = $225 jacket + $130 pant + $100 pencil skirt
Bannana Republic $400 = $200 jacket + $100 pant + $80-100 pencil skirt

A quick search of Nordstroms.com revealed lots of Solon-described numbers and Bloomingdales.com revealed some sharp Theory and DVF looks that were way out of my price range ($800), and Chanel is just not an option. Any other ideas for finding a great looking suit under $500?

Also, a bit later in the article, Solon talks about her lack of financial knowledge and proposes:

scrapping sex education - just force all teenagers, boys and girls, to wear women's suits and thoughts of sex will all but disappear - and then replace it with finance education.

Cheers to that!

Homage to a Government

Next year we are to bring the soldiers home
For lack of money, and it’s all right.
Places they guarded, or kept orderly,
Must guard themselves, and keep themselves orderly.
We want the money for ourselves at home
Instead of working. And this is all right.

It’s hard to say who wanted it to happen,
But now it’s been decided nobody minds.
The places are a long way off, not here,
Which is all right, and from what we hear
The soldiers there only made trouble happen.
Next year we shall be easier in our minds.

Next year we shall be living in a country
That brought its soldiers home for lack of money.
The statues will be standing in the same
Tree-muffled squares, and look nearly the same.
Our children will not know it’s a different country.
All we can hope to leave them now is money.

That was Philip Larkin’s poem from 1969 - on Vietnam, entitled "Homage to a Government." And America’s leadership is disappointing now for different reasons. “Lack of money” has never been a concern with this administration. The position on military spending has rather been – money is no object.

As the economy has grown since the seventies, those annual upward ticks of growth have ballooned military spending naturally, since there’s a larger and larger bucket from which to draw. But the unnatural part has been an attitude change with regards to money and priorities.

The last time I checked on the National Priorities Project link, the Iraq War has cost a total of $537.8 Billion. $15.8 Billion of that total was paid by my current state of Minnesota. The tradeoff for those dollars – that same figure could have been spent on health care for 4.5 million people (that’s just shy of the state population, 5.2 Million).

It’s true that money has been an influence on the Iraq War – as we’ve spent and become aware of those kinds of trade-offs, the more America has called the purposes of our presence there into question. But politics, not money, will (hopefully) pull our troops out of the region (or at least divert them to a more rational, resolute mission).

My own homage to the government will truly begin after a different fiscal moment of truth: do we deal with the deficit and count “lack of money” as the reason we avoid thorough reconstruction of the regions? Or do we devote the same “money as no object” mentality to healing what we’ve hurt? I attended the unveiling of the Obama headquarters in Minneapolis this morning and volunteered my Friday afternoons until election day to help out in the office and put in some time at the phonebank. I already donated a small amount of money, and would love to be able to give more, but I will devote my time until.

The Gift of Sagacity

So my brother is on the 5-year plan for graduating from college (he was an athlete and had to red-shirt one year, so it was legitimate), and as a graduation present next year, I would love to compile a book of wisdom for him, financial and otherwise.

Yes, he doesn't graduate for another year, but I'm starting now, so it's actually comprehensive. So I’m looking for gems to pass along. I have a big section on retirement planning/saving already, but is there anything else that you would have wanted to know the day you graduated from college?

Equities vs. Dollar Balance

Considering market downturns, other pf bloggers are encouraging me to think of my retirement assets as a certain number of shares rather than a constantly fluctuating (or diving) balance – hopefully this will help take the emotion out of re-looking at how I’m doing, when I have a long way to go before retirement. With that, I’ll start keeping this tracker in addition to my net worth tracking.

# of Equity Shares:
Company 401(k): 112
Company Stock (Given as extra incentive/gift): 10
Roth IRA: 107
Total: 229

Slackonomics: Our Part in Rehauling the economy as we know it

Just read the introduction for the book Slackonomics: Generation X in the Age of Creative Destruction by New York Times contributor Lisa Chamberlain (I think the snappy description under the subtitle sums up the premise nicely: “How financial insecurity and technological innovation changed everyday life for a generation poised to take the reins from boomers – and not a moment too soon.”

I guess I should say that I’m a Gen Y person by definition, but I’m excited to finish this one. So far what I like about it is that it really seems to be just an anthropological look at a unique era, the specific cultural experience that we’ve had. I really like that Chamberlain doesn’t try to compare our generation to another and make some argument about how we’ve missed a lesson somewhere, financially. Her point is that in some ways, these economic times were almost inevitable and unavoidable – but this creative destruction we’ve experienced and are experiencing is likely to uproot a lot of the old definitions and economic modes, and spit us out into a totally different realm – for better or worse.

For instance – take social security (note: this is my own example, not Chamberlain’s). Scottrade Investing just completed a survey that noted that although 87% of Gen X’ers believe they deserve social security benefits from the government, most aren’t counting on actually getting any benefits. Other highlights from the survey:

43% believe they won’t be able to retire fully
26% aren’t sure they’ll ever be able to leave the workforce
37% predict they’ll need $1 million to retire
40% haven’t hit the $25 thousand mark yet
40% are saving more as a result of their insecurity over social security

I think those stats exemplify Chamberlain’s definition of creative destruction – because of all of the financial insecurity (first four bullets), Generation X will be forced to create a new economic reality for themselves (last bullet). Right now, they are just saving more, but will there be a reinvention of how we save for retirement, or protest that results in genuine change to the entire social security infrastructure.

Otherwise, I’m reading Jane Eyre at night before bed. I used to have a tradition of reading one l-o-n-g classic every summer (back when I got summer breaks), and I’m trying to carry that over now. What’s your favorite classic?

Bonus Time! & Goals Report

Finally, finally it’s end of year bonus time at my company – the total ended up being $2,942 (measly comapred to the other MBAs who have my same role, but a nice bump for me). And true to my goal, I am sending 60% to B-School Savings, 30% to the E-fund and devoting only 10% to something fun. I bought a new purse and a pair of orange flats for my something fun a bit ago, so the rest I sent to my travel fund.

As for my other two goals:
Carpooling 2x a week instead of 1 – I’m 2 for 5. I did manage to continue carpooling 1 day a week, and I will keep trying to step it up. When this is not *technically* the other person’s goal, it makes it tough.
Giving up Alcohol for any portion of time – No and No. Not only did I fail at this goal, I went to a wine tasting with friends and bought several expensive bottles – some for me and some for the Guy. I get very generous when I’m tipsy. Damn. For the rest of July, I’m going to just focus on the carpooling goal and reducing my driving in general. I will try to walk to the Guy’s place at least once and walk to yoga more often. Also, I’m going to start unplugging all my appliances (Cell phone charger, toaster, coffee maker, etc.). My average energy bill is pretty small as is, but every bit helps, and I can be greener this way as well. I’ve never tried this, but I’m NEVER in my apartment, and it really is such a waste.

In other news, this is my 99th post! How many posts are you on, and what were some of your biggest “milestones” in the pf journey, blog-related or otherwise?

I am not so good at budgeting.

The All-Star break is here…and time for a bit of reality. I just crunched the numbers for June, and I was $350 over the budget I set. Shiza. I’m going to try to wrap up July on budget. Here’s what I’ll have to do to get there:

• Not buy groceries for the rest of the month (to make up for how overbudget I went on clothing). Shouldn’t be too hard since I have plenty in the fridge and still have 4 big recipes I want to make.
• $100 left for eating out and drinking (I have a friend coming in at the end of the month so that might be tough, but I definitely need to get more disciplined about this.)
• Fill up the tank only one more time this month. I have half of a tank now so I would have to really punch up the carpooling.

Financial Dictionary: Glide Path

In reading more of the business sections and financial literature, I’m continually disappointed by the amount of assumed knowledge in the writing. To be expected, probably, but I want to start making the effort to learn more of the vocabulary, as well as the principles behind good investments. Starting with:

Glide path (n.): the rate at which retirement funds change their asset allocations (mix between stocks and fixed) over time
In a sentence: Much of the controversy over target-date retirement funds is due to the lack of consensus around the correct glide path for these funds, and what the right percentage of equity one should have on the day of one’s retirement.
Further reading: Examining the Glide Path Methodology for Target Date Maturity Funds

401(k) Matching = Free $1800!

Since my company did pretty well this year, they knocked up the extra 401(k) Match a bit. They have a base matching program of $.50 on the $1, and a variable matching program depending on how well the company does. So based on this year’s performance they threw in another two quarters, and they are now doubling the amount I contributed to my 401(k) this year. The variable match amount for this year came to $1800, which has brought my 401(k) total in my company 401(k) up to $13,538. Thus far, I haven’t focused on a numeric goal for either this or my Roth account. At my company I’m contributing the maximum for matching (6% of my pre-tax income), and I’m contributing $250 a month for the Roth (8% of my takeaway pay).

Not interested in setting a numeric goal for myself – just too damn far away. Who knows what cataclysmic, world-altering events could take place between now and the time I retire. But, I do want to find some general, authoritative principles for retirement goals. Is 6% & 8% just about right? Too little? More than I really need? Because I would love to squirrel more away against my other savings goals too… In my preliminary googling, I haven’t come up with any percentage principles, so I’m going to do a deeper dive.

The only principles I’ve found are to max out each year. Last year I fell short of maxing out my Roth by $1200 so a ways to go – maybe this year, my goal should be to max it out. Does any one have a good rule of thumb for what percent of your income you should be contributing to retirement each month?

Earning / Shopping. Cool.

I recently purchased from one of the promos they give you on E-Miles and the airline miles did show up in my Northwest account, and on time to boot. So I wanted to give a Consumer Reports style shout-out to E-Miles. Sometimes I’m skeptical that I’m missing something in the fine print, but I needed this anyway, so it was a worthwhile experiment. If you haven’t heard of it – definitely sign up. They give you airline frequent flyer miles in exchange for your time viewing ad messages and quick 3-question surveys. Very worth it, even for just a break in the workday.

Secondly, I’ve gotten hooked on this website – Shop it to Me. A friend of mine met the guy who launched it out in San Francisco and it seems to be growing quickly and doing well. The premise is that you select the brands and stores you like up front, and then you get an email newsletter two times a week with links to individual products on sale. I’m not a big online shopper, but I do like it for one reason: gives you more visibility to what types of things are on sale if you do a little research (implication: a reminder that you should never really pay full price for things in the retail space). One setting I would adjust is the price ceiling for items they show you. I keep lowering mine, so I won’t be tempted by anything over a couple hundred bucks. And I invited enough friends to get a free $10 gift certificate to use on the site. Fun!

On the Job Front.

So, I applied for a new job in New York today... in a completely different industry and role for me.

And I heard back from them in the same day that they wanted to talk to me. Relocation isn't covered for the position, so that would be a lot... and I'm already wrapped up in applying for business school... and I can't imagine that they would pay me more than I'm getting now... especially not to have the same lifestyle in New York... not to mention that the Guy isn't ready to leave yet...

But it was still encouraging to know that what I'm doing now isn't all that's out there. Even in the middle of a pseudo-recession.

Also, in another intriguing note: personal financial advisers made the list of the top twenty fastest-growing jobs. So if this new role doesn't work out, I can always shop out my newly acquired Bookish knowledge.

(Frugal) Hungry Girl

The Guy recently gave me the Hungry Girl cookbook, and it coincides with the feeling that I should be trying to get a little bit more out of my grocery budget (in terms of savings and variety), so here goes:

First, Recipes I can Make with the Stuff in my Pantry:
Red Beans & Rice, Lima Beans, Mushroom Patty
Turkey Omelet with Pineapple Salsa, Turkey Sausage
Vegetable Barley Soup, Blue Corn Chips & Roja Salsa
Potato Pancakes, Carrot, Edamame and Black Bean Vegetable Blend, Peaches
Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken
Kashi Spinach Feta & Mushroom Pizza
Whole Wheat Pasta with Vodka Sauce and Broccoli Cuts

Second, NEW Recipes from the Hungry Girl Cookbook:
Chop-tastic Veggie Salad [Grill a veggie burger patty and add vegetables to top a salad]
Rockin’ Tuna Melt [Skip the mayonnaise and add carrots for some texture]
Bake-tastic Butternut Squash Fries [Cut up squash in the shape of fries, Bake lying flat for 40 min at 425 degrees]
Crazy Good Turkey Taco Meatloaf [Add veggies (corn, peppers, onions) to traditional ground turkey]
Death by Chocolate Cupcake [Use diet hot cocoa mix, chocolate cake mix and Splenda as the base]
Mint Mocha Freeze [Coffeemate, sugar free sweetener, and instant coffee for a Starbucks substitution]

Travel Plans & Goals...

Headed to the Cape with the Guy for the 4th – we’re staying with his parents for the week, so hopefully it will be a relatively economical trip, but you never know. Things always seem to pop up. Also I added a travel fund to my list of goals (does it mean something that I just keep knocking that wedding fund down the list…?) I’ve decided that I’d like to take a nice long trip with the Guy before we (eventually, at long-last) pick up and move out of the Midwest. We’ll both be in transition at that point – him into a new job somewhere and me getting ready to go back to school. And I’m not sure if the right time is this Fall or next Spring (probably depends on how prices are looking), but I think $2500 should be enough for a lengthy budget trip. Maybe not, but it’s a start. I’m thinking South America – maybe a hiking adventure of some kind along the Inca Trail or perhaps checking out some of those great Malbec’s in wine country. We shall see. My goal is to save $50 a month in an automatic deduction and then whatever else I can afford at the end of the budget cycle.

The Convention

So my current city is hosting the Republican National Convention this year and the money and people influx this summer will be pretty impressive. Minnesota Monthly magazine is predicting that there should be more protestors (50,000 estimated) than attendees (45,000). The Guy is planning to rent out his condo to make some money. A couple thousand for the week! Too bad I can’t do the same, since I already rent! Rah!