Jana Says

Exercise your finances (or something like that)

May 16, 2012 by Jana 35 Comments

110107-F-2616H-003 — Not my legs. Or my feet. And for the record, those shoes are creepy.

As part of my non-medicated therapy, I’ve been required to start exercising. Apparently there’s some link between depression and exercise (and sleep, which is essential and I definitely don’t get enough of that either) and my therapist ordered me to start exercising. Fortunately, we have a membership to the YMCA that I can use to fulfill this order.

When I first started exercising, I was using the cardio equipment exclusively. It was easy and a great way to get back into the routine of sweating on purpose. There were no combinations to remember, no other people around (well, except the other people on the equipment), no instructor. Just me, the elliptical machine, my iPod and my sweat. It was blissful. Until I got bored.

There are only so many days in a row you can use the elliptical machine without wanting to tear your hair out. It was making me remember why I gave up exercising in the first place (oh, right. And I’m kind of lazy, too). Then it dawned on me that the Y also has group exercise classes, which, up until 3 weeks ago, I’d actively avoided for a number of reasons. The main reason? I was completely and utterly embarrassed.

I was embarrassed because I have absolutely no coordination. At all. I routinely walk into walls and fall down stairs and drop things for no good reason. I spill food on my clothes every day and if a day goes by that I don’t trip over my own giant feet, it’s a good day. I can’t dance, am not flexible and sometimes, right and left confuse me. I am absolutely the last person you want to stand next to in an exercise class (or near on a flight of stairs or in a hallway, but I digress). Then I had another revelation.

I didn’t care.

Although I experienced a tremendous amount of trepidation the day I stepped foot in my first class, I reminded myself that I was not going to attend those classes to impress anyone. I was going to those classes because I wanted to exercise in a manner that was fun and didn’t make me feel like I was on a hamster wheel. Attending those classes was intended to make me feel good about myself, and if other people were better than me, so what? Most of them have been doing it a lot longer and, at one point, they were just like me. A complete noob. A bumbling, uncoordinated buffoon just trying to make it to the end of class without passing out. But as time went on and they went to more and more classes, they became better.

And I’m 98% sure that they don’t care what I look like doing the routines. Because they’re focused on themselves, making sure they get the most out of the class and they don’t have the time or energy to worry about me.

I think we need to apply this attitude to our finances. No matter where we are in our financial journey, there will always be someone who’s ahead of us. There’s always going to be someone we’re looking at and thinking “Wow, if I only had her income (or his savings account or their house or whatever), I’d be set”. But most times, what we fail to look at is the hard work it took to get there. Almost no one becomes financially successful without starting at zero and putting in the hard work. They all had to start somewhere, and for most of them, the decision to be in control of their finance is that somewhere. There’s no reason you can’t make that decision, too.

To those who are paying off debt, please know this. Anyone who begins a debt repayment journey walks into the metaphorical room feeling like a lumbering oaf. We all think that everyone is staring at us, judging us, making fun of us. I can assure you that they’re not. They’re most likely looking at you with admiration for trying to gain control of your situation. And for a lot of them, they’re remembering how it felt to be in your sneakers. But don’t let your fear of what others may think prevent you from doing it.

Because even if you fall flat on your face, you’ve tried. And then you get back up and keep trying. And rest assured, no matter how awkward you think you look, you look better than I do when I’m at Zumba.

Trust me on that one.

Money Tune Tuesday: Workin’ For A Livin’

May 15, 2012 by Jana 2 Comments

Most people don’t know this but Huey Lewis has been stalking me. I’m not kidding.

Every day for the last month, I have been somewhere (the car, my house, the supermarket) and a Huey Lewis and the News song has come on. Don’t be mistaken. I love me some Huey Lewis and the News but every day for 30 days straight is a bit crazy. I’m pretty sure he’s trying to tell me something. And that something is “share my music!!!”

So I am. For today’s money tune. Because I’m hoping that by hearing this, you’ll be inspired to listen to more. And I will have done right Huey Lewis.

It was hard to pick a Huey Lewis song because they’re all so good. I have a vivid memory attached to a number of HLATN songs including “Heart and Soul” (the video is awesomely 80s and has Dracula), “Back In Time” and “Power of Love” (what’s up, Back to the Future?), “Hip To Be Square” (yup, I danced to that alone in my room)…the list goes on. But this is a financial site so I tried to find something that was personal finance related. And what do you know? Huey Lewis came through (’cause he’s awesome like that) with “Workin’ For A Livin'”.

So sit back, enjoy Huey Lewis and his rad harmonica, and please tell him to stop stalking me. It’s getting a little creepy.

What’s the going rate for teeth?

May 14, 2012 by Jana 21 Comments

I have crossed many thresholds in my parenting journey thus far: sleeping through the night, teething, potty training, weaning off bottles, ear piercing, finishing daycare and preschool (2 more payments, or 4 more weeks, to go and then we’re done!)…lots of accomplishments in her 5 1/2 years. But this weekend we crossed one more. And it is by far the one I’ve been dreading the most.

My daughter has her first loose tooth.

Loose teeth are disgusting. They completely and totally gross me out. I can’t even think about one without shuddering (much like I cannot think about lice or the chicken pox without having severe bouts of itching). In fact, it is the one thing I’ve told my husband I cannot handle. Blood, vomit, diarrhea, broken bones, bee stings, splinters…I can handle all of that. But a loose tooth sends me running for the hills (or underneath my desk. Whichever is closer). So when I realized my daughter’s tooth was loose, I got freaked out.

And then I thought of the tooth fairy. Which freaked me out even more.

When I was a kid (back in the 80s), I’m fairly certain I got about $1 for my first lost tooth and about a quarter for every tooth after that. My parents were cute about it at first. They did the whole tooth fairy thing and went out of their way to make me think that she was sneaky enough to come into my room and leave money under my pillow. I believed it, too, until I was about 7 and they would just fork over the money after the tooth was out. I was thrilled with that quarter and raced to my room to put it in my “piggy” bank (ah, to be 7 again. Or need quarters for laundry day). But if I’m to understand it correctly, the tooth fairy has increased her prices dramatically. And I’m not sure why.

I don’t think teeth are more valuable now than they were 30 years ago. So I’ve been trying to speculate on why, from what I understand, the going rate for a tooth is around $5 a tooth yes, $5 a tooth. I’m as shocked as you are. Unless you have kids. Then maybe you’re not so shocked). Maybe the tooth fairy’s expenses have gone up and she’s just passing that along to the rest of us. Maybe she feels that she needs a raise because, unlike Santa who works one night a year, she has to work every day, dammit, travelling all over the world and having to remember the exchange rates and not leave a Canadian coin under an American child’s pillow; that’s a shit ton of work. Maybe she’s sick of people thinking she’s not real and she’s just extorting us as payback. I don’t know. What I do know is that the price of teeth is out of control.

My husband and I haven’t discussed how we’re going to handle payment for the lost teeth (which, if you think about it, is kind of weird. We’re giving her money for losing a tooth. I would like to get money for losing something. How about the next time I lose my keys, I make my husband give me $3? Do you think he’d go for that?). We do know that losing the whole set is going to put us back $100. In the grand scheme of things, $100 isn’t a great deal of money since she won’t lose all of her teeth at once but still–$5 a tooth seems a bit steep. I’m thinking we do an inflated version of what my parents did. $5 for the first tooth and $1 or $2 for every other tooth.

Another option is to agree to pay her $5 per tooth and then have a “tooth fund”. Since we know they’re going to fall out and she has 20 of them, we know we’re going to have to pay $100. Also, we know that we have some time before the first one falls out, which gives us time to save the money. I feel kind of ridiculous having a savings account for teeth but I don’t want her to think the tooth fairy is stiffing her. That would be unfair.

I feel ridiculous that I’m agonizing over her losing her teeth but it’s a pretty big deal. The tooth fairy is almost a rite of passage; every kid deserves to have a visit, including my daughter. I just don’t want to be extorted by a make-believe fairy responsible for making parents pay, literally, for the most disgusting part of raising a child.

Parents of kids who’ve lost teeth, how much did you pay? Any suggestions on how we should handle this?

Book Review: Wealth Watchers

May 11, 2012 by Jana 5 Comments

I recently had the chance to read Alice Wood’s “Wealth Watchers”. I was a bit skeptical at first since the cover of the book says “A Simple Program to Help You Spend Less and Save More”; after all, I’ve gotten pretty good at managing my money and I have a pretty good handle on what we spend. But I’ll tell you what. I liked the book AND I learned something.

The concept of Wealth Watchers is based on the Weight Watchers program. Instead of points, you get a Daily Disposable Income target. In other words, you create a budget based on your fixed and variable expenses and, based on that, you can calculate how much income you have to spend per day without going into debt. It’s pretty simple.

Another component to Wealth Watchers is tracking. Ms. Wood advocates writing down each and every purchase you make (and provides complimentary journal pages at the end of the book. There’s also an app available for free. The app is easy to use and makes tracking your spending really, really easy) in order to stay on target. Writing down your purchases forces you to do two things: one, really think about whether or not the purchase is “tracking worthy” and two, really think about whether or not the purchase is even necessary.

Ms. Wood does not, at any point, suggest that you cut out any item from your budget. Rather, she advocates figuring out how to incorporate everything that’s important to you into your budget by calculating your DDI. Knowing that number means you can allow yourself that Starbucks or lunch with co-workers. As long as it’s in your budget and won’t put you into debt, you can have it.

Of importance: this is not a how-to manual for getting out of debt. This is a book that is geared towards managing your money and affording what’s important. Ms. Wood is clearly averse to debt but she does not give directions or instructions on how to eliminate what debt you do have. However, if you are trying to get out of debt, this program is a great tool because it gives you a clear picture of where your money is going and a way to ensure that you only use that money. Since I believe that having a budget is one of the key elements towards getting out of debt, Wealth Watchers fits that philosophy perfectly.

One of the elements of the book I enjoyed the most, besides the testimonials from people who’ve used the program, is Ms. Wood’s infusion of personal examples into her program components. She tells how she’s used the program to help her get her finances in order after a brain injury, and how it’s made her and her family more conscious of their spending. Since they are all accountable to each other, it makes them more successful at following the program. It also makes her relatable and real instead of some expert who’s never known what it’s like to be in debt or have to watch her spending. Knowing this makes it easier to listen to what she has to say.

I believe that if I had this program available to me when I first started controlling my finances, I would have used it. In fact, I’m considering using it now that I’m in the midst of my no spend May and due to some big changes that are in store for my family (no, I’m not pregnant. We know that’s virtually impossible. But it is something pretty big. Well, big for me). It’s really an easy, simple to follow program and I do recommend at least checking out the book from the library or visiting the website.

Note: I was not compensated for this review and the opinions are entirely mine. However, I did receive a free copy of the book.

Why we’ll never be a 1 car family

May 9, 2012 by Jana 19 Comments

I loathe cars. Everything about them annoys me. Repairs, getting gas, sitting in traffic, shopping for them, regular maintenance…all of it. I dream of living in a city with good public transportation and having a membership to ZipCar or something like that. But alas, that is not my life. No, my life is that of a 2 car family. And no matter how much I wish to change it, it is just not practical for my family to only have 1 car.

Even when we were in the throes of paying down our debt, we had to maintain 2 cars. It was expensive and annoying but we had to do it, mainly for these reasons:

Public transportation where I live is horrible. We have no rail system save for a few trains running to Philadelphia and a few stops before that. If you work in the northern part of the state and work in the middle or southern part of the state (like my husband) there is no way to take a train. And the buses? Are a joke. They’re never on time and traveling by bus takes forever. When I was in grad school, I had a professor who did a study of how long it took to go grocery shopping using just the buses. She found that it took 3 hours to travel to and from the store. Considering I live a 5 minute car ride from the nearest supermarket, it doesn’t make sense to take the bus.
My husband and I work in complete opposite directions. Our house is in the middle of our offices. Although carpooling would be fantastic, and we did do it when we both worked in the same city, it just doesn’t work now. There is no conceivable way for me to get him to work and then myself to work on time (not to mention getting the kid to school) and without spending a freaking fortune in gas. Should I quit my job, it becomes a bit more feasible to give up one car but I highly doubt that it is practical.
I live within walking distance of absolutely nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true. I live near a HUGE park but I have to play Frogger across 2 major roads to get there. I’ve never been good at arcade games, especially not in the real life version. Although I have what to do at my house and my very small neighborhood has a playground, it’s easy for my daughter and I to get a little stir crazy. Having a car means that we can go to the library or the park or wherever we need to go without having to drive all over the state to get the car from my husband (or drive him to and from work). It saves our sanity and gives us choices.
I have major paranoia issues. This is also the reason I still have a landline. I am terrified that something bad is going to happen and I’m going to be trapped (and without a phone). If we are a 1 car family, that means my husband has our car (since I’m home right now) and I become helpless in the event of an emergency. That is not something I can handle.

If my family were in a very dire financial situation, I would let one of our cars go. Maybe. At this point, we own both of our cars and the only savings we’d get is in gas and insurance which would make some difference but not enough to give up a car entirely. Unless we wind up in a situation like we did with my husband’s previous car (which was my car from high school); repairing that car cost more than the car was worth and we were spending that money about every 4 months. Then it would make sense to go down to 1 car.

Hopefully that day won’t come and we’ll never have to make that decision. So, for now, we’ll stick with our 2 cars. No matter how ridiculously annoying they are.