Category Archive

My apartment doesn’t have air conditioning, so I’m sitting out on my balcony as I write this (Thursday night). It is still 77 degrees and it is 9:12 pm. Usually I don’t even miss A/C since I’m close enough to the ocean that it doesn’t get too hot. I got a report from my old apartment, summarizing my energy costs throughout the year. I spent roughly $30-$40 in the temperate months, and up to $80 in the cold of winter (slightly less in the summer). How much does an old box fan cost to run per and hour? Did you know that L.A. actually has a rather small carbon footprint for its population? This is mostly due to the temperate climate, not to any real efforts of the citizens.

Speaking of my balcony, I love it, even if it just has two camp chairs and an empty flower pot (maybe I should try a cactus). My hummingbird feed has been extremely popular in the last few weeks, since the near-by flowers on the sidewalk went out of bloom.

Speaking of heat, it is going to be 80 this weekend, even close to the coast. We were going to go for an easy hike, but I think a day at the beach is in order instead.

By the way, I had ice cream for dinner today. Yes, that is it. No, not a lot. I wasn’t hungry so I went straight on to desert. I had tuna salad on crackers plus a healthy serving of steamed (microwave) veggies for lunch, so the veggies are covering for the ice cream. So it is alright. Besides, it was absolutely FREE because I was a winner in Sugarlaws Häagen-Dazs giveaway, worth $3! (Sorry, it is over, but she does offer many nice recipes for free!)

That’s all for today. Since it is Friday, no serious topics will be covered today.

While some of these thoughts could possibly be developed into full posts, I just collected them in a random mish mash of money thoughts.

I have $400 in cash somewhere in my possession.  (I’m not saying exactly where because who knows if any of you are stalkers/thieves.)  It makes me uncomfortable, but I also have heard some horror stories about ATM deposits so I’m scared to put it in an envelope at the ATM.  This means I have to make it to a bank before they close.  I have this because my parents bought my computer from me and apparently wanted to save their checks and aren’t uncomfortable with large sums of cash like I am.

Sometimes I make “to-do” lists and writing it all down makes me feel so organized that I don’t feel the need to actually do the things on the list.  “Roll over Health Savings Account” has been on my list for months.  And I might never do it–I might just spend up my old HSA on birth control, then close it.

I started my Roth IRA in 2006, and I haven’t broke even yet.  (Good thing this is a long term investment, right?)

I have a SSN that is nice and low, so I should be among the first to get a paper stimulus check.  Paper, because I split my refund between two accounts.  I was hopeful when I saw something from the IRS/Treasury yesterday, but it was just a letter telling me I should expect $600.  Thanks for wasting postage on that.

I found a debit card on the floor of my workplace restroom last week.  Of course I immediately returned it to the owner, but there was a glimmer of “wow, I could use this to fill up my tank”.  It only lasted .4 seconds, but it was there.  It is worse, because i knew the owner, and she lives quite near me, so I even would have known the zip code.  It is worse that I thought that!

I’m considering splitting my savings between the Vanguard Prime Money Market fund between and a tax free version.  Common knowledge has told me that unless you are in a high tax bracket, tax free options aren’t important.  However I did the calculations myself (see The Finance Buff) and it is currently a better deal. The tax-free compound yeild is currently slightly higher than the fully taxable yield (even without the tax benefit!), though I suspect this won’t be permanent. My after tax equivalent is 3.242% or 3.392%, for state specific and federal respectively. Not too shabby.  I’ve done the calculations myself several times, and the tax-free version often comes out ahead, but not always, which is why I would split it.

If the school I applied to doesn’t tell me NOW if they are going to let me study there (through distance education), I might smash my head against the wall.  Better yet, I’ll find out which professor is procrastinating on his job of going through the applications, and smash his/her head.  (I have contacted them, and they are still processing applications for distance program.  UG.)

I have less than $250 in my checking account! This is unusual for me, I like to maintain a minimum of around $700, and it is often well over $2000 just before the awful rent comes due.  I was expecting that $400 cash and another $250 I’m owed to be in there, but I’m not worried about it.  I get paid this week and I know exactly which bills are allowed to autodraft (not many).

My student loan payment increased from $133 to $141.  From what I gather, this is because I didn’t make payments while I was a half time student for part of last year.  The interest was subsidized (paid by gov’t), but now my payments aren’t quite on schedule to be paid of by 2128.  (Exaggerated date, but sometimes it feels like it.)  Despite my pledge to not pay extra on my loans (financially a bad move), I sent in $35 extra last month.  Ooops.

That is what is going on in my finances lately.  What about yours?

If you listen to podcasts, I think you should you check out a post Get Rich Slowly wrote today, The Giant Pool of Money: Anatomy of the Subprime Mortgage Mess.

J.D. talks about this week’s episode of “This American Life“, perhaps my favorite NPR show. I usually end up downloading it through a podcast, but I happened to catch this week’s episode on my way to pick up T on Friday. It was an excellent sort of friendly view of how this whole mortgage mess came to be.

The show starts out talking to a guy with several part time jobs who was loaned half a million by the bank, though he himself admits he has friends who are essentially loan sharks, and they wouldn’t have even lent him it. It goes on to talk to a young guy who was just out of college making $75,000 a month, and when that dropped to “just $25,000″ it didn’t even cover his current expenses. It talks about how the financial industry is handing out awards for creating product that almost brought down the entire economy. It talks about NINA loans, or “No Income, No Assets” where banks didn’t ask how much you made or how much you had in the bank before writing you a loan. It explains how many people knew that what they were doing wasn’t sustainable, but figured it was the problem of someone higher up on the chain.

J.D. took a lot more time than I could and wrote a great summary, so please read his post and consider listening to the episode!

I have been invited to a friends wedding this summer. T was invited as well, but he definitely isn’t going to go. I would love to go, and it is in the city we recently moved from, so I’m sure I’d have a lot of fun seeing old friends and dancing the night away. In addition, my best friend from high school is in the wedding, so… I would really love to go. But $400 for a ticket? No, probably not. Or, maybe $250+ a four hour drive. Still, it just doesn’t make sense. I RSVP’ed that T and I would not be attending, and now I have to send a gift.

When I was in college and a friend got married, I would choose a gift in the $25 range. I was a poor student, and sometimes had to buy bachelorette and bridal shower gifts as well, so $25 seemed reasonable. My friends didn’t need me to buy them $90 serving bowl. Now that I’m making a real income, what is appropriate to spend? I looked through their registry, and I still think it is ridiculous to spend $50 on a vase, but everything on the list is “overpriced” by my standards. Beautiful, yes, but totally unnecessary. Buying from the registry helps me get something I know the couple wants, but knowing the couple, I’m a little surprised at what they want. They don’t seem like the crazy home decorating types, but maybe no one does just out of college.

Then I started thinking about my wedding. I’m not yet engaged, but the idea of getting married next summer has been talked about unofficially. It is a great opportunity to wish for expensive things, but I really don’t have an interest in owning fancy china. Where would I even put it? I have exactly one cupboard in my kitchen. I suppose we’ll probably move, but until we leave L.A., we aren’t going to have anything spacious. Vases? Don’t those $10 ones hold flowers just as well? I suppose I’d like some new bedding and some decorative pillows for my couch. But I don’t want a lot of dishes. I don’t need a lot of stuff. And what about our tentative plans to go abroad in a few years? It would be liberating to sell off all our stuff rather than feeling obligated to put fancy items in storage.

I don’t know why my goals are so non-traditional right now. In 10 years, would I regret not getting china at my wedding? (Let’s not even talk about the wedding itself. I don’t know how I’m going to figure that out.) Quarterlifegirl wrote a really excellent post about chasing dreams, and what it means when your dreams change. Getting my M.S. degree while working full time has been a goal of mine since I graduated. I still want to complete my program (I have this semester off due to moving) because it will keep the most doors open. At the same time, I’ve been dreaming of all the other things I could learn to do instead. For example, I could become certified to teach English as a foreign language and do that while abroad. Then what? I’m not totally opposed to transitioning into teaching math/science here, but I don’t know if I could deal with the pay cut. None of this was in my “plan” but it is nice to think of other paths that I could take.

Anyway, I guess I’ll buy my friend something from her list of things she wants for her duplex. I’m thinking about $50? They purchased it together last year and are filling it with nice things, a puppy, and perhaps someday, a family. They both have good jobs and his family lives in town. She used to say she can’t wait to leave the Midwest, I wonder if perhaps her dreams have changed as well.

“Sorry I took your money and burned it

but it looked like the world falling

apart when it crackled and burned.

So I think it was worth it after all

you can’t see the world fall apart

every day.”

Heard on last weeks episode of This American Life. Also found in comments here, credited to Andrew Vecchione (6th Grade). Spoof of William Carlos Williams’s This Is Just To Say.

If you are a more talented poet than I, please share your own spoof.  The original poem is:

“I have eaten the plums
that were in the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold”

What is Revolutionary Money Exchange? It is similar to PayPal, without most of the fees. Sounds nice, right? I signed up last week, and now $25 is on its way to my bank account! Free!

I was thinking of posting a referral link on my site to see if any readers wanted to join and possibly get me $10 more dollars. I don’t really expect that anyone would use it, since I assume a lot of my readers have already heard of the site and singed up or aren’t interested in signing up. Still, it couldn’t hurt, right? However, I felt uncomfortable though, and realized why: I wasn’t completely comfortable with my decision in regards to security and privacy. In fact, I am embarrassed to admit I hadn’t really looked into those two important issues at all. I had seen many reputable bloggers talk about the site, so I assumed it was completely safe.

The thing that most people complain about is that you have to give up your SSN. Your money is FDIC insured and held in a bank, so there is no way around it. (You’ll also get 1099 for your $25 bonus and any referrals.) Read their whole page on security here. It’s a little scarce, if you ask me, but I don’t know what I’d expect to see on a security page.

What about privacy? That scared me even more! Check this out:

INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We collect information about you from the following sources:

• Information we receive from you, including information on applications or other forms, such as your name, address, social security number, assets and income;
• Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, or others, such as your account balance, transaction and payment history, parties to transactions, and credit card usage; and
• Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency, such as your creditworthiness and credit history.

INFORMATION WE DISCLOSE
We may disclose all of the information that we collect, as described above.

Woah, what? If they aren’t making money off fees, what ARE they making money off of? Selling my SSN? While I don’t think they really would sell my SSN, I am not so sure they will keep my income, credit score, and account history secret. Even if they probably wouldn’t do it, the policy seems to say they could share my SSN, if they wanted. Scary, right? I thought so.

Closing your account isn’t going to help either–the policy applies to former customers as well! Luckily, they kindly allow us to opt-out by mailing in a form, available at the bottom of the privacy policy. Gee, wonder why they don’t do that online? (This opt-out, of course, isn’t really a kindness on their part, but a legal thing).

If you read all this and still want $25, you can click below for a referral, but please opt out of their privacy policy after you do so. I do think that the company is reputable (or I wouldn’t include a linkat all), and this post talks more about why it is legit and how they plan to make money. Also, some Google searching will return a general consensus that it is safe. Still, I don’t like them saying “By the way, we’ll do what we wish with your information.” So I’m saying back to them, “No, you won’t.”

Many twentysomething bloggers have spoke lately about what it is life to try to get through the quarterlife, and why we try to feel in control our lives by controlling our finances. Personal finance isn’t hard. Spend less than you earn, and watch the balances increase. I know that if I save $400 each month, my efund should be about 13k by the end of the year. Easy breezy. I can find answers to my money questions, but what about life questions?

Will the graduate program I applied to accept me? I think they will, but if so, when? It is a distance program, so it is on it’s own wacky schedule and I am tired of waiting.

Will T and I be engaged this summer? It certainly seems that way from conversations and his attitude, but I’ve learned not to try to plan for something like that. Are we ready for this huge next step? Now that it seems so probable, it also seems much scarier. I never worried it would be a mistake, but what if it turns out I’m wrong? How can you know for sure?

Will my parents be ok in their retirement? Or even less certain, will I be ok in mine? Will I even make it to mine?

Will I really get a chance to live abroad in a few years, or is that just something I say I want? Will we really do peace corps in our retirement as we claim, or have I traded that dream in for another?

Does my boss think I’m catching on? Does anyone at work think I’m adding value? What will I be doing in my career in 10 years? Am I smart enough to be successful?

Everyone seems to have it so together, but inside, so many of us are wondering… Am I doing this right?

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
~Rilke

There are no guarantees in life, at least not for the stuff that matters. So no, that extra money in the bank is no guarantee of anything. It doesn’t answer any real questions, at least not the important ones. However it sure is a lot better than being confused and wondering and also being broke.

I have big plans for the weekend.  Well, when I tell you what my “big” plans are, you probably will think I’m lame for considering them “big”.  Ha.  First, the fun happy stuff.

I’m going shopping!!!!!!  Mostly for a present for my mom, but I’ll keep my eyes out for quality work clothes within my budget.  I’m dying for some nice button down work shirts.  Which again, proves my lameness.  Couldn’t I at least lust after some fashionable spring dresses?  (Well, I do that too, but am unable to justify the purchase.)    For non-stalkers familiar with the LA area, I think I’m heading to Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade–they seem to have the widest selection of stores and it’s a nice area. If you are a psycho stalker, then I’m going to Inglewood, so stalk me there.

Happy Hour:  The new hire/young people group at my employer is sponsoring a happy hour in one of the beachy cities after work on Friday.  I’m naturally a bit shy, but I figure I better force myself to go and socialize with some of my coworkers.  If I totally hate it, I can always leave, right?  I’m sure I’ll have fun once I’m there, but is the kind of thing I can easily talk myself out of going to.  I imagine I’ll incur costs of $15 or less for 1-2 beers and perhaps a snack.

Cooking:  I’m on a mission to find a more frugal breakfast.  I’m currently in love with the boxed granola cereals from Trader Joe’s, eaten with vanilla yogurt.  Yummy.  However, I feel like granola should cost less than the $3.29/box I’m paying.  I’m willing to make my own, so I’m going to Google some recipes and try one out.  (I’m also open to suggestions on places to buy granola in bulk for cheaper.)  I also have been craving bran muffins, and want to bake a batch.  This recipe looks delicious, but this one is much cheaper more basic.I shouldn’t need any groceries outside of ingredients for these two things.

Fitness:  I’m sure I’ll run once or twice, and I’m going to try out a new Yoga DVD I got on a Netflix free trial subscription (which I foolishly started right before a long weekend away, so I’m not getting much out of it.  Four movies, max.)  I got some of suggestions on how to do classes for cheaper (thanks!) and certainly want to give classes a try eventually.  For now, the Nameste Yoga on FitTV is completely fulfilling my needs.  I just love it.  It is only 20 minutes (fast forward commercials), but if I want to do more than one session, I already have like 10 on my DVR.  In fact, it is fulfilling my needs so much that I wanted to buy season 1 and 2 from the internet for a total of $100, since my DVR goes back in July.  But I won’t, I promise.  I could get 2 months of classes for that price!

And then, the less exciting stuff. . . .

Car:  I’m going to deal with that pesky check engine light.  This could eat up an entire day, but it also might be as simple as getting the code read and finding out my gas cap was loose.  :::crosses fingers::::

Clean:  Boring, but necessary.  I also might start thinking about packing for next weekend.

Organize:  I need to do some financial housekeeping and throw away some stuff.  The nice thing about moving is that you get rid of a lot of extra stuff and everything gets put in a place.  But in the short time I’ve been here, I’ve managed to clutter up some areas, and want to declutter before it becomes a problem.

What are you doing this weekend?

I’m a lot less anxious today than I was last week when I sought out advice on how to cope with the stress of the new job and the cross country move. Thanks for all the great tips! I took the following evening to take a nice bath, complete with candle, music (ok, NPR), and a glass of red wine.  That alone got me back to a place where I no longer felt like a ball of stress.

My favorite recommendation to deal with stress was yoga. I took a yoga class one semester in college, but at the time it didn’t do much for me. I usually spent the session wondering when I could get out so I could go do my homework and I found the teacher slightly hokey.   Now that I’m older and wiser (ha), I’m willing to give it another shot. Being personal finance minded, I thought about the most frugal yet effective way to try it again.

Internet: I gave YouTube a try for the ultimate free video, and while I came up with these cute little morning and bedtime yoga routines, but they aren’t really what I had in mind. The were too short and more instructional than relaxing.  I also did found a couple free videos elsewhere on the internet, but they also weren’t quite what I was hoping for.

Classes: Classes seem to run about $15 per a class (a little less if you buy in bulk). My workplace has noontime yoga on Thursdays for $10, but Thursdays is my free lunch day. Ooops, I mean, it is my lunch recruiting meeting day. I swear I don’t do it for the free food!   I found a studio relatively near my work that offers a $5 special each time you go to a new teacher’s class, so that could get me a couple cheap classes.  However regular classes just aren’t a sustainable addition to my budget.

Self Study: I have a book on Yoga that my instructor convinced us to purchase when I was in the class. It was pretty much a waste of money, but not worth selling on Amazon. Really, once you develop a basic routine, you don’t need any guidance, just perhaps some nice music.  This could work, but reading about yoga seems a little tedious.

DVD: This probably is the best option, though I haven’t done any checking on prices or selection. I’d be most comfortable with someone guiding me through routines with some soothing music.  For my long term solution, I will find a nice yoga DVD.

TV: This is my near term solution. I’m have an introductory period in my cable package where they give me a lot of channels and a free DVR for six months. (When the promo is up, I’m going to return the DVR and cancel cable, but for right now I feel that it is worth $30/mo.)  I found the fitness channel, searched for yoga classes, then I set my DVR to record them for several days.   I already have about 4 different half hour routines (though I have to fast forward the commercials).   This will help me determine if yoga is really for me long term before I purchase a DVD or a class.

It is too soon to tell if yoga is helpful to me.  I’ve only done two TV sessions (plus about 5 minutes this morning) and I’m generally not stressed on the weekends.  It definitely feels like a good balance to my running routine–I really hate stretching, but yoga adds a little spice to the stretch.

My second favorite recommendation came from a friend who recommended home dance parties:  Pick a song, blast it, and dance it out!

This isn’t strictly personal finance related (perhaps personal development). Although, I’ve found you can make almost everything you want to write about personal finance related.

I’m a recovering perfectionist (lately not so much recovering as relapsing), and I’ve been anxious about my new job. I’m also anxious about pretty much everything else in my life as well. The anxiety is really getting hard to deal with. I can’t seem to relax, let things go, and keep it all together. No matter how much I want to.

I’ve been running a lot lately, well over my 3 times a week goal. I’ve always heard this will relieve stress, so I’ve been really diligent about it. I think it is helping, but it just isn’t enough. I’m still way more stressed out and anxious than usual, and I can’t seem to “just relax”. I can easily recognize the flaws in my attitude, but I can’t seem to overcome them.

I’ve been trying to do stuff outside of work and to be gentle on myself, but I just feel stuck. I feel like sitting down on the floor (or perhaps laying) and bursting into tears. That can’t possibly be the best solution. So I ask you, what do you do in order to relax and de-stress? Do you have any advice for me?

Also, when you end a sentence with parenthesis, does the period go on the inside or outside of them? Same question with quotations.

And what is the deal with the guy who came to my door and offered me the LA times for free, but then requested a check “as a tip for the little guys that deliver it”? That isn’t free! (There, I added a little money note after all.)

I spent an evening last week at a Boys and Girls club in the area promoting engineering to middle school girls. While I think they were a bit young to really get much out of our presentation, they had a good time building towers out of balloons!

The girl that drove us there sent an email stating she’d be driving a silver BMW SUV. I thought to myself, wow, BMW? I’m not sure how old she was (not too much older than I) but let me just say, I don’t drive a BMW.   When we got in the car, someone commented on her SUV, and she said that she crashed her smaller car so her parents got her this large car so she’d be safer. I wish my parents bought me a BMW! Of course, she also went to a fancy big name school and I’m pretty sure that she didn’t pay for it.  I face this all often (more often now that I’m out of the Midwest) and I’m somewhat used to it, but sometimes my jealously surfaces.

Another girl who rode with us mentioned that she came to USA from Thailand, and worked as a waitress for several years when she arrived, despite having a Thai engineering degree. She went for her masters at one of the universities around here, and found employment in her field. While working, she completed many classes towards her PhD, and is a really successful engineer. Again, I thought to myself, wow.  How inspiring and impressive!

I can find reasons to be jealous of the financial advantages some of my peers have had. However, I can also be humbled by the fact that many people few advantages have made such successes of themselves.  There are a million people on both ends of the spectrum, and there is no use complaining about the cards i was dealt (which really weren’t all that bad anyway).