Just when I thought I'd read the best of the best, I Will Teach You To Be Rich comes along and jumps into my Top 3 Favs :)

BOOK: I Will Teach You To Be Rich
AUTHOR: Ramit Sethi
SEXINESS: Off the charts!

While each book I've read adds a little somethin' somethin' to the PF world, this one comes the closest in capturing the main qualities I look for in a book: Theory, practicality, "how to's", and most importantly, entertainment! If you don't enjoy what you're reading, you'll never finish it - and I guarantee this one does the trick (unless you don't have a sense of humor, in which case you should stop reading now...)

But one of the coolest things is that I now have a book that I can recommend to all "young" people, esp. those fresh out of graduation. While The Richest Man in Babylon and The Automatic Millionaire are fantastic reads, they don't completely circle the realm of personal finance (or at least not modernly). IWTYTBR is the perfect mash-up of both of these books, except with even MORE flair and energy. Which is exactly what us young people need - a quick kick in the pants and a few jokes to get us going in the right direction.

If you like my style of writing, you'll definitely love Ramit's....if he weren't Indian I'd have wondered if we were separated at birth ;) Here's what I mean:

"Why does just about everything I read about personal finance make me want to paint myself with honey and jump into a nest of fire ants? Personal-finance advice has been geared toward old white men and taught by old white men for far too long."

So yeah, he's pretty damn funny. But he's also smart as hell. A graduate of Stanford and creator of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com - one of the more successful pf blogs out there - he really knows his stuff. I'd like to think I've mastered most of this over time, but there's always something new to learn! In my case, it was the "investing" section of his book. Unlike the other books, he gets into this pretty well and gives some solid advice as to how to EASILY do this w/out much worry. He also gets into optimizing credit cards, savings accounts, automation, and a handful of other goodies. There's even a 6-week program to follow to REALLY get your ish in order - I highly recommend it.

And while he doesn't regard the budget as sexy (gasp!), he does offer a "Conscious Savings Plan" in its place - which is fine with me, as long as people STICK to it. In fact, I believe Ramit says that budgeting is the worst word in the history of the world! Remind me to punch him in the face later for that, okay? Good, good. Here's a better sneak peek into it (click on link for full-page viewing):

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

So there you have it - one of my new (again) favorite books! It just hit Amazon last week, so it's hot of the press baby! And guess what? Your boy J. Money has 3 copies to give away! Yup, and all you have to do is leave a comment - that's it. Tell us what you're eating, what you're working on, or just tell us a joke :) Either way, leave it in the comments by this Friday (April 3rd) by 12 noon EST for your chance to win your very own FREE copy.

And as my brotha from another motha (Ramit) would say, "Getting started is more important than becoming an expert". Follow this 85% solution to your finances and it's smooth sailing ahead!

-----
*UPDATE: Giveaway now closed...Winners will be shown tomorrow at noon est :)

Labels: book reviews, giveaways

If you didn't get a paycheck one day, would you be able to survive? And what about 2 or 3 paychecks down the line? Scary to think about. I've been fortunate enough to realize this 2 years ago, but if you'd asked me then I probably would have $hit in my pants before I could even give you an answer ;) Okay, well I wasn't that bad, but I certainly wasn't as aware as I am now.

According to a recent Consumerist post, 50% Of Americans Are 2 Paychecks Away From Having Big Financial Problemos! That is a lot. And it really makes me wonder how long we, as in The United States, can keep this up before it screws over everyone in the process. Here's a quote from a place they quoted (MetLife):

"Without a steady paycheck, 50% of Americans say they could not meet their financial obligations for more than a month - and, of that, a disturbing 28% couldn't support themselves for more than two weeks of unemployment."

Everyone has their reasons for not being secure money-wise, but I'd bet saving an extra $50 a month is more than possible in 99% of these situations. Do that for just a year and you've already gotten yourself $600 (not including interest)! That alone is an entire paycheck for some people, and it's really not that hard to get started.

Do you know what I'm gonna advise now? Of course you do cuz it's one of my favorites: Make sure you're building up your Emergency Fund! I don't really need to go into WHY they're important here (you can put 2 and 2 together) but you do have to make sure you're on it. I can't think of a single reason why anyone can't put aside even $20 a month. You don't have to have $3,000 or $10,000 in there right now, just do yourself a favor and be WORKING on it.

That's the moral of the story today - getting into the habit of xfering over little chunks of money to cover your a$$ when times are rough. You certainly don't have to listen to me, but it would be a shame to hear that my lovely readers are part of that 50% who are 2 paychecks away from poop-ville! Don't be a statistic, be a rock star.

Labels: advice, emergency funds, paychecks

Budgets are Sexy now has an official theme song...and it's a Rap! (did you doubt?) This all started when we had a rap off between Credit Goddess & BP last week for the personal finance crown. We never declared a winner, but it's safe to say they both spit the maddest rhymes and legitimately shared the glory!

But more importantly, this proves that personal finance CAN be fun - which is why I got into this in the first place :) So while I didn't produce this new theme song myself, it marks a proud accomplishment for this blog, and gives me great hope for further education! And with that, I present to you the slickest beats this side of the Mississippi - courtesy of my boy D. Ninja over at PunchDebtInTheFace.com:

(if the player doesn't show up, click here to listen)

"Budgets Are Sexy Rap" Lyrics:

(Welcome to the Budgets are Sexy rap...
Brought to you by your boy at Punch Debt in the Face...
Punch Debt in the...in the...in the...)

Shout outz to the peeps who find themselves in a mess
Listen' up now, out my mouth comes the hotness
Rapping about money can be a lengthy process
But with my lyrical flow, P.F. is what I address

Budgets are $exy is the name of this website
Go ahead and look around this is your invite
J. Money be blogging every morning, day, and night
If you follow his teachings you'll end up all right

A flow about money is what you're sure to get
follow these three rules to help evade debt
spend less then you make, avoid using credit
and you'd be a fool not to save for retirement

Budgets are $exy is for the simple man
No need for big words, just a clear-cut game plan
My path to debt freedom this is where it all began
Forever I remain a sexy budget fan

He's a baller shot caller making graphics and displays
Posting up fun little pictures each and every day
Using art in the message he plans to convey
J. Money's musings are like a finance buffet

The name of the game is personal finance
Making love with money is my favorite kind of romance
To fight off nasty debt one needs to take a strong stance
Follow J's advice and your bank account should enhance

(This has been a Punch Debt in the Face production...
Budgets are Sexy baby........haHAAH!)

Thank you all for your continued support! And mad ups again to Punch Debt in the Face for making this white boy's dream come true :) Let's continue speaking the good word, and having fun with this stuff...

Labels: awesomely awesome, blogging

Favorite Articles:

• Pretty interesting (and true?) cartoon - Homeless.
• The IRS has way too much time, and money, on their hands - WTF?
• "Weaky" Awards #13 - The Cave Dwellers - AWESOME.
• Want shares of BudgetsAreSexy? - Virtual.
• 31 Days to Build a Blog with ProBlogger - Sign-up!
  

Favorite Carnivals:

• Carnival of Personal Finance - "Learn the basics of investing" ed. by Four Pillars. *Editor's pick
• Carnival of 20 Something Finances - "Mustache" ed. by Pimp Your Finances. *Editor's pick
• Festival of Frugality #170 - "Frugal living is timeless" ed. hosted by Money Ning.
• Money Hacks Carnival - "Spring" ed. hosted by Money Tld.

Labels: weekly roundup

Yikes - We got a live one here folks! A fellow reader (we'll call her Lost in Louisiana) emailed over and needs our advice. Her husband started making quite a bit more money these days, and it seems like their priorities have now been shifted around - at least in her view.

I've already emailed her back, but I wanted to get some more thoughts on the matter as there's never a right or wrong answer when it comes to this stuff... Here's what she has to say:

My husband & I have been married a year and are already having problems with our finances. We both have the same goals (save for a new house & vehicle) but our spending habits are very different. I would love to get your opinion on what a good budget would be.

When Husband & I bought our home together three years ago we were engaged & broke. I was making $11.00 an hour and he was making $9.00 an hour. We were by no means wealthy, but we were so happy and we honestly never fought about money. Our bills were always paid on time but we didn't have much extra. At the time my income covered the house payment & his covered all of the other home expenses. He paid for his truck & truck insurance & I paid for my college and car insurance.

Shortly before we got married my husband got a new job making double what he did before. He works overtime some weeks (we don't know when it will be offered) and when he does, it adds $300-$565 extra on his pay check.

After he got the job we started going out every weekend, and eating out at least 3 times a week. I looked over our bank statement (for the first time in a long time) and we spent over $1,200 in food and going out in just one month!!! I was shocked and when I spoke to my husband about setting a stricter budget he got defensive, he said that he doesn't want to work his life away and that when he works overtime he wants to be able to go out. He even threw the "it's my money" card (I was not expecting that)

I'm more of a saver; I put money away for my school & for a new car. I rarely buy myself anything and I'm starting to get jealous of my husband's spending habits. Please help! It was easier when we made close to the same amount of money, but since he's gotten this job I don't know what to do.

This is our income now and what we do with the money, any advice would be appreciated.

My paycheck: $788.00 bi –weekly
$332 – savings account toward a new vehicle
$25- our home savings account
$35- school account
$316-House payment
$80- my personal spending money including my gasoline
All automatically drafted into these separate accounts

My Husband: at least $544.00 a week (his last 4 paychecks added to $3174.60). He puts $200 a week into our house account, and the rest goes into his personal account. When we go out to a bar with friends he always pays for drinks and he pays for our deer hunting expenses (did I mention I live in (edited)). Occasionally he will give me money toward my car savings account.

I know there has to be a better way to divide our money, where we can both work towards our goals and have a comfortable amount of separate spending money. Please help before money ruins our marriage!

There it is! Open and honest for all the help she can get. She's already checked out my ideas on managing your accounts while married, but she needs just a little more direction. As I stated in my email to her, I think this can be broken down in 2 parts. The first is to sit down with each other (possibly over coffee or a beer) and understand where exactly they're coming from 100%. Once they can acknowledge there is a problem, they can work on resolving it TOGETHER.

The second thing I mentioned was to jot down all expenses (both house-related and personal) and decide afresh who should pay for what, and to possibly implement a % system. This will not only help re-distribute the wealth, but will allow flexibility down the road instead of just a "quick fix". And I like the idea of keeping the separate "spend however I want" accounts open as well. It allows for some freedom and a little fun which Mr. Husband clearly finds important :) Another option would be for Mr. Husband to donate a little more into the "house account", maybe $500 instead of $200? and then allow him to spend any overtime money himself - no questions asked.

Of course, that's only my ideas and they're pretty skewed ;) All I know is that it's better to fix this now - and not just temporarily- before time continues and our friend Mr. Resentment comes into play. So whatcha got for our dear friend Lost in Louisiana?

-------
ps: "Legal" tells me that I have to add the following: I am not a professional, nor a psychiatrist.

Labels: advice, married life, reader mail

Whether you believe AIG is in the right or wrong with this bonus fiasco, you can't help but wonder what it's like from an insider. Particularly one who received one of these bonuses, and who writes an extremely interesting letter before he walks out the door. It's a long one (that's what she said!), but it sure does make you think twice about bashing them...Courtesy of Consumerist, here's Jake DeSantis' public resignation letter from AIG.

Labels: crazy economy

Oooh can you imagine that? Whipping out your cellie to pay for a chocolate bar or a movie ticket! Boy I'd be in a lot of trouble. It's one thing to make things convenient, but THAT takes it to the extreme.

Regardless, it may venture into our lives sooner than we think. There are still a mess of hoops to jump through, like getting all the carriers and manufacturers to agree on revenue sharing and stuff, BUT it still has a good possibility of showing up one day. According to a recent article over at SiliconValley.com,

"The technology exists, and people in Japan have been using it for the past five years to pay for everything from train tickets to groceries to candy in vending machines. And in small-scale trials around the world, including in Atlanta, New York and the Bay Area, nearly everyone has liked using this form of payment"

Brilliant! It's no shock that the US is a little behind on this stuff (why is that?) but me thinks this may not be such a good thing. We're pretty bad at saying no to quick & easy expenses as it is, so what's this gonna do to the average American? There are still a lot of questions to be answered, but unfortunately for now we'll just have to sit around and wait. In the meantime, I offer a list of pros and cons to nibble at:

PROS to using your cell phone as a credit card/check card:

• Fast & easy payment - Just swipe, wave, or whatever and you've paid for it
• You *always* have it on you! No need to do anything different, you're already used to this.
• The coolness factor - I give anyone mad props for being so tech savvy, I don't care who you are ;)

CONS to using your cell phone as a credit card/check card:

• Fast & easy payment - If it's too easy, get prepared to spend more.
• If you lose it, just another worry to have - According to the article though, you could possibly program it so that you need a code that only you know in order to access this payment option (sorta like a pin #)
• If it's not charged up, it's worthless - so don't count on this as your one and only form of payment, you'll still have to keep other cards along with you. Plus, I doubt it would work for larger payments and the like anyways.

Regardless, this fancy-pants way of paying is still awesome to think about. It's so 2012! I'm sure there's a lot more research being done out there in google-land that I'm just too lazy to get right now, but I welcome you to drop a comment and let me know what you think. And if you've tried this before, you BETTER tell us how it was! Cuz if not, i'll totally do something to you....yeah!....like, uh.....tell you you're a stupid-face! So there.

----
ps: My thanks goes out to Mrs. Budgetsaresexy for bringing this to my attention, I owe you a super-fantastic backrub later tonight! (ow ow)

Labels: awesomely awesome

As my loving mother always says, "it doesn't hurt to ask". And this time I'll agree with her :) Especially because she just tried this herself and came out with some pretty surprising results.

She wanted this fancy pants coffee maker but it was all sold out at Bed Bath and Beyond. So what does she do? She brings her clipped out coupon (showing the coffee maker at $20 off) into Best Buy and proudly finds a manager. Now, if I were accompanying her this is usually at this point where i'd be squirming and thinking stuff like, "geez mom, you ALWAYS do this!" or "this is SO embarassing!" like a little 13 y/o girl. Luckily though I wasn't there -my dad was. And like most men, he quietly walked away and just let her do her magic ;)

And what do ya know, it worked! The Manager gladly accepted it and offered her the best customer service she had hoped to receive. Wow, she is good. And so is that manager! Perhaps we can all get away with this stuff now that the economy is in shambles? Or maybe women are the only ones that could work this charm? I'd be curious to see the outcome if my mohawk'd self were to give it a try ;) Either way though, it's awesome. Good for you mom!

I can't promise you that it'll work at all stores, but there surely isn't any shame in at least TRYING to use a coupon at a competitor's store. After all, they'd much rather have your business. It may take a little talking or threating to leave the store, but if you've got the balls to try you just might save yourself some cash. Which is perfect, cuz then you can treat me to a few beers!

Labels: coupons, money hacks, saving

Mark (commenter #5) and Celtic Buffy! If this is you, holler at me (j@budgetsaresexy.com) and I'll email back the codes to pick up your FREE TurboTax Premier Online software. If this is not you, me soweee...BUT the good news is that 3 other blogger friends of mine are also giving them away! Rush on over to FiveCentNickel.com by 9pm EST tonight, then hit up my girl Mrs. Micah and enter by midnight, and lastly check out Pecuniarities by Saturday, March 28th. Thanks for participating all :)

Labels: giveaways, taxes

They're asking us to help out. Apparently they've already gotten $30k from last week's requests, and they need another $100k within the next couple of weeks. I really don't know how to take this...in all honesty the first thing that comes to mind is: Wtf?

Not so much because we're being asked to help, that's expected, but moreso because I have no idea as to what caused this debt to begin with (I kinda sorta skipped church last week when they went over it). Is it mortgage related? Are parishioners not tithing enough? I can only assume it has something to do with this economy because it seems to have come out of nowhere.

Reasons aside though, does our community even HAVE the extra funds to help bail out our little churchy church? Cuz I gotta tell ya, the amount of cash people have access to these days are slowly drying up. And what we DO have, most of us are holding on to in case of something even crazier happening. At least that's what I'd assume is happening :)

So @ church yesterday we were all asked to "sacrifice" and contribute a little more this week, and the next, so that we can clear this debt and start Easter fresh. How wonderful it would be if this indeed happened! But I can't help but wonder if we might be in the same situation again 3 months from now? If that were the case, they (the church) would be hardpressed to get even *more* of these extra funds from us to help get on track again. Not only that, is it even our duty as followers of Christ to do whatever it takes to help out? And what if we don't? Will the church file bankruptcy and leave all it's members behind? (is that even possible?) My moral side says YES - it's your obligation to help clear out this debt. But my logical/frugal side says NO - we may very well be in this same situation again.

It's hard speculating without the facts. When it comes down to it, I'll do my best to contribute & sacrifice as much as possible w/out putting my family's livelihood in harm's way. How much that amounts to I couldn't tell ya. All I know is that things start looking a little rough when even your church is having a hard time getting through this mess...not a complaint, just an observation ;)

Labels: charity, crazy economy, in the real world

Yup, all you have to do is tell me what you're up to these last few days of Winter and a copy could be yours! My girl Priya hooked me up with 2 codes to get TurboTax Premier Online FREE (est. @ $85) and each includes one free federal + state preparation + e-files.

If you're a slacker and still need to file away, then here's your chance. (Or if you know someone else who you could win it for!) Just be sure to drop a comment by Monday morning @ 7 a.m. and I'll randomly select the winner and update this page to get your info, etc. And don't worry, i'll use one of those random generator thingies to be legit - so while i love hearing how awesome and clever I am (thank you, thank you) it won't sway your chances ;)

So, what will you be doing this next week? I'll go first since I've already filed away and taken back my money a month ago...I, J. Money, shall blog a bit, relax a bit, and take my girl out on a date to go see tonight's premier of "I Love You, Man!". I heard it was supposed to be craaaaazy funny! I'll probably update my budget a bit too and make sure all my monies are behaving and not skipping out on me....Your turn.

*The winners have been selected: Click here.

Labels: giveaways, taxes

Great finds of the week:

• Your Job is Not Worth March Madness - Unless you're forced to participate like me ;) But yes, overall do NOT get caught watching now that the craziness has begun!
• Understanding *when* to stop - Stretchy Dollar goes over a key aspect of the budget.
• The Rap-Off Rebuttal mp3 Song! Just in case you haven't heard it yet...my boy BJP is on fire.
• BMG Music Service is closing its doors.. Man that brings back some memories! I was always signing up & getting into trouble ;) Clever Dude bids farewell and shows us the memo.
• USAA's Recent Magazine PDF - You all know i LOVE me some USAA, and this issue surely won't disappoint. It's full of great stats and information to help anyone get their finances in order. (It's a big file, just a heads up...)

Carnivals o' the week:

• Festival of Frugality #169 - "St. Patrick's Day" Edition hosted by Remodeling This Life.
• Money Hacks Carnival - "March Madness Baby!" hosted by Good Financial Cents.
• Carnival of Debt Reduction #183 - "Women's History Month" hosted by Greener Pastures.

Labels: weekly roundup

You may not know this, but one of my all-time wishes is to be a Rapper. The only problem being, I can't rap. So instead I just do finance stuff & twitter randomly about my favorite rhymes already spoken by the likes of Wyclef Jean and Lupe Fiasco. This week, however, I got surprised not once but TWICE on the rapping front!

Yup, apparently we've got some other lyrical gangsters up in the personal finance arena. And not only that, but they recently spit out some beats for yours truly here at Budgets are Sexy! So I thought it would be fun to have our own little "Rap off" to give our PF Rhymers some street cred ;) So drop a comment like & and tell us which ya like just a little more than the other. Who knows, it may just become our official "song" here!

Contender #1, served to you by K.S. Katz aka CreditGoddess:

One, two, three, take it down!
Budgets are sexy, just take it from me
When I be saving money, it's like sex baby!
Don't hate me, don't dish me for nixing credit cards cause...

Budgets are Sexy
Yes you know
Budgets are Sexy
Man I'm on a roll

I started my budget in three simple steps
Mapping out my income, my expenses and debts
Then I made a plan, a budget for future
Freedom from debt! That's me, I'm not a loser

Budgets are Sexy
Yes you know
Budgets are Sexy
Don't be a Spender!

Whew! Whatcha know about that? CreditGoddess rollin' deep up in hurr, yessir...Let's bring out the next contender now. Reigning from One Chance to Live, give it up for my boy BJP:

Take a minute ya'll, just sit right there and listen
To the finance blog rap that you don't want to be missin'

It's a fun little description about my favorite peeps
and the stories they write about how to live super cheap

I'll start with my boy some know him as J. Money
He is really well known for making personal finance funny
Budgets are sexy is the fruition of his work
where he writes about getting screwed by a wedding photographer jerk
take a minute or two and sift through his blog
if you don't enjoy it then you really...SUCK.

Now its only appropriate to give a shout out and a hollar
to my man Trent over at The Simple Dollar
It's a little more academic, but no worries you need not be a scholar
follow Trent's advise and you're sure to end up a finance baller

The third blog I read is called All Financial Matters
where JLP serves up financial genius on a platter
He is especially fond of using charts and graphs
to demonstrate the way your 401k has been cut in half

It was to these three blogs my finance cherry had been popped
put them all together and you surely can't be stopped
My websites one chance to live and one day I hope to aspire
to the ranks of these bloggers money management empire.

Dannng son! I'm not gonna lie, this is a wild match-up. Both came out strong droppin' the financial facts and bringing in the mad style points! And even cooler is that they come from opposite sexes! aww yeahhhh, gotta love that. So whatcha think? Who brings home the bacon? Think you could do BETTER? Then drop me a line here and show us whatcha made of!

(A HUGE thanks goes out to both contenders for dropping by and leaving us with such greatness! You've both got mad rhyming skillz indeed, and Budgets are Sexy is always honored to have you here.)

Labels: about j., awesomely awesome, randomness 3000

That's right, you have tonight and tomorrow early morning to fill out all bazillion of your NCAA brackets before the games start! (Unless you could care less, in which case read this) I'm officially in three this year, and since i have NO idea what i'm doing, I just picked really wildly to piss off my friends/co-workers ;)

But who knows, maybe i'll win the $1,000,000 "perfect bracket" that Yahoo is happily throwing out there! You have better odds at winning the lottery, but it's still a shot. Here are my final picks on each of the brackets, along w/ the money i'd win if i score the most points:

1. Work (which is mandatory or i get fired btw): North Carolina. Buy in is $10 with a chance at winning a $300ish for first, $100ish for second, and your $10 buy in for third.
2. Friends (also mandatory or i get made fun of): Villanova. Buy in is $0, with chance of winning $50...not sure who's fronting this, but it sure ain't me.
3. Bloggers (not mandatory, but why not at this point?): Michigan State. No buy in or pot.

As the saying goes, If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Good luck to all NCAA lovers & haters out there.

Labels: gambling, games

Cuz I gotta tell you, I'm not that against pawn shops these days. The whole thing seems fairly legit to me: Person A needs money fast. Person A goes to Pawn Shop with valuable stuff. Pawn Shop gives Person A money in return for valuable stuff. Person B comes in and buys goodies at a cheap cost. What's so bad about that?

The fact that they have a bad rap makes it all the more interesting to me. This month's Kiplinger's Mag featured a story on a "Pawnbroker to The Stars" (April, page 88) and it really caught my attention. Not only is business booming, but celebrities and big ballers are using them more and more too! Here's one of my favorite clips from the interview, in response to the embarrassment factor:

"I think there is a stigma attached to going to a pawnbroker. But coming to us for a loan against your beautiful six-figure diamond is no different than getting a loan against your beautiful six-figure home. They're both tangible assets that you own and that you're leveraging to get cash."

Yes, I agree! I'd like to think I'd have no problem visiting one if it really came down to it. But then again, my only experiences with them date back to when I was a kid oooh'ing and ahh'ing at all the fancy video games and electric guitars in the place. I've never actually purchased, nor sold, anything there - nonetheless taken out a loan. In all honesty I've just never needed money *that* bad. Sure I've borrowed and taken out loans for stuff like the first month's rent of an apt. or my college moped, but fortunately life has never demanded I come up with alternative methods.

But let's pretend it did. Why WOULDN'T I hit up a pawn shop? What's all the fuss about? I came up with a list of reasons why they seem so bad, and thus why most people probably steer clear. No science behind it, just me comin' up with my own thoughts on it:

• They look and feel scary.
• They're filled with smoke and scruffy men.
• The neon signs are reminiscent of Vegas sin-ness.
• You get less $ for your stuff.
• If you take out a loan it's probably at a crazy high %.
• You'll probably want to take a shower when you leave.

Put it this way - visiting a pawn shop won't make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Then again, if you're in dire need for fast cash, it's probably the last thing on your mind. You just wanna run in, get your money, and slip out. That leads us to all the GOOD stuff about pawn shops....or at least the only ones I can conjure up right now :)

• You can get fast cash!
• You can take out a loan against some collateral.
• You can pick up some items at a bargain price!
  
• They track serial numbers to help cops catch thieves. (so if you're going to steal, which i'd punch you in the face for, don't sell the goods to the pawns! Fox news just did a story on it and they will catch you mr.)

All of these play a key part in the success they have - well, at least the first 3. It's the one place you can get your hands on fast cash w/ not much work. Is it better to sell stuff on eBay or Craigslist, or even take a loan out from a bank? Hell yeah! But again not everyone has the time or options for this. So in these cases the pawn shops play a key role. Plus, you may only need a loan for a short amount of time. So dropping collateral to back up a loan for a few months may be just the thing you need. And the odds you'd pay it back quicker HAS to be in your favor knowing that those scruffy men would keep your stuff and/or go after you! *shiver*

So would I recommend using Pawn Shops? No. But that's not to say they could come in handy as a last resort. The truth of the matter is that some people DO need money at times, and they need it fast for whatever reason. I can certainly see their importance to society.

Labels: celebrity finance, fast cash, reviews

Just got this text via CNN Breaking news. One word: WTF?!

"AIG Paid 73 employees bonuses of $1 million or more; 11 of whom are no longer there, according to NY Atty. Gen. Cuomo."

Labels: cockamamy indeed, crazy economy

Yup, so I pay a bit more now for health insurance - oh well! When it comes down to it, I still have a job. And a mighty sexy one too at that :)

Who needs 100% company-paid health insurance anyways?! There's no way we could have continued doing that in today's environment (as hot as it was!) So I'll suck this one up just as I did the other benefit cuts and just never go to the doctors or dentist again! Haha, nah...it's not THAT bad.

Our CEO & Management handled this situation pretty damn well. Our company's premiums went up around 40% and they were forced to come up with a change that would best benefit all parties involved. But after they did that, they called an all-hands meeting and presented everything very thoroughly and explained their reasoning behind their final decision. EXCELLENT! That goes a long way in any company, but esp. those small ones like ours.

Here were some of the options they had to sort through:

• Keep our current plan, and pass the extra expenses onto us. This would have allowed us to hold on to our rock star plan as-is ($10 copays, $50 ER visits, no deductibles, etc.), but we'd then have to contribute about $300-$400 A MONTH each! ouch. That's a far cry from paying $0.00 each month.
• Change up the CoPays and Deductibles. This would mean our insurance is still paid for 100% through our company (no auto. deductions every paycheck for it), and our coverage would be the same, but we'd now have to pay a bit more every time we took a visit. If you go a lot, then you'd be more affected than those who rarely ever go (like myself).
• Lower coverage and pickup a limited plan. This would also drastically cut costs, but then our coverage goes to $hit and we'd have to be extra careful where we go to do what, and how. I'm CRAZY glad they didn't go w/ this one for obvious reasons.

They went with Option #2, which I agree was a great choice. We get to keep our awesome coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO, and we don't have any $ auto. deducted from our paychecks every 2 weeks!!! I love it. Some of us NEVER go to the dr's so we wouldn't even notice the change until we do. Which would probably suck cuz that means something is *really* wrong w/us ;) haha....but either way, I'd say 99% of us were pretty happy w/ the outcome. If I had to pay $400 a month i'd be pretty pissed. I'd still do it cuz I love my job, but I'd fill out that complaint jar to the brim on that day!

Here are the biggest changes to our plan now:

• CoPays go up from $10/visit to $20/visit. This one stings a little, but again you only pay it when you hit up the Dr's. And it's a lot less than a) $30 like a few of my friends have, and b) having no insurance! (yikes)
• We now have deductibles! I believe they are now at $300 per incident, up to a max of $7,000 total you can pay throughout a given year? Something like that (I don't have them in front of me at the moment). This is the biggest change as we never had them before - most things were totally taken care of, unless you had a unique situation that required you to go out of network.
• Network vs Non-Network spread increased. I never go out of network so I kind of dozed off here, but I know that it costs a lot more now going out of network than it previously did. I can never understand why anyone would really do this anyways...

So yeah, looks like our company is still dealing with the changes going around town. We were told this was the last of the "big items" being looked at now too, so that's def. good to hear! And that means our awesome 401k matches are still on the docket - woohoo :) Who knows what next month will bring, but for now I'll still continue working along happily and doing my thang over here. Can't get bent out of shape when the unemployment rate keeps skyrocketing..

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PS: I still have to report on the final cost of the Gallbladder Removal last year! I haven't forgotten, just too lazy to compile all the amounts and get it all together. More to come on who got the closest estimate.

Labels: career, crazy economy, insurance

I know this is old news now, but seeing as how I missed it the other night (AND it's freakin' brilliant!) I couldn't pass up the chance to share. This is a video of the 3rd portion of the whole show Thurs. night, but it was my favorite part. Mainly because Stewart sounds smart as hell and has the balls to say what everyone's thinking. That, and it's uncensored ;) Have a good night everyone!

Labels: awesomely awesome, crazy economy, updates

Oh yeah, you can bring in some good money that way :) Plus, it's free entertainment for all those around you. I should know, we went through a good 5-6 dares this weekend while drinking our way through our St. Patty's trip down to South Carolina. I must admit, it feels a bit weird being up at 9:30 w/out a drink or dart in my hand right now!

Before I start going through some of our dares though, let me just make two things clear. 1) We're all pretty freakin' frugal. So any chance at "winning" just a few bucks gets us excited. And 2) We've gotten pretty soft in our old age, so you won't be reading about any "run around the streets naked screaming 'Look at me, Look at me' " type dares today. Although i can't promise we never did that 10 years ago ;) But here were a few of the ones thrown out this weekend:

#1) Chew and swallow a crazy hot yellow pepper! $5
This is the dare that started it all, and came from no one other than J himself ;) We had one of our buddies front the money (we'll call him Mr. Banker) for whomever had the balls to chew it up and savor all its juices w/out throwing up. After a good 30 mins of debating who, and why, someone should take the bait, my boy W. took the challenge and off he went! As you can imagine, the thrill and excitement we all had went well beyond the $5 value W. got in return for his watery eyes and shaking fingers! haha...oh man, seriously it was hilarious. Esp since it went from "oh that's not bad at all" to "it's starting to really burn now!" haha....good times, good times.

#2) Eat an entire birthday cake. $100
Now THIS was a dare. The thing was huge! (that's what she said) Unfortunately no one took this up. Not even the ones fresh out of money from the previous night's adventures :( oh well, this was probably a good thing.

#3) Suck down a bowl full of ranch dressing. $5
AFTER you've eaten a rather large plate of food! The site of it alone sent shivers down our backs, esp. since we had just woken up from a night full of bar hopping. BUT, out of allllllll the people there, guess who took the offer? Mrs. Budgetsaresexy!!!! aww yeahhhh! Unfortunately the excitement (for everyone else) only lasted a few seconds. After pouring half of it into her mouth, she basically gagged and spit it back out. It was an honorable try though! And it didn't cost us a penny ;)

#4) Eat two sugar packets, including the paper. $5
This was originally 4, but no one would take it up and we were getting pretty bored waiting for our meals to come. For some reason all our dares this weekend circled around food? I guess our brains weren't working as creatively out at the bars. Which is really a shame as we could have came up with some even better ones i bet! But anyways, Mr. Banker finally accepted a dare himself and popped those bad boys into his mouth. it wasn't all that entertaining at first since all he was doing was chewing and waiting for them to break down into little swallow-able peices. But when he stood up to swallow the last big chunk of it, BOY did we almost get a show! The little bugger got lodged in his throat and he almost spewed it allllll over the table!!! haha....in fact, had that actually happened 99% of it would have gone on top of my head! so in that regard, i'm glad it just went through to his belly with no future problems ;)

We did have some other good ones out there this weekend, but I guess we were only man enough (or smart enough?) to take on the $5 challenges. Either way, it was an excellent way to earn some quick cash and entertain a group of degenerates. It would have been nice to report a few naked/jail-time stories, but I'm sure you all have enough of them to make up for it ;) Am I right?

Labels: awesomely awesome, challenges, free money, money hacks

*******************************************************************
This article was contributed by Steven Sildon who writes frequently about personal finance and credit-related topics. Steve is the Managing Editor for the CreditCardAssist.com website where he provides credit card news items as well as tips and advice on credit card offers.
*******************************************************************
There's no doubt that using credit cards can be a risky financial move for some of us. But it seems like credit card issuers make it even more perilous in the way that they conduct business with consumers. Now more than ever, credit card industry practices are rife with tricks and traps to whack their customer with more fees, higher interest rates and anything else under the sun that they can justify to extract more money from their customers.

I've provided a list of the top 4 most blatant credit card issuer traps to watch out for:

1. "As Low As" APR's: Typically, credit card issuers market their cards by promoting a low annual percentage rate (APR) that you'll have to pay if you carry a balance, "As Low As 7.99%" for instance. Most card applicants don't realize that not everyone will qualify for the lowest APR available. The APR that each applicant is assigned is based on their credit history as well as the card issuer's scoring methods. The reality is that card applicants simply won't know what APR that they've been assigned until after applying for the card. In many cases, applicants anticipate getting a low APR only to be shocked to find that their APR is at 24.99% or above!
2. Balance Transfer Fees: It used to be that any card holder could easily transfer a balance from a high interest credit card at no cost to another card promoting a 0% interest rate for 12 months or longer. These days, balance transfer offers are few and far between as card issuers are sharply cutting back on these types of promotions. No fee balance transfers are virtually impossible to find. Nowadays, all of the major banks and credit card issuers charge a flat 3% fee on balance transfers with no cap. So for example, if you wanted to transfer a $7,000 balance, you'd have to pay a $210 fee right off the bat. (What?!?!) In some instances, it still might be worth paying the fee to avoid paying those high interest rates. But above all, be clear that taking on new debt and getting it paid down is more expensive than ever.
3. "Up To" Cash Rebate Amounts: Card issuers have a slick way of promoting their cash back rebate programs. One common method is to promote cash rebates of "Up to 5% Cash Back" on your purchases. Typically, those "up to" cash rebate amounts are only for certain purchases, such as drug stores or supermarkets. There are usually caps or limits on the maximum rebate that you can earn as well. So, for instance, you might only earn that maximum amount on the first $200 of purchases that you make in each month. Typically, there are spending thresholds and tiers that you have to reach before you can get those cash rebates as well. So for example, you might have to spend $6500 on your card before you can start earning any cash back at all. Just keep your expectations low on what you think you can actually earn back from these cash back cards.
4. Credit Limit Trap: This one really bothers me (probably because I've been whacked by it so many times). You might think that card issuers establish a credit limit on your account for the sole purpose of limiting your spending to that credit limit amount, sort of like a back stop. The reality is that the "over limit" fee is one of the single most levied fees of all of the credit card fees combined. That being said, you have to keep an eye on your credit limit at all times. Those over limit fees range from $29 on the low side to $49 on the high side so they can really hurt when you get whacked by them, especially for those of us with small credit limits. If you're unsure of your current balance, call the card issuer on the back of your card before you make that next purchase and ask for a current balance amount.

Being aware of these tactics is half the battle. Understand that you're not necessarily going to get the lowest APR that's being promoted on any one particular offer. Avoiding those pesky balance transfer fees can only be done by not running up your card balance in the first place. Otherwise, be prepared to pay the piper for transferring that high interest balance. And don't be fooled by those "up to 5%" cash back offers. Most of the time, you'll only be earning a maximum of 1%, at best. And above all, always be aware of what your card balance is so you don't go over your limit. Not knowing can get very expensive.
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Yup, there are def. a lot of crazy "offers" out there, but if you can work it to your benefit, more power to ya! That is all - off to go party now :) THANKS Steve!

Labels: credit cards, guest post

Its fridayyyyyyy!!! And that means I'm flying down to South Carolina to surprise a friend for his birthday. awww yeahhhh gonna be lots of drinking milk and dancing the Macarena up in hurrrrrr. So if you holler and i don't holler back so fast you know why. But i'll be just as happy reading what y'all have to say when i get back, so keep doing your thang and enjoy your weekend!

Favorites o' the week:

• Suggestions for Bernie Madoff's Punishment - I was hoping this would be a list of random funny things, and I was right! Awesome post on horrible punishments that will never happen.
• Frugal Bachelor's take on the new Visa Black Card! This guy cracks me up every time, and kinda reminds me of someone too ;) I was gonna post myself on this, but i'd probably say exactly what he did anyways! haha...so please to enjoy.
• 67% say their sex/love life is being affected by being in debt - Just one of the interesting niblets off this link I came across...not sure how true they are, but there's som other goodies!
• 10 Secrets the cell phone carriers don't want you to know - Including ways to finagle yourself out of paying activation fees and trading in contracts with others :)
• "A Month of Meals" - a fellow blogger's new ebook on meal planning and the basics of grocery shopping. It's filled with recipes, shopping lists, and weekly meal plans for a month!

Carnivals o' the week:

• Festival of Frugality #168 - hosted by Funny About Money. (*Editor's Pick!)
• Carnival of Personal Finance #195 - hosted by Stock Trading To Go.
• Money Hacks Carnival #55 - the "Thank You" edition hosted by Money Ning.
• Carnival of Twenty Something Finances - the "Lost Hour" edition hosted by Money TLD.
  

Labels: weekly roundup

...To play the drinking game that goes along with it? Yup - my boy over at Pimp Your Finances come up with a list of words to watch for, and if all things go as planned I suggest not driving/doing anything afterwards as it's gonna be crazy ;) Some of these words include "In Cramer we trust", "Leftist" and "Chicago Tea Party" haha....Let's just hope this isn't a ratings ploy! So if you've been reading & watching all the hype lately, turn on The Daily show @ 11PM EST tonight. Word.

Labels: awesomely awesome, crazy economy

Too much? Sorry, feeling a bit feisty today ;) You know how us guys are. Seriously though, Wal-Mart is HUGE!!!! I just got this email forwarded over to me by my father who LOVES sending over this sorta stuff (do you find that yours does the same?) and I thought it was pretty interesting if it's indeed true. It not be *accurate* but it's still awesome.

Regardless, companies like Wal-Mart and the like interest me like crazy. The logistics to run such a place is insane! I can barely run myself, and that's on a good day ;) And to bring in SO MUCH freakin' money every single day? Whew - that's one helluva juggernaut. Business-wise I think they're pretty incredible.

But I'll still continue to do my shopping at Target (or Tarjay as we like to call it). I think Wal-Mart has some incredible offers & sales going on, but I always prefer to shop in cleanliness & at a place where everyone smiles and actually seems like they WANT to help you. I'd happily pay a few extra dollars to shop in a visually appealing, stress-free, atmosphere any day. $hit, sometimes I run into Target for something simple & end up enjoying myself for an extra 30-40 minutes! But I digress...

Labels: cockamamy indeed, financial forwards, randomness 3000

Last night I had my last screen-printing class and I'm afraid I'm really gonna miss it. When you're surrounded by creative people like that, you REALLY get into it! Esp. if you're not a perfectionist ;)

There's a process you have to follow in order to get your images to come out exactly the way it's shown, but if you don't mind "creative mistakes" like our shoddy little gang then it's totally awesome (and easier to mass produce).

But as I waited my 17 minutes at the end of the night for the metro to come take me home, I remembered why I signed up for the class to begin with - I wanted to start my own clothing line! Or at least my own graphic tee store like the Busted & Snorgs out there. How fun would that be? Designing and printing out shirts for all those sexy tween out there? haha...I seriously think i could do that for a living and be really happy. The problem, of course, is that it takes a LOT more work than you normally would think, along w/ some splashes of luck and a pocket full of start up cash. So while it would be hotter than Britney Spears circa 2005, I'm not delirious enough (yet) to think I could make it 1-2-3. What if I started slowly through cafepress or zazzle though? With something so automated like that I'm thinking it might be a nice little testing ground.

ORRRRRR, better yet, perhaps I sell a few Budgets Are Sexy shirts?! huh? whatcha know about that? humm.....would any of you buy them? Say, if i sell 'em for like $10 a pop? Might be something to expand on methinks.

Even if I don't end up setting up shop, it's pretty cool wearing around the shirts i've created with my bare hands :) in fact, i'm @ work right now wearing one of them! Yup, I created a simple one last night where it's just black text spread across a white shirt saying, "Fashions fade, style is eternal" a quote by Yves Saint Laurent. And with some of those creative mistakes I mentioned before, it has a little spraypainted affect to it. $hit, at the very least I have a good 15 or 16 new shirts to wear! haha...

Who knows what'll come out of it all, but I'm happy to report that i'm a bit more happier after jumping back into art classes. That's a department where your money is wisely spent! And my family will be glad that I finally used up some of that bday money too. Now, who want's a Budgets are Sexy shirt?!

Labels: art, randomness 3000

HAH! You think by spamming me I'll sign up to your financial doodad?! Come on now - i'm gullible, but I'm not *that* crazy. If your company (cough cough Mvelopes) wants me to sign up to your "free trial", how about you spend the time and find a better way to market it to me? And preferably to ME, not my company.

So no, I won't sign up to your free trial no matter what magical solutions you have for me. I know plenty of other envelope methods that are readily available w/out having to get spammed. I will, however, do you one better - I'll market Mvelopes for you right here on my blog! And just cuz i like you so much, I'll even do it for free (aren't i nice?). The bolded statements below are the three ways in which you state Mvelopes is proven to help with....along with some personal commentary:

1. Take complete control of your money
   Sarcastic J: You'd enjoy having your hands on that, wouldn't you?
   Non-spammy-lesson: Yes, without a doubt this is a great thing for each and every one of us to do. Whether this means tracking it all, creating a budget, limiting your spending, etc. Being in control is the best thing you can do for your financial life :) Just be careful where/who you give your personal information to.
2. Reduce Financial Stress
   Sarcastic J: Your freakin' spam email just ADDED stress to me! Arghh.....
   Non-spammy-lesson: One of the easiest ways to do this is by following the first step - taking complete control of your money. "Knowing is half the battle", and also cuts your stress in half. You won't always be happy with what you find, but at least you can now chip away at it one day at a time. You could also just delete any of your spam and not blog about it as i'm currently doing - that would also lesson your stress ;)
3. Rapidly Eliminate Debt
   Sarcastic J: ...by not signing up to Mvelopes! (that was kinda lame...sorry)
   Non-spammy-lesson: Yup, another great way to sex up your financials! The more debt you can knock off, the better place you'll be - and the more options you'll have when an opportunity arises. No one ever said it was easy, but it's def. worth the challenge.

So yes, you point out three valid reasons for people to pay attention to. But guess what? There are handfuls of other companies out there that do the same - and some even for free. That's not to say i'm opposed to paying for a worthy solution (cuz i totally would if it worked like crazy), but don't think that sneaking your way into my morning email-checking will push me in your direction.

In fact, i'm curious to know - are any of you using Mvelopes? And if so, do you remember how you came across it? Don't worry, I won't bash you or anything i promise :) I just think it would be interesting to see if their system even works. In all honesty i hope it does! I know companies don't spam for the hell of it. Okay, i'm done ranting here... gotta set side another $1.

Labels: money management, rant

Yup, The Richest Man in Babylon now steals the trophy away from The Millionaire Next Door! haha...although I'd highly recommend both books as they really give you a wonderful perspective on life :)

What I liked most about The Richest Man in Babylon though, is that the whole thing is based on fables! Every chapter is a whole new short story that tells another aspect of managing money. It's freakin' great. Sometimes the chapters are connected, and others not, but it's seriously the best financial book for those with A.D.D.

And it fits wonderfully in your back pocket! haha....so if you take the metro/train every day like me, it's super easy to store and read on the go!

The entire book can be read in a few hours (it's only 140 pages long) and it discusses everything from saving 10% of your paychecks, to investing it wisely and knocking off all debt. The craziest thing of all is that it takes place thousands and thousands of years ago, yet the advice is STILL relevant in today's times! It really is a good read for anyone of us out there needing some more motivation - and even more so if if you're *just* getting into personal finance. It's a PERFECT book for recent grads and/or untrained adults :)

Here's a pretty cool quote that highlights its simple, yet effective, writing style:

"Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed. The first copper you save is the seed from which your tree of wealth shall grow. The sooner you plant that seed the sooner shall the tree grow. And the more faithfully you nourish and water that tree with consistent savings, the sooner may you bask in contentment beneath its shade."

While I'd love to go on and on and break down all the chapters here for ya, I really don't wanna give it all away. Just know that it covers a handful of financial advice and portrays it in a most beautiful way. This def. helps it "stick" in your brain too! As well as speaketh like this to all ye friends and loved ones ;) Thy lover shall question your words unless thou hasth readeth thyselves! Long live storytelling.
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Other Book Reviews:
- The Millionaire Next Door
- The Automatic Millionaire

Labels: book reviews

Tent City is back :( This is one of the saddest things i've come across lately...you'll have to click through to the slideshow (via MSNBC.com) to get a better feeling of this whole thing, but it's freakin' crazy.

Can you imagine if your sister or parents or even friends were LIVING this way? My heart goes out to each and every one of them. Here's a quick excerpt explaining more from MSNBC.com:

"A tent city in Sacramento, Calif., shown here on Thursday, March 5, is growing as the worsening economy leads to more people losing their jobs and being forced out of their homes. More than 1,200 are estimated to live in the encampment, which is growing by up to 50 people a week."

Labels: crazy economy

There comes a time in all boy's lives when we have to own up and get an Engagement Ring. The time when love populates the air and all in the world is right. It's been some time since i made this adventurous trek myself (2+ years), but the memories are still vivid as the day I lost my power ;)

You see, up to the point where the "exchanging of the ring" occurs us men have all the power. As soon as that bling is snug on that finger though, the woman sucks it all up and we convert into cute little puppy dogs! haha....i dont' really know what that means actually. I guess what i'm trying to say is it feels good going out there and being a man by putting that ring on your other half. (much better stated)

But if you've ever gone down this road before, you know of the crazy obstacles that lay in your way of the "perfect" ring. In fact, my man Doctor S over at Finance Your Life is about to go down it himself! So in honor of this beautiful time in his life, I shall unleash my 3 main tips that I can only hope will help him & all others down the line:

1. The Type of The Ring
Diamond cuts, princess cuts, colors, clarities, certifications, the variables go on and on. If you're able to do so without spoiling the surprise, I'd highly recommend going ring browsing w/ the lady so you can get an idea of what she likes. As long as you get the big ones down, like the cut and if she's a "silver/platinum" girl over "yellow gold", it would be pretty hard to go wrong. And she may not even know what she likes all the way - it's not like she's been shopping for them all her life! Well okay, a few probably have, but you get the point ;) Or you can actually pick it out and buy it together if your one of those types. Either way, just be sure you have a decent idea.

2. The Cost of The Ring
Some say it should be 6 paychecks worth (3 months), while others say it should be 6 months worth. Wanna know what I think? MALARKEY. I don't care what anybody says, you go out there and get a ring that you can afford without killing yourself. If the girl really truly loves you, she'll admire and cherish it for the rest of your lives together. And if you can only afford a little compared to what you WISH you could give her? Then save up and get her another on your 5-year anniversary. I know someone that's waiting to save up thousands and thousands of dollars because his girl won't accept anything less. WTF? Seriously, something's wrong with that picture.

You don't wanna go in crazy amounts of debt when you're about to start a whole new life together. Cuz you have to remember, the ring is just the BEGINNING! What comes next is a whole bunch of wedding planning, gift giving, honeymoon picking, etc etc...If you can barely afford a shiny new ring, you're gonna have a lot more trouble when the wedding comes around Do everyone a favor and be smart about it :)

3. Financing The Ring
Cash is definitely king here, but I don't know many that have this sorta cash just laying around. If you're one of these people, ask about financing it @ the store/site you'll be buying it from! There are some maaaaad deals out there, esp. during times like these. I was able to secure an interest-free loan for an entire year which saved me a LOT of heartache. I just divided up my payments by 12 so that by the end of the year the balance would be down to zero. It was basically like a credit card line of credit where the interest would jack up to 20%+ after the period ended - so be VERY sure it's paid off by then ;)

Okay, that's all i got for ya this round. I could seriously go on and on here as there's just SOOOOO much you can get into, but ima stop before this gets any longer. I can totally feel word vomit coming on here ;) You can find other wedding goodness I've previously posted about here too if it helps. And if you have anything to add, please do so! Us boys can certainly learn a lot more...

Labels: advice, girl stuff, love, wedding

Best Links of The Week:

• Are Skinny People Richer? VERY awesome post by my good friend over at Dual Income No Kids. I won't give it away, but you can probably guess what the answer is ;)
• Do Not Hide An Engagement Ring In a Frosty and Then Hold an Eating Contest.
  
• Good Debt vs. Bad Debt Nice & simple breakdown of "good debt" vs. "bad debt" from the homies over at AskMen.com. they've also got..um...nice pictures on the site ;)
• 5 Investments that cost less than $50. Got 4 of them already! They're not all "gift-worthy", but still some great ideas.
• Best Free Blogger Templates. If you're in a need for new or different blog templates, def. give these links a shot first. I'm sure they have Wordpress ones too, just haven't looked for them.
• The Hunger Site! I already talked about this earlier in the week, but it's just so damn cool! One quick click gives away FREE FOOD. I love it....and i'm already used to doing it on my daily morning routine now ;) Super easy.

Carnivals:

• Festival of Frugality #167 - "Dr. House" edition, hosted by Green Panda Treehouse.
• Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted by Free Money Finance.
• Money Hacks Carnival - "Hope" edition, hosted by The Penny Daily.

Labels: weekly roundup

It's been 57 days since my last "would you rather", and I have missed 'em dearly. So not only do we bring 'em back today, but we reach into the classics and pull out a favorite!

We go all the way back to ancient times when Old Babylon was ruled all of the lands...or not, i'm not entirely sure. I don't even know if Babylon was even a real place? I've been reading "The Richest Man in Babylon" lately and it's freakin' awesome - soooo many great lesssons! I really can't wait to talk about it, but that comes a bit later....

Back to the point here - the whole "looks vs money" debate has been going on for ages. And since I don't recall writing much about it myself, I thought it was about time. Plus, I had asked it via an interview over at A Gai Shan Life last month but it's still not outta my system yet. So let's give it another go and see what we can drum up here. This is today's Would You Rather:

"Would you rather be attractive as hell BUT you never make more than $30k a year for the rest of your life? Orrrrrrr, you're pretty damn ugly BUT you're as rich as Oprah Winfrey?"

Now, you have to think long and hard on this one (at least i do). Being attractive certainly has its perks: More opportunities to meet hotties of the opposite sex, better possibilities of getting great jobs, getting into more parties, getting away with more stuff (or so i'm told), etc, etc. BUT, if you're never gonna make more than $30k, it kinda limits your benefits here.

On the other hand, being rich as balls and being able to help out thousands of people around the world, not to mention your own friends and family (and SELF for that matter), is crazy sexy! But having a repulsive stature sure wouldn't be fun :( We're not talking about so-so looking, or "average" either - just plain ol' butt ugly, whatever that means to you.

As always, since I asketh thee, i shall also answereth thee. While I wish I could take the middle-road and just go w/ an average joe w/ average money, that is not one of the answers. Sooo, I will be 100% honest and look like a total d-head here - I would pick being HOT over Rich :) Money is awesome for a number of reasons already mentioned, but I could get by on $30k if i had to - I'm already frugal as hell! It would suck not being able to provide for my family as much as I'd like to, but we'd manage. Plus, I could still donate my time to places and still give back to the community, right?

So what about you? Take the looks and run, or suck it up and be rich!
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Check out more Would You Rathers...

Labels: in the real world, would you rather

The roller coaster's back on the up and up w/ +$7k this month!, Yup, that's what happens when you get mad tax returns and then you find out your other half had a bit more money than you originally thought ;)

I knew she was frugal, but good Lord! After brief convo's last month I assumed she had about $2k in her "do as i please" account. But nope, there was almost $9k!

Crazy impressive considering she's in Grad School and not making much from her Teaching Assistantship. Plus, she got it past her frugal husband! haha...good for her. Maybe next month I'll find another stash somewhere? I def. won't be complaining, that's for sure ;)

So that was the biggest "gain" of cash for the month, followed by our $6k back from taxes - of which most was split between the two of us. And what did I do with part of mine? Oh, I PAID OFF MY CAR LOANS!!! Aww yeahhhhhh, ZERO dollars on the ol' credit card now ;) It was pretty hard parting with $1,300 all at once like that, but the feeling from being back outta debt is freakin' awesome. Now just gotta work on those damn mortgages...

Here's how Feb's Net Worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS (+$12,300): So yeah....as I mentioned the Mrs. had even *more* money saved up that i missed on my last checkup - a whopping $6,500 more! Add that with a good portion of our $6k from taxes and some better budgeting last month, and it was a helluva good month. Most of this was a one-time occurrence, but I'm hoping we can at least increase our cash reserves by $1k every month.

EMERGENCY FUND ($0): Our $10k is still socked away in a Money Market just chillin' and makin' a little money on the side. It would be cool to see just how much extra it's bringing in every month, but we have some other money mixed in with it at the same time so it's a bit tricky to calculate. We'll be leaving this at $10k for quite some time as it's a great # for us.

ROTH IRAs (-$270): That would be MY part of it too since my Roth is invested in one of those Target Mutual Funds...pretty sucky over all, but I'm not allowed to complain about it ;) I would like to note, however, that my Roth is hovering @ $2800 down from $5400 a year ago...but that's all i'll say.

401(k)s (-$3,400): Yikesy Mama! Just keeps on a crashin' without a care in the world. Sadly, this even includes my $1,250 worth of new 401k $ that got sucked out before it had a chance to play with the others. Although I am still waiting for some deposits that still haven't been made... ho-hum.

SAVINGS BONDS (+$3): Every month brings a little joy into my life :) Haven't added anyting here for almost a year now, but you can check out the breakdown of them all here.

AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (+$400): Now THIS, I cannot explain. The only thing i can think of is that I calculated the Mrs's Toyota wrong on Kbb.com last month, but I'm usually pretty good about that stuff. Maybe gas-sippers are going up now? Guess we'll see what the next month brings...The breakdown of our car values are as follows:
- Pimpin' a$$ caddy --> $3,595. Holding this value for at least 6 months now!
- Toyota Gas-Sipper --> $11,010. An increase of $400 in "weirdo" dollars.

HOME VALUE (Realtor) (-$3,500): After some more thought, I decided to ditch the idea of averaging out Zillow's "Zestimate" with my realtor's estimate. This made sense for two reasons. 1) - Zillow's estimate kept fluctuating every other day! It would be $306k one second, and $318k the next (it's currently @ $324k!). While I'd LOVE to believe this, it just doesn't seem all that plausible. And 2)I took the advice of a commenter and checked out redfin.com which averages out 3 different home sites to give you a better idea of how sites value the homes. And out of these 3, Zillow was by far the highest, with the total average coming to just below $300k.

Sooo, for now I think it's wise to keep the value at $300k and hope for the best. I'll then hit my realtor up again later and get a better update since I know he'll continue to give it to me straight. Afer all, he'd be the one to help us sell/rent out the place so it's in his best interest to be upfront from the beginning.

CREDIT CARD (car loans) (-$1,600): ZEROOO!!!! Yup, the cards are finally paid off after 8 whole months of chipping away :) The last time it was at zero was back in August when we paid off all 3 store credit cards. A post will be coming out shortly on this, but this $7,500 basically came from picking up my Caddy and selling my Highlander (i owed more than i sold it for) last year. It was more of a "loan" rather than your ordinary consumer debt, but I just happened to use a credit card to finance it all.

MORTGAGES (-$14.22): This was due to just random timing of me checking the accounts - we didn't pay anything extra against any of our mortgages this month. Our 1st is still @ $288,000 (30 year fixed, interest-only @ 6.875%), and our 2nd Mortgage @ around $62,800 (maxed out HELOC w/ 2.8% interest). I do see us starting to pay them off though now that our budget is looking sexy again :)

That wraps it up for the sexy month of February. March should pan out pretty well too if all goes as planned (and if the market perks up on everyone's behalf). I'm looking forward to having a few extra hundred now that i don't have that $443 monthly car payment anymore! Oh and as promised, I updated my budget again to reflect how it all came together last month - I'll continue to do so during all the roundups. Happy Wednesday everybody!

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*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are all the Net Worth Updates.

Labels: cash, net worth

Yup, Dillyeo.com (the site competing against Woot.com) is giving away $20.00 gift cards to their site today!

Just click the big ol' "Ship It" button and you're off...The deal ends today @ Midnight so get off your tuckus and grab that free money ;) Once you get it, you have a few days to use it...or not, whatever your heart desires.

Labels: awesomely awesome, bargains, free money

Yup, 'tis the season to break out the ways to save! Last week I reviewed Kiplinger's list of $50/day savings tips (which wasn't all *that* impressive), so this week I try again & dig around Real Simple's List (March ed.) for some better finds. And boy was it chock full of some interesting stuff.

Before I get into the list though, i couldn't help but to notice a quick excerpt on page 8 which showed "5 Bizarre (but actual) excuses employees have given for missing work".

OMG. If it weren't done through CareerBuilder.com I would have totally thought this was a joke. Although it very well could have been - sorta like those kids who "try out" on American Idol only to try and make it to TV w/ their crazy randomness. But anyways, here were their weirdest lines:

• Dog was stressed out after a family reunion. (wtf?)
• Swallowed too much mouthwash. (haha...okay, i can *sorta* see this one)
• Hit a turkey while riding a bike. (that would def. hurt! i wonder if it was around Thanksgiving? Cuz then there's no way in hell i'm believing that..)
• Got kicked by a deer (around Xmas? shooooot.)
• Psychic said to stay home. (just plain weird.)
  

And apparently 1/3 of the 6,800 workers interviewed admitted they played hooky too. Now THAT I believe ;) Although sadly i wasn't one of them. I always feel bad cheating the company like that, although I also really enjoy going to work too so that probably has something to do with it. Either that, or i'm getting old.

But okay, back to this list of "71 ways to spend smarter". So yeah, some of these tricks I didn't relate to all that much (probably because I'm a guy and this magazine seems to be geared towards women), but overall I was pretty impressed by it. The designer in me was also wowed by all the colors and layout, so i could also be pretty biased here...

I actually wanted to breakdown the list of all the ones i hated, followed by all the ones I enjoyed (like my Kiplinger's post) but none really hit me over the head like that - at least in the hating department. So instead, I present to you my list of the top 6 ideas that either intrigued me, or at least seemed smart to do - whether I used them or not :)

1. Buy a house plant that blooms throughout the year. They suggested Angel Wing begonias, Kalanchoes, and Flowering maples instead of spending $20 on fresh flowers every week (or $1,040/year). I'm not one to spend $ on flowers, except for my gentlemen duties of anniversaries and bdays, but if you're one to shell out the money here it's probably not a bad idea to check out some of these weirdly-named plants.
2. Measure your dollops carefully. Hahha.. "dollops" - that word gets me every time :) The Mrs. can tell you how much I SUCK at this game. I use like a quarter of the shampoo every day, as well as half the body wash...i dunno, it just feels that the more i use the cleaner i can get! if i could master this one, i'd probably save at least $200/year no joke.
3. Check out the best websites for scoring deals. Etsy.com, Overstock.com, Aandmshop.com (that's a first), and a bunch more on the list. See, in *theory* this works, but not in the real world. And that's only because once you log on you can spend hours digging around and spending way more than you initially meant to! So yeah, killer deals there, but only hit 'em up if you have the willpower.
4. Share a babysitter with a neighbor. Similar to one of Kiplinger's ideas, except it's to help shave the costs of day care by splitting the cost of a nanny with a friend. The nanny would watch both children at a friend's house and could save you up to $400 a month! Not sure how much this stuff costs anyways, but that would be awesome if you could work it out.
5. Use your library card! Get books, new releases, and even a go at Amazon's Kindle - all for free. Might even get free delivery too! I like this idea a lot, but for some reason i don't ever do it...but at least i know where the closest one is....more than I could have said 2 years ago.
6. Donate food - for FREE! All you have to do is go to thehungersite.com and click on the big yellow "donate" button and the site will donate a cup of free food to the needy! How the hell have i missed this one? It's totally going on my list of daily links now. (in fact, I actually JUST clicked and donated! you couldn't tell because this wasn't posted yet, but if you could you'd realize how fast i was....and i was pretty damn fast)

There's a whole bunch more on their list, but those were the ones that stuck out to me. But even cooler was their "day in the (frugal) life" spread on page 130 where they show how you can apply some of these skills even more in a given day. Here's a miniature snapshot to give you an idea of what i'm talking about - it's pretty creative:

• 7:37 am - Swap out your latte for a "misto". Brewed coffee w/ steamed milk, as opposed to espresso with steamed milk. That will save you $1 off the bat.
• 12:15 pm - Bring your lunch. Instead of boring sandwiches though, cook up a pound of pasta the night before and create 5 different meals out of it! (listed in the magazine, which actually look pretty tasty)
• 6:10 pm - "Sip on recession-minded varieties (of wine) at $3." Woahhhhh nelly! $3.00? You've def. got my attention now ;) Yup, accordoing to Real Simple you can pick up a bottle of Trader Joe's Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon for 3 George Washingtons. They also list 5 others for less than $8 if your interest is piqued.
• 7:12 pm - Break out the ramen and create some new dishes. Yeah, at first this one had me stumped, but i read on and found out that someone took the time to write up a book of 101 things to do with ramen - one of which is making chicken lo mein (recipe in mag)

So yeah, a lot more money-saving ways to digest and add to your collection. I hope you enjoyed them, because I think I'm overloaded with ideas now...whew, so much to take in all at once, ya know? But I must admit, this one was much easier and fun to go through than Kiplinger's...must be all the bright colors and pictures ;)

Labels: advice, reviews, saving

Yup, for every complaint that comes outta my mouth, a $1 bill goes into a jar! Reason being? It's Lent time baby!!! And after a long hard week of trying to come up with something, I did what every man has to do once in a while - I stole someone's idea ;) So thank you much Kaitlyn, my dearest blogger friend! I now have a game plan to put into action.

For those who don't know, every year during Lent (40 days preceding Easter), us Catholics give up something on behalf of the Good Man upstairs. And this "something" is supposed to be challenging as you're basically sacrificing for a while. So giving up something like beets or radishes, or anything else you don't care for doesn't count...although as a kid i may have done this (shh...)

Usually I give up something physical like sodas (VERY hard to do at first, but def. do-able as I found out 2 Lents ago) or even Shopping as i did last year! Which, I gotta say, REALLY makes you realize how much you spend on a daily basis - i highly recommend trying it. In fact, I came close to choosing that one again this year, but it's a lot more easier and less challenging now, so I figured it was time for a new one.

So now comes the No Complaining Rule! Not only will this help me become a better person (hopefully), but it'll give back to the church as well. Every time the Mrs. catches me complaining, or i catch myself, or even if YOU catch me complaint-blogging, that jar will fill up with $1 bills. And at the end of these 40 days - on Easter - I shall tithe all this money to our church :) And at the rate i've been going lately, it'll be a hefty amount!

It's a Win-Win situation all around, and I'm very excited/nervous to get started. I've already slipped once and it's been less than 24 hours! haha...But I'll be damned if I don't come outta this much better than I came in. Anyone wanna join me? Anyone give something different up?

Labels: challenges, life, religion