My Final Post

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...

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!

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

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....

Does it Ever End? More July Goals

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

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 Goals: Upping the Joy Factor

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

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

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.

Progress toward my 2009 Net Worth Goal

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.

April Goals and an Exciting Purchase...

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 Goals... Yeah, about those...

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

The Wedding Fund: Suze vs. Vera

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

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. :(

March Goals... Here We Go

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.

February Goals Recap

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...

Superbowl Goals

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.

The Nitty Gritty Goals for 2009

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!)

January Goals

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

December (and 2008) Net Worth Wrap-Up

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!

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

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.