Phone Issues

My husband's phone died on Friday night. It got knocked onto the floor and the screen broke. When you have a touch screen phone and the screen dies you are pretty much helpless. While my husband and I have a land-line, we never actually got a phone to connect to it so our cells are the primary phones in our lives. In other words, going without one is tough.

Luckily, the at&t store near us is open until 9pm, so we planned on heading over. However, we had just ordered pizza and I wasn't going anywhere until it showed up (I was starving). So instead I called at&t and asked about our options. We basically had three choices (considering we wanted to keep smart phones) -

1. Because the iphone 4s was just realized my husband could pay $250 over the $199 and upgrade early. 
2. We could cancel his line on our family plan (for about $200) and he could go over to verizon and purchase a phone there (another $200 or so).
3. Since I was up for an upgrade, I could upgrade my phone and give my husband mine (for a cost of the $199 iphone 4s upgrade).

Obviously option 3 was the cheapest scenario. We agreed that I would get the upgrade now and then in April my husband could upgrade if he wanted. Since I wasn't planning on upgrading my phone he would pay for my upgrade, and I would pay for his next upgrade (so I could plan for it). Luckily my iphone 4 is in great condition. 

So after the pizza came, I stuffed my face, and then we headed over to the at&t store. Not surprisingly, since the iphone 4s was just released they didn't have any in stock. The associate helping us said we could order one, but it took about a month to arrive. Or we could reserve a phone and go to the apple store. However, she knew someone who waited in line for 6 hours to get a phone he reserved at the apple store. Needless to say, we were not going to wait in line for 6 hours.

However, we were going to CT the next day and our associate told us the lines were probably much shorter there. So we went home, I managed to reserve a phone (in white!) and the next morning we took the train out to CT and stopped by the mall to go to the apple store. While we had to wait in line the whole process (including going to at&t to port my husband's number) took an hour!

So now I have an iphone 4s and I love it and my husband is enjoying his first iphone. 

photo by double-h

Managing Money = Managing Attention

Jayne Speich is a writer and guest writer around the internet on financial topics, self-realization, and personal coaching. You can find her at http://psychologydegreeguide.org/.

In time management circles, it's become popular to talk about managing attention rather than managing time itself. After all, there's only a finite amount of time in a day, and we can't do anything to change that. We can't get more time, or spend less time, when all we have is 24 hours - no more, no less. In short, time can't be managed - but attention can. And attention is the source of all energy, choice, and action.

There are a lot of similarities between time and money, hence the old saying, "Time is money." When it comes right down to it, both represent the commitment and exchange of human energy. We spend both time and money. We waste both time and money. We trade time for money, and money for time. For all of us, time is a limited resource. For most of us, money is, too. Therefore, could it not be said that managing money, like managing time, is a case of managing attention?

Managing attention calls on making conscious decisions about three things:

1. Where do I want to spend my money?
2. Where do I NOT want to spend my money?
3. How do I align my daily choices with #1 and #2?

So much of being responsible with money sounds like "should" and "have to." I should be setting aside money for emergencies. I have to pay my taxes. But those "shoulds" and "have-to's" are hard to love. They breed resentment and even some inner rebellion. They feel like constriction of choice. And no one likes feeling as though they have few choices in life.

There will always be shoulds and have-to's when it comes to managing money or time. But if we try adding managing attention into the mix, we remind ourselves that we do have choices about what to spend, where to spend it, and why.

Everyone Makes Mistakes

What I Wish I Learned in College About Personal Finance Series

Everyone makes mistakes. Even when you have been planning and budgeting your money for years you still make mistakes. When I first started managing my finances I wish someone had told me that it is okay to make mistakes. In fact, they can be good learning experiences.

It is important to realize that it is okay to mess up and one screw up doesn’t ruin everything. A lot of time and effort goes into managing your finances. There are also a lot of ups and downs as well.

I make mistakes on a monthly basis. This month I did not plan well and I’ve found myself with a small amount of money to last through the month. I’m doing all that I can not to spend money on non-essential items and I’m already thinking about next month and how I can do a better job budgeting.

Mistakes happen, just make sure you learn from them.

photo by opensourceway

Financial Literacy Series for Kids

Have you seen Warren Buffet and Jay-Z's project to teach financial literacy to kids? Here is a preview - 

According to the article:

Jay-Z's latest video appearance likely won't make it to MTV or VH1.
The rapper, entrepreneur and husband of Beyonce is teaming up with Warren Buffett to help school kids become more financially literate. Jay-Z will make an appearance in Buffett’s "Secret Millionaires Club," an animated series about a group of kids led by Buffett as they tackle financial emergencies, according toThe New York Times. 

I like anything focused on getting kids more interested in personal finance!

Making a Plan

After a fun weekend I find that I am no longer angry about my raise. Sometimes, you just need to get angry and then get over it. What I am is determined to find something better. There comes a point in your life when you just need to make more money. There my husband and I talk about our future there are a lot of things we want to do and we find we are constrained by our current salaries. As Ramit Sethi says, eventually it is just time to earn more money.

It helps that I know I'm underpaid and that I do my job well. So the potential is there, and now I have the determination to job search and figure out my next step. I'm also preparing myself for a long job search. I'm lucky in that I work in a great environment so I do not feel rushed to leave. However, I can't let that environment keep me from the next stage in my life.

It is exciting and it is scary and I'm ready. 

Frustrating Fridays

It is a gloomy Friday for me today. It is rainy and gross outside plus I got some disappointing news yesterday.

I've mentioned that I was trying to get a significant raise. Well the salary letters finally went out and my "significant" raise is the smallest increase I've ever gotten at this company (excluding the year we had a salary freeze). When I got  the letter yesterday I knew it was low and I was pretty sure it was the smallest increase, but as I did not know my salary to the penny I couldn't be sure. So I went home, crunched some numbers and they turned out like this:

2006-07: starting salary

2007-08: 5.25% increase
2008-09: 12.83% (year I got a promotion)
2009-10: 0.00% (salary freeze)
2010-11: 5.50% increase
2011-12: 3.30% increase

Not only does this turn out to be the smallest percentage, but it is also the least amount of actual money.

I have a good feeling that when you take into account how much expenses have gone up I'm actually making less money each year. Those numbers I have yet to crunch.

So, I know I shouldn't be complaining about any increases in this economy, but I'm upset for a few reasons. The first and most important is that I have been getting amazing performance reviews. The second, is that last year was an incredible busy year where I played a large role in three big and successful projects. Third, I now have more education and while I do not think more education should automatically equal more money, I do think my employer should have realized that they have to worry about me looking to go elsewhere.

Well now I'm looking elsewhere. I've been back and forth about my job search, but this was the kick I needed to push into it full swing. I know I'm worth more than I'm being paid. This increase really feels like a slap in the face. Especially, because this was the first year I actually asked for a raise. If my company doesn't see my value, then I have to move on. I'm mentally preparing myself for a long job search as I want the next step that I take to be a long one.

So now I just need to turn my anger into something positive. Though I think I need a few days just to be angry first.

Oh and a recommendation for a Friday afternoon read  - Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...

It may make you want to run out and join Occupy Wall Street!

picture by Horia Varlan

Everyone Does it Differently

What I Wish I Learned in College About Personal Finance Series

There is a lot of personal fiance advice out there and many people have made careers out of dispensing advice. However, the first thing I with I was taught about personal finance when I was in college is that there is no one way to manage your finances.

Each and every one of us is unique and as such we each have very unique financial situations. We also have various preferences. I might prefer excel, while someone else might prefer to use mint.com or nothing at all. I might prefer to track everything, while someone else may not want to track any of their daily spending. And is is all fine.

In fact, managing your finances can be very difficult because there is no one cookie-cutter way. Instead, if you try something and it does not work for you, that is okay - just try a different way.
It takes time to figure out what works for you and you have to be patient with yourself. Even once you figure out what works, things may change and you may decide to change how you manage your finances.

But, that is okay because everyone does it differently.

photo by nickwheeleroz

October Goals

So yes it is already October 10th, but I figured it was better late than never. So here are my goals for the next 3 weeks of October!

• Do not exceed monthly budget! I have not been doing well on this front and exceeding my budget every month. This month I'm determined to stay under or at my budget. 
• Run at least a 10-miler every weekend. I'm running a 1/2 marathon the second weekend in November and yet I have barely been training. If I can get into the habit of running 10 miles every weekend I think I will be fine. 
• Finishing my knitting project. I've started to knit again and while I've made a lot of mistakes on my current project, I'm happy to be knitting again. It has been two years!

Small goals, but good ones I think!

What I Wish I Learned In College About Personal Finance

When I can I like to help my friends and family figure out how to take control of their personal finances. When I decided to be more proactive with my money I learned a ton from books, blogs and from talking to my mom.

If I could go back and do it all over again I would have taken a course on personal finance when I was in college - oh wait that was not a course that is offered. Though I'm a huge proponent of a liberal arts education, I do believe we should be taught some basics as well!

So I've decided to start a new series: What I Wish I Learned in College About Personal Finance. 

So, take a seat folks, because starting next week I'll be posting one article every week focused on this series.

Photo by James Sarmiento

October Updates

I'm really excited that it is October! I'm excited for the cooler weather and being able to wear jeans and sweaters again. I'm excited for my cousin's bachelorette party and wedding and for a friend's bridal shower. I'm also excited to see some friends I haven't seen since last spring!

I'm also excited that it is a new budget month. I love the beginning of every new month because it always feels like I get to start over and try again to come under budget. For those of you who don't know I rarely come under budget. I rarely go over by more than $25, though I did have some painful months this summer.

Now for some updates:

• Student loans - I only have $396 left to go to get my student loan to $9999. I'm definitely going to accomplish this goal!
• E-Fund Savings - I'm still pretty far away from my $5000 goal and I'm not 100% confident I can get there by January 1. However, I haven't given up yet and hopefully it will happen!
• Stocks - I'm considering buying some individual stocks through my ING sharebuilder account. I've had this account for a long time, I've just never done anything with it.
• PF Book Club! I've joined Deenadollar's pf book club. The first book is Shortchanged: Why Women Have Less Wealth and What Can Be Done About It by Mariko Chang. I'm very excited to start reading it!
• Net worth - as the market goes down so does my net worth. I'm not worried though as I'm not accessing it for a long time. In fact, I like when it goes down right when my paycheck hits (as long as it eventually goes back up). I'm getting stocks at a discount! 
• I hope to have some goals for this month tomorrow. I need to spend some time really thinking about what I want to and what I can accomplish,

Thinking About Buying Some Stocks

So I'm thinking about purchasing some stocks. I'm a huge believe in investing long-term (retirement) in index funds and so all of my investing is done that way. However, lately I think it may be interesting/fun to put a little money in some stocks and see what happens for the short-term.

Now I know that trading often and trying to beat the market is not the best long-term strategy. It really is gambling, in much more of a way that I consider my retirement funds are gambling (I know technically that is gambling as well). At the very least it will help me learn more about the market.

So do any of you invest in individual stocks? What have your experiences been?

picture by John Swords