Jana Says

Financial Simplicity Carnival #4: The Rushified edition

March 25, 2012 by Jana 13 Comments

You know when you set out to see a movie because it looks like it’s going to be great and then you watch it and something happens that makes it even greater? That’s what happened to me when I saw I Love You, Man for the first time. Why? Because a central part of the movie is the band Rush. And if you didn’t already know, Rush is my most favoritest band of all time. I’m completely serious, too.

Which is why I thought it would be totally fitting to use during my turn hosting The Financial Simplicity Carnival, created by Nick from Step Away From the Mall. When I learned he was creating a carnival, I knew it would be awesome but it’s turning out to be even better than I expected. Just like I Love You, Man.

So…

Are you ready to get your mind blown? You wanna get some Neil Peart all up in ya? Well, prepared to be…Rushified!!!! Oh, and there are some pretty great blog posts thrown in there, too.

Editor’s Pick

Rush song: “Dreamline” Album: Roll The Bones. Sample lyric: “We are young, wandering the face of the Earth, Wondering what our dreams might be worth, learning that we’re only immortal, For a limited time”

Posts: 5 Business Lessons Learned From Monopoly from Faith and Finance and How Does Credit Card Interest Work from Ready for Zero. Completely different posts, both fantastic to read.

Debt Reduction

Rush Song: “Stick It Out” Album: Counterparts Sample lyric: “Trial under fire, Ultimate proof, Moment of crisis, Don’t swallow the truth”

Posts: Why Have an Emergency Fund from See Debt Run; Get Out of Debt in 2012: Fix Your Credit Report from Yes, I Am Cheap; Why We Plateau and What To Do Next from American Debt Project; How We Paid Off Debt from My Money Counselor

Investing

Rush Song: “The Big Money” Album: Power Windows Sample lyric: “It’s the power and the glory, It’s a war in paradise, A Cinderella story, On a tumble of the dice”

Posts: Women Investors from Family Money Values; Starting to Invest from Thirty-Six Months; Grow Your Nest Egg with Automatic Retirement Contributions from Free From Broke; Why You Should Save for Retirement in Graduate School, Part 1 from Evolving Personal Finance

Spending/Budgeting

Rush Song: “Show Don’t Tell” Album: Presto Sample lyric: “You can twist perceptions, Reality won’t budge, You can raise objections, I will be the judge, And the jury”

Posts: My Infamous Cereal Aisle Meltdown from Debt Black Hole; How Do You Choose Your Bank from Boomer and Echo; Money Can Be Fun: Games That Can Teach About Money from Credit Cards Canada; Expenses to Get Set Up in Bangkok from Money Infant; Folly of Paying Someone to Cook for You from Modest Money

Making Money

Rush Song: “Working Man” Album: Rush Sample Lyric: “I get up at seven, yeah, And I go to work by nine, Got no time for livin’, yes, I’m working all the time”

Posts: Index Funds Win Big from Free Money Finance; Killer Jobs: Do You Have One from The Millionaire Nurse Blog; The Only 3 Ways To Get a Sweet Ass Government Job from Cult of Money

And now I leave you with the video for one of my favorite Rush songs, “Time Stand Still”. There’s a quiz, too: Who’s the chick in the video and what famous 80s band was she in?

http://youtu.be/UTFHwTKWawU

Sharing Saturday #16

March 24, 2012 by Jana 1 Comment

I should be calling this week’s installment “Sharing Saturday: The Selfish Edition” because it’s all about me. I’m hosting The Financial Simplicity Carnival this week (tomorrow, to be exact. So make sure you get your entries in!) and I didn’t want to write two huge round-up posts in one weekend. So instead, I’m just sharing all the shots I left around the interwebs this week. And man, was I prolific.

First, I started my new site, The Jealousy Files. It’s a whole new side to me and my writing so make sure you stop by. We’re having a good time over there. You don’t want to miss out.

After that, I had a bunch of other posts on some terrific sites:

What Does Rich Look Like at The Tight Fisted Miser

Using a Schedule to Stay Focused at Online Money Bloggers

I Do Trust You. Because We Did This at Enemy of Debt

Preparing for Baby at The Dog Ate My Wallet

Increasing Productivity With a Light Workload at Prairie Eco Thrifter

Why Having a Dining Out Budget Is Important at Dining Out Challenge

It turns on a dime

March 23, 2012 by Jana 12 Comments

As I’ve mentioned here on numerous occasions, I am the proud mother of one beautiful daughter. She’s smart and funny and creative and imaginative and talkative and lovable and all of the other wonderful adjectives that you can use to describe a child. And she really is all of those. I’m blessed to have her. Except there’s one little problem.

That child has the biggest attitude problem I have ever encountered in my life.

Unfortunately, what happens when you raise a smart, fiercely independent little girl, you also have the side effect of a child who a) likes to think for herself; b) speaks her mind; and c) refuses to cooperate with any direction until she decides its time to cooperate. I get told no more often than you can imagine and, when I tell her something, I get the hands-on-the-hips, snotty voiced “Mommy, I know that already”. She corrects the way I speak (my New York accent is extremely difficult to get rid of and it drives her crazy). It makes my blood boil. Especially the “nos”. Over everything from cleaning up her toys to brushing her teeth to…well, you name it, my child will say no. In the meanest, rudest way possible. Even the simplest task request turns into an drama filled tantrum of epic proportions. And really, I’ve had it.

Taking away toys and TV time had no effect. Threatening to not take her to birthday parties didn’t work. Yelling, ignoring her, time outs…absolutely nothing was working to correct this child’s defiant and nasty behavior. So I decided to hit her where it really hurts. Her piggy bank.

Like her mommy, my daughter loves to read about money, learn about money and collecting loose change in her piggy bank provides her endless amounts of job. So, what better punishment than, when she tells me no over a simple (or complicated or whatever) direction or speaks to me in that horrible manner, to tell her she owes me a dime. Ten cents. Every time she says no. I think this is brilliant. Mainly because it’s the only punishment that means something to her.

We had the first installment of this punishment the other night. And she freaked out. Like, seriously freaked out. Which is good, because I know that it actually means something. I didn’t move right to taking the money. I told her to clean up her toys, she looked at me and, with all seriousness and in that voice, said “What do you think I’m doing, Mommy?” At first, I was shocked that she spoke to me like that (although, I was shocked that I was shocked). I gave her a warning about her attitude and let her know what would happen if it didn’t stop. And then…she did it again! So I let her know that she owed me ten cents. Then, I made her come into her room and watch me take it from her bank (I wanted her to understand that I was serious).

I will spare you the details of what happened next but let’s just say it was ugly (but, in a small victory for me, I didn’t have to listen to “Jake and The Neverland Pirates” for the next two days). However, the next morning she did say to me “Mommy, I’m going to make better choices today”, so that’s encouraging. We’ll see how this continues, and if need be, I’ll up the ante and take a quarter. I’m not above it.

As far as what I’m doing with the money, I’m putting it in a jar in the kitchen where she can see it. I want her to have a visual of all the time she’s said no and what it literally cost her. With my daughter, it’s easier to explain things that she can see instead of just giving an abstract concept (it’s also why we have a chore chart on the fridge and sort her toys in specific ways). Having it in the kitchen is also a reminder to her of her need to watch her mouth and her behavior.

I haven’t fully decided what I’m going to do with the money once her behavior improves enough that I can stop making her pay me. Knowing me, I’ll probably take her to lunch or buy her a book. But I know that the most practical choice is to put it back in her bank and add it to her savings. So maybe I should do that instead.

Dimes may be small but they are powerful. To a 5 year old, anyway.

Shameless self-promotion (and a little financial advice)

March 22, 2012 by Jana 8 Comments

I have no real post for you today. I apologize. I really wanted to provide you with some of my normal, witty insights but sadly, life is kicking me in the ass and forming coherent thoughts and sentences has fallen to the bottom of the pile. There’s a doozy of a post coming up next week (do people even say that anymore? “Doozy”? If not, I’m starting a campaign to bring it back. Maybe I’ll even ask Justin Timberlake to write a song about it) explaining what I can explain without crimes being committed against me (that’s a long story that’s really not worth sharing. Please trust me on that one).

Part of the reason I’m swamped is because I launched another site. Yes, that’s right. Another site. But this one is unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It’s a completely different side of myself and my writing and I’m shamefully proud of it. It was an idea that came to me this past Saturday morning and by that afternoon, it was up and running (at the advice of my husband who suggested that I just get it started instead of waiting on it. He has a good idea every now and then).

You might have noticed that I’ve been tweeting about the new site (which will subside a bit once I get a chance to fully establish the new site’s Twitter feed) so maybe you’ve seen it. If not, it’s called The Jealousy Files. I feel obliged to say that the site design is really rudimentary right now. It’s in the middle of a face lift so in a couple of weeks, it’ll look really pretty. But for now, it’s all about the writing and not about the design. And quite frankly, it’s a little refreshing. Like getting back to my roots.

I guess since this is a personal finance blog, I should provide a piece of financial advice. With The Jealousy Files, I opted to start with a free WordPress site instead of a self-hosted (although I did by the domain name a few days later). I wanted to make sure that this is something that I was going to enjoy writing about and wouldn’t stress me out. I didn’t want to feel pressured to make it perfect. So, I did everything I could for free, which I suggest to anyone starting a new project or hobby. Whether it’s playing an instrument, a sport or crafting type hobby, figure out a way to try it out for free first. Then, if you like it (and are even a little good at it), start putting some money into the hobby or activity. Not having money invested takes some of the pressure off. Because if you don’t like it or show no aptitude for it, you haven’t lost anything but time. And sometimes, the time lost is worth the experience gained.

So, please, if you get a chance, go check out The Jealousy Files. I promise that it makes up for today’s non-post.

My husband and I don’t fight about money. Here’s why.

March 21, 2012 by Jana 24 Comments

My husband and I rarely fight about money. I swear that’s entirely true.

It used to not be this way. We used to have pretty severe battles over it. You know those fights? The ones where you start trying to rationally talk about money until one of you says something that makes the other angry and the conversation spirals out of control until you’re not fighting about money anymore but something completely unrelated and you can’t stop screaming? Yeah, we’ve had one or two of those. They occurred primarily because we just were not on the same page about a) how we balanced our checkbook; b) what our goals were; and c) we had absolutely no wiggle room at all. The last one was mainly due to poor planning. The rest were simply due to the fact that we operate in completely different ways (and I must point out, my way is logical. His is not. I swear that’s entirely true).

Then I couldn’t take it anymore. I was tired of fighting. Tired of being confused, frustrated and broke. We had to get in same book, never mind the same page. So, one day, using my rules for a peaceful budget meeting, we sat down and figured things out. Here’s what we did:

I showed him how much money we were wasting on small $3 and $4 purchases. One month, it added up to over $300 or so. It was disturbing, actually. He finally got the point that small purchases make big differences and agreed to stop making them if…
…I agreed to figure out how to give us each an “allowance” every payday. Part of why he was spending that money was because he didn’t feel like he had any freedom in our money. He also felt that since we work our asses off, we deserve a little bit of it. I told him I understood and conceded that perhaps an allowance of some sorts every payday wouldn’t hurt.
We set goals and target dates (or rough estimates of target dates) for paying off our debt. We also agreed on a plan for paying off our debt. One that we formulated together, not one of us dictating to the other how it would get done. Having mutually agreed upon goals and dates prevented both of us from feeling that we had no control.
We agreed that I would be completely responsible for handling our day to day expenses and he was responsible for more long-term stuff like investing (since I don’t understand it at all). Neither one would make unilateral decisions but the bulk of the heavy lifting in each area was designated to one person.
We developed a budget. It wasn’t perfect but it was a start. And it was better than the abstract nonsense we had been using prior.
We decided that having a his, hers and ours system was going to be best for us. We had a joint account that was used for everything but my husband felt like he was being lorded over and I was tired of asking him for receipts (remember how I said we had totally different styles? Well, mine involves balancing my account whenever I make a purchase or withdrawal and his involves doing what he wants and hoping for the best). Neither one of us had ever let our individual accounts close but we decided that our allowances would be deposited into our personal accounts and that would be our no questions asked money. Whatever we wanted to do with the money in our individual accounts was just fine.

I think the last point is what really prevents the arguments. We know that our joint bills and expenses are met and the fact that we each have some cash to use how we want gives us that feeling of freedom and independence. It’s nice to buy nail polish or books or lunch with friends without having to be accountable or feel like I’m wasting our money. I know he feels the same way.

Working together is a huge relief. There are no surprises in our budget or our expenses; everything is open and up for discussion. We’re meeting our goals. We don’t hide money or purchases from each other, and there’s never any lying about paychecks (I know people who lie to their spouses about how much money they make. I find this disturbing on so many levels). It nice to know that when it comes to financial matters, the arguments we do have are few and far between. And never involve tangential craziness.

Most of the time…