My March net worth is up at NetWorthIQ. It's up 3.69%, to $22,561, which is not too shabby. And in the vein of this previous post on my retirement accounts, it's worth noting the progress of my 401(k), in terms of shares:
Fidelity Freedom 2050 Fund: 351.2 shares (last month: 317.15 shares)
Fidelity Total Stock Market Index Fund: 32.2 shares (last month: 29.06 shares)
I've weathered the last few months' downturn pretty well (haven't yet seen a reduction in my net worth), but I'm definitely not on track to hit $35,000 if things keep up this way. I probably shouldn't factor a continually climbing stock market into my goals, huh? A more realistic goal for this year is probably $30,000. We'll see.
That said, how are my other goals going?
Earn the full match in my 401(k)
I've earned 39.9% of it. Nice! If I really am going to switch jobs, though, this goal is going to have to be reworked.
Save $4,000 in the Freedom Fund, for an end balance of $10,000.
I saved a mere $200 of income this month, but I'm still on track to hit my year-end goal (I think...again, a job change may rearrange this, because I'm currently planning on big savings spikes in "extra paycheck" months). My freedom fund is just north of the $7,000 mark now.
Give $1,200 to good causes.
A post on this is forthcoming, but let's just say for now: no. This is not going according to plan this year, for reasons to be discussed later.
Earn $1,500 of non-salary income, earmarked for graduate school application expenses.
Very little activity on this front this month: just a couple of Pinecone Research checks I haven't deposited yet. I'm due a bunch of blog stuff this month, though, so this should see a big bump for the next monthly update.
Buy a friend a drink at least once a month.
This is by far my favorite monthly goal! I'm pretty sure I bumped it off early this month (I remember thinking, "Hey, two in February! ...Wait, no, it's March."), but I don't remember exactly how.
Monday, April 07, 2008
March Goals Update
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Less Stuff! More Money!
It's time for me to deacquisition, hardcore. I have too much stuff. The clutter in my bedroom, in particular, is beginning to make me crazed. Additionally, I have very little slack in the ol' budget this pay period, and a weekend spent at home decluttering might be just what the doctor ordered for my sanity and my checking account both (I do have one coffee date, but that's it).
Clothes with tags still on (I know there are at least three or four pieces, and none of them came cheap) will go on eBay, as will four pairs of new, non-fitting, and never-returned shoes (bought 'em more than a year ago) and maybe a couple of Christmas gifts that aren't my style and/or are redundant. I'm hoping to make $200. What I can't decide is whether this counts as non-salary income that should be added to the grad school stash or whether it is best used getting myself some newer, non-scraggly clothing.
Speaking of scraggly, there's also lots to give away--I think a bunch of my clothes are starting to look like they've seen better days. So off to Goodwill they'll go.
I'd be really happy to have a little less stuff and a little more money in my life.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Financial Goals for 2008
I've been thinking seriously about these--apologies for the delay. But without further ado, here are my 2008 financial goals.
Earn the full match in my 401(k)
I'm going to be switching over to the Roth 401(k), and my company's match has been bumped up to $2,000 (dollar-for-dollar!), so this will be a more challenging goal than it was this year.
Save $4,000 in the Freedom Fund, for an end balance of $10,000
This figure will just about cover six months' worth of frugal living, so it's a nice stash to have in case of life change or emergency. This means regular monthly contributions of about $250, plus saving the slack in my extra paychecks. Quite doable. If it's looking too doable as the year progresses, I may revise this goal upwards a touch, but since I may have to adjust my 401(k) contributions up, this one may be harder than it looks.
Give $1,200 to good causes
Yes, indeed, this is less than I gave this year. But a hundred bucks a month is a nice round number, and I really don't think it's ideal for me to be resenting my giving plan (and I did feel that way a couple of times this year), so I'm going to take this one in baby steps. The figure is still a chunk of money for someone of my age and income. I also need to devote some thought to creating a giving plan that makes my donations meaningful--I felt a little haphazard this year.
Earn $1,500 of non-salary income, earmarked for graduate school application expenses
This is going to be a big challenge, especially since I'm going to give up the freelance work I do through my employer. But I'm going to try to earn some money through the blog (you'll note I'm continuing to run the Prosper referral ad), and I'm going to talk to a local coffee shop about maybe doing some contract baking. And all those tiny Pinecone Research checks count, too! I'll get a goal meter up on my sidebar for this one.
Buy a friend a drink at least once a month
And not in the "I'll get this round, you get the next round" way, either. This seems like a strange goal, I know. But I want to be careful that I don't get tight-fisted, and I want to prioritize my friendships. I'm not going to be too picky about what it is I'm buying--coffee or a snack counts just as much as a beer, as long as it's bought during social time together and not reimbursed.
Achieve a $35,000 net worth
This one seems the likely result of achieving all of the above goals. I'll revisit it at the six-month mark.
You'll note that there's no goal pertaining to the Travel Fund. That's because it's not a priority right now. I'll keep up my $50/month automatic transfers, but I'm not going to be pushing this one this year, partially because it's not as urgent if I'm not taking my trip until summer of '09 and partially just because I'm going to have other things on my mind.
So onwards and upwards. May we all enjoy success in 2008.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
My 2007 Financial Progress: The Numbers
I had five financial goals for 2007. I also, somewhere along the line, developed an unofficial goal of reaching a savings goal of $5,500 in my Freedom Fund. For whatever reason, that goal was the most important to me. It represents progress towards being able to do what I want to do with my life.
And as of this very morning, that goal is met. My Freedom Fund account at ING reads $5,500, which actually represents cash savings from this year of somewhat less than $4,500 (the balance also includes a CD that matured). And I've transfered my beloved-and-generous aunt's $500 Christmas check in, so it'll stand at $6,000 for the year. And as to the rest of them?
1. Give 5% of my income.
My gross salary income for the year was $31,615.37. I gave $1,371.45 to good causes this year. That's 4.3%--short of the goal. Not by much, but still short. I copped out of giving for a couple paychecks (or maybe three?) this summer when money was tight. Had I given that money, I would still actually have been a little short (4.9%), so this goal will need a little rejiggering for next year.
2. Open a Roth and automate contributions.
Sort of. I actually funded my Roth in a lump sum, with the money my parents gave me. But the end is accomplished—the money my parents gave me maxed the thing out.
3. Earn the full employer match in my 401(k).
Big fat check, and I'm proud of this one.
4. Open and automate contributions to a travel fund towards a savings goal of $2,000.
No. But this one was by choice—I just wanted to prioritize the Freedom Fund as that goal grew in size and priority.
5. Triple my net worth.
Stupidly (as Moom pointed out at the time), I didn't count my checking account in my net worth when I set this goal. When I started this blog, though, I listed out every penny I had, an though it had clearly come up somewhat in the next two months, even if it had been $7,000, it would be well and truly tripled. And I bet it wasn't even that high—I bet it's more like quadrupled. My net worth as of today is $21,247, which is a modest increase from last month of 2.27% and well clear of my unofficial goal of $20,000.
So I think I made some pretty good progress. And this is just the numbers.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Night Falls in Midtown
So. I'm leaving the company holiday party. I have had a glass of wine and a free dinner. I am wearing a new dress, and newish boots that are beginning to hurt my feet even though I bought arch supports to wear in them on Sunday. I am wearing an old winter coat, but it's made of nice wool, and I wear a costume-jewelry brooch on it, and it doesn't look too shabby. At the party, I have been gossiping with my coworkers; there was a speech by the president of the company heralding the younger generation; I have giggled with my boss and danced to "Hey Ya" (not simultaneously).
One of the guys from the mailroom is tall and broad-shouldered, with a square jaw and lucid eyes and skin like caramel. When he moves, all power and grace, it is hard to imagine that everything in the world is not easy for him.
My closest work-friend is knocking back Brooklyn Lager, grinning a grin he knows is charming, putting his hand on the knee of a woman twenty years older than he is.
Another work-friend is worrying about her assistant, who is being skeeved on rather vigorously by some sort of sales guy. He is very short, also quite skeevy. The assistant does not seem to mind, but the work-friend is worried anyway. Anything could happen, she says. I do not think anything could happen.
I talk with some girls about whether or not we are wasting our youth, about what we have learned and where we will go next.
When I leave, I do it without saying too many goodbyes. I get my not-too-shabby coat from the coat check, and put it on, and go out through the shining hotel lobby, and I like the feeling of the cold in my damp hairline and I want a cigarette badly. I like to smoke cigarettes in this particular mood, which is open and quiet and thoughtful, and I like to smoke cigarettes while walking in pretty shoes. I do not have any cigarettes. So walking down Vanderbilt Avenue, I stop in front of a guy smoking outside a cheesy tourist-trap restaurant. I ask him for a cigarette. I do not have a quarter, or I would give it to him. He gives me the cigarette, and offers me a light. My hand rests on his leather-gloved one while he lights my cigarette off his. He has an accent of some kind. I thank him, wish him a good night, and keep going.
I am standing in front of Grand Central, finishing my cigarette. There is a man whose backpack is sliding down his back, the straps slipping down his arms. He is panhandling. He is doing a bad job of it. He is muttering and looking dejected. He asks me, almost unintelligibly, if I have any change. I do not have any, or I would give it to him. He apologizes, wishes me a happy holiday. I smoke my cigarette. The Public Safety officer walks by in his yellow vest. The man is easy to brush off; he's hunched and muttering; people do not even look at him. The Public Safety officer doesn't either. The people keep going by, all of them going somewhere.
I ask the man what he needs. He needs a ticket to Poughkeepsie. I tell him I will buy him one. We go inside. He asks me to tell them I'm his friend, if they ask—he says they told him he was committing a crime by asking for money inside the station. He says he's only got about a dollar. I think of how long he must have been muttering at passers-by, and how long was spent in the cold. He tells me his girlfriend kicked him out, that he can't call his family because they'd hang up on him. We fight all the time, he says. He has terrible teeth. He punches the buttons on the machine. Cash? If I had cash, I would have given it to him. Debit. He turns around while I enter my PIN. The ticket drops with a little click, the sound of light contact. He thanks me; we shake hands. He asks if I have a boyfriend. I say that I do. He goes to get the train to Poughkeepsie; I go to get the six train home.
When I pop up again aboveground, the cold is a little more biting, and a cab slows down, expecting me to flag him and say Take me away from this squalor. Take me to Eighty-First and Fifth! The handle on the outer door of my building is still missing. I take off my shoes as soon as I get inside.
Friday, October 05, 2007
PF Bloggers Give Back
I'm proud to announce the opening of the PF Bloggers Donors Choose Challenge! (Catchy name, huh?) As you may or may not know, Donors Choose is a great charitable organization that connects the needs of teachers and their classrooms directly with donors. HC, at One Big Mortarboard, has selected a number of those needs that relate directly to personal finance, and it's up to us to make sure that these students get the financial education we like to talk about.
I donated $120 today. Anything you can spare will help: $20, $10, even $1. Please check out our challenge!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Charitable Conclusion
So after quite a lot of thought, here's what I did with the $180 I couldn't work up the resolve to donate:
I spent it on clothes.
Well, okay, not all of it. But it is, indeed, all earmarked to spend on clothes for the fall. This will also benefit my savings accounts, because once my new fall stuff is bought, my clothing allotment can start going into savings again, as it was this summer.
I thought a lot about what my commenters said, especially Single Ma's note about the spirit of giving, and I decided to give myself a break for the replenishment of that spirit. With my next paycheck, however, I will get back on the horse immediately, and I will do some research on new recipients for my gifts. Part of what spurred this exhaustion and resentment is being in a rut with my charitable giving.
I will also take this new information into account as I try to work out a giving plan for next year, when I want to have a more concrete plan.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Charitable Ambivalence
I'm embarrassed to admit how ambivalent I am right now about my charitable contributions. I have $180 earmarked for charitable giving right now, and nowhere I feel compelled to put it to work. No Donor's Choose project strikes the right chord; I'm not ready to commit to a political candidate yet; I've given money to my alma mater and to the organizations with which I volunteer already. And then I start thinking, too, about how little $180 is to a big charity, or even a little charity, and how much it is to me. And I start wanting to hang onto that $180, save it, or use it to buy some fall clothing so I don't feel so shabby. I've given $898.45 in charitable contributions this year. That's more than many people give in a year, let alone people my age or who make the kind of money I make.
Feeling this way makes me feel terribly stingy. At the beginning of this year, I felt such an overwhelming sense of obligation, and now I'm reneging? Religious people who tithe don't stop giving when they get tired of it, and that was the model I was originally emulating. There are obligations here--I believe that intellectually and viscerally. And then I start feeling like, look: I give my time (I even take vacation days to volunteer!), I've given $900 this year already, and I need a break. But I also believe that obligations don't come with breaks built in--that you fulfill them because you have to, not because it's fun.
So I'm quite torn. I'd appreciate my readers' thoughts on the subject.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Why You Should Have a Giving Plan: An Anecdotal Look
Here's a reason I'm glad I budget for charitable giving in every paycheck: a coworker of mine was killed last weekend under truly awful circumstances. As the past several posts have mentioned, my budget is stretched pretty tight right now. Nevertheless, I got paid today, and I've got my 5% allocated to charitable giving. That allocation means that I can write a check for the collection that the company is taking up to benefit my late coworker's young son. The total sum is being matched by the company, which doubles the power of every dollar, and doubles the regret I'd have if I couldn't afford to give anything.
I'm just very glad not to be in the position of being unable to help. The man who died was one of my favorite people in this building, consistently kind and friendly to me from the day I started working here. I'd hate to be unable to do this small thing for his family.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Billionaire Philanthropy For Everyone
If you have the time, I really heartily recommend that you read this article from yesterday's New York Times magazine. It's written by Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer, and treats seriously the idea of building an ethics-based model of philanthropy. It's a great read.
Incidentally, Warren Buffet's approach towards estate planning is, to my mind, absolutely perfect:
Buffet says he believes in giving his children “enough so they feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.” That means, in his judgment, “a few hundred thousand” each.
He says "a few hundred thousand" flippantly, but that's because he's a billionaire. The point, I think, is to let his children pursue their own goals, but not to obviate the necessity of pursuing something. Exactly what I'd like for my own children, in the event of their existence.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
PF Bloggers=Poetry Elves?
I was just about to leave work, but checked in on the Donors Choose project to which I donated this morning. It's fully funded! Fifth-grade kids in my neighborhood will read poetry!
I know that some of my readers clicked out via that link. If you donated, thank you. I'm really, really grateful, and also quite moved.
The First Financial New Year's Resolution: Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
I know, I'm early. Seventeen days to go. But this one hit me with the force of a truck sometime during my subway ride this morning.
I have to start giving money away.
Let me be frank. I take home $889 every two weeks. I pay $600 a month in rent. There is not a lot of slack in my budget. Not an awful lot of fat to cut.
That is not a good enough reason. That is, it's an okay reason, but there are better reasons to give money away, not least to get in the habit of doing it so that when I make more money, I give more of it. As I started thinking in the last post, I need to make sure my financial decisions support my principles. If Millionaire Artist can do it on a much-reduced income, I can do it on the biggest income I've ever had. I'll let myself start small, but from here on out--that is, starting with the paycheck I received today, a percentage of every paycheck goes to a good cause.
So I've just donated $40 (a paltry less-than-5% of my paycheck and slightly more than 5% of the project's total requirement) to support a teacher at a public school in my neighborhood in establishing a poetry library for her fifth-grade class. Seventy-nine per cent of this teacher's students come from low-income families. Check out the teacher's description of the project and consider making a donation to this project or another Donors Choose (which gets the full four stars on Charity Navigator) project. If I can do it, you probably can too.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Dress For Success
In this post, No Credit Needed asks personal finance bloggers to talk about their favorite charities.
A favorite charity of mine is Dress for Success. It combines a lot of things I think are important: encouraging financial self-sufficiency in lower-income women, a focus on the real power of clothing & appearance in a way that feels almost academic in nature, and shopping.
Dress for Success helps women who have been out of the workforce for an extended period of time or never in it at all. Participants are referred by social services agencies--they can't just walk in off the street. (This is both a positive point and a negative one for me--I understand why it needs to work this way, and it makes sure that services go to the people who will reap their maximum benefit, but it's a shame that those services aren't accessible to anyone who wants and needs them.) Dress for Success deals with that most ephemeral of job qualifications: the First Impression. Women with little disposable cash often can't afford the things that go into that first impression: haircuts and haircare, braces, tooth whitening (or, in some cases, extensive cosmetic dentistry), skincare, makeup, professional shoes, and, perhaps most importantly, a quality suit. When they walk into the interviewers' offices, they make an immediate impression of other (alterity, the academics would say) that is, shall we say, not particularly conducive to coming out on top in the interview process. Not someone who belongs at this company, the interviewer mentally notes. Who is she kidding? It's a slightly creepy facet of American financial instinct that we are less inclined to give money to people who look like they need it. I've noticed this just based on the way I'm dressed--it's way easier to negotiate a deal if you're not in sweats. (A good friend of mine and I used to get all dolled up for our junk-store shopping trips, and found it paid off big-time.) The point is that I can hide my lack of experience in a college degree, shiny hair, and an expensive smile, while a woman who hasn't had my advantages (like parents willing and able to pay for orthodontics) sits in her interviewer's office feeling exposed as someone who doesn't belong. The interview is more likely to think that she is slovenly (thus, that she won't be meticulous in her work) and she is more likely to project a lack of confidence. Welcome to social immobility.
Women at Dress for Success don't just get professional makeovers. The organization also gives them interview coaching, resume editing, and training in a limited set of job skills (mostly computer competency). The idea is not only to improve their skills, but to give them confidence enough to compete on a more level playing field with candidates who've had more advantages in life. With a professional-level job comes a shot at financial self-sufficiency.
Dress for Success accepts donations of very gently used business clothing as well as cash, and they appraise clothing generously for tax purposes. They know the value of a good suit.
In December, I will be making two donations: one to my (deeply underfunded) high school, and one to Dress for Success. I also hope to volunteer with Dress for Success in the upcoming year.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
On Privilege
Today, I came upon this amazing post by TiredButHappy. In my recent reading of personal finance blogs, I've met so many people who've built their own financial lives from scratch. Almost everyone has student loan payments to factor into their monthly budgets, even the ones free from credit-card debt payments (often on debt incurred on college expenses). This is true of many of my friends, as well, but it's not true for me. My parents paid for all four years of my private education (and private elementary school before I got into a fancy public high school). They didn't qualify for financial aid, and they didn't just pay my tuition and fees--they paid for rent, groceries, books, even the odd beer here and there. When I worked in college, I pocketed the entire paycheck, free and clear. I didn't live high, or anything--my rent was cheap and I shopped at Safeway, not Whole Foods, and at secondhand clothing stores--but I was still going to the movies sometimes, buying clothes, buying cocktails and occasional concert tickets and late-night sodas and all the rest. I often felt guilty as I watched my roommate argue with herself over asking her dad for rent money or a friend put a car repair on her credit card. I knew I had it easy. And at graduation, my generous aunt sent a check for $2,000 that covered the broker's fee and security deposits on my new apartment--not a penny of that money came out of my own pocket. My great-aunt's savings bonds and my parents' gift of money from the sale of assets in my name let me live through the summer while job-hunting in a leisurely way that let me find the job I really wanted, as opposed to the first one I could get. In short, this September was really the beginning of my adult financial life. So many people have had to begin so much younger, responsible for their own living costs, or responsible for enormous educational debts--I have had the luxury of not thinking about any of that.
I have had it easy. The first time I realized the extent to which my privilege provides a substantive financial advantage was when I decided to buy a 1-year CD with the money I'd saved from my paychecks in school. A friend with whom I discussed it brought up lack of liquidity as a concern, and I realized with a start that that's not really a concern for me. If I had, say, a medical emergency while my money was tied up in a CD, my parents would cover the cost. They might not even want me to pay them back when my money was freed up, but they certainly wouldn't charge interest. My money could earn a higher interest rate without any significant drawbacks. That's a real advantage, a quantifiable one, one as tangible as the fact that I can save the money that I would otherwise have to put towards student loan payments--or I can spend it. There's more flex in my budget and in my life.
I guess what I want to say is that I am grateful for the gifts given me, the opportunities and advantages, and I am positively in awe of the people who've done it for themselves, from scratch. Single Ma just blows me away--she's fought singlehandedly (no pun intended!) for every one of her financial and personal achievements, all the while retaining her principles and priorities. Her daughter is mighty lucky--I can't imagine getting a greater gift from a parent than that kind of determined love and dedication.
I'll never be able to give myself all the credit for any financial success I achieve, and I guess in some ways I'm grateful I don't have to. That's why my parents worked hard all their lives (especially my dad, who's a second-generation immigrant who grew up in a Brooklyn tenement)--so I wouldn't have to think about the cost of my dream college or worry about student loan payments, or take a job I didn't like. It's why self-made personal finance bloggers work and save and strive--to better their own lives and the lives of their children. The children who have been given these gifts should not regret them. I don't mean that we shouldn't consider the impact of our privilege on our lives, and on our culture. But the gifts given us were meant--the gifts given me were meant, and lovingly. I can't turn them down--I couldn't even if I wanted to, and I don't. I can, however, be grateful for the help I've received, and be responsible morally as well as financially in the ways I use my money. I can give my parents a daughter they can be proud of, and I can try to give something back to my society, and, if I have children, I can give them the very best of all the important things--books, and experience, and education, and principles.
