About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
Read More
June 4, 2010
Will the cornerstone of Future Me’s Castle crumble to bits?
As excited as I was to start contributions to my new 401(k) as soon as I was eligible, the sad truth is that the plan carried by my company is less than ideal. By that I mean, the expense ratios start at .65% and go up, way up, from there. For any asset allocation, an investor would have to accept a hit of 10-20% of contributions along with the usual investing risks.
I’m a Vanguarder: no fees and low fees are my mantra! While we have an up-to-4% match with a 6% contribution, mediocre funds, outrageous fees and other additional fees I’ve not yet ferreted out are already eating up any possible gains. Is that now 2% or less worth it?
Certainly it’s 2% that I didn’t have to contribute but consider that my money won’t have the opportunity to perform in a stable fund like the ones I can find with Vanguard. There are 5 index funds and their online access is limited – witness the fine print disclaimer that access may be restricted and will be limited during peak times.
I’m not sure the pros [the match and the tax benefits] outweigh the cons [poor funds, many fees].
Alternatively, I could always take cash and dump it into a ROTH, which doesn’t actually give me any tax benefits right now, and also open up either a SIMPLE IRA or a SEP-IRA for the freelance income. It’s giving up the 4% match, but I can stick with Vanguard and not give up any of that match sacrificed to high fees.
It’s hard for me to say: I won’t invest in the 401(k) and will give up free money. But it’s harder to say I’m going to blindly follow conventional wisdom when I know it’s not the usual free money is great scheme.
June 2, 2010
I got my money back!
D’you remember that sweater I splurged on back when I got the job? Mid March, I think it was. The promise was made out loud that if I got the job, I could have one sweater for the office.
Actually, I might never have confessed to the shopping trip because I lost my goldanged mind and bought five items for a total of $220. Oh yes, I completely neglected to share that. The shame…..
….
anyway, that’s not the point.
It turns out that after the “victory” of finding clothes that fit, I realized my real mistake was buying clothes from Martin + Osa; it’s like having a puff pastry for dinner. The experience is nice, but it’s not filling nor ultimately satisfying. The sweater popped a seam within weeks after purchase, and the fabric pilled horribly. Instead of taking it right back because A) I was lazy, B) the closest store (I thought) was 30 miles away, and C) I’d never picked up my mind where I left it because hello, your money?
I waited too long and the store that normally easily gave returns instead gave me guff because I made the mistake of trying to return the item on the same day the announcement was made that M+O were going out of business.
Oh.
But I spent way too much money on that sweater to have it fall apart like that so I got on the phones with Customer Service AND corporate to get a resolution. Store closing or no, they have sister stores, a return policy that still allows returns for quality issues, and a reputation to maintain. After a dozen emails with that many different answers, I was finally given the number to the American Eagle corporate office who again confirmed that this return was valid. That lovely CSR went ahead and called the store manager, explained the situation and secured the promise that if the seam really had popped, my money was again mine.
Yes, I did spend $3.50 of that return money on parking, and $8.50 on tacos, but I’m still getting $70 back for a sweater that wasn’t worth $20. The rest of that money’s going to the bank.
Small victories after a hard day at work, folks.
June 1, 2010
“Fine then, I won’t be in your way much longer, I’m moving out!”
As threats go, this classic gem from child to parent resonates with unbridled resentment, rings of freedom untasted, hardships unendured. Heartache follows, “how did we get to this place in our relationship?” Remorse to some degree on either side, and sometimes the threat is carried out to the ultimate grief or relief of the parties involved.
As a stratagem, my brother fails to recognize that the construct relies on the premise that you’re holding the power to do that which your antagonist least desires.
This? Is not that.
I can only hope that it’s not an empty threat that, like the overgrown child he is, he will find a new abode and throw his knapsack over his shoulder and huff off.
My only regret, after these twelve years of his nonsense, abuse, manipulation, the recent 3-year-block of which seemed like to end in some tragic circumstance, is that I’ll not see his dog again. I can’t part dog from owner nor could I keep one of his breed at my new home. He’s one of the smartest, most well behaved dogs I’ve ever met. Ironically, I can’t worry about my brother’s welfare anymore, but I do worry about the dog ending up homeless. Our last fight shows he’s still got no clue about taking care of anyone, including his own dog.
Cold, yes, but his latest extended chance in a string of hundreds has led only to abuse: heated accusations that Mom is faking her illness, her falls, the depths of her mental decline, abusive language towards Dad, lying to me, his unrestrained use of resources he’s not contributed to in years. I simply cannot afford financially or emotionally to keep caring or enabling.
As reported by my dad, the latest hissy fit was catalyzed by my dad’s objection to Brat’s definition of cleaning: “moving everyone else’s furniture around” and “throwing away other people’s belongings.” Not throwing away your own trash, folding your own laundry, washing your own dishes, picking up after your own, oh no. None of those.
*smh* Good, then. For the first time, my parents have finally agreed that my life has been on hold because of their refusal to support my decision to cut him out and agree that it’s time for him to go. Perhaps, though it hurts to say it, I’ll soon have the good fortune to see my brother voluntarily exit from my life and, away from the constant shelter I had to provide, he’ll finally grow up.
May 30, 2010
This month shows an interesting slide in both assets (primarily investments) and a nearly equal drop in expenses. Those expenses were mostly relocation-related, this month’s cash usage was pretty much the renters insurance policies I bought.
It is a little disappointing that the $5K/5K challenge doesn’t show up significantly on this snapshot, but that’s because it’s lost in the overall picture. As a detail, it plumped up the emergency fund a good amount. I have plans for that emergency fund – a lot of that cash will be going into a long-term CD to earn as much interest as possible until rates go up elsewhere. Perhaps I could even “part” with $20K? *shudder*
I’m a cash hoarder and it’s distinctly weird to lock up more than half my cash, but it’s time to crush that kind of emotional saving!
I continue on the last leg of the Challenge this week and then have to decide the next step of my overall financial plan to supplement my income this year.
May 29, 2010
Remember that I’m hosting this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance so please submit!
$5K Challenge Reporting: I’m in a holding pattern this week, a paltry $50 check trickled in yesterday but three major invoices are still outstanding. My hope is that they all come in this weekend but it is a holiday weekend.
Total: $2,229.18 [44%]
How did you do?
Speaking of holiday weekends, I’m so relieved it’s here. Work’s been running me right off my feet everyday and only careful planning and advance cooking from the previous weekend ensured that a hearty dinner was on the table by 8 pm every night.
My exhilarating plans include catching up on sleep, bills, playing with the Guest pup one more time before the owners return, preparing the Carnival for your viewing pleasure and setting up a recalcitrant printer/scanner that’s refused to work since moving. Maybe even catching a movie with a friend who suddenly showed up in Oakland. Oh and there will definitely be eating. I’m on the prowl for new recipes to try – please share any of your comfort food recipes!
What have y’all got on tap?
May 26, 2010
Watching MythBusters, I wondered if any or all of the hosts are actually as mechanically, engineerically or otherwise functionally ingenious enough to independently conceive, develop and execute their experiments that they demonstrate for the benefit of the masses. Like Zach and Hodgens from Bones, y’know?
Naturally, that led to wondering if mutual friends who are engineers or mechanical genii (genius, plural) would view this show with rather more skepticism than I, and then, of course, I start wondering what I’ve done with my life since high school.
That path of inquiry has been grooved deeply into my musings, though rather subsumed by the more immediate and urgent call of living life, as I approach a milestone graduation anniversary.
As it happens, I’m not attending this event because….
A) they’re charging more than $100 for admission per ticket (plus flight),
B) I already keep in touch with 90% of the friends I wanted to stay in touch with,
C) In addition to running into 30% of the people I’d be quite happier never seeing again,
D) With no doubt that the 10% I DO want to see won’t actually be there.
Despite my resolution to save both time and money, the event itself continues to engenders these musings.
It’s a perplexing sense of insecurity, or a close cousin thereof, that leads me to question why I’ve not yet become an expert martial artist, developed a craft, attained mastery of some incredibly useful survivalist training in the event of near-complete global disaster. (And yet, I’ve had no interest in that show, Survivor.) Or at least completed graduate education.
Now, I’ve been kicking about the PF blogosphere for years, bouncing around among some major achievers whose blogs have grown exponentially, admiring personalities glowing through the internets garnering praise, media attention, and financial success both related and not to their blogs. From time to time, I turn over the same mental stones about the path to blogger success that Funny about Money articulates in her A PF Blogger’s Glass Ceiling? That doesn’t make me feel smaller than I am, nor do I feel compelled to compare myself to bigger and better blogs to my detriment.
Why then does the memory of high school and the person I thought I’d be by now (delusional teenager that I was) make me step back and wonder: What have I done with myself?
I think it’s something to do with the habit of competing against myself. Perhaps there’s also a touch of competing with others but at the end of the day, when you’re laboring to achieve as much as you once dreamed, you’ve set up a tough crowd to impress.
My voice of reason finally pipes up with admonishments that competing with anyone, including yourself, for the sake of winning at life is sheer foolishness. Living life well and happily is all one needs.
It’s just disconcerting that that memory of high school can so viscerally project itself over the panarama of my real life.
Wise Words
The grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it.
Stacking Pennies
“…it’s just that the things I’ve accomplished haven’t really been plans, just things I fell into.”
Mrs. Micah
A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?
Robert Browning
May 25, 2010
I’m not big on summer or high season travel but this year’s trips have suddenly piled up as a California highway is wont to do on any given day. Not having the itineraries settled was annoying me at odd times. Completely inappropriately like, say, during meetings my brain chose not to attend. In keeping with my neuroses, I’ve started a joint expenses tracking spreadsheet to total up this year’s travel spending now that Partner in Crime and I are in the same area at the same time.
So we sat down with pencil and paper (seriously!), computers and calendars to map out the summer months.
Airfare is no joke, folks.
I’ve been juicing the value of some Southwest credits (just over $600) to pay for my travel to attend a graduation, the Comic-Con expeditions, and had a little left over for a solo trip that PiC is taking. I have no interest in traveling 3 weekends out of 5 in a month, so he’s on his own for that one. They actually stretched to pay for 7 one-way trips so that’s a big fat sigh of relief, but it most certainly did not cover the wedding in LA.
Road trip! And over the holiday weekend, that last. Pray for me!
With only $100+ in the travel fund, covering my share of the rental car, food, comics, and any other gifts from Con will be an interesting challenge. Though, let’s be honest, if I do well enough on the current savings challenge, I will share some of that bounty with … myself.
I’m also hoarding a couple other travel credits (a free round trip and some other airline credits) in case my hypothesized short vacation to see a host of relatives and friends on the East Coast this fall proves true. But that’s a whole other story. For now, I plan to be a complete homebody in the months of August and September.
What does this summer hold in store for you?
