I have a friend (no, this is not a "Doctor, my friend has an itch" situation), a smart, ambitious, beautiful, Ivy-educated friend, who is going about her retirement planning in a highly unusual manner. My friend has a solid job, at which she makes somewhere in the low 40s. She plans to pursue graduate study. She likes living well, but has no illusions that her preferred field will provide for her lavishly--it should provide for her well, especially since she's good at it, but it's not hedge funds.
Also, she is having an affair with an extremely wealthy older executive. From whom she receives money on a monthly basis. A large amount of money. She doesn't use this money to buy designer clothes, or eat out daily, or get regular facials. She invests it. We haven't talked about the details of her investment, but her expectation is that this money will provide for her in retirement and perhaps contribute to the endowment of a not-for-profit she hopes to start. If she continues to receive this amount of money on a monthly basis for, say, two years, invests it, and sits on it until her mid-60s, she'll have something in the neighborhood of 7.5 million dollars, less taxes (her investments are in taxable accounts). And that, indeed, seems to be her plan. This means that she'll never have to save for retirement out of her salary, and she'll still end up with quite a lavish savings.
Aside from the tax consequences--Is someone paying gift tax? I would think investing money of indeterminate provenance would be a big fat red AUDIT! flag--I kind of think this is brilliant. I'm jealous of the incredible speed with which her investments grow. That sounds way better than my slow and methodical plodding.
I know that there are emotional consequences to these kinds of arrangements, and that some people (including some of my friends) find the whole situation sketchy, and not without reason, but I think it's hard to deny that my friend is being extremely smart here.
Madame X recently did a post on personal finance for mobsters. I'm intrigued by the way these unusual situations lead to unusual financial planning--I think it's another case in which talking about money is a way of talking about people. Any other tales of "extenuating circumstances" finance?
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Unusual Financial Planning
Monday, July 09, 2007
Eight Things About Me
Mapgirl tagged me, so here are eight things you may not have known about your humble blogger.
1. I follow the Casey Serin saga with the enthusiasm of a housewife watching her stories.
2. My favorite Shakespeare is Twelfth Night. I find it extremely strange and kind of creepy, which is part of why I like it so much. I wrote a paper in college about how it subverts genre expectation--a lot of people think it's sort of the epitome of the Shakespearean marriage comedy, but I think they're entirely wrong.
3. The only thing James Joyce ever wrote that I have not read is Finnegans Wake, and I have no plans to rectify this omission.
4. Sometimes I eat sorbet for breakfast and pretend it's fruit.
5. I drink enormous amounts of seltzer. When I was a kid, my parents used to get crates of it delivered in those glass bottles with the carbonating tops, like clowns squirt in old movies. Now I'm hooked.
6. I hate humidity.
7. I smoke the occasional cigarette: about one pack every two weeks.
8. I cry just thinking about the final montage of Six Feet Under. Seriously.
No pressure, but if I were to tag folks, they'd be s/100/30, the Bizarros, gradgirl, and Wanda.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Point, Counterpoint
Two interesting articles today, both for people just starting their financial lives.
1. Put Your Finances On Autopilot, from Kiplinger's excellent Starting Out Center, is a primer on ways to start out on (or readjust to) the right financial foot easily and painlessly. I'm going to send this one to a friend who graduated a month ago and yesterday asked me for advice about managing her money. I continue to be surprised by the number of people who aren't aware of the number of simple and easy options available for money management in the pragmatic, daily sense, especially with the glories of the internets all around us.
2. Popular Advice You Shouldn't Take, from the Wall Street Journal's "Getting Going" column, is more controversial. Much of the advice is sensible (buy a moderately sized house, don't be suckered into buying cash value life insurance, and start out investing at your comfort level), but the author also argues against accruing an emergency fund. He argues that we can borrow in the event of emergency (he advocates plastic and/or 401(k) loans) and that our money can work harder in 401(k)s and Roth IRAs. While it's certainly true that the interest rate on liquid cash in even the highest high-yield savings account isn't competitive with what you earn in a tax-sheltered mutual fund, I still believe in the value of a cash reserve (and am leery of the wisdom of borrowing in an emergency--isn't it a little like being kicked when you're down?).
I used to feel very differently. Given my youth, health, employability, and total lack of dependents, I thought, who needs a big emergency fund? Here's the thing, though: I do not have a set plan for my life. If I knew that I were going to continue working at this job, advance, get married, buy a house, and have kids, well, I might be bumping up my retirement contributions and saving for a down payment right about now. But for me, and I think for a lot of young people, money is the power to make choices based on what I want to do and where I want my life to go rather than on where next month's rent is going to come from. I think I'll have more freedom with $10,000 in the bank, and I think having freedom is completely crucial at this stage of life.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
The American Dream On Credit
Overheard in my office:
"I'm living the American Dream: I'm living beyond my means!"
The speaker was joking, but it still spazzed me out. She and another office friend and I were talking about credit card debt--she made fun of me for my tendency to pay off individual charges on my card right after I make them (admittedly, this is overkill), and we made fun of her for her contention that paying something on her debt every two weeks means she doesn't pay any finance charges (they have to issue another statement, she says, which prevents interest from accruing--that can't possibly be true, right?).
This is all in good humor, and I would never seriously try to preach to her about financial responsibility. It's just not my place, and clearly, she's not in a place to start thinking about that right now. And you know, I guess that's fine: people come to things when they're ready, and she's not.
I think our mutual teasing conveys a kind of mutual respect, somehow, and that does seem to me to have something to do with the American Dream.
Monday, July 02, 2007
June Net Worth
My June net worth is up at NetWorthIQ--it's $17,234, an increase of 7.41%. There's a big fat asterisk next to this one, though, for one important reason: I currently have two months' worth of rent, rather than the usual one, sitting in my checking account right now, waiting for my check to clear my landlords' accounts. They never sent us an invoice for last month, and we finally got a bill right before this month was due, so we just sent them in together. So this number is inflated by about $630, which is about half of the increase. I'll probably be flat on July's net worth for this reason. Even without that deceptive number, though, I did okay--I'm hoping that I may crack the $20,000 mark by the end of the year, and this month starts to make that look possible.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
July Goals
Much as I set a few goals for June, to break things down into small, achievable units and keep myself moving towards my larger goals, I'll set a few for July.
1. Add $250 to the Freedom Fund
This is $150 over my autodrafts. It shouldn't be too much of a problem, but it's not a low bar, either. This would bring the account balance to $2,550. My hope is that by the end of the summer, when I've added my matured CD to this account, the balance will be edging very close to $4,000.
2. Add an extra $20 to the Travel Fund
I don't usually add extra money to the Travel Fund, beyond my biweekly $25 autodrafts. But especially now while I grind away at GRE math, it's nice to think about going somewhere amazing.
3. Submit the things I need to submit
This is a financial goal because they're financial things. I need to submit an invoice for the last two months' freelance work, and apply for reimbursement on some medical bills. I hate doing this stuff, and I find it intimidating because I don't really know how to do it. I have to overcome that this month, especially because I'm going to want to pay for the GRE, and the whole point of the freelance gig is to do that, which it will not do if I don't get paid.
4. "Eat down" my current food supplies, buying groceries judiciously
I've got a ton of food in the house. That should mean spending less on groceries this month, and having a little slack in the grocery budget as well as in the eating out budget.
5. Buy that darn Feist album already!
Seriously, planned spending.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
June Goals: Update
So, I set a few goals for June. Here's a check-in on how I did:
1. Add $175 to my Freedom Fund balance.
I beat this bar—I added $275, for a balance of $2,300. I was super-aggressive with my savings this month.
2. Add $50 to my Travel Fund balance.
Check.
3. Cashflow purchase of the Oxford Companion to English Literature.
After learning that swapping for personal-use books isn't totally verboten, I swapped for it, so no money was necessary.
4. Buy sandals and Feist's new album.
Check on the sandals—they're cute white strappy Hush Puppies with real stack heels—but I haven't bought the Feist album yet. I'll roll this one over to July. Seriously, I have a problem with planned spending.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Rent Hike
My rent is going up. The check I write in a couple of days will be about $35 higher than those I've been writing. Problem is, I forgot that "July's rent" means "end of June," so I hadn't really budgeted for that increase. I also hadn't budgeted for the parking ticket K and I got this morning on my parents' car ($45--thankfully, not too steep). Luckily, I can cover most of my half of the parking ticket out of the spare money in my "eating out" envelope, and I'll manage to scratch up the money for the extra rent, but it still remains to rejigger my budget so that the extra rent money is there at the end of each month.
It's less than $20 per pay period, so I think what I'll do is pull $5 each from several envelopes, so hopefully I won't notice too big of a difference. I really do find that reducing spending in a certain area, even by a little, is way harder than starting off at a low level--I just always feel myself coming up against the new limit and having to constantly remind myself of it. Hopefully, I'll get a raise in September (I'll have been here a year), and then I'll be able to use the "spend half, save half" theory of raises to bump myself back up to the spending limits I'm currently used to.
I know it's not a big deal, but it's a bummer. One gets used to certain expenses, and when they go up, it just kind of throws everything off a little.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Frugal Food: The Backlash
While doing my frugal food experiment lately, I've rediscovered how much I love cooking. I've been spending internet time reading food and recipe sites (I baked two loaves of Orangette's cinnamon-and-sugar-crusted banana bread yesterday, and it's amazing) and thinking about the cool things I'm going to make, and...I just went way overboard this week. I did a sensible round of shopping at Trader Joe's on Friday, but yesterday K and I went to beautiful, wonderful, amazing Uptown Fairway, and...kablooey, you know?
While my parents are in Italy (May-September; retirement must be nice), K promised to start their car every couple of weeks (I would, but I don't drive), so we took it out for a spin yesterday afternoon, through Washington Heights and Inwood and up around Fort Tryon Park. It was really lovely, and then when we got to Fairway, the sun was setting over the river—Uptown Fairway is right on the Hudson—and I guess I just sort of got overwhelmed with the aesthetics of it all, because I had this little list of like seven things, and it just went entirely out the window.
K was beside me the whole time, occasionally going, "Whoa...capers? Do we need capers? Um. Do we need starfruit? Do we need white asparagus?" He did reign me in from going entirely supermarket-insane, but we still got a lot of stuff we didn't need for this week, really—like, I'm not sure how we're going to use the shrimp. I had planned to make shrimp quesadillas on the couple of evenings I'm going to be in this week, but now I'm not sure—but I will have to use them, or they'll go bad and I'll have blown $10 (well, $5, because K and I split the grocery shopping).
On the plus side, I'm really excited about the things we're going to make—we got the shrimp, and some little eye round steaks, and lots of great apples and walnuts and gorgonzola for a salad. And the capers. And a six-pack of a nice-looking summer ale. This morning K made omelets with gouda and cherry tomatoes and spinach, and hash browns, and then I made balsamic-macerated strawberries with vanilla ice cream. And we had mimosas. And we will never need to eat food again.
On the financial plus side, the excess on the grocery bill is easily paid for by the slack in my eating-out budget. I've suddenly got an extra $40, which is great.
P.S. Sorry for the low post rate lately, you guys. I'm studying hard for the GRE—as Barbie used to say, math is hard!—and I've been extraordinarily crunched for time.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Here's a New One: Inter-Salary Etiquette and Lunch
My friend A is a first-year analyst at one of the big financial firms here in New York. I haven't seen him in a long time, both for some social reasons and because, you know, first-year analyst. He sent me an email the other day proposing that we get some lunch, given that we both work in Midtown. I agreed that we should get some lunch. Here's the problem: where will we get the lunch? I can't imagine that A, who makes three or four times what I do, is undertaking any frugal food initiatives in his (sparse) spare time. My guess would be that he would be inclined to go out for lunch. I'm not at all concerned about telling him I'd rather meet somewhere outside where we can just sit down and have a chat and eat whatever we please (i.e., I'll be able to bring my lunch), and I'm not concerned about him sussing out my salary, but I am concerned that any mention of my reasons would sound like hinting around that he should buy me lunch, which I absolutely do not think he should.
It's different to say to a friend who makes just about what I do, "Dude, let's brown-bag it and meet in the park; I can't afford to buy lunch today" than it is to say the same thing to a friend who makes far, far more. I don't want to induce any kind of guilt, and I really don't want to seem moochy.
This is a new one for me, because most of my friends do make pretty much what I do--or at least they have budget restrictions. That might be the problem here--assuming that because he makes (what is by my standards) a ton of money, he doesn't have budget restrictions or financial goals. Then again, I don't want to insult him by assuming he does. I don't really know what to do. I guess I'll just continue to do what I've done, which is avoid all mention of my reasons but make the suggestion anyway.
They always say that money can come between friends, but I guess this is the first time I've really encountered this kind of awkward situation about money with a friend. I hope it's not an omen of things to come.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Frugal Food Wrap Up II: Frugal Recipes
Quite a few people have asked me what I've been cooking, so I thought I'd post a few of the recipes I've used over the past couple of weeks and into the week to come. If you're interested, expand the post.
Pasta Salad with Chicken and Edamame
I meant to make this with peas, but substituted edamame (frozen, shelled) when Trader Joe's was out of peas. I liked it better this way (plus, extra protein), but making it again, I would add some extra greenery (maybe broccoli florets?).
Add the chicken and chicken juices to a cooked (not overcooked--keep it al dente, or it gets yucky in the fridge) pound of bowtie pasta; toss.
Figuring you already have the oil, vinegar, and garlic, the basic version of this salad costs about $11 for the batch (I paid about $4.30 for the chicken and $.69 for the pasta, and had the edamame and feta at home--so I'm guesstimating their prices). We got 8 servings out of it, I think, so that's a per-serving cost under $1.40. Not bad.
Black Bean Salad
This one's super cheap and easy--but I think of it as a side dish, not a full meal. I'm eating it this week, paired with some turkey meatloaf. This is a particularly great batch dish, because it gets better as it continues to marinate.
Rinse and combine two cans of black beans and one can of whole-kernel corn (I actually used one very large can of black beans, and one normal-sized and one tiny can of corn, but it's about a 2:1 ratio that you're going for). Dice a large red onion and add it to the bowl. Add a package of grape tomatoes, halved (cherry tomatoes would work just as well). Add fresh parsley or cilantro (your pick). Add a little splash of olive oil, a big splash of vinegar (whatever you've got on hand, though probably not balsamic), and the juice of one lime. Add salt and pepper to taste.
This cost me about $7 for all the ingredients (again, assuming you have oil and vinegar at home already), and I expect we'll get at least 8 side-size servings out of it. Cost per serving: about $.88 or less.
Dinner-on-the-go Wraps
These definitely have the highest cost-per-serving of any of the recipes I've been using lately, but they're also totally unbeatable for eating in a hurry, and certainly cheaper than buying a sandwich.
Cover a tortilla (you could also use a pita, or lavash) with a thin layer of honey mustard (or regular mustard, or whatever you prefer). Cover that with a layer of baby spinach leaves (if you've got them or can buy them by weight--don't buy a prepackaged bag for this purpose alone; you won't use enough). Cover that with 3-4 slices of sliced meat (I use ham and turkey, alternately) and 1-2 slices of cheese (I like Muenster). If you like, you can add half a sliced avocado in the middle, or some slices of onion, or whatever. Roll it up (this is the hardest part; I can't really describe how it goes, quite--I sort of roll the whole thing, then pull the middle tortilla edge out from the rolled fillings and pull it around the whole thing--the mustard helps it stick) and pack it in aluminum foil.
Without the avocado, these probably cost about $3 per--it's the presliced meat and cheese that make them a little pricier. Nevertheless, I'd spend three times as much on a sandwich and a drink if I stopped at a deli (plus, these are really good, and really nutritionally balanced), so this is okay by me.
Credit Piggybacking
Today's Liz Pulliam Weston MSN Money article is a reminder that credit bureaus are closing the "authorized user" loophole, where the credit history of an account transfers to the authorized user's credit report. That's how I developed credit--I've been an authorized user on my dad's Visa since I was like 15. It's an old account with a high limit, and it was a big boost when I applied for credit on my own. Now I've got my own credit, so I don't mind that the information is going to disappear from my credit report--in fact, I'm glad, because my dad's become a little erratic with payment schedules (he's just retired, and he's not used to not having a secretary). I'll get the benefit of hanging onto the card (I hardly ever use it--only when buying groceries for my parents or airline tickets that they're buying me but that I need to schedule) but without the downside of a) taking a ding if my dad sends in a payment late, or b) having this huge line of credit on my report, upping my debt ratios.
On the other hand, this means that K needs to apply for a card in his own name right quick--we were doing a piggyback thing with one of my cards. The article reports that the new FICO formula will be introduced at one (to date, anonymous) bureau in September and rolled out at the other two over the course of the following year, so I'll just remind K to apply for a card in early August.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Frugal Food Wrap-Up: How to Eat for Fun and Profit
I feel like I learned so much from my frugal food experiment of the last two weeks, I don't even know where to start wrapping it up!
The benefits of this project were substantial: I managed to save enough money to successfully cashflow a purchase I wouldn't have been able to afford (out of my last paycheck) otherwise, without even reducing my savings allocations (I ended up tranfering about $50 out of my eating-out and work-lunch envelopes, as opposed to needing to transfer money in, so I'd say in terms of concrete savings: at least $75 over the past two weeks). I saved myself time and energy during some frantic days. I (mostly) ate tasty, satisfying, nutritious food.
What are the keys to frugal food success?
You have to know how many meals you're going to need to pack, so you need to know where you're going to be. Part of the reason this experiment worked out well for me is that my time is suddenly very regimented, which makes planning easy. You also need to decide in advance what you're going to eat over the next unit of time (whatever unit you grocery-shop for: for me, that's a week). A grocery list derived from a meal plan that takes your schedule into account is the ideal of efficiency and frugality here. That's not to say that you can't do it if you can't hit that mark--what I'd do is guess how many meals you're going to want to pack, plan that number of meals, and do your shopping based on that plan. You can always tweak the plan--it's still a crucial starting point.
It's way easier to fill a container from a big bowl in the refrigerator than it is to make something from scratch in the morning. Batch-cooking is essential--I do it mostly on the weekends, and only rarely do any actual cooking during the week. So yes, this does absorb time--but for me, it was rquite pleasant time. I'd hook up my computer in the kitchen and listen to an episode or two of "This American Life" while I cooked.
It's essential that you pack food that travels well. A banana or an apple is easier than strawberries or grapes (I bought grapes on my last shopping trip, but have never packed them--because I'd need to put them in a container). Another one of the troubles I've had is having to stuff everything in my regular bag--I think that, if I really do keep packing my own food this often, I'll have to buy some kind of lunchbox or lunch bag. I need the purse space!
Don't forget to pack snacks! My favorites this week were things that were pre-packaged, like cups of applesauce or individually wrapped string cheeses, but it's also quite easy to take carrots and hummus, or some cut fruit. And I keep dried apples, dried cranberries, and some trail mix in my desk drawer at my office. That way if I need a snack and I haven't packed one, there's something tasty and nutritious to munch, and I don't have to spend my money at the vending machine.
This might be the most important at all--I really do feel like the key to my success in this experiment was looking at it as a challenge. I got interested in it from a problem-solving perspective and from an aesthetic perspective. I started looking for recipes that would suit my specific needs, and ended up sort of rediscovering my enthusiasm for cooking. That's part of why it was so important to me to focus on packing delicious, healthy food--I felt like I was doing something wonderful and enjoyable and nurturing for myself (not just sacrificing to save money) and for that, I was willing to put in the time and effort. It's weird to say about an experiment in frugality, but this felt really luxurious to me--when I was packing up this morning, I looked at the food I had in my hands, and realized that that was what I'd be eating today, and it was all really good. It was pretty, and tasted good, and was nourishing, and I was pleased about that, and proud. Plus, I thought about how I wouldn't have to stand on any lines or think about going to an ATM or replan my whole week of discretionary spending based on my lunch choice, which was just such a relief.
In conclusion, planning and packing your own meals is awesome. It's healthy and it saves money, but the most important and most genuine thing I have to say about it is this: it's really fun. I encourage you all to try your own frugal food challenges.
Some of my regular readers seemed really interested in continuing to see updates on the frugal food situation. I'm happy to provide those, but I think I may bump them down to weekly updates--from now on, I'll check in of a Thursday or Friday and do a quick update on how I'm doing on this front. I'll continue doing frugal recipe posts, too--so watch for those! And most of all, thanks for all your support with my experiment!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Inspirational PF Blogs
This comprehensive list at Credit Card Lowdown calls itself the 100 Most Inspirational Personal Finance Turnaround Stories Online. That might be a misnomer--not every blog there is a "turnaround story" kind of blog, really--but either way, this is a great directory of some very worthwhile blogs (psst! I'm #78!), and you just might find one that's perfect for you. Check it out.
Frugal Food Day 10: Victory!
On tasting my pasta salad with balsamic-marinated chicken, feta cheese, edamame, and Trader Joe's vinaigrette, K declared me his best girlfriend ever. Personally, I think it could use some diced raw red onion, and maybe some cherry tomatoes. Either way, I packed it for lunch today. Breakfast was the usual, and for snacks, I packed a string cheese and the last of the banana bread I made on Saturday. I'm not planning on being out as late tonight as I am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I'll get dinner at home.
I get paid tomorrow--so I really have gone a whole pay period without buying any food during the workday! (Okay, there was that iced coffee on Friday--so it's not quite a perfect record.) Yesterday, I set up a transfer to cover the IKEA purchase on my credit card. I would never have been able to cashflow that purchase if I hadn't reduced my work-lunch and eating-out expenditures so much this pay period! If I hadn't been able to cashflow it, it would have run over into this coming pay period, which might have jeopardized my ability to meet the savings goal I set for myself for June. So really, the frugal food experiment was a stitch in time.
I'll do a wrap-up tomorrow with some of the stuff I've learned during this project, but to answer Krystal's question: I absolutely plan to try to duplicate these results in my coming pay period--I'm just going to do it under-the-radar, and not bore y'all with it.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Frugal Food Day 9
K's company party last night was a little more "here! have this free frozen margarita!" than I was anticipating, so let's just say I was in no mood to fire up the stove when I got home. So in the absence of pasta salad, I packed a parfait, a wrap, and a bunch of snacks this morning. It's not quite three square meals, but I have some trail mix and dried cranberries at my office, of which I'll take some to GRE prep. I'll make it home to make pasta salad--I'll probably just be a bit hungry when I get there.
It's amazing to realize that tomorrow will mark an entire pay period--two weeks!--of packing breakfast and lunch. Awesome!
The Joy of Personal Finance
A couple of great recent articles (here and here) address the pleasure to be found in taking control of your finances and actively working to improve your financial position. I couldn't agree more. I wouldn't be able to keep doing the little things I do each day (let alone blogging about them) if I didn't enjoy them. I think cultivating this enjoyment is really key to aligning one's financial mindset in a healthy way, because otherwise you really are just marching yourself through the paces of some hated drill-team exercise, and that doesn't sound like much fun.
For me, being on top of my finances provides enjoyment in two major ways:
1) Peace of mind. I never have to worry that a bill is coming that I can't afford. I don't have to worry that I won't be able to buy groceries because I have to pay my credit card bill instead. Basically, I don't have to endure financial fear. Now, I'm an anxious type, and I do devote a fair amount of energy to my finances at the moment, but the worst-case scenario of my day-to-day financial decisions is more along the lines of "I won't be able to save extra" than "I'm going to bounce a check and go over my credit limit." I can't imagine living with those kinds of consequences hanging over my head, and, because I'm on top of my finances, I don't have to.
2) Sacrifices become stepping-stones towards my goals. Turning down a movie and drinks with a friend, or even just choosing to skip the popcorn and have one drink instead of three, is a pain in the ass. It's no one's favorite thing. But when I choose to do those things, they're choices that I make because they bring me a benefit: when I make a sacrifice like that, I can see my savings account growing toward a goal I want to achieve, and that excites me. The situation becomes sort of win-win: either I spend money I know I can afford to spend to do something I'll enjoy, or I opt to save that money towards a goal I want to reach for myself. This creates a decision that's less about shame, guilt and obligations (i.e., I know I'm not supposed to do this, but...) and more about a free choice of what I want (i.e., would I prefer to have a couple more drinks or save an extra $25?). Those choices don't come with nearly as much baggage, and either way, I'm doing something nice for myself, whether that thing is "buying another of these delicious mojitos" or "moving closer to my savings goal."
I'm also kind of a nerd and slightly numbers-obsessed (odd for an English major?), so I really do enjoy the minutiae of tinkering with my budget and projecting my financial future. I don't think you have to enjoy that angle, but I do think that enjoying establishing a system that works for you and setting and meeting financial goals is a big help. I think we can all benefit from learning to take pleasure in our own progress and ultimate success. That way, we have more fun and make more progress.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Frugal Food: Day 7, the Weekend, Day 8
I slipped up last Friday, and got an iced coffee from Starbucks with a colleague when she invited me out. I suppose I should have said I wasn't interested in the coffee, but was interested in the walk--since that was basically the truth--but I shelled out the $3.
A relatively food-frugal weekend was a nice surprise, and let me put extra money from my eating out budget towards my IKEA purchase of last weekend, so that's a plus. I ate in on Friday night and all Saturday (also on Saturday, I made banana bread with exclusively ingredients I already had in the house, which was a great addition), spent $10 on coffee/brunch with friends on Sunday morning, and ordered sushi with K on Sunday night from a relatively cheap local place (I actually don't even know how much it cost; he paid).
Today, all I had to do was wake up, make a yogurt parfait, and roll on out the door--both of my other meals are subsidized (lunch by my boss, dinner by K's production company). I'll make a big pasta salad tonight when I get home, and then I'll be pretty well set for the week.
Lesson learned: once you've got a plan and have done corresponding grocery shopping, execution isn't particularly difficult.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Meal Planning
Given that I have remarkably little to do at work today, I spent some time this morning planning this evening's grocery shopping so that I'll be set for next week.
The thing I've learned in the experiment so far is that planning is key--if I wake up without a sense of what I'm going to eat for lunch, I will end up buying something (either that or end up with a hunger headache). Prepping the night before is ideal, but even just an idea helps. The thing I really need to keep in mind is my schedule: how many meals do I need for a given day? How late am I going to be out? Am I going to have access to a refrigerator? The other big thing, the thing I need to focus even harder on, is making sure that each of my meals hits the carbohydrate-protein-fat trifecta. A meal that has all three is the best for filling you up and providing lasting energy, and my meals are often lacking protein altogether and are occasionally too low in fat. I need to work on this, and also on packing snacks.
This week, breakfasts are going to be the usual (protein, fat, carbohydrates--ding!--and lots of fiber as well). I'm going to make a big pasta salad with chicken and vegetables (protein, carbohydrates--I'll do a dressing or add some cheese or avocado for fat) that should deal with my lunches for the four days next week I'll need to pack lunches. For the dinners that I need to be able to eat quickly before GRE prep, I'm going to make little wraps, with some sliced ham or turkey and cheese with spinach and honey mustard on a tortilla or wrap (trifecta? check), and maybe some dried cranberries or avocado in there if I want to get fancy. I'm also going to make sure to get some good snacks (things that are filling and easily packable): string cheese, applesauce, carrots & hummus, and avocados are all on my list. Maybe some granola bars, too. And eggs, for hardboiling.
Basically, I don't have room in my head for thinking about this with all the rest of the stuff that's going on right now. If I can plan, shop, and batch-cook on the weekends (Friday afternoon counts as the weekend!), I can save myself a lot of energy that I really don't have to spend right now. Not to mention money--I can save that, too.
I'm loving the whole lunch-packing experiment, though. I genuinely feel like I'm changing my habits (financial habits and planning habits) for the better, and of course I like the resultant savings. The only problem so far? It makes me want this really bad. In teal!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Frugal Food Day 6
In some ways, starting this frugal food experiment this week has been very poor timing. I've suddenly become frantically busy--I'm prepping for the GREs three days a week (2 at my prep course, one with friends for the subject test, plus the required hours of at-home prep for the prep course), working my freelance job, still tutoring at one of my two tutoring organizations, finishing a big-deal independent project at work, training a new intern, and trying to maintain my sleep schedule and social life. I've been truly pressed for time to cook--it would have been far easier to just have bought my lunch--and I haven't had time to shop, either, so the whole thing's been sort of based on what I have in the house. Supplies are now dwindling--I'm out of yogurt for my morning parfaits, and pretty much down to plain pasta and canned soup in other respects (though there are still the supplies for the spinach salad, which I hope to make for tomorrow--I didn't get to do it today; I made a pasta salad with chicken sausage instead). I hope to get to Trader Joe's tomorrow.
I'm glad I'm doing it, overall--why else would I just have extended the term?--and I've got a much better sense now of what I need to have in the house to ensure that I can bring delicious, interesting, well-rounded meals. I've been great at just packing a lunch this week, but for the rest of the challenge's term, I want to aspire to pack awesome lunches, and my next round of grocery shopping can help me do that. I have a very thorough shopping list written out already.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Further Thoughts on Monetization
Yesterday, I received the first advertising solicitation that has ever piqued my interest. It was from a student loan consolidation group. I've previously received solicitations for ads and paid content from payday lenders, weird social networking sites, and seminar gurus. I've turned them all down without a second thought. This one, on the other hand, comes from a service that seems to operate in an aboveboard fashion (I searched for negative reviews six ways from Sunday before responding to the email) and be a viable option for people who are looking to consolidate their loans...so I don't really see any reason to turn it down. This is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when I wrote about monetization back in January. So I wrote back, and we'll talk terms, and maybe an ad for a student loan consolidation company will pop up on my sidebar.
I'm thinking I might give a little monetization a try. My eventual hope would be to monetize to the level of $500 per month with individually-negotiated ads for companies that provide services that aren't detrimental to my readership (even Dave Ramsey approves of student-loan consolidation!). Why is my goal $500/month? Well, because it would just about cover my Roth contribution (remember, the maximum is going up!) plus taxes while I'm in grad school, assuming I continue to blog. I was very much affected by the commenters who generously shared their experiences with me, and the consensus that indeed, taking on additional work is liable to negatively influence one's academics. But this blog doesn't feel like "work" to me--it mostly feels like something I do for fun, like something that provides the benefit of kicking back and watching a movie. If I could manage to cover my Roth contribution (and thus, keep investing while in grad school) out of money I get for working on a hobby...well, that would be pretty great.
Of course, I would never, ever sell content, I'd never advertise a product that would be harmful to my readers, and if any of my readers could show me that one of my advertisers was shady, I'd drop the ad immediately.
So...how does that sound, as a policy?
New Voices in the PF Blogosphere
Over the past couple of weeks, I've found a few newer PF blogs that I've enjoyed reading--I thought I'd point my readership towards a few of them. Most of these blogs are truly personal finance blogs--you get to know the bloggers as you read about their finances. That, as you may have inferred, is the kind of PF blog I like best. If you share that taste, or just want to check out something new, I recommend you take a look at these blogs:
Story Girl writes about just what you'd think, at My Money and My Life.
Olga gives us a taste of cross-cultural personal finance at Finance of a Russian Girl. It's really interesting to see how economy and culture affect individual finance.
At Kim's Kitchen Sink, finance is only one part of trying to establish an independent life in a big metro area.
The blogger at Her Every Cent Counts was a socialist--until she graduated from college. Like many of the quarterlife-crisis PF bloggers, she's trying to fit her financial goals into her general life planning.
Frugal Food Day 5
Yesterday was a big success: I was out of the house from eight in the morning to ten at night and didn't spend a dime on food. Not a snack, not a Diet Coke, not a bottle of water or a pack of gum. I returned home with a sense of triumph and a headache.
Today, I suffered a bit from lack of time in the morning: I had an early meeting and also overslept, so I was in a big rush and didn't get a chance to make the salad (spinach, edamame, a couple of hardboiled eggs) I was planning on pairing with a small serving of TJ's mac & cheese. I had the pasta ready in a container, and I grabbed an applesauce to supplement it, which is protein-deficient again, but should get me through the day (I have some trail mix in my office, and, if worst comes to worst, that ramen). I'll make the salad for tomorrow before I go to bed tonight, and probably add some feta cheese to make it a full meal. I do have to figure out how I'm going to get dressing to work with me, though.
I have a coffee date with two friends today (the girls with whom I'll be studying for the Lit GRE), and I'm happy to spend $5, but no more.
I think I'm going to extend the frugal-food effort through to next Thursday. It's really only three more workdays: my boss is taking me and our new intern out to lunch on Monday. I'm doing it partially to free up money for my IKEA payment and partially because I really think I'm starting to build a new habit, and repetition is how habits are built. I'll probably do my next round of grocery shopping on Saturday, and I'm already making a list--packing my lunch for five straight days has given me a better sense of what I need to have around to do this successfully.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
So, IKEA. We meet again.
Actually, this was the first time I'd ever been to the IKEA in Elizabeth, NJ, which might betray my inexperience. I was pretty much thinking we'd get in, get our $70 dresser, and get out.
Wrong!
The layout, in which you progress along a pre-mapped course through a showroom, on pain of getting irrevocably lost and dying of starvation without even a Swedish meatball to sustain you, is very, very conducive to a) finding something (more expensive) that you like better, and b) picking up a bunch of little things on your way out. We did both.
Instead of the $70 dresser, we got a $129 bookcase. It has four rows of four cubbyholes each, and we got four wicker baskets sized to fit in the cubbyholes to serve as the "drawers," mostly for clothing like underwear & socks & whatnot. It gives us a lot more storage than a dresser would have, and it's prettier besides—I do like it better. And it also cost more: $129, plus $13 each for the baskets, plus about $10 total for a couple of trivets, a little set of tupperware, a set of salt & pepper shakers, and a set of little dishes for soy sauce. And then I'd forgotten about the whole "cars need gas" thing (we borrowed my parents'; they want it started while they're on vacation, we want a way to get to places like IKEA, so everyone wins). So I'm pretty seriously strapped this week, trying to come up with about $130, which was about $90 more than I'd imagined I'd be spending.
I'm not sorry we bought it (I love it!), and I will manage to cashflow it—the frugal food week will be helpful in making it work—but it's going to be a tight week until my next paycheck.
Frugal Food Days...3 and 4?
My numbering system got weird, here. Whatever.
Yesterday, I brought breakfast (the usual) and lunch (the remaining tupperware of penne with pesto) to work, which would have been fine had K and I not decided, in an impromptu fashion, to go see a friend's show that evening. So I bought a snack to tide me over until we got home: $5. Damn.
Today, I brought breakfast (the usual) and lunch (turkey meatballs with mushroom marinara), as well as a couple of snacks (carrots & kalamata hummus, a free sample of some granola-adjacent snack product). I have my first GRE prep course today, and it's a diagnostic test, so I really don't want to be thinking about being hungry rather than thinking about the test, so if I'm really hungry, I'll buy a snack. But I also have a (slightly squashed) Luna bar in my bag, so I think I should be okay.
I'm considering doing some grocery shopping on FreshDirect, because of how busy I am at the moment and because they're running a special where you get 25% off your first two orders (I've never ordered from them before). But when I checked out the site last night, it looked way more expensive than my regular grocery stores (Trader Joe's and Fairway). Four bucks for a clamshell of spinach? Nine for a frozen pizza? Really? Maybe I can get some reasonably priced staples, though.
Anyway, the frugal food project putters along--I definitely feel more comfortable in my food budget than I have in previous weeks, and I think the results are somewhat skewed by my IKEA anxiety (i.e. my desire to come in significantly under budget, rather than right at budget), and I think I'm starting to learn some new habits that I intend to continue to cultivate.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Frugal Food: The Weekend
I didn't have any specific goals for pursuing my frugal food program during the weekend, which was foolish, perhaps, because it's when I do the majority of my unfrugal food. But I kept the goal in mind and did relatively well nonetheless.
Saturday K cooked us a beautiful breakfast: homemade hash browns and omelets with smoked jack cheese, olives, and tomatoes. Yum. And I had some leftover pasta before we left the house for our evening plans (which were free), so that took care of dinner. We also cheaped out by bringing booze with us--not a violation of protocol in this particular situation, and we did buy something at each party we went tofor politeness's sake. We ended up spending about $5 each, which K covered for me because I was (as I so often am) without cash. We also decided to forego that ritualized activity, the after-partying snack, in favor of crashing, so the food-and-drink expenditures for Saturday were at a bare minimum. Yay!
We spent Saturday night at my parents' apartment for reasons of convenience, and because they've left for their vacation, what used to be a very frugal choice is now quite the opposite. We woke up to the prospect of going out for breakfast. I spent $23 for the two of us at a little local chain (K had also picked up the cabfare the night before, so it evened out). We picked up a pizza and drinks on our way home from IKEA because both of us were too hungry to wait to cook (and also we wanted to spend our time putting together our new aquisition rather than making dinner), for $20. So for the two of us, we spent about $53 on eating (and drinking) out over the course of the weekend. Not bad, but not great--I would have preferred to have had something in the freezer for when we got home from IKEA, so dinner could be speedy and cheap.
Because the IKEA purchase was far more expensive than planned, it's particularly important that I make the frugal-food thing work this pay period, so I'm attacking the project with renewed vigor this week.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Frugal Food Day 2
Definitely an improvement over yesterday—I took some time while making dinner last night to make some penne with pesto and Pecorino cheese (a cheap and pretty tasty, if not particularly nutritionally varied, lunch: about $1.75 per serving). I was hoping I'd have leftover spinach-apple salad to pack, but K and I ate it all up and I didn't want to open the other package of spinach lest the rest of it go bad. So there were more carrots. I'm still working on the variety (and some protein would have been nice, too), but Trader Joe's pesto is really delicious, and I was happy with my lunch. Breakfast was the usual—I had brought a banana to eat with breakfast or as a snack, but then I gave it to a homeless guy on the train.
So not bad: I brought a reasonably tasty lunch and didn't spend a penny on food today. I can still do better, though, in the "interesting" and "delicious" categories. And come Monday, I will.
May Net Worth
May saw quite a bump in my net worth, which is mostly attributable to the fact that it was a three-paycheck month. I got an extra paycheck's worth of 401(k) contributions and also an extra $300 (the amount that normally goes to rent) to stash in the Freedom Fund. The bottom line increased 12.4%, from $14,275 to $16,045. The graph is at NetWorthIQ and in the sidebar.
I'm not expecting nearly as big a bump next month, but hopefully it'll keep going up!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Frugal Food Day 1
Not a great success today in the frugal-food department, but abject failure was staved off. Yes, I brought breakfast and lunch from home, but skimped in the departments of "varied" and "delicious" (not to mention "not so full of sodium it's liable to make your arteries implode"). Breakfast was the usual, which (as I mentioned) doesn't bother me, but I put off preparing lunch last night and didn't have time this morning: I grabbed some carrots & hummus and (here's the gross part, coming up) a Cup Noodles. That's right: ramen. And right after Trent said he was pleased not to hear about ramen, too!
Anyway, I got lucky: there's an office party for a departing colleague this afternoon, and the carrots and hummus will tide me over until I can munch on some free cheese, crackers, and fruit. The ramen will remain on my shelf, a salty reminder to make time to pack my damn lunch.
Retirement Milestone!
My 401(k) contribution for this month just hit my Fidelity account, which brings my retirement investments solidly over $10,000. For some reason, that feels like a big deal.
If I just left this $10,500 in my retirement accounts for 48 years without touching it or adding to it ('til I'm 71) and earned an ROI of 9%, I'd have $672,000! Granted, inflation would have eaten away a substantial portion of that money's buying power, but nevertheless--that's not chump change.
Not that I'd consider halting my investment, though--full speed ahead!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
A Week of Frugal Food
I felt really strained in my food budget this past couple of weeks. Yesterday, my boyfriend and I went grocery shopping, and I had to put the balance on my credit card not just for the rewards but because all the money in my checking account is earmarked for other things--payday is tomorrow (don't worry, my credit card bill gets paid off like clockwork; this will just come directly from tomorrow's paycheck's budget). In fact, I often feel strained in my food budget.
I think I'd like to see if I could lower the pressure on the food budget for the next couple of weeks by having a very frugal week. I'm going to try to bring breakfast and lunch to work every day between now and next Thursday. In doing this, I'm going to try really hard to pack interesting, varied meals (especially for lunch--I have a stock breakfast that I like; it's hearty, healthy, and delicious, and I don't mind eating it every day). This will probably mean I need to do a little more shopping, and will definitely mean I will need to devote some extra time and energy to planning and cooking. I'm hoping it'll be worth it for delicious, frugal lunches.
So here begins the experiment--I'll keep you updated.
For starters, here's the recipe for my favorite breakfast:
Raspberry-granola parfait
Start with a (reusable) plastic container with around a 1.5-cup capacity.
Cover the bottom with a layer of frozen raspberries (they can certainly be fresh, but frozen are cheaper and have the added benefit of keeping the yogurt cold for transport--I really hate warmed-over yogurt).
Add about 3/4-1 cup of plain yogurt. I like lowfat (not nonfat--it's too runny), and I particularly like Trader Joe's 2% Greek yogurt, but it is more expensive than their regular organic.
If you want, you can slice half a banana over the yogurt. I only do this when I have time, but it is extra-tasty.
Top the container off with granola (I use TJ's lowfat vanilla almond--it's tasty and full of fiber--but you can use the one you like best).
Snap the lid on tight, stick in your bag, go.
I buy TJ's frozen raspberries (not the organic kind) for $1.89, TJ's Greek or organic yogurt (both $2.79, but the organic makes 5-6 servings, while the Greek only makes 3), and TJ's granola for less than $3 (I forget the price even though I buy it constantly). Anyway, if you get the cheaper yogurt, this clocks in around $1.28 per serving (no bananas); with the Greek, it's still doable at $1.75. Cheaper than buying one for $4 at Pret a Manger? You bet.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Bookswap a Go!
My boss just asked me to swap for a book for a colleague's personal use in a course she's taking. That means my compunctions about swapping for the Oxford Companion are out the window, and I won't have to pay for it.
Score.
[By the way, I realize that I haven't explained this: "book swaps" are the methods used by publishing companies to obtain competitors' books. I email an editorial assistant at whatever company and tell them what I want, and they either request something in exchange or bank the favor for later. The point is, the book I get will cost me no money, but it will cost my employer money. Of course, so do the books that my employer offers as a perk.]
Living on Living Stipends?
Most of the graduate departments I've looked at guarantee financial aid to PhD students that includes a stipend for living expenses as well as full coverage of tuition and fees. That's great--it makes the PhD a relatively inexpensive degree (except, perhaps, for opportunity costs). Problem is, the living stipend figures I've seen are very small, generally in the $14K to $18K range. Before taxes. That doesn't look to me like enough to live on, let alone enough to save on.
Can any of my readers who are or have been grad students (especially in the humanities) tell me a little about income as a grad student? Does the living expenses stipend actually cover the cost of living? Does the department offer additional work, or do you look elsewhere for employment above and beyond your stipend?
I'm hoping to figure out how much I can expect to make per year. My expectations on that point will help shape the financial steps I take in 2008--yes, I know that's a long ways away, but, like the Scouts, I'm a big fan of being prepared.
Monday, May 28, 2007
June Goals
Following Krystal's lead, I thought I'd lay out some specific goals for June.
Finances:
1. Add $175 to my Freedom Fund balance. This is $75 over my autodrafts, and would bring the balance of the Freedom Fund ING account to over $2,200, which would set me up to hit $2,500 by the end of August.
2. Add $50 to my Travel Fund balance, to bring it to over $1,150. This is just my autodrafts, so it's a pretty low bar.
3. Cashflow purchase of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. I'd like to find this book, a resource for the Lit GRE, on one of the discount sites for a price that I can manage to cashflow from June's pay.
4. Buy sandals and Feist's new album. Planned spending is something I need to work on—I tend to nickel and dime myself out of things I want.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Freedom Fund Adjustments
I'm bumping the goal for the Freedom Fund up to $5,000, from $4,500. This is partly because I have a round-number fetish. It's also partly because I'm not totally confident that $1,500 per month quite covers expenses.
My current balance is $1,850 in the ING Freedom Fund account, with about $1,030 coming in when my despiséd Bank of America CD matures in August—by the end of this month, it should be $1,950. To be on track to save the extra $500, the balance in the ING account needs to be about $2,335 by the end of August (not counting the CD). I don't think that will be a problem: it means saving about $130 per month during June, July, and August. I've been saving more than that anyway—I've been making at least one extra $50 payment per month lately, and I don't anticipate a problem continuing to do that. If I did that every month through August—contributed $150 a month—I'd have a balance of $2,400, not including interest. Just to set the bar a little higher, I think the goal for the end of August is $2,500.
My hope here is that I can hit the $5,000 mark by the end of the year (again, this assumes that my beloved and generous aunt continues her tradition of $500 checks to her nieces and nephew at Christmas). Then I can let the Freedom Fund percolate while I focus on other savings goals.
Grad School Admissions Process Cost Projections
So, I'm getting pretty serious about applying to grad school this cycle, which means I need to get pretty serious about paying for applying to grad school.
A quick breakdown of some estimated costs follows.
-Princeton Review Literature subject test study guide: $20 (bought it two days ago, from my "unexpected expenses" line item)
-Kaplan prep course for GRE general: $1,149 (parentally subsidized or no go--if the latter, there will be general GRE prep materials at a cost of about $100)
-GRE general registration: $130
Other study materials for the subject test: some are free through work (because we publish them), but some I'll need to either buy (eBay, half.com) or swap for through work (it's an established procedure, but I'm a little dubious about the ethics involved in swapping company books for books I want personally, even though others seem to do it). I'm estimating $50.
-GRE subject test registration: $130
-GRE score reports: $17 per school (God, BITE me, ETS), with four reports included in the test fee. If I estimate I'm applying to 8 schools, and that I know what 4 of them are by the time I take my GREs, that'll come out to $64. There's also a $6 fee for getting your subject test scores early by phone, and I predict I won't be able to resist that. Bring it up to $70. Note, too, that I'm not sure whether or not I'll have to double that number to include the subject test reports or if they're included. My guess, informed by prior experience with ETS, would be the former, so bring it on up to $140.
-Application fees: around $50-$80 per school. Estimating high, I come up with an appalling number: $640.
-Transcript requests: my undergrad charges $3 per transcript. Again using the eight-schools estimate: $24.
-Postage. There are a lot of pre-stamped envelopes here. For example, each of my three recommenders will get stamped envelopes to send their recommendations to each of my 8 schools. That's about $10 right there. I'll spend money on sending things to schools, too, and then consider that there'll probably be a disaster or two requiring Fed-Ex. I'll say $40.
The grand total? A whopping $1,174. Not including the prep course.
Yuck.
Okay, so say we estimate I bring an extra $200 a month (after taxes) on my freelance job. If I do that every month between now and December, I should make enough to cover the whole grad school process without touching my savings. Nevertheless, I am not going to enjoy shelling out all that money I could have saved, and I kind of think ETS should be indicted for racketeering.
(Princeton Review has a page on the cost breakdowns of applications processes here if you're trying to predict costs on an application process that's not a PhD in English.)
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Stasis
So, the money thing is just kind of puttering along. I'm on track to meet my Freedom Fund savings goal for the end of August ($2,000) by the beginning of June, which is nice. I may or may not have an extra $25 or $50 to save at the end of this pay period, but it'll be fine either way. One thing I am noticing is that with summer's advent comes increasing difficulty with keeping myself within the bounds of my budget. There are a couple of things I need--like a pair of sandals--but mostly there are suddenly just more things I want than ever: cold drinks and summer-blockbuster movie tickets (I recommend Black Book, which is not being marketed as a summer blockbuster because it is subtitled, but is basically a big, thrilling war melodrama) and lots and lots of fresh berries and iced coffees and restaurant dinners at the tables set up on the sidewalks and all sorts of things. The problem with a lot of these things is that they are that most insidious of money drains, the Little Things That Add Up, so I am going to have to remain vigilant.
The real-life thing is in a bit of flux. If I'm applying to grad school this time around for real, I probably want to stick it out in my current job until then, just so as not to add the stress of a job change. Problem is, though, that while I work here I rely on my current income (plus the freelance gig) to get me through the grad school application process, which is an expensive one. I may have to ask my parents to help out with that a bit, much as I hate that prospect.
In a way, this is a nice place to be. I feel like I don't have to work too hard at money right now--I still have to put in the effort at not spending too much of it and saving enough of it, but mostly, it's sort of on autopilot: 401(k) contributions and savings autodrafts and accounting systems are all humming along nicely, which leaves me free energy to deal with the more important questions in my actual, as opposed to financial, life.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Ask An Expert!
I'm not an expert in personal finance; I'm just figuring it out for myself. But you know who is an expert? Each of the authors of a personal finance guide for "modern girls," who've agreed to answer questions over at Well-Heeled, one of my very favorite personal finance blogs.
If you have any questions you haven't been able to find answers to, here's where you can go to ask the experts!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
When It Rains, It Pours
...except, in a good way.
I got an email today from my alma mater's Director of Career Services, explaining that an alumnus who's a successful author is looking for a few people to work three days at the end of the month at a book event he's doing in New York. And he's offering $25/hour. Am I interested?
Of course I'm interested--problematically, though, I have this "job" thing. The woman who contacted me (I don't know why she picked me, but I'm not looking any gift horses in the mouth) provided the alumnus's email address, so I shot him a quick note explaining my interest and the restrictions on my time. Hopefully, he'll need someone in the evenings and on Saturday, and won't mind that I can't work days.
Even better, the alum is a career & grad school admissions coach, and would be a great contact. (I snuck a reference to my own grad school ambitions into the email I sent.)
With this extra cash (this potential inflow, and also the freelance job through work) I plan to cashflow my grad school application expenses (study guides, test fees, transcript fees, application fees, and postage six ways from Sunday). That way, I won't have to ask my parents for money and I won't have to dip into my savings.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
More Frugal Lunches
I recall people enjoying the last post I did with a couple of frugal recipes, so I thought I'd post the recipe I've been enjoying for lunches this week. I really like this lunch because of the intensity of its flavors: there's a certain luxury to big, bright flavors that's often difficult to achieve in low-cost recipes.
Mediterranean Couscous Salad
Couscous, you may have noticed, is really cheap. Especially if you buy it in bulk. Which I do. So, you start with about two cups of couscous, which you prepare in the normal way (that is, boil the same amount of water as you have couscous, pour couscous in, cover and remove from heat, fluff periodically). Say this costs a dollar.
Chop up a big red onion and a tomato or two. You can also add some cucumber. (This part cost me less than $2, but I skipped the cucumber this time.)
If you like these things, crumble in some feta cheese (I bought a block for less than $2) and some pitted olives (I like Kalamata, and am willing to lay out the ~$3-4 for them).
Also optional: tossing in some chunks of grilled chicken. (Say, $4 worth.)
You toss all of the extras into the couscous, dollop with olive oil & vinegar (wine vinegar is best), add salt and pepper to taste, and put it in the fridge. It's really, really easy, in addition to being cheap. And in addition to both of those things, it's also tasty.
So far, I've gotten two meals out of this, and expect to get two or three more. If the super-deluxe version (with cheese, olives, and chicken) costs $13 to prepare (the full batch), that's about $3 per meal. Keep in mind, too, that you basically don't need anything else to go with this (though an apple makes a nice side dish): it's a full meal in and of itself, which makes it really easy and convenient.
What I Wish I'd Known About Money When I Graduated
It's that time of year, and it means that I'm no longer the most recent class of college graduates (this eliminates some of the power of the "but I just got out of college!" excuse, alas).
So I'm thinking about the financial mistakes I made as I tried to set up my life, and the things that I learned from them. Here are some things I blew:
1. I put money in a CD.
It seemed like a really good idea to me to put $1,000 of my hard-earned campus-job money into a CD the summer after graduation, to ensure that I'd still have it a year later. And I do, so, points for that. However, I really botched the interest rate, because I bought the CD through my bank, and the interest rate on a CD at a brick-and-mortar bank is not only lower than you can get on a CD through an online bank, it's lower than the interest rate I earn on my liquid savings at ING. No good. Check out Bankrate for the latest rates.
2. I was reluctant to put my money in an online bank.
It took me a long time to be willing to dip my toes into the world of online banking, and that cost me a better interest rate on that aforementioned thousand bucks. It's not that scary, really, though, and the interest rate is great. We're the internet generation: go for it.
3. I set up my housing from far away and by proxy.
I was in touch with my boyfriend by phone as he and our current roommate hunted for an apartment--and it was profoundly logistically difficult. In addition to the money I spent having things notarized and FedExing them (both of which would have been unnecessary had I been proximate), I ended up overpaying my portion of the initial costs (broker's fee, first/last, deposit, &c.). Technically, this just means that the guys I live with owe me money, but actually, I never expect to see that thousand bucks again. This would never have happened if I'd been there to write the check myself, as opposed to having to ask my father to access an account on my behalf and send a check.
...and here are some things I did a good job of:
1. Taking it slow on the startup costs.
Though getting into my apartment blew a big chunk of money, I did a good job of minimizing the cost of starting my life as a grownup. I bought some work clothes & shoes, but kept it minimal. I took hand-me-down kitchenware and asked for housewares for Christmas and my birthday. I limited my initial furniture outlay to a bedframe (bought from Overstock.com, split with my boyfriend) and a couch (bought at Macy's home sale, split three ways). K and I have only just gotten around to putting up shelves, and we are just now planning on going shopping for a dresser (actually, that one I'd recommend you do right away). We use a dining-room table that K inherited from a previous roommate and mismatched chairs. And our friends still think our apartment is great. You don't have to leap into grown-up-dom with a living room set and color-coordinated everything and a credit card bill to match.
2. Making friends with my Roth IRA.
This is such a good account for young people, and I think everyone should have one. It's especially valuable for those new grads who start out in hourly jobs, or other jobs without benefits (including not-for-profit jobs where there's no employer match in the 403b). I'm really pleased that I prioritized contributing to my Roth, and I'd advise that everyone do so, even if it's only a few bucks a month (indeed, there are companies that will let you open the Roth with very low or no minimums).
3. Starting off on the right foot.
It's way, way, way easier to learn to live on a smaller amount of money than it is to start out living on your full salary and then trying to start saving. I saved from my very first paycheck, which helped mitigate the feelings of deprivation. (Subsequent increases in saving and giving have been far more noticeable.)
4. Being eager to learn.
The best thing, hands down, that I did for my finances after graduation was devote myself to learning how they work. That's why this blog exists. The prospect of opening a retirement account, say, is really, really daunting--even just the logistics of it. The how and where remain mysteries even after you grasp the why. Again: the internet is great for this stuff. I pretty much just read everything I could get my hands on, and now I know enough about the basics of financial planning that I pretty much feel comfortable making my financial choices.
I think that last one is really the most important--if you're trying to learn and figure things out, you probably won't make the worst decision even if you don't make the best. The easiest way to botch your finances is to ignore them, so a little effort goes a long way.
Good luck, class of '07!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
How Much is a Deal Worth?
Towards the end of my time in Berlin, I went to a concert with some friends, at the Passionskirche in Prenzlauer Berg. The band was the Kings of Convenience, a sweet Norwegian indie-pop duo. The opener was this woman whose voice sounded really familiar--a friend figured out that she does the dreamy, looping vocal on Broken Social Scene's (awesome) song, "Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl." Anyway, she was amazing--I bought her CD from her after the show, and it's been one of my favorite albums ever since.
Now this woman is pretty famous. She's Feist, and she's remained one of my favorite musicians. Her first major album, Let It Die, is totally brilliant. I skipped her next effort, Open Season, which is basically remixes of Let It Die singles, but now she's come out with a new original album. I've heard some of the songs already (search for her on YouTube, her videos are great, and "1 2 3 4" is from the new album), and I know I want to buy it.
The other day, it was staring me in the face at a Starbucks counter. It even had a sticker offering two free iTunes downloads with purchase. I was, quietly, appalled--there's a sort of possessive feeling to loving an artist whom nobody knows, and when that artist gets famous there's ambivalence--on the one hand, I think she's great! I want her to succeed! And on the other hand...well, Starbucks. It's such a symbol of mass consumption, and it seems to imply that she's appealing because she's bland rather than because she's awesome. On the other hand, is buying it at Virgin any less mass-consumption tinged? They don't call it "Megastore" for nothing, you know. (Maybe I'll trek down to my real favorite record store, Other Music, and buy it there, just to really make it count.) (Clearly, this doesn't matter all that much.)
Anyway, I didn't buy it. I know that I'm going to buy it, and in not buying it at Starbucks I'll forfeit the "two free downloads!" perk, which is a great one, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I can't be The Girl Who Buys Music At Starbucks (though apparently I don't have a problem with being The Girl Who Liked That Band Before That Band Was Cool).
I'm just totally fascinated by my overwhelming reluctance to go for the better deal here. Evidently, not buying my CDs at Starbucks seems to be worth $2 per album to me.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Weekend Spending
So, the good news is that I found this amazing bar in my neighborhood on Friday, with live salsa music and a patio and mojitos made with cane syrup and homegrown-tasting mint, and the other good news is that I sat there with my boyfriend and a friend from college who was briefly in town before leaving for Africa today and another friend from college who's just gotten home from a year of teaching in France and we toasted our bright academic prospects (we were all three of us English majors in the same graduating class who have our eyes on the Ph.D. prize) over shots of Cuervo and everything smelled wonderful and I could feel the summer coming, and the future too.
The bad news is that I spent $35 on drinks. Three mojitos and the aforementioned Cuervo shot came to $28, and then I picked up a drink for the friend-back-from-France (with K), and then tip...and then no money left. I had to turn down three social opportunities because I had basically zero discretionary dollars left after that. I skipped a friend's going-away party on Saturday partly because I was tired and partly because I was grumpy at the prospect of going out and not being able to drink, and I turned down a last-minute trip to Atlantic City for a friend's birthday on the same night because duh, no money, and I skipped tea with the back-from-France friend on Sunday because, um, still broke.
In general, I think I prefer to do more and drink less on each occasion, but nevertheless, I had a really lovely time on Friday, and it is nice to just go out and get tipsy with friends sometimes. I just really, really don't have the means to be out and about and spending money constantly. And sometimes that bugs, but it's a reality, and I'd rather face it and try to work around it than put $60 worth of entertainment costs on a credit card every weekend.
This American Life: Getting and Spending
I spent some time over the weekend perusing the archives of This American Life, and stumbled on an old episode that focuses on money: "Getting and Spending". It's a free listen, and I recommend you check it out. A trader gets rich off the Chernobyl disaster, a suburban dad turns to robbing local stores to pay his son's medical bills, and John Hodgman "goes rogue" in the Mall of America.
Best of all, though, is the segment about "that guy" syndrome—the ways in which our purchases or conscious non-purchases group us. Is this exclusively a contemporary phenomenon? Sometimes it really does seem to have overrun the way we define ourselves.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Slush Funds
I picked up the opportunity to make some extra cash today--I grabbed a freelance job through work, reading the slush pile at $12/hour. First of all, I would--and have, though not here--read the slush pile for free. I love the slush pile. I love the idea that there might be a diamond amongst the rubble. I love that it's trade projects in addition to college projects. Most of all, I love formulating opinions about things, and that is totally what this job is.
I also love the idea of bringing home, say, an extra $150 a month. Yay!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
What I Want to Be When I Grow Up
All this talk of job satisfaction around the blogosphere makes me think about what I want to be when I grow up.
Some days I really want to be a stay-at-home mom, with a gift box and a deep freezer and a crockpot. On these days I want to make lunches in brown bags and stock from scratch. I want to shop yard sales and drive carpools and swap recipes with the other moms.
Other days I want to be an MBA, sleek and besuited and bountifully compensated. I want to buy an apartment and a beautiful dining room table for that apartment. I want to invest like a busy investing bee and have millions of dollars. And then I want to quit and write a novel or something.
Yesterday I looked at jobs on Idealist.org. There's a position open at one of the organizations I tutor with, and I thought about applying for it. The organization is badly run at present, which is both a concern and a challenge. I thought about how the problems I solve at my current job mostly involve bureaucracy and overnight shipping and formatting things and how the problems in that job would involve far more interesting things, like making a volunteer program work well. I thought about being able to walk to work in the morning, and never having to take the rush-hour train. I thought, too, about the fact that I'd be able to negotiate a new starting salary, one which even from a non-profit would almost undoubtedly be higher than my current salary. I thought about my vague plans to go to grad school, and what that timeframe might be like, and how much of a chance it would give me to try the new job (for which I think I'm a strong candidate, actually).
I don't like my job that much. I just...don't. It's not challenging and it's not interesting. I have one project that I'm invested in, and that's it. But I've built so many plans on top of the platform of this job that it's difficult to seriously contemplate leaving before those plans are completed--before I've saved the amount of money I want to save this year, for example. And I hate, hate, hate the thought of using up the emergency fund I've worked so hard to build.
But the other name for my emergency fund is the Freedom Fund, and the whole idea is to let me do things that are good for me even if they cost money.
So I think I am on borrowed time at this job. Ideally, some new and fascinating job will pop up around September, when I'll reach the one-year-served mark and can respectably quit. But should I be worried about when I can respecably quit? Shouldn't I be more worried about the way I feel of a Thursday afternoon (to wit, drained, bored, and frustrated)?
The $300 Kitchen
For the recent or soon-to-be college grad in your life, this handy article from the Times lays out a plan for purchasing the necessities of a well-equipped kitchen for $300.
I contend that with a bit of savvy, patience and a willingness to forgo steel-handle knives, copper pots and other extravagant items, $200 can equip a basic kitchen that will be adequate for just about any task, and $300 can equip one quite well.
The key point? Restaurant supply stores. Every city has one, and if it's good enough for the pros, it's good enough for the beginning home cook.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
My Financial Foe: Planning, or the Lack Thereof
I don't know what I'm going to be doing on Friday evening.
When I was in college, I had a standing Friday-afternoon coffee date with one of my closest friends. We met in the parking lot at four, got into her car, and went to our favorite coffeehouse, where we got coffee drinks and snacks and/or dessert, had a nice, long, leisurely chat for a few hours (it's that kind of coffeehouse), and then each went home and crashed after the long week.
The closest thing I have to that now is a tentative Friday-evenings-are-best-for-me arrangement with a friend from college who's living in the city now. My friends and I don't usually plan in advance, and certainly never at a longer range than a week away. It's a cell phone-based, flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of thing, where a friend and I are having dinner (which we arranged by email that afternoon at work) and she'll call someone or I'll call someone and they'll say, "Oh, I'm at this bar with a couple of friends, come join us," and we go off to meet them.
The thing is, aside from the fact that I often wish I knew what I was doing just for curiosity's sake, not knowing what my plans are makes it really difficult to budget for these kinds of expenses. It makes it difficult to know how much money I'm going to spend on eating and drinking out, on cabs, and even on groceries (how many meals do I need to plan for?). There's a special kind of paralysis induced by lack of planning, and I encounter it often.
Yesterday, to combat this plan-vacuum, I sent out an email to some friends proposing a weekend plan. I got a really enthusiastic response, even from the people who can't come, and so now I have a plan for Saturday. I'll probably spend Friday afternoon with a friend who's in town for the weekend, and Sunday with a school friend who just came back from nearly a year in France (initially, the idea was to have High Tea at the Harlem Tea Room, but it will kind of depend on how far I can make my eating-out budget stretch). The follow-up emails sparked by this initial email has gone a long way toward helping me figure out what my weekends will look like until the end of the month.
So if you have the same problem that I tend to, from this experience I'd certainly say that I advise taking a little initiative. Try organizing an event (mine is just a potluck picnic with board games in Central Park), or even just sending out an email to all the people you'd like to spend time with that says, "Hey, I'd like to plan to spend some time with you--when is a good time for you?" It facilitates planning ahead, and that makes it easier to budget for your plans.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Financial Literacy
I don't know why it took me so long to find this, but Bankrate.com is running a year-long financial literacy-o-rama. It's great, a very accessible and thorough look at the basics of financial planning and money management. A very good primer, excellent for beginners--I think, when it's finished, this will be something young people can refer to as a way to get acquainted with lots of basic concepts of personal finance.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Haircut!
I spent very nearly $200 on my hair today, including tips and product, and I'm not sorry. My hair is adorable. I have a choppy layered bob and shiny, happy curls.
On the more frugal end, I think what I'll do is pick up a hair scissor and trim my scraggly split ends myself for a bit in order to extend the length of the cut, because while, as previously mentioned, I'm not sorry for spending $200 on my hair, I don't want to do it every day.
(I'll also be sending the excess in the "haircut" envelope to savings & starting fresh on that envelope.)
Friday, May 04, 2007
What's the Point of Points?
I checked my credit card statement the other day, and realized that I have quite a few rewards points--enough to get a $25 gift card to various stores and nearly enough for an assortment of small appliances. What I don't know, really, is how I handle these points. Part of me is just like, "eh, get another Starbucks gift card and get yourself a few iced lattes over the coming summer months." Another part of me is like, "No! Save up the 50,000 points for a round-trip ticket to Europe!" A third part of me is like, "Hey, if you save these points until, say, November, they could take care of a chunk of your Christmas shopping."
No decision has been reached. How do you handle your rewards points?
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Aaargh.
I really just shouldn't try to change the template. I deleted everything, because I'm dumb, and I have to reconstruct from scratch (if I miss your link, let me know). Please bear with me.
The Kids Are Alright
This article on the savings habits of young adults (25 and under) is, how shall we say? Ah yes: DUMB. It is dumb.
Why is it dumb? Let's examine!
1. The author is shocked--shocked!--he is clutching his pearls!--that only 4% of workers 25 and under max out their 401(k)s. Do you know why that is the case, Paul J. Lim of U.S. News and World Report? It is because for a majority of workers 25 and younger (hey look! MSN says that "the median income for families headed by people aged 20 to 29 was just under $28,000 in 2004"), maxing out a 401(k) would involve cutting their after-tax income in half or nearly in half. Paul J. Lim, if I maxed out my 401(k), I would be making $17,000/year before taxes. I pay $7,200/year in rent alone. That is why I am not maxing it out. Seriously, even at a 15% savings rate, you'd have to be making $100K to max out your 401(k). How many 25-and-under folks make that kind of money? Around 4%, you think? Less? As we Gen Y-ers are so fond of saying, DUH.
2. DUH, too, to the only-19%-of-young-workers-fund-an-IRA thing. Consider that most 401(k)-eligible folks who do not contribute to a 401(k) are not likely to contribute to an IRA. Then consider that of the percentage that do contribute to their 401(k)s, many will exhaust their capacity to save before exhausting the employer match, and nearly all will do so before exhausting the contribution limit. There's also a lot of really dodgy language in here, but it looks to me that we're only talking about full-time employees and their IRA savings tendencies, so is it actually that shocking that only 1 in 5 employees age 25 and under has sufficient capacity to save and is sufficiently on top of things to divide her retirement savings between her 401(k) and her IRA? No. It is not that surprising.
3. I particularly like the graphic of the tattooed, soul-patched hip-football-jersey-wearin' youngster that accompanies the article. He is scratching his head in confusion, people. Gosh darn it, U.S. News and World Report, young people never have reasons for our financial decisions! It's just that we're baffled by pieces of paper! In fact, we've almost never seen a real, live piece of paper. What's a "letter"? Is that like an email that you carve into a stone tablet and send by Pony Express?
4. Since we've established that young people tend to be in low tax brackets, how about considering that tax breaks are of substantially less value to us? Not no value, mind you, but less. (Hence the whole point of the Roth.) In the example about medical FSAs, I wouldn't at all be surprised if the margin of error incurred in young people's estimates of their medical expenses were equal to or greater than the tax break, and that money's nonrecoverable. There's also the question of how much hassle it's worth to save forty bucks a year in tax breaks, given young people's lower overall medical costs. I don't use my medical FSA for this reason.
5. Consider what that there are other financially responsible things young people can do with their money. We can save cash for an emergency fund or a down payment on a house. We can pay down student loan debt or consumer debt. These things are all contributors to a strong financial foundation.
Please don't misunderstand me. I would of course encourage all young people to save aggressively, and to do it in the best vehicles available--youth is a great financial opportunity. But do I blame my fellow Manhattan-living, little money-making coworkers for not contributing to their 401(k)s (let alone Roth IRAs and medical FSAs)? Am I surprised that they might find it difficult to do so? Not at all. It's hard. I think there are two main obstacles to utilizing these savings vehicles:
1. We don't have that much money to begin with. It's difficult to give up 10% of your paycheck just to see a 401(k) balance growing in what feels like a pitifully slow fashion. My 8% contribution with dollar-for-dollar match (up to $1,500) will bring me to around a quarter of the maximum contribution level.
2. There is a veil of impenetrability that surrounds savings vehicles. I continue to suspect that these things are made to seem difficult on purpose, when in reality they are not that difficult (email HR person, fill out form, dump contribution in target fund, done). Nevertheless, young people feel baffled by the whole prospect--I certainly did--and there is a serious dearth of accessible information.
I'm just saying, we are not financial morons because we're not all plugged into 401(k)s and Roths. These aren't particularly meaningful statistics, and alarmism about the financial habits of people who by and large have only been working for 2-3 years is patently unwarranted. We're young, we're poor, we're working on it. Chill out.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Silver Spoon
So this is the money topic really on my mind of late: inheritance.
My parents are going to their house in Umbria for about four months (my father is beginning to really enjoy his retirement), and as a precaution (they're anxious about spending all that time on another continent) have sent me and my sister a catalogue of what they call "the important papers"—all of the account statements and deeds and bonds and whatnot—as well as a list of valuable items in the apartment. It doesn't even have any numbers in it, and nevertheless, it's the most I've ever known about my parents' financial situation.
I've spent much of my life without any real knowledge about my parents' finances. I didn't really realize that my family had a lot of money compared to many families until I entered a public (test-in) school in 7th grade, and even then, it took awhile to get the necessary shot of perspective, partially because both of my parents are pretty anxious about money management (in separate and complementary ways). By the time I realized they were going to pay all of my college costs out of pocket, I had a pretty good handle on that, like, "okay, got some money." Nevertheless, I've had no idea if "some money" is like, "travel the world in retirement" or like "leave a sizeable estate," and from this catalogue of assets, I'm beginning to think it's the latter (though I couldn't say for sure).
I'm self-conscious talking about this, the growing sense that there's probably a substantial amount of money coming to me. It's just a weird idea. Not that I'm not grateful or glad, it's just...weird, kind of, possibly because thinking about it involves contending with the issue of my parents' mortality, which is actually pretty hard to think about in a real way (especially because my parents are older than most people with children my age). It's also weird because I've never really considered the possibility, and because there's this whole weirdness that surrounds inherited money, like I'll automatically turn into a dissolute trust-fund baby, all Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions, or like the kids at my sister's private school who'd never taken the subway because they'd always been driven to school in chauffeured cars.
And then there's the little devil that sits on my shoulder going, well, you don't need to save for a down payment if you're just going to inherit enough money to buy a house outright. That little bugger needs squashing, because yes, you could think that way, but it would mean working around a very uncertain timetable, and I like having more control over my life than that.
See, I'm spoiled, relatively speaking. I've been given all manner of luxuries, really, and sometimes I catch myself thinking that those luxuries are universally expected, and I have to give myself a quick slap on the wrist. But I'm not that spoiled. I have a work ethic, a serious one, and a driving sense of ambition, and a demanding conscience. Those are all things my parents have encouraged in me. I manage money sensibly. What reason is there to feel ashamed that at some point in my life, I may receive a substantial sum of money I didn't earn? There's no reason to think I'll blow it on a stable of glorious Marc Jacobs bags, because I'm just not that kind of girl. There's every reason to think that I'll use it intelligently for the benefit of my family and community, because I am that kind of girl.
And isn't this the goal of careful money management, of working hard and saving hard? Isn't the whole point to provide your descendants with more choices, more freedom, more opportunities? That's certainly how my parents have always thought of their money-management goals, and it looks like they may have achieved those goals.
So whence the weirdness?
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Eating In
As so often happens around Monday before payday, I am out of money for the week. Yesterday, I packed a couple of hard-boiled eggs for breakfast and yogurt and granola for lunch (I also keep dried apple slices in my desk drawer for snacking), but I wasn't sure what I was going to do about dinner--just wasn't that confident that I had enough food in the house to make it to payday without going grocery shopping (which, of course, wouldn't actually be that big a deal, in that there's money in my checking account). But lo and behold! When I looked in the fridge and the freezer and the cupboards, though...there were shrimp gyoza and artichoke tortellini and milk and granola and peanut butter and a bagel and chive-and-onion cream cheese and grapes and apples and mozzarella cheese and soup. That is to say...certainly enough to eat for two days. In fact, I don't doubt that I'll make it through the week on all that food (given, that is, that I'm being treated to lunch twice and dinner once).
I wonder how I forgot about it and how I can not forget about it in future, because I think the sense that "there's nothing there" is one of the things that causes me to not bother to pack lunch in the morning, or pick something up on my way home instead of cooking. Maybe more specific meal planning is called for, as opposed to the kind of shopping I do, which is based around "What would I like to have in the house?"
I tell you, the arts of domestic economy are criminally undervalued.
April Net Worth
I worked out my net worth update for April this morning (it's posted at NetWorthIQ). It saw quite a jump, which I didn't expect, given the money I spent on clothes (about $335). Granted, I did work pretty hard to get some extra money into the Freedom Fund, but I think the increase is really attributable to growth in my retirement accounts.
I'm still not really sure if this is a metric that works for me--there are so many contingencies and variables. Overall, the trajectory does seem to be right, but when I add it up, I just end up poking lots of holes in the result. It's still useful for a rough comparison, I suppose.
