May 3, 2007
What a silly question. Yes, yes, yes, I want to! It’s not just that I’ve been itching to ditch work and home and all the attendant concerns. It’s trekking carefree across the plains (er, metaphorically, of course), eating my way through the gastronomical delights that are suppli, potato pizza, boundless pasta (carbs, carbs and more carbs), the orzo, the lamb, the calamari …. Yes, I want to go!
But that just awakens my ever-lurking conscience: When is it justifiable to spend money for pleasure, when (as evidenced by the yawning goal meters to the left) every penny is spoken for? Where is the line drawn between respecting the greater goals, and refusing to live life?
Everyday, we make these choices as we navigate our consumer-driven society. Every possible need and want that you can imagine, and a few that you couldn’t, are marketed based on the ad agency’s ability to convince you that you need their product. Not based on your needs and definitely not on your budget, remember, but based on what they can get you to spend. As consumer-captains of our personal finances, we have to make spending decisions based on our priorities, and our actual budgets.
I thought I had this figured out, but this isn’t a static decision. If it were, I wouldn’t need to reevaluate my budget every six to twelve months. I wouldn’t bother to adjust my goals, nor would I waver from the prescribed course: Eat your fruits and veggies, contribute 15% to your retirement plan, save 10% of your budget, etc., etc., etc. What I’m trying to say is that Life tends to get in the way of these things.
It’s pretty easy, at first, to cut out the fat. After all, I know how to tell the difference between a “need” and “want” at the most basic level (for America, anyway. Most bets are off once you leave the country). Food: Need. Roof over head: Need. Running water, electricity: Need. And so on.
Occasionally, one needs (or wants) clothing, a meal out with friends who are in town but once or twice a year. (See the results of No-Spend Month, April). Yes, the odd movie out, when the movie ticket is quite cheap, is permissible. And yes, much has been made of the Latte Factor; the small purchases do indeed add up very quickly. Especially on a small budget: $3 here and there doesn’t sound much until you realize that your spending allowance was only $25 to begin with!
But again, there’re the easy decisions like idle spending because you’re online and bored? Bad. Spending because you’re bored and near a mall? No! Vacation travel? Going somewhere fun that costs money to get there, to stay there and to eat there? Just for fun? That’s not a need. That is most assuredly a want. How quickly a pleasurable and educational activity that can be done on a budget gets demonized!
Inevitably, I’ll remember those MSN Money-type surveys that “analyze” your spending habits, and it always asks some variation of the “If your friend asked you to go on a trip of a lifetime but it’ll cost $2000 that you don’t have right now, what would you say?” Of course, I always answer “C: tell your friend you would love to go, but don’t have the money right now. Then start saving for the next trip of a lifetime.” I’m such a liar. I always pass on the trips, but never can find the gumption to divert funds from the more realistic needs like funds for car maintenance or insurance or other expenses.
See, here’s the thing: most times I think, “it’s not going to kill me to give up this movie or that outing.” But that’s not the point, is it? It’s not that it’s going to kill me. It’s that I’m not experiencing life, just the view from my bedroom window. Which is basically the lackluster little sister version of “it’ll kill you.”
By placing what I see as realities of life, such as emergencies that require readily available cash (within a few days or weeks) and the demands of the future like planning and funding my retirement, ahead of immediate gratification, protecting the tomorrows at the expense of the todays, am I defeating the purpose of all these efforts? Am I failing to live life?
Conversely, deciding the priorities of a thoroughly-lived life is all very well in theory, but when does that start becoming reality? And is now, at 24, far too soon to expect to really live life? Is this the hallmark “me me me, now now now” instant gratification expectation that seems to exemplify Generation Y?
April 23, 2007
Excerpts from a Sunday afternoon:
Friend 1: Are you wearing eyeliner?
Friend 2: No.
Friend 1: Are you wearing fake eyelashes?
Friend 2: Yes.
Friend 1: Are you wearing blush?
Friend 2: Yes.
Friend 1: You’re so rosy! Mine’s just eczema.
Friend 1: Uh, that’s not how you dance to Cheap Trick. I don’t know how you dance to them, but that’s not it.
Friend 1: Are you coming to the mall with me?
Friend 2: When will we be back?
Friend 3: Can we get back by 6?
Friend 1: Well, I’m just returning something …. I could be back by 4.
Friend 3: I never return stuff.
Friend 1&2: That’s why we shop from your closet.
Friend 3: Oh. Man.
Friend 1: Michael’s not a bad guy, he’s just REALLY into finance so sometimes he doesn’t have anything to talk about. We talk about clothes. He … made a joke about the Exponential Curve. Once in a while, we’ll throw something about interest out there and he gets all excited.
Me (wasn’t listening until “finances”): Ooh! Interest rates!! Uh, oh. Hi, I’m Michael.
April 20, 2007
I was just reading TFJ’s post on his pimpmobile and admiring the rustwerks on the driver’s side.
Last week, I was struck by my coworker’s reaction to my car. Since I usually take the train to work everyday, and rarely ever talk about the details of my personal life, my car’s never come up in conversation. None of us are really car fanatics, either, so it’s a fairly low priority topic.
She drives a 5-year-old automatic Honda Accord, new to her, that her dad just bought her for Chinese New Year.
Coworker #2 drives a … manual Honda Civic that she’s had for a while.
I drive my beloved 2003 Toyota Celica that I bought new, when Pa couldn’t play Twister-car-scheduling with me anymore due to his new job in the city. Since I couldn’t convince the Padres that a new car wasn’t necessary (just because I was a girl and couldn’t do all the typical car maintenance on my own) I did my poor best to find, negotiate for and purchase a new car. Ironically, I take better care of my car than BroDucky does his.
Yes, I shouldn’t have gotten a 2-door as a 21-year-old. Yes, I overpaid by a thousand or so. Yes, I made some rookie mistakes. But I didn’t get utterly screwed: I dealt with the Fleet department who found 4.9% financing for me, which wasn’t terrible for my 3-year-old credit history, and I paid that note off in two-and-a-half years. Insurance was expensive, but I was a good student so that helped offset the increase, and I put myself back on the family’s insurance to help with that cost as well.
But, apparently, something about me doesn’t project the image of someone who’d be driving something like my car, I guess I look like someone who’d drive TFJ’s car. I think. She blurted: I can’t believe you drive that car! It’s so … zippy! And sporty! It’s a little rice rocket! (*Car’s note: my car is not a rice rocket. She is in no way “riced out” and wants the readership to know this.*)
I’m not ever had someone pre-categorize me as a particular sort of car owner before. It’s a little weird.
April 18, 2007
I found a nifty calculator that figures your take home pay after taxes with X number of exemptions and Y filing status. We were chatting on the train today about the various options my divorcing-HOH-friend -with-two-kids has to avoid over- or under-withholding throughout the year, and I think she’ll be more comfortable seeing the calculations before she makes any changes.
If you go to that page and click on the Salary Paycheck Calculator link, it’ll open a popup window with the calculator. At the very top, in the right hand corner, there’s a drop down menu that lets you select your state. Then just enter in your gross pay for a pay period (select the “pay period”, not the “annually” selection.) This seems to work pretty well!
April 17, 2007
How did I forget to post this earlier?? It’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s! From 12pm-8pm.
April 16, 2007
Rats. Rats rats rats. It’s just halfway through April and I’ve already broken my resolution. Twice. First, the nachos on Friday. Now, the burger. What next?? I was doing SO well, too!
Other than working, Saturday was spent mending a sock (hole in the toe), a tank top (the straps frayed and snapped off in the back. What the heck??), re-buttoning two pairs of pants (trying to avoid the tailor).
Then on Sunday, I cooked coconut rice at home, went to library and gathered an armload of books, and got the crew (well, a fraction of them, anyway) together last night for a movie night. I’d successfully sidestepped all hazards of spending money on going out: We went to a friend’s house, picked out a movie he already owned instead of going out to the movies (never mind that this also caters to my homebody-ness), snacked on food he already had. Ok, so that’s sort of like mooching, but not entirely.
But then they got hungry. And that there was my downfall. We went to Mimi’s and I remembered how I’d been craving a cheeseburger all week. And *bam* I spent ten bucks on a cheeseburger and baked potato. Oh, the shame! It was an awfully good cheeseburger though … even if I did forget my leftover half-potato at my friend’s house afterward. So much for making a second meal out of it.
April 13, 2007
Not five minutes ago, I scored a major triumph: the accountant completely skipped over my painstakingly compiled graph with all the pertinent details of my Federal Excise Tax Credit (darned if I was going to take their paltry $40 credit).
After walking him through the Form number and all, he recalculated with the better-than-his standard credit and found that not only do I not owe money, I’ll get a baby refund of $75. Hey, I’m not complaining, I’m just happy I don’t have to waste a check or a stamp!
Turns out, though, there was a nuance to the somewhat tangled family finances that I never uncovered in my combing of the IRS publications: MaDucky earned too much for me to claim her as a dependent as Head of Household. Because she’s married to him, and we obviously can’t both claim him as our dependent, I thought this would sink my carefully planned tax year.
It turns out that while she can file a joint return as a married individual, I can still claim his exemption on my taxes. She gets a partial benefit on her standard deduction (looks like she’s filing for 1.5 deductions) and I get the rest of it in the form of another exemption $3,300, thereby splitting the benefits of having PaDucky around. And he’ll still do her laundry. 😉
My return and her 9 W-2 forms, from working for various clients, will run us a total of $120. Oh and I get a ridiculous state refund: $1290. After the fees, I’ll be up a $1245 windfall that I didn’t expect. That means I can take about $200 off the top to pay some bills, if necessary, and throw that whole extra thousand into my house fund (or my rather depleted e-fund). Strangely, that doesn’t sound as fun as it should.
And yes, I did remember to give him my bank account number to direct deposit my refund. I’ll be watching for my fat deposit on April 27th. Oh, the joys of technology! *dancing the jig o’ triumph*
So was it worth it? Worth a whole $120? Well, I didn’t have to labor over every single number. Of course, neither did he, since he used a program – and admitted that’s why he missed my nifty non-standard credit. But was it worth not spending my hours over, and getting to just double check someone else’s work? The lazy part of me says yesyesyes! Eh, in principle I still think I should do it myself. But I’m being really lazy. It’s probably because the cost is not great enough, yet, for me to say “Oh no you din’t!” just yet.
That’s also probably because he normally discounts for us too. Last year that $120 would have been reduced to, say, $100 or $75. Next time, PaDucky can ask him for the total because I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s scared of Pa and will discount on account of not wanting to say the “real amount.” What? Is that wrong or something?
*OH!* Duh, I know where that $1000 should go! In my 2007 Roth!! Nothing’s been deposited there yet, and it’s too late to fully fund the 2006 account. Yes?
