July 31, 2006

Investing Smarts

Kiplinger’s Ordinary Investors, Extraordinary Results article from their August issue has some interesting profiles of investors who have, thus far, had some very impressive results. I have to admit, I haven’t got a quarter of the knowledge or experience these folks have garnered – and it’s a little intimidating. My reaction is mixed: seeing others accomplish tends to inspire and motivate me. Seeing them accomplish so much so that I can’t fathom where to begin is just plain disheartening.

I stick to it for a couple of reasons. One, I know that even though I don’t know a tenth of what “real” investors know, I can make small changes and slowly push my comfort level and knowledge. Two, there’s , rightly or wrongly, a stereotype that women are A, not investors and B, when they are investors, they’re timid, prone to paralysis, investors. I don’t care for that image one bit and you know what? Maybe I’m not in the majors, nor the minors. Maybe I’ll never be. But, at least I’m in the game — and that’s what counts.

What are YOU saving for?

I’m sure that we all agree that financial security is freedom – but what does that, specifically, really mean for you? After this exhausting weekend, I have a clearer idea of what that might be for me.

I’d like to have the freedom not to have to work overtime over the weekend (ok, this was a work-related spate of work this time).
I’d like to be able to go home on time to do whatever it is people do when they come home at a reasonable hour instead of two hours late everyday and still not worry that I won’t have extra funds this next paycheck.
I’d like to be able to travel at will on the weekends to see BF without being on a financial schedule.
I’d like to be able to get a manicure and pedicure after repeated ice baths retrieving bottled water from tubs of ice and running around in sandals on hot pavement, sand and rocks without thinking, hm, this means no eating out at all this month.
I’d like to be able to decide to go out and get my Master’s degree when I know what I want it for and not worry about how it’s going to be paid for and how I’m going to survive another grueling spate of school/work fulltime.
I’d like to not to have to work so hard all the time.
I’d like to be able to have my wedding now and not five years from now.
I’d like to be able to take advantage of any downturn in the real estate market to purchase a nice nest to make a home in without overreaching my budget.

I know that I’m already blessed: I have a positive balance emergency fund, no personal debt just my family’s, the discipline to continue both, a job that pays a relatively decent wage. But, the decisions to come (more school, marriage, home) will have enormous influence over those current conditions. And I can only hope, plan and save to make myself free to make the choices that are best for the long-term, and not make reactionary, coping, tide-me-over-til-next-emergency decisions.

In the meantime, I wonder, what sorts of freedoms are you all searching for?

edit: I can’t believe I skipped this part of my wishlist:

I’d like to be able to actually indulge in my comic books (TPBs and otherwise) that I’ve been trying to follow, instead of just drooling over them from afar. I don’t mean buying in rock star style, just buying a few every couple months or so. I must still be in comic-ly fulfilled fugue after Comic Con.

July 26, 2006

<3 Online Banking

You know what’s really great about online banking? It completely eliminates the need for overwithdrawing money from one bank account to deposit into another one! So when I want to deposit exactly $155.70 from my regular checking account to another institution’s savings account I don’t waste a check, I don’t pull out $160, spend $14 of it just because I happen to have cash in my wallet and I don’t lose track of how much one account owes another.
This is especially useful when I’m tracking payments from Sibling for the auto loan, from my little savings scheme and from my random pin monies. Neurotically, I want to see little exact-change shaped footprints from one account to another so I know that my pin money is going to the pins and needles account, that I’m actually saving the savings money and that I’m not shaving little dollars off the sides of Sibling’s car payment. (Yes, I’ve been tempted to. No, I haven’t done it. Yet.)
Oh and I love having multiple accounts.

Behind the Curve

Apparently I just don’t read before I write, but I discovered that FR over at Fiscal Responsibility expressed exactly what I want to say when people ask, you have to establish yourself first, why are you focusing on their retirement first?

“Because… they have given up everything so that I could have everything.”

Exactly. My parents left everything they knew behind to give me everything I have today. Yes, I worked my way through college and supported the fam for a short time, but that’s exactly it: I got to go to college. In America. Now we can all talk about the shortcomings of America but you know what? In many parts of my country you either scrambled and starved slowly, or you didn’t and you starved faster. So why would I expect to give them a house, a retirement? Because they have earned it a thousand times over.

Preface, Part IIb

My new visitor, Moom, suggested that it would be helpful to get more background on My Parents so my response is continued here … (I know, I initially said it was a short story. I’m long-winded, sorry!)

Now since BF and I are from two very different financial backgrounds, what my parents might require is likely to be much more or different than what his financially stable parents would. Again, my parents don’t have expectations but if I truly felt that I could just move on with my life without making sure they were ok, I guess I’d be doing a lot of other things wrong too.

So, no essentially, they don’t have to own a house or retire but my feeling is that if I can set things up in a way that they can, modestly, later in life, then they certainly would not require help to meet basic needs.

Admittedly my pride plays a huge role in this. I love and respect my parents and want them to be respected by his parents too. Certainly they made financial mistakes but none of those mistakes were for their personal gain. They didn’t run up credit card debt because they were buying crap for themselves, they didn’t take loans so they could go on vacations they couldn’t afford. They spent the last 20 years working 15 hour days, 365 days a year running a small business and didn’t ever take a day off, all to provide for us. I’m not exaggerating, we stopped celebrating Christmas about 15 years ago because that was one of the busiest days of the year. They tried their best to provide the best they could, put my brother through private high school because they wanted to make sure he didn’t go the way of many first generation kids and the fact that that decision didn’t work out the way they hoped isn’t their fault. Maybe they could have made better choices or said forget this, we want a better work-life balance, but they wanted to do everything they could for us first.

Yes the suggestion has been made that perhaps I’m enabling them or that I’m allowing myself to be taken advantage of and I can see that there is some merit to that thought. In response I have adjusted my thinking and planning for more long term planning. With Sibling out of the house, they have also been more receptive to the idea that they were enabling him and it’s more than about time for him to grow up and get along on his own. Also, I’ve taken a step back in trying to run their daily financial show (because my instinct is to pay off everything immediately) and simply contributing my fair share. They also do everything else around the house, all the cooking, cleaning, auto maintenance and home maintenance that I can but don’t want to do with arthritis, fibromyalgia and long work hours. I consider it a relatively fair, though odd, tradeoff in money and labor. Also Mom gets depressed when it’s just her and Dad at home for too long, so what does it hurt? I’d need to visit anyway and I still go off and do my own thing on the weekends.

Anyway, going back to the pre-marriage deadline I’d set: I don’t want BF’s parents to resent my parents or look down on them for taking resources from their son (post-marriage). I’m not saying that they will, but I feel that it’s a situation ripe for resentment. So, since I don’t know how they will respond to my parents or their situation two or more years from now, I’d rather plan for the worst and hope for the best.

July 25, 2006

State of the Economy

LA Times article That Raise Might Take You 4 Years to Earn As Well has some rather disheartening numbers about the economy and the effects we as recent college grads may see or may have seen since graduation.

Aeropostale.com

Just as I suspected, shipping is no deal!