Stacking Pennies . . .

This month was quite unimpressive--an increase of just $132! There are a few reasons I have to explain this. I was sure I'd hit the 10k mark, but I missed... by four dollars!

• Of course, the stock market uneasiness. Between me and my company, we contributed about $1000 this month, yet the overall balance increased by just $300.
• Also, there was a slight student loan mess. I was charged some back interest which was capitalized into the loan (not by my choice!), which increased the balance by about $350. I paid some, and ended up owing $51 more than I owed this time a month ago.
• Last, there was spending. I took two trips to visit my family, at about $100 in gas a pop. I bought my plane ticket for the holidays for another $400 or so. I also went through some personal issues and indulged in a teeny bit of retail therapy.

Next month should be great for my net worth. Even though there will be Christmas shopping, just as much driving, and a new years vacation, I get two paychecks along with a bonus equivalent to about another two paychecks.

I'm also apartment hunting and I'll probably need to come up with a hefty security deposit.... The following month will be interesting with the cross country move, but it seems my future company is covering just about everything, so that is grand.

I have a confession. I did something very wrong. I crossed a line I should not have. I feel guilty, but at the same time, slightly relieved at what I found. I'll start with some background on why I did it before I get into what it is I did.

I mentioned before we had some financial issues when I was growing up, namely a chapter 13 bankruptcy that ruled my parents life as they made large monthly payments for 5 (or seven?) years. My life wasn't too disrupted and it qualified me for federal grants for college, but it still left me anxious about my parents financial situation, and probably greatly affected how I feel about my own.

A couple months ago I discovered some financial missteps my father had made, yet again. I truly think that this incident has finally made him realize that he needs to take control of his finances. But when I first heard about it, I was upset and nervous. My mom does fine with money, but I still worry about my parents having enough in their old age. Heck, sometimes I worry about them having enough right now.

So I did something wrong. I went online and pulled a free annual credit report for myself, and then.... I pulled one for my dad. It was really a stroke of luck that I was even able to do this. Of course I have my parents social security numbers (I needed them to list them as beneficiaries on my 401k), but they also have a few qualifying questions about where a recent loan is from and the amount of the payments. I made some educated guesses, and guessed right, and suddenly all of the information was right there on my screen. Wow.

The report itself was sort of spotty. Some missed payments, and even some accounts marked as "charge-off". I had to Google that to learn that is when you still owe a company money, but they never expect you to pay it, so they charge it off to balance their books. A few accounts noted as settled as part of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and many were simply closed. What comforted me was the fact that I didn't see credit cards with huge (or any) balances, I didn't find a thousands of dollars worth of loans owed. Sure it showed past problems, but no current problems.

Still, I shouldn't have done it. While I may have a good financial head on my shoulders, it is crossing the line to pull his report without his permission or knowledge. that is my anxious controlling side and I gave into it. I should have been an adult and gathered the courage to talk about it with my parents, but I took the cowards way out. I snooped. It was wrong. Still, I'm relieved at what I found.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My mom wants to buy a new car. A mini-cooper convertible. From now on, I will bite my tongue every time she talks about it, as I will when she ultimately (probably) buys it. She does not tell me what to do with my money, and it is certainly not my place to tell her what to do with hers. I've heard she says she has plenty saved for retirement (but how much is plenty?) so if she really can afford a new car, then good for her.

My older sister encourages me to buy a new car every so often. I graduated about a year and a half ago, and it seems to be the thing to do. "You can afford the payments. You are a single person making plenty of money." This is true, I can. Still, I don't yet feel financially secure enough to spend that kind of money, and I don't want to finance it. Not yet, at least. It isn't as though I'm sitting on a bunch of money. My net worth is only just creeping up to 10k (and creeping so slowly with the volatile market!), and purchasing a car would plummet it down into negative numbers. Besides, my car works just fine, and it should work just fine for several more years if I want it to.

Maybe I'm more cautious than she is, but she is also married to a very nice young man whose grandparents happen to have set aside a pile of money sitting in investments for their use. It isn't that they are wasteful of that money, but I think having a giant fund to fall back on gives you a little more confidence in purchasing. Maybe once I have some sort of fund to fall back on, I'd feel more comfortable in purchasing a newer car.

I've run into some personal issues and wound up driving to visit my family this past weekend. I didn't blink twice at paying for the gas (even at the ever rising price) because I really wanted to be with them for a couple days.

Among other things, my sister suggested some retail therapy. Not only that, but she performed some herself, giving me some new pajama's and a nice little present. And really, it did help, maybe more than material items should. It is just nice to get a present. Thoughtful.

I'm not that much of a shopper, but I do believe in retail therapy. Why is it that new things make us happy? But since I also believe in frugality and not shopping senselessly, I think I'll just purchase things that I need anyway (lightbulbs, mascara...) then try to buy some Christmas presents. And maybe a small luxury for myself....

I'm not a strict budgeter. I set monthly goals in excel based on fairly narrow categories, and I track my spending for each category. If I buy a magazine at the grocery store, I sometimes it slip into the grocery budget, even if it should be in entertainment. If I go over my budget, I don't really worry about it. If I save $100 less one month, it's not a big deal. As long as my net worth continually grows and I'm conscious of my spending, I'm not strict at all. I'm great at making a budget, but after that, I ignore it!

This week I decided I wanted new running shoes. Usually, I'd just buy them and worry about it later. This time I actually went into excel, and tried to see where the money was going to come from. If it was going to detract from my savings, fine, but I just wanted to know. I was able to take a little bit out of my utilities (low energy bill in the fall), a little out of "personal", and was able to come up with an extra $75 for running shoes. There is a chance the shoes will be a little more, but the vast majority won't affect my savings.

While I was there, I set up a rough December budget. Due to the year end bonus, I should be able to put $1000 towards my student loan, $2000 in my e-fund, and leave plenty of wiggle room in my new years vacation budget. I love bonus month!

Paints a horrible picture, doesn't it? You may have known what this phrase means for a long time, and if not, you may have heard it today. On the radio on the way home, the newsman reported that stocks had a recovery today, "deaceased feline or otherwise." It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.

A dead cat bounce is when stock prices jump up after a significant decline, only to continue to fall again after the recovery. Supposedly it comes from the idea that even a dead cat will bounce, if it falls far enough down. Well that's an unpleasant thought!

Why do these bounces occur? Wikipedia suggests that there are at least two factors coming into play. Some investors might have standing orders to buy certain stocks if they fall below a certain level. Other investors might speculate that it is the bottom of the market, so they buy hoping to make a profit.

The only way to tell the difference between a dead cat bounce and a recovery from the bottom is hindsight. So what do you think? I'd love to think that today represented a recovery, but in reality I think we haven't seen the bottom yet.

I found a little note at the end of the Wikipedia entry amusing: "More recently, the term has been used colloquially during extended drinking binges to describe the apparent recovery of individuals previously thought "out-of-commission", only for them to quickly return to sleep, vomit etc." Ah, college.

By the way, thank me for not including an image with this post!

My year and bonus is based on many factors about how the company performs. The base rate for non-senior engineers is 5.5%, and we can earn from 0 to 200% of that. This year the company did well and we earned 170%. That means I will get a check for over 9% of my salary! This is the first year that I was employed for the full fiscal year, so my first year getting such a generous check. My manager, I think, has a base rate of at least 10%, so he'll be getting a huge bonus.

I was counting on this bonus, and I will need it if I have any hope of meeting my year end savings goals. I'm kicking butt on my investing goals, but my savings isn't growing the way I wish it was. I still need:

• 2k payback for student loans
• 2.1k stashed in HYSA

I can definitely make it, but it is a bit dependent on my relocation situation. I have no idea what the costs will be, but I probably will have to pay rent in two places for January, and come up with a significant deposit. My current apartment had a $100 deposit, so even if I do get it all back... that really just isn't going to do much. I'll take that in consideration when I figure if I met my goals or not.

I have 3 paychecks plus this bonus to do it in. I also have to buy Christmas presents, gas for a road trip home, and come up with around $500 in spending money for my New Years vacation. Yikes! It's going to be close!

Perhaps, being someone interested in personal finance, you heard of the group of San Fransisco professionals who committed not to buy anything new in the year 2006. Or maybe you've heard a recent segment on NPR's Marketplace Money about another family, essentially doing that same thing for 2007.

It sounds very noble and anti-consumerism. It is admirable. I couldn't make that commitment, and I'm impressed that they can. But what I found most intriguing about the story was the following comment on the Marketplace Confessional, a section of the website where listener's can anonymously state their opinions about the show:

There was a segment about not buying anything new for a year. What is the big deal? I have not purchased anything new for almost 10 years. I am low income and have shopped at the second hand stores for years. My toaster, pots, pans, clothes have all come from these type of stores. Where I live we have a senior center that has a thrift store. If you take the time look you can find almost anything. Clothing is 25 cents per item or $1.00 per bag. There are many bargains to be had at thrift stores.

It made me remember how lucky many of us are. I can challenge myself to spend less and less, but I do it out of choice, not of necessity. Sure, I do it to fund retirement and to prepare for an emergency, or to pay off my student loan a little early. But if I'm feeling extravagant, I can buy a latte from Starbucks and it doesn't mean that I won't be eating dinner. I save money and buy things on the cheap because I want to, not because I have to. It is a blessing to have the choice.

I need to go through my apartment before I move and be sure to donate any unneeded quality used items to the second hand store so someone else can use them. Because they choose to or because the have to.

Typically, I track my daily spending in an excel sheet. I use Yodlee to view my net worth and to verify my excel tracking. I update my net worth monthly in NetworthIQ. So when I heard about the new personal finance tool, Mint, I wondered what it could do for me that my other tools weren't.

I decided to find out. The first thing I noticed is that the website had a striking interface. It was quite aesthetically pleasing and very clean. I easily added all my accounts, but was surprised to realize that I couldn't include my 401k or Roth. As I became more familiar with what the site was trying to do--help you analyze your spending--I can see why they don't include it. But I'm still disappointed they don't! After it loaded my data, I could see all of my transactions for the past 2 months.
I think some of the "shopping" was groceries (Target). The "No Category" stuff was ATM transactions, and in the future, I'd want to note exactly where that cash went. It is pretty neat, even though Yodlee has an uglier version of the same chart. Also, I could click on these categories, and they would be broken down into even more well defined categories. I wish it included a piece for savings, but it seems like it only tracks what you spend.

Honestly, I am not yet overly impressed with Mint so far. It is sort of like Yodlee, but with a cleaner interface and less features. I am going to continue using it, and perhaps as it matures, it will grow into something more useful to me. (It is still in beta, and they have promised to rol out more features over the next few months. )

I consolidated my student loans last June, and the process was pretty painful. It really shouldn't have been, but there were some minor issues that turned into huge problems due to Wells Fargo constantly giving me wrong information about what forms I had to fill out to fix them.

Anyway, a few days ago I noticed that my loan had been taken off 'in-school deferment" status and put into repayment, and a retroactive "hardship forbearance" had been processed without my knowledge. As part of this, $366 of interest was capitalized into the loan. I was upset because interest is tax deductible (if it is paid as interest, not if it is rolled into the principle!) so I contacted Wells Fargo to complain.

Their response, basically, was that it is too late and they can't help me. They also explained that this was an unusual siltation, and in most cases, I would have been given the opportunity to pay the interest. So, that will cost me about $100 in a tax deduction, but I was surprised at the level of helpfulness and competence they showed in dealing with my situation.

Here are snippets from the most helpful correspondence I've had with their loan department to date:

According to our records, we originally disbursed your Federal Consolidation Loan (CA0001) on 01/05/2007 and since you were enrolled in school half-time, we processed a half-time study school deferment on loan CA0001.

After loan CA0001 was disbursed we received your request to add another loan to your Federal Consolidation Loan. We processed this request and disbursed your new Federal Consolidation Loan CA0101 on 06/07/2007. Loan CA0101 canceled out loan CA0001.

[My note: this loan was listed on the original application, and I have no idea how they forgot it. It also took them a million years and several phone calls to take care of this issue]

In October we received updated enrollment information from your school showing you dropped to less than half-time status as of 05/05/2007. Usually we would update the deferment end date and process an administrative forbearance on the account to keep it current. However, since you dropped to less than half-time status before loan CA0101 was disbursed on 06/07/2007, we had to remove the deferment from loan CA0101 and process a standard forbearance on your loan.

We regret that because we just received your updated enrollment information and made the adjustments to your account, there wasn't sufficient time for us to notify you of the outstanding interest so that you could pay it before it was capitalized onto the principal balance of your loan. However, by processing the standard forbearance on your loan, we kept the loan from being reported as delinquent to the credit bureaus and from being assessed late fees. [My note: Gee thanks how kind.... especially since I was not getting billed and my account online clearly said "deferment" with nothing due!]

Well, it sounds a bit confusing, and I'm not sure that I buy the "there wasn't sufficient time" line, but I do understand their motivation. They also reminded me that after THREE YEARS of on time payments, I would qualify for another 1% rate reduction. I'm certainly annoyed that I will not be getting any tax breaks on the interest I pay this year, but if I was more in tune with the rules, I could have notified them of my school status myself.

My company came out with a new policy this year. We are required to either take a online personal health assessment and fill in data from our "biometrics" (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.), or pay an extra $125 (per person) in health care premiums. They offered several sessions at work where they would take them for free, and the numbers were self reported.

Being young and relatively healthy, I wasn't opposed to the idea. Some of my middle aged co-workers were much more wary. Wasn't this a little bit too "Big Brother" for the USA? One could speculate where they are going with this approach. Next year, they might require those who have high cholesterol to reduce it, or else pay $125. Get your BMI within the healthy range, or else pay $125. Commit to exercise three times a week, or else pay $125.

If they do charge more for people who refuse to make an active commitment to improving bad health, is it fair? No one seems to dispute smokers surcharges anymore. The difference is that some of this is genetics, and can't be helped. I have naturally high cholesterol, and while I can improve it with diet and exercise, 2/3 of the number is made up by genetics. I would hate to be charged extra for something I have little control over.

The premise of the approach makes me a bit uneasy. However,it also seems like, done the right way, it might be something that will help alleviate health care costs for the country as a whole. You can't force people to chose healthy lifestyles, but one way to persuade people is to hit them where they will notice--their pocketbooks. If you could lower your premiums by improving your health, or having a legitimate reason why you can not improve, would you? Doesn't it seem fair that taking care of yourself would lower your premiums?

One immediate benefit of the program was that some people were made aware of their health status. This was particularly helpful for us young people who hadn't had our blood work done yet, but also for those who are a little afraid of the doctor. Sometimes seeing the numbers is enough to make a small difference.

I'm leaving my company shortly, so I won't know how this all will play out long term. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue in my future employer.

While checking my online banking, I noticed my student loan is suddenly back in repayment status I took 6 credits of graduate classes last semester and was granted a student loan deferment. I thought this was great news, because my loan is subsidized and I am not charged interest during a deferment.

It seems like my class this semester doesn't qualify me for the same treatment, perhaps because I'm only doing 3 credits. Wells Fargo has taken it upon themselves to mark 6/07 until 10/19 as a period of hardship forbearance! More like a period of "Wells Fargo screwed up... again!" I'm going into the branch tomorrow to inquire about this. If it doesn't affect my credit report, then I suppose I'll let it slide. I have to go to the branch anyway because I can not, for the life of me, figure out how to set up auto-payments online in the appropriate way to get the rate discount offered. I can set up payments online, but it seems it isn't the same thing as when I mail the forum in. They make it confusing!

More annoying, they not only charged me interest for the "forbearance" period (this is to be expected), but they capitalized it into the loan, raising the principle by $366. I'm going to fight that, even if I have to simply pay the interest outright. If I do that, I can deduct it from my taxes! In the loan documents, it says they can capitalize the interest into the loan if I choose not to pay the interest, but I do NOT choose that, they gave me no option! This all just seems wrong. They haven't provided me any notification or got any consent from me.

What makes me most annoyed is that until I pay off my student loan, I'm stuck with Wells Fargo. If it were something more simple, I'd just take my money elsewhere.

My freshman year of college, I believe I spent about $500 on college text books. Looking back, it was a foolish mistake, but I didn't know better at the time.

My first mistake was that I assumed that when a class said a text was required, they meant it. This turned out to be not true. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. Second, I bought books too late and there were no used ones left. Third, I didn't check the internet to compare prices.

Really, I think the college textbook industry is a huge rip off. If you've ever taken a class that recently switched from, say, edition 5 to edition 6, you may have noticed that the differences in the editions was primarily in the problem sets. Some texts may have major updates, but for the most part, the facts stay the same. Often times, the problems aren't even completely different, just altered in a minor way. How frustrating.

Not all professors played the game. One professor said that a text was required, but we could get any standard text relating to Control Systems we wanted. He pointed us to Amazon. He taught primarily from his lecture notes (and a text wasn't truly necessary), saving me about $100 that semester.

Also, why are we only given the option of hardcover texts? My boyfriend insists he loves hardcovers because they last longer (whatever). Shouldn't I have the option to easily purchase softcover to save some money? I did a semester in Hong Kong, and their book store didn't contain a single hardcover text for class. Not only that, but many of the students didn't buy the text anyway, as the professor often scanned the necessary material for the students. While that may violate some sort of copyright laws, not offering the softcover versions to US students seems unfair. In fact, I brought the two texts I bought (for a reasonable price!) in Hong Kong and sold them on Amazon in the US. I probably made a small profit, even though I priced them lower than the similar hardcover versions. Abebooks.com often offers softcover "international" versions of college texts. I used one from there for one of my graduate classes last semester.

At the end of the semester, the college bookstore offers to buy back your textbooks from you. This is another rip off. They try to tell you that buying and selling your books through the book store is "good for the college" because they donate money to various student groups. I'd much rather that they offer me a fair price for my books! If I can sell it for $70 on Amazon, and the bookstore will sell it for $90 in the store next fall, why on earth would I give it to them for $45?

I would speculate that this scam of the textbook industry trickles down to high school and elementary school, but since the books are provided for "free" (with tax money), people aren't as aware of it. I went to a private school and we had to buy our own textbooks. Rather than the bookstore running a scam to make profits off of used books, each family would put an envelop with a price inside the book they were offering to sell. The students formed a big line (I think you got a place according to a raffle number) and you would pick the books you wanted to buy. You'd pay the amount listed on the envelope, which was later given to the parent. Unless a class was switching editions, you could come out about even every year.

In later years of college, you could sometimes do a similar thing with classmates a semester ahead of you. These days, with facebook and other social networking sites hooking up buyers and sellers more easily, I wonder if anyone still shops at the bookstore.

I bought some great black work shoes last week. Somehow, I fell in love with these Oxford Booties (left) by Marc Jacobs (that'll teach me to read fashion magazines). And no, I don't buy Marc Jacobs. Nor do I know what exactly I'd wear those with! I settled for a much cheaper pair of more workable (though less lovely) black booties (right). I still feel slightly like a supermodel in them, since they have 3 inch heels (and I'm already on the tall side).



I also was intending on purchasing a beautiful white peacoat from Amazon.com. I probably looked at it at least 10 times over the last few months. But I never made the purchase. Tonight, I fully intended on sealing the deal and the coat has vanished from the internet. It looks like I'll just do without a white peacoat, unless I see something I love elsewhere.

These are a few cases where procrastinating has saved me money. Some other examples?

• I hate doing laundry, so I make my clothes work for as long as possible. Do you really NEED to wash sweaters each time you wear them? I don't think so. Is this gross?
• If I need to go grocery shopping and don't feel like it, I'll scrounge my fridge and eat whatever I have. I've been known to survive on cereal for several days
  
• In order to save on toothpaste, I don't always brush. Just kidding, that definitely is gross!

Of course, this only works for some examples. If I'm too lazy to grocery shop and there seriously is nothing in the apartment, I just might grab some take out to please my stomach. Procrastination definitely is NOT a virtue.... but every now and then, it isn't as evil as people make it out to be.

• Resume tracking of spending!
• Limit groceries to $30/week or less and restaurants to $75 total
• Study for and do well on midterm for my grad class

Pathetic as it is, that is all I am going to do for goals. I have to buy Christmas presents starting this month, so I don't think I'll be able to save as much as I would love to.

In better news, my company announced it's profits for last quarter, and it looks like my year end incentive bonus might be about $3000 after taxes, and should arrive in very early December. That could be the final kick I'll need to meet my goal for 10k in my high yeild savings and 4k in student loan repayment!

This month was quite unimpressive--an increase of just $132! There are a few reasons I have to explain this. I was sure I'd hit the 10k mark, but I missed... by four dollars!

• Of course, the stock market uneasiness. Between me and my company, we contributed about $1000 this month, yet the overall balance increased by just $300.
• Also, there was a slight student loan mess. I was charged some back interest which was capitalized into the loan (not by my choice!), which increased the balance by about $350. I paid some, and ended up owing $51 more than I owed this time a month ago.
• Last, there was spending. I took two trips to visit my family, at about $100 in gas a pop. I bought my plane ticket for the holidays for another $400 or so. I also went through some personal issues and indulged in a teeny bit of retail therapy.

Next month should be great for my net worth. Even though there will be Christmas shopping, just as much driving, and a new years vacation, I get two paychecks along with a bonus equivalent to about another two paychecks.

I'm also apartment hunting and I'll probably need to come up with a hefty security deposit.... The following month will be interesting with the cross country move, but it seems my future company is covering just about everything, so that is grand.

I have a confession. I did something very wrong. I crossed a line I should not have. I feel guilty, but at the same time, slightly relieved at what I found. I'll start with some background on why I did it before I get into what it is I did.

I mentioned before we had some financial issues when I was growing up, namely a chapter 13 bankruptcy that ruled my parents life as they made large monthly payments for 5 (or seven?) years. My life wasn't too disrupted and it qualified me for federal grants for college, but it still left me anxious about my parents financial situation, and probably greatly affected how I feel about my own.

A couple months ago I discovered some financial missteps my father had made, yet again. I truly think that this incident has finally made him realize that he needs to take control of his finances. But when I first heard about it, I was upset and nervous. My mom does fine with money, but I still worry about my parents having enough in their old age. Heck, sometimes I worry about them having enough right now.

So I did something wrong. I went online and pulled a free annual credit report for myself, and then.... I pulled one for my dad. It was really a stroke of luck that I was even able to do this. Of course I have my parents social security numbers (I needed them to list them as beneficiaries on my 401k), but they also have a few qualifying questions about where a recent loan is from and the amount of the payments. I made some educated guesses, and guessed right, and suddenly all of the information was right there on my screen. Wow.

The report itself was sort of spotty. Some missed payments, and even some accounts marked as "charge-off". I had to Google that to learn that is when you still owe a company money, but they never expect you to pay it, so they charge it off to balance their books. A few accounts noted as settled as part of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and many were simply closed. What comforted me was the fact that I didn't see credit cards with huge (or any) balances, I didn't find a thousands of dollars worth of loans owed. Sure it showed past problems, but no current problems.

Still, I shouldn't have done it. While I may have a good financial head on my shoulders, it is crossing the line to pull his report without his permission or knowledge. that is my anxious controlling side and I gave into it. I should have been an adult and gathered the courage to talk about it with my parents, but I took the cowards way out. I snooped. It was wrong. Still, I'm relieved at what I found.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My mom wants to buy a new car. A mini-cooper convertible. From now on, I will bite my tongue every time she talks about it, as I will when she ultimately (probably) buys it. She does not tell me what to do with my money, and it is certainly not my place to tell her what to do with hers. I've heard she says she has plenty saved for retirement (but how much is plenty?) so if she really can afford a new car, then good for her.

My older sister encourages me to buy a new car every so often. I graduated about a year and a half ago, and it seems to be the thing to do. "You can afford the payments. You are a single person making plenty of money." This is true, I can. Still, I don't yet feel financially secure enough to spend that kind of money, and I don't want to finance it. Not yet, at least. It isn't as though I'm sitting on a bunch of money. My net worth is only just creeping up to 10k (and creeping so slowly with the volatile market!), and purchasing a car would plummet it down into negative numbers. Besides, my car works just fine, and it should work just fine for several more years if I want it to.

Maybe I'm more cautious than she is, but she is also married to a very nice young man whose grandparents happen to have set aside a pile of money sitting in investments for their use. It isn't that they are wasteful of that money, but I think having a giant fund to fall back on gives you a little more confidence in purchasing. Maybe once I have some sort of fund to fall back on, I'd feel more comfortable in purchasing a newer car.

I've run into some personal issues and wound up driving to visit my family this past weekend. I didn't blink twice at paying for the gas (even at the ever rising price) because I really wanted to be with them for a couple days.

Among other things, my sister suggested some retail therapy. Not only that, but she performed some herself, giving me some new pajama's and a nice little present. And really, it did help, maybe more than material items should. It is just nice to get a present. Thoughtful.

I'm not that much of a shopper, but I do believe in retail therapy. Why is it that new things make us happy? But since I also believe in frugality and not shopping senselessly, I think I'll just purchase things that I need anyway (lightbulbs, mascara...) then try to buy some Christmas presents. And maybe a small luxury for myself....

I'm not a strict budgeter. I set monthly goals in excel based on fairly narrow categories, and I track my spending for each category. If I buy a magazine at the grocery store, I sometimes it slip into the grocery budget, even if it should be in entertainment. If I go over my budget, I don't really worry about it. If I save $100 less one month, it's not a big deal. As long as my net worth continually grows and I'm conscious of my spending, I'm not strict at all. I'm great at making a budget, but after that, I ignore it!

This week I decided I wanted new running shoes. Usually, I'd just buy them and worry about it later. This time I actually went into excel, and tried to see where the money was going to come from. If it was going to detract from my savings, fine, but I just wanted to know. I was able to take a little bit out of my utilities (low energy bill in the fall), a little out of "personal", and was able to come up with an extra $75 for running shoes. There is a chance the shoes will be a little more, but the vast majority won't affect my savings.

While I was there, I set up a rough December budget. Due to the year end bonus, I should be able to put $1000 towards my student loan, $2000 in my e-fund, and leave plenty of wiggle room in my new years vacation budget. I love bonus month!

Paints a horrible picture, doesn't it? You may have known what this phrase means for a long time, and if not, you may have heard it today. On the radio on the way home, the newsman reported that stocks had a recovery today, "deaceased feline or otherwise." It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.

A dead cat bounce is when stock prices jump up after a significant decline, only to continue to fall again after the recovery. Supposedly it comes from the idea that even a dead cat will bounce, if it falls far enough down. Well that's an unpleasant thought!

Why do these bounces occur? Wikipedia suggests that there are at least two factors coming into play. Some investors might have standing orders to buy certain stocks if they fall below a certain level. Other investors might speculate that it is the bottom of the market, so they buy hoping to make a profit.

The only way to tell the difference between a dead cat bounce and a recovery from the bottom is hindsight. So what do you think? I'd love to think that today represented a recovery, but in reality I think we haven't seen the bottom yet.

I found a little note at the end of the Wikipedia entry amusing: "More recently, the term has been used colloquially during extended drinking binges to describe the apparent recovery of individuals previously thought "out-of-commission", only for them to quickly return to sleep, vomit etc." Ah, college.

By the way, thank me for not including an image with this post!

My year and bonus is based on many factors about how the company performs. The base rate for non-senior engineers is 5.5%, and we can earn from 0 to 200% of that. This year the company did well and we earned 170%. That means I will get a check for over 9% of my salary! This is the first year that I was employed for the full fiscal year, so my first year getting such a generous check. My manager, I think, has a base rate of at least 10%, so he'll be getting a huge bonus.

I was counting on this bonus, and I will need it if I have any hope of meeting my year end savings goals. I'm kicking butt on my investing goals, but my savings isn't growing the way I wish it was. I still need:

• 2k payback for student loans
• 2.1k stashed in HYSA

I can definitely make it, but it is a bit dependent on my relocation situation. I have no idea what the costs will be, but I probably will have to pay rent in two places for January, and come up with a significant deposit. My current apartment had a $100 deposit, so even if I do get it all back... that really just isn't going to do much. I'll take that in consideration when I figure if I met my goals or not.

I have 3 paychecks plus this bonus to do it in. I also have to buy Christmas presents, gas for a road trip home, and come up with around $500 in spending money for my New Years vacation. Yikes! It's going to be close!

Perhaps, being someone interested in personal finance, you heard of the group of San Fransisco professionals who committed not to buy anything new in the year 2006. Or maybe you've heard a recent segment on NPR's Marketplace Money about another family, essentially doing that same thing for 2007.

It sounds very noble and anti-consumerism. It is admirable. I couldn't make that commitment, and I'm impressed that they can. But what I found most intriguing about the story was the following comment on the Marketplace Confessional, a section of the website where listener's can anonymously state their opinions about the show:

There was a segment about not buying anything new for a year. What is the big deal? I have not purchased anything new for almost 10 years. I am low income and have shopped at the second hand stores for years. My toaster, pots, pans, clothes have all come from these type of stores. Where I live we have a senior center that has a thrift store. If you take the time look you can find almost anything. Clothing is 25 cents per item or $1.00 per bag. There are many bargains to be had at thrift stores.

It made me remember how lucky many of us are. I can challenge myself to spend less and less, but I do it out of choice, not of necessity. Sure, I do it to fund retirement and to prepare for an emergency, or to pay off my student loan a little early. But if I'm feeling extravagant, I can buy a latte from Starbucks and it doesn't mean that I won't be eating dinner. I save money and buy things on the cheap because I want to, not because I have to. It is a blessing to have the choice.

I need to go through my apartment before I move and be sure to donate any unneeded quality used items to the second hand store so someone else can use them. Because they choose to or because the have to.

Typically, I track my daily spending in an excel sheet. I use Yodlee to view my net worth and to verify my excel tracking. I update my net worth monthly in NetworthIQ. So when I heard about the new personal finance tool, Mint, I wondered what it could do for me that my other tools weren't.

I decided to find out. The first thing I noticed is that the website had a striking interface. It was quite aesthetically pleasing and very clean. I easily added all my accounts, but was surprised to realize that I couldn't include my 401k or Roth. As I became more familiar with what the site was trying to do--help you analyze your spending--I can see why they don't include it. But I'm still disappointed they don't! After it loaded my data, I could see all of my transactions for the past 2 months.
I think some of the "shopping" was groceries (Target). The "No Category" stuff was ATM transactions, and in the future, I'd want to note exactly where that cash went. It is pretty neat, even though Yodlee has an uglier version of the same chart. Also, I could click on these categories, and they would be broken down into even more well defined categories. I wish it included a piece for savings, but it seems like it only tracks what you spend.

Honestly, I am not yet overly impressed with Mint so far. It is sort of like Yodlee, but with a cleaner interface and less features. I am going to continue using it, and perhaps as it matures, it will grow into something more useful to me. (It is still in beta, and they have promised to rol out more features over the next few months. )

I consolidated my student loans last June, and the process was pretty painful. It really shouldn't have been, but there were some minor issues that turned into huge problems due to Wells Fargo constantly giving me wrong information about what forms I had to fill out to fix them.

Anyway, a few days ago I noticed that my loan had been taken off 'in-school deferment" status and put into repayment, and a retroactive "hardship forbearance" had been processed without my knowledge. As part of this, $366 of interest was capitalized into the loan. I was upset because interest is tax deductible (if it is paid as interest, not if it is rolled into the principle!) so I contacted Wells Fargo to complain.

Their response, basically, was that it is too late and they can't help me. They also explained that this was an unusual siltation, and in most cases, I would have been given the opportunity to pay the interest. So, that will cost me about $100 in a tax deduction, but I was surprised at the level of helpfulness and competence they showed in dealing with my situation.

Here are snippets from the most helpful correspondence I've had with their loan department to date:

According to our records, we originally disbursed your Federal Consolidation Loan (CA0001) on 01/05/2007 and since you were enrolled in school half-time, we processed a half-time study school deferment on loan CA0001.

After loan CA0001 was disbursed we received your request to add another loan to your Federal Consolidation Loan. We processed this request and disbursed your new Federal Consolidation Loan CA0101 on 06/07/2007. Loan CA0101 canceled out loan CA0001.

[My note: this loan was listed on the original application, and I have no idea how they forgot it. It also took them a million years and several phone calls to take care of this issue]

In October we received updated enrollment information from your school showing you dropped to less than half-time status as of 05/05/2007. Usually we would update the deferment end date and process an administrative forbearance on the account to keep it current. However, since you dropped to less than half-time status before loan CA0101 was disbursed on 06/07/2007, we had to remove the deferment from loan CA0101 and process a standard forbearance on your loan.

We regret that because we just received your updated enrollment information and made the adjustments to your account, there wasn't sufficient time for us to notify you of the outstanding interest so that you could pay it before it was capitalized onto the principal balance of your loan. However, by processing the standard forbearance on your loan, we kept the loan from being reported as delinquent to the credit bureaus and from being assessed late fees. [My note: Gee thanks how kind.... especially since I was not getting billed and my account online clearly said "deferment" with nothing due!]

Well, it sounds a bit confusing, and I'm not sure that I buy the "there wasn't sufficient time" line, but I do understand their motivation. They also reminded me that after THREE YEARS of on time payments, I would qualify for another 1% rate reduction. I'm certainly annoyed that I will not be getting any tax breaks on the interest I pay this year, but if I was more in tune with the rules, I could have notified them of my school status myself.

My company came out with a new policy this year. We are required to either take a online personal health assessment and fill in data from our "biometrics" (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.), or pay an extra $125 (per person) in health care premiums. They offered several sessions at work where they would take them for free, and the numbers were self reported.

Being young and relatively healthy, I wasn't opposed to the idea. Some of my middle aged co-workers were much more wary. Wasn't this a little bit too "Big Brother" for the USA? One could speculate where they are going with this approach. Next year, they might require those who have high cholesterol to reduce it, or else pay $125. Get your BMI within the healthy range, or else pay $125. Commit to exercise three times a week, or else pay $125.

If they do charge more for people who refuse to make an active commitment to improving bad health, is it fair? No one seems to dispute smokers surcharges anymore. The difference is that some of this is genetics, and can't be helped. I have naturally high cholesterol, and while I can improve it with diet and exercise, 2/3 of the number is made up by genetics. I would hate to be charged extra for something I have little control over.

The premise of the approach makes me a bit uneasy. However,it also seems like, done the right way, it might be something that will help alleviate health care costs for the country as a whole. You can't force people to chose healthy lifestyles, but one way to persuade people is to hit them where they will notice--their pocketbooks. If you could lower your premiums by improving your health, or having a legitimate reason why you can not improve, would you? Doesn't it seem fair that taking care of yourself would lower your premiums?

One immediate benefit of the program was that some people were made aware of their health status. This was particularly helpful for us young people who hadn't had our blood work done yet, but also for those who are a little afraid of the doctor. Sometimes seeing the numbers is enough to make a small difference.

I'm leaving my company shortly, so I won't know how this all will play out long term. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue in my future employer.

While checking my online banking, I noticed my student loan is suddenly back in repayment status I took 6 credits of graduate classes last semester and was granted a student loan deferment. I thought this was great news, because my loan is subsidized and I am not charged interest during a deferment.

It seems like my class this semester doesn't qualify me for the same treatment, perhaps because I'm only doing 3 credits. Wells Fargo has taken it upon themselves to mark 6/07 until 10/19 as a period of hardship forbearance! More like a period of "Wells Fargo screwed up... again!" I'm going into the branch tomorrow to inquire about this. If it doesn't affect my credit report, then I suppose I'll let it slide. I have to go to the branch anyway because I can not, for the life of me, figure out how to set up auto-payments online in the appropriate way to get the rate discount offered. I can set up payments online, but it seems it isn't the same thing as when I mail the forum in. They make it confusing!

More annoying, they not only charged me interest for the "forbearance" period (this is to be expected), but they capitalized it into the loan, raising the principle by $366. I'm going to fight that, even if I have to simply pay the interest outright. If I do that, I can deduct it from my taxes! In the loan documents, it says they can capitalize the interest into the loan if I choose not to pay the interest, but I do NOT choose that, they gave me no option! This all just seems wrong. They haven't provided me any notification or got any consent from me.

What makes me most annoyed is that until I pay off my student loan, I'm stuck with Wells Fargo. If it were something more simple, I'd just take my money elsewhere.

My freshman year of college, I believe I spent about $500 on college text books. Looking back, it was a foolish mistake, but I didn't know better at the time.

My first mistake was that I assumed that when a class said a text was required, they meant it. This turned out to be not true. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. Second, I bought books too late and there were no used ones left. Third, I didn't check the internet to compare prices.

Really, I think the college textbook industry is a huge rip off. If you've ever taken a class that recently switched from, say, edition 5 to edition 6, you may have noticed that the differences in the editions was primarily in the problem sets. Some texts may have major updates, but for the most part, the facts stay the same. Often times, the problems aren't even completely different, just altered in a minor way. How frustrating.

Not all professors played the game. One professor said that a text was required, but we could get any standard text relating to Control Systems we wanted. He pointed us to Amazon. He taught primarily from his lecture notes (and a text wasn't truly necessary), saving me about $100 that semester.

Also, why are we only given the option of hardcover texts? My boyfriend insists he loves hardcovers because they last longer (whatever). Shouldn't I have the option to easily purchase softcover to save some money? I did a semester in Hong Kong, and their book store didn't contain a single hardcover text for class. Not only that, but many of the students didn't buy the text anyway, as the professor often scanned the necessary material for the students. While that may violate some sort of copyright laws, not offering the softcover versions to US students seems unfair. In fact, I brought the two texts I bought (for a reasonable price!) in Hong Kong and sold them on Amazon in the US. I probably made a small profit, even though I priced them lower than the similar hardcover versions. Abebooks.com often offers softcover "international" versions of college texts. I used one from there for one of my graduate classes last semester.

At the end of the semester, the college bookstore offers to buy back your textbooks from you. This is another rip off. They try to tell you that buying and selling your books through the book store is "good for the college" because they donate money to various student groups. I'd much rather that they offer me a fair price for my books! If I can sell it for $70 on Amazon, and the bookstore will sell it for $90 in the store next fall, why on earth would I give it to them for $45?

I would speculate that this scam of the textbook industry trickles down to high school and elementary school, but since the books are provided for "free" (with tax money), people aren't as aware of it. I went to a private school and we had to buy our own textbooks. Rather than the bookstore running a scam to make profits off of used books, each family would put an envelop with a price inside the book they were offering to sell. The students formed a big line (I think you got a place according to a raffle number) and you would pick the books you wanted to buy. You'd pay the amount listed on the envelope, which was later given to the parent. Unless a class was switching editions, you could come out about even every year.

In later years of college, you could sometimes do a similar thing with classmates a semester ahead of you. These days, with facebook and other social networking sites hooking up buyers and sellers more easily, I wonder if anyone still shops at the bookstore.

I bought some great black work shoes last week. Somehow, I fell in love with these Oxford Booties (left) by Marc Jacobs (that'll teach me to read fashion magazines). And no, I don't buy Marc Jacobs. Nor do I know what exactly I'd wear those with! I settled for a much cheaper pair of more workable (though less lovely) black booties (right). I still feel slightly like a supermodel in them, since they have 3 inch heels (and I'm already on the tall side).



I also was intending on purchasing a beautiful white peacoat from Amazon.com. I probably looked at it at least 10 times over the last few months. But I never made the purchase. Tonight, I fully intended on sealing the deal and the coat has vanished from the internet. It looks like I'll just do without a white peacoat, unless I see something I love elsewhere.

These are a few cases where procrastinating has saved me money. Some other examples?

• I hate doing laundry, so I make my clothes work for as long as possible. Do you really NEED to wash sweaters each time you wear them? I don't think so. Is this gross?
• If I need to go grocery shopping and don't feel like it, I'll scrounge my fridge and eat whatever I have. I've been known to survive on cereal for several days
  
• In order to save on toothpaste, I don't always brush. Just kidding, that definitely is gross!

Of course, this only works for some examples. If I'm too lazy to grocery shop and there seriously is nothing in the apartment, I just might grab some take out to please my stomach. Procrastination definitely is NOT a virtue.... but every now and then, it isn't as evil as people make it out to be.

• Resume tracking of spending!
• Limit groceries to $30/week or less and restaurants to $75 total
• Study for and do well on midterm for my grad class

Pathetic as it is, that is all I am going to do for goals. I have to buy Christmas presents starting this month, so I don't think I'll be able to save as much as I would love to.

In better news, my company announced it's profits for last quarter, and it looks like my year end incentive bonus might be about $3000 after taxes, and should arrive in very early December. That could be the final kick I'll need to meet my goal for 10k in my high yeild savings and 4k in student loan repayment!

This month was quite unimpressive--an increase of just $132! There are a few reasons I have to explain this. I was sure I'd hit the 10k mark, but I missed... by four dollars!

• Of course, the stock market uneasiness. Between me and my company, we contributed about $1000 this month, yet the overall balance increased by just $300.
• Also, there was a slight student loan mess. I was charged some back interest which was capitalized into the loan (not by my choice!), which increased the balance by about $350. I paid some, and ended up owing $51 more than I owed this time a month ago.
• Last, there was spending. I took two trips to visit my family, at about $100 in gas a pop. I bought my plane ticket for the holidays for another $400 or so. I also went through some personal issues and indulged in a teeny bit of retail therapy.

Next month should be great for my net worth. Even though there will be Christmas shopping, just as much driving, and a new years vacation, I get two paychecks along with a bonus equivalent to about another two paychecks.

I'm also apartment hunting and I'll probably need to come up with a hefty security deposit.... The following month will be interesting with the cross country move, but it seems my future company is covering just about everything, so that is grand.

I have a confession. I did something very wrong. I crossed a line I should not have. I feel guilty, but at the same time, slightly relieved at what I found. I'll start with some background on why I did it before I get into what it is I did.

I mentioned before we had some financial issues when I was growing up, namely a chapter 13 bankruptcy that ruled my parents life as they made large monthly payments for 5 (or seven?) years. My life wasn't too disrupted and it qualified me for federal grants for college, but it still left me anxious about my parents financial situation, and probably greatly affected how I feel about my own.

A couple months ago I discovered some financial missteps my father had made, yet again. I truly think that this incident has finally made him realize that he needs to take control of his finances. But when I first heard about it, I was upset and nervous. My mom does fine with money, but I still worry about my parents having enough in their old age. Heck, sometimes I worry about them having enough right now.

So I did something wrong. I went online and pulled a free annual credit report for myself, and then.... I pulled one for my dad. It was really a stroke of luck that I was even able to do this. Of course I have my parents social security numbers (I needed them to list them as beneficiaries on my 401k), but they also have a few qualifying questions about where a recent loan is from and the amount of the payments. I made some educated guesses, and guessed right, and suddenly all of the information was right there on my screen. Wow.

The report itself was sort of spotty. Some missed payments, and even some accounts marked as "charge-off". I had to Google that to learn that is when you still owe a company money, but they never expect you to pay it, so they charge it off to balance their books. A few accounts noted as settled as part of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and many were simply closed. What comforted me was the fact that I didn't see credit cards with huge (or any) balances, I didn't find a thousands of dollars worth of loans owed. Sure it showed past problems, but no current problems.

Still, I shouldn't have done it. While I may have a good financial head on my shoulders, it is crossing the line to pull his report without his permission or knowledge. that is my anxious controlling side and I gave into it. I should have been an adult and gathered the courage to talk about it with my parents, but I took the cowards way out. I snooped. It was wrong. Still, I'm relieved at what I found.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My mom wants to buy a new car. A mini-cooper convertible. From now on, I will bite my tongue every time she talks about it, as I will when she ultimately (probably) buys it. She does not tell me what to do with my money, and it is certainly not my place to tell her what to do with hers. I've heard she says she has plenty saved for retirement (but how much is plenty?) so if she really can afford a new car, then good for her.

My older sister encourages me to buy a new car every so often. I graduated about a year and a half ago, and it seems to be the thing to do. "You can afford the payments. You are a single person making plenty of money." This is true, I can. Still, I don't yet feel financially secure enough to spend that kind of money, and I don't want to finance it. Not yet, at least. It isn't as though I'm sitting on a bunch of money. My net worth is only just creeping up to 10k (and creeping so slowly with the volatile market!), and purchasing a car would plummet it down into negative numbers. Besides, my car works just fine, and it should work just fine for several more years if I want it to.

Maybe I'm more cautious than she is, but she is also married to a very nice young man whose grandparents happen to have set aside a pile of money sitting in investments for their use. It isn't that they are wasteful of that money, but I think having a giant fund to fall back on gives you a little more confidence in purchasing. Maybe once I have some sort of fund to fall back on, I'd feel more comfortable in purchasing a newer car.

I've run into some personal issues and wound up driving to visit my family this past weekend. I didn't blink twice at paying for the gas (even at the ever rising price) because I really wanted to be with them for a couple days.

Among other things, my sister suggested some retail therapy. Not only that, but she performed some herself, giving me some new pajama's and a nice little present. And really, it did help, maybe more than material items should. It is just nice to get a present. Thoughtful.

I'm not that much of a shopper, but I do believe in retail therapy. Why is it that new things make us happy? But since I also believe in frugality and not shopping senselessly, I think I'll just purchase things that I need anyway (lightbulbs, mascara...) then try to buy some Christmas presents. And maybe a small luxury for myself....

I'm not a strict budgeter. I set monthly goals in excel based on fairly narrow categories, and I track my spending for each category. If I buy a magazine at the grocery store, I sometimes it slip into the grocery budget, even if it should be in entertainment. If I go over my budget, I don't really worry about it. If I save $100 less one month, it's not a big deal. As long as my net worth continually grows and I'm conscious of my spending, I'm not strict at all. I'm great at making a budget, but after that, I ignore it!

This week I decided I wanted new running shoes. Usually, I'd just buy them and worry about it later. This time I actually went into excel, and tried to see where the money was going to come from. If it was going to detract from my savings, fine, but I just wanted to know. I was able to take a little bit out of my utilities (low energy bill in the fall), a little out of "personal", and was able to come up with an extra $75 for running shoes. There is a chance the shoes will be a little more, but the vast majority won't affect my savings.

While I was there, I set up a rough December budget. Due to the year end bonus, I should be able to put $1000 towards my student loan, $2000 in my e-fund, and leave plenty of wiggle room in my new years vacation budget. I love bonus month!

Paints a horrible picture, doesn't it? You may have known what this phrase means for a long time, and if not, you may have heard it today. On the radio on the way home, the newsman reported that stocks had a recovery today, "deaceased feline or otherwise." It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.

A dead cat bounce is when stock prices jump up after a significant decline, only to continue to fall again after the recovery. Supposedly it comes from the idea that even a dead cat will bounce, if it falls far enough down. Well that's an unpleasant thought!

Why do these bounces occur? Wikipedia suggests that there are at least two factors coming into play. Some investors might have standing orders to buy certain stocks if they fall below a certain level. Other investors might speculate that it is the bottom of the market, so they buy hoping to make a profit.

The only way to tell the difference between a dead cat bounce and a recovery from the bottom is hindsight. So what do you think? I'd love to think that today represented a recovery, but in reality I think we haven't seen the bottom yet.

I found a little note at the end of the Wikipedia entry amusing: "More recently, the term has been used colloquially during extended drinking binges to describe the apparent recovery of individuals previously thought "out-of-commission", only for them to quickly return to sleep, vomit etc." Ah, college.

By the way, thank me for not including an image with this post!

My year and bonus is based on many factors about how the company performs. The base rate for non-senior engineers is 5.5%, and we can earn from 0 to 200% of that. This year the company did well and we earned 170%. That means I will get a check for over 9% of my salary! This is the first year that I was employed for the full fiscal year, so my first year getting such a generous check. My manager, I think, has a base rate of at least 10%, so he'll be getting a huge bonus.

I was counting on this bonus, and I will need it if I have any hope of meeting my year end savings goals. I'm kicking butt on my investing goals, but my savings isn't growing the way I wish it was. I still need:

• 2k payback for student loans
• 2.1k stashed in HYSA

I can definitely make it, but it is a bit dependent on my relocation situation. I have no idea what the costs will be, but I probably will have to pay rent in two places for January, and come up with a significant deposit. My current apartment had a $100 deposit, so even if I do get it all back... that really just isn't going to do much. I'll take that in consideration when I figure if I met my goals or not.

I have 3 paychecks plus this bonus to do it in. I also have to buy Christmas presents, gas for a road trip home, and come up with around $500 in spending money for my New Years vacation. Yikes! It's going to be close!

Perhaps, being someone interested in personal finance, you heard of the group of San Fransisco professionals who committed not to buy anything new in the year 2006. Or maybe you've heard a recent segment on NPR's Marketplace Money about another family, essentially doing that same thing for 2007.

It sounds very noble and anti-consumerism. It is admirable. I couldn't make that commitment, and I'm impressed that they can. But what I found most intriguing about the story was the following comment on the Marketplace Confessional, a section of the website where listener's can anonymously state their opinions about the show:

There was a segment about not buying anything new for a year. What is the big deal? I have not purchased anything new for almost 10 years. I am low income and have shopped at the second hand stores for years. My toaster, pots, pans, clothes have all come from these type of stores. Where I live we have a senior center that has a thrift store. If you take the time look you can find almost anything. Clothing is 25 cents per item or $1.00 per bag. There are many bargains to be had at thrift stores.

It made me remember how lucky many of us are. I can challenge myself to spend less and less, but I do it out of choice, not of necessity. Sure, I do it to fund retirement and to prepare for an emergency, or to pay off my student loan a little early. But if I'm feeling extravagant, I can buy a latte from Starbucks and it doesn't mean that I won't be eating dinner. I save money and buy things on the cheap because I want to, not because I have to. It is a blessing to have the choice.

I need to go through my apartment before I move and be sure to donate any unneeded quality used items to the second hand store so someone else can use them. Because they choose to or because the have to.

Typically, I track my daily spending in an excel sheet. I use Yodlee to view my net worth and to verify my excel tracking. I update my net worth monthly in NetworthIQ. So when I heard about the new personal finance tool, Mint, I wondered what it could do for me that my other tools weren't.

I decided to find out. The first thing I noticed is that the website had a striking interface. It was quite aesthetically pleasing and very clean. I easily added all my accounts, but was surprised to realize that I couldn't include my 401k or Roth. As I became more familiar with what the site was trying to do--help you analyze your spending--I can see why they don't include it. But I'm still disappointed they don't! After it loaded my data, I could see all of my transactions for the past 2 months.
I think some of the "shopping" was groceries (Target). The "No Category" stuff was ATM transactions, and in the future, I'd want to note exactly where that cash went. It is pretty neat, even though Yodlee has an uglier version of the same chart. Also, I could click on these categories, and they would be broken down into even more well defined categories. I wish it included a piece for savings, but it seems like it only tracks what you spend.

Honestly, I am not yet overly impressed with Mint so far. It is sort of like Yodlee, but with a cleaner interface and less features. I am going to continue using it, and perhaps as it matures, it will grow into something more useful to me. (It is still in beta, and they have promised to rol out more features over the next few months. )

I consolidated my student loans last June, and the process was pretty painful. It really shouldn't have been, but there were some minor issues that turned into huge problems due to Wells Fargo constantly giving me wrong information about what forms I had to fill out to fix them.

Anyway, a few days ago I noticed that my loan had been taken off 'in-school deferment" status and put into repayment, and a retroactive "hardship forbearance" had been processed without my knowledge. As part of this, $366 of interest was capitalized into the loan. I was upset because interest is tax deductible (if it is paid as interest, not if it is rolled into the principle!) so I contacted Wells Fargo to complain.

Their response, basically, was that it is too late and they can't help me. They also explained that this was an unusual siltation, and in most cases, I would have been given the opportunity to pay the interest. So, that will cost me about $100 in a tax deduction, but I was surprised at the level of helpfulness and competence they showed in dealing with my situation.

Here are snippets from the most helpful correspondence I've had with their loan department to date:

According to our records, we originally disbursed your Federal Consolidation Loan (CA0001) on 01/05/2007 and since you were enrolled in school half-time, we processed a half-time study school deferment on loan CA0001.

After loan CA0001 was disbursed we received your request to add another loan to your Federal Consolidation Loan. We processed this request and disbursed your new Federal Consolidation Loan CA0101 on 06/07/2007. Loan CA0101 canceled out loan CA0001.

[My note: this loan was listed on the original application, and I have no idea how they forgot it. It also took them a million years and several phone calls to take care of this issue]

In October we received updated enrollment information from your school showing you dropped to less than half-time status as of 05/05/2007. Usually we would update the deferment end date and process an administrative forbearance on the account to keep it current. However, since you dropped to less than half-time status before loan CA0101 was disbursed on 06/07/2007, we had to remove the deferment from loan CA0101 and process a standard forbearance on your loan.

We regret that because we just received your updated enrollment information and made the adjustments to your account, there wasn't sufficient time for us to notify you of the outstanding interest so that you could pay it before it was capitalized onto the principal balance of your loan. However, by processing the standard forbearance on your loan, we kept the loan from being reported as delinquent to the credit bureaus and from being assessed late fees. [My note: Gee thanks how kind.... especially since I was not getting billed and my account online clearly said "deferment" with nothing due!]

Well, it sounds a bit confusing, and I'm not sure that I buy the "there wasn't sufficient time" line, but I do understand their motivation. They also reminded me that after THREE YEARS of on time payments, I would qualify for another 1% rate reduction. I'm certainly annoyed that I will not be getting any tax breaks on the interest I pay this year, but if I was more in tune with the rules, I could have notified them of my school status myself.

My company came out with a new policy this year. We are required to either take a online personal health assessment and fill in data from our "biometrics" (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.), or pay an extra $125 (per person) in health care premiums. They offered several sessions at work where they would take them for free, and the numbers were self reported.

Being young and relatively healthy, I wasn't opposed to the idea. Some of my middle aged co-workers were much more wary. Wasn't this a little bit too "Big Brother" for the USA? One could speculate where they are going with this approach. Next year, they might require those who have high cholesterol to reduce it, or else pay $125. Get your BMI within the healthy range, or else pay $125. Commit to exercise three times a week, or else pay $125.

If they do charge more for people who refuse to make an active commitment to improving bad health, is it fair? No one seems to dispute smokers surcharges anymore. The difference is that some of this is genetics, and can't be helped. I have naturally high cholesterol, and while I can improve it with diet and exercise, 2/3 of the number is made up by genetics. I would hate to be charged extra for something I have little control over.

The premise of the approach makes me a bit uneasy. However,it also seems like, done the right way, it might be something that will help alleviate health care costs for the country as a whole. You can't force people to chose healthy lifestyles, but one way to persuade people is to hit them where they will notice--their pocketbooks. If you could lower your premiums by improving your health, or having a legitimate reason why you can not improve, would you? Doesn't it seem fair that taking care of yourself would lower your premiums?

One immediate benefit of the program was that some people were made aware of their health status. This was particularly helpful for us young people who hadn't had our blood work done yet, but also for those who are a little afraid of the doctor. Sometimes seeing the numbers is enough to make a small difference.

I'm leaving my company shortly, so I won't know how this all will play out long term. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue in my future employer.

While checking my online banking, I noticed my student loan is suddenly back in repayment status I took 6 credits of graduate classes last semester and was granted a student loan deferment. I thought this was great news, because my loan is subsidized and I am not charged interest during a deferment.

It seems like my class this semester doesn't qualify me for the same treatment, perhaps because I'm only doing 3 credits. Wells Fargo has taken it upon themselves to mark 6/07 until 10/19 as a period of hardship forbearance! More like a period of "Wells Fargo screwed up... again!" I'm going into the branch tomorrow to inquire about this. If it doesn't affect my credit report, then I suppose I'll let it slide. I have to go to the branch anyway because I can not, for the life of me, figure out how to set up auto-payments online in the appropriate way to get the rate discount offered. I can set up payments online, but it seems it isn't the same thing as when I mail the forum in. They make it confusing!

More annoying, they not only charged me interest for the "forbearance" period (this is to be expected), but they capitalized it into the loan, raising the principle by $366. I'm going to fight that, even if I have to simply pay the interest outright. If I do that, I can deduct it from my taxes! In the loan documents, it says they can capitalize the interest into the loan if I choose not to pay the interest, but I do NOT choose that, they gave me no option! This all just seems wrong. They haven't provided me any notification or got any consent from me.

What makes me most annoyed is that until I pay off my student loan, I'm stuck with Wells Fargo. If it were something more simple, I'd just take my money elsewhere.

My freshman year of college, I believe I spent about $500 on college text books. Looking back, it was a foolish mistake, but I didn't know better at the time.

My first mistake was that I assumed that when a class said a text was required, they meant it. This turned out to be not true. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. Second, I bought books too late and there were no used ones left. Third, I didn't check the internet to compare prices.

Really, I think the college textbook industry is a huge rip off. If you've ever taken a class that recently switched from, say, edition 5 to edition 6, you may have noticed that the differences in the editions was primarily in the problem sets. Some texts may have major updates, but for the most part, the facts stay the same. Often times, the problems aren't even completely different, just altered in a minor way. How frustrating.

Not all professors played the game. One professor said that a text was required, but we could get any standard text relating to Control Systems we wanted. He pointed us to Amazon. He taught primarily from his lecture notes (and a text wasn't truly necessary), saving me about $100 that semester.

Also, why are we only given the option of hardcover texts? My boyfriend insists he loves hardcovers because they last longer (whatever). Shouldn't I have the option to easily purchase softcover to save some money? I did a semester in Hong Kong, and their book store didn't contain a single hardcover text for class. Not only that, but many of the students didn't buy the text anyway, as the professor often scanned the necessary material for the students. While that may violate some sort of copyright laws, not offering the softcover versions to US students seems unfair. In fact, I brought the two texts I bought (for a reasonable price!) in Hong Kong and sold them on Amazon in the US. I probably made a small profit, even though I priced them lower than the similar hardcover versions. Abebooks.com often offers softcover "international" versions of college texts. I used one from there for one of my graduate classes last semester.

At the end of the semester, the college bookstore offers to buy back your textbooks from you. This is another rip off. They try to tell you that buying and selling your books through the book store is "good for the college" because they donate money to various student groups. I'd much rather that they offer me a fair price for my books! If I can sell it for $70 on Amazon, and the bookstore will sell it for $90 in the store next fall, why on earth would I give it to them for $45?

I would speculate that this scam of the textbook industry trickles down to high school and elementary school, but since the books are provided for "free" (with tax money), people aren't as aware of it. I went to a private school and we had to buy our own textbooks. Rather than the bookstore running a scam to make profits off of used books, each family would put an envelop with a price inside the book they were offering to sell. The students formed a big line (I think you got a place according to a raffle number) and you would pick the books you wanted to buy. You'd pay the amount listed on the envelope, which was later given to the parent. Unless a class was switching editions, you could come out about even every year.

In later years of college, you could sometimes do a similar thing with classmates a semester ahead of you. These days, with facebook and other social networking sites hooking up buyers and sellers more easily, I wonder if anyone still shops at the bookstore.

I bought some great black work shoes last week. Somehow, I fell in love with these Oxford Booties (left) by Marc Jacobs (that'll teach me to read fashion magazines). And no, I don't buy Marc Jacobs. Nor do I know what exactly I'd wear those with! I settled for a much cheaper pair of more workable (though less lovely) black booties (right). I still feel slightly like a supermodel in them, since they have 3 inch heels (and I'm already on the tall side).



I also was intending on purchasing a beautiful white peacoat from Amazon.com. I probably looked at it at least 10 times over the last few months. But I never made the purchase. Tonight, I fully intended on sealing the deal and the coat has vanished from the internet. It looks like I'll just do without a white peacoat, unless I see something I love elsewhere.

These are a few cases where procrastinating has saved me money. Some other examples?

• I hate doing laundry, so I make my clothes work for as long as possible. Do you really NEED to wash sweaters each time you wear them? I don't think so. Is this gross?
• If I need to go grocery shopping and don't feel like it, I'll scrounge my fridge and eat whatever I have. I've been known to survive on cereal for several days
  
• In order to save on toothpaste, I don't always brush. Just kidding, that definitely is gross!

Of course, this only works for some examples. If I'm too lazy to grocery shop and there seriously is nothing in the apartment, I just might grab some take out to please my stomach. Procrastination definitely is NOT a virtue.... but every now and then, it isn't as evil as people make it out to be.

• Resume tracking of spending!
• Limit groceries to $30/week or less and restaurants to $75 total
• Study for and do well on midterm for my grad class

Pathetic as it is, that is all I am going to do for goals. I have to buy Christmas presents starting this month, so I don't think I'll be able to save as much as I would love to.

In better news, my company announced it's profits for last quarter, and it looks like my year end incentive bonus might be about $3000 after taxes, and should arrive in very early December. That could be the final kick I'll need to meet my goal for 10k in my high yeild savings and 4k in student loan repayment!

This month was quite unimpressive--an increase of just $132! There are a few reasons I have to explain this. I was sure I'd hit the 10k mark, but I missed... by four dollars!

• Of course, the stock market uneasiness. Between me and my company, we contributed about $1000 this month, yet the overall balance increased by just $300.
• Also, there was a slight student loan mess. I was charged some back interest which was capitalized into the loan (not by my choice!), which increased the balance by about $350. I paid some, and ended up owing $51 more than I owed this time a month ago.
• Last, there was spending. I took two trips to visit my family, at about $100 in gas a pop. I bought my plane ticket for the holidays for another $400 or so. I also went through some personal issues and indulged in a teeny bit of retail therapy.

Next month should be great for my net worth. Even though there will be Christmas shopping, just as much driving, and a new years vacation, I get two paychecks along with a bonus equivalent to about another two paychecks.

I'm also apartment hunting and I'll probably need to come up with a hefty security deposit.... The following month will be interesting with the cross country move, but it seems my future company is covering just about everything, so that is grand.

I have a confession. I did something very wrong. I crossed a line I should not have. I feel guilty, but at the same time, slightly relieved at what I found. I'll start with some background on why I did it before I get into what it is I did.

I mentioned before we had some financial issues when I was growing up, namely a chapter 13 bankruptcy that ruled my parents life as they made large monthly payments for 5 (or seven?) years. My life wasn't too disrupted and it qualified me for federal grants for college, but it still left me anxious about my parents financial situation, and probably greatly affected how I feel about my own.

A couple months ago I discovered some financial missteps my father had made, yet again. I truly think that this incident has finally made him realize that he needs to take control of his finances. But when I first heard about it, I was upset and nervous. My mom does fine with money, but I still worry about my parents having enough in their old age. Heck, sometimes I worry about them having enough right now.

So I did something wrong. I went online and pulled a free annual credit report for myself, and then.... I pulled one for my dad. It was really a stroke of luck that I was even able to do this. Of course I have my parents social security numbers (I needed them to list them as beneficiaries on my 401k), but they also have a few qualifying questions about where a recent loan is from and the amount of the payments. I made some educated guesses, and guessed right, and suddenly all of the information was right there on my screen. Wow.

The report itself was sort of spotty. Some missed payments, and even some accounts marked as "charge-off". I had to Google that to learn that is when you still owe a company money, but they never expect you to pay it, so they charge it off to balance their books. A few accounts noted as settled as part of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and many were simply closed. What comforted me was the fact that I didn't see credit cards with huge (or any) balances, I didn't find a thousands of dollars worth of loans owed. Sure it showed past problems, but no current problems.

Still, I shouldn't have done it. While I may have a good financial head on my shoulders, it is crossing the line to pull his report without his permission or knowledge. that is my anxious controlling side and I gave into it. I should have been an adult and gathered the courage to talk about it with my parents, but I took the cowards way out. I snooped. It was wrong. Still, I'm relieved at what I found.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My mom wants to buy a new car. A mini-cooper convertible. From now on, I will bite my tongue every time she talks about it, as I will when she ultimately (probably) buys it. She does not tell me what to do with my money, and it is certainly not my place to tell her what to do with hers. I've heard she says she has plenty saved for retirement (but how much is plenty?) so if she really can afford a new car, then good for her.

My older sister encourages me to buy a new car every so often. I graduated about a year and a half ago, and it seems to be the thing to do. "You can afford the payments. You are a single person making plenty of money." This is true, I can. Still, I don't yet feel financially secure enough to spend that kind of money, and I don't want to finance it. Not yet, at least. It isn't as though I'm sitting on a bunch of money. My net worth is only just creeping up to 10k (and creeping so slowly with the volatile market!), and purchasing a car would plummet it down into negative numbers. Besides, my car works just fine, and it should work just fine for several more years if I want it to.

Maybe I'm more cautious than she is, but she is also married to a very nice young man whose grandparents happen to have set aside a pile of money sitting in investments for their use. It isn't that they are wasteful of that money, but I think having a giant fund to fall back on gives you a little more confidence in purchasing. Maybe once I have some sort of fund to fall back on, I'd feel more comfortable in purchasing a newer car.

I've run into some personal issues and wound up driving to visit my family this past weekend. I didn't blink twice at paying for the gas (even at the ever rising price) because I really wanted to be with them for a couple days.

Among other things, my sister suggested some retail therapy. Not only that, but she performed some herself, giving me some new pajama's and a nice little present. And really, it did help, maybe more than material items should. It is just nice to get a present. Thoughtful.

I'm not that much of a shopper, but I do believe in retail therapy. Why is it that new things make us happy? But since I also believe in frugality and not shopping senselessly, I think I'll just purchase things that I need anyway (lightbulbs, mascara...) then try to buy some Christmas presents. And maybe a small luxury for myself....

I'm not a strict budgeter. I set monthly goals in excel based on fairly narrow categories, and I track my spending for each category. If I buy a magazine at the grocery store, I sometimes it slip into the grocery budget, even if it should be in entertainment. If I go over my budget, I don't really worry about it. If I save $100 less one month, it's not a big deal. As long as my net worth continually grows and I'm conscious of my spending, I'm not strict at all. I'm great at making a budget, but after that, I ignore it!

This week I decided I wanted new running shoes. Usually, I'd just buy them and worry about it later. This time I actually went into excel, and tried to see where the money was going to come from. If it was going to detract from my savings, fine, but I just wanted to know. I was able to take a little bit out of my utilities (low energy bill in the fall), a little out of "personal", and was able to come up with an extra $75 for running shoes. There is a chance the shoes will be a little more, but the vast majority won't affect my savings.

While I was there, I set up a rough December budget. Due to the year end bonus, I should be able to put $1000 towards my student loan, $2000 in my e-fund, and leave plenty of wiggle room in my new years vacation budget. I love bonus month!

Paints a horrible picture, doesn't it? You may have known what this phrase means for a long time, and if not, you may have heard it today. On the radio on the way home, the newsman reported that stocks had a recovery today, "deaceased feline or otherwise." It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.

A dead cat bounce is when stock prices jump up after a significant decline, only to continue to fall again after the recovery. Supposedly it comes from the idea that even a dead cat will bounce, if it falls far enough down. Well that's an unpleasant thought!

Why do these bounces occur? Wikipedia suggests that there are at least two factors coming into play. Some investors might have standing orders to buy certain stocks if they fall below a certain level. Other investors might speculate that it is the bottom of the market, so they buy hoping to make a profit.

The only way to tell the difference between a dead cat bounce and a recovery from the bottom is hindsight. So what do you think? I'd love to think that today represented a recovery, but in reality I think we haven't seen the bottom yet.

I found a little note at the end of the Wikipedia entry amusing: "More recently, the term has been used colloquially during extended drinking binges to describe the apparent recovery of individuals previously thought "out-of-commission", only for them to quickly return to sleep, vomit etc." Ah, college.

By the way, thank me for not including an image with this post!

My year and bonus is based on many factors about how the company performs. The base rate for non-senior engineers is 5.5%, and we can earn from 0 to 200% of that. This year the company did well and we earned 170%. That means I will get a check for over 9% of my salary! This is the first year that I was employed for the full fiscal year, so my first year getting such a generous check. My manager, I think, has a base rate of at least 10%, so he'll be getting a huge bonus.

I was counting on this bonus, and I will need it if I have any hope of meeting my year end savings goals. I'm kicking butt on my investing goals, but my savings isn't growing the way I wish it was. I still need:

• 2k payback for student loans
• 2.1k stashed in HYSA

I can definitely make it, but it is a bit dependent on my relocation situation. I have no idea what the costs will be, but I probably will have to pay rent in two places for January, and come up with a significant deposit. My current apartment had a $100 deposit, so even if I do get it all back... that really just isn't going to do much. I'll take that in consideration when I figure if I met my goals or not.

I have 3 paychecks plus this bonus to do it in. I also have to buy Christmas presents, gas for a road trip home, and come up with around $500 in spending money for my New Years vacation. Yikes! It's going to be close!

Perhaps, being someone interested in personal finance, you heard of the group of San Fransisco professionals who committed not to buy anything new in the year 2006. Or maybe you've heard a recent segment on NPR's Marketplace Money about another family, essentially doing that same thing for 2007.

It sounds very noble and anti-consumerism. It is admirable. I couldn't make that commitment, and I'm impressed that they can. But what I found most intriguing about the story was the following comment on the Marketplace Confessional, a section of the website where listener's can anonymously state their opinions about the show:

There was a segment about not buying anything new for a year. What is the big deal? I have not purchased anything new for almost 10 years. I am low income and have shopped at the second hand stores for years. My toaster, pots, pans, clothes have all come from these type of stores. Where I live we have a senior center that has a thrift store. If you take the time look you can find almost anything. Clothing is 25 cents per item or $1.00 per bag. There are many bargains to be had at thrift stores.

It made me remember how lucky many of us are. I can challenge myself to spend less and less, but I do it out of choice, not of necessity. Sure, I do it to fund retirement and to prepare for an emergency, or to pay off my student loan a little early. But if I'm feeling extravagant, I can buy a latte from Starbucks and it doesn't mean that I won't be eating dinner. I save money and buy things on the cheap because I want to, not because I have to. It is a blessing to have the choice.

I need to go through my apartment before I move and be sure to donate any unneeded quality used items to the second hand store so someone else can use them. Because they choose to or because the have to.

Typically, I track my daily spending in an excel sheet. I use Yodlee to view my net worth and to verify my excel tracking. I update my net worth monthly in NetworthIQ. So when I heard about the new personal finance tool, Mint, I wondered what it could do for me that my other tools weren't.

I decided to find out. The first thing I noticed is that the website had a striking interface. It was quite aesthetically pleasing and very clean. I easily added all my accounts, but was surprised to realize that I couldn't include my 401k or Roth. As I became more familiar with what the site was trying to do--help you analyze your spending--I can see why they don't include it. But I'm still disappointed they don't! After it loaded my data, I could see all of my transactions for the past 2 months.
I think some of the "shopping" was groceries (Target). The "No Category" stuff was ATM transactions, and in the future, I'd want to note exactly where that cash went. It is pretty neat, even though Yodlee has an uglier version of the same chart. Also, I could click on these categories, and they would be broken down into even more well defined categories. I wish it included a piece for savings, but it seems like it only tracks what you spend.

Honestly, I am not yet overly impressed with Mint so far. It is sort of like Yodlee, but with a cleaner interface and less features. I am going to continue using it, and perhaps as it matures, it will grow into something more useful to me. (It is still in beta, and they have promised to rol out more features over the next few months. )

I consolidated my student loans last June, and the process was pretty painful. It really shouldn't have been, but there were some minor issues that turned into huge problems due to Wells Fargo constantly giving me wrong information about what forms I had to fill out to fix them.

Anyway, a few days ago I noticed that my loan had been taken off 'in-school deferment" status and put into repayment, and a retroactive "hardship forbearance" had been processed without my knowledge. As part of this, $366 of interest was capitalized into the loan. I was upset because interest is tax deductible (if it is paid as interest, not if it is rolled into the principle!) so I contacted Wells Fargo to complain.

Their response, basically, was that it is too late and they can't help me. They also explained that this was an unusual siltation, and in most cases, I would have been given the opportunity to pay the interest. So, that will cost me about $100 in a tax deduction, but I was surprised at the level of helpfulness and competence they showed in dealing with my situation.

Here are snippets from the most helpful correspondence I've had with their loan department to date:

According to our records, we originally disbursed your Federal Consolidation Loan (CA0001) on 01/05/2007 and since you were enrolled in school half-time, we processed a half-time study school deferment on loan CA0001.

After loan CA0001 was disbursed we received your request to add another loan to your Federal Consolidation Loan. We processed this request and disbursed your new Federal Consolidation Loan CA0101 on 06/07/2007. Loan CA0101 canceled out loan CA0001.

[My note: this loan was listed on the original application, and I have no idea how they forgot it. It also took them a million years and several phone calls to take care of this issue]

In October we received updated enrollment information from your school showing you dropped to less than half-time status as of 05/05/2007. Usually we would update the deferment end date and process an administrative forbearance on the account to keep it current. However, since you dropped to less than half-time status before loan CA0101 was disbursed on 06/07/2007, we had to remove the deferment from loan CA0101 and process a standard forbearance on your loan.

We regret that because we just received your updated enrollment information and made the adjustments to your account, there wasn't sufficient time for us to notify you of the outstanding interest so that you could pay it before it was capitalized onto the principal balance of your loan. However, by processing the standard forbearance on your loan, we kept the loan from being reported as delinquent to the credit bureaus and from being assessed late fees. [My note: Gee thanks how kind.... especially since I was not getting billed and my account online clearly said "deferment" with nothing due!]

Well, it sounds a bit confusing, and I'm not sure that I buy the "there wasn't sufficient time" line, but I do understand their motivation. They also reminded me that after THREE YEARS of on time payments, I would qualify for another 1% rate reduction. I'm certainly annoyed that I will not be getting any tax breaks on the interest I pay this year, but if I was more in tune with the rules, I could have notified them of my school status myself.

My company came out with a new policy this year. We are required to either take a online personal health assessment and fill in data from our "biometrics" (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.), or pay an extra $125 (per person) in health care premiums. They offered several sessions at work where they would take them for free, and the numbers were self reported.

Being young and relatively healthy, I wasn't opposed to the idea. Some of my middle aged co-workers were much more wary. Wasn't this a little bit too "Big Brother" for the USA? One could speculate where they are going with this approach. Next year, they might require those who have high cholesterol to reduce it, or else pay $125. Get your BMI within the healthy range, or else pay $125. Commit to exercise three times a week, or else pay $125.

If they do charge more for people who refuse to make an active commitment to improving bad health, is it fair? No one seems to dispute smokers surcharges anymore. The difference is that some of this is genetics, and can't be helped. I have naturally high cholesterol, and while I can improve it with diet and exercise, 2/3 of the number is made up by genetics. I would hate to be charged extra for something I have little control over.

The premise of the approach makes me a bit uneasy. However,it also seems like, done the right way, it might be something that will help alleviate health care costs for the country as a whole. You can't force people to chose healthy lifestyles, but one way to persuade people is to hit them where they will notice--their pocketbooks. If you could lower your premiums by improving your health, or having a legitimate reason why you can not improve, would you? Doesn't it seem fair that taking care of yourself would lower your premiums?

One immediate benefit of the program was that some people were made aware of their health status. This was particularly helpful for us young people who hadn't had our blood work done yet, but also for those who are a little afraid of the doctor. Sometimes seeing the numbers is enough to make a small difference.

I'm leaving my company shortly, so I won't know how this all will play out long term. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue in my future employer.

While checking my online banking, I noticed my student loan is suddenly back in repayment status I took 6 credits of graduate classes last semester and was granted a student loan deferment. I thought this was great news, because my loan is subsidized and I am not charged interest during a deferment.

It seems like my class this semester doesn't qualify me for the same treatment, perhaps because I'm only doing 3 credits. Wells Fargo has taken it upon themselves to mark 6/07 until 10/19 as a period of hardship forbearance! More like a period of "Wells Fargo screwed up... again!" I'm going into the branch tomorrow to inquire about this. If it doesn't affect my credit report, then I suppose I'll let it slide. I have to go to the branch anyway because I can not, for the life of me, figure out how to set up auto-payments online in the appropriate way to get the rate discount offered. I can set up payments online, but it seems it isn't the same thing as when I mail the forum in. They make it confusing!

More annoying, they not only charged me interest for the "forbearance" period (this is to be expected), but they capitalized it into the loan, raising the principle by $366. I'm going to fight that, even if I have to simply pay the interest outright. If I do that, I can deduct it from my taxes! In the loan documents, it says they can capitalize the interest into the loan if I choose not to pay the interest, but I do NOT choose that, they gave me no option! This all just seems wrong. They haven't provided me any notification or got any consent from me.

What makes me most annoyed is that until I pay off my student loan, I'm stuck with Wells Fargo. If it were something more simple, I'd just take my money elsewhere.

My freshman year of college, I believe I spent about $500 on college text books. Looking back, it was a foolish mistake, but I didn't know better at the time.

My first mistake was that I assumed that when a class said a text was required, they meant it. This turned out to be not true. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. Second, I bought books too late and there were no used ones left. Third, I didn't check the internet to compare prices.

Really, I think the college textbook industry is a huge rip off. If you've ever taken a class that recently switched from, say, edition 5 to edition 6, you may have noticed that the differences in the editions was primarily in the problem sets. Some texts may have major updates, but for the most part, the facts stay the same. Often times, the problems aren't even completely different, just altered in a minor way. How frustrating.

Not all professors played the game. One professor said that a text was required, but we could get any standard text relating to Control Systems we wanted. He pointed us to Amazon. He taught primarily from his lecture notes (and a text wasn't truly necessary), saving me about $100 that semester.

Also, why are we only given the option of hardcover texts? My boyfriend insists he loves hardcovers because they last longer (whatever). Shouldn't I have the option to easily purchase softcover to save some money? I did a semester in Hong Kong, and their book store didn't contain a single hardcover text for class. Not only that, but many of the students didn't buy the text anyway, as the professor often scanned the necessary material for the students. While that may violate some sort of copyright laws, not offering the softcover versions to US students seems unfair. In fact, I brought the two texts I bought (for a reasonable price!) in Hong Kong and sold them on Amazon in the US. I probably made a small profit, even though I priced them lower than the similar hardcover versions. Abebooks.com often offers softcover "international" versions of college texts. I used one from there for one of my graduate classes last semester.

At the end of the semester, the college bookstore offers to buy back your textbooks from you. This is another rip off. They try to tell you that buying and selling your books through the book store is "good for the college" because they donate money to various student groups. I'd much rather that they offer me a fair price for my books! If I can sell it for $70 on Amazon, and the bookstore will sell it for $90 in the store next fall, why on earth would I give it to them for $45?

I would speculate that this scam of the textbook industry trickles down to high school and elementary school, but since the books are provided for "free" (with tax money), people aren't as aware of it. I went to a private school and we had to buy our own textbooks. Rather than the bookstore running a scam to make profits off of used books, each family would put an envelop with a price inside the book they were offering to sell. The students formed a big line (I think you got a place according to a raffle number) and you would pick the books you wanted to buy. You'd pay the amount listed on the envelope, which was later given to the parent. Unless a class was switching editions, you could come out about even every year.

In later years of college, you could sometimes do a similar thing with classmates a semester ahead of you. These days, with facebook and other social networking sites hooking up buyers and sellers more easily, I wonder if anyone still shops at the bookstore.

I bought some great black work shoes last week. Somehow, I fell in love with these Oxford Booties (left) by Marc Jacobs (that'll teach me to read fashion magazines). And no, I don't buy Marc Jacobs. Nor do I know what exactly I'd wear those with! I settled for a much cheaper pair of more workable (though less lovely) black booties (right). I still feel slightly like a supermodel in them, since they have 3 inch heels (and I'm already on the tall side).

I also was intending on purchasing a beautiful white peacoat from Amazon.com. I probably looked at it at least 10 times over the last few months. But I never made the purchase. Tonight, I fully intended on sealing the deal and the coat has vanished from the internet. It looks like I'll just do without a white peacoat, unless I see something I love elsewhere.

These are a few cases where procrastinating has saved me money. Some other examples?

• I hate doing laundry, so I make my clothes work for as long as possible. Do you really NEED to wash sweaters each time you wear them? I don't think so. Is this gross?
• If I need to go grocery shopping and don't feel like it, I'll scrounge my fridge and eat whatever I have. I've been known to survive on cereal for several days
  
• In order to save on toothpaste, I don't always brush. Just kidding, that definitely is gross!

Of course, this only works for some examples. If I'm too lazy to grocery shop and there seriously is nothing in the apartment, I just might grab some take out to please my stomach. Procrastination definitely is NOT a virtue.... but every now and then, it isn't as evil as people make it out to be.

• Resume tracking of spending!
• Limit groceries to $30/week or less and restaurants to $75 total
• Study for and do well on midterm for my grad class

Pathetic as it is, that is all I am going to do for goals. I have to buy Christmas presents starting this month, so I don't think I'll be able to save as much as I would love to.

In better news, my company announced it's profits for last quarter, and it looks like my year end incentive bonus might be about $3000 after taxes, and should arrive in very early December. That could be the final kick I'll need to meet my goal for 10k in my high yeild savings and 4k in student loan repayment!