Easy Change

In order to take advantage of some of the slowdown at work, I've decided to take tomorrow off. This is something that you might want to consider as well. You don't need to take a week off to be in need of a break. Personally, I've been going on all cylinders for many months now and I am starting to take a hit for it. But I think that I am coming to the end of this long run of work and then there will be a break before the big batch rolls around again. Employers Cash In when you don't use your paid time off that is allocated to you. I'm not telling you to fake sick to get time off. Rather, im telling you to be aware of your company's time off policies and ensure that you don't lose any time as a result of "capping out" on your accruals. For me, this is not the case, but I work with people who for one reason or another feel the need to constantly keep the maximum amount of banked vacation days. Then each month or two they are scambling to find some ...

I just have to share this article I read this afternoon. What would you do if you got run over by a car? Perhaps you would just see if you felt ok and walk home? What if you got a bad cut on the job or at a party? Perhaps you might try to stitch it up yourself, apply some iodine and a bandage and you're all set? In the end there is a crisis of lack of health insurance among young adults. Read more stories and learn more about the problem in this article from New York magazine. http://nymag.com/news/features/29723/

Working toward controlling debt is not easy. But it must be done. For me, getting a handle on debt has meant looking at all of the interest rates that I am paying on my debt. After tackling the real credit card debt, I realized that I would be able to get a credit card that gave me a zero percent interest rate. This was a transfer over to my chase credit card from my student loan. So, I moved all of the debt from one of my student loans onto a credit card at zero percent and paid a 75$ fee for the transfer. Unfortunately, I goofed. I paid my bill online and the payment posted one day late. Interestingly enough, the due date actually moves. I never knew this. So, it was something like the 3rd one month and the 2nd the next month. As a result of this late payment, they incurred a late fee and the 0% rate ended. This was a nasty bit of reality for me but I learned a lesson: always pay the credit card bill at least a week before the due date. The late payment didn' t hurt my credit or ...

I can't believe it, it is only March 23 and the books are closed for the month! It is a great feeling to be paying things online now. I can immediately get things paid as soon as there is available cash. For those of you who have not started paying your bills online, I would encourage you to give it a try. I've been nothing but impressed by the system since I started doing it. I find that I can easily keep track of what is due and make sure that it gets paid on time, every time. Not to mention the amount of money I am saving in stamps. As for the actual numbers, those are good as well. Total expenses for the month are down about 200 bucks from last month.  And debt is continuing to decrease as loans are payed down. There's still a long way to go, but the extra money coming in recently has really helped out a lot. The one negative though is that the average so far for this year seems to indicate that household expenses have gone up way more than the 0.03 percent that I ...

So one big question I have now is about the Freedom Fund. Suddenly, it doesn't feel so free. Not "free" in either sense. Not free as in free beer because I am "spending" money each month on this Freedom Fund. And not free as in liberty because I feel like I often times finding myself foregoing things that I probably could just get and not even have to pay on credit for them. I have been using the idea of a freedom fund for months now in budgetting for big, but predictable expenses. The idea of the freedom fund is that you can set aside a small amount of money for these expenses each month in advance of the cost actually coming up. Then when that big car repair bill comes or that "surprise" of your dishwasher breaking happens, you have money saved for it already and it doesn't blow your budget. Since the money is presumably in a high-yield account, it is also making some interest income. Taking a Vacation from the Freedom Fund I guess the current de...

One of the more interesting developments in the world of personal finance has been Prosper. Prosper has done right by me so far. So I figure that I would talk about my small experiences related to prosper. I'm just your average pf blogger who learned about prosper and thought it would be a good idea. When I went to college, there were tons of places that advertised payday loans and such and I always got a little peeved at the idea of predatory lending. Don't even get me started about this whole sub prime mortgage mess. But now that I've been using it for several months, I thought I'd provide an update: Right now I have about 300 bucks in prosper loans. Each loan is 50 bucks a piece. I slowly am filtering in some of my side income into these loans. And overall these loans are earning an average of 13 percent each. Surely it's not big money, especially when compared with possible long-term returns of the stock market or of the safer returns of a high-interest savings ...

So this weekend I listened to Bob Brinker's Moneytalk radio program and although I was aware of these issues before, I think that there is significant money to be saved and/or made on opportunities for the medium to long term investor when it comes to several major issues that are going to become pressing in the not-too-distant future. Without getting into too much detail in this post, I simply want to list them for you and provide a brief description. Finding opportunities around these issues is, of course, no small task. Additionally, these issues are somewhat speculative. If you are planning for a disaster, you really are just hoping that one doesn't happen. So, I have to say up front that I hope none of these issues really develops into a catastrophe, but I also need to acknowledge that there is a strong likelihood that at least one of them will. Without further ado, I list the issues in my own subjective order: worst to not-so-bad. 1. Medicare - There is a huge, huge pro...

Its my blog, so I figure I should share an early experience I had with money. When I turned fourteen, I started working. I can't even really remember why, but I had this desire to have money. I remember that once in a while I would do chores for money around the house. But it wasn't ever really that much money. Instead I found myself really struggling as a kid to get things that I wanted. I really really enjoyed the gifts that I got when I was younger: a new stereo that was waiting for me when I came home from my dads one weekend, a new bike that I got for Christmas. But none of these gifts compared to something that I contributed to myself: my first computer. My first job was at a local donut shop. I was effectively a janitor after school. The pay was awful and my boss was pretty cheap. Donuts were about 50 cents a piece back then and I was making 4.35/hr. It was basically slave wages. It would be like someone making 6 bucks an hour now. But considering I was happy to have a j...

So as I read John Bogles: Common Sense on Mutual Funds, the theme is clear. Costs hurt long-term returns in actively managed mutual funds when compared with index funds or the market as a whole. Free Money Finance wrote a great article on this and I posted a comment which nicely summarized the issue that I am having now that I am more aware of this concept. Once you've paid the load and you're in the managed fund, does it make sense to move your money? Where is the tipping point? This issue seems to be particularly difficult if the net amount of percent gain is equal for both funds once you've accounted for expenses. Check out the link to read my comment. I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

Sometimes, it is just too much to bear. For years, (you heard it right, folks, years), I've been asking how people are getting by when they make so little. I ask this question because I have been fairly fortunate to have my own home, to make a decent salary, and to find myself able to  make a decent life for myself. However, I know that there are people out there who are not making enough. This recent story from msn money explains one woman's life of living just above the poverty line, making 6.50 per hour, living in Montana. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/IMake650AnHourAmIPoor.aspx The unfortunate thing is that I know there are many people in this situation. Through a network that I belong to, I found out about a local man who was in his fifties and had a problem where he and his wife now no longer have a car so that at least one of them could work. This is the ultimate issue; people are not necessarily living when they make wages this low--th...

Well, I've just done some research and I am pleased about what I learned about social security. I knew that there was a downside to retiring early. The check you get for an early retirement significantly reduces the benefits that you might have received if you waited until full retirement. However, I also knew that there were rules about what you could and could get in terms of income while still collecting social security. However, I discovered that I was wrong. The limits come into play only for people who are NOT at full retirement age. If you are at full retirement age, you can earn as much as you want with no penalty. So these wierd limits only apply to people who are "younger than full retirement age during the whole year". http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10069.html And even better, investment income, capital gains, 401k and IRA distributions etc are never counted as earnings that could reduce your social security benefits. Instead, the only things tha...

Most everyone is aware of how the markets tanked last week and now are somewhat struggling. I am still checking my 401k every day or two and I am not really doing anything much as a result of the markets, but I am keeping an eye on things. So, the big question for me right now is, do I believe Greenspan? Greenspan was in asia not long before this whole market downturn happened and he said that there could be a recession this year. Of course, for some people, even the faintest whiff of recession can make them throw the baby out with the proverbial bathwater when it comes to investing. So a selloff was not exactly rocket science. Similar to other downturns, many of the trades were automatic as a result of stocks tumbling down to preset levels etc. But, here we are and now the market is just sort of going up and down a little like a fishing baubble. All that said, an article I read on MSN money was interesting. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/GreenspanVsBernanke.asp...

Before you think about doing something that is innovative or frugal or environmentally friendly, you might want to think twice. According to this article, the guy that has done amazing things for both the environment (in terms of reusing) and also for issues when it comes to our dependence on foreign oil is being asked to post bond. He has been using vegetable oil as a fuel source for his deisel vehicle and it has served him well for many years. The full article explains it in more detail: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/illinois_man_fi.php The first comment that I read for the article seems to get it spot on: "I don't believe this had anything to do with oil companies. The state probably relies on those taxes for transportation costs, and is afraid of what will happen if everyone moves outside of the normal (taxed) supply chain to get their fuel." - Old Wolf But now this guy is into it with the government. Regardless of your feelings on taxation/double taxation ...

A while back, I wrote about exercising and gym memberships: http://easychange.blogspot.com/2006/06/do-you-really-need-that-gym-membership.html But frankly, I feel like these are cash cow businesses where the average joe gets milked for all he's worth and then ends up back in front of the t.v. on the couch, feeling badly that he wasted all his time and money. Bottom line: exercise is important for health, but keeping up with it is probably just as important as starting in the first place. Personally, I knew I needed to get into better shape. My muscles literally had atrophied from doing nothing but being on a computer and barely even having to walk from my work to my car. So several months back I got a hand-me-down gym for free from a relative and was able to start working out at home. This was much better than a gym membership because it was free and it was convenient. The convenience of having it at home made it very hard for me to not exercise. Sometimes, if I get bored, I find ...

So on friday, I went to see Suze Orman at a book signing/talk in boston. I had a great time and it was fun to meet Suze in person. Her book about women and money seemed to resonate with quite a few people in the audience; my mom is a big fan of Suze and has really started getting her finances in order as a result of reading Suze's books and watching her show. It appears that Suze has changed her mind at this book in that she now believes that there are some fundamentally different things about how men and women handle money. I find this concept interesting but not *always* true. I like many of the ideas in her new book though and I think that men and women could both often benefit from the advice Suze gives when it comes to money. And the concepts in this book are really no exception, in my opinion. Sure, most guys are probably not as "touchy-feely" and emotional about money as women are. But that doesn't mean that some of the same concepts cannot be applied. One conc...

Well, February has ended and the markets were less than kind this week. So I figured now that the carnage is over (hopefully), I figured I'd ask a question to my readers: Take Our Poll from PollDaddy.com Net worth didn't fare so bad over in my neck of the woods since there were tax returns etc to offset the bad week in the market. If you are interested, here's the latest entry: http://www.networthiq.com/people/EasyChange Happy Friday Everyone!