Bookish on a Budget

My Final Post

2009-08-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

Going into school, my net worth has dipped -4% to $42,305. Did not meet my goal, but not abysmal. I officially gave up $4,000 in unvested retirement savings and $80,000 in tuition credit to make what I feel confident is the right decision for my future to move out of the Midwest and follow a better career progression. I feel lucky I can be this financially foolish.

But at this point in my life, I have to cling to the adage for business school students everywhere: It’s about the time, not the money.

That is definitely how I feel and I’m ready to plunge headlong into this next two years of TIME. The money will come. I’ve decided that although I will keep up with my monthly budget and net worth check-in’s privately, I will not continue to publish them here on this blog. I’m officially going dormant – potentially for a full two years. I hope to resume after I’m done and reinstated into the real world – either here or at another name.

I have absolutely loved this experience and thanks to all of you who commented – publicly and privately. I have been so enriched by you.

Checking Back in on 2009 Annual Goals...

2009-07-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, the end of July, really? We’re there. Thought it would be a good time to reflect upon the annual goals I set, way back when. Given the turn we’ve taken with the economy and the level of uncertainty, combined with my decision to walk away from business school sponsorship and take on debt to go back to grad school….. I haven’t made much progress.

Financial:
1 – Get to three-months of expenses in my emergency fund. (ALMOST)
2 – Once we get a dog, transfer all automatic savings over to grad-school and wedding-funds, split evently – save $2000 in total towards these goals. (NOPE)
3 – Become a loan expert and secure a great loan package for grad school. (YES!)
4 – Stretch: Max out 2008 Roth by April deadline (KNEW THIS WOULDN’T HAPPEN EARLY ON)

It makes me feel like I haven’t gotten a lot done. And yet, different goals and items to manage come up, and there are lots of ways to stay productive. Overall my net worth is moving up – and not too much further to go to reach my goal, so I feel good about that!

Gregg Easterbrook's: The Progress Paradox

2009-07-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

Subtitle: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse

Highly Skimmable. The best four lines in the book that kind of say it all: “Portable carpeted dog steps” – These are the things that make us unhappy – the blur of needs and wants caused by rampant materialism.

The major causes of WHY people feel worse while life gets better:

1.The unsettled, nonlinear character of progress: while things do get better, there are stops and starts. While healthcare is improving, we still have the AIDS epidemics, etc.

2.Fundraising only happens at the extremes. Politicians couldn’t get very much money out of you if they represented inevitable progress. When right-wing personalities claim that Democrats are ruining the world, and vice versa, they’re doing so as a means to coax funding from your wallet.

3.Crises raise the self-importance of the elite (and boost ratings) - and thus, the elite generate their own crises.

The one thing I didn’t like about this book was the lack of solutions or constructive thinking about how to reverse the trend. The one theme that seems to recur in all of these happiness tomes (I’ve read quite a few) is referent anxiety (i.e. keeping up with the Jones’s). There’s a great deal of debate about referent anxiety and costs and benefits to society. For example, there is less referent anxiety in a stagnant economy – but one would argue this isn’t necessarily advantageous to a country’s citizens. Easterbrook’s main example was that of Scandinavian countries, whose “socialism-lite governments have moved everyone to middle class – something vaguely like a society in which everyone has a 3BR and a Honda accord”. Sign me up?

Health Care Costs Ex-Insurance

2009-07-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of this year, I decided to keep a running list of what I would have to pay for all of my health-care-related expenses if I didn’t have insurance. That’s the retail sticker price. So far, the tally has been pretty enlightening, as itemized below... the biggest expense was actual my very generic Rx.

Retail for my Generic Rx $59.99 x 12 months = $719.88
OverTheCounter Meds = $42
Contacts = $114
Annual OB/GYN visit = $180
Dermatology Screening *EST* $175
Dermatology – Routine Removal *EST* $450
Dental Exam - *EST* $150
Dental Cleaning - *EST* $140
TOTAL Year To-Date: Closing in on ~ $2000

Blogging for the Sake of Learning (and/or Getting a Job?)

2009-07-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

Thinking even more about giving up the blog, I realize that I do still LOVE and believe in the idea of devoting significant time to a public forum to house thoughts, reflections, and more than anything a slow climbing path towards being an expert on some discrete finite topic. It is very much in line with Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas in Outliers on effort – similar to the "10,000 hour rule" espoused by a lot of writers at the New Yorker and various publications.

You can only become truly knowledgeable… or, phrased more positively….. you can actually become an EXPERT with just really hard work and time in front of you. Which provokes me to ask myself, what do I really want to perfect within myself? What could I become an expert in, and where could I develop myself through practice and effort and time?

I’ve had so many side interests – while I love writing and want to maintain that with a certain level of ferocity, I find that too private to actually blog about. I started getting really interested in wine and really would love to take advantage of opportunities to learn more. I have a good start on a tracker of my tasting notes… but then, I would post on that more sporadically, and there are SO many wine blogs out there, that mine would be, once again, the least knowledgeable and interesting voice out there!

I COULD use it as a professional opportunity to start practicing for case interviews, since I've determined I may want to break into management consulting after grad school. A case interview a day! That actually has the potential to create a real following, based on the lack of real, free resources or forums out there. Another sort of more general business school blog could be lumped into that as well – which would actually be FUN to maintain.

I think we’ve got some changes afoot....

Collisions in Twittering and Blogging

2009-07-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

True, Suze Orman is the only personal finance guru/resource I’ve been following on twitter, so I can’t say that I have an exhaustive perspective on this, but I am scrolling TweetDeck on my phone often enough to concur with much of the media that nothing much insightful or thought-provoking gets written about on twitter. Even Suze is reduced to chatting it up about Michael Jackson and Sarah Palin.

It is really difficult to find anything that is actually value-added in any of these 140 characters (times 140 updates per day).

(Full Disclosure: I do have a twitter account under my real name, and I strive to post things that are interesting and value-added and truly undiscoverable by any other forum or unknowable to my friends through any other way. But I mostly fail as evidenced by last 5 tweets:
1.A picture of cupcakes I baked for the 4th of July
2.My disappointment that I didn’t get the house I wanted in Palo Alto
3.Excitement over attending an Indian wedding
4.Disappointment at the ultimate winner of the last season of Biggest Loser couples
5.My mixed emotions over the yuppiedom of owning those little metallic spice racks)

Then again, when I scroll my Google Reader for the latest on personal finance blogs, I truly am – scrolling. I can get the gist of most posts and updates in a few lines, and then I’m on to the next thing.

Which leads me to conclude…. As I go back to school and have less and less relevant topics to post on related to personal finance, would twitter be a better forum for my pf thoughts and insights???

Lately, I’ve been doing quite a bit of muddling over the state of the blog and the worthiness of keeping this up. The background updates and tracking I’ve done as a result are hugely value-added to me, and I don’t want to lose that. But perhaps I can distill the minimal value I create for others into a 140 character update.

I think I’ll tweet about it….

24 Hour Trip to NY for $150

2009-07-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

Heading to New York to see friends this weekend for literally, only 24 hours. And I’ve set a budget for myself of $150. How could I do that much damage in that little amount of time, right? My hotel was through a free night award, so I’m good there – and planning to pack plenty of breakfast-y snacks for my plane ride in. So the only things I am really talking about are:

2 cab rides into/out of the city, plus a metrocard refill: $50
Saturday drinks with Gals: $15
Saturday drinks with another friend: $20
Dinner/Drinks on our planned excursion out to the new Citi field (tickets comped by my friend): $65

I’ll report back later… probably, on where I went wrong!

Oh, the Bonus Money Dilemma

2009-07-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

Was running around the lake with the Guy the other day when he brought up the subject of “what he was going to buy with his bonus money.” Oh, what luxury. Oh, what eye rolling. The Guy makes twice as much money as I do. He owns his place (where I also live, at a significantly subsidized rate), has a reasonable mortgage, and we live a modest lifestyle (thanks mostly to my influence).

Clearly, his question galled me, just a bit. But when I asked him all of the basic saving questions, he had decent answers, and it was clear that he felt pretty safe in his financial condition, despite the chaos around us. He has a four month emergency fund, he has some $60K in investments towards future goals of either starting a business and/or downpayment for a house. Basically he has a remote idea of those goals, and a remote idea of what they could cost, but those are not itemized and he’s not tracking his progress toward them, because: 1) he feels comfortable and 2) these goals are far off.

After reflecting – long after we completed our run – the whole episode just reinforced to me the importance and need for having a detailed financial plan and continually checking-in on where you are. Even though it can be frustrating and discouraging at times, it helps to guide your decision-making in almost every situation, from should I go out for dinner tonight to when should I retire… from where should I put my next $1 to where should I put my next $15,000.

Our whole discussion if of course, quite illustrative of lifestyle inflation as well. The Guy was in part distressed because everyone else around him was making a big purchase or at least saving towards a big purchase, and he has no need for any big purchases at the moment! What a world we live in!

It also made me realize how excited I will be to reset my financial goals post-B-school – when I actually have a higher income and more resources, and when the Guy and I will likely be combining our finances to work towards these things together!

End of Employment Money Wrap-Up

2009-07-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

As I wrap up at my current employer and get ready to head back to school, I’m having to learn a lot about the loose ends of my finances as well. I’m rolling over my current 401(k) into a Traditional IRA account – which will be taking a considerable hit, given that I’m giving up the unvested portion (which is currently $5,068) – and thus setting the foundation for all future company retirement plans that I might begin and rollover.

Also, I had 10 random shares of company stocks that were given to me as an award. (As of today, worth somewhere between $580 - $600). I’ve had to go through multiple calls with company HR representatives to have them tell me that I need to contact the designated Shareholder Services company to actually set up an account before I could do anything else. Conceivably, because I don’t have a broker I could hand them off to? Anyway, all of this made me realize just how easy it is to have money lost out there in the ether.

I’m very tempted to cash out the 10 shares completely, so that:
#1) I won’t have random unaccounted company shares hanging out there
#2) the stock is pretty high vs. where we’ve been tracking the past few years, so I’m not convinced keeping my money there is going to provide some hefty return, and
#3) so that I can partially fund the purchase of a new computer for business school without jacking my student loan bill any higher.

All very tempting rationales…. More to come on this!

Does it Ever End? More July Goals

2009-07-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

When I think about the personal value I get out of this blog and the personal drive and energy it adds to my life, one of the most important things is public goal-setting. I realize they’ve taken up a larger share of the posts….. but so, be it. One of my best tactics of late is to get more aggressive about setting goals for different time horizons. So in addition to my main savings goal from yesterday, here are my new July Goals.

Daily Goals
Read a minimum of 5 articles in the WSJ (or equivalent) each day.

Weekly Goals (4 of these, 1 for each week)
Read and log notes about Portuguese wines.
Finish reading all of my library books and return them.
Re-read my novel and stories and write a planned writing schedule for August.
Pick up boxes and pack up all books; also make a total packing list.

Monthly Goals
Complete the rest of my 5K Training schedule and find a race in Palo Alto to run.
Complete all B-School prep required (mainly Accounting and Finance workbooks).

Reflecting back on June

2009-07-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

NetWorth up to $43,971! +4% from last month, on the strength of my company stock price, and tiny bumps in my retirement fund. I guess I haven’t done so horribly this month – especially given the fact that I made TWO major purchases this month – the IPhone 3GS and a new Schwinn Hybrid from Costco. When I reflect back on my June goals, I feel like I was able to accomplish quite a fair amount, in every single category of my life except for my finances. What I didn’t do this month was to fully fund my ING Savings, so my liquid emergency fund has remained pretty stagnant at this point.

I finished planning the OutWest Roadtrip, Completed 3 weeks of training for a 5K, and brought a good deal more joy into my life… But I did NOT fully fund my ING Savings account (which is putting in my $450 a month contribution).

Not to get myself too down, my #1 July goal is to not only fully fund my ING account the usual $450, but to bump it up another $400 as well. Hopefully my impending month of unemployment will help catalyze me all the way there. The major cuts in spending are going to be coming from clothing (no major purchases), alcohol (I will not enter our premium wine store, nor will I allow the Guy in there… we are drinking what we have!), gas (just filled up my tank at the end of this month + carpooling) and entertainment (my home made fun this month will be packing up our stuff!)

June Books

2009-06-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

Continuing on my Friedman kick, I read The World is Flat, which was another very insightful, albeit skimmable tome. Similar to last time, for me, it was worth reading for just a few valuable sentences and concepts

One.
The reminder that despite the repetition of the pundits, that al-Qaeda is not a religious fundamentalist group, but rather a phenomenon of political extremism. They do not focus on communication and interaction with their god at all. Rather, the focus is on a totalitarian utopian skewed vision of a kingdom on earth – i.e. an Islamic state that rules the land.

Two.
I found the connection between terrorism and humiliation quite profound: “Humiliation is the most underestimated force in international relations and in human relations.” After emphasizing the possibility for hope of economic development and financial elements of the flattening world, it was an excellent counterbalance to talk about the ways terrorism… is spawned by the poverty of dignity (not money).

Up next is Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, oh, and I’m reading Ted Hughes’ Birthday Letters right before I fall asleep each night. Reminds me how much I miss reading poetry.

Interesting A-Ha's about COBRA

2009-06-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

Couple new fun facts I learned about COBRA, in case you’re leaving a company soon… either by choice or not so much by choice.

1.My healthcare benefits are terminated on the last day of the month in which I terminate my employment. I was originally thinking about my last day at work being July 31st, but then I realized that if I worked one more day (August 3rd), I would then have healthcare for the remainder of August. (This was relevant to my Blue Cross Blue Shield healthplan, and I’m definitely not sure that this applies everywhere).

2.The second item does apply everywhere because it’s new legislation just implemented by Obama. Apparently, you can elect COBRA retroactively, up to two months after you terminate employment. So, I can basically not pay for healthcare for the month of August… but if I break my leg, I can go to the hospital and say “I need to elect COBRA to pay for this!” The whole impetus behind the new legislation is making coverage easier for people that are in transition. Awesome, real world implications benefitting me from having all of that hope in the Oval Office.

Vortex of Tide Detergent Choices

2009-06-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

People have written about this before, and I know I’m not offering anything too novel here, but I was at the grocery store the other night, in a hurry and very eager to end the shopping trip, when I was remembered the last item on my list – laundry detergent. I have been a loyal Tide shopper as long as I can remember. My parents bought Tide. I buy Tide, even when I was in college. It’s not the most economical brand to buy, but I’m no laundry expert, and it just feels like something you don’t want to mess up with buying cheap – you could end up altering your clothes (far more expensive than the investment in good detergent). But last night, I was overwhelmed with a SEA of tide. Choices in size, scent, cause, intended use – front loaders, high efficiency machines. I was so frustrated. Not least of all was the difficulty to understand the true price/value of their product. So many different price points, with so many different variables left me blind to what was causing one container to be more expensive than another. While I might pay more for the larger size, I am not going to pay more for the scent of Febreze. I was so frustrated, I picked up a very small size of the exact product I had bought last time, but vowed to go to Costco and buy a different brand next time to get the most value. I can stand for some level of consumer confusion – but NOT when it comes to price!

An Early Adopter for Once in my Life

2009-06-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm actually going for it... and upgrading my "free manufacturers phone" to the I-Phone 3GS. The Guy assures me that such a drastic change is going to change my very personality....

Only time shall tell, but I guess I think of myself highly enough to challenge him that this won't be the case. I will report back in a week or so to tell all....

The Economics of Living in California

2009-06-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

So, as I move on from the Midwest and I head out to Stanford GSB… I am now moving to California. The Guy and I shopped for houses in the greater Palo Alto area a week ago… and we found a great 2BR house, with a big yard and patio and two parking spaces that actually fits our budget! But despite the cheery news, the reality is my cost of living will be going up SIGNIFICANTLY. I currently pay $1000 a month in “rent” to the Guy (helps go toward his mortgage). That includes all utilities/parking etc. The rent for our new house will be $2650, which does not include utilities etc., which we can estimate at $150/mo. The Guy has advertised that he wants to / is able to pay more than me for our housing expenses. Let’s assume that means he will pay for all of the utilities. That brings me to $1325 in rent = a 33% increase in housing costs while I eliminate all income and take on debt. Hooray. We could go with a more economical apartment ($2200), rather than a house… but I think I am going to have a hard time convincing the Guy – he’s in love.

The Guy never likes it initially when I am his voice of budget reason (recall last night, when I forced him to go to the value grocery store vs. the convenient luxury grocery store), but later (when he realized the value store saved us $25) he appreciates it. So I will keep testing the boundaries of being prudent without losing all levels of desirability.

The OutWest Road Trip!

2009-06-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, the Guy and I are going to be setting out on a crazy OutWest roadtrip, starting in two months. Origin: Minneapolis, Final Destination: Palo Alto. Duration: One week in the car.

Frugal Tactics: staying with friends and using hotel points, eating at roadside diners as highlighted in our much beloved manual, RoadFood, using Cheap Gas Finders online, or various Costco locations along the way, and planning our own entertainment in advance (each leg of the trip will have a theme – accompanied by music, readings, etc.), and buying an America the Beautiful Pass in advance to save on the national park entry costs.

Estimated Total Cost:
Gas: $350
Lodging: $0
Food: $420
Parks/Parking: $80 + $30
Entertainment: $30
TOTAL: $455/person for a week-long memory. Priceless? More to come…

Guide to "Inexpensive" Makeup Picks

2009-06-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

I have officially switched out of my $30 bucks a pop nice MAC foundation and back to drug store brands… and am quite jubilant about it. One little recessionista step for me. I stumbled upon the April InStyle feature on Best Beauty Buys for 2009 on the treadmill this morning and instead of rushing out to the mall to buy more urgently needed makeup, I scampered over to Target.

They published a shopping list for the category, and I have listed the only items in their “inexpensive” category below, i.e. what you can find in the drug store. (A lot of the best beauty buys are apparently $100+, not so recessionista friendly. Even the inexpensive picks average around the $8-10 range, which depending on your priorities... isn't always so attractive.)

LIPS: Loreal Paris Colour Riche, Revlon Super Lustrous, Maybelline Shine Seduction

EYES: Loreal Paris Voluminous Mascara (on my list), Loreal Paris HIP Powder (I can vouch – I love this stuff!)

CHEEKS: Loreal Paris Bare Naturale Mineral Doux

FACE: Max Factor Erace Cover Up (on my list), Loreal Paris True Match Foundation (what I bought tonight!)

June Goals: Upping the Joy Factor

2009-06-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

1. Finish planning THE OUTWEST ROADTRIP (more on this later)
2. Complete 3 weeks of training for a 5K
3. Fully Fund my ING Savings accounts to help build toward sidebar goal #2
4. Bring more joy into my life...

I was at a wedding last week on Martha’s Vineyard, and I was so overcome with the consistency at which this one attribute was cited in the couple’s life and home. To talk over and over about joy, levity, and laughter, as opposed to love, at one of these affairs, seemed much more to the point. I want that to be said about me some day, and I hope I can bring more joy into others’ lives. To help remind myself of all of the little joys I am going to try to read the principles of positive psychology once daily, meditate more on scripture, and get little moments of writing in – even if it’s not about remedying the novel – but just for the joy of it!

May Goals Update

2009-06-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, I made May goals even though I didn’t post them here… And I did okay with them for the first half of the month but was sliding downhill the last half of the month. First the positives...

+ I passed my Excel exam for Grad School
+ I have been much more efficient at work – about a half hour or so more efficient – which I have been using for personal pursuits like planning travel and b-school prep
+ I have been devoting more time to reading.

Writing, not so much. Saving, not so much. Too be reflected in my June goals.

May Net Worth Update

2009-06-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of things have put quite a large dent in my usual savings cushion – some pretty serious car repairs to the tune of $700 in April, wedding gifts $175, travel for those weddings, etc. and especially all of the expenses I’m attributing to “Business School Prep.” I have to buy a bike and order $330 of summer reading – mmm, who likes teaching themselves accounting! Not to mention the BLOWOUT weekend spent when my best friend came in from out of town. Worth it? Umm, I hope so.

Despite all that, my Net Worth ticked UP in May to $42,290 – up 6% or so! Mostly due to some upward swings in my 401(k), but I’ll take it. Just reminds me how important it is to actually track this once a month, even if you really don’t feel like it. Because how you FEEL about how you’re doing isn’t actually reflective of how you’re ACTUALLY doing.

The bad news is that I have not been contributing to my savings like I usually do these last few months, and am STILL not up to my goal of saving 3 months of expenses. Definitely a goal for next month.

May: Books I've Read

2009-05-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

I have been a pretty bad reader these past few weeks, which I can admit, despite making it my goal month after month. What I did get to this month was:

The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman.
Extremely interesting read as a snapshot in time; it was published in 2000 – before 9/11, long before all of our current troubles, endless wars in the Middle East, et cetera. The focus of the book is globalization as the new (post-Cold War) era. Even the constant reference to the Cold War as an anchoring point has a confused disarming quality. This was a long book with lots of stories and I can admit to a bit of skimming. The foundational analogy: the lexus = economic development and the olive tree = lingering nationalism and heritage. All of Friedman’s stories point to the inevitability and the new permanence of these two competing forces. As such, it gets a bit repetitive, but two novel (to me) things that I took from this slightly dated book were:

The Golden Arches theory of Conflict Prevention – This being the idea that no two countries who have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war after getting the McDonalds, i.e. democracies and/or countries with potential for greater economic development do not like to fight wars; they prefer to stand in line for burgers. My google search, “Is the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention still true?” produced a Wikipedia article citing exceptions with Georgia and Russia (invasion earlier last year) and ongoing skirmishes between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region. Regardless, I think the overall concept reinforced my understanding that to some extent it’s not about political posturing or aid – it’s about economic development, and hope for people to generate posterity after poverty. It isn’t even all about policy, although I think that’s probably an inextricable part of the economic development piece.

The other key truth that I retained after reading is the idea that economic development isn’t enough – it just isn’t enough to flourish in the new global world. I am paraphrasing my big takeaway quote from memory: “It isn’t enough to be right about the two economic imperatives of globalization and free trade.” These two realities and values do not preclude the aspects of government that is good, the stabilizing forces of society that protect us and give us a safety net from misery. Something to remember even as Obama’s administration is criticized for the typical big government arguments.

In addition to this one actual book, I have also been reading quite a few good articles (my favorite treadmill reading). I’ve been catching up on several back issues of Vanity Fair articles, for one… latest on Bernie Madoff, the new Tarantino movie, profiles of Heirs and Heiresses, quite an homage to Ted Kennedy. And, have also been reading articles from top consulting firms as posted on their websites. As I’ve been researching potential career options for business school, reading about a consulting firm’s expertise and ideas in a particular industry has been interesting fodder to help me think about how I might approach similar problems and like working on them in that context.

Next up is Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, Reagan’s America (Wills), and The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro). Can't wait til I'm out of work and can actually get more reading in :)

Planning for August

2009-05-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

August is looming. The one month I will be without income prior to having student loan money come rushing in. Whew, makes you really feel the importance of a liquid emergency fund.

The advice that everyone has given is to arrange and organize your life so that you will have the lowest possible fixed expenses in the months you’re unemployed. Once I get out to California, I am sure things will inevitably readjust to a steady norm, but for that interim phase where I’m just a gal without a job, I’ve decided to plan things out pretty meticulously.

+ Changed my work 401(k) Contribution from 6% to 1%, which will give me another $258 each month (additional $517-$646 total depending on how many paychecks the change is included for)
+ Contact Financial Adviser to suspend Roth and NW Mutual Life Insurance monthly contributions ($450 deduction total beginning in August)
+ Suspend all other savings. ($250-295)
TOTAL: $1217 – $1391 swing in my usual income/expenses, which along with a bit of a cushion from the guy, should be enough to preserve my sanity until I get the loans set up

While I don’t feel great about reducing retirement contributions, I feel fine about it when I put it in perspective. I’ve been contributing a large percentage of my savings to retirement thus far, and it’s just nutty to take on additional debt to maintain my same level of savings. More than anything I think this will help calm me down and prevent me from developing a stomach ulcer. Regaining perspective and control of a messy situation is sort of what this is all about.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

My best friend is visiting me from SF this weekend! Woohoo! Will report back on the spending recap.

Loan Research - Check, School Info - Eagerly Awaiting

2009-05-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

By now I have done a lot of great research on available and highest-rated loans, and I think I have narrowed to a few lead options: the Discover Private Loans, NorthStar Total Education Higher Loan and the WellsFargo Grad Loan. From all the research I’ve done, it seems like I might be able to get approved for a loan fairly quickly, barring any unforeseen circumstances. But the one unknown is any preferred process or protocol from my school. Problem is, they don’t even release all of their financial aid forms and information until August 1st. So I suppose I am in a wait and see, poised and ready to go phase until then.

On a side note, does anyone have other details/background on the loan institutions I prioritized?

Incomus Minimus Breakdownus Maximus

2009-05-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been absentee these last few weeks, but a LOT has been going on:

+ I officially said “No thanks, you can keep your $100K in tuition money” to my employer, thereby relinquishing myself from the three-year post-MBA time commitment I would’ve had to fulfill, and pretty much banishing myself from the grand virtual halls of personal finance bloggers.
+ My brother graduated from college and immediately re-enrolled in a Master’s program for Accounting. As part of his graduation gift, I sent him a little 10-page handwritten tutorial on personal finance principles and ideas
+ I finished up a class at a local community college and officially completed all of my pre-matriculation studies and requirements in Excel and Calculus. Stanford HAS to let me in now.
+ I recently decided to pursue a certificate in Public Management while I’m at school – with a focus on either Government or Socially Responsible Business. I’m super psyched about the program.
+ Took a budget roadtrip to Wisconsin – two nights, gas for a 15 passenger van, all meals, and a baseball game at Miller Park, all for the grand total of $150 per person. Amazing.

Other than being generally busy-ish, the only thing that’s keeping me from posting and thinking more about my finances? The soon-to-be income-free student reality is beginning to hit me. The mountain of debt I am about to absorb is overwhelming, and while I haven’t questioned the direction I’m heading or the decision I’ve made, the logistical “How am I going to do this?” keeps coming back to me. How will I manage my expenses, when I don’t have any assets or income? How will I organize my loan money so that I have the right amount at the right time, when I need it? I know a budget will be more important than ever – but how will I stick to it when I’m already SO far in the red? And the things I would normally want to write about seem more and more irrelevant – yes, would love to create a new goal to invest in a CD, but can’t even think about that right now. The Future of ETF’s? Who cares when I will barely be able to keep up the Roth.

I think deep down part of my nagging concern is even more esoteric than that… who can ever picture what the next stage of life is going to look like, and feel like? I was just as worried about this whole “real world” thing when I was graduating from college, and now hear I am running my life with complete measured control. I still remember the small rush of paying my own bills, taking care of my own oil changes and meal planning and everything else. And soon I will be embracing a whole new set of stages in one: the blur of two years of grad school and the new reality of student loans as one more line item on the Suzy comma Adult dossier.

Q Day Rant

2009-04-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

Q-Day: When are you quitting work before leaving for school?

At work, now that most folks know I’m going back to school this Fall, I find myself facing this question from all of my co-workers, and EVERYONE has suggestions about how I should spend the in-between time. Mostly travel. To Europe, to South America, to Iceland, Australia, maybe a round the world ticket? I now have endless ideas about how to spend my time. I get it, they’re fantasizing vicariously. But most of these folks already have their MBA’s and when I’ve asked them what they did prior to going back to school, it’s always “Oh, me? Nothing!”

That’s right all you hypocrites. You didn’t do anything either. Why? You – like me – had to worry about an unlimited supply of funds, no income for the next two years, and a mountain of debt coming your way. You also had logistical details to concern yourself with, like finding an apartment in a new city from hundreds of miles away, buying a bike, packing up all of your stuff and moving. And maybe you – like me – also had to take significant others into the equation.

So yes, while I would love to quit work right this second, I am not going to make that choice. And yes, I realize I will never have this particular period of time again, but I am going to have time to travel in my life and take extended periods of time off from work. So, yes, I still have three months to go. And that is my RANT of the week!

Yay!

2009-04-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

Sunshine, Long walk outside, Crescent Roll hot cross buns for breakfast!

And then the Guy is coming with me to services for the first time, which I'm very excited about.

Going COBRA

2009-04-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

Recently a friend of mine and I were sipping iced chai’s at a cute little café a few blocks from my house, and I was talking about how I wasn’t sure what to do with the one month gap I’ll have between leaving my current company and starting school, when she interrupted with:
“So are you going to go COBRA?”
Not sure if this was some kind of freaky code name for backpacking through South America, I paused.
“Huh?”
As it turns out, her mind instantly went to my one-month gap in health care. COBRA is an acronym which stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which is the federal law that allows employees to continue coverage in a group health plan after quitting. Provided I’m still insured the day before I quit, I can extend my coverage up to 18 months after I leave. Good thing I’ll only need it for a month as I’m preparing myself for extreme sticker shock.

But since I am young, single and healthy, I may look at short term individual health insurance too, just to compare. Employers can charge the entire premium (so what I paid, PLUS what they paid), as well as an extra 2% for administrative costs.

I’m only paying $47 a month now, but I’m not sure how much my company is paying in my stead?

Progress toward my 2009 Net Worth Goal

2009-04-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

My original 2009 Annual Goal was to increase my Net Worth to $46K (a $7K increase). With everything that’s happened, my savings rate has stayed pretty static – and I’m not complaining! Since I’m at $40.5 now, and assuming a $3000 bonus this summer, that means I will have to make up the other $2500 on monthly increases in my net worth. With only 4 months of work left, I’ll need to increase my net worth an average of $625 each month. So… yeah… not going to happen. By a long shot. But I think I’ll leave the lofty goal up and keep charging against it anyway.

All of this does make me think a bit more abstractly about what appropriate net worth goals are. I use all of the comparison charts on NetWorthIQ (by age, by profession, by income bracket, etc.), but what does comparing yourself to your neighbor really mean. I’m curious about what Suze would deem a good networth figure. Is it an important milestone that your networth be more than your annual gross income? Or should your networth be increasing by a certain percentage year over year? I haven’t yet found any good benchmark figures in my research, so I’ll keep my ears tuned for what else is out there.

Update on my Winter Savings Challenge with AFI

2009-04-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

The first day of spring has passed us by, but since it’s still 30 degrees where I live, I don’t think we’re quite done with Winter… and so, as good a time as any to check in on my winter challenge to see more of the movies on the AFI Top 100 list. When I originally posted, I had 75 movies to see, and now… I still have 68 movies left. A lot. I’ve dissolved the dog fund, and can’t say that I uniformly sent in extra savings for the movie every time anyway, but in general, it’s a nice reminder overall – another reason to stay in and have fun at home rather than going out and spending money when you don’t have to! So I'm reframing this from personal finance and just making this a fun challenge for myself, as a good worldly citizen.

Next up for me on my movie list:
+ Goodfellas
+ Unforgiven
+ Pulp Fiction
+ A Clockwork Orange

Best Bets for Pretty Short-Term Investing?

2009-04-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

The Guy warmed my heart recently and asked for my advice on where he should put his money. Due to a pretty rich (and completely unanticipated) tax refund, as well as some birthday money he received in January, the Guy confided that he’d had around $10,000 just sitting in a CHECKING account for awhile.

Gasp…. Scream…yelp…. sigh, recover.

Once recovered, I tried to put my best diagnosis skills to work.

First, I sent him photos of super expensive handbags I’ve been admiring, to give him some inspiration for my upcoming birthday (see L.A.M.B. bag at right!)

Then, I tried to consider all of the various variables he could contend with:
1. At least, getting that money in a high-interest savings account
2. Investing in CD’s
3. Investing in mutual funds, etc.
4. Paying off more of his mortgage early.

I researched a number of scenarios for him, taking all of this, plus our own situation and personalities into context. We still have a good bit of financial insecurity coming our way with me going back to school, The Guy potentially finding a new job and moving out there with me, and not knowing whether or not we will be able to rent our current condo, and if so, for how much? And what sort of costs are involved with being absentee landlords, etc? How much more expensive will our new lives be in California? That said, it’s tempting for me to recommend paying off more of the mortgage, given the fear that the monthly payment might become more unmanageable once we’re in a new set of circumstances. However, I’m pretty sure his mortgage rate is fairly low, when compared with what he could achieve with investments. Plus, he still has a lot of life left on that mortgage, so for tax purposes, the interest would be deductible.

This is in theory a fantastic time for a relatively young person like The Guy to invest in the stock market, given our long time horizons, but with all of the uncertainty ahead of us, does he really want to say sayonara to that extra cushion, for the long-haul? I think not. Plus, his retirement savings is for all intents and purposes, just fine. He doesn’t NEED a bolster there.

Which brings me to CD’s. For the Guy I’m ultimately recommending a laddered approach with CD’s, so he can still keep his extra cash relatively liquid until we’re re-settled again in the South Bay, and he can earn a far better return than keeping it where it is now. CD rates aren’t all THAT much higher than high interest online savings accounts right now… but higher is higher. Right now, it looks like his best rate out there right now with a decent time horizon is 3% on 14 months at Charter Bank. Beyond that GMAC has it on all time horizons, but their one year is 2.65%. HSBC is another good one at 2.3% for a year. I’m thinking he should put half his moola in the year long time horizon, 25% in 6 months and the last 25% in 3 months, and then keep reinvesting at better rates, since we’re (God help us) hopefully moving into a rising rate economy sooner or later.

What do you think? Good advice? Anything I’m missing in the prognosis?

April Goals and an Exciting Purchase...

2009-04-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

April is my favorite month. It’s my birthday month, it’s Easter this year, it’s *usually* when Spring finally comes to Minnesota. And on top of that, the Guy and I have a trip to New York planned this month. So, in addition to all that, this month my goals are:

+ Finish studying for Calculus and pass my pre-b-school online tutorial.

(no small feat)

+ RUN 30 minutes 3x each week.
(I always make it to the gym at least this , but I never run... because I detest it... but I'm learning this really IS the most efficient calorie-burn for my time. And I feel so good afterwards...)

+ Cook for The Guy 3 nights a week.

(Since he's been living in a hotel in northwest Arkansas and eating out for EVERY meal for the past MONTH, I'm expecting him to be a bit of a fatty upon his return. So I've promised him that I will cook him lots of healthy meals when he's back. He's really a much better cook than me but he sometimes lacks the recipe ingenuity. So I realize this will be more like me planning our meals and picking out recipes for us to cook together 3nights per week.)

This is also the month that I’m eligible for an upgrade with AT&T, and I think the time has come for me to get an iPhone. I am justifying this as a somewhat school and career-related necessity. If I am going to be interviewing with high-tech companies like Apple, how can I afford to not be familiar with their devices? Right, I can feel you all collectively rolling your eyes at me. But whatever. So to at least partially fund this, I am giving myself the challenge of not spending even $1 – i.e. managing not to even visit Target, Costco and my favorite wine shop this month. I usually average about $100 a month at these three retailers in total, so it will make a small dent towards the iPhone purchase.

March's Selection of Amorous Books

2009-04-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

Maybe it was The Guy being away, but I inadvertently chose two rather amorous books to read back to back this month…

Couples by John Updike
This was a rather hard title to track down. I remember it being referenced once and put it on my to-read list, but hadn’t come across it in bookstores or libraries, and finally it came up on my Book Mooch list. The copy that came to me was from 1969 – and the book is definitely reminiscent of that age. We’ve memorialized the late sixties now into a cliché, but I’ve wondered before what it felt like at the time. And especially, what it felt like for those average folks that weren’t at Woodstock or weren’t protesting. And I imagine the tone (if not the content) helps portray exactly what it felt like. Excitement and intrigue, but also an air of purposelessness and meaninglessness. The book is about 10 married couples (so many characters to keep up with that I’m having trouble powering through) living in eastern Massachusetts, who are all sleeping with each other and suspecting each other of sleeping with each other constantly, which Updike represents as no more than an “imaginative quest”. It’s been fascinating to read, although not particularly moving.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
The painfully tender account of a virginal British couple on their wedding night. I love McEwan and I love this type of writing = the type of writing which reaffirms what we as humans know – that there are always a million flashes of emotion and lack of emotion and meaning and insanity behind each day’s mundane moments. Or, another way, there is always more – always more to it than we think. But this book is so short, so quick a read, that you feel the painfulness of their stories more than you feel the rich emotional reward for having gone through it with them.

March Goals... Yeah, about those...

2009-03-31T13:31:00.000-07:00

Only a 50% Success Rate this month. And I was supposed to be all ambitious with the Guy living remotely for a work project this month. Turns out, I'm NOT more disciplined on my own. In fact, when he's gone, I'm so bewildered that I end up doing strange things (strange for me) like staying up late and watching very bad TV. Did you know Bret Michaels has ANOTHER reality show, and it's on a BUS?? So I won't blame the Guy anymore when I miss my gym workouts or eat out too much. Looks like I'm part of the problem too.

>Absorb $500 of my $1,000 business school tuition deposit in March expenses
FAIL. I only reduced my expenses by $200 this month.

>Finish all content for my brother's advice-journal gift
CHECK

>Do 30 min of Wii Fit 5 days/wk and Do 1 hr of Wii 2 days/wk
FAIL. I am lazy??

>Write 2 more pages of my story.
CHECK

Studying up on my Student Loan Options

2009-03-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

One of my 2009 annual goals – given the fact that I’m going back to school this Fall was to become an expert on student loans and secure a really great package. Based on my financial aid package, I will have to secure between $12,000 and $30,000 in additional private loans in addition to the federal loan package I already received from Stanford. While the approval process will generally be short for private loans (between 48 hours and a week), the becoming-an-expert process will take a lot longer. I will probably wait a little later in the summer to understand if Stanford has preferred lenders set up and if I will want to simply pursue additional funding from the same institution that my GradPlus Loans will be coming from, but in the meantime, I have narrowed down a list of 14 other private options to explore (with the help of finaid.org) – whew. I have a heard the most about CitiAssist and US Bank’s No Fee Loan, but I want to do lots more research to understand which might have the best terms and most competitive rate. And in the meantime I got to refresh myself on what the LIBOR acronym stands for. Good fun for a Monday afternoon!

March Networth Update

2009-03-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

This was a rough month with $1,000 tuition deposit and $650 housing deposit due for Stanford in the same month. Oh, and a huge dip in our company stock… still, less than a 1% net worth dip isn’t so bad. I’ll take it!

And updated my sidebars... sigh. Don't you wish you could hit fast-forward sometimes?

Expanding the Scope and Range of this Blog...

2009-03-28T06:39:00.001-07:00

Ever since I got into school I’ve been thinking a bit more about expanding the scope of what I write about here on Bookish Budget. When I first started blogging, the spirit of undertaking it was all about learning – learning how to be more responsible and principled about my finances, yes, but also learning how to be more worldly and thoughtful about everything that I do. I

I will always be Bookish, looks like for sure I’ll always be On a Budget (of some kind), but there are other areas and places where I would also like to expand myself – especially as I’m now planning on going back to business school!

Some avenues I’m interested in exploring initially:
Learning about potential career paths
Clean tech / green energy / etc.
How to be more ecologically savvy?
Entrepreneurship

And I'm sure many other bits of trivia will find it's way in, as usual... but from now on, I'm hoping to expand this into almost a personal research tool. And then, when I actually get closer to school, I may either alter the content or hit the delete and begin again at another site. Somehow I'm guessing my student debt may not be as interesting to talk about on a weekly basis, so we'll see. :)

Itemizing the Wedding Budget

2009-03-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

I’ve decided to update my sidebar to include a specific target for my wedding fund. I assigned a pretty arbitrary number as my goal… and my total wedding costs will far exceed $9,385, but it helps me to break down my goals a bit, and I decided I could itemize that amount, so it will motivate me to contribute more money. I researched on theknot.com and several other non-pf-friendly websites to get these estimates, so I may be able to do better than this on all of these, but I figure I will keep them aggressive for now, until I actually get further down the road, and actually start talking marriage with the Guy, let alone laying out our budget.

The Itemized Wedding Specific Goals:
Personal Training for one year: $1,000 budget (certainly not a wedding essential, but this has always been a dream of mine to do, and wedding's probably as acceptable an excuse as I'll ever get!)
Dress incl. alteration costs: $4,500
Save the Date Cards: $400
Wedding Invitations: $1,625 (based on 6.50 per card for 250 people)
Postage: $310 (based on save-date, invites & reply cards for 250)
Wedding Cake: $2,000 (based on $8 per slice for 250)
SO FAR: $9,835

In the future, I will take on thinking about costs for: Photographer, Flowers, Wedding Party Gifts, Favors, Venue, bridal accessories, hotel rooms for wedding prep, wedding food & Open Bar, band cost… so much more to think about…and such a ways to go with the savings! Good thing we're a long ways off!

Eating Down the Fridge

2009-03-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, Washington Post food blogger Kim O’Donnel’s publicized what she called the “Eat Down the Fridge” Challenge – i.e., skip grocery shopping and just eat what you already have on hand*. I try to practice that somewhat regularly anyway, and am doubling my efforts while the Guy is out of town (he’s usually my major roadblock on this front). The Double Challenge – I’m also trying to eat *healthy* this week!! So let’s see what I’ve got and what I’m doing with it, hopefully as inspiration for something you have in your fridge/freezer/pantry:

Leftovers:
Party Leftovers: Limes, Salsa, Tortillas & Chips
Perennial Ingredient Leftovers: Craisins, Flax, Tomato Soup, Chicken Broth, Canned Tuna, Pasta, Puff Pastry, Filo Dough
Veggie Leftovers: Corn, Broccoli & Cheese, Peas
Freezer Leftovers: Two Chicken Breasts
Random Pantry Side Leftovers: Potato Pancakes, Spinach CousCous, Sweet Potatoes

Recipes:
Lime Chicken Quesadillas
Chipotle Corn Salsa over Baked Chicken served with Peas and Potato Pancake
Cranberry Flaxseed Muffins
Mini Margherita Pizza with Broccoli and Cheese

YUMMY! After just a little creativity...

*I am actually not counting all of the frozen entrees I have in the freezer right now, because those I can eat anytime, and aren’t as much in the spirit of the challenge!

A Fantastic Discovery

2009-03-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

In my city there is a beautiful public library, designed by a famous Argentine architect… I used to live in walking distance and I loved climbing up all of those stairs to browse through the stacks and look out on the city. But after walking over this past weekend and they didn’t have ANY of the books I was looking for… I decided to make a journey to a different library. One of the other suburban libraries on the other side of the city, which is run-down and looks shockingly similar to my elementary school library. And they had ALL of my books, plus some awesome ones I had forgotten were on my to-read list. And I was in, out, and back in my car in 10 minutes. Nice. Not so attractive, and yet efficient. Good moral lesson, I do believe… saving money will never be the intuitive choice, it seems. And fantastic discovery, given books are one of those small purchases that really do add up for me! Totally worth the extra time shlepping it to the suburban library!

The Wedding Fund: Suze vs. Vera

2009-03-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

For most of my life, I’ve been convinced that happiness depends upon your own independence. Financial independence, yes. But emotional independence too – the strength to stand alone on something, to not rely on others for your sense of purpose. I’ve always lived that way. I’ve moved to new cities with a pretty slim bank account because I knew it was the right place for me. I’ve struck it out alone, and been proud of it, even when I had zero friends and stayed home reading every Saturday night. But eventually I know I will want to give up a portion of that independence – for a really cute Guy. :)

My ING-Account is still nick-named just “Business School Savings,” but that’s just to preserve the illusion of self-respect. I'm saving for grad school expenses. But I’m really more excited about saving for the frou-frou white dress. I want Vera. I want the sit-down dinner. And naturally, in my independent way, I want to finance it myself. My parents gave me the financial support to graduate from a great undergraduate institution without any student loans. I simply won’t allow them to pay for cake for three hundred of my friends too.

According to the wedding budget calculator, I will need upwards of $10-20K dollars to have the wedding I’m dreaming of. Right now it’s sitting at $0 because it tends to be the last priority. (I mean, I don’t exactly have a ring.) But I need to save anyway if I’m serious about this goal. So, I’m starting small and my new goal, now that the Dog Fund is over, is to filter away at least $100 a month.

R.I.P. Dog Fund

2009-03-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I have officially given up the dream of becoming a dog-owner. Since we don't know for sure where we'll be living in California and where the Guy will be working and how long our commutes will be... it seems like we can't really go for it until we fill in the rest of the picture.

(The dog in the picture, by the way, is Rascal - the cute dauschand I've been eyeing at the Humane Society).

So, I have officially reshuffled my goals and spilled the majority of the money I was saving for a dog over into my emergency fund (80% there!!!) While we may eventually get a dog, we're just going to figure it out when we get there. Most of the money I was saving was going towards dog-walkers, which we wouldn't have in California, since I'd be back in school and could do it myself. So at least that expense is avoided, and I'm going to focus on my other goals in the meantime.

.... But I am sad. :(

a LOT ahead of me.

2009-03-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

Since it's officially Stanford, I have a long to-do list ahead of me. Item one: loan research for next year!

GOOD NEWS: Stanford gave me $32,979 in grant/fellowship money!

BAD NEWS: The remainder of the year's estimated cost is $53,120, which I will have to cover in loans. Here's the breakdown:

$3,000 in a Federal Perkins Loan (5%)
$8,500 in a Federal Stafford Loan (subsidized through school)
$12,000 in a Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan (6.8%)
$29,620 in GradPLUS or Private Loans (7.9-8.5% or dependent on my credit rating)

All for one year of my life! Whew. My to-do list: finding out more about Stanford preferred lenders, if there are any, and if not - immersion in GradPLUS.

Not-So-Frugal Big Apple Giveaway

2009-03-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

So for Hanukkah this past year, the Guy and I each gave each other a trip – I gave him a weekend in New York and he gave me a weekend in San Francisco. I’m planning on using miles for the NY flight and my Amex Starwood points for the hotel, so all of the big expenses should be almost-free. Now, I’ll just need to plan a perfect weekend for the two of us – that’s more about us, than spending money on every little thing! But I started brainstorming and it turns out things added up a LOT faster than I'd thought. I still want it to be special, but I don't think I can spend this much on three days!! Here’s what I’ve got so far… any suggestions from the NewYorkers among you:

Friday Night:
- Head down to the West village to check out Charmingwall Gallery free
- Go to the New Museum $24 each
- Dinner at Aurora $150 estimated, footing the Guy
- Attending a friend’s 30th party to close down the night!

Saturday:
- Take a free ferry ride over to Staten island and back
- Browing, Strolling and Shopping in Soho!
- Head to Brooklyn to meet our friends’ new baby daughter
- Ditch the baby and head to a local beer garden in Williamsburg
- Head to see a Broadway Show $175 for the two of us
- Dinner at Peasant $150

Sunday:
- Brunch at Sarabeth’s on the West Side $50
- Rent a boat at the Boathouse Central Park $15
- Walk back through Central park
- Afternoon Treat at The Dessert Truck $20

Damage: $594! Whoa... not what I was thinking, nor what I was budgeting! How does that HAPPEN.

How do you set a budget when you technically have no income?

2009-03-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

So, I know I need to set a new, realistic budget for when I'm in school. A lot of things will be different. The main one = no income.

So how do you set a budget when you don’t have any money coming in? A lot of financial aid and federal loans will cover a good deal of the straight tuition part of my expenses. But then I expect I will also have one big lump of funds from loans I take out. I will still need a budget so I prevent myself from burning through all of my loan money too quickly, but I know it’s going to look and feel a lot differently than my current financial planning. A couple of the different dynamics to note:

One, I won’t be amassing savings – so I will need to stop all automatic deductions for my current accounts and maintain only my cash-value life insurance and my Roth from my loan money.

Two, very limited capital - there is a limited amount of loans I can take out, as restricted by the “Student Budget” that Stanford has calculated. I won’t be able to take out any more money than they have determined it costs. For me, that total is $53,000 for each year, of which, $28,000 has to be devoted to school costs and $25,000 is for everything else. I literally can’t spend beyond $25,000 each year, or I will have to dip into my paltry savings or incur – gasp – credit card debt.

Three, invisible expenses - there are a lot of “mandatory” items that are not included in that student budget – like, flights for all of the job interviews and all of the special study trips that you HAVE to take advantage of – otherwise, why go to school full-time?

Four, extreme temptation- I think it is going to be hard to stay in the mode of reducing expenses or keeping expenses low, because business school is this very finite period of time when you are going to be surrounded by the most amazing set of people and experiences yet. Who wants to think about keeping to the bare necessities as the backdrop for THAT? Any tips?

Risky Renting in Palo Alto

2009-03-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

Pretty much the craziest real estate market in California. It’s even more expensive than living in San Francisco if you have certain base standards of living. One of the options that the Guy* and I originally considering was to rent a BIG 5-6 bedroom house and live with several other people. We heard that it’s fairly common for Stanford students to do that, so it was originally enticing. It’s a matter of trade-offs – a little bit of privacy for having all of the amenities we’re used to and a lot more space! But I think the more we think about it, we’re tossing out that idea… it’s just too risky, and I can see it causing too many potential arguments and frustrations. So, back to the more predictable search for a one or two-bedroom apartment in and around Stanford. So far, the neighborhoods we’ve got our eyes on are Downtown Palo Alto, Downtown Menlo Park and College Terrace (which is essentially right next to Stanford). Rents vary pretty widely but it looks like I can get something in the $2200 range… if Andy and I split, that’s $1100, really only $100 more than what I pay now. So I will try to keep my budget to that, knowing that all of the utilities will likely be more in the end.

In my initial Craigs List searches, it seems like for that budget, we’ll either be able to get a really nice (i.e. what we’re used to) 1BR, or slightly less updated 2BR. Scarily enough, most properties are rented within a month of the move-in date, so I can’t start my serious searches for quite some time. Sigh.

*Footnote: Yes, you deduced correctly… the plan is for the Guy to move out to Cali with me. Yes, that’s right, the plan is actually for him to quit his job and find a new one (he hopes in a different industry) in this market. Right, I know, more evidence of my/our craziness. But he won’t quit his job until he finds another one, and if it doesn’t work out right away… we’ll do distance and be patient!

And the Winner (of all my money for the foreseeable future) is...

2009-03-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

.... Stanford.

Looks like I’m headed to Palo Alto next year. Who knew a ticket back to the coast would be worth thousands of dollars in loans! (I mean I know it's the right decision for me long term, but you really just have to keep laughing about it…)

So, yes, sorry for the minor blogging hiatus, but have been stressed about making this decision and now that it's finally made I'm looking back over the last week realizing I did some damage on myself. My skin and nails look horrible, haven't worked out and have been eating horribly so my body looks and feels terrible... have gotten minimal sleep. It's time to normalize for a bit... or at least for the weekend. Whew.

Using Creativity to Make some Extra $$$

2009-03-05T19:02:00.000-08:00

This is one of those WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS kinds of ideas…

If you have a cool concept or idea that you need to name, you can spend $99 to get tons of top ideas from people willing to brainstorm. The company then uses part of that $99 to pay out the people who submit the top 3 ideas.

NameThis is a cool concept, but also in perusing the results listed on the site, seems to be generating high quality value for the people using it. I’ve always been a bit boggled on how I can bring in any extra income that’s worth my time, but I think this might be it. The site is in beta and has been “making some changes” for awhile, so they be restructuring some aspects of the site. I look forward to checking back in the future…

Really?

2009-03-04T18:46:00.000-08:00

Here’s the latest so-depressing-recession-related-factoid for you, which popped up in Ad Age last month:

“Shares in the New York Times Co. slumped to a low of $3.99 on Friday, February 13, 2009, less than the price of the Sunday paper.” (Ad Age 2.13.09)

Bonus De-Anticipation

2009-03-03T15:42:00.000-08:00

So much has been made about these crazy bonus payouts for bank execs which have remained unchanged or not significantly deflated in these crazy economic times. The fat wallets are easy targets, sure, and the anger is justified, but it does make you wonder from a human resource management perspective – what is the best way to reward and incentivize people? At my company our bonuses are clearly tied to performance. We set targets for ourselves at the beginning of the year, and if at the end of the year, we don’t hit those goals, we see a big hit in our year-end bonus. Having faced two major crises this year: 1) the impact of the peanut butter recall and 2) consumers having less discretionary income to buy the food we make, our teams are likely NOT going to be making our targets this year, which means, we’ll take a hit as a company (from Wall Street) and I will take a hit in my direct-deposited bonus. I am a lowly peon for said company, so honestly, I feel this is NOT a good incentive. I am doing my part everyday but I feel it is pretty far removed from our overall performance, so I wish I was seeing a more equal paycheck bump as many of my same-company peers who made their targets. However, in terms of sheer corporate “fairness,” our current system makes intuitive sense to by-standers.

I was relying on a bump about the same as last year’s bonus to meet my 2009 Net Worth Goal. But if it doesn’t happen, c’est la vie – I am young, still employed, and happy.

Blog Poll: What is Sicker?

2009-03-02T15:41:00.000-08:00

I recently netflix’d Sicko and was highly entertained by Michael Moore’s playful rant. It is amazing that what seems normal to us, is pretty off-kilter by the rest of the world’s standards. And no matter how one-sided people say Moore’s films are – you can’t argue with facts like these: the United States health care system ranks 37th, just ahead of Slovenia and Cuba. Then this weekend, I attended a Financial Aid Information Session at Harvard Business School… once the brief slides were scrolled through and the floor was opened for Q&A, the first three questions were not about financial aid or about the loan terms or interest rates or about the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt those of us in the room would be taking on – the first three questions were about health care. It’s clear what makes us most panicked in this country is not debt, but health care.

So yes, what’s sicker… panic among reasonably well-to-do prospective MBA’s over student health care and the exact day it begins and what it includes… or the fact that I will have to take on a minimum of $98,000 in loans to attend school this fall. ARE YOU SERIOUS??? But that’s the base loan package – i.e. what the poorest of candidates would be expected to take on. Insane.

Sidebars Updated! And Reconsidering Goals...

2009-03-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

Updated my sidebar goals... networth is actually up (my tax refunds outweighed the significant dips in my retirement accounts), which is pretty darn amazing. Even if I know it will droop back next month after I send in my deposit for b-school tuition, it's nice to have an artificial high for now. Also, *ALMOST* to 75% of my Emergency Fund. So exciting!!

Post-script: after tramping all over Cambridge on housing tours this past weekend for HBS, the Guy and I exchanged more than a few knowing looks when we heard tenant after tenant tell us that pretty much no good housing in the area accepted pets, and that it was pretty near impossible to keep a dog on grad-student schedules. Maybe we can't get our dog after all? It's not certain yet... but maybe we really do have to hold off for now?? Tragic. How do you deal when you've been looking forward to something for SO long, but it's just not meant to be....

March Goals... Here We Go

2009-02-28T19:56:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try to keep my March goals simple again, so I can actually get something done. It's not surprising that we need a little bit more to hang onto emotionally, to control on our own, of our own will... beyond all of the uncertainty and flimsiness of everything else going on around us now. So here goes - one financial goal, two writing goals and one fitness goal... We'll see how I do!

>Absorb $500 of my $1,000 business school tuition deposit in March expenses (by reductions in food, gifts, and clothing)
>Finish all content for my brother's advice-journal gift
>Do 30 min of Wii Fit 5 days/wk and Do 1 hr of Wii 2 days/wk
>Write 2 more pages of my story.

Nonfiction Kick Continues...

2009-02-26T19:52:00.000-08:00

This month was....

Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Subtitle: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness
This was certainly interesting, and I found myself referencing some of the basic principles in conversation quite a bit in the past month. The basic concept as I already wrote about HERE is that of libertarian paternalism – the authors support freedom, but recognize that you can keep freedoms intact and still subtly encourage people to make better decisions by choosing defaults in a paternalistic way and ensuring that information is readily available and positioned carefully to support better decisions. I really enjoyed reading it, but some of the examples of nudges were pretty far-fetched: attaching pictures of houses next to your retirement savings (a shack for a 2% savings rate and a nice urban condo for 10% savings rate) just seem farcical.

The Organic Foods Sourcebook by Elaine Marie Lipson
It’s very easy to slip into thinking of organic as one more privileged principle of the much-accessoried yuppiedom I have uncomfortably begun inhabiting. On Saturdays, we go to Costco, on Sundays we read the Times, in our grocery cart, the strawberries and raisin bran have to be Organic. Reading the original hippie handbook was a reminder to myself of the health-oriented causes of the panic around pesticides and a government with no incentive to support people over multinational corporations. Reading it now, interdependency shone as the most important theme and principle behind the organic movement. You can’t tinker with one thing without unknowingly affecting others. And it also produced a question which I’ve now begun researching answers to – how long before I could feasibly eliminate or radically reduce the pesticide residues in my own body. There is a transitional period in organic farming – land must have been farmed with organic methods for three years before its produce can be certified organic. But what is that same transitional period for humans? If I converted to an all-organic diet now, how long would it be before my breast milk wouldn’t contaminate my children? Three years, or ten years? Or is it even possible? The notion of interdependency in general also rings true on some other events going on in the news right now... hmm, what could I be referring to?

February Goals Recap

2009-02-25T19:45:00.000-08:00

I actually managed to keep my goals this month! After this weekend visiting Boston coming up, I'm on track to go overbudget.... BUT at least I'm making some progress on my other goals:

Carpool to work at least 3x per week
- Check! For three weeks, I carpooled 4 times a week! And this week, I only made it once. But I will be out of town for two days, so not sure that counts...

Sell our old dresser on Craigs List
Check! Amazingly, someone finally took an interest in our vintage, antique, well-treasured, missing-a-knob dresser. Sold for $125! And now we can actually see the floor in our spare room!

Send Valentines to friends
Check! I sent only three Valentines, but they were all hand-written long notes that I think meant something special to the three gals that received them.

Reach out / make a date to hang out with someone new
Check! The Guy and I made a date to have dinner with a colleague from work and his wife... and they were so fun, we laughed our heads off all night, and went back to their home post-dinner to try out some hookah he had brought back from Turkey. Unexpected, and way cool.

Write two NEW pages of my story.
Half-check. I made some progress on my story and got just enough confidence to keep going on it. I want to carry this one over to next month, so I can actually dedicate more time to getting it in a presentable place. The Guy always complains because I never let him read my writing... not my fiction, not this blog, not my college thesis... so I am going to try to get it into a state where I will actually be comfortable handing it over...

Nothing like setting small goals to get that feeling of accomplishment someway or another...

Wigadoo my Spring Break, Please!

2009-02-23T10:14:00.000-08:00

I love the idea of this website: Wigadoo is an online pledging site, only in the UK right now, although I think you can use some aspects from the US. The intent is essentially to reduce some of the risk of planning big (spendy) trips or outings with friends, because folks have pledged a certain amount to chip in, in advance. It also helps people think through the costs up front, so you don’t have the common phenomenon of folks signing up for plans only to reneg later when they realize they can’t really afford it. It really gets to the psychology of how people think about money, too – there’s not a moment I hate more than divvying up the restaurant check at the end of the evening. Because money is not a very friendly operation – it magnifies what’s mine, what’s yours, what I have, what you have (or don’t.) People like to reduce the process to absolute routine: plug this and pay that, no emotional wavering involved, or “I’ll get the appetizer ‘cause you spotted me money for parking two weeks ago.” It takes the emotional accounting out and turns it into just, accounting. I like that.

My EFC Pronouncement is Back...

2009-02-22T12:38:00.000-08:00

This is my first time dealing with the whole FAFSA / loan process arrangement, so I’m still puzzling through what my EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) will actually mean in reality. My Estimated Family Contribution – ie. what the government has determined I can afford to give towards my education - turns out to be $22,508. Which I’m assuming means that I should be prepared to seek at least that much in loans. Gulp.

On Privatizing Marriage...

2009-02-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

Just finished “Nudge” – a libertarian tome on how to help people make better choices without restricting their freedom. One of their nudges was the proposal of privatizing marriage.

This would essentially turn what we know as marriage today into simply a civil union. Instead of getting a marriage license from the state, you would get a piece of paper licensing a civil union. Any contract beyond that would be dealt by another institution – the church. I presume that the majority of protestant churches would go on pronouncing folks man and wife as per usual. And your church would decide whether or not you can marry under their auspices, and certainly a whole marketplace of religious houses already exist so that practically any two people who desired would no longer have an obstacle.

What this would do would essentially eliminate the debate on gay marriage – the government would no longer be involved in or associated with the notion of “marriage” at all. They would have nullified the argument not by granting homosexual marriage rights, but by moving everyone down to the civil union level. No distinction between the benefits of being married and the benefits of having a civil union. It seems like human rights activists would have to be appeased by this – if all benefits are present, and all are equal, how can you take issue with that arrangement – no matter what you call it?

But if you simply find-and-replace “marriage” with “civil union,” are there any other ramificiations? Are marriages less consequential somehow without government sanction? i.e. Would we see any social changes that would affect our society for better or worse? Certainly, we could expect the amount of marriages overall to increase, accounting for all of the people who could now marry as a result. Would heterosexual marriages also increase? Would it all seem like “less of a big deal” such that we’d have high school sweethearts rushing out to get married, ahem a civil union, with the deep underlying knowledge, that they may have multiple marriages in their lifetime, creating a new social norm that makes it even less sacred than it already is? Would good friends across the globe apply for civil unions for the government benefits alone? Would our society be less stable if people saw not having a civil union with someone as “leaving money on the table.” Or is that argument inane simply because, nothing’s stopping anyone from doing that now, other than the fact that it says marriage instead of civil union on the document.

Or is the concept of privatizing marriage too idealized? When we privatized healthcare with the HMO system, government was still very much entangled, via a world of lobbyists vying for favorable legislation. What sort of additional “marriage markets” would crop up for various couples, and how would the government still be involved with the industry if not the endorsement of marriages.

I did find another interesting 2007 OpEd which brings in a lot of the history of marriage, but didn’t help me resolve any of these thoughts…. I’m intrigued by these libertarian folks…

Thank You for Nothing, Citi...

2009-02-20T20:37:00.000-08:00

Received very cryptic letter from Citi today.

“Dear Suzy:
As of March 15, 2009, we are changing some of the terms and conditions that will affect your ability to earn and redeem ThankYou Points. They listed about a million conditions under which I could lose the points I’d already accrued, but the first one was the big one: “ThankYou Network may be revised in a manner that may affect your ability to use the ThankYou Points you have already accumulated.” i.e. we can “revise” the program to eliminate what you’ve earned, pretty much whenever we feel like it.”

I immediately went on to the ThankYou Network website and ordered a $50 giftcard to Banana Republic with my 6,000 points. And will check in one more time to cash out before this curious March 15th deadline. And then we’ll see what happens after that…
When I’m not satisfied with any other service or company, I just end the relationship. And yet with credit cards, I fear doing anything that will impact my credit score, and I would think closing this account would. So I will just deal, charge a tank of gas on it a month, and spend more on my other cards that give me better rewards.

A Few Good Reads...

2009-02-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

A few non-financial notables I’ve been perusing lately….

Bottlenotes
This website is still getting off the ground, so there’s not a lot of activity, and some of it is simply promotional at this point, but I think this has potential to be a real community for those so inclined. Just filling out the introductory survey was moving for me – from radial button answers to ranking grape and sensory preferences in wine – to open-ended questions like When did you first taste wine? and When did you first love wine? they really sparked my memory and capacity for nostalgia. Something wine itself does. They also help you identify great promising new wines by price range, which is helpful when you’ve graduated from the two-buck-chuck at Trader Joe’s but are still budget-conscious.

Beanstock’d
The mission of the website is intended to incorporate ecologically sensitive information and green-propaganda into the delivery of pop culture gossip and news. Sort of like a Green E! channel. The combination is sometimes clumsy. But like all gossip networks, it’s sort of addicting prose. And as I don’t currently read anything else of that nature, I can somehow justify having it in my Google Reader.

TED
I feel a little embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of TED before a few weeks ago when a friend of mine sent me the link and recommended a few. The premise: tap amazing talent to give the talk of their lives in 20 minutes. In some cases that really means a talk about their life, and in others, it means a talk on the subject that fuels their life, and literally the best and most inspiring talk they have given and will ever give. Such a bold challenge for the boldest of characters living in this age inevitably produces inspiring little pockets of 20 minutes. My favorite so far in getting through the archives has been hearing Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love, talk about genius.

Big Financial Blunders

2009-02-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

When I think back on what I would consider my big financial blunders since graduating from college, they don’t seem so bad. When I tried to think about them, I actually only came up with two:

+ Last minute flight a few years ago to DC to visit a friend on a whim $550
+ Falling prey to the super-expensive “spa-like” dentist and having two fillings there $800

In the long run, lessons learned, and not that big of a deal. Both are somewhat justifiable in the name of friendship and health, despite the upcharge.

Which reminds me that it’s often the smaller things – not the big things, that really tend to get you off kilter financially – just eating out too much, shopping too much, little by little. Like this month… having already gotten through 80% of my discretionary spending in 50% of the days. Sigh. What are your past financial blunders, recalled?

Starting Salary Figures Can be Deceiving

2009-02-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

Some new Payscale research just emerged about post-MBA salaries. According to Business Week, who released the findings along with a handy table comparing schools, a lot of MBA programs highlight starting salaries, which are only one part of the picture. Equally, if not more important, is the salary range throughout your lifetime. They try to give you a sense of the ROI of your investment in going back to school. It’s a little deceiving as it only includes base salary (not stocks/options/benefits you could receive), but it’s still interesting to compare. For the two schools I’m deciding between it seems like Harvard is a better bet on every metric… but money’s not the ONLY motivator for me, clearly.

Harvard
Starting Salary (medians): $134,000
5 Years Out: $150,000
10 Years Out: $184,000
15 Years Out: $227,000
20 Years Out: $230,000

Stanford
Starting Salary: $128,000
5 Years Out: $139,000
10 Years Out: $148,000
15 Years Out: $179,000
20 Years Out: $202,000

Valentine's Day Under $20

2009-02-15T08:37:00.000-08:00

This year the Guy and I planned the perfect romantic weekend:

+ Museum Talk on Elizabeth Peyton’s new exhibit: “Live Forever” (which just moved from NY to Minneapolis) – FREE, $4 for parking, footed by me
+ A white tablecloth Valentine’s Evening at Whitecastle – $13.40, footed by the Guy Mmm slyders!
+ Dessert: coffee cake and a bottle of wine at home, while watching the NBA slam dunk competition and Garden State
+ Joint Donation to the Dana Farber in Lieu of gifts - $150, split evenly between us

Total Spending: $84/person - but mostly for a good cause! The rest was under $20, and completely memorable...

A Sad Commentary

2009-02-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

So my company is impacted by the recent peanut butter recall (we do not actually have products to recall, but people think we do… that whole “better safe than sorry” mentality). Plus consumers don’t have time to check the company websites of every product they pull off the shelf. So our consumer insights group commissioned a quick study on the matter and one of the findings was that more people are aware of the peanut butter recall (87%) than the worsened state of the economy (84%)!

Wow, which really just goes to show you how oblivious people are and how little people like to think about money!

"Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like 10% unemployment"
… er, I mean, unrequited love – sorry Charlie Brown.

My Tax Refund Savings Stimulus Plan

2009-02-12T13:20:00.000-08:00

The good news is in: $1696 Federal and $444 State for a total of $2140. Same as last year, but still feels like an unexpected relief. $1000 will go toward my Business School deposit, $500 to maxing out my Roth IRA (stretch goal, done!), and the rest to beefing up my emergency fund. Yay!

Financial Freedom and HandCuffs

2009-02-11T19:30:00.000-08:00

I've been reading every drop about the billions in the stimulus packages and listening to all of the NPR stories on the economic crisis, the credit crisis, the housing crisis, ad nauseum, and I don't think I could hear an original thought about it at this point. But then I brushed across this quote in an old Moleskine, and it seemed extremely salient...

“The ideas that liberate one generation become the shackles of the next”
– Sir Isaiah Berlin

"In Case of Emergency" but not THE "Emergency Fund"

2009-02-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

How much money is the right amount to have immediately available to you, in case of emergency?

With all of these big b-school expenses on the horizon, I’ve had that question on my mind lately. Like many of you I’m sure, I funnel a great deal of my savings into my ING account, which is not very accessible, purposefully so. I have two other accounts – Bank of America and my corporate federal credit union. My BOA account is the main one I use for direct deposit, paying credit cards and bills, etc., and I feel like I’ve kept it more or less at the right level – I have enough cushion that I’m not worrying about overdraft fees without wasting any interest potential. But the credit union account is essentially just a rainy day account – it’s helped when I wanted to take out a big lump sum for a vacation or a necessary shopping spree without interrupting my BOA cycle, and ensuring I’m always able to pay every credit card bill in full. But how much is too much to have in that account? Should I just move it over to the emergency fund – out of reach? Or should I keep some of those funds handy now that I have more unexpected expenses coming up? Right now, it’s at $1150.

I know it’s almost impossible to come up with that magic number yet, but I don’t feel like I’ve gotten there yet on this one… Does anyone have any principles / rules of thumb they use for how much “in case of emergency” (but not the emergency fund) money to have on hand?”

Good News and Bad...

2009-02-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

The Guy has a great opportunity coming up at work to get more sales training in another office – so he will be living in another city – right now, we don’t know which – for a month. Living in a hotel with a corporate card for a month!!! I have to say it will be really strange to be living alone again for that long, and I know it will be lonely. But there is a silver lining… next month can be my haven of frugality. I know I will be able to save a LOT. I love the Guy and all, but he’s just not as savings-conscious as I am, and so I often fall prey to his takeout or restaurant requests, because I want to make sure I’m not smothering him with my pf philosophies.

Which is ideal because March is when my initial $1,000 tuition deposit is due for school. So my goal is to absorb $500 of that hit in my March expenses. It will be a challenge, but by cutting down on food costs and entertainment, I think it may be achievable.

Some Serious Meal Planning - Mini Chicken Pot Pies

2009-02-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

The Guy and I have been getting to that there-is-nothing-in-the-fridge moment a little too often this past month, and I really can’t help but think it’s because we didn’t really plan ahead much. So, before we went to the grocery store, we made a list and did some serious meal planning. And I discovered a great “second or third night” of meal-planning to deal with all of the leftovers. Mini Chicken Pot Pies!!! These are super yummy and by my calculations – only 500 calories per ramekin of mini pot pie.

Ingredients:
Two 4-oz. chicken breasts – baked the day before
Handful of leftover green beans (or really any other veg you have on hand)
That perennial bag of baby carrots in the fridge
Puff Pastry
2/3 cup Light Sour Cream (or Crème Fraiche if you have that kind of refrigerator)
A little more than half an Onion
1 ¼ cup chicken broth
4 ramekins/souffle dishes/small bowls

Recipe:
Preheat oven to 450. Sautee onion, carrots, green beans on med-high for 8 min. Add chicken broth, turn down the heat and simmer for another 8 min. until some of the liquid is absorbed. Add the sour cream and chicken. Add filling into puff pastry soufflé cups or ramekins and cover with additional pastry. Brush a tiny bit of the sour cream on the tops of the filling. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until everything is warmed through. Enjoy.

How to Plan for Pre-School Expenses

2009-02-04T19:19:00.000-08:00

So, as I’m getting more and more excited about school and getting buried in the difficult decision about which coast I’m going to head towards, I’m also realizing that there will be a LOT of expenses even before I grab up the loans and go into debt. I guess I could throw up my hands and say “Oh well, it’s all going to be negative pretty soon anyway,” but I am promising myself that I WON’T have that mentality. I have plenty of negative networth role models out there that have maintained responsible personal finance

I’m also dealing with the not exactly unexpected, but still rather unpredictable expenses associated with enrolling - $25 processing fee for financial aid with the CSS profile, $1,000 deposit due in March, $350 flights out for admit weekend, $300 for hotels at two weekends, required pre-reading and courses, and probably tons of other stuff I’m not thinking of!

For now, I’m trying to keep spending down in every other area I can control, knowing that lots more is going to pop up. I also added a budget line item called “Unexpected”. Any other budgeting techniques for unexpected expenses??

Writing my Financial Commandments

2009-02-02T05:35:00.000-08:00

So my brother is graduating from college next year, and I’m hoping to give him a nice bound journal of advice… mostly financial, since that’s the only advice you’re really looking for at that point in your life. I’m planning to write it all out by hand, so it’s more sentimental and heart-felt, and I have a lot of different categories that I’ve started to brain-dump ideas in. But I also want to kick it off with a Financial Top-Ten List, sort of an exercise in Financial Commandments. Here’s what I have so far… any disagreements, anything to add?

1. Automatic Deductions – You’ll never miss it!
2. Be hyper-conscious of spending
3. Use the Sub-Accounts for Saving with ING (you can reward yourself – save for things you want, not just things you need.)
4. Max out a Roth IRA!
5. Dental care is expensive. Invest in a Sonicare toothbrush.
6. Learn to cook a few easy dishes you love. It’ll save you $1000’s in expensive takeout.
7. Pay off your credit card balances immediately.
8. Judge yourself against your own standards, not the groups you happen to identify with.
9. Plan ahead.
10. Know what you value.

Superbowl Goals

2009-02-01T05:23:00.000-08:00

Woop, woop... I hate football, but I do love the superbowl. Something about being lazy with friends in front of the TV and tons of guilty-pleasure snacks...

But I suppose I also need to make some February goals... which I realized I can actually spread out by week:

ALL FEB = Carpool to work at least 3x per week
Wk 1 = Sell our old dresser on Craigs List
Wk 2 = Send Valentines to friends
Wk 3 = Reach out / make a date to hang out with someone new
Wk 4 = Write two NEW pages of my story.

At Long Last

2009-01-31T05:09:00.000-08:00

I updated all of my sidebars and goal progress... inching sloooowly. My Networth more or less stayed the same this month. I'm expecting some sizable dips coming up as I have to send in a $1,000 business school deposit, lots of travel to these schools to see which one I want to go to, and of course getting ready to cash in the Dog fund!! It's almost enough to keep my mind off the snow and freezing temperatures..... almost...

January Books I've Read: Winter-Hibernation Edition

2009-01-30T13:47:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe we’re still in the month of January. For some reason (or a few: waiting on b-school responses, hasn’t been above freezing point for more than 20-minutes the entire month, a new boss at work whom I think is incompetent), this month has felt excruciating long. But there were plenty of opportunities to bury myself in a couple good books....

Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
I joined a book club this month (and hosted the first one, so my food expenses were a little higher than I’d planned) and really enjoyed discussing this book that was chosen. I’ve had In Defense of Food on my shelf for awhile, but this seemed more intriguing to me, and I already wrote about it once here: "The True Cost of a Dozen Eggs". The book is a kind of social history about how we eat and how we decide what is okay to eat and what we should eat (the referenced dilemma). What I took away was:

1. A better understanding of just how much corn is in our diet.
2. That dietary choice is essentially made for us by US industrial food system, agricultural policy and subsidies.
3. Organic is great, but sometimes "big organic" doesn't solve any of the problems inherent in our food system.
4. Our current food system makes it really hard for us to truly see all of the ecological and moral inputs.

At the end of the day, it also made me want to know a lot more about our public policy around agriculture. So, anyone who has any good recommendations on how I can learn more about the farm bill, pass them on!

Living a Jewish Life by Anita Diamant
The other book was a library selection which I picked up after realizing how poor my knowledge was of some of the holidays I’ve been celebrating now for two years (the Guy is Jewish – I am not). And yes, that’s Anita Diamant, author of the Red Tent, which seemed a little strange to me. But I suppose no stranger than my own divergent interests – writing, business, agriculture... I digress. This has been a fantastic read – SO easy for a non-Hebrew, unaccustomed, unfamiliar like myself. The style never feels pedantic or infantilizing in any way. I feel so much more confident just in experiencing these traditions and cultural norms. The way I think about it is now at least I know what I don’t know. Which is a great start. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in knowing more about the Jewish culture they’re experiencing, whether it’s personally or tangentially. It organizes beliefs, societal structures, customs and holidays in a way that’s easy to wrap your head around.

The World Atlas of Wine by Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson
This is one of those enormous coffee table books that I fell in love with one day browsing around Barnes and Noble. I suppose it’s meant to be a general wine-lover’s reference, but I’ve decided to read it cover to cover. I read a page a day while I’m having my morning coffee-and-oatmeal, based on the theory that you can become an expert on anything with consistent learning everyday (cued from another book on my bookshelf: Talent is Overrated). It makes me want to start my own winery… not a bad early morning daydream…

Next month’s book club selection is Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth & Happiness. Anything else I should be reading next month?

Money the Ultimate Motivator

2009-01-27T16:31:00.000-08:00

I read recently in a women’s magazine (I think ELLE?) about a weight-loss strategy that’s truly hilarious. Apparently there’s a website out there where you can enter in your weight loss goal and a financial “wager” if you will. And if you don’t reach your goal – you have to relinquish that money. You can set it up so that the money goes to charity, or even more comical – an ex-boyfriend or an old enemy. I won’t be signing up anytime soon, but I guess if you’re desperate it must be a pretty effective strategy. And it just goes to show you, money really is the ultimate motivator.

Best Roommate Ever

2009-01-26T16:29:00.000-08:00

Just to follow up on that post after moving in with the Guy….
We’re pretty happy :)

When Last Minute is a Good Thing...

2009-01-25T16:28:00.000-08:00

My credit card payments are currently coming from my Bank of America checking account – certainly not an interest-producing machine there, by any means. So I have never really bothered with WHEN I paid my bills. I usually pay them at the end of the month when I do my usual scrub or whenever I think of it. But I realize that I AM relinquishing interest, no matter how miniscule, and it won’t cause me any grief to just schedule the payments the day before due. So that is my new commitment to me – paying my credit cards at the very last minute.

Giving for V-Day

2009-01-24T15:58:00.000-08:00

For Valentine’s Day this year, I am going to propose to the Guy that instead of buying each other cheesy gifts, that we donate to a charity of our choice. I’ve donated to the Alzheimer’s Association in the past, and I’m considering that organization again. It might be nice to select an agricultural-based social enterprise start-up, since I’ve been reading a lot about those lately. So I started surfing around on charitynavigator.org and smartgivers.org – two great resources to evaluate where your dollars go furthest. My two additional honorable mentions are going to be FINCA International (a microlender dedicated to ending rural poverty) and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both of which were rated very highly on Charity Navigator. Looking at these sites does make you think about what your giving principles are based on. I do believe in institutional fixes and organizations devoted to lasting change rather than band-aids or disaster-relief organizations (not that they don’t good work). But beyond that, I’m not sure if I know of any other great criteria for selection other than low administrative costs and the like. Does anyone have a more thoughtful process for who they allocate funds to for charitable giving?

Double YES....

2009-01-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

In awe.

Also got the 10:22 pm call from Anonymous Caller, aka Dean of Admissions at the Stanford GSB last night....

I'm in.

And thus begins the really tough decision-making period....

YES....

2009-01-21T09:41:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it. I got into Harvard Business School.... :)

Mountains of debt, here I come...

Life Insurance as an Investment Vehicle

2009-01-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

While I was recently enjoying my GoogleReader batch of the latest pf blog updates, I had a realization that I don’t think I’ve read much of anything on life insurance. I have a 90 Life insurance policy with Northwestern Mutual – it’s whole insurance, which means that it provides coverage similar to term life insurance (you pay premiums to receive a death benefit), but it can also be used as an investment vehicle. The benefit is that it produces guaranteed cash value – right now the cash value is around $607 but I’m hoping that by the time I’m paying for my kid’s college or starting my own company, it will be a great resource of guaranteed funds when I need it, not dependent on performance of mutual funds or stock portfolios or anything else. Everything sounds good, and I like that I have something planned for that mid-term savings horizon, but I do wonder how I should compare that to just investing with e-trade. Perhaps I could make my money work harder, but I don’t know if I’ll be disciplined enough to invest for twenty-five years out, in just a regular account. Thoughts?

The Waiting Game

2009-01-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

This is it. First Round Decision Week. This is the week when I find out if I get into business school, and my whole life will change. The next two years of my life could be decided by this Thursday. Kind of insane. I’m going to need lots of distractions this week.

The True Cost of a Dozen Eggs

2009-01-17T15:55:00.000-08:00

I’m not generally a big organic buyer. I work for a big food manufacturer and am close enough to our operations that I haven’t been convinced that pesticides have been that pervasive or harmful in non-organic food. I have absorbed An Inconvenient Truth and I do my best, but I am no eco-evangelist of any kind. I want to buy sustainable, ethical products, and try when I think I can make a difference, but by and large, I’m frugal, and want to keep my food costs as low as possible.

I started to think about it a little differently after reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and hearing how government subsidies have turned our industrial food system on its head. The parts about corn-fed beef was pretty horrifying but what I thought was most powerful was the notion of true cost for food. While some products may be cheap, what’s the true cost of mass-producing and mass-transporting this food. What’s the true cost to our society – moral and economic? What’s the true cost to our healthcare system, after the impact of obesity and poor nutrition? What’s the true cost to our foreign policy, now that we’ve become utterly dependent on the cheap oil to fuel our cheap corn to fuel our cheap food across the supermarket?

Pollan’s arguments were insightful, but the main result of reading about the industrial food system, is that you realize that the price on the grocery tag doesn’t incorporate all of the costs. While you may not be paying those costs, you will most assuredly pay them later – through healthcare or taxes. His underlying premise is that you can’t just look away – you have to understand how the economics of the grocery store work:

“but this is what can happen to you when… you look. And what you see when you look is the cruelty – and blindness to cruelty – required to produce eggs that can be sold for seventy-nine cents a dozen” (Pollan)

I was in shock when I read about the egg operations for the majority of manufacturers – that they drive the animals to insanity and starvation, and factor into their business model a 10% premature death rate for the hens who can’t stand these conditions. If that’s the true cost, then I will be paying the premium from organic, sustainable eggs from now on.

Note, FruGal has another excellent post on a related topic: ethical shopping and being more aware of foul play in the grocery store supply chain)

The Eternal Question(s)

2009-01-11T18:24:00.001-08:00

Wow, the economy is depressing, eh? I know, such an original post subject.

On the bright side, today I bought a pair of gorgeous Jimmy Choo patent leather pink flats, for $104. They originally retailed for $365, were marked down quite a bit, and then I had a gift card. I barely feel bad for exceeding my clothing budget this month. I'm not even a shoes kind of person and these shoes in particular were certainly a nonessential. But at that price tag, I couldn't resist the urge to answer the question: Really? Could those tiny pretty little things really be worth the exorbitant premium they exact? Who is this Jimmy character and why can he inspire such shopaholic passion in so many, in so many genres?

Starting to Think about Taxes...

2009-01-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

I’m not even scheduling the appointment yet, but this is the time of year when I start to see those notices about 2008 tax forms, that I want to make sure I am thinking about everything I want to achieve before this tax year is up. Mainly, my stretch goal of maxing out the Roth. I am oh so envious of all you other pfb’s for whom this is not a stretch goal, but rather – the very first goal at the top of your lists! I realize this is THE personal finance no brainer, however, right now, given everything, I think my emergency fund is the most important expense. Also, I will admit to suffering from a little saver’s self-righteousness… I feel like I already do contribute hefty percentages of my income to my retirement savings, and when I’m only 24! Do I really need to max this out? Or so the small whiny voice in my head goes…

So until I file next month, I will start straightening myself out to see how much I will need to contribute to max it out. I do want to check back in on my charitable giving for 2008 and make sure I did everything I wanted to do. I definitely increased my giving over last year, which has been my unofficial goal when it comes to charitable giving. But I want to start thinking about more structured goals for 2009 – what are the right charities, etc? Thus far, it’s been more of whatever came along…

The Nitty Gritty Goals for 2009

2009-01-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

I realized, after reading all of your goals over the past few weeks that I need to make some more substantive goals of my own to put some legs on my “almost-annual” 2009 goal. My best friend gave me a massage for Christmas, which I redeemed today…. And I developed all of these goals in that near-bliss catatonic state. Hopefully I’ll carry with me a little of that zen feeling every time I chip away at them each month.

2009 Annual Goal: Increase Net Worth to $46K ($7K increase)

Financial:
1 – Get to the full three-months of expenses in my emergency fund.
2 – Once we get a dog, transfer all automatic savings over to grad-school and wedding-funds, split evently – save $2000 in total towards these goals.
3 – Become a loan expert and secure a great loan package for grad school.
4 – Stretch: Max out 2008 Roth by April deadline

Non-Financial:
1 – Become more genuinely interested in others. (a la the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
2 – Finish one story this year. (I know this seems like a pretty lame goal, but I wanted to start small so I wouldn't be too intimidated to start. So, one story to conceive, draft, write, edit and complete!)

A Few Recipes to Kick Off the New Year

2009-01-05T15:17:00.000-08:00

I recently uncovered that the Mayo Clinic’s website actually has FANTASTIC, no-fuss recipes. And for those that had those types of new year’s resolutions, they’re all from the Mediterranean diet. Yum, heart health! Even better, there are quite a few that are plenty frugal. I found a lot of recipes where I had everything in my pantry beyond the main ingredient, as was the case with the three recipes below – what I’m having for dinner this week:

Entrée: Honey Crusted Chicken (4 ingredients!)
Side: Green Beans with Red Pepper and Garlic
Dessert: Grilled Pineapple

Not so Extreme (but FREE!) Home Makeovers

2009-01-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

When I got back home from all of the holiday traveling this year, I was so grateful to be back HOME, a home that felt like home. (Sadly, being in my parent’s house just feels strange at this point in my life.) And maybe I am subconsciously investing in my nest now that we’re in a recession, as the pundits claim, but I’d like to think I was just getting the ‘spring cleaning’ bug early this year.

Anyway, I made a couple of changes to how things are organized around here, and I have to say… it’s actually making me happier. So, I’ll list them here as idea-starters in case you get the bug too! I filed this post under time for money, because really, for a little bit of time spent organizing, you can ease yourself quite a bit of frustration and discontent, and save whatever money you would have spent self-soothing. If you have any other not-so-extreme-home-makeover-tips, please post them in the comments and I'll add them on later!

BATHROOM
1. Empty your mouthwash in a glass decanter instead of leaving it in the bottle. It’s pretty enough to set out by the sink and it reminds you to use it more often, in addition to the everyday glamour.
2. Remove everything from the bathroom counter that you don’t use daily – decluttering does wonders for my everyday happiness.

KITCHEN
3. Reorganize the pantry by meal occasion – a shelf for breakfast, a shelf for lunch/dinner, a shelf for baking, a shelf for spices. It makes the whole operation more efficient and saves you time when you’re looking for the oatmeal at 6 AM.
4. Create a healthy snack bowl (in and outside the fridge) with low-calorie/low-fat snacks in little sandwich bags. They’re perfectly portionable and a time-saver when you need to grab something on the go and don’t want it to be a candy bar and a Red Bull.
5. Take on the junk drawer (or mail tray) and dispose of all the junk. Better yet, create a cleaner “to-file” system for the day that it inevitably clutters itself up again.
6. Pile “stuff” in a bowl or tall clear vase for an everyday centerpiece. “Stuff” suggestions: wine corks, matchbooks, plain ball Christmas ornaments, pasta shapes, fruit, extra buttons, etc. etc.
7. Take the orange juice out of the Tropicana carton and place in a pretty glass pitcher. Ditto on the everyday glamour thing.

BEDROOM/LIVING ROOM
8. Post a poem (something that makes you smile) on a vanity/inside a drawer you see every day
9. Find little baskets to put inside drawers for organizations for things like scarves, socks, etc. (These are really cheap at Walgreens!)
10. Create a template for planning out the week ahead’s outfits to prevent the morning-of-closet-whine. Post on a French memo board in the closet or in an accessible drawer.
11. Give your spare-change coin bank more prominence. I moved ours from a back shelf to our desk and changed it to a clear container, hoping it will attract more loose coins this way.

The Mystique of Feminine Buying Power

2009-01-03T14:54:00.000-08:00

After observing the crowds at the post-holiday sales, and doing a bit of scouring myself, I thought back to the fact I recently read in a Mintel report:

“Women represent 51% of the population but buy 80% of all products/services.”

The fact itself is certainly not all that shocking. All of the marketers and advertisers have certainly figured it out, and we see it reflected in commercials and malls all the time. The WHY behind this could be interesting. The reasons this statistic must be so are a mixture of ‘surface’ and ‘substance,’ as I see it. The surface reason is that women are - intentionally or unintentionally - often delegated the task of household management, and the majority of purchases (even in “men’s categories”) ultimately fall into the framework of keeping the household together and running smoothly. But I wonder if the reason of substance has something to do with psychological mindset.

This statistic actually contradicts the pop-psych principle that “men like to fix things” (i.e. just buy something to take care of it as quickly as possible), whereas “women like to maximize their solution” (i.e. not just “buy something,” but utilize all resources available to create the best possible solution, or buying the "best something.")

But perhaps, women are simply more likely to use shopping as therapy – and not just in the sense of buying some new shoes after a bad day at work – but as a salve to that urge to make things better. Even purchasing a service like an oil change is a disguised check for the to-do list of an accomplished modern-woman multi-tasker. What do you think? I feel a bit like Larry Summers toeing the waters here, so I would invite other perspectives. Are women more likely than men to rely on money to “smooth the edges of things” and create self-worth and comfort? Or should I gather my things and resign my post at a top university? :)

January Goals

2009-01-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

I really do love the new year. Nothing makes you feel more hopeful than a fresh start, whether genuine or conjured.

My January Goals are caught up in this spirit of optimism, so let’s see if they fare better than my 2008 goals. The first two are tied in to me and the Guy’s new year’s resolution(s)…His: lose 8 pounds, Mine: lose 5 pounds and clean up my nails. (Really I should take a picture and upload it... it's downright disgusting. When I quit smoking, I replaced the oral fixation with my hands. I guess there are worse habits, but it's time for my hands to look like an adult's, not a teenager's.) Our before & after deadline is March 1st. Wish us luck!

Otherwise, I want to actually read my book club book, plus one more from the library. And since our doggie deadline of April 1st is nearing closer, I want to make sure I put the right amount in for January, with only three months left! (And finally, still trying to make up for the damage done in Argentina, by reducing my expenses to build back up my overall accounts.)

The last one is aggressive… we’ll call it the stretch goal.

__ Work out 5 days a week
__ Clean up my nails – plan for at least 3 manicures in my expenses!
__ Finish reading 2 books
__ Add $250 to Doggie Fund
__ Reduce Jan. Expenses by $150

Yes, at last, at last.

2009-01-01T14:50:00.000-08:00

Wow is it ever good to have a fresh start… thus commences year 2 of personal finance blogging.

A New Year’s toast for 2009: for more wellbeing of all kinds, more optimism, more champagne, and more reunions with old and new friends.

December (and 2008) Net Worth Wrap-Up

2008-12-31T14:42:00.000-08:00

Despite the recent dips in the markets, when I look back on the past year of my blogging life, I realize that I really have made tremendous progress. I have a budget, where I never did before – specific, measurable goals where I previously had wishes, and a bit more confidence where I only had questions. More than that, my attitude has been focused on simply making progress. My budget is more accurate than it was even a few months ago, and I try not to get sidetracked when I have a few dips or when I disappoint myself. It’s all about the journey… I get it, and I’m happy with that.

So with all of those reflections, just past my one-year blogging anniversary, I will note for the records that I’m ending December and 2008 with a Net Worth of $39,460, nudged up nominally since November, but up a lot since I started!

Mini-Rant on Megaplex Movie Theaters

2008-12-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

So much for saving money being back home for the holidays. Out of our enforced boredom, the Guy and I decided to crown our monotony with a visit the local megaplex to see a few holiday flicks.

> Night 1: Marley & Me – really cute, more-than-I’d-hoped-for fun, until the fire alarm went off at 10:45, 30 minutes into our movie
> Night 2: Used our readmission passes to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Profound, moving, get-you-excited-for-Oscar-buzz-already, until the fire alarm again went off at exactly the same time, with only 10 minutes to go in our movie.

More worthless readmission passes later, we still wasted $36 seeing not one full movie over the holiday break. Geez… Makes me glad for my AFI Movie Challenge – in December, I checked five off the list already! $50 to the Dog fund!

Ending the Year with a Sigh (and not of Satisfaction)

2008-12-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

As the year closes and most bloggers of any sort turn to indulgent predictions, recaps or lofty goals for the following year, I have to admit that I am feeling a bit of impatience at my own lack of progress. It seems I will probably have to change my already-declared 2009 goal because of all these forces out of my control, but I’m leaving it on the books for now… and simply declaring my very-human impatience at the lack of progress or sign of any pay-off at all for all this diligence. Maybe it’s that I haven’t been diligent enough (and don’t have it in me, at this stage in life, to be any more frugal than I already am) – or maybe it’s just that I can’t see that parallel track of “what might have been,” the non-blogging road not taken. Still, I am ending this calendar year, feeling a bit off-kilter.

'Above my Pay Grade'

2008-12-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

I’m rather fond of the expression “must be above my pay grade.” I most often use it to crack a wry joke about something that is complicated to the degree of farce (ridiculous furniture assembly instructions or the insane views on foreign policy espoused by my uncle, for example).
But thinking of getting back to work in a few more days, and in the context of what I am actually paid, a pay grade speaks to a unit in monetary compensation – which my company employs strictly. And though some may disagree, I do appreciate this system (as opposed to alternatives of free negotiation). Some might argue that pay grades could be employed arbitrarily and that negotiation might enable employees to have more meaningful variables considered (like past experience and how much value those specific roles might bring to the current). I, however, would rather embrace these distinct levels, because my sensibilities are highly attuned to fairness (I blame my having a sibling remarkably close in age). In reality, I see that negotiation could really reward the best negotiators and the most obnoxious and whiny.

However, in researching a bit, I have found it interesting that legally, companies are not required to adhere to pay ranges of any sort, and more interesting to me, that if they do employ pay ranges, they are not required to publish them at all. In short, you can never be certain of fairness, I suppose.

What my company does disclose is their theory on employee market value. They maintain that they will always pay me at 85% of my market value. When my friend in HR tried to explain this to me, she said it was based on my skills in that role, and that I would move to the next role too fast to ever reach a level of 100% proficiency which would essentially equate to that 100% of market value level. Makes sense, but it still feels funny when I see that huge number listed as my market value and my salary listed well below.

But in this time, I know I would be grateful to be paid at 50% of my market value, so long as I kept that job.

My own Christmas Reverance for a Transitional Year.

2008-12-25T09:17:00.000-08:00

The Guy and I are at my parents home in the South - celebrating Hanukkah privately - and my favorite Christmas rituals publicly with my entire family. Sleeping in separate bedrooms and cooking dinners and revisiting childhood haunts in this low-fifties winter (quite refreshing from the sub-zero temperatures we left in the midwest). It's a transitional year for us. I'm waiting to hear back about grad school, and thus, potentially moving us to a new city. We're poised to become a blended family - though not quite there yet, it still feels like family to me.

It feels like a transitional year for the nation as well. So while there will be moments of uncomfortability over the holidays for all of us, I am certain we will look back to remember this year's close profoundly. So I am keeping that quasi-optimistic, reverant outlook for the lull of these next two weeks... before grinding into the next year again.

Indulge Me On This

2008-12-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

I’ve been disappointed in the quality of the articles in the Sunday Styles in the past year. Often the writing itself is still stand-out, but the articles and actual topics chosen have seemed almost purposefully out-of-touch, like some editor’s pet interests are being indulged, week after week after “really? A brand of napkins sold only in the Hamptons?” week. The topic of this past Sunday’s headline - Indulge Me On This - struck me as no different. But some of the writing itself didn’t disappoint, and as Dave Eggers has famously said, got right to the business of “speaking eloquently about what it’s like to be alive right now.” The indulgences – the beach, the Nutcracker, the right Scotch, a culinary treat, nice cardstock for greetings, the right pacifier of diet coke – were appropriate for the paper’s readership.

For my own readership and indulgence, I would say my own indulgences this Christmas Eve are really good wine, splurges on family and friends, an excess of ‘wasting time’ pleasure reading.

What I'm Learning from Dog Adoptions this December

2008-12-23T09:10:00.000-08:00

I’ve recently started volunteering at my area Animal Humane Society, facilitating adoptions of abandoned dogs, which has been significantly more fulfilling than I expected. I am no animal activist, by any means. In my entrance interview even, I stumbled over the questions regarding what part of animal rights I was most concerned about. Umm, general animal cruelty? I wasn’t even sure of what the options were for such a question. I was motivated by a fond feeling of nostalgia for the string of miniature dauschands our family had growing up, as well as, yet another hare-brained business idea of the Guy and I’s (a doggie day care which would be based on the premises of big companies, much like the actual day care service that many large companies already provide). So far I’ve been truly impressed by the charming, devoted people I’ve interacted with as well as the professionalism and well-oiled engine of the AHS.

Two observations on volunteering around this time of year:

ONE. I’ve found the benefits of volunteering at such an organization with such a clear, simple, single-minded mission blissfully uncomplicated. Sure – Darfur, Iraqi refugee, and women’s or immigrant rights funds may be more politically important and impactful in our society. But no one really disagrees that Fido shouldn’t be abused, and witnessing the love and real connection and meaning that an animal can bring to a somewhat haphazard or lonely set of owners, is really quite majestic – in a small, authentic way. As a poet friend of mine always says, ‘What a good and fine thing it is to do a good and fine thing.’

TWO. This experience is helping correct my unasked personal stance that in the whole ‘Time vs. Money’ debate on charitable giving, your money is far more impactful. After experiencing this organization’s operations, in this case, it really does seem that giving of my time and energies provides them maximum benefit, and leaves me devoid of angst over the absolutism of the financial experience of charitable giving (one unaltered number, un-wishy-washy: can I afford this?, is it too much?, Is it nearly enough?)

The 10-10-10 Principle

2008-12-22T09:08:00.000-08:00

In cruising around the blogosphere, I stumbled upon Dave Ramsay’s 10-10-10 principle. And being just the type of person to cherish any kind of arbitrary, if firm principle, I immediately rushed to check myself against his. And found myself… yes, lacking.

The Principle is based on the notion of saving 30% of your income… 10% to retirement, 10% to an emergency fund, and 10% to saving for future fun purchases. I only made the cut on retirement.

Me:
__ 6% Pretax +8% Post-Tax for Retirement
__4% Post-Tax on Emergencys
__4% Post-Tax on Fun future purchases

I also save about 6% on a cash-value life insurance policy which I’m using as a mid-term investment (kid’s college one day, far far away I imagine), which doesn’t fold into the 10-10-10 principle as described. So all in all, if I included this as well, I think I would just need to increase my savings to another 6% to meet the full criterion. But starting small, as I usually do, it will be my goal to move my Emergency Fund Savings up first. If I can move my automatic withdrawls up another $60, I will move it up 2% there!