Easy Change

Recently a review of the bank account revealed that there were some fees charged on my bank account each month. I was completely annoyed by this because I was sure that this was not something that should have been happening and instead was something that was just going on due to my lack of paying attention. In reality, this was an account that I didn't check on very frequently. After spending some time in the local branch (and time is rather scarce), I was able to get a representative to resolve this. At nearly 20 dollars monthly, the fees were no small potatoes. But the story, unfortunately did not end there. After about 6 weeks, I noticed that the charges began again. This time, I went to the branch again but was shocked that there was only one representative working and it looked like it could easily be another hour in the lobby before I would get it resolved. I left and attempted some miracle working by talking to the customer service via the bank's internal email. It worke...

I've been a fan of Suze Orman for years. When I first started working after graduating college and then I started to make some money, my experience with other members of my family, mostly my grandparents, showed me that I needed to figure this money thing out. So, I set out to understand how money works and I found Suze. Many financial gurus are out there and for the most part, much of the advice overlaps, but Suze really seemed to be right along my line of thinking.  I bought the books, watched the show, and despite the fact that I feel like I've largely outgrown it so long as I follow the lessons, I really wanted to check up on how things were going. I went to the CNBC website and found an interview where she said this: "I do really live within my means. I have absolutely no debt. If I don't have the money to write a check, then I can't afford it. I never, ever, ever spend old money, so I'm only allowed by my own standards to buy something new with new mone...

Financial Primer When I think back on my financial situation growing up, I never really understood how many issues that there are when it comes to money. Understanding the major financial concepts early on in life and having some tangible, concrete understanding would have been much better than some random experiences and emotions. Just understanding these important aspects as a young person and how to handle them correctly can contribute to financial well being. Income Income is the way money enters your life. Usually, this is in the form of a job, but there are also other sources of income like gifts, bonuses, interest income, and investment income. My concept of income was rather skewed as a kid. I didn't usually need much money. I like to think that I wasn't that greedy. I generally was happy if I had a bike to ride and some sticks and balls to play with outside and some video games to play with inside. I never got a steady allowance per se, so by the time I started learnin...

This week has been quite a ride already and we're not even half done. Lehman Brothers is bankrupt , B of A buying Merrill Lynch , and AIG not looking so hot, searching for some emergency money ..... One of the most important things you can have in this kind of uncertain time is an emergency fund. Not only should you have it, it should be big. The next best thing you can do is cut expenses and do all that you can to shore up your financial footing because who knows where the financial axe is coming from? I know that for many people out there, it is simply too late to do much in the short term about their emergency fund and way too difficult to figure out what to do to move their money around in any significant way. There are 3 things small things you should consider doing though, right now, before the summer ends in order to start picking up some stability in these uncertain times: 1. Make sure that your "safe" money is really safe. If its safe money, it is in an account t...

Well, I've hopefully given myself enough time off so that my body can heal. I started yesterday with extremely light exercise and I am planning on working my way back up. It has taken a huge amount of self-control to not do something for these past 10 days. I feel like I am missing out somehow by not doing anything really active. Today I am able to get out a little bit early and I plan to meet some friends this afternoon, but I will be using the time until then to work on some pet projects that have been brushed aside lately with the hope that they will eventually yield me some additional income. My consulting work has been rather slow, of late. And the my situation with side work may well be drawing to a close so it is critical for me to find additional sources of income in the near future so that I can continue my debt repayment. Again, this is not money needed for expenses, but only to continue accelerating my plan of getting out of debt fast. Additional Income Pain Originally ...

Well, things have turned out ok on prosper. After doing some checking up recently, I found that my loan that was late has been paid back. That is a good feeling for me because I was starting to get a little concerned since I expect only about a 5% default rate on my loans; otherwise it just isn't worth it for me. And now that my loan got paid, I made another small deposit into my account and I've bid on another loan. And I think that will bring the amount of money I will be investing in prosper to a close for a while. I will just continue to keep an eye on the money and if there is a significant sum, I might do another loan, but I think for the next few months my focus is going to be on paying down my personal debt.

When I started this blog many months ago, like most personal finance bloggers, it was so that I could keep myself accountable and also provide myself with a lasting record of how the financial situation in my life changed over time. It is not an easy journey and I realized how frustrated I was with the amount of money I had. It wasn't that I didn't make enough money. That isn't to say I didn't want to make more, I mean, who doesn't? But it simply means that I found myself unable to really feel comfortable about where all of the money was going. It was at that point that there was a bit of a breakdown and things started to change. Over the past six months, I have made between 300-500 dollars per month of side income. But I think that the key about this money is not that I have made it, but that I have not started counting on it. So today I just cashed another check for about 160 bucks. This is good because my business money is in good shape and I've already put a...

Recently, I tried selling a few printer ink cartridges online and I was really dissapointed. I tried both amazon.com and ebay (which charged me a listing fee) and neither one has worked. I'm not really sure how to feel about the whole experience, but I know that there are many pf bloggers out there who have much success with buying and selling stuff on ebay and/or other websites. How do you do it? Is it worth the time? Where do you acquire the stuff to sell? Personally, I think it is likely that this will be my first and last experience doing this. It took me about 15 minutes to setup the auction on ebay and I found that there were way too many options and it was confusing as a first-time user. Finally, I got the item listed only to realize that I was going to be charged a listing fee -- all for an item that might not ever even sell. Since I have so many other things that I could be doing with my time, doing auctions that only make me 5 or 10 bucks a pop just doesn't seem to m...

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...

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 ...

One of the most interesting things that I've seen recently is the idea that people are actually tracking the percentage of their incomes across various income streams. That is, they are tracking how much they make at each job etc. Personally, almost all of my income comes from my primary job (about 95%), which is one of the things that is generally frowned upon. I'd like to really work this upcoming year on developing more passive sources of income. Income that doesn't require my intervention or my physical presence would be ideal. Real estate is the one that often comes to mind, but dividend paying stocks might be more reasonable for me so far. Not long ago, I wanted to get into buying a few shares of individual stocks and I bought a few shares of HD stock and its gone up a fair bit so that I've made about 12% on it so far. But right now I have no intention of selling. I bought it for the long-haul, not for the short-term gain.

One of the major features of the financial landscape right now for me is insurance. While I am lucky enough to have a job that includes some insurance based on salary, I am still concerned that I might not have enough insurance. The immediate issues are that there is for me is the idea of life insurance, and then after that, disability insurance. Interestingly, I was researching these options this weekend and I went to one of the insurance websites, Metlife.com to see if there was anything that I could use to figure out how much I might need to pay for a 30 year term policy. Term Policies Best? Many people like to figure out whether or not Term makes sense and to me, I think that it does. Since I get a certain amount of insurance from my job already, it makes sense for me to look at getting a term policy for between 20-30 years. I don't view insurance as an investment for my particular situation. I am investing in my retirement accounts and paying off my debts and building assets. ...

I will admit it; I'm a tiny bit obsessive about money and money-related topics. For example, I just read this little blog entry at scottburns.com with statistics about national net worth. And in the comments someone wrote: "I have to confess I love looking at data like this. I know it’s not a race and it’s really pretty much irrelevant where I stand compared to other people but it is very fun to look at. " I love looking at this data also. I'm a data person. But this last statement in a comment to the entry is where I totally disagree. "I know its not a race...," the comment states. Well, I disagree, strongly. It absolutely IS a race. Not What You're Thinking I'm not saying I think we should all get caught up checking out our neighbor's wealth etc. because that is not what I mean. But I do believe that it makes sense to remain above the median net worth if you can. One saying that I've heard and that rings true with me is this: "He who...

To me, its all about retirement. Retiring well, retiring earlier. These are my two goals when it comes to money. And the only way I've been able to work toward that goal is by working on both sides of the expenses/income equation. Reducing expenses comes in the form of paying off debts and scaling back spending and avoiding -- and I mean avoiding like the plague -- any type of installment/interest-based debt. Income generation is either finding ways to make more money in the same amount of time or finding more jobs or income sources. Staying in a budget is the best way to keep track of these changes and ensure that the equation is balanced favorably. Ideally, I'd like to see that I am spending only 75% of my income and saving 25%. That would get me to retirement fast. I'm not sure if that will ever happen; its a lofty goal. Improving The System The system for doing all of these things is my budgetting spreadsheet. I am obsessed with it. That is not a joke or an understateme...