Stocks are great to know about, yes, but even BETTER would be basic financial management. Who gets right out of high school and starts investing before landing their first job/credit card/own apartment? I know people do it, I just don't see the logic (although I'd admit it does seem more fun).

Check out this comment by girlwithredballoon on an older post of mine:

"You know, I took Personal Finance in high school, but they didn't teach anything about credit cards, compounding interest, different types of student loans - none of that! They taught us how to write checks, and then we had to play a stock market game where we chose companies to invest in. I know investing is important but knowing the dangers of credit cards ahead of time may have helped me to avoid them in college!"

Exactly! I learned how to write checks and balance a checkbook in Senior year too, but that was about it. There was no mention of 401k, IRAs (were they around in the 90's?), credit cards, or just plain saving. But of course we had to play those stock investing games! God forbid we leave school without doubling up our FAKE money.

Maybe I'm naive, but I just don't see how investing in individual stocks should come before the main pillars of personal finance. Think about it. Say a student triples his/her money in the "fake" market and then thinks he/she can make it big in real life and tries to out game it all? The odds are against them, especially if they think they can do it again in the 3-4 months allotted like in class. They then lose a chunk of their money and end up walking away thinking investing isn't for them.

Only INVESTING isn't about just individual stocks! It can be a main ingredient, but there's plenty of other places you can put your money - CDs, bonds, mutual funds, target-date funds, treasury bills, etc etc. Stocks can do wonders for your portfolio (I love 'em to death!) but you should have a grasp on the rest of the areas before jumping in and playing.

You teach a kid how to save 10% of all their income, or pay their debt off on-time, and it's a whole new ball game! Not as fun to teach I'm sure, but it'll stick with them MUCH longer than some crazy stock game. Am I right? Am I missing something here?

Labels: education, in the real world, money management, personal finance, stock market

Even if it's the most boring advice ever? I was talking to my boy Brad the other night and somehow we got on the topic of simple easy advice, and he used millionaires as a perfect example of this. And it's so true!

Most millionaires make their money slowly, over time. Getting Rich Slowly, if you will, yet not many care to put it into use because it's so boring. And, well, slow. But the truth is this stuff works! It takes a lot of hard work and frugality, and many times sacrificing, but the end goal of becoming financially free is some damn good motivation.

If you like this sorta stuff, I highly recommend reading The Millionaire Next Door. It's one of the greatest books in this field and really breaks down the common traits of millionaires out there. And you'd be surprised that not everyone in the book makes a ton of money! A lot of them do, but many also get wealthy by living below their means, saving 20% of all their income, and staying put in their paid-for homes (something I wish I could do myself! Haha...stupid military blood in me).

Living "for today" is cool too if that's how you see the world, but you better enjoy what you're doing because you'll be workin' for a looooong time. One of the benefits of creating wealth is that it shifts the power from the outside world to YOU! That means YOU get to decide how much to work and how to live your life, no one else. It's called financial freedom, and millionaires cherish it like no other. (It's also what I keep in mind whenever jealousy takes over from watching people lavishly spend their money ;))

Millionaires are millionaires for a reason. If you truly want to learn how to grow your money like them, listen up! The old excuses of "it's not for me" or "I would do that, but...." don't fly in their world. They set up a plan, save their money, and enjoy all their spoils. If you're lucky enough to know any of them, buy 'em a beer and pick their brain! It just so happens they also enjoy giving back ;)

Labels: education, millionaire love, money management

I was forwarded this kick Ass graphic by College Scholarships.Org. You have to click over to see it, but here's my favorite line: "Look for scholarships and grants, or anything that can reduce borrowing. Otherwise you could be drinking PBR well past your P.H.D." Hah! I happen to love Pabst Blue Ribbon, but yes, very very good advice ;) You can check out the pretty picture here.

Labels: awesomely awesome, education, grad school

That's what the owner of this used book store told me this weekend.

What the hell? What did finance ever do to you? I guess you don't read personal finance blogs ;) Here's how the conversation went down (if you could call it that):

Me: "Hey how's it going man, do you know where I can find your economics or finance section?"
Book Store Owner: "Hah! We don't have that here ... (walks away & starts mumbling) ... All financial books from the past 10 years should be burned."

Ummmm...thanks? I guess you're just gonna walk away and not help me, okay I gotcha. Initially I just brushed it off and went about my business looking for other books instead, but the more I thought about it, the more curiosity got a hold of me. Was he just talking out of his ass? Did he say it cuz it was the "trendy" thing to do? Did he *ever* carry these books? Unfortunately he was long gone by the time these questions started to bubble up.

Instead, I am left posting about it and coming to my own assumptions. Here's what I think. I think Mr. Store Owner got burned by the economy in some form or another, and he's now bringing in much less than he used to. He probably also meant to say that all investing books should be thrown out of the window, not financial ones. How could books promoting savings and proper money management possibly harm anyone? I can't imagine anyone getting rid of The Richest Man in Babylon or The Millionaire Next Door on grounds of horrible advice.

Obviously, I think he made a bad choice of words. The average person may not have picked up on it (or cared for that matter), but I take it as an insult. You run a book store where people go to LEARN and give you money, not to hear you spout out conspiracy theories. The next time someone's interested in buying a book from you, try helping them, not patronizing them.

Labels: cockamamy indeed, crazy economy, education, rant

Fresh from our weekend getaway, I am still in shock that the father of our Declaration of Independence remained in debt his entire life!

From the day his father passed away, to the day he passed away himself, Thomas Jefferson owed a lot of money to a lot of people.

This may or may not come as a surprise to many of you scholars out there, but it certainly did to me. Especially since in many of his writings he explains how important it is to NOT burden future generations with all your lingering debt! And TJ most certainly did, leaving behind around $107,000 worth of trouble to be cleaned up after he was gone (that's anywhere from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 in today's times!).

That's not to say it was entirely his fault - he inherited a chunk, co-signed notes for relatives who flaked, endured the Panic of 1819 - but he certainly didn't live below his means ;) After all, he built (and revised many a times) his dream home of Monticello on 1,000+ acres with a plantation and team of 150+ workers & slaves just to maintain it all! That takes one helluva line of credit, esp. if you're not bringing in enough to support it. Luckily for him, his public stature was all he needed to back it up - a perk of being a President and founding father.

When all is said and done though, this debt business fails in comparison to the brilliance and remarkable impact Thomas Jefferson had on this beautiful nation of ours. From drafting the Declaration of Independence, completing the Louisiana Purchase, and founding the University of Virginia, he has without a doubt left this country with an incredible legacy.

I leave you now with a piece of advice Jefferson would have certainly agreed with: immerse yourself in education. Whether in architecture, law, or personal finance, the more you learn the better you get at life. Just try not to live such a lavish lifestyle, okay ;) This concludes my book report.

Labels: debt, education, in the real world

All the cool kids are doing it! Are you? Okay, well maybe not all the *cool* ones, but certainly the smart ones. it's sorta like milk - the more you drink the healthier your bones get.

Except in this case, it's your finances. And you don't get caught with a stupid milk moustache (how come people never tell you when you've got one of these?)

But anyway, yeah so big props for already coming to this blog and wanting to learn more, but why not do yourself another solid and pick up a magazine as well? I know it's hard to believe, but I really don't know everything about personal finance (gasp!). Luckily though there are plenty of major professionals out there who really know their stuff. I'm actually pretty jealous of them to be honest, but then I always remember I can say things like a$-face, and hooker, and punctuate however i damn well please ;) Pros and cons I suppose.

Still, those kegs of knowledge need to be tapped. And a lot. It sounds cheesy, but I swear every time I pick up one of these mags I learn something new - even if it's small. They'll repeat themselves over and over again like we have dementia, but it all helps to sink it in. Here are my top favs, in order of most exciting to least-exciting (although all are great):

• Money Mag - (money.cnn.com) Crazy simple to read and always refreshing.
• Smart Money (smartmoney.com) - Pretty decent, although a bit plain jane at times.
• Fortune (fortune.com) - More businessy, but awesomely fascinating articles
• Kiplinger's (kiplinger.com) - Also good info, but harder for me to read.

You don't have to read every single one, every single month (unless you have a 2 hour commute every day like me), but even just skimming them gives you great ideas. I tend to skip out on the in-depth stock reviews and go right for the personal stories or tips of the month. Then, if i'm researching a particular subject, or just plain bored, I'll go back and read up on what I've missed.

Try picking one or two out from the bookstore and give 'em a shot. If you like 'em, subscribe. It'll only run ya $15-$20 a year which is not to shabby for hookin' you up with the dirty deets. Plus, chicks dig it. Carrying them around makes you look smart ;)

Labels: education, personal finance

Yep, I have finally confirmed it. After almost two years of purchasing it, our townhouse is now worth around $300k, down from the $360k we originally purchased it for....and we still owe a good $350k.

Unluckily, we also we picked it up at the very tippy top of the peak! Yikes. But at least we *know* what we're dealing with now. It's not like it was a huge surprise, ya know? I thought it was worth around $320k, but that was a total guess. And a really bad one too ;)

In theory though, it really doesn't matter until it comes time to sell....at least that's what I keep telling myself ;) But it's true in way. It's not great for the total "net worth" if you calculate it in like I'll be doing now, but the losses aren't realized until someone buys it from you. I guess my dream of moving closer to the city will have to wait a while.

So how did I come to this new figure of $300k (well, actually $305k)? I did two things:

1. I signed up with Zillow.com!
Ever been there? It's freakin' sweet man. You type in your address, and it'll pop out an average of what it thinks your house is worth! Then, if you want to take it a cple steps further, you "claim" your house and tweak the information, and it'll pop out an even better estimate of the value. The key to all this is "estimated", but depending on where you live it's pretty good at guessing (you can see the ratings here).

There's a whole mess of goodies you can pull on your house too. You can see the value over certain period of times, the amount of homes up for sale or foreclosing around your neighborhood or city or state, whatever you want! You can also pull one of the following graphs:



2. I called my Realtor and had him price it.
This is what sealed the deal for me. I told him I'm interested in moving closer to the city (the truth), and wanted to know how much he'd list it for if we were to throw it on the market in the next month or so (sorta white lie). Our realtor is an expert in our particular neighborhood,having bought and sold around 15+ alone there, and we continue to keep in touch & help each other out when possible - like when we did a tv show segment on "new home buyers" ;) it was awesome! but that's for another day...

Anyways, due to the foreclosures/short sells in our cul-de-sac, he said the most we could expect to get for it at this time is around $300k. But, if we wanted to rent it out, we could get around $1600-$1800/mo depending on how quick we'd want to do it. Then, if you wanted to be totally hands off, you could pay 8% and have a management company take care of all the issues w/ it - collecting the rent, sending over plumbers/electricians/etc. So that would add another $150 or so, but still good to know.

Soooo, between our realtor and Zillow it looks like we have a decent answer here. I'm sure it'll change over the months as the economy fluctuates like a college freshmen, but we'll be keeping our eyes on it and updating as necessary. Another "account" to watch and obsessively check all the time ;) haha....nah, my 401k is enough. I can't take 2 crazy accounts like that!

Labels: crazy economy, education, home ownership

I can't believe i haven't blogged about this yet! Man, and i call this a personal finance blog? Shoooooooot. Guess losing one salary doesn't merit much around here! haha....So today's post is about how we're putting Mrs. Budgetsaresexy through grad school. AND, you'll be happy to hear that she pulled straight A's this first semester!!! Keep doing your thing baby :)

The last i mentioned, the Mrs. had gotten into 2 good schools, but couldn't decide which to choose. School #1 was a more prestigious one (at least in ranking), but didn't offer any scholarship whatsoever, and actually didn't offer her specific major. School #2 offered a full scholarship AND paid teaching assistantship, specialized in her major, but wasn't as highly ranked.

After some visits and budget review w/ yours truly, she *luckily* decided to go w/ School #2 ;) I stood by her her either way, but deep down the financial part of me was like "ohhhhhhhhhhh mama! pick #2, pick #2!". Cuz you have to remember, her schooling now wipes away her hefty $50k/year salary which means we're rolling on ONE salary for 4 years now! So this def. took the sting out a little ;) There's a whole mess of variables that play into this, so i thought i'd break it down a bit for ya:

All amounts needed to cover 1 year while in school:

• $14,400 to cover house/livings expenses normally received from her $50k salary
• $30,000 yearly tuition
• $2,000 miscellaneous fees/books
• TOTAL: $46,400

All amounts we have been fortunate to receive for the 1st year:

• $8,000 (est. after taxes) Teaching Assistantship salary - $12k/year
• $30,000 Scholarship for yearly tuition
• $12,000 Sale of oil stock a while back - saved for this reason
• $x,xxx Summer internship/job
• TOTAL: $50,000+

Man, looking at the numbers like this really does a doozy on the brain! As crazy as it sounds, i'd never broken it down like this...makes you realize a) how EXPENSIVE school is, and b) how blessed we are!!! Damn. I'll have to remember to thank The Man upstairs again at church this week ;)

So, as you can tell from the above numbers, 80% of the amount needed each year is taken care of from the scholarship & T/A. That leaves us with at LEAST (the Mrs. still needs "play" money and all) $8,400 needed to cover the rest of the yearly expenses once the stock money disappears next year. We still have a majority of the "pay it forward" money we received a while back, but we're hoping the summer job and other budget-y things make up for the rest.

So 1 semester down, 7 more to go! Yikes. But as my Auntie always says, "when you're on the right path, things have a way of working out for you." and so far so good! In the meantime, i'm conjuring up some grad school ideas of my own for when she's done... I'm thinking either a PHD in Texas Hold 'em, or a Masters in Fieldgoal Kicking so i can help out my aching Washington Redskins ;) Either way, i'm sexcited!

Labels: education, grad school, money management

For the first time in 28 years i finally won! I can't believe it....I'm pretty sure if my mother was reading this she'd say something about pigs flying or hell freezing over, but luckily she doesn't so i may bask in my glory joke-free ;)

Now, they weren't the hardest or most fascinating goals in the world, but they were enough to get me believing in them again! My old resolution was to always have better handwriting, but needless to say i failed each and ever year...so this time it feels good!

Plus, it doesn't hurt when you write a personal finance blog...and you pick personal finance subjects to work on :) So really, i should be thanking YOU Budgetsaresexy.com, and YOU readers of Budgetsaresexy.com - you are the light that guides my financial way! haha.... So here they are, cut and pasted from my mid-year update back in May (and not much different too, i might add).

My 2008 New Year's Resolutions:

1) Start using a budget (a what?). A+
Yup, for the first time in my entire life i created, and stuck to, my budget. And in all honesty it wasn't as hard as i thought it would be...although i'm guessing that's becuase I a) kept the same job the entire year for once, and b) now "own" a home and forced to watch myself. A lot has changed since creating it back in Feb though, so I'll have to post a new one for 2009 here shortly.

2) Learn more about finances; stocks, mutual funds, reits, etc. B
Hum.....well i def. DID learn more about stuff in an "overall" kinda sense, but i didn't get down and dirrrrrty like i originally wanted to. I pretty much just did enough to get by and be happy with myself in this dept. I think i'll just leave the hardcore details alone until they actually play a part in my financial game plan.

3) Learn more about web design. A
Yep! Blogging away every day, and being our in-house designer @ work sure helped this one along :) I still think i could have learned more and applied myself, but overall i gave myself an A because i'm a helluva lot further than i was last year.

4) And finally, read more....helps 2 & 3 out, eh? A+
You know what helps this? Ordering 4 magazine subscriptions, and commuting via train for 2 1/2 hours a day ;) That, and having your wife go back to school and start studying all day and all night. Turns out you have a lot more time to yourself! But $hit, it got me to read again didn't it :)

So, another year gone, and another year wiser....and older :( This is my last year being in my twenties - yikes! I don't think it'll feel all that much different though - I pretty much act like a college kid and do as i please anyways ;)

You all make good this year? Even if you LISTED your resolutions somewhere i'll give you a virtual pat on the back though, that ish is hard! You know i got mad love for ya...

Labels: awesomely awesome, education, goals, updates

I am a sucker for quizzes & polls, and even more so Financial related ones! It's fun to compete and see if i'm as smart as i think i am ;) Of course, i never come out 100% and then wonder where i got "tricked", but it's all fun and games. So if you're in the mood yourself (or just wanna avoid doing work today), give them both a shot and let me know if you beat me!

• Quiz #1: Financial Truth or Bunk? I scored an 8 out of 12 :( some are freakin' tricky!
• Quiz #2: Financial Truth or Bunk? Got 11 out of 12 right - woohoo! Much better ;)

Happy Monday!

Labels: education, randomness 3000

Is there a best place to pick up your college books from? That's what the Mrs. set out to discover just yesterday.

As many of you know, Mrs. Budgetsaresexy is starting grad school this month, and is thus trying to find the best bargains out there for her reading material. And I gotta tell you, a LOT has changed since my days at the old university!

One of my favorite things to do was to visit the bookstore and see the hundreds of students mingling around, all excited to be back in school and ready to party ;) In fact, i liked it so much that i even worked there! I tell you one thing, it's a helluva way to meet girls people. he he. Ahhh the good ol' days...*tear*

But anyways, back in the day we only had one real way of getting these books - the college bookstore. It was the #1 cash drainer for our pockets, or should I say some of our parent's pockets (i love you Mom! not that you know this site exists). But these days? Not anymore. There are a plethora of ways to get our hands on them now, and sometimes for much cheaper.

Mrs. Budgetsaresexy literally JUST emailed me a spreadsheet she put together to calculate the best bargains out there for her newest list of books needed. It was intended for MEO (My eyes only), but i got her to share it with us :) There's nothing graphic in there, so why not right? haha...

So, here's the email she sent me word for word which summarizes her findings, minus a few identifying details: (the spreadsheet can be found here, for all you visual people)

"Dear sexiest man alive (editor's note: i put that in...he he)

i compiled a spreadsheet of all the books i need, and their respective costs in 4 places: amazon, half.com, overstock, and the college bookstore.

if the edition or translation of the book was questionable in terms of what the professor wants, and/or if the cost difference wasn't significant enough to matter much (a few cents to a dollar or so), i went with the default college bookstore to make things easier. for all other books that were pretty much standard editions everywhere, OR where the price differentiation was HUGE (was for at least 3 books), i went with any of the other 3 online dealers.

to make a long story short, if i went ONLY with the college bookstore, my total spent on books thus far (not counting whatever i have to spend on my 3rd class), would have been : $254.50. my grand total for what i spent using the methods above? $145.99. i SAVED a total of $108.51!!!!

now, let's just hope that all the books i ordered online arrive on time, AND are the right version of what i need and all. but if they all are? well hot diggidy, i think i am a hefty little save-a-roo!!! :) "

As you can see, going with JUST the college bookstore in this case fails miserably. It seems the best route to take is to pick and choose from a combination of Half.com, Amazon, Overstock, AND the college bookstore. It's a little time consuming, but the $100+ we'll be saving is well worth it!

The Winner: Combination of all 4 places! (Anyone wanna guess what her major is?)

Labels: bargains, education, grad school, link lovin, mrs. budgetsaresexy

Words of wisdom from the queen of finance herself - Suze Orman (who seems to be popping up everywhere these days!)

I don't know much about her, but it sure seems like she wants me to :) She's on every other magazine, or financial show i check out - my favorite being the SNL skits they always do on her! haha.... she's got one helluva marketing strategy!

But this quote of hers, "You have to look at what you have, not at what you had." is really something to think about. It's SO enlightening, yet so simple. I love it! With all my bitching about sucky cab rides, friends trying to "split" the tab, and those whacked-out investors feeding off of emotions, it's a nice slap in the face to get back to reality. (you can check out her wiki here)

The truth of the matter is that I have a LOT more than I sometimes think, and I'm willing to guess the same goes for you too. Having stable jobs, good families, and nice financial safety nets (even if in theory), beats out those trivial complaints by far. The only problem, of course, is REMEMBERING that you are fortunate enough to have these things - something I should probably focus a bit more on.

That being said though, a little financial bitching every now and then never hurt anyone ;) In fact, it makes life (and blogging) even MORE interesting, not to mention accurate. Not everything that happens to us can be positive, I don't care if you're George Bush or Barack Obama......haha sorry, i'm really not sure where i'm going with this...the words just typed themselves out :)

I think there's a healthy mix of appreciating what we all have, and learning from the reasons why we don't have what we did yesterday ... sprinkled with rants and raves throughout! As for this Suze chick, I'm gonna have to do a little more research and find out how she got this cult following. I heard "The Money Book for the Young Fabulous & Broke" was pretty good, anyone read it?

ps: Thanks for emailing me the quote RSB , it sure got my brain thinking!

Labels: advice, education, inspiration, life, money quotes, suze orman

Before I share my own, totally boring, advice from over the years, I wanted to share my fav. quote from an article in this month's Money Magazine (Aug). It comes from their "Smartest Advice I've Ever Got" article which covered 30+ smarty pants, and the one thing that stuck by them over the years.

My awesomest was from Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, on her father being the "most frugal human being" she's ever met:

"Borrowing money is like wetting your bed in the middle of the night. At first all you feel is warmth and release. But very, very quickly comes the awful, cold discomfort of reality."

How awesome is that? I seriously WISHED someone had told me that back in the day...i'm not sure if it would have changed anything, but it sure would have stuck :) I think i need to start hanging around some more clever people...

The smartest advice I ever got isn't nearly exciting, but it IS helpful! While my mom and grandma have always been the most frugal of the group - creating my addiction to yard sales, thrift stores, and Ta Ta Ta TJ Maxx - it's my dad who's usually the go-to guy when it comes to the overall picture.

The one thing he's always harped on, along w/ many others, is to "never put anything on a credit card that you can't pay off". Plain and simple, but oh so true! It may not be as sexy as Elizabeth's quote, but it sure is smart. And while I may not pay the purchases off asap, I ALWAYS have some sort of plan and timeline in mind before swiping.

What about you guys? Do you recall any helpful advice over the years?

----------
Here's another post I wrote on the role money has played growing up.

Labels: advice, education, loaning money, money quotes

BOOK: The Millionaire Next Door
AUTHOR: Thomas J. Stanley, William D. Danko
SEXINESS: 4 Thumbs ups! (toes count)

Tied for my all-time favorite financial book! Where as The Automatical Millionaire (the other favorite) shows you HOW to reach your goals, this book helps get your "financial mind" positioned right - and does so brilliantly!

There's one defining concept portrayed throughout:
Always live below your means.

You do this, no matter your age, salary, etc, and your wealth will grow exponentially - and so will your peace of mind :) That's not to say you can't be a millionaire AND have fancy things, of course, but just that these guys choose not to.

Even if you DO earn a crazy high income, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be rich (aka have a high net worth). The same holds true with the highly educated:

"How can well-educated, high-income people be so naive about money? Because being a well-educated, hight-income earner does not automatically translate into financial independence. It takes planning and sacrificing"

Amen brother. If only they knew about our blogs! haha ... So who are these Pimps?

According to Stanley & Danko, the average millionaire is:

• 57 years old, Male, and married with 3 children. 70% of them earn 80% or more of their household income.
• Self-employed (2/3rds of them). 1 in 5 are retired.
• A homeowner. 97% of them own homes, which are valued around $320,000.
• First-generation affluent (80%) - meaning they are self-made millionaires, not because they inherited all their money.

And, on average, they:

• Invest nearly 20% of their household realized income EACH YEAR.
• Have total annual realized (taxable) incomes of $131,000, with average incomes at $247,000.
• Live well below their means, wear inexpensive suits and drive American-made cars.
• Have wives who are planners and meticulous budgeters. (they know what's up! Sexy all the way baby... i don't care what others say).
• They have a "go-to-hell fund" - basically, enough to quit working for 10+ years if they really wanted.
• And, are mostly tightwads! haha... hence, one of the main reasons they agreed to complete a long questionnaire for a few crispy dollar bills.

This is all broken down throughout the chapters, so if you get bored with one pile of stats, you can easily move on to others. They also categorize high earners into what they call PAWS and UAWS, and then compare the differences between them. PAWS are "Prodigious accumulator of wealth", and UAWS are "Under accumulator of wealth". You want to be a PAW ;)

In all honesty, reading this book has become the financial ying to my yang. It goes right up there with the purchase of our house and living off a budget - I love it! You really do get to know their way of life, and it really sticks.

The ONLY thing i'd like to see is an updated version of this bad boy. While i'm sure this "way of life" hasn't changed much over the years, i bet the stats sure have! A ton of stuff has happenend since this book published in 1996. (You hear that Stanley & Danko? If you do this for me, I promise you 1 (one) sale of this new book)

I totally recommend this book to anyone interested in furthering their financial education. A+ baby, all the way!

------------
* You can buy the book here: The Millionaire Next Door
* And you can check out other book reviews here: Book Reviews

Labels: book reviews, education, millionaire love

My new obsession these days is Money Magazine, and the only thing holding me back from reading it every day is the fact that it only comes out once a month. Unlike some other $ mags out there, Money conjures up some fascinating (and pretty easy to read) articles that even us newbies can quickly pick up. I'm not saying i'm slow or suck at reading, but i'll be the first to admit those financial terms lose me every now and then.

One of my favorite articles this month (April, pg 79) goes into some psychology and "life" questions that poke around a bit, and get you to figure out exactly what you want out of your money. It's titled, "What do you really want from your money?" :)

Although there are a few familiar questions like "if you were to die tomorrow, would you feel like you missed anything? would you do anything different?", they had a pretty cool side box that helps you to dive into your past and figure out your money habits. It's titled "Digging In" (pg 82), and it pulls excerpts from a questionnaire used by Barbara Kirby, a Minn. financial adviser.

Since one of my fav. things is to answer those random lists of questions people forward around, i figured i'd post and answer a handful of them myself. Here's what we got (questions quoted from Money):

1. When you were a kid, did your family use money mainly to reward, punish, survive, impress, control, help others, have fun, buy love, reach goals, or ____? oh man, i hardly understood money back then...but i'd probably go with "paying the bills" and "making sure we didn't have to worry about money".
2. When you were young, did you consider your family to be rich, poor or ___? I'd say smack down in the middle. i never thought we were rich, but i did wonder why we couldn't get Nike's every year like all the cool kids ;)
3. As an adult, what has been the most important lesson you have learned about money? To save it! not that i always followed it, but that was the 1 and only thing ever mentioned about $ in our household.
4. In your current financial life, are you more of an avoider or a worrier? Prob. a healthy mix of both. I usually try to avoid worrying!
5. Has money been an "issue" or source of conflict in your important relationships? Never.
6. What money habits have been obstacles to your reaching your life goals? probably just spending more as i brought in more. since i'm still in my 20's (barely.....tear) it's not like i've had any major goals to strive for, but now that i'm putting them in place i'll def. need to keep my eyes on the money flowing out of my pockets.
7. What experience do you feel has most directly shaped your current level of financial satisfaction? Buying our house last year. That's really the turning point of my budgeting and financial planning. Although i am extremely more knowledgeable now than when we bought sadly, it's def. opened my eyes and forced me to wake up and smell the greenbacks.

That is all my friends. If you're interested, or just plain bored, i challenge you to give it a shot yourself! I've asked myself many a questions before, but none like these. Maybe you'll have one of those "Ohhh, so THAT's why i ____"?

Labels: about j., education, life

This is a HUGE day for us, Hooray!!! She's been working like crazy on all her applications, and killing the GRE's, and it's now coming to fruition :) Without going into it too much (she's not as carefree w/ the open details as myself) she now has 2 acceptances and 4 no's out of the 9 total applied to. This is very good as the odds of getting into just 1 well respected school in her field is extremely hard.

Of course, with every positive comes it's negatives, and as you can imagine this will have a major impact on our finances. The steady $50k she brings in not only allows us to save more, but also allows us to live a financially comfortable life. In a good 6 months though, this hefty sum will quickly dissipate as school begins. Sure it'll more than even out over the years, but YIKES!

There are a couple variables here that will totally make things easier or harder for us in this adventure. Here's what we got:

1. Full Scholarship: A lot of PhD programs offer a majority of their accepted students full tuition. This is HOTTTT! Can you imagine scratching off that $150k loan + interest that you'd otherwise have to get? This is a dream come true for all PF'ers :) And anyone else too of course! ha ha...
2. Stipend: From what i understand, this would be IN ADDITION TO the whole scholarship stuff. So not only would the tuition be totally paid from the start, but then you'd receive an additional stream of $ while studying! Granted it wouldn't even be close to the $50k we're used to getting, but that's still incredible. Talk about having less stress while you're immersed in hardcore education for 4+ years.

So, which possibilities are in the air for us at this moment? As it stands, both. The first school, which is at the bottom of her list, has granted her a full scholarship so far (AWESOME!), but no word yet on the stipend situation. The second school, currently her top choice, has just recently notified her of her acceptance with no additional details as yet.

Either way, i totally support her decision 100%. Getting a Masters or PhD is a dream for many and has consistently shown higher results down the road, so I'm proud of anyone going after it. Receiving both a scholarship and stipend will obviously make things much more easier money-wise, but i have total faith we'll be able to navigate the financial waters just fine :) Congrats again baby!


***UPDATE: April 7th***

The Mrs. picked her school! Before I tell you which one she chose, a few more details came about. The lower rated one (barely, really) has offered her a stipend TOO. So that one not only pays the full ride, but also gives her a little side income as well! The higher rated school offered her nothing, just acceptance into the school - which is still pretty damn hard to get.

So, after hours of soul searching and speaking around with students and colleagues, she has chosen the full ride one!! Cuh-ching! haha... While i did my best not to sway her one way or the other, it's pretty obvious this helps our financial situation the most :) I'm sure i'll go into more details down the road, as this affects us in many many ways. But yay!

Labels: education, grad school, mrs. budgetsaresexy