Working With Microsoft Money and Paying Bills

I downloaded the trial version of Microsoft Money Advanced. I'm a little lost, but I'll keep working on it. I really don't have anything else to report on that, except that I'm still working on it.

So.



I did some hand calculations (actually I used Excel), and I've decided to pay off the car before the CCs. My car has a monstrous interest rate, and since I'm already paying a lot on it, I can get it paid quickly. Even taking into account a few stumbles, I should be able to have the car paid off in September--October the latest.

Above is my cost comparison of CAR vs CC payment. It's really obscure, but the PURPLE is how much "free" money I can leverage if I pay towards the car vs paying towards the GREEN credit cards. This is taking into account some money I should be seeing, which I'm not going to explain now. I can leverage more money, faster, if I get the car paid off. Then I can attack the CC with a veracious appetite.

I know that conventional wisdom says to get the CCs first, but I'm not going to listen. Sorry.

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Pay off low interest credit cards or higher interest loans?

So this is the new dilema. I have now paid off all my high interest credit cards, and I need to decide whether I should work on the remaining credit cards, or start paying off my other higher-interest loans. My credit cards are at 0% and 2.99%, for the life of the loans. Well, the 0% requires me to make 3 purchases a month to keep that rate, but I have it set up to buy one iTunes song ($0.99), one WalMart song ($0.88), and I got credit protection, which costs $2.99 a month (that's a side issue--is credit protection worth it???). This is far from perfect, but it's also not the worst deal in the world.

My car loan, which is now at about $4,000, has an almost 10% interest. I know, that was a horrible deal. I will pay almost $400 in interst this year on that car.

God, it makes me so angry when I see how much money I give away.

In about two months, I will get a check for approximately $1200 from work for the class I am currently taking. I only have about $400 a month outside of debt and (minimal) expenses. Even with the $1200, it would take about eight months to pay off the rest of that loan.

Other factors to consider: I'm almost certainly going to Hamline in September. At that point, I can defer my student loans. Also, I should be getting a promotion in October. Also... I could (a very small voice is telling me) stop contributing to my retirement.

Ah!!!!!!! I'm going for a run.

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Jackpot! And Monthly Expenses

Here's the information that I was looking for. It's on the American Public Transportation Association's website (again, click on the image to expand it).

This is a good estimate. The numbers are close to my actual costs, wrt to gas and oil, so I'll assume they're close for everything else. The reason I was looking for these numbers was because I'm fairly certain I should be putting money aside for car maintenance, instead of covering it as it occurs because I never have enough money to pay for damages.

SO.

I drive about 1000 miles a month, and at the MIDSIZE car rate of 5.8 cents/mile for repairs, that comes to $58/month.

Another expense that tends to bite me in the butt is gifts. Now, assume I spend $35/gift. Assume 5 b-day gifts/year. Assume 12 Christmas presents. Assume 3 general presents (Weddings, etc). That's 20 presents a year, or $700/year for gifts, which breaks down to: (ha!) another $58/month. That comes to about $120/month for both.

Now, I NEED to put this money aside.

SO.

I (just) set up an HSBC account that withdraws from my Wells Fargo account. It took about ten minutes, all online. This account offers a 5.05% interest rate, which kicks the shit out of the 0.25% (or whatever) Wells Fargo pays. I was in the process of setting up a Wells savings account when I remembered the HSBC. I had to stop the nice woman from completing the transaction. She was a little embarrassed when I explained why I wasn't going to go through with it. I felt like a Runaway Bride. I set up the HSBC with $1, because the second deposit gets a 6% interest. It will be a week before all the paperwork goes through. I was immediately accepted, but I have to wait for my access code to come via snail mail, and then I can deposit the rest of the money.
SO.
Here's the rundown for the month:

BEFORE MY MONTHLY PAYMENTS (the only thing I might be off on is the car loan, but if so, I’m over, not under)

School Loans:
$12551 - Wells Fargo (my account)
$3605 - Wells Fargo (my father's account -- money he took out for me that I pay back)
$1998 - Mac Loan (money I borrowed from the school itself)

Car:
$4600$4249 @ 9% APR

Credit Cards:
$0 - Wells Fargo Visa (wohoo!)
$519 @ @ 29.24%APR - Chase Visa
$3760 @ 0%APR – Discover (expires in April unless I make 3 purchases/mo)
$1706 @ 2% APR - American Express (life of loan)

GRAND TOTAL
$28739 $28388

SUBTOTAL
$5985 in credit card debt.
$18154 in school loans
$4600$4249 for my car

BILLS THAT GO OUT VIA WELLS FARGO AUTO-PAYMENTS
$40.00 AMEX
$45.00 Cingular
$50.00 Chase
$55.00 Macalester
$90.00 Car Ins
$100.00 Discover
$120.00 Wells Me
$120.00 Wells Dad
$130.00 Mom
$270.00 Car
$500.00 Rent
$1,520.00 (TOTAL BILLS)

EXPENSES
$120 - Gas
$550 - Food (have to look at this-I think this does include some entertainment)
$100 - Entertainment
$770 (TOTAL EXPENSES)

MONEY ON HAND
$2,350.96 – Wells Bank Account
$582 – Work Account
$2932 (TOTAL CASH ON HAND)

SO
My Total Bills + Total Expenses is: $2290
My Cash On Hand is: $2932
That means I have $642 left for the credit card machine… and I will give Chase an additional $469 to PAY IT OFF, and an additional $150 to AMEX (I’m keeping the extra few bucks)
(and… DONE!)

After my monthly payments

$12451 - Wells Fargo (my account)
$3505 - Wells Fargo (my father's account -- money he took out for me that I pay back)
$1946 - Mac Loan (money I borrowed from the school itself)

Car:
$4365$4095 @ 9% APR

Credit Cards:
$0 - Wells Fargo Visa (wohoo!)
$0 - Chase Visa (wohoo!)
$3660 @ 0%APR – Discover
$1516 @ 2% APR - American Express (life of loan)

GRAND TOTAL
$27443 $27173

$5176 in credit card debt.
$17902 in school loans
$4365$4095 for my car
Wohoo! I paid 13.5% of my CC balance this month!!!!

I know, I mention (WAY UP!!!) on this post that I’m going to put $120 in my HSBC account. My sister B owes me about $100 for the walker I bought my mother, and I know she’ll get that to me this month. I’ll take that and put it towards my HSBC when she gets it to me.

I’m done. Stick a fork in me.
I think it might be time for me to invest in Quicken.

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Average US Spending (Categories)

I'm trying to get a handle on how much I should be spending and saving. Right now I want to know how much I should save to budget for car repairs and general maintanence. I happened to stumble on this, so I thought I would share. It think it's useful to gauge where you are with respect to your neighbors. You can check out the full report (pdf format) here. (If you click on the below image, you can see the original version, which is clearer)

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Wohoo! And a recentralization.

FIRST
Wohoo! I just got a $500 bonus at work. It will be deposited into my account on Friday, and will go straight to my CC debt :). Now, I really haven't been working that hard, and I was joking to my friend that they're rewarding the wrong kind of behavior, but I'm not going to argue. With the $500, I'll be able to pay off my Chase bill (see here for my last budget recap), and start working on the AMEX bill. Thank GOD. I'll give a better recap on Friday, when I get paid.

SECOND
I came to an epiphazation the other day. I've really enjoyed working on this blog, but it's taken away from my fiction. I'm going to keep it, but I'm not going to be updating it that often. I've decided to start a new blog that allows me to concentrate more on my writing. I came to all of this while reading over Ramit Sethi's great blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I kind of summarized my feelings in an email I sent to Ramit. I'll just post my email and his brief but appreciated response.

Subject: I think I get it
From: Starving Artist
To: Ramit Sethi
Date: Mon, Apr 9, 2007 at 3:46 PM

Ramit,
I just started reading your site a few days ago. The first thing I did was listen to Pamela Slim's interview. It gave me a good idea what you're all about. I have a blog I started a couple of months ago (http://indebted2you.blogspot.com/ ). It's about my personal finance journey as a writer, and about getting myself out of debt. I think it's pretty good, but it wasn't RIGHT, and paging through your site today, I realized why.

It's not my blog.

A blog, or really any successful venture, is about a center of purpose. Your blog fits your life. Your success is due to your ability to concentrate on your objectives. As much as you're teaching others with your blog, it's really about your personal learning experience. That's why you're successful.

I have a sister who is a surgeon at Harvard. Why? It's not because she's a genius; it's because she immersed herself in her job. She doesn't want to be a lawyer, she doesn't want to be broker—she wants to be a surgeon.

I want to be a writer. I'm dedicated. I've written a few books. I've written dozens of short stories. I started a magazine. I freelanced at some small papers for a couple of years. My blog has to be about that. In making my blog about my writing, I can address my finances, but right now it's backwards, and it draws away from who I am.

Thanks for helping me understand that. I love your vision of "just do it." That's really what it's all about. It's not about perfection, it's about getting something on the page.

Best Regards,
The Not-So-Starving Artist

--------
From: Ramit Sethi
To: Starving Artist
Date: Mon, Apr 9, 2007 at 4:04 PM

You got it!

Thanks for this great email. I really appreciate it.

-Ramit

Cheers to all. I'm off like a prom dress.

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If you aren't exercising, you should be.

Summer training has officially begun, and I’m in a better mood because of it. This year's goals:
- MS150 up in Duluth, MN
- Square Lake Triathlon, Stillwater, MN (short course)

I competed at Square Lake last year and after a lifetime of “straight” running, I realized that triathlons are my real event. I thought this would be harder than normal training, but as long as you're not doing Ironman lengths, these are actually really enjoyable. Seriously. You will enjoy them, if you take it easy. The cross training kept me from injuring myself—it was the first long race I ever competed in where I finished without shin splints (in fact, I only ran two days a week to get ready). I bought a used Cannondale 1999 R500 for $350, which was a great deal. I also bought Sidi bike shoes from the previous bike's owner for $50. All told, the package was worth about $1,200. Don't spend a lot of money on equipment, unless you're rich or an Olympian. Don't even think you have to spend as much as I did. I actually upgraded my equipment after doing two smaller triathlons. It's about training, not style. You could buy my old bike, which I got two races out of, for $70, easy.

However, make sure your bike fits. Unfortunately, my frame’s too big for me (I’m forced to put too much weight on my hands, which hurts my wrists), and while I got by last year, I’m going to sell this bike and buy another similar to it. I think I can get about $450 for mine, especially at the start of the season. If I’m lucky, I might make a profit.

I’ve never done a long bike like the MS150. This is a two-day, 150 mile trek around Duluth, MN. I definitely have to get my bike in perfect condition to put that many miles on, or I’ll pay for it in medical bills! Anyone can do a race like this with a little training. You have 12 hours each day to go 75 miles, which isn't difficult if you have a couple of months of casual biking (3-5 days/week, .5-2 hours of riding).

I do events like this to keep my head straight, and ultimately they have a net-positive impact on my finances. I eat better food, and therefore I don’t eat out as much. I often go for long bike rides with friends on the weekend, which is about the cheapest form of entertainment you can get. We are all, frankly, smarter when we work out. Our concentration improves, which makes us more efficient at work, which ultimately impacts our salary. Also, I happen to train for these races with my management, which never never hurts.

Exercise = Money. That’s my lesson for today.

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Medicare and Walkers

Much to my annoyance, Medicaid doesn't cover the walker that that my mother needs. Medicaid only covers a basic walker (see to the right) but my mother wouldn't be able to get around using this. She needs a rolling walker. I talked to Medicaid and to the pharmacist and whatnot, but Medicaid won't even let me pay the difference between this REALLY basic model of walker and the kind of walker that her doctor prescribed.

It's infuriating.

Her old walker broke in a fall. The last time I was in Milwaukee I fixed it so she could use it, but I had to take one of the brakes off. While this has potential for morbid amusement, it is far from ideal. I was talking to her about it a few minutes ago and decided we had to get her something better, so I went to Overstock.com and bought this one (see left).

Oh, guess how much walkers cost? This one was originally $400! I got it for $92 at Overstock.com, with shipping. I put it on my credit card, but don't worry, I immediately set up a payment with Wells Fargo to pay off the credit card on Friday when I get paid. Also, my sisters should reimburse me for this.

I was surprised that I couldn't find any blogs on medical bills on a cursory Google search. That's something I would like to look into. My mother had multiple illnesses when I was growing up, and it eventually bankrupted my family. I found out only recently that we almost lost the house when I was in high school. My father was always very good with money, but he was also a little TOO determined to cover the hospital bills, and he ended up draining his 401K to get them paid. A lot of my financial problems stem from growing up in a household where my parents were so behind in their bills and so overwhelmed by the medical issues, they didn't (or really, couldn't) make very sound financial decisions. I believe my father racked up about $10K in credit card bills over seven years, and he wasn't making that much money to begin with. We don't actually know the full extent of what happened to my mother or what's going on with her now. We think during the course of all the medical treatments from years ago, she had a series of small strokes, which make it difficult for her to get around.

I'll probably blog more about this later, as I'm partially responsible for my mother's bills these days, and while things are going okay, they could be better.

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Financial Literacy Month: Book Review 3

Happy Easter! I am celebrating the holidays in a coffee shop in St. Paul, fielding calls from the fam (Mom, Dad, sisters), and enjoying a latte and bagel ($5.80). I finally did that research I promised a few days ago on teen lit, which I report on a little farther down this post. I first needed give an update on my dwindling bank account: I allowed myself to take a hit on Friday. A couple-friend invited my GF and I out for drinks and I agreed--it was pricey. I picked up GF's tab and spent a total of $42 (my couple-friends are both wealthy--we ended up at Moscow On The Hill, one of the premier locations for vodka martinis in the Midwest). This isn't a completely bone-headed move. My friend, K, has offered several times to get me a job that would pay roughly twice what I'm currently making. I don't feel like working 60 hour weeks right now, so I haven't taken him up on it, but it's good to go out with him occasionally and keep that door open (am I justifying? I don't think so, but that's a close call).

THIS LEAVES ME WITH ABOUT $20 UNTIL FRIDAY!! (I got some gas earlier this week.)

Anyway.

After some search, I found a great website on About.com for teens. Again, I love About.com, and this was as well-written as I've come to expect. The article was written by Joshua Kennon, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Investing. Take a quick tour of this site--it, again, has a great foundation for teenage saving.

For some hard-copy reading, however, I fianlly settled on The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens, by brothers David & Tom Gardner. The Gardners are the creators of the popular investment website, The Motley Fool, and have developed a large following in the financial world.

This is what I thought most teen investment guides should be like. It's written to a young audience (maybe too-much so, occasionally, but the slang isn't overbearing), it gives sound advice, and it's readable. I'm not certain if I agree with the emphasis on the stock market, but at least it doesn't have an unsavory quality of greed, and it starts with mutual funds instead of stocks. I also like the fact they have a No Smoking plug--it took me years to quit, so, knowing I loose all cred by saying this: just say no, kids! What settled me was their view on the relative worth of money:

Today, 40 percent of the world's population, more than two billion people, struggle to live on less than $2 per day.Viewed from that perspective, you're already stinking rich. In that context, virtually all Americans are.

True dat', Gardners. Thanks for keeping things in perspective. Okay, so here's the breakdown of their book:

Section I: Eight Steps to Wealth
- Set Goals (and Reach Them)
- Make and Save Money
- Be Smart About Your Money
- Avoid Financial Blunders
- Know What to Expect
- Your New Friend: The Mutual Fund
- Actually Invest!
- Learn Together
Section II: The Search for Greatness (Bonus Section)
- Finding Great Companies
- Tracking Your Companies
- Launching an Investment Club
- Understanding the Business
- Crunching the Numbers
- Managing Your Portfolio

That's it for me on kids books. That took entirely too much time. My GF and I have tentatively been talking around the subjects of marriage and kids, so I guess it's just been on my mind of late.

Later skaters.

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Deeper Debts Than Money

So I know a couple at work that just got divorced, Him and Her, and I happen to be friends with both of them. They both used to be alcoholics, but they've been sober for about ten years. But. I know from casual conversation that He has started drinking again. I have no idea to what extent, and I don't know how much He drank to begin with. I also know that She thinks He's not drinking.

Now, normally I wouldn't say anything, because it's His right to screw up His life, but He's taking care of their 5-year-old Daughter several days a week, so I'm conflicted.

I think I should tell Her.

Any thoughts on the blog-o-sphere?

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Bagged Chicken

A couple of personal financial notes:
1.) I've made it through this week without spending any money, so far(!!), so I think I can make it to next Friday without carving away at the meager $100 in my bank account. We'll see. I've also had lunch at home every day, which brings me to point #2.

2.) There is something seriously wrong with the bag-o'-chicken concept. To be honest, they just don't taste healthy anymore. Also, a VERY alarming increase in the chicken breast size. It used to be those bags had ten chicken breasts in them. Now there are three, and I dread the day I see half a chicken breast in that big bag. These chickens are getting BIG. These are chickens to be contended with. These are chickens I do not want to meet in a dark alley.

Seriously, though, something obviously happening to them which is disturbing me, and although I'm not going to go vegatarian, I think I'm going to start looking into more organic alternatives.

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Financial Literacy Month: Book Review 2

I stopped by the library over lunch and checked out a few more investment books. Reading over my last post, I decided to dig through the stacks and find a good book on money management for kids, just to have something to report back on the ol’ blog. I pulled three books off the shelf that seemed promising (i.e. – they had nice covers and/or titles). I thought the law of averages would deliver two so-so books and one gem. I was horribly disappointed. I’ll start with the “best,” and work my way back.

Kids and Money by Jayne Pearl was…okay. I thought, given the audience and the subject matter, it should have been both a lighter and more enjoyable read. I don’t think children’s finances needs to be addressed over 254 pages with smallish font and lots of graphs. I also thought Pearl felt a little too strongly about money and its relative worth. The person who read the book before me (let’s call them Pat) apparently felt the same, only more so. They left this sticky note:

I don’t know what “B” is on Pat’s list, but I suspect it didn’t bode well for Pearl. I think that Pearl’s children probably chew their tongues as a nervous habit. I think that Pat’s children probably tried pot at age twelve. I think we should aim for something a little more balanced.

Each chapter ends with a summary list that is in itself boring and often intimidatingly long. Pearl’s not one for brevity. Anyway, here’s the layout of the book:

- Making the Most of Allowance, Gifts, and Work
- Saving and Investing for Tots to Teens
- Teaching Accountability for Cash and Credit
- Guiding Little Big Spenders
- Getting Your Child To and Through College
- Helping Your Child To Nab the Right First Job
- Answering Sensitive, Nosy, Touchy Questions

Read Pearl’s book to find a few good ideas, but DO NOT implement all these tips on your poor kis. I suspect Pearl has done exactly that, and I’m going to end with this:

You gotta’ let ‘em go, Pearl. Just let go…

Teen Guide to Personal Financial Managementby Bijlefeld and Zoumbaris is not by any means for teens. It starts with stories of suicide by kids who got themselves in over their financial head, ala Louis Gasnier’s scare movies of the 50’s and 60's, and then progresses to an academic text that truly might drive a kid to consider jumping off a cliff. It tries to sell itself as a text for teens, but this was obviously written for teachers who are going to then go and teach topics of teen financial literacy. Boring boring boring.

My personal favorite, and one which everyone near and far should avoid, was TeenVe$tor: The Practical Investment Guide for Teens and their Parentsby Walker and Modu. "TeenVe$tor" is, in case you wanted to steal it, a trademarked name.

This feels like a get-rich-quick guide for teens, purporting to teach them how to make money in the stock market. The first chapters seem to ignore general money management advice. Do Walker and Modu give any warnings to young investors or parents? Of course! They tell the story of 15-year-old Jonathan Lebed, who made $800,000 in a “pump-and-dump” scheme during the early 90’s.

“The case received considerable press and underscores the need for parents to supervise their TeenVe$tor’s investment activities.”

This is a mixed message at best. Skimming the rest made me feel that the info was for a much more advanced audience, and emphasized making big money. I didn't give it much time. Here’s what I speculate was the general outline of TeenVe$tor:

- Stealing Enough $ To Invest in the Market!!
- Making it Big in The Stock Market!!!
- Your First Three-Martini Homeroom!!!
- How to Hide Your Earnings From Dad and the IRS!
- When Is It Right To Start A Hundred-Dollar-A-Day Coke Habit?!!
- How To Con Your Cellmate To Get The Bottom Bunk!

I’m a little miffed that I struck out three times. I had no intentions of doing more research on this, but now I feel honor bound to get a decent book for kids. I’ll report back tomorrow.

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Financial Literacy Month: Book Review 1

As promised, in honor of Financial Literacy Month, I’ve begun some of my own financial learnin’! To start my journey, I pulled a couple of books off the shelf that I bought a while back and, up to now, have subsequently ignored.

I didn’t get more than a few pages into Beth Kobliner’s Get A Financial Life: Personal Finance In Your Twenties And Thirties, but only because I came to it way too late. One of the opening lines was:

"The bulk of [us] came of age financially to take part in the gore but not the glory of the go-go eighties."

I’m sorry, I just can’t read something that refers to the “go-go eighties” with a straight face. It’s my fault, the book was published in the early 90’s, and I bought it used a few years back. Oh well. This was well received at the time—there’s an updated 00’ version that I read excerpts from on Amazon, but conversely, now that Beth has stripped out some of the flashy language to make it more current, it’s lost some of its original spark.

The second book, Personal Finance For Dummies, 5th edition by Eric Tyson, was a vintage ’06, and holds up a little better! It was an easy read, and I was able to get through it in one long evening. A lot of this 448-page finance guide was taken up by Mr. Tyson calming down financial idiots like myself, who get panicky whenever they start planning for the future. It even had comics. I was able to skim, and kept cool and collected through the whole thing (well, I may have broken a sweat here and there).

This Dummies book was broken into 5 sections:

Assessing Your Fitness and Setting Goals – a little pep-talk and a step-by-step guide to gauge your financial health. I’d actually done a lot of the footwork for the financial assessment in this blog, so I didn’t have to run around trying to figure out where all my debt and money was.
Saving More, Spending Less– general savings strategies, retirement information, and a sales pitch to go buy a house
Building Wealth with Wise Investing – this offers some good information on different investment strategies (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc)
Insurance: Protecting What You’ve Got – this talked about the many varied kinds of insurance you should and shouldn’t get.
The Part of Tens – ten common financial mistakes.

I learned a few things. For starters, I think I can feel okay about my retirement portfolio, but Tyson's book points out that I am in the “BAD” category for debt, meaning my bad debt to income ratio is above 25%, if just. I’m at 26%, although I hope to change that soon!

Aside from giving me some tips on paying down my debt, Tyson's book also helped me come up with this additional list of action items:

1.) Look around for better car insurance rates
2.) Buy renters insurance
3.) Start thinking about buying a house

With three years of graduate school ahead of me and a nice buyers market, it might not be a bad idea for me to get some property. I’ll need to get serious about projecting out to when I can have my debt eliminated, and checking to see if banks are still offering zero-down mortgages (and if that’s a good idea).

The only thing I didn’t like about Tyson’s book was his sales pitch for financial planners. I’m not saying they’re not a good idea, it just seemed a little biased. What I loved was that Tyson encourages people to have conversations about finances within their family, and to work with kids on their finances. I wish I’d had that early training!

All in all, I thought it was a good beginner guide.

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General Blog Info

For various reasons, I've decided to change the layout of my blog. I also went through and updated my pics in some previous posts. I don't know exactly what the copyright laws are, but I know I shouldn't take someone's image and use it wholesale. Here's how I'm rationalizing my picture usage. I've decided I can use:
- Any pictures that I personally take (examples: the two pics with CCs in them)
- Any company logo, especially if I alter them a bit. It's art-think Warhol. (example: the iSleep pic)
- I'm allowing myself to use images others took, as long as they have been substantially altered (example: the pic of my eyes above the sailboat. I substantially changed that image even before I superimposed my eyes).
- Certain images I consider public domain, even if I maybe shouldn't ("The Scream", the Tarot card(which was altered))

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Financial Literacy Month

I'm new to the blog-o-sphere, relatively speaking, and I've been building an informal reading circle of blogs I find informative and interesting to read. Get Rich Slowly is one of my favorites. Hat's off, JD.

JD's most recent post is about Financial Literacy Month, which is this April. He's going to use this month as a time to read up on personal finances, and I've decided to follow his lead. I have two personal finance books at home which I've been studiously ignoring. I'm going to pull those off the shelf, do some reading, and report back. I'll also keep my eye out for personal finances tips, tricks, and sites of interest to post on Indebted2You.

I often go to About.com for general life info. Here's a nice article to get started. It breaks things down to general principals of personal finance (see below for their "Top Ten," but check out the article for specifics). It links to detailed information on each principal.

1. Get Paid What You're Worth and Spend Less Than You Earn
2. Stick to a Budget
3. Pay Off Credit Card Debt
4. Contribute to a Retirement Plan
5. Have a Savings Plan
6. Invest!
7. Maximize Your Employment Benefits
8. Review Your Insurance Coverages
9. Update Your Will
10. Keep Good Records

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Mondays.

I wish I was more productive yesterday. I had a nice start: I made breakfast for GF and then posted a whole bunch of items on Craigslist to sell (nothing sold, so I just reduced the prices on everything). Then I went to my writing group at 12:30 and worked with them on a few chapters of my book. That lasted until 3. Then J (editor friend) and I thought it would be a good idea to have a beer, and then we thought it would be a good idea to drink Absinthe and watch 80's vampire flicks for the rest of the afternoon. And I'm not saying that WASN'T a good idea, it just wasn't in the plans.

I now have $100 to last me until Friday the 13th. As I obviously burn through more than that, usually, I should ration the last dollars I own. I'll need about $30 for gas. I have some frozen chicken in the fridge, enough to last for a few weeks. Tonight I need to buy some vegatables and a few basics. I'll make a schedule for my food. I'll have to make a really nice dinner for GF, as I can't take her out. I think I can get to the movies (maybe the $2 cinema?).

I can do this w/o having to tap a CC.

I paid the $50 I owed the court for some long-ago parking ticket (well, $55, I guess). I need to contact them concerning my license.

I'm going to the gym tonight.

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