February 20, 2009
Stacking Pennies talked about avoiding money hacks, except for two, the other day, and J.D. shared the monthly checkbook sweep.
I wouldn’t call myself a money hacker since I enjoy playing with money and methods to maximize savings with minimal effort. There’s no need to thwart myself, unless we’re talking about cash which just up and disappears, I just need to develop more efficient systems. Then again, a very efficient system kind of takes the fun out of the money bit, so if there’s thwartion afoot, it’s much like how I create messes because it’s fun to clean. [Uh, yeah, I know that’s weird.]
In that vein, I do a few things that allows me to create good surprises instead of obsessively tracking every penny.
1. Ignore the windfalls: they all go into savings. Tax refunds, money saved for specific goals that goes unused, extra paychecks, reimbursements, overtime. All go into savings.
2. Allocate money to be spent: After calculating monthly expenses down to the dollar, that total is all the money I get to keep from paychecks. Everything else goes into some kind of savings. This is akin to the monthly checkbook sweep, except the sweep happens immediately. A little remains as a cushion against uncashed checks – finally learned my lesson with this one – or is outgoing for bills.
3. Divert some e-fund savings into specific accounts: this way neither my e-fund nor my expense fund gets gypped when a regular, non-monthly expense crops up.
This works for me right now, but I’m looking forward to landing a job with regular salary and streamlining the system further.
February 2, 2009
to announce: THE TRUCK IS SOLD.
I’m actually sad that I didn’t say goodbye to it myself. But I was determined to a) relax this weekend before I imploded, and b) let my dad handle all the necessary dealings. Not ’cause I’m a wuss, or because I’d be pissed that I didn’t get a better deal and it’s easier to blame it on him. I just didn’t need one more thing on my plate.
So the payoff amount was reimbursed, as were about 8 months’ of payments that I hadn’t signed up for. No, I didn’t break even, but whatever, I’m not even thinking about that anymore – it’s a done deal. The truck is gone. The payment is gone. No more registration fees, no more maintenance. The insurance can be reduced.
“O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
January 13, 2009
The Boston Globe reports that many people, possibly millions, have been seeing unidentified 25-cent charges on their credit card statements.
The charge shows up on statements as coming from “Adele Services” in Melville, N.Y. There is no business by that name listed in Melville, or registered to any business anywhere in New York, for that matter.
Two theories of what is going on have advanced on message boards and among consumer advocates: Someone is trying to find out whether an illegally obtained credit card number will work before making a bigger charge, or they’re trying to rip off tiny amounts from tons of people.
The latter theory has more credibility at the moment. The Better Business Bureau in Louisville reports that, at least so far, those who have been hit with the small charge have yet to get slammed with a bigger charge. The bureau speculates that the number of possible victims could be in the millions.
The article cautions consumers not to just let the charge slide “because that’s what the thieves want.”
Now why on earth would someone allow a false charge to pass on their account? You don’t know if it’s just a tester charge and a prelude to a major shopping spree on your credit card! Feh, I don’t care if it’s a dime they’re charging on my credit card. If I didn’t authorize it, I’m not paying that and the credit card company would be put on notice immediately. No messin’ around with my money!
January 6, 2009
Does the idea of your salary or net worth being public knowledge make your skin crawl? And I don’t mean within the relatively sheltered PF blogging community where many of us blog anonymously, I mean in your everyday life. Would you share the details of your financial life, to any degree, with friends and family willingly?
I always thought that salary transparency in the workplace made sense for the employees. After all, as the question is commonly asked, what does the company/employee have to lose? The opportunity to be paid a fair wage? The arguments for sharing salary information are cogent, as blogger Penelope Trunk points out that “the only party protected by secrecy is HR ― no one can see how arbitrary salary decisions are. Who wins the highest dollars? Good negotiators, personable people and people who bring in intangible benefits, she says.”
Then again, those not in favor of transparency argue that comparing salaries by job title doesn’t take into account many other factors, like abilities, performance, and motivation. Or negotiation skills.
I’ve recently used both PayScale and Glassdoor to suss out the salary range for my current job as well as my boss’s job to get an idea of what kind of salary requests and expectations are reasonable in my field, yet find myself strangely uncomfortable with the notion of telling a personal friend how much I make.
I feel like I goofed big time this holiday when my best friend in the whole world, with whom I can discuss almost everything, asked me in front of another longtime friend how much I made. (The longtime friend and I aren’t terribly close.)
My big mouth slipped and revealed my base salary, even though she thinks what I consider a modest salary range to be “a lot of money,” right in front of the other friend. Their body language both said “whoa!” Immediately, my reaction was, “aw crap, I should not have gone there!” It’s silly – my discomfort stemmed from not wanting them to think I was rich. I’m not! And I did point out that if I were to make a little more than that, it still wouldn’t be much because moving out would create two households to be supported. But even if they were aware that I make ok money, what does it matter? If they’re going to be part of my network, doesn’t it make sense for them to have an accurate sense of what I’d expect to be paid? Yeah, that doesn’t matter, I still feel weird about it. Even my family doesn’t know how much I make! (There’s a good reason for that: my …special…. brother would definitely assume that I was rolling in easy money and try to take even more advantage of me than he already has.)
How would you feel if your friends knew how much you made? Would you feel comfortable discussing that?
Related reading:
The case for sharing your salary details: MSN Money UK
What Am I Worth?: TheGlassHammer.com
December 5, 2008
Surprise surprise, I scored a nine on this quiz found at Boston Gal‘s: Some personality types may view economic uncertainty as ‘an opportunity’.
That makes me a little t, and the opposite of a Thrill Seeker. What was really a surprise was that I was nearer to the cutoff than I expected: 9 on a scale of 0-10 for the little t end of the scoring system, while the Big T was 11-20.
Careful planning and conservative habits can’t be too poor a substitute for my lack of thrill-seeking flexibility in this economy. Sure hope not, anyway.
Where do you score?
September 26, 2008
If I were big money and already had up to my FDIC limit in Chase banks, I would be a little concerned because I’d have to find another home for my ex-Wamu money. But the grace period for separate deposit coverage for each bank lasts six months, so that’s not too shabby.
The good news is that the deliberate takeover means that JP Morgan has assumed the responsibilities for Wamu’s deposits so we won’t be taxing the limited resources of the FDIC reserve fund. I think it’s sad that everyone keeps referring to the fact that no one has lost their insured deposits since the FDIC was formed, and ignoring the fact that the fund isn’t a bottomless pool.
In the meantime, as a new Chase bank account holder, I can expect the following:
http://www.chase.com/welcomewamu/
What’s different?
* Your deposits at WaMu are now backed by the financial strength of Chase in addition to continuing to be insured by the FDIC.
* If you bank at both WaMu and Chase, your deposits continue to be insured separately today just as they were yesterday, and generally will be for another six months. At that time, your deposits will be insured by the FDIC for up to $100,000 per depositor (with an additional $250,000 for self-directed retirement accounts), and will continue to be backed by the strength and security of JPMorgan Chase.
* Learn more about the size and strength of our company.
What stays the same?
Continue to bank just as you usually do:
* same account numbers,
* same Washington Mutual name on your account,
* same checks, debit cards, credit cards, deposit slips,
* same online banking website and passwords,
* same branches & ATMs,
* same familiar bankers, and
* same great service!
What will change?
Soon
* You’ll be able to use over 9,300 Chase ATMs fee-free – jointly, that’s 14,000 ATMs for your banking convenience!
In the future
* You’ll begin to see the Chase name on your statements, online, and on your credit cards as they reissue.
* Your branch will be re-named Chase and you’ll be re-issued new debit cards with the Chase name. Until then, bank as you do today.
* As our systems merge, you’ll be able to use any of the Chase branches nationwide. This won’t take place this year, and we’ll let you know well in advance of any changes.
I get to keep my checks! And my money.
July 17, 2008
Geez. I had it all worked out: the amounts I had to pull from the expense account, and from the other maintenance (short term savings for car, insurance, and travel) for the enormo credit card bill that was due on Tuesday. And I made the payment when due.
But I forgot one thing. I forgot to transfer the entire collected amount from the expense account to the checking account. Now how do you forget something important like that???
Igh. I still can’t believe that with my obsessive little system, I had all the money, and I still forgot an essential step. Now I have to throw myself on the mercy of Citibank in hopes they won’t charge an overdraft fee since I’ve never made this stupid mistake with them before. Seriously, this is why I’m always paranoid: I make stupid stupid mistakes.
