August 3, 2006

Just for laughs: Guinea pigs are lovers, not fighters

Hope you can read this!

Emergency Funds: What are they for?

BoyDucky asked a very simple question last night: “So, what’s the Emergency Fund for?”

……….

Huh. I always assumed, well, emergencies, of course! But you know what, it’s not that simple! Or, it could be. But, I’m me. So, it’s not.

The current E-fund is meant for strictly REAL emergencies, even though I have not really treated it as such. Real = loss of job, must pay rent and bills and eat.
I admit that I have been a little bad about this and allowed a little beg, steal and borrow action, but mostly because it’s the only E-fund I’ve got now. So, no more! Nay! From now on, E-fund Numero Uno is for REAL emergencies only. Also E-fund targets will be 10k for very focused saving and then from then I will continue to trickle in money until it hits 15k, the real limit.

That allows for the spawning of little Fundlettes. One will be the previously mentioned Oops-fund. That’ll be the first one because isn’t the first just about always an Ooops? 😉
Ok ok, not all first-borns are oopses ….
Hm, how high do you go, before an Ooops no longer and Ooops and more of an “Ighhh!” ? I’m going to say, 5k.

Another will be Wedding Fundlette. Anywhere between 5-15k.
The third will be House Fundlette. The sky’s the limit on this one!

So there we go: Emergencies are emergencies and oopsies are covered by the oops fund, when I have one.

Supplemental Disability Insurance, would you get it?

Young Guns touched on a subject I’d been contemplating for a while. Our secretary was waving around a piece of paper for Supplemental Disability Plan. We’re all involuntarily enrolled in the Basic Plan. If you enroll in the Supplemental Plan, then the university pays for the Long term Disability Plan.

Considering I am the primary earner with a steady income, I probably really should look into enrolling in the Supplemental Plan – I think the rate is 2% of current income? Part of me balks at this but I guess having about 100 hours of vacation and 90 hours of sick time isn’t really what you’d consider being prepared for any sort of long term problems. I keep debating if it’s worth losing another 2% of my much needed cash flow ….

August 2, 2006

Travel: New Airport/Fare information site

Steal Your Travel Agent’s Tricks reveals a new website that may come in handy for travelers who need more convenience in their travel plans. Personally, I’m hoping that ExpertFlyer.com will help with unlocking some good fares for United as I’ve got plans to be flying up north a couple times the next few months and I could really use some good deals.

Other travel tips that I am currently trying:

**Bonus** I did nothing to find this but the some of usual round trip routes that run 167.10 before taxes/fees came up as 137.10! Score!!

Scheduling an open jaw flight: I usually go all the way home (1 hour, 15 mins) and then leave out of my favorite international airport that’s rarely ever crowded enough that you have to be there more than 30 minutes before departure (and this on a holiday weekend!)

This time, I’m going to try leaving from the airport near work (LAX – haven’t been there in years so I’m hoping it won’t be a nightmare!!) From Union Station I can use the Flyaway for 3 bucks and leave work only a little earlier than usual (1 hour) instead of 2 and 1/2 hours early.
I will fly back home to my usual airport, though. Cost? $149 after taxes and fees, plus 3 for the Flyaway.

Holy Late Fees, Citibank!!

I’ve been receiving notices for unspecified Citi credit cards. I have 5 cards with them, and only regularly use one, the others are for BTs [2], emergencies [1] and to maximize the Credit Protection retention program for ten bucks a month [1]. I could only be bothered to skim it for any details that would pertain to me and found that they’re increasing late fees to THIRTY NINE DOLLARS. Not that I ever worry about paying late but IF you did, they’d hit you with a basically 40 dollar fee!! Also, they would then increase your APR to prime rate plus a gazillion%. On all your cards. So, all it takes is one misstep, folks.

That being said, I’ve had mental technical errors before and kind of forgot to send my e-payment on that due date (I can’t help it, I like to keep the money in a high interest savings account until the last possible second. Also I forget what day it is a lot, too.) When that happens, invariably I’ll have trouble getting my browser to work. I’ve called Citi and explained that I had problems sending the payment through and they’ve processed the payment over the phone with no fee. I’ve only had to do that a couple of times, but they were very nice about it and I didn’t get hit with a late fee or any other fee. I don’t know if that’s because I have so many cards/accounts with them, but there it is.

August 1, 2006

Spending and Saving: August

In a very weird way, I like being on a budget because I like to know exactly where every single penny goes. However, my attempt to simplify financial matters so that I can branch out into doing other sorts of research instead of just staring at my online banking pages has spawned an entirely new system that I’ve talked about before. Chunks of my paychecks are allotted to different accounts and theoretically that was to cut down on the detail work. I’m still getting used to it, but since I’m not really at a point where I want to track my net worth, I’m going to try a different kind of tracking, just a very simple overview of what I’m actually saving and spending each month, per check. It’ll look something like this:

Savings (per check)
Budgeted: 200, pre-tax 403 (b)
Actual 1: 200, pre-tax 403 (b)
Actual 2: 200, pre-tax 403 (b)

Budgeted: 540, post-tax E-fund
Actual 1: 365
Actual 2:

Spending (per check)
Budgeted: 75, car insurance
Actual 1: 75
Actual 2:

Budgeted: 360, everything/personal,etc.
Actual 1: 360
Actual 2:

Budgeted: 100, household bill
Actual 1: 0 🙁
Actual 2:

I’m trying to reconcile the fact that my budget actually requires me to make a lot more than I make without overtime. Another factor in the reduced cash flow is my huge increase in 403 (b) contributions but I’ve decided that it’s a necessary evil because I have to reduce my taxable liability somehow and besides that I’ve got a lot of catching up to do! So, weird though it is for a hard-core saver to say: when I come up “short” each month, it’ll be the savings post-tax category that gets shorted because that figure is a high ideal number. I would reduce it to a more reasonable number but … well … I just don’t want to. Ok, I don’t want to because I know I usually work a good chunk of overtime, so there’s no reason not to maintain a high expectation – except for those times I just can’t do the OT. Maybe I’ll have to settle for a range: 450-540.

Money is an emotionally charged subject …

or I must be highly emotional right now.

Just called BroDucky and explained that because of the recent renewal of the auto insurance and the phone bill fluctuating, and his ticket -still unidentified, but I know that it’ll be a hit on the bill- I wanted him to think about if he might be able to contribute a little more each month and to get back to me.
He gives me 200 per month to hold onto for his portion of the auto insurance (we all take turns every two months). It’s just that the timing on that has not smoothed out enough so that I have the correct amount at the time the bills are due so it’s kind of an overage/underage issue.
Theoretically that would be 1200 every six months, enough for a third of the insurance bill with some extra for his portion of the cell phone bill (approx 30/month, if he doesn’t go over). When I add that up: ~ 900-1000 for the insurance (I’m overestimating but I’m not sure how much the ticket and reducing the deductible will cost us. Unfortunately the car loan that PadresDuckies have requires that the deductible be no more than 500 – yet another reason not to like that loan – and I didn’t know that.) Anyway, approx 1000 for the car insurance and 30 x 6 months = 180. If he goes over, he pays the extra, but generally he’s in the realm of 30ish/month.
I made sure to speak entirely in Vietnamese so that my coworkers couldn’t understand what I was saying but also because there are phrasings that sound “softer” or more polite in Vietnamese than English. Plus it forces me to stay calmer because I do get riled pretty easily when it comes to BroDucky and money.
He was very nice and amenable to the request – he thanked me for calling early enough in the month that he could try to figure out how to accommodate and said that he’d see what he could do.

I found myself almost crying when I hung up. Is it because it’s just difficult to talk money with my possibly-reforming brother? Is it misplaced guilt for asking more of him when I think that if he could give more, he would/should/could offer it? [Which is stupid because he hasn’t had a good few months at work and if he has extra he’s a spender, obviously.] Is it because I almost can’t believe we had a short, almost-adult conversation stating a need and a solution? Is it just actual relief/hope that maybe he’s starting to get his act together and understands that he has to be responsible for his actions? *sigh* Whatever the reason, I feel weird about being upset – in the sense that I’m not perfectly calm – after a conversation that could have gone a lot worse.