Easy Change

Thinking about the recent holiday this weekend has given me a bit of perspective regarding gift giving. Something that I had forgotten until I was recently reminded is how very much people really fill up their emptiness with the shopping and busyiness of the holiday season. I had a conversation with family members recently to reiterate the importance of a reasonable (read small) amount of gifts. For some reason, no matter how much I stress this, there is always resistance. I find the whole ritual can be somewhat frustrating. Gift giving becomes a stressful game of chicken with often little more than wasted money and hurt feelings. Now that I have outlined the problem, what are the solutions? 1. For me, early and often discussions about the issue seem to help. Sometimes the gifts can be a way for people to try to make up for lost time and connections during the year. So to alleviate that, make more time for loved ones. 2. Avoid going nuclear. When doing the gift giving, stay consistent....

Recently, the unexpected happened. One of the cars broke and started to feel like it was going to completely break down somewhere on the side of the road when there was no one around to help. Personally, I am not a huge fan of living with stress. In fact, I'm nearly 100% convinced that this is the cause of many health problems. So, when I can avoid the stress, I do. In this case, having a car that was unreliable and just waiting for a final breakdown was not appealing to me. So, after deciding on a car and what we thought would be a reduction in sticker price and trade-in, we went and found the car dealership closest to where we live, walked in, test drove, and finally bought a car. In short, we did it in a single trip, single transaction. Fortunately, we were able to afford it and had good credit. Other people are not so lucky. The big lesson learned is to not wait until the last minute. The car had already started showing signs of getting worn down and needing repairs. A repair b...

So it is a new year and with each new year there is a new opportunity for change and improvement. I'm actually guilty of being quite optimistic. This past year, the economy was the main story, hands down. But I'd like to say that I think that things will look better in 2009. And even more than many people, I think that we're going to be quite pleased by about 6 months through 2009, sometime in the summer. I need to be very clear that I have nothing other than a hope and a prediction, no real solid evidence. It's just my feeling. The amount of wealth destruction that has happened as the global economy has deleveraged is staggering. So, I think that as we begin to add leverage again, we're going to realize that it was not quite as bad as we thought it was. I'm very specific in why I feel this way. I think that most people want things to go well. That is, I think there's more optimists than pessimists overall. And I think that despite the increased unemployment...

PMI, as most of you probably already know, is Private Mortgage Insurance and is basically designed to protect the lender so that if anything happens to the borrower, that the lender is assured to get the value of the loan back. Unfortunately for me, when purchasing the condo I live in, it was not with enough money to avoid the PMI. The PMI is no laughing matter as it sucks away close to 150 dollars per month. Since I've lived here over three years, that calculates out to about 5400 dollars. It is a horrible waste of money. Unfortunately, the real estate market has been relatively flat where I am and the appreciation is going slower than I would have liked. In order to get PMI removed, you often need to have another appraisal done on your property. And luckily for me, a few things have been done to the property (new steps, new landscaping, and a new roof) which might improve the appraised value. But the first step is calling my mortgage company which I dutifully did this morning. T...

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...

This past week, the dishwasher died. I think it was original to the place (close to 25 years old) so I have no complaints with the fact that it died, but frankly, there is never a good time for something to die. Fast forward to me at the local Best Buy in order to buy a dishwasher and take-it-home-that-night. Well, I find out that there is no store in a 120 mile radius (ok I might be exaggerating a tiny bit) that has a dishwasher that I can buy and pickup in the store that moment. Feeling frustrated, I go to the store and get some sponges on a wand, paper cups, plates, and bowls and start doing my dishes by hand. Now I am stuck looking for a dishwasher, but the urgency is over because the person who could put it in for free this past saturday is no longer available. So, to add insult to injury, I have to shell-out the cash for a new appliance but also to pay for delivery and possibly even installation now. *sigh*. And all of this frustration was while I was dealing with a cold that jus...

One of the things that I realize as I get older is that my body will start to slow down and want to pack on extra weight. I want to stay in shape more than ever. But I refuse to be sucked in to the idea that I need to run out and spend hundreds of dollars on a gym membership . That just seems silly to me. Of course, the drinking and chinese food I had last night probably aren't helping the cause very much at all either, but starting with today, its a new year and I hope to make the most of it by improving my life. I recently went to a wake and it has reminded me quite clearly that the time we have is precious and we may never get a second chance to make our lives better. So go out and seize the moment! And a Happy New Year to everyone.

One of my major goals for this year was to take all of the information that I had gathered and get my budgetting spreadsheet updated with all of my personal information. The way that I keep myself in check with money is by using a budget. And the way I stick to the budget is by using a simple excel spreadsheet that I created that has my own personal layout that suits me. It also serves to make sure I get my bills paid on time and keep my accounts balanced. New improvements for the 2007 spreadsheet include bill categorization. During 2006, I had all of the bills itemized which is fine and I will continue to do, but I found that I was really interested in keeping the money in categories -- but probably not the ones you are thinking of -- categories of expenses. For me, there are just three categories: recurring, debt, savings. Recurring expenses or (inescapable expenses) as I like to call them refer to expenses that happen every month and generally cannot be avoided. The sum of these ex...

Forbes wrote this article that is a bit of a laugh if you have a spare minute. I especially got a kick out of the "Spam" entrepenuer. Here is the article in all its glory if you are interested in reading something fun. In holiday shopping news, I am going to try to finish up my shopping with Mom tomorrow. That will put me squarely on task to start planning the Christmas party I am throwing next Saturday. Wish me luck, bargains and good holiday budgeting! :)

Unfortunately, this year I feel a little bit under-prepared for the upcoming holiday season. I am still managing to generate some extra income so I am not so concerned about spending a decent amount. However, the problem is that I cannot figure out exactly what is "decent". I need to buy presents for a fairly short list of people, but I would really like things to be nice and well-thought-out. I generally try to make it easy for people to shop for me by creating/updating my amazon wish-list as my birthday and christmas roll-around. I encourage people to buy used items from reputable sellers because I have had very good experience with that before. For music, books, and dvds, it doesn't matter to me if they are used as long as they work. However, depending on the person, the might consider getting a "used" gift to be tacky. So I would check with people beforehand. I generally like it because that means I will get more of the stuff that I want rather than just on...

On saturday, I went to IKEA in stoughton, MA and it was very different than I expected. It had a european feel, which is to be expected from the Swedish Home Furnishing's Store given their roots. However, I was also impressed with the prices. They were relatively affordable, even for someone who doesn't have tons of money. Unfortunately, though there was not much that was really ideal for my home because the stuff is definitely not at the same level of quality; but I wish that I had known about it when I first graduated college. It is a great place to go if you want to decorate stylishly and then redecorate every 5 or so years.... Or you are on a budget and cannot afford to pay lots of money for furniture.... Or you know that you are going to have to setup house in a very small apartment or rooms (since much of their furniture is scaled down). On the plus side, I bought several items that were only a dollar and it was fun because I got some christmas shopping done since I...

Personally, I spend just over 650 dollars per month just in transportation costs; this includes my car payment, insurance, fuel, and my commuter rail pass for taking the public transportation. However, yesterday it was announced that my commuter rail pass was going to increase by 22 percent and that there were likely more increases coming. For me, this puts my transportation costs at over 700 dollars per month. This is about a quarter of my entire net pay each month. This is absolutely insane! I am looking forward to eventually being done with my car payment and I am going to now look into reducing my car insurance bill to try to offset the increase. However, as much as I am concerned about my own wallet, I am also concerned about the social implications. This change will result in approximately 11.9 million fewer riders of the mass transit system which will mean more pollution and increased emissions contributing to global warming. This is a real concern. Furthermore, the poorer you...

Lately, I have been struck by how much money is being drained without my noticing. Small charges are adding up. Fees are hidden. And services (that I do not use) are being happily paid for, for months on end, without even a moment's thought. After doing some basic number crunching, I started to realize that I needed to take my own advice. Not long ago, I was at my mom's house for dinner. Sitting at the table with me were my mother and my grandmother. And we started talking about gym memberships. I found it quite silly that people spend enormous sums of money on services that are not even used. And I stated that people who really want to have a gym membership and are considering getting one should do this: 1. Find out how much it costs per month. 2. Take that much out of your monthly accounts/spending money every month for the next 3 months and put it in a drawer somewhere and forget about it. 3. Go out every single week for the next 3 months and go for a 1-2 mile walk (roughly ...