Jana Says

What downward dog taught me about money

November 9, 2011 by Jana 17 Comments

A couple of months ago, I was given the gift of free yoga classes at a yoga studio near my house. Since I enjoy yoga, I decided to give a try. I’m glad I did. While I’m not sure that I’ll sign up for more classes on my own, it’s been an interesting experience and I’ll definitely finish the entire series of classes (I’m hoping that my opinion is not being tainted by the fact that the classes were free).

As I was going through the 90 minute class, noticed a few things:

The room was the hottest room I’d ever been in. It was like practicing yoga inside of an oven. I half expected there to be cupcakes baking in the corner of the room, it was that hot.
There were a lot more people in there than I had planned on. These classes are not cheap and the studio is in a somewhat shady shopping center. I was not expecting the 20 or so people who were in the room with me.
The number of “real” people greatly outnumbered the amount of college students (have I mentioned that I live very close to a major university?). This was actually comforting on a weird level.

I also learned that, no matter how hard I try, I cannot turn my brain off. In fact, as I was going through the class, I couldn’t help but think of all the ways learning yoga is like paying off debt:

It’s uncomfortable and very, very sweaty

When you first start learning the different yoga poses, it is awkward, uncomfortable and weird. Your body twists and turns into positions that you never thought it could. You’re sitting or standing or lunging in ways that, really, feel anything but normal. You want so much to give up and sit or stand in a way that feels right to you. But you need to keep going until it stops being uncomfortable. You will also sweat. A lot. You will sweat in places you didn’t know you could sweat. Which makes it all the more uncomfortable

When you start to pay off debt, it feels uncomfortable to say no to the new TV or gadget or vacation. It’s awkward to start cooking at home. It’s unnatural to pay off debt instead of accruing more. Eventually, though, you get used to the uncomfortable and sometimes sweaty situations involved in paying down debt. After a while, it’s not so hard or uncomfortable anymore.

You need to check your ego at the door

No one who starts out doing yoga is any good at it. If you expect to be perfect, don’t even try. The truth of the matter is, you will look ridiculous no matter how hard you try not to. You will make mistakes. You’ll probably fall down. But it’s okay. Everyone else in the room is in the same position (pun sort of intended). Also? No one is looking at you. They’re too busy concentrating on not falling down to worry if you look like an ass. And you certainly can’t be afraid to ask for help. There is no room to be self-conscious.

Just like paying off debt. It’s fine if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s fine to ask for help. It’s acceptable to look a little foolish. It’s absolutely fine, and somewhat expected, that you’re going to fall on your ass. But don’t be embarrassed. Don’t be scared to ask for help from someone who’s been in your shoes. Everyone who’s ever been in your situation has done the exact same thing you’re doing now and we’re more than happy to talk to you.

It forces you to look at yourself

The front of the yoga studio is lined with mirrors. The instructor stands directly in front of the mirror so the rest of class is forced to face here, therefore facing the mirrors as well. I hate looking at myself, especially for extended periods of time. I wind up examining every flaw that I have (perceived or real). However, the mirrors are there so I can see if I’m doing the poses as correctly as possible; they are an accurate reflection of what I’m doing. You can’t lie to a mirror, especially if you want to improve.

Budgets are the mirrors of personal finance. You can’t get out of debt if you don’t have a budget. Putting down, on paper, what you’re doing in terms of saving, spending, debts, bills–they all paint an accurate picture of how you’re spending your money. Budgets provide a reflection of your finances. And if you want to get out of debt, or manage your money better, you need to take a look at your budget.

The vocabulary is weird

Yoga is full of all kinds of strange words that not only can I not pronounce, I cannot even begin to spell. When you first start doing yoga, you typically spend the majority of the class smiling and nodding and acting like you understand what’s being said. But the more you hear the words, and the more you learn to associate them with certain poses and actions, the less strange the words become. They actually wind up becoming a normal part of your vocabulary, and you forget that at one point, you had no clue what those words meant. Learning these words makes you more effective at your yoga practice.

The same thing happens with personal finance terms. They’re intimidating at first. You act like you know what they mean while making a mental note to Google them as soon as you get a chance. But the more you learn, the more you immerse yourself in understanding personal finance, the less intimidating the terms become. They become a part of your standard vernacular. And then you can’t imagine not knowing them. Learning these terms makes you more effective at managing your money and getting handle on your debts and your goals.

Having the proper equipment is essential

One of my favorite parts of yoga is the fact that you don’t need to wear shoes. For the most part, I hate shoes. I would wear flip-flops or go barefoot all the time if I could. Plus, I usually have fun toenail polish that I like to show off. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t need any equipment. You need a mat, water (lots of water) and comfortable clothes. Without these pieces of equipment, doing yoga is going to be extremely difficult. No matter how good your intentions are when you start, if you’re not properly equipped, you won’t last.

When you start to take control of your finances, you need the proper equipment. You need a pen and paper or a spreadsheet. You need a good book or website to give you direction. You need a support network to help you through. You need to let those who are close to you know what you’re doing. You need specific and personal motivation to keep going when things are tough. Without these mechanisms in place, it’ll be easy to quit. And you certainly don’t want to do that.

I also learned one final lesson in my yoga classes: Inevitably, someone will mistakenly fart. And you cannot laugh, no matter how much you want to (you also realize how much self-control you actually have when you’re trying not to laugh). Not just because we’re adults but because it’s not nice to laugh at someone’s mistake. Just like sometimes, when someone’s paying off debt, she’ll make a mistake. Or two or five. And it’s not nice to laugh at her either.

It’s my 116th post! And I’m giving something away!–CLOSED

November 7, 2011 by Jana 39 Comments

My life has become an insane mess of crazy lately. Remember how I said I was going to take some time off from teaching? Well, I might have changed my mind. I did so because I have two nonmortgage debts left to pay off and teaching this class will mean that I will have to use less of my savings to finish paying off one of them next month. Since the class will end before my trip to Disney World, which is the main reason why I turned down the others, I decided to suck it up and teach.

When you combine the teaching with the personal things I have going on (not to mention that I will be taking yoga classes two nights a week), my life is getting out of hand. However, one constant in my life is the fact that we need to eat. I have become enamored with Erin Chase, The $5 Dollar Dinner Mom. I absolutely love her recipes–they’re easy, practical, use normal ingredients, don’t take more than 45 minutes to make and are inexpensive (she takes her name very seriously). If it were not for her cookbooks and website, I believe my family would not eat. Seriously.

So I’ve decided that I need to share her books with the world (and by world, I mean those of you who read this blog). Yes, it’s time for the very first Daily Money Shot giveaway! I’m giving away copies of both of Erin’s books to one lucky winner.

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Managing the charity creep

November 4, 2011 by Jana 8 Comments

Lots of bloggers are talking about how quickly Christmas (and Hanukkah) are approaching. With the Christmas creep happening sooner and sooner, it feels like Christmas is coming way sooner than in about 8 weeks (which really is a long time). December is traditionally a difficult month, financially, due to both holidays as well as my daughter’s birthday. Since I know that these things happen every year, I budget accordingly and have never gone into debt for any of them.

But this post is not about how I plan for Hanukkah, Christmas and a birthday every year. No, this post is about something else that affects my budget every holiday season, and seems to be getting worse every year. This post is about the charity creep.

You all know what the charity creep is. It’s the onslaught of food drives, clothing drives, bake sales, Toys for Tots, Adopt A Family, Salvation Army bell ringers and pretty much anything else you can think of that involves you forking over money for a good cause. But there are just so many! Everywhere you turn, someone else is asking for money or goods for those who are less fortunate. This totally plays on our guilt that we have so much and we need to give back to those less fortunate, especially at the holidays (which is actually a term that bugs me to no end). Which is a concept I 100% agree with. And a concept that I practice year round, even without “the holidays”. But I digress…

When the charity creep starts setting in, if you’re anything like me, you get nervous and sweaty and anxious. After all, how do you discriminate between so many worthwhile causes? The easy answer is don’t discriminate. Give to all of them. But that’s insane and an unreasonable expectation. Another answer would be to just pick one that resonates the most with you (food bank, animal shelter, whatever). This involves looking at your values and deciding what you value more, which is not always pretty. A third answer would be to just not give to anyone at all and hoard all of your money for yourself. But that’s not nice. A fourth answer would be to just put all the options on pieces of paper in a hat and randomly pick one. It’s totally objective and gives each charity an equal chance.

Sadly, I don’t have any solid advice that would point you in a specific direction (except to make sure that the charity you’re giving to is legit. If you see a coffee can on a counter that says “Money for Poor Peopel” (spelling mistake is intentional), it’s probably not real). What I can do for you is tell you what I do and hope that it helps.

Years ago, my husband and I made a collective decision that we would donate to one food drive, participate in Toys for Tots, and give to the Salvation Army bell ringers. We discussed giving to a local animal shelter but instead of doing that, I give directly, from an automatic paycheck deduction, to an organization that has a Trap, Neuter, and Release program. My in-laws also donate money every year in my daughter’s name to a charity of their choosing (let’s not discuss this now. I get way too fired up about it). However, even among those general categories, it’s still hard to pick which food drive, etc. So we took the lazy way out. We went with convenience.

Every year, my daughter’s school sponsors a food drive and has an Angel Tree. Since we have to go there every single day, it makes for an easy drop off location. We just put the items with her things so when we leave in the morning, we just grab the donations, too. To afford it, we put a few extra dollars in the food budget, or look in the pantry, and give that to the food drive. For the Angel Tree, we pick two “ornaments” and set a price limit for each toy. What’s nice about using her school, especially for the Angel Tree, is that we know exactly where the items are going and there’s no question as to whether they’re getting to the intended recipients.

This year, though, I’m adding in something extra. Every year, the morning show that I listen to (Preston and Steve) does a Camp Out For Hunger. The literally live in a camper for 5 days and people bring donations that benefit Philabundance, the largest food bank in the Delaware Valley. Although I live close enough to Philly, it’s really hard to get there during the assigned drop off times. However, there is now the ability to donate online through the Acme (Albertson’s) website, and it can be done in values of $10, $25 or $50 and it’s all food donations, not money. I typically wouldn’t do a donation like this but P&S are really famous and influential in this area, and I’m confident they wouldn’t do anything to screw that up.

So that’s how I manage the charity creep. What do you do?

The price of a vice

November 2, 2011 by Jana 16 Comments

Here’s a fact about me: I hate coffee. Like really, passionately hate coffee. There is nothing about coffee that I find enticing or desirable. It smells bad, it tastes bad, it gives you disgusting breath. It is a vile, awful drink.

My hatred of coffee is not arbitrary. There’s a real reason behind it. The reason? Is my 11th grade math teacher. He had the worst coffee breath of anyone ever. And he always had putrid coffee sitting in a mug that never looked quite clean enough. And I had the good fortune to sit right in front of his desk, during first period, at 7:30 in the morning when the smell was nice and fresh. Every day. For an entire school year. Needless to say, it traumatized me. Traumatized me to the point that I never, ever drink coffee. Ever. (I also have a severe hatred of anything orange smelling/flavored but that is another story for another time). In fact, no form of coffee is acceptable. Unless it’s a Coffee Crisp. Those are totally acceptable.

My aversion to coffee got me thinking. When someone is trying to cut expenses, what is one of the first suggestions? Make coffee at home. I understand the suggestion. Typically, when you make something at home, you spend a lot less money than if you get it somewhere else (clarification: this applies mainly to food. Usually. There are circumstances where food in a restaurant is cheaper than making the same food at home). I would assume that this applies to coffee as well. Or does it? Let’s examine (admin note: these numbers come from my mother. I love her but she is not the most reliable source for prices. And, as always, prices fluctuate based on brand, location, amounts, preferences, etc. The prices used are Long Island prices).

Scenario #1: Purchasing coffee from Dunkin Donuts. From my understanding (read: information from my mother), a medium coffee from DD costs approximately $3. Assuming one coffee per day, 7 days per week, someone would spend $21 per week. Average monthly cost: $84

Scenario #2: Making coffee at home. Again from my understanding (again, information from my mother), a pound of coffee costs around $10, filters are $2 for 100, a standard coffee maker is around $35. A reusable coffee mug (’cause if we’re saving money, we’re going to save the environment, too) costs around $10. That’s a total of $57 just to get started. Based on my scientific research (Google search), a pound of coffee lasts roughly 2 weeks, so that’s 2 pounds of coffee every month. Then let’s assume that you need one of those fancy flavor things (because I can’t imagine even wanting to taste coffee without some enhancement). So that’s what? An extra $4 per week, or $20 per month. I won’t factor in milk or sugar since you’d probably buy those anyway and the amount is nominal. Average monthly cost after start-up costs: $42

The monthly savings is around $42 for making coffee at home. That’s a pretty hefty difference for someone trying to make ends meet or trying to meet a savings goal. $42 can go a long way and represent a big surplus in a budget.

Obviously, there are a ton of variables at play: how much a person drinks, how big of a size coffee is purchased from DD, if the coffee is bought from somewhere other than DD, the brand of store bought coffee that is used. These will all affect the net savings. But the point that making coffee at home is, overall, cheaper than purchasing coffee from DD or Wawa or Starbucks is not lost. Mathematically, it makes sense. And if you’re struggling or need to free up extra money, this is a good place to start.

Of course, I advocate that everyone gives up coffee altogether. Because when I rule the world? That will happen.

1469914113_4fb1152270 — Coffee beans are the root of all evil

Money Tune Tuesday: Cry Tough

November 1, 2011 by Jana 12 Comments

I really wanted to come up with something witty, smart and important to say about Occupy Wall Street. I sat and sat and sat, staring at my computer screen, trying to articulate how I feel about the movement. But I couldn’t. I have so many mixed emotions, and many of them start with the fact that I can’t figure out what the hell they actually want to accomplish. I can’t figure out what general, cohesive concept that they stand for. I get that they’re frustrated and desperate, and want things to change, but after spending hours (seriously, hours) on their blog, many of them just come across as whiny, spoiled brats who can’t accept the fact that they made poor choices. Granted, some stories are heart-wrenching and make me want to cry, but usually I just get pissed. I’m not pissed that their exercising their Constitutional right to free speech nor am I pissed that they’re taking time away from looking for a job to protest (how they use their time is none of my concern) nor am I pissed that they’re standing up for what they believe is right and just (whatever that may be). No, I’m mainly pissed because I hate that they claim to represent 99% of the population and not one of them ever asked me if I wanted them speaking for me. Because you know what? I don’t. I do just fine speaking for myself. And for the record, the 1% and the 53% don’t speak for me either.

During one of the many hours I’ve spent on their blog, I noticed that Our Lady Peace, a band I generally like, wrote a song about the movement, “Fight the Good Fight”. Like the movement in general, I don’t know what I think about the song. I respect what OLP did, highlighting the protesters and quoting their handmade signs in the lyrics and giving somewhat mainstream support to the movement (I did enjoy the one sign that quoted Rage Against the Machine) but I have very (VERY) strong opinions about actors and musicians getting all up on a political soapbox. Even though this is my blog, my own soapbox if if you will, I’m not going to share those opinions.

No, instead, I’m going to offer a slightly different opinion on the OWS movement, particularly in response to those who say that they can’t fulfill their dreams for whatever reason they use (it varies from person to person). I feel that it is possible to achieve your dreams, even if you have to modify them a little bit. I’ll use myself as an example. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I dream of being a prolific and well-received author along the lines of Jen Lancaster or Jodi Picoult. But you know what? I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. I’m OK with that because I’ve found other ways to make my dream of being a writer come true. I’ve also learned that no one, absolutely no one, but me is going to make my dreams happen. And I have to work my ass off for it. And I will.

For today’s money tune, I chose Poison’s “Cry Tough”. I know you’re thinking that I’m out of my mind to chose a 25 year old song by, of all bands, Poison, to express a counteropinion to OWS (and, depending on how you interpret the lyrics, it can support the movement, too). Since the video is hard to watch (the teased hair and clown make-up are tough to look at it), here are the lyrics:

Remember the nights we’ve sat
and talked about all our dreams
Well little did we know then
they were more distant than they seemed
Well I knew it
and you knew it too
The things we’d go through
We knew the things we had to do
to make it, baby

Chorus:
You gotta cry tough
Out on the streets
To make your dreams happen
You gotta cry out
Out to the world
To make them all come true

Life ain’t no easy ride
At least that’s what I am told
Sometimes a rainbow baby
is better than a pot of gold, well
You’ve got to stick it out
whether you’re wrong or right
And you can’t give in without a fight
to make it baby

Chorus

You gotta aim high, baby
whether you lose or win
And when you get to the top
You gotta get off and go right back down again

And, in case you want to watch it, here’s the video: