Queercents

Serena Freewomyn has a way with words. She also has a way with food. In January, she began attending Le Cordon Bleu’s Culinary Management Program at Scottsdale Culinary Institute. In between all the braising and sautéing, she’s a contributing writer at the The Bilerico Project and recently interviewed Top Chef contestants and partners in life: Zoi Antonitsas and Jennifer Bietsy. She has big restaurant-owning dreams that are backed up with a solid plan to get her there. These are her words…

When Nina approached me about writing a piece for Queercents, I was pretty flattered. After giving it some more thought, I think she must be nuts! What could I possibly have to say about money that would be of interest to anyone?

Like most of my friends, I am worried about how I’m going to pay back my student loans. I’m currently going to culinary school and racking up at big stack of loans that will take forever to pay back. Working in the restaurant industry comes with long hours and very low pay. So why would I decide to go into the restaurant industry and aspire to open my own restaurant, when something like 60% of new restaurants go out of business in the first two years? What the hell was I thinking? Read the rest of this entry »

Martinique Haller lives in Chicago with her partner and works at a University. Like most grad school graduates, she has student loan debt that she’s trying to chip away at and pay off within the next two years. At the same time she still tries to live a full life and is building a life with her partner by making smart money choices. Recently, she started a personal finance blog with her older sister, called Sister Thrifty as a way to stay on track and spur each other on with paying down their debt. These are her words…

I have friends that have cashed in their 401(k) when they transferred jobs – to buy a mattress! I was in disbelief when a friend told me he did this. Not dismay, mind you, but actual, stone-cold disbelief. I thought the likelihood of someone cashing in a 401(k) for a mattress was on par with the likelihood that there is actually a boogie monster or that our next president would be a gay atheist that rides her bike to work. I might come off as sheltered, you might be thinking, “Um…some people need money, we’re not all rich”. But I’m not rich either, and the people that really need money are not the same group that cashes in 401(k)s for mattresses; they don’t have 401(k)s, which is another topic altogether. My disbelief stems mostly from one place, my childhood. Read the rest of this entry »

“S” is the writer at of Doorknobs That Lock, a blog about 2 lesbians + 1 preteen son that equals a lot of interesting moments. I asked her to write a guest post about blending their family and finances. These are her words…

My partner and I joke sometimes that we must be anti-lesbians. Not only was there no U-Haul on our second date, we’re actually not getting the U-Haul until this summer, shortly after the second anniversary of our first date. Part of the reason for taking things slowly is because we’ve each learned the hard way what happens when you rush into relationships and living together. And part of the reason is because I have a preteen son, so we’ve got all the emotions and logistics of a blended family to work through.

Blending a family also adds some wrinkles to the usual challenges couples face blending their finances. Most of the financial advice I’ve been able to find for new couples assumes the two people are coming from roughly similar financial stages in life, and generally that they’re both fairly unencumbered. They may have a few student loans or credit card debt, but nothing too complicated. But what happens when the two people come with very different sets of assets and obligations? Read the rest of this entry »

This is a guest post from Jeff Hammerberg, the founder of GayRealEstate.com, the largest company in the nation representing the rights of queer home buyers and sellers. These are his words…

As the warm vacation season approaches, the outlook for summer home buying is the brightest it has been in several years. In fact, 2008 may be the best time to buy a vacation home since 2002.

Prices have been repeatedly pummeled until they are now unrealistically depressed, even for this historical market downturn. Thanks to the current undervalued market you can buy vacation home properties in highly desirable locations for a cost that represents deep discounts from the norm - and - in some cases - bargain basement wholesale valuations. Read the rest of this entry »

A.J. is a college grad who moved to a suburb of Washington, D.C. for his first real job. He publishes a blog called The Guppie Life for other gay, young urban professionals. “Guppie = gay yuppie. Get it? Clever,” he writes. These are his words…

For a few months during my senior year of college, I was a model. Lately I’ve been receiving calls and emails from my agent. She wants me back in the fold.

And I’m saying no.

But before you start thinking that I’m a deluded egoist, allow me to explain. I was a model in the same way that chihuahuas are dogs— which is to say, barely. Welcome to the world of promotional modeling. Read the rest of this entry »

Sarah Dopp is the editor of Genderfork, a blog that explores androgyny and gender variance through artistic photography. I asked her to write a guest post about gender and money. These are her words…

I’ve given up on television and I avoid magazines. I haven’t figured out a way to escape billboards and pay-per-click banner ads yet, but I know how to cope with them now: I laugh at them.

The way I figure it, marketing is about power. Good marketing is about empowering consumers, while evil marketing is about overpowering them. Then there’s bad marketing, which is in a category of its own. Bad marketing lobs its power in the wrong direction and misses its mark entirely, wasting everyone’s precious time, energy, and money.

Those of us who reject traditional gender roles get to face an excessive amount of bad marketing in our daily lives. We threw a wrench into marketing strategy when we took on nontraditional motivations, unpredictable desires, and unusual ways of expressing our identities. As a result, they lost track of how to reach us. Fortunately for the marketers, we’re a relatively small chunk of the population that can be easily ignored. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a guest post from Jeff Hammerberg, the founder of GayRealEstate.com, the largest company in the nation representing the rights of queer home buyers and sellers. These are his words…

For months, real estate insiders have heard rumors that the nations biggest sources of residential loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would soon be able to trade in the rarified market for so-called “jumbo” loans. Now the long anticipated wait is finally over, and the rumors have become a welcome and explosively lucrative opportunity. Not only are homes in the upper price range more affordable and much easier to finance than they have ever been, but the available inventory is extraordinarily and tantilizingly diverse.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are federal national mortgage agencies. The twin quasi-governmental loan organizations report directly to Congress and are charged with the responsibility of maintaining smooth functioning and adequately financed mortgage markets. Their primary purpose is to ensure that Americans can always find affordable loans to help them purchase their share of the American Dream. But until March of 2008, the agencies were only permitted to underwrite and insure conventional loans, or those that did not exceed $417,000. Read the rest of this entry »

Rhea Becker is a Boston-based journalist and blogs at The Boomer Chronicles, a fantastic site for baby boomers. She employs humor (e.g. “Does this blog make me look fat?”) and other commentary about life on the verge of fifty (check out her five-part series on Aging and Our Senses). She’s written a guest post for Queercents about the demise of the mom and pop shop in America and why we should support local businesses. These are her words…

I’m lucky. Independent businesses are plentiful in my neighborhood of Boston (Jamaica Plain). This enables me to spend my money at a shop owned by an individual rather than continue to stuff the belly of the corporate beast. So instead of shopping at Home Depot or Lowe’s, I shop at the locally owned hardware store. One Saturday morning a few years ago I was out doing my errands when I stopped at the hardware store for a few things. When I got to the register, I realized I had meant to go to my bank first. I didn’t have a cent (nor a credit card) on me. I told the man behind the counter that I would be back to buy my things later. Without missing a beat, he began to ring up my purchases. “You’re in here all the time. Just come back and pay later.” Try that at Home Depot. Read the rest of this entry »