The other day, Trent at the Simple Dollar posted about free things to do. It really got me thinking. With all the whining I've done recently, I need to celebrate some of the finer (free) things in life, because, let's face it, it's not so bad. :)
I made a list of all my favorite free things to do and stopped at 56 because that's how many lines were on the piece of paper and I am weird like that. I could probably double that, given the time and another sheet of paper. I could bore you with a nice, long, 112 item list, but I figured I'd whittle it down to the top ten. Since I love countdowns and think they're much much better than countups, I present to you, in ascending order, my ten most favorite free things to do.
10. Taking a walk. Little did I know that, when my parents and I would take walks with our dogs years ago, that it was actually fun and useful. I enjoyed it then and I enjoy it now - a nice little stroll down the road or a walk around the park. Lovely.
9. Sledding. Not tubing, sledding. We live next to a golf course with a nice big hill up to the 6th green. I'm sure it's a bugger to play that hole, but it's fun to slide down the hill!
8. Sunbathing. I know, I know, skin cancer. Bad for you. UV rays. But it feels SO GOOD to lay out in the sunshine and feel the sweet breeze on your skin. Since my husband is fair-skinned, I use sunscreen religiously when planning a day out. I most often sunbathe at the beach (obviously) and love to combine it with...
7. Reading a (borrowed) book. Whether borrowed from the library or my darling sister or mom, I rarely buy books, but read as many as I have time to. I have always been big into reading and I go through them pretty quickly, easily losing myself in the story.
6. Sitting by a fire. In the fireplace or an outdoor campfire, I am drawn to a burning pile of logs like, well, a moth to a flame. Something about the crackling wood and the smoke transcends all seasons and is very relaxing. My husband and I have had many heart to hearts while staring into the fires - it makes for some good conversations and removes the everyday hum of technology that seems to surround us.
5. Sleeping. I remember the days when I begged to stay up later than my bedtime. Now, bedtime is something I look forward to every night. I love my bed and the feeling of complete relaxation when I place my head on the pillow.
4. Playing with my Kitties. My two crazy cats are always coming up with something new. Calypso, the older cat loves to jump for toys - I mean back flips. Tango, the baby, has learned how to play fetch with his toys and keeps bringing them back. They just always bring a smile to my face.
3. Snuggling. I love to curl up on the couch with my husband and kitties and watch a movie or just plain be. It's probably the easiest way to unwind after a long day.
2. Taking Pictures. I have always been a take pictures of things and not people kind of girl. I like to carry the camera around and capture whatever catches my eye. While you could argue that this isn't free because you need a camera, we bought ours years ago and use it often enough that the cost per use is very very low.
1. Playing Board Games. This is my favorite thing to do when we have a group of people together. My preferred game is Pictionary, but I love them all - Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Scrabble. We received most of our board games as gifts and my family always shows up to a party with one or another in hand. Case in point - my sister introduced us to Oodles this past weekend and we all had a blast.
I know that some of these items have an initial overhead cost, but at this point in time they are free for us. You can argue, of course, that my cats aren't free because of food, litter, vet bills, etc., but the point is that I don't have to spend any money to do any of these things today. There are plenty of activities I could choose to do that are costly, and I plan to use my list to keep enjoying the simple, free things in life.
Monday, January 21, 2008
A Day Off!
Today, in the US, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Which means, for some people, including myself, a day out of work. It was a little unexpected, as my company isn't known for having a lot of holiday time. We didn't have Columbus Day, Veteran's Day or Patriot's Day off last year. (In MA, almost every company is closed on Patriot's Day. We're the only state to celebrate it - with the Marathon!) Yet they give us MLK Day and President's Day off. Not that I am negating the importance of these holidays, but you have to wonder how they decide which days to have as company holidays and which to have as work days.
In any case, most holidays I have off from my first job find me working at my second job, or traveling to visit family. Today, however, I have completely to myself. No work. No place to go (unless I want to). No errands that need doing. Just time, sweet time, a whole day of time to do as I please.
So today I am here and there, doing this and that. I had breakfast on my mom (Thanks Mom!) this morning, did some laundry, read some emails. My plan is to write a few blog posts to go up throughout the week, visit the library and update to Quicken 2008. I'm just really enjoying having time to do things - the things that get pushed aside when everything else is going on. It's strengthening my argument to quit my second job. Just another straw for the camel.
In any case, most holidays I have off from my first job find me working at my second job, or traveling to visit family. Today, however, I have completely to myself. No work. No place to go (unless I want to). No errands that need doing. Just time, sweet time, a whole day of time to do as I please.
So today I am here and there, doing this and that. I had breakfast on my mom (Thanks Mom!) this morning, did some laundry, read some emails. My plan is to write a few blog posts to go up throughout the week, visit the library and update to Quicken 2008. I'm just really enjoying having time to do things - the things that get pushed aside when everything else is going on. It's strengthening my argument to quit my second job. Just another straw for the camel.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Moving Down to One Job - Soon?
The other day, I got into a fight argument with my husband, which revolved around my second job. Words were exchanged, things were a little heated, but the gist of it was that the pros no longer outweigh the cons of keeping my second job.
My primary job is picking up, both in my commissions and responsibility and the second job is starting to affect my work there. More importantly, however, is the way it's affecting my sanity and my relationships. I rarely, if ever, see my friends and extended family. I try to see my parents frequently, but I find myself saying "I have to work" all the time. My husband's schedule is difficult to work around, so we don't always align our "off time", and when we do, it's mostly spent doing chores.
On top of all that, I am feeling rather burnt out. I knew it was bound to happen, and quite frankly, I'm surprised I made it this long. I started working two jobs in September 2006. Since then, I have worked almost every Tuesday, Friday, and weekend. I have only made about $11,000 from this job in that time. It was great to throw that right to our debt, but I am just... done.
There is a bump in the road, however. Due to some extenuating circumstances, our February paychecks may not be up to our regular income. This is causing a LOT of stress, and we should find out within the next 10 days or so if we'll be making enough money in February to cover our bills. (I apologize for being so vague - believe me, I am dying to discuss this.) Once I know that we'll be OK, then I plan to quit the second job. I am crossing my fingers that I will be able to enter February with only ONE job!
My primary job is picking up, both in my commissions and responsibility and the second job is starting to affect my work there. More importantly, however, is the way it's affecting my sanity and my relationships. I rarely, if ever, see my friends and extended family. I try to see my parents frequently, but I find myself saying "I have to work" all the time. My husband's schedule is difficult to work around, so we don't always align our "off time", and when we do, it's mostly spent doing chores.
On top of all that, I am feeling rather burnt out. I knew it was bound to happen, and quite frankly, I'm surprised I made it this long. I started working two jobs in September 2006. Since then, I have worked almost every Tuesday, Friday, and weekend. I have only made about $11,000 from this job in that time. It was great to throw that right to our debt, but I am just... done.
There is a bump in the road, however. Due to some extenuating circumstances, our February paychecks may not be up to our regular income. This is causing a LOT of stress, and we should find out within the next 10 days or so if we'll be making enough money in February to cover our bills. (I apologize for being so vague - believe me, I am dying to discuss this.) Once I know that we'll be OK, then I plan to quit the second job. I am crossing my fingers that I will be able to enter February with only ONE job!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Procrastination Costs me Money
I am a horrific procrastinator. I always wait until the last possible second to do anything - clean my house before people come over, finish work before a deadline. I even write my posts right before bed. For some reason, I won't do my tasks until there's pressure. Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow?
I have two possible culprits (excuses) for why I procrastinate so much. One, I was an engineering major in college and learned to operate remarkably well under pressure, which somehow translated to only operating when under pressure. Or it could be the second reason - I have so many things to do that only the mos imperative tasks are done each day. Urgency is a pretty good way to get to the top of my list. Unfortunately, more tasks are added to my to-do list every day and there are a few that keep getting pushed until tomorrow... or the next day... or the next day.
Regardless of the reasoning, there are a few issues that crop up due to my penchant for putting things off. I am always under pressure, which,while I thrive under pressure, can be irritating at times. And it costs me money.
I can think of 2 ways in the past week that I spent money because I procrastinated and didn't plan ahead. I went to the grocery store next to my retail job one night because I didn't get enought food for dinner that night. This store just happens to charge about twice as much for their food than my normal store. But the better example is my husband's birthday last week. On his actual birthday, I bought his present, picked out a card and finished making his cake. Not only could I have saved some money by planning ahead and comparison shopping, I could have gotten his card for free using CVS deals and spent more time with him and less time frosting the cake. Between the two of these I could have saved $7-10.
But these are just small examples. In the past, I have paid credit cards late and missed other payments by putting them off. While I haven't done that in quite some time (my one error notwithstanding), I'm still not quite organized or efficient enough to maximize my money. But I'm getting there. The first step is to admit you have a problem. :) Now to go about solving it...
I have two possible culprits (excuses) for why I procrastinate so much. One, I was an engineering major in college and learned to operate remarkably well under pressure, which somehow translated to only operating when under pressure. Or it could be the second reason - I have so many things to do that only the mos imperative tasks are done each day. Urgency is a pretty good way to get to the top of my list. Unfortunately, more tasks are added to my to-do list every day and there are a few that keep getting pushed until tomorrow... or the next day... or the next day.
Regardless of the reasoning, there are a few issues that crop up due to my penchant for putting things off. I am always under pressure, which,while I thrive under pressure, can be irritating at times. And it costs me money.
I can think of 2 ways in the past week that I spent money because I procrastinated and didn't plan ahead. I went to the grocery store next to my retail job one night because I didn't get enought food for dinner that night. This store just happens to charge about twice as much for their food than my normal store. But the better example is my husband's birthday last week. On his actual birthday, I bought his present, picked out a card and finished making his cake. Not only could I have saved some money by planning ahead and comparison shopping, I could have gotten his card for free using CVS deals and spent more time with him and less time frosting the cake. Between the two of these I could have saved $7-10.
But these are just small examples. In the past, I have paid credit cards late and missed other payments by putting them off. While I haven't done that in quite some time (my one error notwithstanding), I'm still not quite organized or efficient enough to maximize my money. But I'm getting there. The first step is to admit you have a problem. :) Now to go about solving it...
Friday, January 11, 2008
Prioritizing Your Money
Budgeting money is all about prioritizing. Some of it is obvious - pay the mortgage before you pay for cable, buy food before you buy new clothes. I've been in the situation where you have to play bill roulette to determine which bill gets paid this week. Not fun. Fortunately, those times have passed (never to be seen again!) and we have a lot more choices to make with our money.
Once all the bills are covered and all essentials are met, we must make a decision. I come across these decision every day. I am not one of those people who naturally doesn't spend money. I have to stop myself from buying things daily. Whether I'm at the grocery store, at work, or driving by a restaurant, I always want to spend our money. I allow myself a little bit of "fun money" every month to spend on these trivial things, but ultimately the rest of our money goes toward our financial goals.
Even within our goals, we need to prioritize. The credit card debt has always been our highest priority, however, we have a no interest credit card that currently holds just under half our debt. The 0% interest ends in September, so I want to make sure we have it paid off before any interest kicks in. Hopefully we will have the remainder of the credit card debt paid off in March. So what to do with the six months in between?
The mathematically logical thing to do would be to start on our other goals while making minimum payments on the 0% card and then paying off the credit card just before the deadline. The psychological thing to do is to pay off the credit card completely as soon as we can. My plan is somewhere in the middle.
I want to make sure that everything is paid off with time to spare before the interest would kick in. I'm not very good at being on time, and this is very important not to miss. My goal is to pay off the 0% credit card by the end of August. In the time between March and August, I am going to split our non-essential money among three categories:
1. The 0% Credit Card
2. Emergency Fund
3. Retirement.
Opening my 401(k) won't take a huge chunk of my income, but the earlier I do it, the sooner I start making money on my investments. The rest of the money will be split evenly between the credit card and the emergency fund. If all goes well, the credit card will be paid off in August (or before!) by using half of our allocated non-essential monies alone. However, if we need it, come August 31 we can use the money in the emergency fund to pay off the balance before it accrues any interest, without completely depleting our savings.
This way we can work towards more than one goal at a time. I thought about splitting the money between the 0% credit card and the dreaded 2nd mortgage, but that would leave us high and dry if an emergency comes around. Hopefully, all goes smoothly, but we know how likely that is! :)
Once all the bills are covered and all essentials are met, we must make a decision. I come across these decision every day. I am not one of those people who naturally doesn't spend money. I have to stop myself from buying things daily. Whether I'm at the grocery store, at work, or driving by a restaurant, I always want to spend our money. I allow myself a little bit of "fun money" every month to spend on these trivial things, but ultimately the rest of our money goes toward our financial goals.
Even within our goals, we need to prioritize. The credit card debt has always been our highest priority, however, we have a no interest credit card that currently holds just under half our debt. The 0% interest ends in September, so I want to make sure we have it paid off before any interest kicks in. Hopefully we will have the remainder of the credit card debt paid off in March. So what to do with the six months in between?
The mathematically logical thing to do would be to start on our other goals while making minimum payments on the 0% card and then paying off the credit card just before the deadline. The psychological thing to do is to pay off the credit card completely as soon as we can. My plan is somewhere in the middle.
I want to make sure that everything is paid off with time to spare before the interest would kick in. I'm not very good at being on time, and this is very important not to miss. My goal is to pay off the 0% credit card by the end of August. In the time between March and August, I am going to split our non-essential money among three categories:
1. The 0% Credit Card
2. Emergency Fund
3. Retirement.
Opening my 401(k) won't take a huge chunk of my income, but the earlier I do it, the sooner I start making money on my investments. The rest of the money will be split evenly between the credit card and the emergency fund. If all goes well, the credit card will be paid off in August (or before!) by using half of our allocated non-essential monies alone. However, if we need it, come August 31 we can use the money in the emergency fund to pay off the balance before it accrues any interest, without completely depleting our savings.
This way we can work towards more than one goal at a time. I thought about splitting the money between the 0% credit card and the dreaded 2nd mortgage, but that would leave us high and dry if an emergency comes around. Hopefully, all goes smoothly, but we know how likely that is! :)
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Financial Goals for 2008
After a fairly successful 2007, I am excited about moving forward in 2008. As this is a personal finance blog, I have a few goals for both our finances and the blog itself.
Financial goals:
1. Wipe out credit card debt. I can't wait to say goodbye to this forever. We have $12486.99 in credit card debt right now. The goal is to have it all paid off in April. This has been a goal for a long long time and to finally achieve it will be momentous.
2. Build our Emergency Fund. Despite all the times I talk about it, our emergency fund remains empty. I just can't bring myself to squirrel away money when I am paying all this interest. I have a million reasons to have a little one for now at least, but I still just... don't. The goal for 2008 is to put away $5000 into an emergency fund.
3. Open a 401(k) with my company. My company has a half match up to 8% of my earnings, fully vested immediately. I know I am throwing away free money by not opening the account. Once the debt is gone, I will open the 401(k) and work my way up to the 8%.
4. Open Roth IRAs for my husband and me. We don't have any retirement accounts currently and we need to get the ball rolling. There will only be so many years (hopefully!) until we hit the income limit to have Roth IRAs, so I really want to capitalize on them while we have the chance. In 2008, the maximum contribution per person is $5,000, so this is a $10,000 goal.
5. Start paying down our second mortgage. The next debt on the list is our interest only (cringe), adjustable rate (double cringe) $42,000 second mortgage. The goal is to pay $8800 of principal from the second mortgage.
These goals are definitely a stretch for us as we paid $23,712 towards our credit card debt in 2007 and the total amount we're working towards in 2008 is about $40,000. I have a shoot-for-the-stars, land-on-the-moon approach. Part of having separate goals is that we can achieve them individually and still be successful in 2008, even if we don't achieve them all.
Financial goals:
1. Wipe out credit card debt. I can't wait to say goodbye to this forever. We have $12486.99 in credit card debt right now. The goal is to have it all paid off in April. This has been a goal for a long long time and to finally achieve it will be momentous.
2. Build our Emergency Fund. Despite all the times I talk about it, our emergency fund remains empty. I just can't bring myself to squirrel away money when I am paying all this interest. I have a million reasons to have a little one for now at least, but I still just... don't. The goal for 2008 is to put away $5000 into an emergency fund.
3. Open a 401(k) with my company. My company has a half match up to 8% of my earnings, fully vested immediately. I know I am throwing away free money by not opening the account. Once the debt is gone, I will open the 401(k) and work my way up to the 8%.
4. Open Roth IRAs for my husband and me. We don't have any retirement accounts currently and we need to get the ball rolling. There will only be so many years (hopefully!) until we hit the income limit to have Roth IRAs, so I really want to capitalize on them while we have the chance. In 2008, the maximum contribution per person is $5,000, so this is a $10,000 goal.
5. Start paying down our second mortgage. The next debt on the list is our interest only (cringe), adjustable rate (double cringe) $42,000 second mortgage. The goal is to pay $8800 of principal from the second mortgage.
These goals are definitely a stretch for us as we paid $23,712 towards our credit card debt in 2007 and the total amount we're working towards in 2008 is about $40,000. I have a shoot-for-the-stars, land-on-the-moon approach. Part of having separate goals is that we can achieve them individually and still be successful in 2008, even if we don't achieve them all.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Commissions Resolved!
All the way back in November, I wrote about my commission problems. In short, my company charged me back about $2500 due to a billing error. Not good.
Although they never asked me to pay them directly, all the money I have earned in commissions has first gone towards the deficit. With no intention to do so, I added to our debts. I haven't received any commissions since October, and I still owe my company about $1900. At least it's at 0%, right?
Recently, however, the billing issue has been resolved and the order reinstated. Meaning, I will re-earn my $2500 in commissions and get paid out on the $600 that I have already put towards the deficit. Finally.
Here is the good news, though. When I originally was paid on the order, it qualified me for a quarterly bonus (based entirely on revenues brought in). Since the order was originally placed in the 2006 fiscal year, and is now reinstated in the 2007 fiscal year, it's possible that I could qualify for another bonus. Technically, the revenue has been brought in again during 2007. I am still waiting to hear about that - I should find out around the middle of January.
In the end, though, I am just happy to have it all evened out and back to normal. Without commissions, my income is cut pretty substantially. The commissions go straight towards our debt, so getting them back will go far towards our debt payoff.
Although they never asked me to pay them directly, all the money I have earned in commissions has first gone towards the deficit. With no intention to do so, I added to our debts. I haven't received any commissions since October, and I still owe my company about $1900. At least it's at 0%, right?
Recently, however, the billing issue has been resolved and the order reinstated. Meaning, I will re-earn my $2500 in commissions and get paid out on the $600 that I have already put towards the deficit. Finally.
Here is the good news, though. When I originally was paid on the order, it qualified me for a quarterly bonus (based entirely on revenues brought in). Since the order was originally placed in the 2006 fiscal year, and is now reinstated in the 2007 fiscal year, it's possible that I could qualify for another bonus. Technically, the revenue has been brought in again during 2007. I am still waiting to hear about that - I should find out around the middle of January.
In the end, though, I am just happy to have it all evened out and back to normal. Without commissions, my income is cut pretty substantially. The commissions go straight towards our debt, so getting them back will go far towards our debt payoff.
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