February 10, 2009
MSN Money’s 6 financial milestones before 30 seem a little…. well …. blah. They really don’t light up the fire of my imagination, really.
1. Scale back the credit cards.
2. Own a home — or have a plan.
3. Have skills.
4. Give money away.
5. Know thyself.
6. Know smart people.
It’s not bad advice, it’s just kind of vague and run of the mill.
Then again, who am I to complain in this economy, right? Let’s see what we can do to personalize it a little, instead.
1. I don’t have credit card debt, and have canceled a number of cards that I don’t use. Where possible, the credit lines were transferred to the remaining cards to preserve the illusion of higher credit available. This inadvertently messed up my insurance premium refund, unfortunately, because they credited an account that no longer exists! We’ll see if I can get the insurance company to cut a check.
2. Um, I have a whole hundred dollars put away in lieu of a plan. So a plan might be a good idea. In fact, this will regain line item status on my next budget whenever I land a new job. More concretely, I would like to have my down payment (20% of course) and house maintenance saved, apart from my emergency fund. That’s a lot of cash!
3. Oh, I have skills. They’re good ones, too. But they could use some flair and I do have a plan for that. Girlfriend of mine has the Adobe Creative Suite with extra downloads and she offered one set to me when the new laptop was up and running. It is, now, so it’s time to take her up on that offer and start learning how to Photoshop and maybe even InDesign. And a friend’s friend is a web designer who might be willing to teach me some of his awesome designer skills; that would come in handy in any number of ways. Can you say (watch out, corporate speak!) value-add?
4. I’m guessing that giving money to the landlord, the electric company, the city, and gas companies don’t count, huh. Nor does feeding my family. I could and must do better here. In the past, the NYC medics were recipients of my generosity, as best as I could afford, as well as my extended family. My goal is to comfortably afford to give an average of $50/month. I know it’s not much, but it’s a start and y’know, family to feed and house. Another budgetary line item.
5. Ok, this one is a little tougher than it sounds. For me, anyway. It’s easier to know my goals, my challenges, and my shortcomings than myself as a whole person. It’s been years since I’ve asked myself what I wanted or dreamed, and I’ve only just begun to explore that area this year. Turns out that I’m a bit more complex than my finances: I am not my money, nor am I my family or my job. So what am I?? This could take a while ….
6. Yep, I know all of you smarties, and my high school friends are no mental slouches either. I like being surrounded by smart people, and sometimes even smart people who disagree with me. š This is great advice because I firmly believe that you rise and fall to the levels of the people around you; so you can only rise naturally if you’re learning from wise people in a learning environment. It’s a tough climb, and lonely to boot, otherwise.
Items 3-6 are all actions I can begin now and should continue well past my thirties. I’d love to be well on my way to achieving Item 2 in the next three years, and have a more developed career plan on the table by that time as well.
Let’s not limit this to your thirties: what’s on the horizon for you? What does your five or ten year plan include?
February 8, 2009
Mostly a small change weekend. On my part, anyway.
+ Received a $1.10 refund from the loan company. I guess I overpaid the payoff?
+ Treated myself to a 33 cent cup of Lime Chicken Maruchan ramen – So(dium) delicious!
+ Had some really good (and cheap) dim sum – Less than $14/person including tip.
+ Tank of gas, $18
+ Paid a $1 Fandango service fee for a free movie ticket at Regal. Exchanged for a free movie voucher because my parents smashed up their car right before the movie started and I had to leave and pick them up. They’re bruised and sore, but I think they’re alright. No other cars were involved, either, thankfully. Put them both to bed with Tylenol and dinner, and stayed home to watch 2 more episodes of Firefly and House. Free TV via Hulu is a blessing and a curse!
+ Finished two of three loads of laundry. Waiting 3+ weeks to really do laundry meant I could finally sort into lights and darks! Smaller loads than usual, but I’ve been worried about the agitator in the machine and its ability to handle the big loads lately.
Big bills, pending:
+ Trying to decide what to do about a rental car. Just a weekend rental for them since they can use my car during the week? Or a weekly rental with unlimited mileage?
+ $500 deductible, family car. Sadly, my auto maintenance fund is not quite there yet so I’ll have to steal from the expense fund again.
+ Rent
Back to hanging up laundry, and plotting which errands to run today. All week I’ve been fighting off the office creeping crud that everyone else harbored, and ran out of Day/Nyquil doing it. Without it, the cough and sore throat are developing. Must. Not. Succumb!
+ J. Money’s got His and Her money combined and things look really good. See? I guess marriage IS good for the pocketbook.
February 5, 2009
No? How about a gentleman? Still awkward? Yeah, I don’t like getting caught in that “Well, how old do you think I am?” trap. For the record: I cannot accurately visually judge age, race, weight, or even, embarrassingly once, gender. [That last was NOT entirely my fault; the guy’s friends admitted that it’d happened to him before.]
But, you may ask about my credit age! Er, you could if I hadn’t already proudly posted it up top, there. Clever Dude posted about his credit age recently and I popped in to try it out.
It’s an online quiz that asks several questions about your credit and spending history, try it out and let me know how old you are!
January 28, 2009
Things I wish I’d done in the last five years:
1. Started a CD ladder. Even if it were just a little thing with a few hundred per step, I wish I’d realized that I wouldn’t need everything in the e-fund immediately.
2. Contributed more to the Roth: it’s the only investment I have that’s doing well in this market.
3. Applied for a job in San Diego in the comic book industry two years ago. I was afraid to take the leap and it would been really cool to have a foot in that door.
Conversely, I’m glad that I did not:
1. Go straight into grad school out of college. Not only would I be in debt, I wouldn’t have known what my professional strengths and likes/dislikes were.
2. Continue to bail out my brother. Telling my brother that his free ride was OVER might have been painful for me to say, unbelievable for him to hear, and shocking for fellow bloggers to read, but it was past time that he started to grow up. Of course, my decision alone didn’t matter until he’d hit rock bottom, but it was the right thing to do at the right time.
3. Let go of my responsibilities before I was ready, as some friends encouraged me to do. They just worried about me, but my OCD attachment to PF over the years has been a blessing in this blog, the friends I’ve made through the community and the knowledge I’m able to use and share.
While washing my hands this morning, I had two long term goals occur to me:
1. In the job after next, I would like to be earning a six figure income.
2. And I want to save half of that income. My portfolio/net worth would be SO awesome!! Muahahha…..
Anybody else reflecting on their dids and didn’ts lately? Care to share?
January 24, 2009
This was originally posted on January 18th, but I’ve updated for self-taggers.
Alright, I’ve got to stop rumor-mongering because making blog-buddy Bart of A Certain Je Nes Sai Quoi nervous means I get tagged. Because it’s my lazy Sunday and I’m really tired, I’m keeping them at Bart’s 4 instead of the original 8. I know you’re fine with that.
4 Things I’m Passionate About:
- Reading
- Learning
- Food
- Relationships
4 Words or Phrases I Use Often:
- Dude…
- Seriously?
- “He like blondes. Chubby ones.”
- Owww…I’m so out of shape!!
4 Things I Want to Do Before I Die
- Explore the world.
- Make sure my family’s been taken care of.
- Run a good animal rescue.
- Learn to speak Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, French, German and Portuguese fluently. (Or at least three of the above)
4 Things I Have Learned From the Past
- I’ve been known to speak in haste. It’s funnier when other people do it.
- It’s better to ask questions and learn than stay silent and hope for the best.
- I’m really a bad cook. Much better at baking and eating.
- Helping other people is always easier than doing the same task for myself.
4 Places I Want to See or Visit
- New Zealand & Australia (combo trip)
- Austria
- Italy
- Himalayas
4 Favorite Restaurants
- Thai Kitchen
- Mi Piace
- There’s a Shanghai dumpling place in SF … that I don’t know the name of.
- Gyro cart in NY š
4 Things that Happened Yesterday
- We tried Fish & Farm in the Tenderloin. Delish.
- Random napping.
- Woke up really early.
- Decided to try a Neutrogena skin product instead of Clean & Clear.
4 People I Tag
January 21, 2009
Psst, is anyone else up? No?
*sigh* I thought not.
It’s been awfully quiet around here because, uh, I’ve been doing all my blogging in my sleep. Between huge commitments at work – trying to complete two weeks’ worth of projects in 4 days, ‘hunting, revising paperwork, prepping wardrobe attire, catching up on the occasional news update (Hello, Mr. President!) and all, it’s no wonder I haven’t been coherent. It’s hard to see through your eyelids…
Little update:
Truck
Looks like we have a buyer! We’re holding a $300 deposit pending the receipt of the title. I was first told it’s a standard 10 biz-day processing before the title is sent, but I’ve been looking for ways around that. Initially, the only thing they suggested was to provide a FedEx account number so that at the end of the 10 days, Toyota could just overnight my title, but that only saves me a day or two, and costs money. Meh, not a fan. After making another call to the same call center, I got a nice lady who suggested that I fax her a copy of my bank statement showing the payoff amount debited from my account. With that information, she could begin the paperwork for the title immediately. She gave me a fax number and I’ve pulled that paperwork together.
Being the suspicious sort, though, I made one more call to see if there was anything else she needed to complete the paperwork. Also to verify that this one lady wasn’t trying to pull any funny business with getting my bank statement. š No, guess it’s standard -expediting- procedure.
So: Faxed. Done! That buyer better not back out! *glare*
The Hunt
Rescheduled the appointment again: first, had to change the flight itself for an earlier arrival. Then had to change the arrival time again. Bah. Is this disorganization on their part? Or just scheduling issues? Whatever the case, I’m on a mission to knock their socks off tomorrow, wish me luck! *singing* “On the road again ….”
Finances
Picked up another little overtime check, and finally received my holiday check as well. That’s e-fund and moving money.
Ok, I’m starting to get a little dotty. Better sign off and get on going!
January 14, 2009
Perhaps even more important than my $17 cash, not having to go to the DMV to replace the missing registration card and sticker for the truck is a huge coup!
Ms. Organization over here managed to lose the registration card to the vehicle we’d all love to see the back of somewhere in Cleaning Central. Ironic.
Thankfully, halfway through filling out the replacement form, I decided that it was worth yet another pass through the stuff on my desk, and actually found the dang thing stuck to the back of an envelope.
Finally, something I can cross off my list of things to do. Score!
