In my continuing quest for delicious, healthy, and cheap meals, I've been eating a lot more beans. Last night, I diced a couple of small onions, caramelized them in olive oil, added cumin, chili powder, and some minced garlic, and then dumped in a can of black beans (can juices and everything). I split the recipe between two small tupperwares, and K and I took it to work for an afternoon snack.
I got the recipe from Orangette, who also provided this awesome-looking doctored chickpea recipe, which I'm planning on making for lunch on Sunday. I appreciate how quick these recipes are--they're really "assembly" more than "cooking"--and how simple and healthy the results are. So in the interest of expanding my bean repertoire even further, I thought I'd ask my readers for further tips: what do you do with a can of beans?
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Beans! Beans!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Jiminy Crickets, Chase!
What made you raise my credit limit from $1,500 to $6,500? You more than tripled my line of credit overnight. Are you thinking this will make me pay you finance charges? I guarantee that it will not. I am not that kind of girl, Chase, so you can keep your extra five grand to yourself. And don't sit so close. I don't trust your intentions with me.
Your friend (but don't think I owe you anything!),
English Major
Family Money
Madame X's post about her family and social circle's levels of wealth made me want to elaborate on my earlier post about my aunt.
Let me start by saying that I do not understand how money works in my extended family. Each little family pocket seems to differ from all the others except for the fact that they share a general sense of confusion, of not really knowing what the deal is with their money, how it shapes their lives and their interactions with each other. Some of this stems from the difference between financial status and class. Some of it stems from family dynamics. I'm not sure where the rest of it comes from.
It's such a weird, knotty little problem. I was chatting with my mother recently, and she was mentioning how strange money is for her and her siblings--how differently they've ended up feeling about the money they have or don't have. Because of when they were born, who they married, what careers they pursued, they've ended up in very different socioeconomic places. Similarly, my dad's life is really different than his brothers' lives were, partially because he was born much later, by which time his family had a little more financial comfort.
It's been passed down to subsequent generations. My sister, my (mother's-side) cousins and I all started out at the same private school, but we've ended up in very different places, too--my sister and I know that our nuclear family "has more money" than our cousins', but they always seem to have more money to spend than we do, on cigarettes and drinks and taxis and spring break trips. (But we went to private colleges; they went to state schools.) My (father's-side) cousins, too, have diverged, from our family and from each other, and sometimes, like at my cousin's son's bar mitzvah, that divergence is starkly foregrounded. My mother says one cousin resents that her sister bought her a house. My mother says her brother's children feel that they were brought up with a false sense of how much money their family had, and it was a shock to find out it was less than they thought. My father says that since he's retired, the big shots from his old industry don't return his calls anymore. My father says his brother's children stopped talking to his other brother's children because of a sweatsuit and a will.
A couple of weeks ago, I was served legal papers pertaining to a lawsuit over the assets of my grandfather's estate. I have read them and failed to understand them in a really profound way, but I know that ultimately they signify that my mother and her brother and her sister feel that they have been cheated by the people whose job it was to look out for their interest in their father's artistic reputation. Perhaps because much of my family is involved in the arts, there is more aesthetics in our wrangling than there is in other families'; perhaps not.
I think sometimes that the reason we pretend that money is no issue in the face of family is because if we start thinking about how big an issue money is, it clouds everything over and makes us feel very much alone.
It works similarly with friends: most of my friends are in relatively similar situations to mine at present. We're mostly scrabbling for cheap apartments, for health insurance, for the money we need to start our adult lives. A few live substantially above that level: I ran into a friend on the subway recently--I had Trader Joe's bags and my hair in a sloppy ponytail; he was wearing a Paul Smith suit. And of course, some people's limited means are mitigated by their family's assistance (as mine are, to some extent). But aside from the few bankers and the many grad students of my acquaintance, my friends and I are living at about the same level--we haven't begun to differentiate ourselves yet, really. Yet. Yet.
My field of academic interest is reasonably closely related to this--I'm interested in canon formation, in aesthetic taste, in reading practices--in how class and money and economic history have shaped the more ethereal realms of our lives. Including how we relate to our families; including who our friends are. I may very well be thinking about these problems for the rest of my life, and I still don't know if I'll ever be satisfied with my conclusions.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Discretionary Spending Budget for This Week: $0
I went to see Sweeney Todd tonight with K and a friend. Afterwards, we strolled over to Veniero's for coffee and desserts. It was a nice night, and cost me $24. I don't have any more discretionary money to spend until next Saturday, when I will spend $20 or less on brunch with a friend who's coming on an impromptu visit from the West Coast. I have plenty of money for food, and money for my laundry, and money for my Netflix autodraft, but no money at all for anything else. I mean, I have money—it's not like my checking account balance is $48 or anything—but I don't have money to spend.
This is essentially fine. I have enough for the necessities, and I can certainly socialize—just, at home. I have a bottle of wine and lots of tea and some beer and some frozen gingersnap dough in my house; I could easily have a friend over for a nice afternoon of chatting and Scrabble. I should actually make a couple of dates to do just that over the next couple of weeks, so that I don't feel like my inability to spend money is isolating me. That's a very good plan, actually, and I can think of several people I don't see enough whom I could invite over for such an afternoon. Ah, planning, light of my life, fire of my loins, etc., etc. It may not quite trip off the tongue, but it does wonders for the sanity. And the budget.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Breathe, EM, Breathe
I'm in a state of high financial anxiety right now. There are a lot of expenses piling up, and a lot of balls in the air, and I feel like I'm about to let them all come crashing down in a heap. Here's the breakdown:
1) My taxes
Problem: I owe money, somewhere in the neighborhood of $175-$200
Solution: Don't file right now. This will give me some time to save up the money. I'll file in March or April.
2) My medical visits
Problem: I'll owe $300 at the end of the month for two medical visits my insurance may or may not cover. I was hoping that the check from a previous insurance claim would cover this, but when I called the insurance company today to check on its status, I got the old "We have no record of receiving that claim, Ma'am" business.
Solution: Unclear. I have two options: 1) dip into savings, or 2) ask my mom to cover the bill. She would, but I'm not sure I want to ask. Alternately, 3) I can work up a ton of hours on my office freelance project before I hand it over to someone else and hope that I can come out of that with $300. Then if the claim money comes in, I can use it to cover the tax bill. This is the best option, I think, especially since things are a little light at work this week, and I have some extra time.
3) My MetroCard reimbursements
Problem: I filed a claim for reimbursement a little late, and wasn't sure if it would get through in time. It didn't. At the end of this month, the grace period will start on those charges, and if they're not paid by the end of it, I'll pay finance charges. I've never paid finance charges. I don't want to start now.
Solution: Actually, I should be able to wait on this one. Because Chase applies payments to old charges first (even if in my head I'm paying for something specific), as long as I get the reimbursement check at the beginning of next month as I should, I'll just pay the two MetroCards off with that. I put in a call to the company about the claim status--just to make sure they received that claim--and was assured that it will be processed at the end of this month. They're a very reliable company, so, not too many worries there.
4) K's birthday
Problem: It's expensive to treat someone as well as I want to treat K for his 30th birthday. I'm not going into specifics, because baby, I know you read this.
Solution: Live very frugally for the next two or three weeks and splurge on the birthday weekend. Problematically, though, I have a dear friend flying into New York for an impromptu visit next weekend. I promised her brunch, but I think for the rest of the weekend we can do the old "walk around, go to cheap-or-free museums, have drinks at my apartment instead of at a bar" routine familiar to 24-year-olds the world over.
5) Valentine's day
Problem: We want to do something nice, but at the same time: K's birthday!
Solution: Cook a nice dinner in. My dad said he'd buy me the ingredients for my special ricotta cheesecake if I'd make him one, too. Which I'm happy to do. Then I think I'll do some kind of salad and shrimp scampi as an entree--delicious, and the ingredients aren't too expensive.
6) The GRE in Literature in English
Problem: With all the financial worrying I'm doing, I'm not in a good headspace for studying.
Solution: BREATHE. CHILL. STUDY.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Boo, Dropping Interest Rates!
I had just gotten my savings in my various ING accounts to be big enough that each month I got a $25 interest payment. Because, as previously mentioned, I have something of a craze for round numbers (in this case, that means numbers ending in 00, 25, 50, or 75), I transfer the interest from each subaccount into my "Freedom Fund" account. Then I round it off--usually, that's been by adding the last couple of dollars to make it to a multiple-of-25 number. But of late, I'd been rounding it off by transferring a few cents of interest out, and into my grad school account (the one account that escapes my round-number mania). That was great. No waiting, and no money needed.
But with the recent interest rate drops, I'm definitely going to be back to having top it off from my checking account. And it looks like I'll be staying there for another $600 or so.
Sigh.
Monday, February 04, 2008
New York Magazine Chews Over the Recession
I generally disdain New York magazine exactly because it's such a craven sop to the hedge-fund trust-fund New York, but, perhaps because as an institution it is so obsessed with money, it treats money and class quite thoughtfully when it sets out to treat them explicitly instead of just laying out pages and pages of $400 v-neck sweaters.
This article is a particularly nice one, about the economic boom's effect on the character of the city. The thought is that perhaps the recession might bring back a bit of the New York we used to know.
This article comes at essentially the same subject in a more macro fashion--an economic & political analysis of what has happened in New York as the lid has blown off the top of the stock market, and then again what may happen as it corrects.
Both are worth reading (certainly for New Yorkers).
We're On the Move
So, it looks like K and I will be moving come June. We love our neighborhood (and indeed, our apartment), and the rent increase on our lease renewal packet was quite reasonable, but I think we're both in favor of finding a one-bedroom and bidding our roommate farewell.
I, naturally, look at this as an opportunity to lower our rent. We figure the very top of our range is $1,500/month ($750 each, a rent increase of about $130 over what we'd pay in our place next year), but after some time spent browsing Craigslist, I think we can find something for $1250 or below. We're going to start looking in our current neighborhood (East Harlem) and then expand our search to Central Harlem, Washington Heights/Inwood, Prospect Heights, Bushwick, and Bed/Stuy. We're looking for a one-bedroom with a good kitchen. Current dealbreakers include carpeting, walk-ups above four floors, the J/M/Z and G trains, and broker's fees. On the wishlist: hardwood floors, light, closeness to trains, a dishwasher, and renting directly from the owner.
Cheaper is better, not just because duh, but also because in the event that I move out to go to grad school far away, it would be great for K if he could keep the apartment (assuming he's making a little more money then than he is now).
We found our current apartment through a broker and while I was still on the West Coast, and many organizational and financial mistakes were made. Parceling out the security deposit and whatnot is going to be a bitch, but I'm fully prepared to pay a little "stupid tax" and move on with things. Because I was on the West Coast when K and our roommate found this apartment, I've never apartment-hunted in New York, and it's both an exciting challenge and a terrifying obstacle. We do have the benefit of some time, a free place to crash if the whole thing blows up in our faces (that would be my parents' place), and a high level of familiarity with the city, transportation, and neighborhoods we're interested in. So it's English Major And Her Boyfriend Versus the New York Rental Market. Let's see who comes out with fewer bruises.
Frugal Food: The Virtues of Batch Cooking
So, I know that I've told you guys about batch cooking on more than one occasion. But seriously, seriously, batch cooking is awesome. Why? Here's why.
Over the course of two grocery trips (Trader Joe's and our neighborhood Associated), K and I spent just over $50 on groceries. Most, but not all of that went to our batch-cooking frenzy tonight (we also bought some seltzer, baking soda, flour and hand soap, for about $8, and two bags of turkey meatballs for about $5, which are already gone, because they are God's gift to lazy people). So let's say $40 worth of relevant groceries here. For that, we bought:
TJ's
Two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
A pound and a quarter of ground turkey
A bag of baby greens
A loaf of rye bread
A box of instant cranberry oatmeal
A bag of frozen spinach
Four granny smith apples
Organic ketchup (I'm somewhat phobic about high-fructose corn syrup)
Associated
A bunch of parsley
Two bags of super-cheap but annoyingly tiny yellow onions
Four heads of garlic
Breadcrumbs
A pack of 2% string cheeses (Trader Joe's has them cheaper, but...I like Polly-O. They string in that satisfactory way. So sue me.)
Two packages of cremini mushrooms
A bunch of carrots
A little cup of fat-free Greek yogurt
And we already had...
Whole wheat English muffins (I use them for sandwiches, K uses the rye--but notably, we certainly could get through the whole week on one loaf for the two of us)
Eggs
Slivered almonds (they're optional in the chickpea dish, really, but we had them)
Milk, the dregs of a quart
Two 28-oz. cans of chickpeas
One 28-oz. can of crushed tomatoes
Two extra boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Olive oil
Dijon mustard
Half a block of smoked jack cheese
We put in about three hours of cooking tonight, and the fruits of our labor are:
Eight deliciously tender grilled chicken thighs for chicken sandwiches
One big double batch of a variation on this amazing Catalan chickpea recipe (we added spinach), to serve as a side dish with lunches and dinners
Four miniature turkey meatloaves, in my wonderful miniature loaf pans (Christmas present from K's parents), waiting to be cooked and split between the two of us.
So essentially, we've made lunch and dinner for the whole work week. In three hours. Three fun hours, during which we listened to podcasts of "This American Life" and hung out and liked each other.
Breakfasts will be the oatmeal and perhaps a hard-cooked egg, and for snacks there are string cheeses, leftover carrots, more hardboiled eggs, and apples. Further effort required is basically just assembly and packaging (the turkey meatloaves have the extra complication of "stick in oven for awhile").
There are two of us. For $40 and 3 hours we fed ourselves for nearly a work week. And, just as importantly, we removed a lot of the obstacles between us and cheap, healthy, delicious meals—I think that's a big problem for a lot of people, and certainly for me, the whole "Yes, but Pret a Manger is right next to my office and I don't have to wake up early to get a sandwich there" thing, but the "oh, actually, I can make a really yummy sandwich myself in five minutes and it doesn't cost me a dime" response is a very, very effective one.
Plus, I'm pretty stressed lately, and I always find knowing what I'm going to eat for the week takes a big load off my mind. What I'm really saying is, give batch-cooking a shot! It saves money, time, and stress. What's not to like?
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Crazy in Love...with a $300 shoe.
So, I fell in love with a shoe today. A pair of $259 shoes, in fact. K and I went down to Fluevog this afternoon to get him new shoes. He had a Christmas gift certificate from his parents and a rather serious need for new shoes. And then I met these:
I loooove them. They work for the office, but they're not staid, they can be casual, and they're super-comfortable (yes, I tried them on), even for my weirdo feet (wide toes, incredibly high instep). I have a pair of Fluevogs, cute mary janes that I wear to the office and for walking around (bought the last pair in the store, deep discount), and they've lasted some four years, which is longer than my shoes ever last, because, as previously discussed, I have a tendency to buy $24 shoes from Payless and similar. And I know that with shoes you really do get what you pay for...and have I mentioned that I love them?
Obviously, I can't afford them. Obviously.
They did make me rethink my shoe strategy, though. Maybe the thing to do is save up and spend liberally on a small wardrobe of great shoes. Comfortable, well-made, beautiful shoes. Just a few pairs. Ditch the many one-use Payless purchases and the many wore-constantly-worn-through-immediately Payless purchases, and go for quality over quantity.
Plus, maybe if we really do get stimulus-plan checks...maybe then my shoe love and I can be together.
Friday, February 01, 2008
2008 Goals Update: January
Instead of doing monthly goals this year, I thought it might be nice to do monthly updates on my progress towards my yearly goals. That way, I keep the ultimate priorities in mind while still dividing the long distance into more manageable chunks, is the idea. Maybe I'll finally learn some patience.
Earn the full match in my 401(k)
I earned $209.23 in 401(k) match this month--that's more than 10% of the full $2,000 match. A good start.
Save $4,000 in the Freedom Fund, for an end balance of $10,000.
I saved $400 of income this month, plus adding $100 from the last of my medical reimbursements. The $500 puts me 12.5% of the way to the $4,000 goal, which is nice, because there's the very real possibility of making no progress at all next month (taxes, medical, K's 30th birthday--eek!).
Give $1,200 to good causes
I have the $100 for this month earmarked for giving, but haven't decided where to give it yet. No Donors Choose project has jumped out at me. I'm still looking.
Earn $1,500 of non-salary income, earmarked for graduate school application expenses
I'm 14.4% of the way there.
Buy a friend a drink at least once a month
Yep. I bought a friend some coffee and a cookie over which she very kindly listened to my troubles. And I've already offered to take a different friend out for coffee this month. I'm really enjoying this one.
Achieve a $35,000 net worth
I made virtually no progress towards this goal this month, but that's down to the stock market more than my spending.
Non-Salary Income Update: $215.35
Seven of my fabulous readers signed up with ING, earning themselves $25 bonuses and me $10 bonuses, so I'm adding that $70 to the running tally of non-salary income. It's lucky, too: this month I had to pay the $130 registration fee for the GRE in Literature in English and buy some study supplies (i.e. a disturbingly large number of 4x6" index cards).
I also signed up with AdSense this month, and though I made some money, I haven't reached the $100 threshold necessary to get a check from Google. I'll add that income as I actually get it, not as it accrues in the hypothetical, because if I removed AdSense tomorrow, I'd never see a penny from Google, I don't think. I may also check out LinkWorth this month, on Tired But Happy's recommendation.
This puts me 14.4% of the way to earning $1,500 in non-salary income by the end of the year.
January Net Worth
I barely squeaked a flat net worth out of January. My retirement accounts lost 2.75% of their value even after this month's contributions, and I've lost all of 2007's gains on my investments, but particularly big 401(k) contributions (as I tinkered with my contribution levels) plus a few ING referral bonuses kept me in the black for the month. My net worth grew by a whopping $4, or 0.02%.
You can see the breakdown at NetWorthIQ.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Boo, Taxes!
I am totally going to owe the IRS money. I got my W-2 today and immediately entered it and my ING 1099 into the same free e-file site I used last year. Looks like I'm going to owe the federal government $116 and NY State $28. And I haven't even entered my Bank of America 1099 yet! It's not a lot, but I'd still rather owe nothing, for obvious reasons. Thankfully, I wasn't counting on a refund, and kind of had a hunch this might happen, and if I have to raid my savings to pay my taxes, that's what I have to do. I should probably consider adjusting my witholding for this year, since I'm going to (hopefully) have the $1500 of extra income above and beyond my W-2.
I'm almost wondering if it's worth trying to itemize in order to make it come out even. Medical, state & local taxes, and charitable donations almost might squeak past the standard deduction...but is it really work $200 to try to add up all that stuff?
Monday, January 28, 2008
It's Going to Get Better
...does anyone else have to tell themselves that, sometimes?
Today I left my house, squinted against the winter sun, checked out the sale posters on my grocery store on my way to the subway, and realized that I had forgotten the bag I'd packed. It had my lunch in it, and the manuscript I'm working on, and the box of Trader Joe's instant cranberry oatmeal (a new staple of mine, and oh, so delicious and healthy and easy), so I needed it. I went back. I got the bag. I left again, squinted again, checked the sale posters again.
And I was suddenly overcome by a sort of exhaustion. It's tiring to have to try so hard all the time, to scrimp and pinch and worry. I know that I'm doing it so that I won't have to scrimp and pinch and worry so much later. I know that I'm laying a foundation. I know that at the end of this year, when I have $10,000 in the bank, I can lighten up a little bit, have an extra drink when I'm out to dinner, buy the new lunchbox I want, go to the movies. And in the meantime, I comparison-shop, use old tupperware, wear the same four dresses over and over again to work. I think it's evident how hard I'm squeezing my paycheck; a $50 Starbucks card turned up in my mailbox last week, signed "Your Secret Admirer" in my mom's handwriting. (Aww, mom. Thanks.)
But it's exhausting. I bumped my 401(k) contribution up a point, from 7% to 8%--with the new match, I can get about 12% of my salary in there this year, and I want to make sure I get the full match. But the switch to the Roth 401(k) and the increased contribution have eaten up my raise entirely--my last paycheck, I actually took home $5 less than usual. Where was the money I was going to use to join a gym? Not a penny of it to be found.
And I've got a couple upcoming financial commitments--things I very much want and/or need to do, but which cost money, and not spare change, either--to take care of, and no clear sense of how I'm going to take care of them, short of pulling money out of savings, which means more scrimping and pinching, cutting even closer to the bone. The prospect is a glum one.
But it is going to get better, easier. Once I've got that $10,000 saved, I can let up a bit. I'll bump up my 401(k) contributions and stop trying to squeeze an extra $25 in savings out of every paycheck--instead, I'll open an ING sub-account for short-term savings, for when I want a lunchbox or a dress or a plane ticket, and automate a modest contribution to that out of every paycheck. I'll begin to think idly about the idea of saving for a down payment, sure, but that's a ways off. I always want to be living below my means, but right now I'm living pretty far below my means, and ultimately, I'd like to decrease that distance a little, give myself a little more slack.
And I'm working hard now so that I can do that. That's what I tell myself. It's going to get better.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Stimulating!
So, you've probably heard about the economic stimulus bill that's going to be the cause of some tax rebate checks in the mail for those of us under a certain income cap. (I am under almost any income cap.) I can't say I'm thrilled with the idea of flinging money we don't have at everyone in the hopes that everyone will fling it back at the retail sector, but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn down a $300-$600 check. No sir.
Initially I'd thought it would just go right into my savings account, but actually I'm thinking I should stash it for medical expenses. Then I won't have to scramble around like I'm currently doing, for a little while, at least.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
On the Silver Spoon Itself
My aunt—the beloved-and-generous one who hands out $500 checks to her nieces and nephew at Christmas—is rich. Like, rich rich. Like, lives off her investment income rich. She's my mom and my uncle's half-sister; the money comes in large part from her mother, but I also think that she got more money from my grandfather than her siblings did, through coincidences of chronology and alimony.
She lives in the Bay Area—she bought a sweet, rambly little house that she's never really furnished (it still has one of those dishwashers where you hook up the hose to the sink)—and she drives a twenty-year-old car with a broken gas gauge, and she never ever buys clothing, but she does buy cross-country plane tickets whenever the fancy strikes her, and she eats at great restaurants on a daily basis. She's on the board of an organization of young people with inherited wealth doing progressive philanthropy, and she's thinking about going to school to do a degree in social work. So she's nobody's pampered child of privilege with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement who doesn't understand that not everyone has the privileges she's had. That said, she's still been profoundly shaped by her experience with money (that is, having lots and lots of it).
She's only about ten years older than I am, and when I was little, I thought she had the best life I could imagine (when we visited my grandfather, she would be there riding her pony). When last I saw her, she referred to herself as "a damaged rich kid raised by damaged rich kids," and that's kind of true. She has trouble with people. She's very, very into holistic medicine and alternative nutrition, and is prone to being diagnosed with new and obscure conditions. She's not, you know, shoving the entirety of Colombia up her nose or anything in the manner of certain daughters of privilege one could name, but she's not the world's happiest, best-adjusted human.
I really do think that inherited wealth, in and of itself, can alter people in a negative way. It can obviate the responsibility to confront the disparity between your world and others' world--not just in terms of privilege, but in reference to very pragmatic things, like: "Is it a good idea to eat rotten raw meat?" (The World: No! My Aunt's Alternative Nutritionist: Yes!) It can also, of course, make other people unreliable, prone to flattery and dishonesty. It breeds instability, somehow, a disconnect between the internal and external worlds. This can lead to general quality of suckitude, where the disconnect is not recognized at all and enormous oblivion and entitlement flourishes (think Paris Hilton), or something more along the lines of my aunt's state, where the disconnect is recognized but not overcome, and the result is a person kind and well-meaning but weird. Then again, had my aunt had less crazy and/or awful parents, she might have turned out just fine--certainly, rich kids are not necessarily doomed to suck. I grew up with some pretty nice and normal ones. But I do think that lots and lots of money, because of its ability to remove one from the tumbling effect of the world, which polishes people like gemstones, sanding down our sharp edges with much friction, can isolate people. It's a danger that heirs need help to avoid, and my aunt certainly did not get the help that she needed in that department.
My family is rooting for my aunt; her siblings and my sister and my cousins and I all care a lot about her, and not just because of the checks she distributes and the dinners she takes us out for. But she's got an uphill battle--for her, I think, the money really has been more of a curse than a blessing.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Waiting for the Other Shoe...
I woke up to the news of the Fed's three-quarter-point rate cut. NPR informed me that this is the biggest single rate cut since 1984. Now I'm just waiting for the ING interest rate to follow it down the number line. So far, it hasn't happened, but I'm not willing to bet that it won't.
And I'm definitely not going to check my retirement accounts this week.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
ING Savings Sweepstakes
This is sort of hidden in the ING website, so I thought you might not know about it: ING is running a $60,000 Automatic Saver sweepstakes. They're giving away 5 $1,000 prizes every month, and one $30,000 grand prize at the end of the contest's run, in June. Every month in which you have at least $100 autodrafted into an ING account, you're automatically entered to win. As long as the autodrafts total $100 or more per month, you get an entry for that month's prize.
To set up autodrafts at ING, go to the "transfer money" tab and select an "automatic savings plan." More information about the sweepstakes can also be found by clicking "transfer money" (it seems to be the only place the information is available, weirdly enough)--so I think you'll need an ING account to check out the details.
This might be a good motivator to bump up your autodrafts, if they're below $100/month!
