Queercents

Two more kids have entered the Queercents sandbox. Isn’t this fun?

Jan Hanseth is a freelance web developer, a student of massage therapy, a belly dancer, and an amateur chef. As she enters her thirties, she is moving away from corporate IT, and is finding herself in the middle of a major career and lifestyle change.

She lives with her partner in Portland, Maine. In her spare time, which is pretty hard to come by these days, she likes to knit and crochet, and watch stupid television. She also enjoys long walks on the beach. (Really. There’s a nice beach very close to her apartment.) Jan will be posting on Wednesdays. Learn more about her by clicking here.

Mike Bode moved to Atlanta in 1998 after graduating Indiana University with a degree in sociology. When there were no sociology jobs waiting for him, he spent two years being mostly unemployed. He was a self-described “spend-a-holic” burning through a modest inheritance and running up debt on credit cards.

Finally in 2000, completely broke with no savings, he realized it was time to get serious about his finances and his future. He took an entry-level job as a customer service representative learning everything from computer repair to SQL in his spare time. The job was meant to cover the bills temporarily while he figured out what to do with his life. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Jennifer Natalya Fink is the most recent contributing writer to join Queercents. As a lesbian parent, she offers a distinct perspective since we have all heard that kids cost money. Is there a price to pay when we decide to have children? We’ll find out!

Jennifer is a professor of English at Georgetown University, the author of two novels (V and Burn, both from Suspect Thoughts Press), and, most importantly, the mother of a gorgeous and hilarious baby girl. She and her family live in the DC area, and are interested in helping queer families prosper. We look forward to her postings.

Last weekend I put out a casting call for the Queercents intern and after receiving a plethora of sincere replies, we settled on the smart and delightful, Melissa Eastlake. I was sold the moment the sombrero and story about looming student loans showed up in my inbox. Apparently, her time at that expensive women’s college was fun… but now the real world calls; credit card and all.

Melissa is a 22-year-old Libra on the cusp of Virgo (careful in finance, reckless in love). She graduated from Hollins University in May of 2007 with a B.A. in Communication Studies and English/Creative Writing, and now she’s getting settled into her first real-world job and apartment.

She lives in the DC area, where, except for college, she has lived all her life, and works in PR with a focus on web-based communications. While she’s always kept a careful budget, the barrage of new information and responsibilities in the Big Girl World has led her to an obsessive interest in researching the ins and outs of personal finance. She is flatly terrified of her brand new credit card, has obscene student loans, and likes to interpret “frugality” as a karmic mandate to find the best happy hour deals in the city. Read the rest of this entry »

Queercents has a new contributing writer. Meet Phil Lavoie. A couple of week’s ago, Phil asked to write a guest post about the FairTax plan and the LGBT community. He’s a fan. Some of you weren’t quite as enthusiastic about his ideas. But that’s okay… he created a stir in the comments section and prompted some lively conversation on the topic. I asked him to stick around and share other views about money and his financial goals.

Phil grew up just outside Boston, Massachusetts and has been working since he was 12. He’s been a newspaper boy, the guy who puts rubber bands on lobster claws, a caddie, and an IT support guy.

Phil has been living in the Midwest for over 4 years. He and his partner moved to Indianapolis in 2006 to have their money go further and to be able to put aside some for retirement. He spends a vast amount of his spare time worrying about finances and preparing his taxes. You can learn more about Phil by clicking here.

“I had really gone to Washington as a short pit stop on my way to graduate school.” – Monica Lewinsky

Looking for a short pit stop? Queercents needs an intern. We can’t promise fame and fortune but we’re busy and need help.

After interviewing The Amateur Gourmet for Ten Money Questions, I noticed he posted a call for interns and received thousands of applicants. He picked four.

We’re looking for just one. These are the “job” requirements. Read the rest of this entry »

“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” – Chinese Proverb

Ever since receiving my review copy of the Brazen Careerist six months ago, I’ve been a bona fide groupie of Penelope Trunk. I love her writings, her counterintuitive advice, and the way she connects with readers. She quickly made me feel like a friend and after getting to know her at the BlogHer conference this summer, I count her as one.

I was thrilled when she invited me to guest post at Brazen Careerist about being gay at work. The entry ran today and you can read it at the Brazen Careerist blog: Gays who are out of the closet at work have stronger careers. Enjoy!

It’s time for our weekend call for new subscribers. Click on this link to subscribe to our RSS feed and you’ll never miss a Queercents post. We’re committed to helping you achieve financial freedom and our daily posts provide insight and inspiration.

Of course, you never know what you might learn when you subscribe. We have banking and bill pay tips, girl tips, boy tips, career tips, and just about everything in between from the rich and famous talking about money to those of us sleeping with it.

So what are you waiting for? Join our community and subscribe!

We’ve added another contributing writer to Queercents! I’m thrilled that he’s from Dallas because we can finally say the South is represented here. Bill has kept a personal blog for the last couple of years, touching on a range of topics, from relationships to video games to economics and politics. He’s been a commenter on Queercents for some time so I finally asked if he wanted to become a contributing writer and he accepted.

Bill is a disciple of Ayn Rand and her Objectivism philosophy… something that rings of consensual laissez-faire capitalism and I’m sure we’ll hear more about these views and how it impacts his bank account. We look forward to his postings. You can learn more about Bill by clicking here.

“The car has become… an article of dress without which we feel uncertain, unclad, and incomplete.” – Marshall McLuhan

Last weekend as Jeanine and I picked up our rental car to drive out to the Berkshires, I laughed at seeing the Subaru sitting in the stall. Do straight people know that Subaru’s are considered lesbian cars?

Apparently so. According to The New York Times, Meghan Daum, my favorite op-ed contributor to The Los Angeles Times wrote a few years ago, “about a promising first date with a man that never led to a second one because, she later learned, the guy saw that she drove a Subaru Outback station wagon and concluded she must be a lesbian.” Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always been curious about some of the origins of different slang words we use for money - here is what I found:

Buck – Popular in 1856; this was a popular abbreviation for buckskin, a unit of exchange in the American colonies.

Clams - Clamshell made into ’strings’ of money and these strings were the standard of exchange. Whole strung olivella shells went at $1 a yard.

Smackers – This referred to the sound the clamshells made while on the string. It was also heard in the 1920’s and refers to the sound heard when coins are counted or money is smacked down on a counter. Read the rest of this entry »