Stacking Pennies . . .

So, you aren't supposed to keep score in relationships. Still, I can't help it sometimes.

My boyfriend is a poor poor grad student who makes less than half of what I do (stipend). My savings is going up, his is staying flat at best. Naturally, I don't expect him to spend much on us. He is content with not going out to eat much and living quite cheaply, which is great for us in the long run because I'm fairly frugal too. We should never have problems living within our means. Still, sometimes I want treats, so I provide them for us.

This weekend (starting on Thursday) I paid for:
Pizza: $13, a good deal though, for 3 medium pizza's that fed us almost all weekend. I will say nothing about the healthfulness of it...
Sam Adam's White Ale: $14
Lunch at Ikea: $11 (though my fault, since we wouldn't have otherwise been at Ikea and he was helping me pick out and build stuff)
Random Food that we ate: Coffee, cereal, milk, juice, burritos from Trader Joe's.... Plus he made a smoothie that neither of us really needed/wanted (which was much to thick) with my frozen strawberries right before dinner for no logical reason!

Also, he doesn't have a car, so I'm always driving and using my gas. And he definitely ate/drank more of all that stuff than I did.

It isn't that I'm not generous with this kind of thing. I am actually quite generous: "Thanks for coming to Ikea... do you want to stop at the cafe? How about this Mango Sorbet too, that looks delicious!" Then I do my budget, see that I want to save more, then regret my generosity. Ooops.

Then again, how petty is it for me to quibble about $37 spent on "us" when i spent about $200 on me and my apartment at Ikea? It is hard to justify that.

I guess it's the principle rather than the dollar amount. When we stopped at the store to buy juice (potentially for future smoothies or to mix in drinks), he could have paid for it. It was only about $3, so it makes no difference in the scheme of things, but it makes me feel a little less like I'm being taken advantage of. I know that really isn't the case... I offer to do all these things and he would be fine if I stopped. Sometimes I can't help but be bothered by it though.

I guess I need to be careful with my generosity, and really think about it before I offer to pay for things for "us". I need to make sure I won't regret it. Spending money doesn't show love (though, I can't help but think it does, at least a little). I think (hope) that my attitude would be different if we were engaged/married and money spent on us was truly ours and not mine/his. I also think his attitude would be a little different as well. But it just isn't like that right now. It is my money, and if I'm going to share it, I need to make sure I'm sharing it within my budget.

I get paid tomorrow (yes, on Thursdays) and finally was able to view my paycheck online. Though I only am being paid for 40 hrs instead of 80 this period, they did process my signing bonus in the first check (yes!) so I finally have some money to work with. They got all my direct deposit stuff set up in time (nice work!). I have it split between three different accounts, checking, short term savings (insurance, travel, car) and a long term savings (e-fund, maybe house/condo fund one day). I still may have to transfer between these, but this should minimize that. Make savings automatic!

I'm still not ready to finalize a budget, as I'm not certain what my take home pay will be. I tried to figure out exactly how much I'll be paying in taxes each month by taking total taxes paid divided by total gross pay in this check. I came up with about a 39% tax rate! Yikes, that can't be right! Google tells me that taxes on bonuses, while calculated as normal income, are withheld at a different rate, up to 40%. Well, that makes more sense! Good to know.

Is it logical to just use 25%, my marginal tax rate? Then again, what about FICA, Social Security, etc? If I do that, I come up with about $1700 after 401k and medical or $1500 if I go all the way up to 20% in my 401k. It isn't likely I can live off the $3000/month, at least not if I want to grow my cash savings. Though the way some people dream about buying a house, I dream about maxing out my 401k....

My 401k still isn't ready for me to enroll. I hate when systems are not automated enough. My last job I could enroll in my 401k on the first day (through Fidelity). It has been a full week and CitiStreet still isn't recognizing my user ID. When I called the number to ask if this was normal, I was told "Please listen carefully as options have recently changed." Then, there was a single ring, then silence. More silence. I was never given any options! I hung up and tried again, only to have it happen again. I pressed all the numbers and was directed to an operator who could not help me unless I "went through the system and entered my PIN" (which I did!). He suggested waiting another week, or trying the number again. Lame.

I was going to go hang out with the boyfriend tonight, but I think I'll cancel. He has a lot of school work, and I have needed to do laundry for at least a week. This will give me time to start working on yesterdays to-do list. First up, taxes!

I have some major financial housekeeping to do within the next month (or maybe two months). With switching jobs and moving 2000 miles, I feel like everything is a mess! It is time for some clean-up.

Taxes: Self explanatory! I did start them on TaxAct, but got distracted.

Retirement Accounts:
Well, first, I assign myself some homework. I've had "Random Walk Guide to Investing" hanging out on my bookshelf for months. I need to read it. I also want to re-read Jonathan's series at MyMoneyBlog.com about asset allocation, and look for other good internet information. I need to consider rolling over my old 401k to an IRA or even to a Roth IRA. I want to at least consider moving my Roth from Fidelity to Vanguard. I need to get enrolled in my new 401k ASAP, and contribute at least 8% to get the match.

Emergency fund: I want to get it back up to 10k, then evaluate if I need to increase it further due to increased costs. It briefly hit 10k before Christmas, but has dwindled to just over 7k (!) in the move process. Well, 1k went to the Roth to kick off 2008 so it isn't so bad. This should easily be taken care of if I simply apply the relocation allowance and signing bonus. Also, I want to investigate moving it from HSBC to something better.

Actually implement plan to buy car insurance. I have to do this soon, because I have get my car registered in my new state. It's just... I recently designated an ING accout to save up for bi-yearly insurance purchases... but so far I've only stuck $25 in it! Ug.

Figure out a reasonable budget. Having scaled back income and paying two rents for a month has totally messed with my head. I have no idea what I can afford, what is a splurge, and what I absolutely shouldn't be buying. So I'm just guessing. . .

Rebates, rebates, rebates: I need to send in rebates for my cable service, my internet service ($50 each), and for my modem (about $80). Then I need to sell my modem online, since it turns out I didn't even need it! After that, I might cancel cable since I haven't been watching it at all.

Set some 2008 goals: It's been hard to do with so much up in the air.

Well, I feel a little better just writing it all down.....

I feel like I'm being scammed out of my money left and right!

I signed up for cable service online (because I do everything possible online) and followed the clear instructions on the web page to obtain a cable modem before the cable guy came. There was a promotion for a "free" modem, after rebate, which turned out to be about $20 with shipping and tax (after rebates... which are always a bit sketchy to redeem).

Yesterday the cable guy set up my internet and TV, and started installing a cable modem from the company. I said I had one already, and would not be needing to rent one from the cable company (as that is how it often works.) He told me that there was no rental, the modem was part of the service.

I am still fuming about this, a little. (Ok, a lot, if you ask my boyfriend.) Why would they tell me I needed to buy a modem when I didn't? Now I have a modem that put almost $100 on my credit card bill for the month (which I pay off, of course) and two rebate forms to fill out and hope get credited to me. What a hassle!

I looked up the modems on Amazon (I'm not very ebay literate, but i should probably check out ebay too) and I can probably sell my new modem for at least $35, even if I cut off the upc to get the rebate. In theory that is a small profit, but it is a bit of a hassle to do all this.

I'm super annoyed that they convinced me to buy a modem I didn't need!

Also, as mentioned in my last post, I ordered some transcripts from my undergraduate institution. I ordered that two official transcripts be sent to the graduate university I am applying to. Yesterday I received two transcripts at my home address, clearly stamped with "issued to student". I didn't need or want these. I can only assume they didn't send any to the university. Now I have to call them and find out what happened. I hope I don't have to pay $12 to have them do this again!

Last, I sent my laptop in for repair in early December, and they sent it back with a note that the battery had failed. It was still under warranty, so I called them and asked why they didn't replace the battery. They said, "Hmm, I'm not sure! I'll send you a new one!" Which they did, along with a box for me to send the broken battery back in. In the meantime, I moved cross country and the old battery and box are long gone. Vanished! They just sent me a letter requesting that I return the part, or they will bill me for it. I assume a battery is around $100. Ouch.

This battery incident is primarily my fault (though they could have just replaced it when they had my laptop), but still annoying. I can see why they make people send in defective parts, but I'm going to call them and see if there is any flexibility in this policy. I don't have high hopes, but it can't hurt to call, explain the situation, and ask if they really have to bill me for a new battery. I've had mixed results with companies forgiving things like this, but it never hurts to ask.

I am frustrated that my money is disappearing for these things. Granted, they aren't really scams (except maybe the modem promotion), but I'm not getting anything of value out of them.

I went on my first full shopping trip since relocating and moving into my apartment. I looked at the current balance of my grocery bill in horror. How on earth was it at $79 already? And they still were ringing up my order!! The grand total was $95, then they swiped my Ralph's card and it dropped to $70. It is ridiculous that they do that. It is just forcing you to use a grocery card if you want any discounts at all.

Anyway, $70 is still much more than I spend on weekly groceries. About double! Although part of it was because I'm restocking almost everything, it still was a bit excessive. I think my solution will be to make this last two weeks.... so no new groceries until Februrary 12th! I am pretty sure I can do it. When I complain there is no food to eat, I usually mean, there is nothing I feel like cooking and eating.

What on earth did I buy? Well, I won't copy my whole long receipt, but here are some of the more expensive items on the list.
Chicken breast fillets $8.90. I don't usually buy meat, actually. I'm not vegetarian, but I'm not a big fan of meat and I don't really know how to prepare it well.
Frozen Strawberries, huge bag, $8.50 (should last a very long time. For smoothies)
Lunch meat, 2 packages, $5 (much cheaper than buying a sandwhich!)
Peperoni to make English muffin pizza's: $3.50
Lunch cheese: $4.19, I forgot to price shop this I think
I also bought butter, milk, bananas, coffee creamer, 2 boxes of cereal, frozen broccoli and lots of other miscellaneous items.

There were some things on the list I didn't get. I had a frugal recipe that called for ziti, so I set out to the pasta isle. When I didn't find it, I realized I wasn't entirely sure if ziti was pasta at all. Maybe it was a cheese? So I'm back at home, ziti-less and just looked it up. It was pasta after all. I also could not find any muffin mix to make bran muffins. Maybe no one else likes them?

I liked to have a grocery budget of about $120/month, but I may have to up it. We'll see.

My internet and cable aren't being installed until Saturday. Yet here I am, on the internet from the comfort of my own apartment. That's right, I'm mooching off someone else's unsecured connection.

How unethical do you consider this? I know some people who do it regularly as their primary source of internet. I usually do it in situations like this--I don't have legitimate access to the internet, but I have a legitimate desire to be on it!

To be honest, I'm not certain of the security concerns of this. If I'm connected to their network, could they potentially access my computer? I don't think so.

I spent the day settling in to my new apartment. While I filled up my new Ikea dresser, it tipped over and nearly killed me. No worries, the only casualty was a barely noticeable cosmetic piece we are going to try to repair later this week. I listened to NPR all day, and I am pretty sure that once my six month deal runs out for cable, I will be able to do without it. I'm not going to lie, I'll miss some of the absolute crap TV shows that I watch but my life is probably better off without them (example: Real Housewives of Orange County). The shows that I really love (when there isn't a writers strike) are all available online (Office and Grey's).

Internet I couldn't live without.... but could I just mooch off a neighbors connection? I probably wouldn't. Not only because of the moral concerns, but because it may not be reliable and completely secure. What do you think?

This weekend was very very very expensive. I feel like I've said that too many weekends in a row! I purchased a nice big dresser from Ikea, and now have real drawers to put my clothes in! That was a hit of $150, but money well spent. Then I also bought some other random organizing supplies--my closet has a lot of shelving and I want to make it organized and neat. By the time I left Ikea, it was a bill of over $220! What a dangerous store! I didn't even buy everything a needed wanted: more lighting, shoe rack, coat hooks, and some decorations.

I somehow got tricked into taking the boyfriend and I out for sushi. I wasn't exactly tricked, but the sushi was pretty over priced, and that was another $40 out the window, just like that. I asked him how often he thought we should go out to eat, and suggested once a week, and he said maybe less, once every two weeks. That's what he says in theory, but he has suggested eating out several times this week. I don't mind taking us out to eat sometimes. However, I do need him to understand that he can't say one day "Let's save up 150k in three years!" and then the next day say "I need money for the take out!" I was getting a $35 meal stipend while I was in the hotel, however, that meal stipend was my only income for a week and a half!

We wanted to meet up with my boyfriends friend last night, who I hadn't yet met. His friend suggested going out to eat (again!), then suggested just eating at whole foods. So i paid $7 for a sandwich, and then we bought a $13 bottle of wine.

So that is the boring details of my weekend spending. I'm afraid to add those numbers up, but.. $280? Yikes!! Was my life more enjoyable when I didn't feel pain every time I paid $7 for a sandwich? I think I need to loosen up about things and realize it is just money. Not spend more, or not cease to think about purchases. But if a purchase is something I ultimately decided I want to spend (dresser), have to spend (drivers license fee), or am willing to spend to go with the flow (sandwich from whole food), what is the point of getting all worried about it?

I think I get my first paycheck February 7th. To say that I'm anxiously waiting would be an understatement!

I'm in the process of moving into my new apartment. Technically, I've been paying for rent since January 15th (they wouldn't allow me to change my move in date), but I'm still getting set up.

In apartment buildings, you often don't have a choice for your cable television and internet provider. My apartment is serviced by Time Warner, and that is my only choice for TV. I was offered free installation and $30/mo for digital cable and $30/mo for internet for a limited six month period. A cable modem is required, but they had a deal where you could get a "free" modem through rebates. There also is $100 cash back in rebates for new services.

So..... Wow. A lot of rebates involved! The rebates are offered through broadbandoffers.com, which a quick Google search turned up lots of negative reviews. Still, I'm going to file the rebates anyway, get delivery confirmation for a couple bucks, then cross my fingers that they will eventually send my $180 worth of checks. Oh, and "free" didn't include shipping or CA state tax, so it wasn't exactly free, but $20 for a cable modem is reasonable, I suppose.

I think that negative reviews are par for the course when it comes to rebates. If everything goes smoothly with your rebate, you aren't likely to go online and write a happy review. But if something is screwed up, you may go write a bad one. I read a lot of negative reviews about the company I bought my laptop from, but I received the over $200 in rebates. It just took a long time. That isn't to say that mail in rebates aren't a pain in the butt. They are. But I'm optimistic. I was going to sign up for the service anyway, so if they want to give me $100 to do something I already planned on, then great.

To me, $60 seems reasonable and fair for internet and television. I've never had a problem getting fair and reasonable service... for the first six months or year. However, once the promos end, the same service jumps to about $100 a month, which seems high. Besides pulling the personal finance trick of asking for a lower rate, I probably will switch to cheaper internet and drop the cable to get the price down to about $45 a month. With cable, it would still be $80/month, which is pretty expensive to me. Maybe once my promo ends, I can look into options like DirectTV and DSL services, to see if they are viable options.

It seems I can go months on a fairly tight budget, not desiring to spend a lot of money on anything really. I won't go shopping, I won't go out to eat, and I will build wealth fairly effectively.

January has not been one of those months. Part of it is because I'm moving out of my apartment (and city, state, and region!). I've bought several cleaning supplies that I probably could have got by without (or substituted with things I already own). I also bought a new large suitcase and an inexpensive exercise ball. Then I needed a new coffee mug, because mine ceased to be watertight and was spilling. Then a dinner with my friend, because I'm leaving. And some wine for him because he fixed my car speakers for free. And wine for myself, just because. And a magazine too, while I'm there. Oh, and I needed an oil change. And it's been like that, one thing after another, the money just has felt like it is flowing out. And out, and out and out.

It has been, too. I have spent at least $300 in the last couple weeks on non-bill related items. Perhaps more. I'm a little afraid to tally it, though I have a handy pearbudget spreadsheet all set up... The thing is, I knew that I'd be spending more than I make this month due to paying double rent because I'm moving. And due to getting 1 weeks less pay, due to switching jobs. So since I knew that, it seemed like I might as well just buy every cleaning supply I thought I'd need... At least it should help me get my $100 deposit back!

Well, anyway, it's time to tighten up ship again! I pledge to conciously think about each purchase I make for the rest of the month, and only buy things I really need!

My boyfriend compliments me sometimes, saying that I'm good with money. He says that, but once or twice, he has added "but I'm better with it!"

I respectfully disagree with that sentiment. I'm better with money, he's just more stingy. Also, his stingyness comes primarily from the fact that he is a grad student and has a very limited disposable income. In general, he is selectively stingy. Back when he was making a reasonable income, he spent in the range of $3000 for private pilot flying lessons. So he spends less by buying cheap lunch meat and kraft singles, and I buy better stuff. I don't consider that being better with money, I consider that having more money and making choices, not being "worse" with money.

I think when we are married, we'll be able to manage our finances without too much conflict. We are both generally savers, but we are both (generally) willing to spend on certian things we value: for example, travel, occasional good meals, and wine. We should make decent money, and things should be smooth. And if they are not, we both are capable of cheap living.

I hope I get to be in charge of the budgeting and bill paying. I am a control freak and like that sort of thing, but he is a control freak as well. Of course, decision making will be together (which will be an adjustment after years of independence), but there has to be one executer.

I would like us both to be involved in our investment decisions. Since I already have a full time job and he is still in school, I'm a few years ahead of him in investment knowledge. Not that I'm an expert, but I'm at relatively comfortable with the basics. He does have a Roth IRA, but he opened it with a broker. Edward Jones, maybe? I'd need to let him know the virtues of target date funds, indexing, and low fees. Right now, he only has about 2-4k in there (I don't know the details), and I don't know the fees, so it isn't an issue. (Besides the fact we aren't even engaged!)

I think, over the next couple years (or until whenever it is we get married and what is "mine" officially becomes "ours") money might be a slight issue for us due to vast income disparity. If I want us to go out for dinner, I'm going to have to pay for it more often than not. He isn't gonig to demand to be taken out, but he doesn't have the funds to treat me too often. It is sort of something that I have accepted already over the last year and a half of me working and him being a student. It can be frusterating, especially when my my two closest friends from high school (who were students at the time) received coach purses for christmas last year from their signifcant others. I got a nice necklace, which is great, but it would be nice to be spoiled every now and then. Maybe he can spoil me in ways that don't involve spending money.

It has been a hectic few weeks, and I hope to have some serious posts as life returns to normal. However, normalcy probably won't truly settle in for awhile--I'm moving over 2000 miles to a new home this month! Still, vacation mode is over and things should be more normal around here. Here is a round up of my financial status for the past couple weeks.

I spent roughly $410 on Christmas presents

• $60 for my mom: Contributed to a GPS with my sistesr
• $55 for my dad: XM radio subscription
• $25 for my grandparents: Applebees giftcard
• $20 for a drinks for my friends
• $60 each for two of my sisters: Mostly clothes and make-up
• $40 for my boyfriends family (including shipping): A nice blanket and random treats
• $70 for the boyfriend: A nice zip up university sweatshirt he had coveted
• $30 for my sisters boyfriend: Sweatshirt
• $30 for my brother in law: Gift card to best buy
• $20 for my nephew: A baby bible and color book

There was an additional $100 in other random Christmas expenses: Gas to get to my sister's and back, a cheap Christmas day train ticket, and a few meals for me and my sister.

I spent $555 (not including previously purchased $400 plane ticket) on new years eve vacation which lasted about five days. About $100 of it was due to me paying for my boyfriends share of things, since he is a poor grad student and I have a real job, and I wanted him to join us on all activities. Luckily, there was no hotel costs since we stayed in his apartment. (I do not currently live in the same city as him, hence the move.)

• $170 on food
• $125 on car rental and gas
• $200 on alochol and going out (yikes!), including a somewhat pricey New Years Eve
  
• $60 on general entertainment

My net worth increased by about $3000 in December despite all that spending and despite my $500 security deposit for my new place being taken out. Not only did I have my regular paychecks, I had about $5000 in a year end incentive bonus as income. That definitely helped things along. Anyway, I did update my NetworthIQ page, so feel free to click on over for details.

Did I meet my year end goals? What are my new goals? I have to review whether or not I met my 2007 goals. I think I met some of them, but not all. I need to rework my 2008 goals and decide what I want to do financially this year.

The last thing to mention is today's small impulse buy. In a spur of the moment decision, I raced to Walmart and picked up a humidifier and cold medicine at about 11:00 pm tonight. Yes, I'm a little sick. The humidifier was only about $25, but I obviously did not buy quality, nor did I research the best deals. I also sort of dislike Walmart, but nothing else was open and I felt really crappy. Now, time for bed, as it is back to work tomorrow for my last few days.

I went out and about today and completed the majority of my Christmas shopping. I picked out a really cute sweater/shrug and tank top for my sister and bought one in another color for myself as well. I usually never pay full price for my clothes from stores like Express, and I feel horribly guilty about it. Anyway, I went back the store and returned one sweater, but with the idea that I'd come back and buy it with the coupon they awarded me (which isn't valid until tomorrow).

Now I'm having doubts. First, I really should return the tank top because it is over priced, even for a gift. Second, I shouldn't buy myself a set. Should I? If I buy myself a set, it'll cost $135 for both of us, so about $68 each. Or I could spend $80 total (what I currently have spent) and not buy myself one. Though the "gift" budget was only supposed to be $50 for sisters. Or I could spend $105 and get two sweaters but only one tank top.

I obviously do not need the sweater. I recently got to buy some clothes from H&M using a gift card I received for my birthday. On the other hand, I rarely buy myself new clothes, and when I do I don't buy anything over $30 usually. I think in my head, "I deserve this! I got a big bonus this year and haven't spent any of it on myself." Which is true. . . But that doesn't mean I need to buy this. Perhaps I would get more enjoyment out of saving the $68. Or spending it on something else. I am going on a nice new years vacation where plenty of spending will happen. I also have a hair appointment tomorrow, which usually runs me about $110 (including tip) if I don't get my eyebrows waxed...

I think I'm going to punch in my numbers for December spending so far, and from there decide if I should keep it or not...

Do any of you agonize so much over an $80 purchase??

Here is my sketched out plan for 2008. I'm moving to an expensive city, but I took the difference of the salary and the rent increase, and I'm coming out a little ahead. Of course, there are other factors.... Anyway, savings are blue, if you can see the different colors.


This doesn't include a signing bonus or any leftover relocation perks, but those will just go automatically into savings and other initial costs of starting over (apartment deposit, etc.)

I'm not sure if I really will only spend 200 on groceries and 100 on restaurants, but I'm sure going to make an effort. I also have to start paying my own car insurance and secure renters insurance. I have no idea what the cost for those will be, but I allowed 100/month. I have $200 of unbudgeted money monthly, and $100 for entertainment--I really spend very little on entertainment currently, so we'll see.

Ah, I love planning. Or perhaps I'm really just procrastinating on finishing up my take home final for my graduate class.

I was hoping to wait until 2008 to talk about my goals and plans for 2008. However, I'm a planner to the extreme and I can't help myself from starting now.

There are a lot of unknowns in the first part of next year. I'm moving to a new city with expensive rent. While I have one job offer, I'm waiting on the one that I want more (tomorrow? Very soon!) so I'm not sure what my salary will be. Still, no matter what, there are some goals I can set right away, and adjust as needed.

First, I want to max out my Roth IRA again. That is about $415 a month of post tax money to be directed into savings immediately. In my first year and a half of working, I've already saved about $20k in retirement accounts. As my salary increases, I'll be able to contribute more each year. I think I'm on track to have a comfortable retirement. I have a vague idea of retiring early, but still am not ready to make a plan for that goal.

In that same vein, I want to contribute at least 10% to my 401k. This is pretty painless and will get me a full match of (probably) 6% total from my company. Based on my first job offer, that will mean I'll save about $15000 in 2008 for retirement. If I feel that I can afford it, this will be increased, with a stretch goal of 15% towards 401k.

I also want to pay a little extra to my student loan account. My goal is only going to be $1000 extra this year. I'm required to pay about $1500. In 2007 my goal was $4000 total. This is really cheap money so paying it off is more for the mental benefits. That means my month payment will increase to $215, though I'll likely pay it in chunks rather than automatically every month. If any of my goals are faltering, this will be the first to go, as it is the least cost effective.

Next, I want to continue (but decrease) to auto-contributions to my emergency fund, and really turn it into an emergency fund. I have a general purpose high yield savings account which is my efund, but I don't treat it as an efund. It's just a savings account with a continually increasing balance. I think contributing $50/week to this account will be sufficient. I pretty much grew it to 10k from scratch this year, so it is a big decrease. I'm excited to have a base fund so I can focus on other goals.

Now... the "boring" goals are out of the way!

For my fun goals, I want to add $25/week to my "travel" fund. If I have extra money, I'll increase this amount, but it is a start. I have a travel fund earmarked, but it has had really stagnant growth. I also want to start saving up for a newer car. My car has about 75k miles on it and will last another couple years... but I need to start building up some money to purchase my next one. I want to pay for my next car in cash, and I will be spending at least 10k, maybe more. If my budget works out, I'd like to save $100/week for this, giving me just over 5k by the end of the year.

So that is it! These goals will be tweaked once I'm settled into my new apartment, new city, and new job.

In unrelated news, they are announcing who replaces my current manager at work today. I hope they promote from within the group and that Bryan is it. I think that he would have the job if he wanted it, but I'm not sure he is interested in management.

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'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!

So, you aren't supposed to keep score in relationships. Still, I can't help it sometimes.

My boyfriend is a poor poor grad student who makes less than half of what I do (stipend). My savings is going up, his is staying flat at best. Naturally, I don't expect him to spend much on us. He is content with not going out to eat much and living quite cheaply, which is great for us in the long run because I'm fairly frugal too. We should never have problems living within our means. Still, sometimes I want treats, so I provide them for us.

This weekend (starting on Thursday) I paid for:
Pizza: $13, a good deal though, for 3 medium pizza's that fed us almost all weekend. I will say nothing about the healthfulness of it...
Sam Adam's White Ale: $14
Lunch at Ikea: $11 (though my fault, since we wouldn't have otherwise been at Ikea and he was helping me pick out and build stuff)
Random Food that we ate: Coffee, cereal, milk, juice, burritos from Trader Joe's.... Plus he made a smoothie that neither of us really needed/wanted (which was much to thick) with my frozen strawberries right before dinner for no logical reason!

Also, he doesn't have a car, so I'm always driving and using my gas. And he definitely ate/drank more of all that stuff than I did.

It isn't that I'm not generous with this kind of thing. I am actually quite generous: "Thanks for coming to Ikea... do you want to stop at the cafe? How about this Mango Sorbet too, that looks delicious!" Then I do my budget, see that I want to save more, then regret my generosity. Ooops.

Then again, how petty is it for me to quibble about $37 spent on "us" when i spent about $200 on me and my apartment at Ikea? It is hard to justify that.

I guess it's the principle rather than the dollar amount. When we stopped at the store to buy juice (potentially for future smoothies or to mix in drinks), he could have paid for it. It was only about $3, so it makes no difference in the scheme of things, but it makes me feel a little less like I'm being taken advantage of. I know that really isn't the case... I offer to do all these things and he would be fine if I stopped. Sometimes I can't help but be bothered by it though.

I guess I need to be careful with my generosity, and really think about it before I offer to pay for things for "us". I need to make sure I won't regret it. Spending money doesn't show love (though, I can't help but think it does, at least a little). I think (hope) that my attitude would be different if we were engaged/married and money spent on us was truly ours and not mine/his. I also think his attitude would be a little different as well. But it just isn't like that right now. It is my money, and if I'm going to share it, I need to make sure I'm sharing it within my budget.

I get paid tomorrow (yes, on Thursdays) and finally was able to view my paycheck online. Though I only am being paid for 40 hrs instead of 80 this period, they did process my signing bonus in the first check (yes!) so I finally have some money to work with. They got all my direct deposit stuff set up in time (nice work!). I have it split between three different accounts, checking, short term savings (insurance, travel, car) and a long term savings (e-fund, maybe house/condo fund one day). I still may have to transfer between these, but this should minimize that. Make savings automatic!

I'm still not ready to finalize a budget, as I'm not certain what my take home pay will be. I tried to figure out exactly how much I'll be paying in taxes each month by taking total taxes paid divided by total gross pay in this check. I came up with about a 39% tax rate! Yikes, that can't be right! Google tells me that taxes on bonuses, while calculated as normal income, are withheld at a different rate, up to 40%. Well, that makes more sense! Good to know.

Is it logical to just use 25%, my marginal tax rate? Then again, what about FICA, Social Security, etc? If I do that, I come up with about $1700 after 401k and medical or $1500 if I go all the way up to 20% in my 401k. It isn't likely I can live off the $3000/month, at least not if I want to grow my cash savings. Though the way some people dream about buying a house, I dream about maxing out my 401k....

My 401k still isn't ready for me to enroll. I hate when systems are not automated enough. My last job I could enroll in my 401k on the first day (through Fidelity). It has been a full week and CitiStreet still isn't recognizing my user ID. When I called the number to ask if this was normal, I was told "Please listen carefully as options have recently changed." Then, there was a single ring, then silence. More silence. I was never given any options! I hung up and tried again, only to have it happen again. I pressed all the numbers and was directed to an operator who could not help me unless I "went through the system and entered my PIN" (which I did!). He suggested waiting another week, or trying the number again. Lame.

I was going to go hang out with the boyfriend tonight, but I think I'll cancel. He has a lot of school work, and I have needed to do laundry for at least a week. This will give me time to start working on yesterdays to-do list. First up, taxes!

I have some major financial housekeeping to do within the next month (or maybe two months). With switching jobs and moving 2000 miles, I feel like everything is a mess! It is time for some clean-up.

Taxes: Self explanatory! I did start them on TaxAct, but got distracted.

Retirement Accounts:
Well, first, I assign myself some homework. I've had "Random Walk Guide to Investing" hanging out on my bookshelf for months. I need to read it. I also want to re-read Jonathan's series at MyMoneyBlog.com about asset allocation, and look for other good internet information. I need to consider rolling over my old 401k to an IRA or even to a Roth IRA. I want to at least consider moving my Roth from Fidelity to Vanguard. I need to get enrolled in my new 401k ASAP, and contribute at least 8% to get the match.

Emergency fund: I want to get it back up to 10k, then evaluate if I need to increase it further due to increased costs. It briefly hit 10k before Christmas, but has dwindled to just over 7k (!) in the move process. Well, 1k went to the Roth to kick off 2008 so it isn't so bad. This should easily be taken care of if I simply apply the relocation allowance and signing bonus. Also, I want to investigate moving it from HSBC to something better.

Actually implement plan to buy car insurance. I have to do this soon, because I have get my car registered in my new state. It's just... I recently designated an ING accout to save up for bi-yearly insurance purchases... but so far I've only stuck $25 in it! Ug.

Figure out a reasonable budget. Having scaled back income and paying two rents for a month has totally messed with my head. I have no idea what I can afford, what is a splurge, and what I absolutely shouldn't be buying. So I'm just guessing. . .

Rebates, rebates, rebates: I need to send in rebates for my cable service, my internet service ($50 each), and for my modem (about $80). Then I need to sell my modem online, since it turns out I didn't even need it! After that, I might cancel cable since I haven't been watching it at all.

Set some 2008 goals: It's been hard to do with so much up in the air.

Well, I feel a little better just writing it all down.....

I feel like I'm being scammed out of my money left and right!

I signed up for cable service online (because I do everything possible online) and followed the clear instructions on the web page to obtain a cable modem before the cable guy came. There was a promotion for a "free" modem, after rebate, which turned out to be about $20 with shipping and tax (after rebates... which are always a bit sketchy to redeem).

Yesterday the cable guy set up my internet and TV, and started installing a cable modem from the company. I said I had one already, and would not be needing to rent one from the cable company (as that is how it often works.) He told me that there was no rental, the modem was part of the service.

I am still fuming about this, a little. (Ok, a lot, if you ask my boyfriend.) Why would they tell me I needed to buy a modem when I didn't? Now I have a modem that put almost $100 on my credit card bill for the month (which I pay off, of course) and two rebate forms to fill out and hope get credited to me. What a hassle!

I looked up the modems on Amazon (I'm not very ebay literate, but i should probably check out ebay too) and I can probably sell my new modem for at least $35, even if I cut off the upc to get the rebate. In theory that is a small profit, but it is a bit of a hassle to do all this.

I'm super annoyed that they convinced me to buy a modem I didn't need!

Also, as mentioned in my last post, I ordered some transcripts from my undergraduate institution. I ordered that two official transcripts be sent to the graduate university I am applying to. Yesterday I received two transcripts at my home address, clearly stamped with "issued to student". I didn't need or want these. I can only assume they didn't send any to the university. Now I have to call them and find out what happened. I hope I don't have to pay $12 to have them do this again!

Last, I sent my laptop in for repair in early December, and they sent it back with a note that the battery had failed. It was still under warranty, so I called them and asked why they didn't replace the battery. They said, "Hmm, I'm not sure! I'll send you a new one!" Which they did, along with a box for me to send the broken battery back in. In the meantime, I moved cross country and the old battery and box are long gone. Vanished! They just sent me a letter requesting that I return the part, or they will bill me for it. I assume a battery is around $100. Ouch.

This battery incident is primarily my fault (though they could have just replaced it when they had my laptop), but still annoying. I can see why they make people send in defective parts, but I'm going to call them and see if there is any flexibility in this policy. I don't have high hopes, but it can't hurt to call, explain the situation, and ask if they really have to bill me for a new battery. I've had mixed results with companies forgiving things like this, but it never hurts to ask.

I am frustrated that my money is disappearing for these things. Granted, they aren't really scams (except maybe the modem promotion), but I'm not getting anything of value out of them.

I went on my first full shopping trip since relocating and moving into my apartment. I looked at the current balance of my grocery bill in horror. How on earth was it at $79 already? And they still were ringing up my order!! The grand total was $95, then they swiped my Ralph's card and it dropped to $70. It is ridiculous that they do that. It is just forcing you to use a grocery card if you want any discounts at all.

Anyway, $70 is still much more than I spend on weekly groceries. About double! Although part of it was because I'm restocking almost everything, it still was a bit excessive. I think my solution will be to make this last two weeks.... so no new groceries until Februrary 12th! I am pretty sure I can do it. When I complain there is no food to eat, I usually mean, there is nothing I feel like cooking and eating.

What on earth did I buy? Well, I won't copy my whole long receipt, but here are some of the more expensive items on the list.
Chicken breast fillets $8.90. I don't usually buy meat, actually. I'm not vegetarian, but I'm not a big fan of meat and I don't really know how to prepare it well.
Frozen Strawberries, huge bag, $8.50 (should last a very long time. For smoothies)
Lunch meat, 2 packages, $5 (much cheaper than buying a sandwhich!)
Peperoni to make English muffin pizza's: $3.50
Lunch cheese: $4.19, I forgot to price shop this I think
I also bought butter, milk, bananas, coffee creamer, 2 boxes of cereal, frozen broccoli and lots of other miscellaneous items.

There were some things on the list I didn't get. I had a frugal recipe that called for ziti, so I set out to the pasta isle. When I didn't find it, I realized I wasn't entirely sure if ziti was pasta at all. Maybe it was a cheese? So I'm back at home, ziti-less and just looked it up. It was pasta after all. I also could not find any muffin mix to make bran muffins. Maybe no one else likes them?

I liked to have a grocery budget of about $120/month, but I may have to up it. We'll see.

My internet and cable aren't being installed until Saturday. Yet here I am, on the internet from the comfort of my own apartment. That's right, I'm mooching off someone else's unsecured connection.

How unethical do you consider this? I know some people who do it regularly as their primary source of internet. I usually do it in situations like this--I don't have legitimate access to the internet, but I have a legitimate desire to be on it!

To be honest, I'm not certain of the security concerns of this. If I'm connected to their network, could they potentially access my computer? I don't think so.

I spent the day settling in to my new apartment. While I filled up my new Ikea dresser, it tipped over and nearly killed me. No worries, the only casualty was a barely noticeable cosmetic piece we are going to try to repair later this week. I listened to NPR all day, and I am pretty sure that once my six month deal runs out for cable, I will be able to do without it. I'm not going to lie, I'll miss some of the absolute crap TV shows that I watch but my life is probably better off without them (example: Real Housewives of Orange County). The shows that I really love (when there isn't a writers strike) are all available online (Office and Grey's).

Internet I couldn't live without.... but could I just mooch off a neighbors connection? I probably wouldn't. Not only because of the moral concerns, but because it may not be reliable and completely secure. What do you think?

This weekend was very very very expensive. I feel like I've said that too many weekends in a row! I purchased a nice big dresser from Ikea, and now have real drawers to put my clothes in! That was a hit of $150, but money well spent. Then I also bought some other random organizing supplies--my closet has a lot of shelving and I want to make it organized and neat. By the time I left Ikea, it was a bill of over $220! What a dangerous store! I didn't even buy everything a needed wanted: more lighting, shoe rack, coat hooks, and some decorations.

I somehow got tricked into taking the boyfriend and I out for sushi. I wasn't exactly tricked, but the sushi was pretty over priced, and that was another $40 out the window, just like that. I asked him how often he thought we should go out to eat, and suggested once a week, and he said maybe less, once every two weeks. That's what he says in theory, but he has suggested eating out several times this week. I don't mind taking us out to eat sometimes. However, I do need him to understand that he can't say one day "Let's save up 150k in three years!" and then the next day say "I need money for the take out!" I was getting a $35 meal stipend while I was in the hotel, however, that meal stipend was my only income for a week and a half!

We wanted to meet up with my boyfriends friend last night, who I hadn't yet met. His friend suggested going out to eat (again!), then suggested just eating at whole foods. So i paid $7 for a sandwich, and then we bought a $13 bottle of wine.

So that is the boring details of my weekend spending. I'm afraid to add those numbers up, but.. $280? Yikes!! Was my life more enjoyable when I didn't feel pain every time I paid $7 for a sandwich? I think I need to loosen up about things and realize it is just money. Not spend more, or not cease to think about purchases. But if a purchase is something I ultimately decided I want to spend (dresser), have to spend (drivers license fee), or am willing to spend to go with the flow (sandwich from whole food), what is the point of getting all worried about it?

I think I get my first paycheck February 7th. To say that I'm anxiously waiting would be an understatement!

I'm in the process of moving into my new apartment. Technically, I've been paying for rent since January 15th (they wouldn't allow me to change my move in date), but I'm still getting set up.

In apartment buildings, you often don't have a choice for your cable television and internet provider. My apartment is serviced by Time Warner, and that is my only choice for TV. I was offered free installation and $30/mo for digital cable and $30/mo for internet for a limited six month period. A cable modem is required, but they had a deal where you could get a "free" modem through rebates. There also is $100 cash back in rebates for new services.

So..... Wow. A lot of rebates involved! The rebates are offered through broadbandoffers.com, which a quick Google search turned up lots of negative reviews. Still, I'm going to file the rebates anyway, get delivery confirmation for a couple bucks, then cross my fingers that they will eventually send my $180 worth of checks. Oh, and "free" didn't include shipping or CA state tax, so it wasn't exactly free, but $20 for a cable modem is reasonable, I suppose.

I think that negative reviews are par for the course when it comes to rebates. If everything goes smoothly with your rebate, you aren't likely to go online and write a happy review. But if something is screwed up, you may go write a bad one. I read a lot of negative reviews about the company I bought my laptop from, but I received the over $200 in rebates. It just took a long time. That isn't to say that mail in rebates aren't a pain in the butt. They are. But I'm optimistic. I was going to sign up for the service anyway, so if they want to give me $100 to do something I already planned on, then great.

To me, $60 seems reasonable and fair for internet and television. I've never had a problem getting fair and reasonable service... for the first six months or year. However, once the promos end, the same service jumps to about $100 a month, which seems high. Besides pulling the personal finance trick of asking for a lower rate, I probably will switch to cheaper internet and drop the cable to get the price down to about $45 a month. With cable, it would still be $80/month, which is pretty expensive to me. Maybe once my promo ends, I can look into options like DirectTV and DSL services, to see if they are viable options.

It seems I can go months on a fairly tight budget, not desiring to spend a lot of money on anything really. I won't go shopping, I won't go out to eat, and I will build wealth fairly effectively.

January has not been one of those months. Part of it is because I'm moving out of my apartment (and city, state, and region!). I've bought several cleaning supplies that I probably could have got by without (or substituted with things I already own). I also bought a new large suitcase and an inexpensive exercise ball. Then I needed a new coffee mug, because mine ceased to be watertight and was spilling. Then a dinner with my friend, because I'm leaving. And some wine for him because he fixed my car speakers for free. And wine for myself, just because. And a magazine too, while I'm there. Oh, and I needed an oil change. And it's been like that, one thing after another, the money just has felt like it is flowing out. And out, and out and out.

It has been, too. I have spent at least $300 in the last couple weeks on non-bill related items. Perhaps more. I'm a little afraid to tally it, though I have a handy pearbudget spreadsheet all set up... The thing is, I knew that I'd be spending more than I make this month due to paying double rent because I'm moving. And due to getting 1 weeks less pay, due to switching jobs. So since I knew that, it seemed like I might as well just buy every cleaning supply I thought I'd need... At least it should help me get my $100 deposit back!

Well, anyway, it's time to tighten up ship again! I pledge to conciously think about each purchase I make for the rest of the month, and only buy things I really need!

My boyfriend compliments me sometimes, saying that I'm good with money. He says that, but once or twice, he has added "but I'm better with it!"

I respectfully disagree with that sentiment. I'm better with money, he's just more stingy. Also, his stingyness comes primarily from the fact that he is a grad student and has a very limited disposable income. In general, he is selectively stingy. Back when he was making a reasonable income, he spent in the range of $3000 for private pilot flying lessons. So he spends less by buying cheap lunch meat and kraft singles, and I buy better stuff. I don't consider that being better with money, I consider that having more money and making choices, not being "worse" with money.

I think when we are married, we'll be able to manage our finances without too much conflict. We are both generally savers, but we are both (generally) willing to spend on certian things we value: for example, travel, occasional good meals, and wine. We should make decent money, and things should be smooth. And if they are not, we both are capable of cheap living.

I hope I get to be in charge of the budgeting and bill paying. I am a control freak and like that sort of thing, but he is a control freak as well. Of course, decision making will be together (which will be an adjustment after years of independence), but there has to be one executer.

I would like us both to be involved in our investment decisions. Since I already have a full time job and he is still in school, I'm a few years ahead of him in investment knowledge. Not that I'm an expert, but I'm at relatively comfortable with the basics. He does have a Roth IRA, but he opened it with a broker. Edward Jones, maybe? I'd need to let him know the virtues of target date funds, indexing, and low fees. Right now, he only has about 2-4k in there (I don't know the details), and I don't know the fees, so it isn't an issue. (Besides the fact we aren't even engaged!)

I think, over the next couple years (or until whenever it is we get married and what is "mine" officially becomes "ours") money might be a slight issue for us due to vast income disparity. If I want us to go out for dinner, I'm going to have to pay for it more often than not. He isn't gonig to demand to be taken out, but he doesn't have the funds to treat me too often. It is sort of something that I have accepted already over the last year and a half of me working and him being a student. It can be frusterating, especially when my my two closest friends from high school (who were students at the time) received coach purses for christmas last year from their signifcant others. I got a nice necklace, which is great, but it would be nice to be spoiled every now and then. Maybe he can spoil me in ways that don't involve spending money.

It has been a hectic few weeks, and I hope to have some serious posts as life returns to normal. However, normalcy probably won't truly settle in for awhile--I'm moving over 2000 miles to a new home this month! Still, vacation mode is over and things should be more normal around here. Here is a round up of my financial status for the past couple weeks.

I spent roughly $410 on Christmas presents

• $60 for my mom: Contributed to a GPS with my sistesr
• $55 for my dad: XM radio subscription
• $25 for my grandparents: Applebees giftcard
• $20 for a drinks for my friends
• $60 each for two of my sisters: Mostly clothes and make-up
• $40 for my boyfriends family (including shipping): A nice blanket and random treats
• $70 for the boyfriend: A nice zip up university sweatshirt he had coveted
• $30 for my sisters boyfriend: Sweatshirt
• $30 for my brother in law: Gift card to best buy
• $20 for my nephew: A baby bible and color book

There was an additional $100 in other random Christmas expenses: Gas to get to my sister's and back, a cheap Christmas day train ticket, and a few meals for me and my sister.

I spent $555 (not including previously purchased $400 plane ticket) on new years eve vacation which lasted about five days. About $100 of it was due to me paying for my boyfriends share of things, since he is a poor grad student and I have a real job, and I wanted him to join us on all activities. Luckily, there was no hotel costs since we stayed in his apartment. (I do not currently live in the same city as him, hence the move.)

• $170 on food
• $125 on car rental and gas
• $200 on alochol and going out (yikes!), including a somewhat pricey New Years Eve
  
• $60 on general entertainment

My net worth increased by about $3000 in December despite all that spending and despite my $500 security deposit for my new place being taken out. Not only did I have my regular paychecks, I had about $5000 in a year end incentive bonus as income. That definitely helped things along. Anyway, I did update my NetworthIQ page, so feel free to click on over for details.

Did I meet my year end goals? What are my new goals? I have to review whether or not I met my 2007 goals. I think I met some of them, but not all. I need to rework my 2008 goals and decide what I want to do financially this year.

The last thing to mention is today's small impulse buy. In a spur of the moment decision, I raced to Walmart and picked up a humidifier and cold medicine at about 11:00 pm tonight. Yes, I'm a little sick. The humidifier was only about $25, but I obviously did not buy quality, nor did I research the best deals. I also sort of dislike Walmart, but nothing else was open and I felt really crappy. Now, time for bed, as it is back to work tomorrow for my last few days.

I went out and about today and completed the majority of my Christmas shopping. I picked out a really cute sweater/shrug and tank top for my sister and bought one in another color for myself as well. I usually never pay full price for my clothes from stores like Express, and I feel horribly guilty about it. Anyway, I went back the store and returned one sweater, but with the idea that I'd come back and buy it with the coupon they awarded me (which isn't valid until tomorrow).

Now I'm having doubts. First, I really should return the tank top because it is over priced, even for a gift. Second, I shouldn't buy myself a set. Should I? If I buy myself a set, it'll cost $135 for both of us, so about $68 each. Or I could spend $80 total (what I currently have spent) and not buy myself one. Though the "gift" budget was only supposed to be $50 for sisters. Or I could spend $105 and get two sweaters but only one tank top.

I obviously do not need the sweater. I recently got to buy some clothes from H&M using a gift card I received for my birthday. On the other hand, I rarely buy myself new clothes, and when I do I don't buy anything over $30 usually. I think in my head, "I deserve this! I got a big bonus this year and haven't spent any of it on myself." Which is true. . . But that doesn't mean I need to buy this. Perhaps I would get more enjoyment out of saving the $68. Or spending it on something else. I am going on a nice new years vacation where plenty of spending will happen. I also have a hair appointment tomorrow, which usually runs me about $110 (including tip) if I don't get my eyebrows waxed...

I think I'm going to punch in my numbers for December spending so far, and from there decide if I should keep it or not...

Do any of you agonize so much over an $80 purchase??

Here is my sketched out plan for 2008. I'm moving to an expensive city, but I took the difference of the salary and the rent increase, and I'm coming out a little ahead. Of course, there are other factors.... Anyway, savings are blue, if you can see the different colors.


This doesn't include a signing bonus or any leftover relocation perks, but those will just go automatically into savings and other initial costs of starting over (apartment deposit, etc.)

I'm not sure if I really will only spend 200 on groceries and 100 on restaurants, but I'm sure going to make an effort. I also have to start paying my own car insurance and secure renters insurance. I have no idea what the cost for those will be, but I allowed 100/month. I have $200 of unbudgeted money monthly, and $100 for entertainment--I really spend very little on entertainment currently, so we'll see.

Ah, I love planning. Or perhaps I'm really just procrastinating on finishing up my take home final for my graduate class.

I was hoping to wait until 2008 to talk about my goals and plans for 2008. However, I'm a planner to the extreme and I can't help myself from starting now.

There are a lot of unknowns in the first part of next year. I'm moving to a new city with expensive rent. While I have one job offer, I'm waiting on the one that I want more (tomorrow? Very soon!) so I'm not sure what my salary will be. Still, no matter what, there are some goals I can set right away, and adjust as needed.

First, I want to max out my Roth IRA again. That is about $415 a month of post tax money to be directed into savings immediately. In my first year and a half of working, I've already saved about $20k in retirement accounts. As my salary increases, I'll be able to contribute more each year. I think I'm on track to have a comfortable retirement. I have a vague idea of retiring early, but still am not ready to make a plan for that goal.

In that same vein, I want to contribute at least 10% to my 401k. This is pretty painless and will get me a full match of (probably) 6% total from my company. Based on my first job offer, that will mean I'll save about $15000 in 2008 for retirement. If I feel that I can afford it, this will be increased, with a stretch goal of 15% towards 401k.

I also want to pay a little extra to my student loan account. My goal is only going to be $1000 extra this year. I'm required to pay about $1500. In 2007 my goal was $4000 total. This is really cheap money so paying it off is more for the mental benefits. That means my month payment will increase to $215, though I'll likely pay it in chunks rather than automatically every month. If any of my goals are faltering, this will be the first to go, as it is the least cost effective.

Next, I want to continue (but decrease) to auto-contributions to my emergency fund, and really turn it into an emergency fund. I have a general purpose high yield savings account which is my efund, but I don't treat it as an efund. It's just a savings account with a continually increasing balance. I think contributing $50/week to this account will be sufficient. I pretty much grew it to 10k from scratch this year, so it is a big decrease. I'm excited to have a base fund so I can focus on other goals.

Now... the "boring" goals are out of the way!

For my fun goals, I want to add $25/week to my "travel" fund. If I have extra money, I'll increase this amount, but it is a start. I have a travel fund earmarked, but it has had really stagnant growth. I also want to start saving up for a newer car. My car has about 75k miles on it and will last another couple years... but I need to start building up some money to purchase my next one. I want to pay for my next car in cash, and I will be spending at least 10k, maybe more. If my budget works out, I'd like to save $100/week for this, giving me just over 5k by the end of the year.

So that is it! These goals will be tweaked once I'm settled into my new apartment, new city, and new job.

In unrelated news, they are announcing who replaces my current manager at work today. I hope they promote from within the group and that Bryan is it. I think that he would have the job if he wanted it, but I'm not sure he is interested in management.

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'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!

So, you aren't supposed to keep score in relationships. Still, I can't help it sometimes.

My boyfriend is a poor poor grad student who makes less than half of what I do (stipend). My savings is going up, his is staying flat at best. Naturally, I don't expect him to spend much on us. He is content with not going out to eat much and living quite cheaply, which is great for us in the long run because I'm fairly frugal too. We should never have problems living within our means. Still, sometimes I want treats, so I provide them for us.

This weekend (starting on Thursday) I paid for:
Pizza: $13, a good deal though, for 3 medium pizza's that fed us almost all weekend. I will say nothing about the healthfulness of it...
Sam Adam's White Ale: $14
Lunch at Ikea: $11 (though my fault, since we wouldn't have otherwise been at Ikea and he was helping me pick out and build stuff)
Random Food that we ate: Coffee, cereal, milk, juice, burritos from Trader Joe's.... Plus he made a smoothie that neither of us really needed/wanted (which was much to thick) with my frozen strawberries right before dinner for no logical reason!

Also, he doesn't have a car, so I'm always driving and using my gas. And he definitely ate/drank more of all that stuff than I did.

It isn't that I'm not generous with this kind of thing. I am actually quite generous: "Thanks for coming to Ikea... do you want to stop at the cafe? How about this Mango Sorbet too, that looks delicious!" Then I do my budget, see that I want to save more, then regret my generosity. Ooops.

Then again, how petty is it for me to quibble about $37 spent on "us" when i spent about $200 on me and my apartment at Ikea? It is hard to justify that.

I guess it's the principle rather than the dollar amount. When we stopped at the store to buy juice (potentially for future smoothies or to mix in drinks), he could have paid for it. It was only about $3, so it makes no difference in the scheme of things, but it makes me feel a little less like I'm being taken advantage of. I know that really isn't the case... I offer to do all these things and he would be fine if I stopped. Sometimes I can't help but be bothered by it though.

I guess I need to be careful with my generosity, and really think about it before I offer to pay for things for "us". I need to make sure I won't regret it. Spending money doesn't show love (though, I can't help but think it does, at least a little). I think (hope) that my attitude would be different if we were engaged/married and money spent on us was truly ours and not mine/his. I also think his attitude would be a little different as well. But it just isn't like that right now. It is my money, and if I'm going to share it, I need to make sure I'm sharing it within my budget.

I get paid tomorrow (yes, on Thursdays) and finally was able to view my paycheck online. Though I only am being paid for 40 hrs instead of 80 this period, they did process my signing bonus in the first check (yes!) so I finally have some money to work with. They got all my direct deposit stuff set up in time (nice work!). I have it split between three different accounts, checking, short term savings (insurance, travel, car) and a long term savings (e-fund, maybe house/condo fund one day). I still may have to transfer between these, but this should minimize that. Make savings automatic!

I'm still not ready to finalize a budget, as I'm not certain what my take home pay will be. I tried to figure out exactly how much I'll be paying in taxes each month by taking total taxes paid divided by total gross pay in this check. I came up with about a 39% tax rate! Yikes, that can't be right! Google tells me that taxes on bonuses, while calculated as normal income, are withheld at a different rate, up to 40%. Well, that makes more sense! Good to know.

Is it logical to just use 25%, my marginal tax rate? Then again, what about FICA, Social Security, etc? If I do that, I come up with about $1700 after 401k and medical or $1500 if I go all the way up to 20% in my 401k. It isn't likely I can live off the $3000/month, at least not if I want to grow my cash savings. Though the way some people dream about buying a house, I dream about maxing out my 401k....

My 401k still isn't ready for me to enroll. I hate when systems are not automated enough. My last job I could enroll in my 401k on the first day (through Fidelity). It has been a full week and CitiStreet still isn't recognizing my user ID. When I called the number to ask if this was normal, I was told "Please listen carefully as options have recently changed." Then, there was a single ring, then silence. More silence. I was never given any options! I hung up and tried again, only to have it happen again. I pressed all the numbers and was directed to an operator who could not help me unless I "went through the system and entered my PIN" (which I did!). He suggested waiting another week, or trying the number again. Lame.

I was going to go hang out with the boyfriend tonight, but I think I'll cancel. He has a lot of school work, and I have needed to do laundry for at least a week. This will give me time to start working on yesterdays to-do list. First up, taxes!

I have some major financial housekeeping to do within the next month (or maybe two months). With switching jobs and moving 2000 miles, I feel like everything is a mess! It is time for some clean-up.

Taxes: Self explanatory! I did start them on TaxAct, but got distracted.

Retirement Accounts:
Well, first, I assign myself some homework. I've had "Random Walk Guide to Investing" hanging out on my bookshelf for months. I need to read it. I also want to re-read Jonathan's series at MyMoneyBlog.com about asset allocation, and look for other good internet information. I need to consider rolling over my old 401k to an IRA or even to a Roth IRA. I want to at least consider moving my Roth from Fidelity to Vanguard. I need to get enrolled in my new 401k ASAP, and contribute at least 8% to get the match.

Emergency fund: I want to get it back up to 10k, then evaluate if I need to increase it further due to increased costs. It briefly hit 10k before Christmas, but has dwindled to just over 7k (!) in the move process. Well, 1k went to the Roth to kick off 2008 so it isn't so bad. This should easily be taken care of if I simply apply the relocation allowance and signing bonus. Also, I want to investigate moving it from HSBC to something better.

Actually implement plan to buy car insurance. I have to do this soon, because I have get my car registered in my new state. It's just... I recently designated an ING accout to save up for bi-yearly insurance purchases... but so far I've only stuck $25 in it! Ug.

Figure out a reasonable budget. Having scaled back income and paying two rents for a month has totally messed with my head. I have no idea what I can afford, what is a splurge, and what I absolutely shouldn't be buying. So I'm just guessing. . .

Rebates, rebates, rebates: I need to send in rebates for my cable service, my internet service ($50 each), and for my modem (about $80). Then I need to sell my modem online, since it turns out I didn't even need it! After that, I might cancel cable since I haven't been watching it at all.

Set some 2008 goals: It's been hard to do with so much up in the air.

Well, I feel a little better just writing it all down.....

I feel like I'm being scammed out of my money left and right!

I signed up for cable service online (because I do everything possible online) and followed the clear instructions on the web page to obtain a cable modem before the cable guy came. There was a promotion for a "free" modem, after rebate, which turned out to be about $20 with shipping and tax (after rebates... which are always a bit sketchy to redeem).

Yesterday the cable guy set up my internet and TV, and started installing a cable modem from the company. I said I had one already, and would not be needing to rent one from the cable company (as that is how it often works.) He told me that there was no rental, the modem was part of the service.

I am still fuming about this, a little. (Ok, a lot, if you ask my boyfriend.) Why would they tell me I needed to buy a modem when I didn't? Now I have a modem that put almost $100 on my credit card bill for the month (which I pay off, of course) and two rebate forms to fill out and hope get credited to me. What a hassle!

I looked up the modems on Amazon (I'm not very ebay literate, but i should probably check out ebay too) and I can probably sell my new modem for at least $35, even if I cut off the upc to get the rebate. In theory that is a small profit, but it is a bit of a hassle to do all this.

I'm super annoyed that they convinced me to buy a modem I didn't need!

Also, as mentioned in my last post, I ordered some transcripts from my undergraduate institution. I ordered that two official transcripts be sent to the graduate university I am applying to. Yesterday I received two transcripts at my home address, clearly stamped with "issued to student". I didn't need or want these. I can only assume they didn't send any to the university. Now I have to call them and find out what happened. I hope I don't have to pay $12 to have them do this again!

Last, I sent my laptop in for repair in early December, and they sent it back with a note that the battery had failed. It was still under warranty, so I called them and asked why they didn't replace the battery. They said, "Hmm, I'm not sure! I'll send you a new one!" Which they did, along with a box for me to send the broken battery back in. In the meantime, I moved cross country and the old battery and box are long gone. Vanished! They just sent me a letter requesting that I return the part, or they will bill me for it. I assume a battery is around $100. Ouch.

This battery incident is primarily my fault (though they could have just replaced it when they had my laptop), but still annoying. I can see why they make people send in defective parts, but I'm going to call them and see if there is any flexibility in this policy. I don't have high hopes, but it can't hurt to call, explain the situation, and ask if they really have to bill me for a new battery. I've had mixed results with companies forgiving things like this, but it never hurts to ask.

I am frustrated that my money is disappearing for these things. Granted, they aren't really scams (except maybe the modem promotion), but I'm not getting anything of value out of them.

I went on my first full shopping trip since relocating and moving into my apartment. I looked at the current balance of my grocery bill in horror. How on earth was it at $79 already? And they still were ringing up my order!! The grand total was $95, then they swiped my Ralph's card and it dropped to $70. It is ridiculous that they do that. It is just forcing you to use a grocery card if you want any discounts at all.

Anyway, $70 is still much more than I spend on weekly groceries. About double! Although part of it was because I'm restocking almost everything, it still was a bit excessive. I think my solution will be to make this last two weeks.... so no new groceries until Februrary 12th! I am pretty sure I can do it. When I complain there is no food to eat, I usually mean, there is nothing I feel like cooking and eating.

What on earth did I buy? Well, I won't copy my whole long receipt, but here are some of the more expensive items on the list.
Chicken breast fillets $8.90. I don't usually buy meat, actually. I'm not vegetarian, but I'm not a big fan of meat and I don't really know how to prepare it well.
Frozen Strawberries, huge bag, $8.50 (should last a very long time. For smoothies)
Lunch meat, 2 packages, $5 (much cheaper than buying a sandwhich!)
Peperoni to make English muffin pizza's: $3.50
Lunch cheese: $4.19, I forgot to price shop this I think
I also bought butter, milk, bananas, coffee creamer, 2 boxes of cereal, frozen broccoli and lots of other miscellaneous items.

There were some things on the list I didn't get. I had a frugal recipe that called for ziti, so I set out to the pasta isle. When I didn't find it, I realized I wasn't entirely sure if ziti was pasta at all. Maybe it was a cheese? So I'm back at home, ziti-less and just looked it up. It was pasta after all. I also could not find any muffin mix to make bran muffins. Maybe no one else likes them?

I liked to have a grocery budget of about $120/month, but I may have to up it. We'll see.

My internet and cable aren't being installed until Saturday. Yet here I am, on the internet from the comfort of my own apartment. That's right, I'm mooching off someone else's unsecured connection.

How unethical do you consider this? I know some people who do it regularly as their primary source of internet. I usually do it in situations like this--I don't have legitimate access to the internet, but I have a legitimate desire to be on it!

To be honest, I'm not certain of the security concerns of this. If I'm connected to their network, could they potentially access my computer? I don't think so.

I spent the day settling in to my new apartment. While I filled up my new Ikea dresser, it tipped over and nearly killed me. No worries, the only casualty was a barely noticeable cosmetic piece we are going to try to repair later this week. I listened to NPR all day, and I am pretty sure that once my six month deal runs out for cable, I will be able to do without it. I'm not going to lie, I'll miss some of the absolute crap TV shows that I watch but my life is probably better off without them (example: Real Housewives of Orange County). The shows that I really love (when there isn't a writers strike) are all available online (Office and Grey's).

Internet I couldn't live without.... but could I just mooch off a neighbors connection? I probably wouldn't. Not only because of the moral concerns, but because it may not be reliable and completely secure. What do you think?

This weekend was very very very expensive. I feel like I've said that too many weekends in a row! I purchased a nice big dresser from Ikea, and now have real drawers to put my clothes in! That was a hit of $150, but money well spent. Then I also bought some other random organizing supplies--my closet has a lot of shelving and I want to make it organized and neat. By the time I left Ikea, it was a bill of over $220! What a dangerous store! I didn't even buy everything a needed wanted: more lighting, shoe rack, coat hooks, and some decorations.

I somehow got tricked into taking the boyfriend and I out for sushi. I wasn't exactly tricked, but the sushi was pretty over priced, and that was another $40 out the window, just like that. I asked him how often he thought we should go out to eat, and suggested once a week, and he said maybe less, once every two weeks. That's what he says in theory, but he has suggested eating out several times this week. I don't mind taking us out to eat sometimes. However, I do need him to understand that he can't say one day "Let's save up 150k in three years!" and then the next day say "I need money for the take out!" I was getting a $35 meal stipend while I was in the hotel, however, that meal stipend was my only income for a week and a half!

We wanted to meet up with my boyfriends friend last night, who I hadn't yet met. His friend suggested going out to eat (again!), then suggested just eating at whole foods. So i paid $7 for a sandwich, and then we bought a $13 bottle of wine.

So that is the boring details of my weekend spending. I'm afraid to add those numbers up, but.. $280? Yikes!! Was my life more enjoyable when I didn't feel pain every time I paid $7 for a sandwich? I think I need to loosen up about things and realize it is just money. Not spend more, or not cease to think about purchases. But if a purchase is something I ultimately decided I want to spend (dresser), have to spend (drivers license fee), or am willing to spend to go with the flow (sandwich from whole food), what is the point of getting all worried about it?

I think I get my first paycheck February 7th. To say that I'm anxiously waiting would be an understatement!

I'm in the process of moving into my new apartment. Technically, I've been paying for rent since January 15th (they wouldn't allow me to change my move in date), but I'm still getting set up.

In apartment buildings, you often don't have a choice for your cable television and internet provider. My apartment is serviced by Time Warner, and that is my only choice for TV. I was offered free installation and $30/mo for digital cable and $30/mo for internet for a limited six month period. A cable modem is required, but they had a deal where you could get a "free" modem through rebates. There also is $100 cash back in rebates for new services.

So..... Wow. A lot of rebates involved! The rebates are offered through broadbandoffers.com, which a quick Google search turned up lots of negative reviews. Still, I'm going to file the rebates anyway, get delivery confirmation for a couple bucks, then cross my fingers that they will eventually send my $180 worth of checks. Oh, and "free" didn't include shipping or CA state tax, so it wasn't exactly free, but $20 for a cable modem is reasonable, I suppose.

I think that negative reviews are par for the course when it comes to rebates. If everything goes smoothly with your rebate, you aren't likely to go online and write a happy review. But if something is screwed up, you may go write a bad one. I read a lot of negative reviews about the company I bought my laptop from, but I received the over $200 in rebates. It just took a long time. That isn't to say that mail in rebates aren't a pain in the butt. They are. But I'm optimistic. I was going to sign up for the service anyway, so if they want to give me $100 to do something I already planned on, then great.

To me, $60 seems reasonable and fair for internet and television. I've never had a problem getting fair and reasonable service... for the first six months or year. However, once the promos end, the same service jumps to about $100 a month, which seems high. Besides pulling the personal finance trick of asking for a lower rate, I probably will switch to cheaper internet and drop the cable to get the price down to about $45 a month. With cable, it would still be $80/month, which is pretty expensive to me. Maybe once my promo ends, I can look into options like DirectTV and DSL services, to see if they are viable options.

It seems I can go months on a fairly tight budget, not desiring to spend a lot of money on anything really. I won't go shopping, I won't go out to eat, and I will build wealth fairly effectively.

January has not been one of those months. Part of it is because I'm moving out of my apartment (and city, state, and region!). I've bought several cleaning supplies that I probably could have got by without (or substituted with things I already own). I also bought a new large suitcase and an inexpensive exercise ball. Then I needed a new coffee mug, because mine ceased to be watertight and was spilling. Then a dinner with my friend, because I'm leaving. And some wine for him because he fixed my car speakers for free. And wine for myself, just because. And a magazine too, while I'm there. Oh, and I needed an oil change. And it's been like that, one thing after another, the money just has felt like it is flowing out. And out, and out and out.

It has been, too. I have spent at least $300 in the last couple weeks on non-bill related items. Perhaps more. I'm a little afraid to tally it, though I have a handy pearbudget spreadsheet all set up... The thing is, I knew that I'd be spending more than I make this month due to paying double rent because I'm moving. And due to getting 1 weeks less pay, due to switching jobs. So since I knew that, it seemed like I might as well just buy every cleaning supply I thought I'd need... At least it should help me get my $100 deposit back!

Well, anyway, it's time to tighten up ship again! I pledge to conciously think about each purchase I make for the rest of the month, and only buy things I really need!

My boyfriend compliments me sometimes, saying that I'm good with money. He says that, but once or twice, he has added "but I'm better with it!"

I respectfully disagree with that sentiment. I'm better with money, he's just more stingy. Also, his stingyness comes primarily from the fact that he is a grad student and has a very limited disposable income. In general, he is selectively stingy. Back when he was making a reasonable income, he spent in the range of $3000 for private pilot flying lessons. So he spends less by buying cheap lunch meat and kraft singles, and I buy better stuff. I don't consider that being better with money, I consider that having more money and making choices, not being "worse" with money.

I think when we are married, we'll be able to manage our finances without too much conflict. We are both generally savers, but we are both (generally) willing to spend on certian things we value: for example, travel, occasional good meals, and wine. We should make decent money, and things should be smooth. And if they are not, we both are capable of cheap living.

I hope I get to be in charge of the budgeting and bill paying. I am a control freak and like that sort of thing, but he is a control freak as well. Of course, decision making will be together (which will be an adjustment after years of independence), but there has to be one executer.

I would like us both to be involved in our investment decisions. Since I already have a full time job and he is still in school, I'm a few years ahead of him in investment knowledge. Not that I'm an expert, but I'm at relatively comfortable with the basics. He does have a Roth IRA, but he opened it with a broker. Edward Jones, maybe? I'd need to let him know the virtues of target date funds, indexing, and low fees. Right now, he only has about 2-4k in there (I don't know the details), and I don't know the fees, so it isn't an issue. (Besides the fact we aren't even engaged!)

I think, over the next couple years (or until whenever it is we get married and what is "mine" officially becomes "ours") money might be a slight issue for us due to vast income disparity. If I want us to go out for dinner, I'm going to have to pay for it more often than not. He isn't gonig to demand to be taken out, but he doesn't have the funds to treat me too often. It is sort of something that I have accepted already over the last year and a half of me working and him being a student. It can be frusterating, especially when my my two closest friends from high school (who were students at the time) received coach purses for christmas last year from their signifcant others. I got a nice necklace, which is great, but it would be nice to be spoiled every now and then. Maybe he can spoil me in ways that don't involve spending money.

It has been a hectic few weeks, and I hope to have some serious posts as life returns to normal. However, normalcy probably won't truly settle in for awhile--I'm moving over 2000 miles to a new home this month! Still, vacation mode is over and things should be more normal around here. Here is a round up of my financial status for the past couple weeks.

I spent roughly $410 on Christmas presents

• $60 for my mom: Contributed to a GPS with my sistesr
• $55 for my dad: XM radio subscription
• $25 for my grandparents: Applebees giftcard
• $20 for a drinks for my friends
• $60 each for two of my sisters: Mostly clothes and make-up
• $40 for my boyfriends family (including shipping): A nice blanket and random treats
• $70 for the boyfriend: A nice zip up university sweatshirt he had coveted
• $30 for my sisters boyfriend: Sweatshirt
• $30 for my brother in law: Gift card to best buy
• $20 for my nephew: A baby bible and color book

There was an additional $100 in other random Christmas expenses: Gas to get to my sister's and back, a cheap Christmas day train ticket, and a few meals for me and my sister.

I spent $555 (not including previously purchased $400 plane ticket) on new years eve vacation which lasted about five days. About $100 of it was due to me paying for my boyfriends share of things, since he is a poor grad student and I have a real job, and I wanted him to join us on all activities. Luckily, there was no hotel costs since we stayed in his apartment. (I do not currently live in the same city as him, hence the move.)

• $170 on food
• $125 on car rental and gas
• $200 on alochol and going out (yikes!), including a somewhat pricey New Years Eve
  
• $60 on general entertainment

My net worth increased by about $3000 in December despite all that spending and despite my $500 security deposit for my new place being taken out. Not only did I have my regular paychecks, I had about $5000 in a year end incentive bonus as income. That definitely helped things along. Anyway, I did update my NetworthIQ page, so feel free to click on over for details.

Did I meet my year end goals? What are my new goals? I have to review whether or not I met my 2007 goals. I think I met some of them, but not all. I need to rework my 2008 goals and decide what I want to do financially this year.

The last thing to mention is today's small impulse buy. In a spur of the moment decision, I raced to Walmart and picked up a humidifier and cold medicine at about 11:00 pm tonight. Yes, I'm a little sick. The humidifier was only about $25, but I obviously did not buy quality, nor did I research the best deals. I also sort of dislike Walmart, but nothing else was open and I felt really crappy. Now, time for bed, as it is back to work tomorrow for my last few days.

I went out and about today and completed the majority of my Christmas shopping. I picked out a really cute sweater/shrug and tank top for my sister and bought one in another color for myself as well. I usually never pay full price for my clothes from stores like Express, and I feel horribly guilty about it. Anyway, I went back the store and returned one sweater, but with the idea that I'd come back and buy it with the coupon they awarded me (which isn't valid until tomorrow).

Now I'm having doubts. First, I really should return the tank top because it is over priced, even for a gift. Second, I shouldn't buy myself a set. Should I? If I buy myself a set, it'll cost $135 for both of us, so about $68 each. Or I could spend $80 total (what I currently have spent) and not buy myself one. Though the "gift" budget was only supposed to be $50 for sisters. Or I could spend $105 and get two sweaters but only one tank top.

I obviously do not need the sweater. I recently got to buy some clothes from H&M using a gift card I received for my birthday. On the other hand, I rarely buy myself new clothes, and when I do I don't buy anything over $30 usually. I think in my head, "I deserve this! I got a big bonus this year and haven't spent any of it on myself." Which is true. . . But that doesn't mean I need to buy this. Perhaps I would get more enjoyment out of saving the $68. Or spending it on something else. I am going on a nice new years vacation where plenty of spending will happen. I also have a hair appointment tomorrow, which usually runs me about $110 (including tip) if I don't get my eyebrows waxed...

I think I'm going to punch in my numbers for December spending so far, and from there decide if I should keep it or not...

Do any of you agonize so much over an $80 purchase??

Here is my sketched out plan for 2008. I'm moving to an expensive city, but I took the difference of the salary and the rent increase, and I'm coming out a little ahead. Of course, there are other factors.... Anyway, savings are blue, if you can see the different colors.


This doesn't include a signing bonus or any leftover relocation perks, but those will just go automatically into savings and other initial costs of starting over (apartment deposit, etc.)

I'm not sure if I really will only spend 200 on groceries and 100 on restaurants, but I'm sure going to make an effort. I also have to start paying my own car insurance and secure renters insurance. I have no idea what the cost for those will be, but I allowed 100/month. I have $200 of unbudgeted money monthly, and $100 for entertainment--I really spend very little on entertainment currently, so we'll see.

Ah, I love planning. Or perhaps I'm really just procrastinating on finishing up my take home final for my graduate class.

I was hoping to wait until 2008 to talk about my goals and plans for 2008. However, I'm a planner to the extreme and I can't help myself from starting now.

There are a lot of unknowns in the first part of next year. I'm moving to a new city with expensive rent. While I have one job offer, I'm waiting on the one that I want more (tomorrow? Very soon!) so I'm not sure what my salary will be. Still, no matter what, there are some goals I can set right away, and adjust as needed.

First, I want to max out my Roth IRA again. That is about $415 a month of post tax money to be directed into savings immediately. In my first year and a half of working, I've already saved about $20k in retirement accounts. As my salary increases, I'll be able to contribute more each year. I think I'm on track to have a comfortable retirement. I have a vague idea of retiring early, but still am not ready to make a plan for that goal.

In that same vein, I want to contribute at least 10% to my 401k. This is pretty painless and will get me a full match of (probably) 6% total from my company. Based on my first job offer, that will mean I'll save about $15000 in 2008 for retirement. If I feel that I can afford it, this will be increased, with a stretch goal of 15% towards 401k.

I also want to pay a little extra to my student loan account. My goal is only going to be $1000 extra this year. I'm required to pay about $1500. In 2007 my goal was $4000 total. This is really cheap money so paying it off is more for the mental benefits. That means my month payment will increase to $215, though I'll likely pay it in chunks rather than automatically every month. If any of my goals are faltering, this will be the first to go, as it is the least cost effective.

Next, I want to continue (but decrease) to auto-contributions to my emergency fund, and really turn it into an emergency fund. I have a general purpose high yield savings account which is my efund, but I don't treat it as an efund. It's just a savings account with a continually increasing balance. I think contributing $50/week to this account will be sufficient. I pretty much grew it to 10k from scratch this year, so it is a big decrease. I'm excited to have a base fund so I can focus on other goals.

Now... the "boring" goals are out of the way!

For my fun goals, I want to add $25/week to my "travel" fund. If I have extra money, I'll increase this amount, but it is a start. I have a travel fund earmarked, but it has had really stagnant growth. I also want to start saving up for a newer car. My car has about 75k miles on it and will last another couple years... but I need to start building up some money to purchase my next one. I want to pay for my next car in cash, and I will be spending at least 10k, maybe more. If my budget works out, I'd like to save $100/week for this, giving me just over 5k by the end of the year.

So that is it! These goals will be tweaked once I'm settled into my new apartment, new city, and new job.

In unrelated news, they are announcing who replaces my current manager at work today. I hope they promote from within the group and that Bryan is it. I think that he would have the job if he wanted it, but I'm not sure he is interested in management.

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'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!

So, you aren't supposed to keep score in relationships. Still, I can't help it sometimes.

My boyfriend is a poor poor grad student who makes less than half of what I do (stipend). My savings is going up, his is staying flat at best. Naturally, I don't expect him to spend much on us. He is content with not going out to eat much and living quite cheaply, which is great for us in the long run because I'm fairly frugal too. We should never have problems living within our means. Still, sometimes I want treats, so I provide them for us.

This weekend (starting on Thursday) I paid for:
Pizza: $13, a good deal though, for 3 medium pizza's that fed us almost all weekend. I will say nothing about the healthfulness of it...
Sam Adam's White Ale: $14
Lunch at Ikea: $11 (though my fault, since we wouldn't have otherwise been at Ikea and he was helping me pick out and build stuff)
Random Food that we ate: Coffee, cereal, milk, juice, burritos from Trader Joe's.... Plus he made a smoothie that neither of us really needed/wanted (which was much to thick) with my frozen strawberries right before dinner for no logical reason!

Also, he doesn't have a car, so I'm always driving and using my gas. And he definitely ate/drank more of all that stuff than I did.

It isn't that I'm not generous with this kind of thing. I am actually quite generous: "Thanks for coming to Ikea... do you want to stop at the cafe? How about this Mango Sorbet too, that looks delicious!" Then I do my budget, see that I want to save more, then regret my generosity. Ooops.

Then again, how petty is it for me to quibble about $37 spent on "us" when i spent about $200 on me and my apartment at Ikea? It is hard to justify that.

I guess it's the principle rather than the dollar amount. When we stopped at the store to buy juice (potentially for future smoothies or to mix in drinks), he could have paid for it. It was only about $3, so it makes no difference in the scheme of things, but it makes me feel a little less like I'm being taken advantage of. I know that really isn't the case... I offer to do all these things and he would be fine if I stopped. Sometimes I can't help but be bothered by it though.

I guess I need to be careful with my generosity, and really think about it before I offer to pay for things for "us". I need to make sure I won't regret it. Spending money doesn't show love (though, I can't help but think it does, at least a little). I think (hope) that my attitude would be different if we were engaged/married and money spent on us was truly ours and not mine/his. I also think his attitude would be a little different as well. But it just isn't like that right now. It is my money, and if I'm going to share it, I need to make sure I'm sharing it within my budget.

I get paid tomorrow (yes, on Thursdays) and finally was able to view my paycheck online. Though I only am being paid for 40 hrs instead of 80 this period, they did process my signing bonus in the first check (yes!) so I finally have some money to work with. They got all my direct deposit stuff set up in time (nice work!). I have it split between three different accounts, checking, short term savings (insurance, travel, car) and a long term savings (e-fund, maybe house/condo fund one day). I still may have to transfer between these, but this should minimize that. Make savings automatic!

I'm still not ready to finalize a budget, as I'm not certain what my take home pay will be. I tried to figure out exactly how much I'll be paying in taxes each month by taking total taxes paid divided by total gross pay in this check. I came up with about a 39% tax rate! Yikes, that can't be right! Google tells me that taxes on bonuses, while calculated as normal income, are withheld at a different rate, up to 40%. Well, that makes more sense! Good to know.

Is it logical to just use 25%, my marginal tax rate? Then again, what about FICA, Social Security, etc? If I do that, I come up with about $1700 after 401k and medical or $1500 if I go all the way up to 20% in my 401k. It isn't likely I can live off the $3000/month, at least not if I want to grow my cash savings. Though the way some people dream about buying a house, I dream about maxing out my 401k....

My 401k still isn't ready for me to enroll. I hate when systems are not automated enough. My last job I could enroll in my 401k on the first day (through Fidelity). It has been a full week and CitiStreet still isn't recognizing my user ID. When I called the number to ask if this was normal, I was told "Please listen carefully as options have recently changed." Then, there was a single ring, then silence. More silence. I was never given any options! I hung up and tried again, only to have it happen again. I pressed all the numbers and was directed to an operator who could not help me unless I "went through the system and entered my PIN" (which I did!). He suggested waiting another week, or trying the number again. Lame.

I was going to go hang out with the boyfriend tonight, but I think I'll cancel. He has a lot of school work, and I have needed to do laundry for at least a week. This will give me time to start working on yesterdays to-do list. First up, taxes!

I have some major financial housekeeping to do within the next month (or maybe two months). With switching jobs and moving 2000 miles, I feel like everything is a mess! It is time for some clean-up.

Taxes: Self explanatory! I did start them on TaxAct, but got distracted.

Retirement Accounts:
Well, first, I assign myself some homework. I've had "Random Walk Guide to Investing" hanging out on my bookshelf for months. I need to read it. I also want to re-read Jonathan's series at MyMoneyBlog.com about asset allocation, and look for other good internet information. I need to consider rolling over my old 401k to an IRA or even to a Roth IRA. I want to at least consider moving my Roth from Fidelity to Vanguard. I need to get enrolled in my new 401k ASAP, and contribute at least 8% to get the match.

Emergency fund: I want to get it back up to 10k, then evaluate if I need to increase it further due to increased costs. It briefly hit 10k before Christmas, but has dwindled to just over 7k (!) in the move process. Well, 1k went to the Roth to kick off 2008 so it isn't so bad. This should easily be taken care of if I simply apply the relocation allowance and signing bonus. Also, I want to investigate moving it from HSBC to something better.

Actually implement plan to buy car insurance. I have to do this soon, because I have get my car registered in my new state. It's just... I recently designated an ING accout to save up for bi-yearly insurance purchases... but so far I've only stuck $25 in it! Ug.

Figure out a reasonable budget. Having scaled back income and paying two rents for a month has totally messed with my head. I have no idea what I can afford, what is a splurge, and what I absolutely shouldn't be buying. So I'm just guessing. . .

Rebates, rebates, rebates: I need to send in rebates for my cable service, my internet service ($50 each), and for my modem (about $80). Then I need to sell my modem online, since it turns out I didn't even need it! After that, I might cancel cable since I haven't been watching it at all.

Set some 2008 goals: It's been hard to do with so much up in the air.

Well, I feel a little better just writing it all down.....

I feel like I'm being scammed out of my money left and right!

I signed up for cable service online (because I do everything possible online) and followed the clear instructions on the web page to obtain a cable modem before the cable guy came. There was a promotion for a "free" modem, after rebate, which turned out to be about $20 with shipping and tax (after rebates... which are always a bit sketchy to redeem).

Yesterday the cable guy set up my internet and TV, and started installing a cable modem from the company. I said I had one already, and would not be needing to rent one from the cable company (as that is how it often works.) He told me that there was no rental, the modem was part of the service.

I am still fuming about this, a little. (Ok, a lot, if you ask my boyfriend.) Why would they tell me I needed to buy a modem when I didn't? Now I have a modem that put almost $100 on my credit card bill for the month (which I pay off, of course) and two rebate forms to fill out and hope get credited to me. What a hassle!

I looked up the modems on Amazon (I'm not very ebay literate, but i should probably check out ebay too) and I can probably sell my new modem for at least $35, even if I cut off the upc to get the rebate. In theory that is a small profit, but it is a bit of a hassle to do all this.

I'm super annoyed that they convinced me to buy a modem I didn't need!

Also, as mentioned in my last post, I ordered some transcripts from my undergraduate institution. I ordered that two official transcripts be sent to the graduate university I am applying to. Yesterday I received two transcripts at my home address, clearly stamped with "issued to student". I didn't need or want these. I can only assume they didn't send any to the university. Now I have to call them and find out what happened. I hope I don't have to pay $12 to have them do this again!

Last, I sent my laptop in for repair in early December, and they sent it back with a note that the battery had failed. It was still under warranty, so I called them and asked why they didn't replace the battery. They said, "Hmm, I'm not sure! I'll send you a new one!" Which they did, along with a box for me to send the broken battery back in. In the meantime, I moved cross country and the old battery and box are long gone. Vanished! They just sent me a letter requesting that I return the part, or they will bill me for it. I assume a battery is around $100. Ouch.

This battery incident is primarily my fault (though they could have just replaced it when they had my laptop), but still annoying. I can see why they make people send in defective parts, but I'm going to call them and see if there is any flexibility in this policy. I don't have high hopes, but it can't hurt to call, explain the situation, and ask if they really have to bill me for a new battery. I've had mixed results with companies forgiving things like this, but it never hurts to ask.

I am frustrated that my money is disappearing for these things. Granted, they aren't really scams (except maybe the modem promotion), but I'm not getting anything of value out of them.

I went on my first full shopping trip since relocating and moving into my apartment. I looked at the current balance of my grocery bill in horror. How on earth was it at $79 already? And they still were ringing up my order!! The grand total was $95, then they swiped my Ralph's card and it dropped to $70. It is ridiculous that they do that. It is just forcing you to use a grocery card if you want any discounts at all.

Anyway, $70 is still much more than I spend on weekly groceries. About double! Although part of it was because I'm restocking almost everything, it still was a bit excessive. I think my solution will be to make this last two weeks.... so no new groceries until Februrary 12th! I am pretty sure I can do it. When I complain there is no food to eat, I usually mean, there is nothing I feel like cooking and eating.

What on earth did I buy? Well, I won't copy my whole long receipt, but here are some of the more expensive items on the list.
Chicken breast fillets $8.90. I don't usually buy meat, actually. I'm not vegetarian, but I'm not a big fan of meat and I don't really know how to prepare it well.
Frozen Strawberries, huge bag, $8.50 (should last a very long time. For smoothies)
Lunch meat, 2 packages, $5 (much cheaper than buying a sandwhich!)
Peperoni to make English muffin pizza's: $3.50
Lunch cheese: $4.19, I forgot to price shop this I think
I also bought butter, milk, bananas, coffee creamer, 2 boxes of cereal, frozen broccoli and lots of other miscellaneous items.

There were some things on the list I didn't get. I had a frugal recipe that called for ziti, so I set out to the pasta isle. When I didn't find it, I realized I wasn't entirely sure if ziti was pasta at all. Maybe it was a cheese? So I'm back at home, ziti-less and just looked it up. It was pasta after all. I also could not find any muffin mix to make bran muffins. Maybe no one else likes them?

I liked to have a grocery budget of about $120/month, but I may have to up it. We'll see.

My internet and cable aren't being installed until Saturday. Yet here I am, on the internet from the comfort of my own apartment. That's right, I'm mooching off someone else's unsecured connection.

How unethical do you consider this? I know some people who do it regularly as their primary source of internet. I usually do it in situations like this--I don't have legitimate access to the internet, but I have a legitimate desire to be on it!

To be honest, I'm not certain of the security concerns of this. If I'm connected to their network, could they potentially access my computer? I don't think so.

I spent the day settling in to my new apartment. While I filled up my new Ikea dresser, it tipped over and nearly killed me. No worries, the only casualty was a barely noticeable cosmetic piece we are going to try to repair later this week. I listened to NPR all day, and I am pretty sure that once my six month deal runs out for cable, I will be able to do without it. I'm not going to lie, I'll miss some of the absolute crap TV shows that I watch but my life is probably better off without them (example: Real Housewives of Orange County). The shows that I really love (when there isn't a writers strike) are all available online (Office and Grey's).

Internet I couldn't live without.... but could I just mooch off a neighbors connection? I probably wouldn't. Not only because of the moral concerns, but because it may not be reliable and completely secure. What do you think?

This weekend was very very very expensive. I feel like I've said that too many weekends in a row! I purchased a nice big dresser from Ikea, and now have real drawers to put my clothes in! That was a hit of $150, but money well spent. Then I also bought some other random organizing supplies--my closet has a lot of shelving and I want to make it organized and neat. By the time I left Ikea, it was a bill of over $220! What a dangerous store! I didn't even buy everything a needed wanted: more lighting, shoe rack, coat hooks, and some decorations.

I somehow got tricked into taking the boyfriend and I out for sushi. I wasn't exactly tricked, but the sushi was pretty over priced, and that was another $40 out the window, just like that. I asked him how often he thought we should go out to eat, and suggested once a week, and he said maybe less, once every two weeks. That's what he says in theory, but he has suggested eating out several times this week. I don't mind taking us out to eat sometimes. However, I do need him to understand that he can't say one day "Let's save up 150k in three years!" and then the next day say "I need money for the take out!" I was getting a $35 meal stipend while I was in the hotel, however, that meal stipend was my only income for a week and a half!

We wanted to meet up with my boyfriends friend last night, who I hadn't yet met. His friend suggested going out to eat (again!), then suggested just eating at whole foods. So i paid $7 for a sandwich, and then we bought a $13 bottle of wine.

So that is the boring details of my weekend spending. I'm afraid to add those numbers up, but.. $280? Yikes!! Was my life more enjoyable when I didn't feel pain every time I paid $7 for a sandwich? I think I need to loosen up about things and realize it is just money. Not spend more, or not cease to think about purchases. But if a purchase is something I ultimately decided I want to spend (dresser), have to spend (drivers license fee), or am willing to spend to go with the flow (sandwich from whole food), what is the point of getting all worried about it?

I think I get my first paycheck February 7th. To say that I'm anxiously waiting would be an understatement!

I'm in the process of moving into my new apartment. Technically, I've been paying for rent since January 15th (they wouldn't allow me to change my move in date), but I'm still getting set up.

In apartment buildings, you often don't have a choice for your cable television and internet provider. My apartment is serviced by Time Warner, and that is my only choice for TV. I was offered free installation and $30/mo for digital cable and $30/mo for internet for a limited six month period. A cable modem is required, but they had a deal where you could get a "free" modem through rebates. There also is $100 cash back in rebates for new services.

So..... Wow. A lot of rebates involved! The rebates are offered through broadbandoffers.com, which a quick Google search turned up lots of negative reviews. Still, I'm going to file the rebates anyway, get delivery confirmation for a couple bucks, then cross my fingers that they will eventually send my $180 worth of checks. Oh, and "free" didn't include shipping or CA state tax, so it wasn't exactly free, but $20 for a cable modem is reasonable, I suppose.

I think that negative reviews are par for the course when it comes to rebates. If everything goes smoothly with your rebate, you aren't likely to go online and write a happy review. But if something is screwed up, you may go write a bad one. I read a lot of negative reviews about the company I bought my laptop from, but I received the over $200 in rebates. It just took a long time. That isn't to say that mail in rebates aren't a pain in the butt. They are. But I'm optimistic. I was going to sign up for the service anyway, so if they want to give me $100 to do something I already planned on, then great.

To me, $60 seems reasonable and fair for internet and television. I've never had a problem getting fair and reasonable service... for the first six months or year. However, once the promos end, the same service jumps to about $100 a month, which seems high. Besides pulling the personal finance trick of asking for a lower rate, I probably will switch to cheaper internet and drop the cable to get the price down to about $45 a month. With cable, it would still be $80/month, which is pretty expensive to me. Maybe once my promo ends, I can look into options like DirectTV and DSL services, to see if they are viable options.

It seems I can go months on a fairly tight budget, not desiring to spend a lot of money on anything really. I won't go shopping, I won't go out to eat, and I will build wealth fairly effectively.

January has not been one of those months. Part of it is because I'm moving out of my apartment (and city, state, and region!). I've bought several cleaning supplies that I probably could have got by without (or substituted with things I already own). I also bought a new large suitcase and an inexpensive exercise ball. Then I needed a new coffee mug, because mine ceased to be watertight and was spilling. Then a dinner with my friend, because I'm leaving. And some wine for him because he fixed my car speakers for free. And wine for myself, just because. And a magazine too, while I'm there. Oh, and I needed an oil change. And it's been like that, one thing after another, the money just has felt like it is flowing out. And out, and out and out.

It has been, too. I have spent at least $300 in the last couple weeks on non-bill related items. Perhaps more. I'm a little afraid to tally it, though I have a handy pearbudget spreadsheet all set up... The thing is, I knew that I'd be spending more than I make this month due to paying double rent because I'm moving. And due to getting 1 weeks less pay, due to switching jobs. So since I knew that, it seemed like I might as well just buy every cleaning supply I thought I'd need... At least it should help me get my $100 deposit back!

Well, anyway, it's time to tighten up ship again! I pledge to conciously think about each purchase I make for the rest of the month, and only buy things I really need!

My boyfriend compliments me sometimes, saying that I'm good with money. He says that, but once or twice, he has added "but I'm better with it!"

I respectfully disagree with that sentiment. I'm better with money, he's just more stingy. Also, his stingyness comes primarily from the fact that he is a grad student and has a very limited disposable income. In general, he is selectively stingy. Back when he was making a reasonable income, he spent in the range of $3000 for private pilot flying lessons. So he spends less by buying cheap lunch meat and kraft singles, and I buy better stuff. I don't consider that being better with money, I consider that having more money and making choices, not being "worse" with money.

I think when we are married, we'll be able to manage our finances without too much conflict. We are both generally savers, but we are both (generally) willing to spend on certian things we value: for example, travel, occasional good meals, and wine. We should make decent money, and things should be smooth. And if they are not, we both are capable of cheap living.

I hope I get to be in charge of the budgeting and bill paying. I am a control freak and like that sort of thing, but he is a control freak as well. Of course, decision making will be together (which will be an adjustment after years of independence), but there has to be one executer.

I would like us both to be involved in our investment decisions. Since I already have a full time job and he is still in school, I'm a few years ahead of him in investment knowledge. Not that I'm an expert, but I'm at relatively comfortable with the basics. He does have a Roth IRA, but he opened it with a broker. Edward Jones, maybe? I'd need to let him know the virtues of target date funds, indexing, and low fees. Right now, he only has about 2-4k in there (I don't know the details), and I don't know the fees, so it isn't an issue. (Besides the fact we aren't even engaged!)

I think, over the next couple years (or until whenever it is we get married and what is "mine" officially becomes "ours") money might be a slight issue for us due to vast income disparity. If I want us to go out for dinner, I'm going to have to pay for it more often than not. He isn't gonig to demand to be taken out, but he doesn't have the funds to treat me too often. It is sort of something that I have accepted already over the last year and a half of me working and him being a student. It can be frusterating, especially when my my two closest friends from high school (who were students at the time) received coach purses for christmas last year from their signifcant others. I got a nice necklace, which is great, but it would be nice to be spoiled every now and then. Maybe he can spoil me in ways that don't involve spending money.

It has been a hectic few weeks, and I hope to have some serious posts as life returns to normal. However, normalcy probably won't truly settle in for awhile--I'm moving over 2000 miles to a new home this month! Still, vacation mode is over and things should be more normal around here. Here is a round up of my financial status for the past couple weeks.

I spent roughly $410 on Christmas presents

• $60 for my mom: Contributed to a GPS with my sistesr
• $55 for my dad: XM radio subscription
• $25 for my grandparents: Applebees giftcard
• $20 for a drinks for my friends
• $60 each for two of my sisters: Mostly clothes and make-up
• $40 for my boyfriends family (including shipping): A nice blanket and random treats
• $70 for the boyfriend: A nice zip up university sweatshirt he had coveted
• $30 for my sisters boyfriend: Sweatshirt
• $30 for my brother in law: Gift card to best buy
• $20 for my nephew: A baby bible and color book

There was an additional $100 in other random Christmas expenses: Gas to get to my sister's and back, a cheap Christmas day train ticket, and a few meals for me and my sister.

I spent $555 (not including previously purchased $400 plane ticket) on new years eve vacation which lasted about five days. About $100 of it was due to me paying for my boyfriends share of things, since he is a poor grad student and I have a real job, and I wanted him to join us on all activities. Luckily, there was no hotel costs since we stayed in his apartment. (I do not currently live in the same city as him, hence the move.)

• $170 on food
• $125 on car rental and gas
• $200 on alochol and going out (yikes!), including a somewhat pricey New Years Eve
  
• $60 on general entertainment

My net worth increased by about $3000 in December despite all that spending and despite my $500 security deposit for my new place being taken out. Not only did I have my regular paychecks, I had about $5000 in a year end incentive bonus as income. That definitely helped things along. Anyway, I did update my NetworthIQ page, so feel free to click on over for details.

Did I meet my year end goals? What are my new goals? I have to review whether or not I met my 2007 goals. I think I met some of them, but not all. I need to rework my 2008 goals and decide what I want to do financially this year.

The last thing to mention is today's small impulse buy. In a spur of the moment decision, I raced to Walmart and picked up a humidifier and cold medicine at about 11:00 pm tonight. Yes, I'm a little sick. The humidifier was only about $25, but I obviously did not buy quality, nor did I research the best deals. I also sort of dislike Walmart, but nothing else was open and I felt really crappy. Now, time for bed, as it is back to work tomorrow for my last few days.

I went out and about today and completed the majority of my Christmas shopping. I picked out a really cute sweater/shrug and tank top for my sister and bought one in another color for myself as well. I usually never pay full price for my clothes from stores like Express, and I feel horribly guilty about it. Anyway, I went back the store and returned one sweater, but with the idea that I'd come back and buy it with the coupon they awarded me (which isn't valid until tomorrow).

Now I'm having doubts. First, I really should return the tank top because it is over priced, even for a gift. Second, I shouldn't buy myself a set. Should I? If I buy myself a set, it'll cost $135 for both of us, so about $68 each. Or I could spend $80 total (what I currently have spent) and not buy myself one. Though the "gift" budget was only supposed to be $50 for sisters. Or I could spend $105 and get two sweaters but only one tank top.

I obviously do not need the sweater. I recently got to buy some clothes from H&M using a gift card I received for my birthday. On the other hand, I rarely buy myself new clothes, and when I do I don't buy anything over $30 usually. I think in my head, "I deserve this! I got a big bonus this year and haven't spent any of it on myself." Which is true. . . But that doesn't mean I need to buy this. Perhaps I would get more enjoyment out of saving the $68. Or spending it on something else. I am going on a nice new years vacation where plenty of spending will happen. I also have a hair appointment tomorrow, which usually runs me about $110 (including tip) if I don't get my eyebrows waxed...

I think I'm going to punch in my numbers for December spending so far, and from there decide if I should keep it or not...

Do any of you agonize so much over an $80 purchase??

Here is my sketched out plan for 2008. I'm moving to an expensive city, but I took the difference of the salary and the rent increase, and I'm coming out a little ahead. Of course, there are other factors.... Anyway, savings are blue, if you can see the different colors.


This doesn't include a signing bonus or any leftover relocation perks, but those will just go automatically into savings and other initial costs of starting over (apartment deposit, etc.)

I'm not sure if I really will only spend 200 on groceries and 100 on restaurants, but I'm sure going to make an effort. I also have to start paying my own car insurance and secure renters insurance. I have no idea what the cost for those will be, but I allowed 100/month. I have $200 of unbudgeted money monthly, and $100 for entertainment--I really spend very little on entertainment currently, so we'll see.

Ah, I love planning. Or perhaps I'm really just procrastinating on finishing up my take home final for my graduate class.

I was hoping to wait until 2008 to talk about my goals and plans for 2008. However, I'm a planner to the extreme and I can't help myself from starting now.

There are a lot of unknowns in the first part of next year. I'm moving to a new city with expensive rent. While I have one job offer, I'm waiting on the one that I want more (tomorrow? Very soon!) so I'm not sure what my salary will be. Still, no matter what, there are some goals I can set right away, and adjust as needed.

First, I want to max out my Roth IRA again. That is about $415 a month of post tax money to be directed into savings immediately. In my first year and a half of working, I've already saved about $20k in retirement accounts. As my salary increases, I'll be able to contribute more each year. I think I'm on track to have a comfortable retirement. I have a vague idea of retiring early, but still am not ready to make a plan for that goal.

In that same vein, I want to contribute at least 10% to my 401k. This is pretty painless and will get me a full match of (probably) 6% total from my company. Based on my first job offer, that will mean I'll save about $15000 in 2008 for retirement. If I feel that I can afford it, this will be increased, with a stretch goal of 15% towards 401k.

I also want to pay a little extra to my student loan account. My goal is only going to be $1000 extra this year. I'm required to pay about $1500. In 2007 my goal was $4000 total. This is really cheap money so paying it off is more for the mental benefits. That means my month payment will increase to $215, though I'll likely pay it in chunks rather than automatically every month. If any of my goals are faltering, this will be the first to go, as it is the least cost effective.

Next, I want to continue (but decrease) to auto-contributions to my emergency fund, and really turn it into an emergency fund. I have a general purpose high yield savings account which is my efund, but I don't treat it as an efund. It's just a savings account with a continually increasing balance. I think contributing $50/week to this account will be sufficient. I pretty much grew it to 10k from scratch this year, so it is a big decrease. I'm excited to have a base fund so I can focus on other goals.

Now... the "boring" goals are out of the way!

For my fun goals, I want to add $25/week to my "travel" fund. If I have extra money, I'll increase this amount, but it is a start. I have a travel fund earmarked, but it has had really stagnant growth. I also want to start saving up for a newer car. My car has about 75k miles on it and will last another couple years... but I need to start building up some money to purchase my next one. I want to pay for my next car in cash, and I will be spending at least 10k, maybe more. If my budget works out, I'd like to save $100/week for this, giving me just over 5k by the end of the year.

So that is it! These goals will be tweaked once I'm settled into my new apartment, new city, and new job.

In unrelated news, they are announcing who replaces my current manager at work today. I hope they promote from within the group and that Bryan is it. I think that he would have the job if he wanted it, but I'm not sure he is interested in management.

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'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!