Queercents

Last week I analyzed my 2008 financial plans in spending and saving. This week I want to look at the rest of the categories: debt, credit and career.

Debt

As I’ve discussed before, my only debt is my massive student loans. One of the most interesting things about the comments to my original post was the suggestions for really intense and creative ways to deal with this debt… and though it was good advice it was also a little overwhelming, and requires more discipline than I have or want to develop. Read the rest of this entry »

“Cleaning up after identity theft is a marathon, not a sprint. Prepare your mind accordingly.” – Frank Mellott

In the United States, tomorrow is known as Black Friday, typically one of the biggest shopping days of the year as it launches the traditional holiday buying season. Some of you might also recognize it as Buy Nothing Day. Of course, the best way to prevent identity theft is to stay home and buy nothing, but many will still be waking up early or perhaps not going to bed this evening.

If you are hitting the malls, then here are some things you can do to prevent a stolen identity. First, let’s take an inventory of what’s in your wallet: Read the rest of this entry »

I started working at a pretty young age. I also liked to excel at whichever job I was doing. I remember the local newspaper had a contest to see which news carrier could increase their subscriptions the most. This meant going door to door to all the non-customers and asking them to receive the daily newspaper. Unfortunately, I won. Yes, I got the $100 savings bond, but it also meant that my one hour long paper route now took three hours to complete. Oops!!!

Success often has unintended consequences.

While I was in college, I worked full time, about 30 hours per week as a university tour guide, and worked my evenings as a Resident Assistant. I was also a double major and finished in four years. This led to many exciting job offers as I was graduating. I took a nice job with a fantastic salary and I was the envy of a lot of my peers. Read the rest of this entry »

Nina had written about fighting over money and it got me thinking. My partner Jason and I haven’t ever fought over money. We may have disagreements about which bill to pay first or how much money we should be saving, but we haven’t ever fought over the topic.

I think there are a few reasons for this. The first is that together we don’t have any credit card debt. The only debts that we have are my student loans and our Mortgage debts. Everything else we save up for before we buy.

Another reason is how we handled our dating lifestyle. When straight couples date, it is a social norm for the guy to pick up the tab. While I disagree with this idea, it definitely does not translate very well into the gay community. When there are two guys, do you pay twice the amount? When there are two gals, does nobody pay? Obviously, this is not the case. Read the rest of this entry »

You pay your credit card in full every month. You’re diligent about every aspect of your finances. Fees don’t really matter to you then, right? Wrongo! I’ve been an evangelist for years about the evils of credit card late fees and how they can run you right into the ground. Yet, I broke my own damn rule last week and it just plain kills me!

That’s right, with all that is going on in my life coupled with the Labor Day holiday the due date of my credit card came rolling in and whooshing by without a single sound. Even though I do online bill pay, since I don’t have any minimum amount set up to be paid at a given date and I generally do my finances once a month near the beginning of the month, that September 2nd due date went sailing by. I never even noticed until the 3rd when I sat down to do my finances. Then, much to my chagrin, even the near immediacy of online payment couldn’t save my sorry behind. Sure enough, I surfed over to the credit card site and there were my fears realized in plain black and white - LATE FEE $39. OUCH!! Read the rest of this entry »

I’m writing this with gritted teeth, because I am so insanely mad at myself over the whole overdraft protection thing. As I mentioned in my last post, Mommy Dearest has saved my butt on this issue numerous times of late, as I’ve been a jobless college student spending an ungodly amount of hours on public transit everyday because I’m too broke to own a car. Oh, wait, this is all a good thing, because I’ll be graduating debt-free! (If I can learn to control my bank account before then.)

For me, I have never consciously used my ATM/Debit card when I knew I didn’t have enough (or any) money in my bank account. All the times I’ve overdrawn have been because I didn’t have an accurate perception of how much money was actually in that black hole. Needless to say, when I overdraw my account, nine times out of ten I am overdrawing by a few dollars. For which I have to pay $27 in fees. Which pisses me off.

Since opening a bank account in my own name all of a month ago, I’ve overdrawn twice, and both times were on accident. (Do you see a pattern here? Someone needs to start writing down all her purchases!) So now I have a crapload of fees to pay because I bought something a few bucks over my limit. Ugh. I need to start thinking about a getting a secured credit card so I can begin to be rewarded for spending other people’s money. Responsibly, of course.

Now there’s a savvy college student.

Sometime last year, one of my co-workers purchased an iHome clock radio for his office. He kept raving about how perfect the playback was for an office setting. I agreed. The music played audibly, but not so loud as to disturb others. I sort of wanted one too, but to shell out $89 just to hear my iPod music without headphones at work seemed like a waste of money to me.

Then I started to have a change of heart when I realized exactly how annoying it is trying to do my job while wearing headphones. iPod alternatives didn’t work out either. The crappy speakers on my work computer played internet radio horribly. And besides, I associate internet radio with my unwinding time at home. When I leave work, I want it to stay there.

Since I rely on music at work to take the edge off my detail-oriented, tedious job, I wanted to find a frugal medium that didn’t compromise producitivity and listening enjoyment. That darn iHome began to look more and more perfect, especially when Costco sent me a flyer in January for a $20 discount on the iHome.

There were a couple of catches though. 1) The coupon wouldn’t be effective until mid-March. 2) I could only buy the iHome with cash or debit since Costco accepts only Amex, which I don’t have nor want. I’m much more frugal when it comes spending to cash, which made me seriously question whether the iHome was a worthy buy anymore.

And that was the setup for Costco showing me how to articulate to myself and others exactly how to avoid spending frivilously with credit cards. Read the rest of this entry »

“You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.” – Eric Hoffer

Last month I ripped out an advertisement that was promoting the Diamond Right Hand Ring. I later learned that the campaign has been running for a couple of years, but it took Valentine’s Day for me to finally notice.

I recall thinking that these are smart marketers: “Your left hand likes evenings at home. Your right hand loves a night out. Your left hand reads stories before bed. Your right hand lives a story worth reading. Women of the world, raise your right hand.” Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a college student like me, you know that getting your first credit card is like taking a step into the adult world; if you’re just coming out of a bankruptcy, you know all too well how difficult it can be to re-establish your credit. For those who are new to or re-entering the world of credit bureaus, APRs, and Mr. FICO, breaking into the credit scene is daunting and frustrating. Fortunately, there is an awesome credit-card-like square of plastic that can serve as a key to the realm behind those pearly Visa gates: the secured credit card.

A secured credit card is similar to a regular credit card”you use it exactly the same, you still get a monthly bill, and you still gripe about the interest rate. It’s an easy way for you to start building credit, minus the risks involved for the lender. Secured credit cards look exactly like “real,” or unsecured, credit cards. In order to get one, you must find a bank that offers them, and open a savings account with that bank where you will deposit as much money as you would like to have in your line of credit (usually up to $5,000). Bankrate.com has an excellent spreadsheet of banks that offer secured cards, and it’s competitor, Credit.com, has a similar webpage as well. Read the rest of this entry »

While there is a lot that goes into getting our finances in order, you can buckle down & make tremendous progress in a short time. Getting your finances in order doesn’t have to be like ripping off a band aid slowly. And, as we write about here a lot, finances is more than dollars and cents. It has to do with your whole life plan.

That’s why I was excited to find the “31 Days to Fix Your Finances” plan at The Simple Dollar . In daily steps, you can walk through a process to look at your finances from soup to nuts in one month’s time. Trent breaks it down into 5 stages that really make sense:

Stage 1: Figuring Out Your Goals And Values
Stage 2: Evaluating Your Situation
Stage 3: Building Your Own Life Budget, Not Following Someone Else’s Prescription
Stage 4: Looking At Your Life, Piece By Piece
Stage 5: Setting The Stage For Lifelong Success

Within each stage he has daily steps; exercises like “Your Five Main Values” , “Your True Hourly Wage”, and “Evaluating Your Expenses”. Each daily exercise can be completed in an hour or so (at least for a rough draft, I know I can work with clients some time to get REALLY clear on values, goals, and plans). And, at the end of the month you have a HUGE accomplishment in terms of getting your finances in order.

Has anyone been through the 31 days? If so, please share your experiences in the comments….