Merry Christmas

To those of you who celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas!!! To those of you who don't, I hope you are having a very relaxing and restful day!

Seven New Years Financial Resolutions for 2010

This is a guest post from the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), a non-profit dedicated to improving the financial literacy of all Americans. NEFE operates the site Smart About Money and have developed a series of articles filled with tips to help you make 2010 the year of financial freedom. You can also find Economic Survival Tips, worksheets and articles focused on financial education related to housing, spending,credit and job change. If you like what you read you can also follow NEFE on Twitter at @nefe_org

1. Control spending: If you spend less you'll have more money available to pay down debt and save for the future. Write down your expenses for a month to see where your money is going. You might be surprised by how easy it is to find places to scale back.

2. Create a debt repayment plan: If you carry credit card debt, write down everything you owe and make a plan to pay it off. Start with small items you can act on right away–it will make tackling the bigger debt easier. Also, try buying with cash only. It’s a sure-fire way to prevent increases in your credit card debt.

3. Set up auto-savings plans: Arrange with your bank or another financial institution to have a set amount deducted from your checking account to a savings account each pay period. Of the Americans who have been able to contribute to emergency savings funds, automatic withdrawal is the most popular method, according to the Consumer Federation of America.

4. Boost retirement savings: If your employer offers a 401(k) plan, increase your contributions. If you don't have an employer plan, open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and arrange for contributions to be made automatically from your checking or savings account.

5. Create a long-term plan: Write a list of your long-term goals, such as buying a home or saving for college or retirement. Visit the Life Events section of Smart About Money for concrete tips on accomplishing those goals.

6. Protect Yourself: Be prepared for the unexpected by making sure you, your family, your assets and investments are insured and fully covered. If you do not have a will, make 2010 the year you establish a life plan.

7. Find a financial buddy: Share your financial resolutions with a friend, colleague, or family member, and you’ll be more likely to keep them. Find someone else who wants to turn around their debt or cut their spending, and establish a mutual support system.

Wedding Planning

Yesterday I wrote that 2009 is ending quite nicely. Besides the India trip falling into place F (fiance) and I found a venue and picked a date for our wedding!

We will be getting married Friday, November 5 in Connecticut. This is both right before daylight savings time and the NYC marathon weekend!

I have been avoiding posting our wedding budget, because searching for a venue has been overly stressful and disappointing. Everything is just so expensive and I wasn't sure how we were going to be able to save enough money to invite everyone we wanted to invite. To give you an idea how expensive most places are think $125 a head on a Saturday, plus 20% service charge, plus 6% in taxes. Multiply this by 175 and it is a shocker. And in fact, since we are inviting 200 people I was multiplying by 200. It is always better to plan for everyone and have a nice surprise, then plan for less and be left scrambling. Moving to a Friday could lower our costs to anywhere from $100-$115 a head, but keep in mind you still have to add the 20% and 6%.

My parents have graciously given us $20,000. My mom said to consider this our wedding present, if we spend less we get what is leftover. Kinda makes you want to elope doesn't it? =)

However, neither one of us really wants to elope and it is the first wedding for both of our families and so I doubt they would be happy if we did elope.

So back to our venue, it's beautiful and affordable. There is a lovely place for us to get married on site and plenty of space for all of our guests. And price? By getting married on a Friday in November the cost is $80 a head plus 6% tax. No service charge included! While of course we will still provide a tip, not having an extra 20% tacked on is an amazing money saver. Even better, a tone is included in this cost. The ceremony fee is $875 for an hour, but that includes champagne and sweets for our guests to munch on beforehand. If our ceremony doesn't last an hour (which it won't) that time just gets added to the cocktail hour. It also includes five hours of an open bar, 6 appetizers and a fruit and cheese station, your normal meal (salad, appetizer, main course), the wedding cake, and we even got an extra station thrown in.

Overall, I'm incredibly relieved. We still need to save money, but now the amount we need to save is actually doable.

F and I have agreed that any wedding stuff that makes us travel is on hold until after January. We need a month to just enjoy being engaged and relax after this incredibly hectic and busy month.

The Big Trip

2009 is wrapping up quite nicely for me. The only thing I wish I could have done better was post more, but school and work and then wedding seemed to suck up all my time these past few months.

One of the major things that is making the end of 2009 so great is that I finally booked the tickets for my big trip so now I feel like I can actually talk about it! So during the month of June I'll be heading over to ... drum roll please... India and Sri Lanka!

Some friends and I that went to grad school together have been talking about this since graduate school (I graduated in 2006). So I'm beyond excited that this is finally happening. We will be going to India for two weeks and Sri Lanka for a week, so if I can I'm not taking any days off until then!

Now comes the fun personal finance part, the budget:

I'm hoping to only spend $3000 on this trip. Luckily I'm traveling with other budget-minded people so this should be pretty easy to do. And so far we've started out right. The cost of my round trip ticket (including non-stop on the way there) was only $967!!

So far I've saved a little over $1000 so I was able to pay off my ticket right away. I have until June to save $2000 more. The problem is with the wedding planning I have competing interests for my savings. So the plan is to use my tax return money (which I usually save) for the India trip and any monthly savings will be going towards my wedding savings account. Of course this plan may be revised once I know how much my refund will be (and I do expect to receive a refund).

Question

I have $23.21 on my verizon rebate card. I can spend under, but not over that amount to use it. I'm thinking about treating myself. Any suggestions?

Or, should I be good and use it towards my regular expenses?

Christmas, Finals, and Planning

It has been a hectic two weeks, but I'm happy to report I've completed all my Christmas shopping (thank goodness for online shopping), I have my last final tonight, and I think we found a wedding venue and date!

I was able to purchase all my holiday gifts for $379.69. It is slightly over my goal of $350, but not so much that I'm disappointed in how I shopped.

I turned in my final project for one class on Sunday. I already got my grade - an A! And, I have my final in the other class tonight. I'm feeling well prepared and rested so hopefully it will go well. I have decided to take a winter class, 3 weeks for 3 credits, it starts in the beginning of January so I'm going to enjoy every moment of my break starting tonight at 8pm!

Finally, the big news is that I think we found a wedding venue and date! I have the date on hold and we are going to speak to them on Sunday to ask some more questions, see if we can negotiate on the price a little, and if all goes well sign a contract! I know I haven't posted much about our wedding budget yet, but once we have this firmed up I'll feel more comfortable sharing those details. In the meantime I don't want to jinx myself.

On another note, the planning for my big trip this summer is moving along. Hopefully we will book our tickets soon and I can share that information as well!

This Grants Comes With Fiancial Literacy

Syracuse University now offers grants to students with the stipulation that they have to attend a financial literacy training each semester.

Sierra M. Jiminez was on track to borrow more than $44,000—some $32,000 of it in private loans—just to pay for her first two years of college. Then, last winter, she got some surprising news. Syracuse University had canceled her $8,119 private loan for the spring semester and replaced it, not with another type of loan, but with a simple grant. And she could get similar aid for the rest of her time there.

The catch: She has to attend financial-literacy training each semester until she graduates.

Now a junior, Ms. Jiminez plans to borrow no more than $12,500 this year, all in federal loans, which have better terms.

Financial-literacy programs are popping up on many campuses, and the federal credit-card law passed in the spring encourages colleges to provide education about credit cards and debt as part of their orientations for new students. At the same time, colleges are concerned about how much debt some students have to take on. But Syracuse is unusual, if not unique, in the way it has tied those concerns together.

Syracuse's new Money Awareness Program, or MAP, is aimed at students with a high debt burden. It's a way for the university to make sure upperclassmen who are struggling with their finances are able to make it to graduation. Ms. Jiminez received significant grants before getting money from the new program, but she still stands to graduate with far more debt than the typical Syracuse student. Sixty-three percent of Syracuse students have loan debt, with an average amount of $28,500 at graduation. Barring any big change in her senior year, Ms. Jiminez will end up borrowing $60,000.

I love that the Syracuse's financial aid department decided to take up this cause. College gives us a great education, but that education rarely includes financial literacy. Granted, right now this is only for students with high-debt burdens, but they have plans to expand their program.

And the university plans to expand its financial-literacy offerings to the whole student body this spring. That training will be optional. Then again, it won't come with a grant.

It begs the question, if it is not required, will anyone take advantage of it?

My To Do List

Between work, wedding, and school I have a lot coming up in the next few weeks so to keep me organized and on top of everything my December goals are more of a to do list:

• Don't fall behind at work; be productive during the 8 hours I'm there so I can leave on time everyday.
• Put together priorities of wedding with fiance.
• See three more places and pick a venue and a date.
• Study for my final during my commuting time and during other down time.
• Get up an hour early to study for final before work.
• Finish my project this weekend. Hand in early!
• Spend as little money as possible and stay within budget!

Rethinking My Saving Priorities

I always have good intentions and good plans. This time it was focusing on paying a student loan off. Since I'm back in school my loans have gone into deferment so I have more flexibility with that money (which is a hefty sum of $230). I decided to focus on paying off the smaller loan completely.

Life happens, things change. I'm now luckily planning a wedding and a big wedding at that. My parents have graciously offered a large sum to help pay for the wedding, but unfortunately I do not think it will be enough. While I can't be sure exactly how much more we will need until we find a venue and negotiate prices, I can guesstimate. Ideally I would like an extra $10,000 to work with. In order to get there I've decided that paying off my student loan should not be a priority. I'm going to continue to pay any interest accrued, but except for my travel fund, the rest of my savings will be into a wedding fund.

So while I would have loved to pay off my smaller student loan by this time next year, if paying off the loan comes at the risk of going into debt to pay for a wedding - it is not worth it.

Christmas Shopping

This year I wasn't very good about putting money away for holiday shopping. In fact I was horrible. So now that Christmas is around the corner I need to figure out how I can work the costs into my monthly budget. December is going to be a bit crazy for me with my first semester ending and spending every weekend looking for a place to get married, so in a way I think it may be easier to be frugal this month.

My goal is to spend no more than $350 on holiday shopping. I've done quite a bit of shopping already and I'm currently at $268 so I think it is actually very possible I can make this goal. I'm not going to mention what I bought since people I've bought gifts for read this blog, but so far I've done well.

When it comes to our wedding budget my parents have given us a set amount as a wedding present and it is up to us how we want to spend it. Ideally we would have money left over to help us get started on saving for a down payment, however with 180-200 guest this is unlikely. Once we've picked a venue and a date we will be able to budget the remaining money and the fun part of planning can begin!

photo by Maeflower72

November Recap

I was on course to stay within budget in November, but after the engagement I got overly excited and decided to purchase a new dress to wear to Thanksgiving (the first time I saw most of my family since the proposal) and ended up going over budget by $85.

Sad, but not horrible considering some of the months I've had this year. Considering how often I go over budget it is amazing that my net worth continues to go up. I'm up another 2.4% from last month. What is really amazing is that since I've started blogging (and started keeping track of my net worth) it has gone up 24.4%!! In February it will be two years and it will be amazing to see how far I've come.