preparing to travel!
My bag is already packed, for the most part. I AM GOING ON VACATION! And I don’t even want to work this week – mentally, I’m already in vacation mode!
How’re my finances looking today? Well, my general spending account is kinda decimated, because I intentionally made my allowance smaller this week. First, I made arrangements for cheap lunch through the week, and secondly, I went out for dinner over the weekend. But it’s okay, I won’t need anything else between now and payday.
My New Orleans spending account is down a little, too, because I used it to buy some pretty new dresses (all of which were on sale) for the trip. Tomorrow, I’m getting that long-anticipated pedicure (only my second one ever) and I might pick up a pair of new sandals, too. I’m putting a little more into the Nawlins account on Thursday when I’m paid, too. There will be plenty of petty cash for transportation expenses like cab fare, enough money for my very first professional massage, enough for beignets at Cafe Du Monde, enough for souvenirs for myself and others, enough for at least one nice Louisiana seafood dinner – I’ve never gone away from home without having to worry about my spending before. This is awesome! I did it by putting a little money to the side from almost every check for the past two months or so. I can spend it without worry, knowing that it’s going to be great to come back and still be debt-free. Now that’s a vacation!
retrospective
I can’t let the month fade out without taking note that I started this blog, The Hustle of Sistah Ant, about a year ago. I have really had a good time writing this blog and reading others’ blogs. If you look at my net worth chart, you may notice that although I was already making financial progress before starting this blog, there is a marked difference in the speed of my progress after I started this blog. It has helped me very much, in various ways. For example, my self-inflicted mandate to write at least four days a week has forced me to be more reflective on the state of my finances more often. Also, having the progress bars in my sidebar has been helpful, because I would actually be more aggressive in paying down debt and saving money just to make the progress bars move faster. Another perk has been getting feedback from commenters – thank you so much for reading and commenting! It lets me know that I’m not just talking to myself, and it’s helped me to learn and get various perspectives.
And, since I’ve already directed you to my net worth chart, let’s talk about it. Since June 2007, here’s how far I’ve come in my progress:
Difference in cash assets: $11,816
Difference in stocks: $200
Difference in retirement savings: $2,003
Difference in car equity: $2,181
Difference in assets: $12,229
Difference in credit card debt: ($6,818) – I am now revolving debt-free!
Difference in debt: ($13,713)
Total difference in net worth over the past year: $25,942
slacker
I put the money into a Sharebuilder account but I haven’t done any work yet to decide which stocks and/or funds I want to purchase. Sad. Pitiful. I can do better. But hey, I’ve been distracted. So now, I need to make this enough of a priority, because if I don’t, my money will continue to sit in a money market account looking sad and pitiful, not getting any of the action. For all this, I could’ve put it into my My Own Home account.
last day of brokeness
There’s this little song that plays in my head on Wednesdays, the day before my direct deposit wire hits my checking account. It has the same melody as the 12 days of Christmas: "On the last day of brokeness my true love said to me…" That’s it. There are no more lyrics to the song. That part just plays on a loop. Yes, it’s annoying, but I can’t help the songs that play in my imagination.
This week, the last day of brokeness has come not a moment too soon. I’ve got a credit card to pay off, retirement savings to do, New-Orleans-trip-spending-money-savings to save, bus tokens to buy – oh and most importantly, household expenses to kick in on. Whew!
I’m still thinking about buying some new clothes before the New Orleans trip, and maybe getting a pedicure before I go. I’m not too sure about these things, but I’ll see if I can fit ‘em in.
So, I am one day from spending* my paycheck into oblivion. I like Wednesdays! I should really flesh out the lyrics of that payday carol, though… hey, if you guys have any suggestions, help a sistah out.
*I know, I know, there’s something that seems un-frugal about spending your whole check before you even get your hands on it, but let’s remember, I am saving Herculean percentages of every check, so even though my checking account will be lean when I get finished with it, my savings account will get fatter by the time I’m done sending money from my paycheck to fly off in several directions.
substance and style
I have this aunt. I love her to pieces. She’s a nice lady – a giver. If something means a lot to her or she sees someone who is in need, she will make a way to do what she can for the cause. She’s got several brothers and sisters, and among them, she and her family have the biggest house in the nicest neighborhood and drive the newest cars. She keeps her hair and nails professionally done. Sometimes she hosts barbecues and has family over. They are truly blessed. She figures that among her own family and her in-laws, people are jealous of her possessions, and that is the reason why their relationships with family members aren’t better than they are.
I personally think that if that is true, she and her husband are partially to blame.
I like to visit my aunt – she’s like my favorite aunt. But I don’t see her and her husband’s behavior through rose colored glasses. They might not realize that they are doing it, but they say things that are off-putting. They talk about things they do and how much they cost. They talk about things they have and how much they cost. They accept compliments on new things they acquire… and comment on how much they cost. They complain about how much the things they bought cost them. They talk about the cost of things that they are thinking of acquiring. In fairness, sometimes they don’t talk about the costs… but they talk about the possessions or activities anyway, knowing that the mere mention of these things without numbers will still get their point across. Other times, they lend family members money and then complain to other family members about how long it’s taking so-and-so to pay them their x-amount-of-dollars back.
I am not jealous of the things that they are able to do with their money – they work hard for it and have been working hard for years. I’m happy when they get stuff they like. But another reason why I’m not jealous of them is because I can get my own stuff my own way in my own time. Yet another reason I’m not jealous of them, or other people who have nice things, is because sometimes, with the big-ticket items, people think about the stuff without thinking about the debt people got into to get that stuff. Somebody can be jealous of my car if they want to be. But I bet they’re not thinking about my car payment – if they were, maybe they wouldn’t be so jealous. When I move into my house, someone can be jealous of my house if they want… but I bet they won’t be jealous of my mortgage. I am actually more concerned with the financial security I can attain than with the amount of nice things I can get. So until I’m debt free and I’ve got a great retirement savings, there are more important things for me to be concerned with than what someone else has.
All these things aside, I think that the standoffish behavior that my aunt experiences is due in part to rudeness. I don’t think that it is necessarily rude to talk about the things you have, or even how much they cost if you’ve been asked. However, if volunteering that information every time you spend money is how you relate to people, you can’t reasonably be surprised if they don’t want to hear it – especially if they have less stuff than you and you are constantly reminding them of it. And if they get jealous, it may be due in part to how much people think you have based on what you tell them. In that case, the problem isn’t your substance – it’s your style.
What sense would it make for me to talk numbers with friends? Sure, people who know me know that I’m doing okay, but if I talk about money with others, we talk about the stuff we have in common like debt, savings issues, budgeting issues, motivation issues, work issues, and dreams for the future. I’m not going to put my relationships in jeopardy by annoyingly bringing up how much I have all the time. Despite the substance I am in the process of acquiring, I try to stay conscious of my style of handling it. Maybe I’ve learned what not to do from my aunt.
planning, cash flow, and debt
I did all the stuff I had planned to do. I put a super-sized deposit into the My Own Home fund. I started a Share Builder account. I gave to folks who need help. I left myself an allowance. And then, I went to get gas.
I usually fill my tank once it gets to the 1/2 mark, in order to keep from eating too much into my allowance. However, I haven’t put any gas in my since I was on my roadtrip down south, preparing to come back home. I’ve barely been driving at all in the time since then, and even though I had less than half of a tank, what I had left has been enough for the last three weeks. But once again, when I decided how much I would leave myself as an allowance, I didn’t take account for how much I would need to fill up my gas tank. Certainly, I could have only put a 1/2 tank of gas in when I went to the pump, but I would rather fill it at the current price, knowing that the price may go up and that if I don’t fill up now, I will eventually – might as well get it done. I paid $3.93 cents for each of my 12.21 gallons for a total of $48.11. I charged it to my credit card, which I’ll pay off at the end of the month. That way, I’ve preserved my cash flow, which is good to have in case you need it.
I think of cash flow as cash-on-hand, which allows spending without incurring debt. If you don’t have this, and you find yourself in a situation when you need to spend money, you will either use credit to get by or cut into your emergency fund (if you have one, and you should). And of course, if you cut into your emergency fund, you’re in debt to yourself. If you don’t replenish the dollars that come from your emergency fund, it will dwindle and not be enough for you when you really need it, which may lead to – you guessed it – using credit and getting into more debt. (I’ve been there before and I don’t want to go back.) I think of my "allowance"/"cash flow"/"spending account" as the fund before the emergency fund. I can use it for spending, and the better I budget how much my allowance should be after dealing with other plans and obligations, the lower the danger of having to either use my credit card, like I just did for gas, or cut into my emergency fund.
In this situation, I will still keep an eye on my cash flow. As I spend money between now and my next pay date, I’m going to try to avoid spending $48 of the cash I have now, so that I won’t even have to depend on my next paycheck to pay my credit card bill. Depending on your next check to pay for something is merely another form of debt to yourself. The best way to stay out of debt is to pay-as-you-go, not pay-as-you-anticipate receiving future funds.
The problem here is not gas prices, my income, bills, or other obligations. All of this analysis and spending restraint could have been avoided if I’d simply budgeted differently. Discipline is important, but so is good planning. This is a recurring problem area for me in my hustle – one that I will continually keep working on.
save now buy later
Mama Ant and I were talking about something that someone I know is going to buy. She balked when I told her that they were going to wait until they had enough money to pay for it outright, and I agreed with that plan. She said it would take forever to get it that way – why would they wait? They could just get a decent down payment together and then the payments wouldn’t even be that high. Before you know it, it would be paid off.
Wow. I felt like we were speaking two different languages.
Don’t get me wrong – I think that credit can be a very good and useful thing. I’m using it to pay for my education, my car, and I’ll soon have a mortgage of my own. But those are pretty much the only things I think I really need to pay for over time, and I’m using "need" very loosely. In fact, I told my mom last night about my plan to finish paying for my current car ahead of schedule and to pay for my next car without financing. I also told Mama Ant that I anticipate not relying on credit to furnish My Own Home, and she listened patiently and approvingly. But I think, from the tone in her voice over the phone, that she thinks I’m just being ‘extra’.
I explained my reasoning. There have been times when I’ve been unemployed, and one of my principal concerns was how to keep up with at least the minimum payments on my credit card balances. I never want to have that question again. Also, I never want to stay in a job situation I don’t like because it would be too difficult to sustain my debt load. It just makes too much sense to me to avoid debt and avoid having monthly payments as much as possible. I love the way it feels to know at the end of each month that there is absolutely no balance on any of my credit cards. Mama Ant could relate to that, but she said that she’s cleaned her cards off only to (seemingly inevitably) load them back up again. At this point in the conversation, I felt like I was trying to convert a lost soul.
My mom is not a crazy person. She is not stupid. She even has her reservations about debt, and she’s no slouch when it comes to fiscal responsibility. Yet I fear that she is far too comfortable with the idea of "Buy now, pay later." It is as if "Save now, buy later" is no longer acceptable to her. Why delay your gratification? I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that I spent the first ten years of my adult life under the shadow of credit-card debt balances. I’m not blaming my debt on my parents… but perhaps I got into some of that debt because of an aversion to delayed gratification that could very possibly have been learned at home. I don’t know. But to see my mom go towards her golden years with this attitude and hardly any retirement savings is simultaneously sobering and frightening.
well, here goes
I am putting an end to the indecision about the fate of my stimulus check. I am tired of thinking about it, and I want it out of my hands. First, the poll results (click here) were mostly in favor of putting the money in the My Own Home account. You guys really know my passion! A large part of you were split evenly between keeping the money around in case I need it and investing with Sharebuilder for the first time. But I listened to the comments as well.
Since I received my check last night, I made my decision last night.
- Half of the money is going to the My Own Home account.
- A third of it is going to start my very own Sharebuilder account.
- The remainder is going to help people who are not doing as well as I’m doing financially.
Thanks for all your help!
…One more thing – wish me well, please? I’ve got a job interview today!
don’t throw it away
Few days ago, I said this about my stimulus payment:
"The government wasted paper to send me a notice that my check is on its way, as if I didn’t know. (I promptly recycled it.) "
Then I went online to see if they’ve sent my stimulus payment, and you know what they said? That you’re supposed to hold on to the paper that tells you how much you’re going to be paid because you’re going to need it when you file your 2008 tax return. So uh, don’t just recycle it. And uh, I’m glad I only recycled the envelope and not the letter itself. (I intended to get rid of the letter once I got my check… guess I won’t be doing that now.)
ten thousand dollars trois
I don’t speak French, but I can at least count to ten (with horrible pronunciation) and I know trois is three. This is the third time I’ve had a ten thousand dollar milestone to share on the blog. The first time, I’d managed to move my net worth ten thousand dollars higher. The next time, I had increased my cash assets by over ten thousand dollars since the time I’d started this blog.
This time is the most exciting for me by far.
There’s exactly ten thousand dollars in my My Own Home savings account right now!
I’ve still got to save another $3,000 to get enough down payment to feel comfortable putting on a home, and I’ve still got to beef up my emergency fund so that when I write the big check for My Own Home, I won’t be without a savings (see my new progress bar?). However, this is a momentous occasion for me – I have never had a five-figure account balance before. This is even my first time saving over $1,000 without the help of a student aid disbursement or a severance check.
This is nice – and I should be able to save even more as the month wears on.
