Day 1 - The Plan

So, as I was saying yesterday, I discovered a lot of financial blogs that I enjoyed a lot and paid off my credit cards and car debt and all that jazz. Then I got depressed. I had several thousand dollars of student loan debt and a crappy salary and I was sick of being deprived, working in a cubicle and dealing with my life in general. I'm still all of those thing, btw. So, instead of paying off debt or working to be better, I gave up. I  started spending my money on visiting people and new places and just ignored the happy debt that seems to be mounting. Now, don't get me wrong, it is fun. I like seeing friends and visiting new places and doing new things. It's awesome. It's just that I realized this week that I could do more of those things if I had more money. The majority of my money right now goes to pay other people, which is completely ridiculous. Or save for retirement, which is also silly because it's unlikely that's going to happen. The getting old. Not retiring. I hope to retire sooner that I get old because I'd like to actually enjoy my free time. And the best way to do that is to pay my debts off sooner.

That brings us to the plan. As I said, I love Mr. Money Mustache and would love to be way more logical in the way I approach debt, but... Not sure that's going to happen. So, I'm going to turn to what I think is financial planning for dummies: The Dave Ramsey Method. The truth about this is that it's not great. Paying off the smallest debt with the lowest interest is definitely not the most efficient or fastest way to do anything, BUT it's better than nothing, which is what most people do. Also, his hatred of credit cards is ridiculous, unless, again, you're an idiot with low self-control. If you are, then yeah, you probably shouldn't have a credit card. So... I'm going to follow a modified version of the Baby Steps, with some advice from MMM. This is primarily because I have SOME self-control, but I also know myself well enough to realize that I'll get really depressed if I do one or the other. I was doing Dave Ramsey before, which was fine, but the truth is that it didn't make enough of a dent. I paid off debts that had very very low payments associated with them, so even though they were gone, that 43 cents I got extra every month was not enough to motivate me to be better.


So, here's the idea. I'm going to look at my debts and pay off the ones with the highest ROI first. And the ones that will give me that high first. So, first things first, gotta figure out the payments and all that. Thank goodness there's a handy little chart available at http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html. It's an Excel table that calculates all sorts of nifty things for you.

	Creditor Information Table

	Creditor Information Table
Row	Creditor	Balance	Rate	Payment	Custom	Interest-only
1	Card #1	1,516.05	0.00%	25.00		0.00
2	Car	-	0.00%	-		0.00
3	Student Loan #1	2,326.75	1.86%	10.27		3.61
4	Student Loan #2	2,935.17	1.86%	12.96		4.55
5	Student Loan #3	7,893.80	6.30%	34.02		41.45
6	Student Loan #4	5,077.80	6.30%	21.88		26.66
7	Student Loan #5	4,680.58	6.30%	20.17		24.58
8	Student Loan #6	1,500.08	1.86%	7.39		2.33
9	Student Loan #7	8,542.17	6.55%	36.84		46.63
10	Student Loan #8	13,883.76	6.55%	59.83		75.79
11	Student Loan #10	7,601.21	6.55%	32.76		41.49
12	Student Loan	7,308.65	5.50%	98.00		33.50
13	Student Loan #9	8,557.23	6.55%	36.90		46.71
14						0.00
	Total:	71,823.25	Total:	396.02

So, according to the debt snowball (lowest balance first), I'd end up paying around $19,000 in interest and be done in May 2025 if I paid a total of $500 towards my debts each month. (Yes, I have other debts, but they're ongoing - insurance, mortgage, etc. I'm only listing things I can pay off for real here). The debt avalanche (highest interest first) would have me pay $15,000ish in interest and be done is 2024. That's vaguely better, but still not great... So...

***Side note, I probably shouldn't list that credit card on here. ***

I'm going to do a custom thing to determine how to pay it off, trying to pay off the ones that will free up the most money first, then moving to the next ones. As you can see, some of those aren't even getting paid the minimum interest, but I suspect that'll change as soon as they're done recalculating my minimums or something. 

For me, the biggest thing is probably maximizing my current earnings. I have some extra money, but an extra $200 a month could be something like $10k in interest savings. Also, no way am I taking 10 years to pay this off. That's ridiculous. I intend to be debt free by January 22, 2016. Don't know how yet, but I'm going to work on it. 

So, first things first:
- Dave Ramsey and Man vs. Debt recommendations: Sell your stuff. I'm also really fond of the Richest Man in Babylon, so I'll also be saving 10% of my income just because. So, this week (I'm having this run from Wednesday to Wednesday), I'm aiming to sell the stuff in my basement. It's been there for 2 years, so I'm clearly not using any of it. Except for my books. God help anyone who touches my books. Unless I leave the state, in which case, fine. >.>
- Optimize my income. This is a Ramit Sethi thing, which I think is often overlooked by most financial gurus. I like his stuff, but it comes with the unfortunate downside of him wanting to be paid a lot of money for his courses. I get that it's probably a great investment, blah blah blah, but I'm not in a position where paying someone 3 grand is feasible. Even if it does get a 100k job. Also, buried in his site, he has stuff like not everyone can earn 100k and explains that it's for top performers. I'm not sure I'm a top performer and unless he has some analysis out there saying that I can earn that, it may not be worth my money right now. What IS worth my money is taking the patent bar. If nothing else, I can write patents. I mean, I studied them. I really want to do copyrights and trademarks, but patents are also amusing. So, those are my things. And there may be other ways to make more money...

Money and Debts

If you ask people I know what my main characteristic is, you'd likely get an answer somewhere along the lines of "likes money". I'd say that it's inaccurate, except it's really accurate. I have other things I enjoy, of course, but money is my passion. I like reading about it, talking about, thinking about it, etc. Which makes for some uncomfortable conversations. 

When I worked in surveys, I was once told that Americans would rather discuss their sex lives than how much they make. From conversations with friends, I'm starting to believe it's true. Nobody will ever admit to how much they make, except for a select few people that I consider close friends. Now, I'm not sure if they tell me because they also consider me a close friend or if I'm more likely to be friends with people who like to discuss money, but whatever. 

*** This would be a good time to go off on a tangent and whine about how I don't really understand the bonds of friendship and how I'd like my friends to like me more, but it's hard to make someone like you more if they won't tell you how much they like you now and why is it so difficult to quantify liking because I do it all the time... Friends have levels: people you don't have to schedule anything with because whatever will be good, even if it ends up being lying on a couch talking about music, dates, or terrorizing a Walmart after midnight; people you know well enough to wear minimal clothing and  be yourself around; people who are friendly enough that you wouldn't mind spending 4-5 hours around; people who need a set activity; brunch friends, etc. Yes. I think about this a lot. Oddly enough, most people I've dated don't fall super high on this spectrum. I don't think I've ever dated someone that I felt comfortable enough to not have scheduled activities or just be myself around. Maybe that tells me something about my process for choosing romantic interests versus friends. I'm WAY pickier about friends. ANYWAY. Not going off on that tangent. Clearly. But seriously, people. LIKE ME. Not everyone. Just the people I consider to be friends. Which is not super useful because I don't think anyone reads this blog, so....

***

So, where was I? Definitely not on a tangent that is completely irrelevant to everything to do with money. Fine. Money and relationships. Those are my things. Not necessarily romantic relationships. I'm an Aquarius after all. 

Okay, so I went to law school. And though I had scholarships and stuff through my undergrad and graduate careers, my parents were essentially completely broke when I was in college, so I didn't actually get anything from them. I'd also never had a job and spent most of my time pursuing d***holes jerks, so it's not terribly surprising that I graduated from school with a lot of student loans. I've had some trouble finding a job that pays anything close to what I'd need to pay off my loans (according to the federal government), so I've been in Income Based Repayment since I graduated. I have a tendency to not be great with money, because I spend when I'm sad. Which is frequently (especially when I'm in a relationship... Hum, I'm starting to see a correlation between things). I also had a lot of debts to pay off from my first relationship (let's not talk about it), so a few years ago, I started to get serious about my life and decided to change my financial picture around. 

When I first graduated, I had a 23% car loan, among other ridiculous obligations and a very vague understanding of how student loans actually worked. I'm pretty sure I was under the impression that they were free money. Here's a tidbit for anyone who's still confused. They aren't. They actually expect you to pay that back. No matter how long you spend in school, they will still be looming over you eventually. 

So, one day... I actually remember it really clearly because I was stressed out of my mind while eating the hotel's free breakfast, I saw something about a guy who had paid off his Harvard debt in just a few years and was clearly, in all ways, better than me. Now, I hate admitting that people are better than me, so the first thing I did was look him up so I could emulate his lifestyle and beat his record, then taunting him in my head. Spoiler alert... Did not happen that way. 

But anyway, as part of my reading about his debt repayment plan, I found one of my favorite websites EVER! Mr. Money Mustache (especially his early stuff). So, I've embarked on a journey to be better. And pay off my debt so I can be free to do whatever jobs I want and pursue my other passions. Somehow... Relationships are probably improved by money, right? And vice versa. 

So, summary. Here's my financial picture, courtesy of Mint.com. 

Student Loans: $70,893.55

Credit card (0% - I use it for springy debt purposes and rewards. Can you say free trip to visit friends?): $2,267.00

Investments: $16,361.00. I'm not sure if I can count this because it's not like I can access it at all. It's all in accounts that I can't touch until I'm old. I'm not as daring as the NMHD guy. I like having retirement accounts. 

So, my goal is to pay off this crapton of debt, using my current salary of about $35,000 - $45,000 a year and any raises, new jobs, what-nots I may get. 

Thoughts

So, I just started reading a blog about travel (http://youngadventuress.com/2013/02/breaking-up-to-travel.html), which I've been kinda sorta thinking about doing, except not really because I don't want to live in another country, unless it's AMAZING, but I do want to visit places and travel the world. I'd rather move to another place in the US and see if I like it than live in another country, honestly. Maybe it's because I've lived in other places and didn't care for all the traveling all that much. Bleh.

Astrid is not an addict

This is not a picture of a cat doing cocaine. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't even know where to get cocaine. Or maybe she would because she was a street cat, but she's never talked to me about it if she does. Not that she talks to me at all. But yeah, she's not on drugs. This was likely just cream that I had stuffed her nose into. She was probably really happy about. But general levels of happiness. Not drug levels of happiness.

Why yes, coworker, I do find your behavior unreasonable

For some ungodly reason, I am at work right now. And alert. Usually, at 3:06 am, my main thoughts are "Why are there no blankets on me?" or "Next time, I will definitely get this done while at work", but not today. Today, I'm working at my little mental institution (It's not mine because I own it or because I live there, even though I've had conversations with people where they've told me that they suspect that I really am a patient/client and I've just tricked everyone into believing that I'm an employee even though I never wear a badge and my bosses never actually see me... Anyway... They're wrong. But if they were right, I'd be the most awesome crazy person ever and as such, I probably shouldn't even be a patient, so really, I would be doing the entire place a favor.) and started the nightly cleaning. Apparently, that was a signal for my coworker, previously asleep in front of the tv, that he should start his cleaning. Which is ridiculous because the entire purpose of having two people employed on the graveyard shift is so that one of them can stay at the desk and answer the phones while the other one does some cleaning. With every other person I've worked with, this has been implied and seemingly makes sense. Not with this guy. EVERY SINGLE TIME. He does this. Invariably, I come back to the desk to answer phones and rant about how he's weird. Let's not even talk about the fact that he carries a club around that he's a little weird.


Anyway, it's not a big deal and I should be less annoyed. We're clearly very different, by which I mean that I am anal retentive and he is completely oblivious to the purpose of his job. He also empties the trash from my side of the facility, which is weird. Unless he cleans only the side that I am working on... Whatever.

The highlight of my day so far (the last three hours, not yesterday) has been finding out that Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a half is not actually dead. Or at least wasn't 3 or so months ago. See! Yay! I'm glad for her. Also, I have a lot of anxiety about bloggers talking about mental illnesses online. Not because they shouldn't, because they totally can and should if they feel comfortable doing so. I know it always makes me feel better to know that other people experience the same weirdness as I do. (On a somewhat related note, S and I were reading Let's Pretend This Never Happened, the book by The Bloggess and I knew what a cistern was and told S that I had one and that it was awesome and then I realized that I didn't actually have a cistern as a child because we had a reservoir, which was likely much bigger than a cistern. And also that I am not the only person who will hide in a bathroom when faced with social situations I don't understand. There are a lot of them. It's usually fine, though, unless it's a funeral, in which case, I freak out because being in the same room as a dead body and chatting is weird to me and I don't think it really is helpful behavior, unless by helpful people mean "making sure this person isn't a zombie because they aren't moving". So that funeral was accompanied by me freaking out in the bathroom until it was over and calling my parents and sobbing because all the people were weird and there was death and it smelled like death and I couldn't leave because I had to be supportive, but I wasn't being supportive because I was hiding in a bathroom when I really should have been with S and talking to my in-laws about their loss, but I couldn't do that because of the aforementioned sobbing and the slight shrieking. So, yeah. I think funerals cause me to have panic attacks. Or maybe just that one. I don't go to a lot of funerals. I think I've been to one prior to that one and I don't remember much about it except that I wore a dress I stole from my mother that I still wear to church periodically and I was trying to be sad even though I didn't really know my great-grandfather. If I could go back, I would tell 8 year old me to stop worrying that I couldn't summon sadness because I would eventually be able to summon a lot of sadness at everything because I developed so much guilt over not being sad enough about things over the years. I can't remember where I was going with this. Maybe I'm not as alert as I thought. I use too many ellipses. I would strike them through so that I could show how many ellipses I use, but periods don't really work that way.)


So, yeah. Bloggers talking about mental illness. I think it's great, but I do wonder if it helps that people come out of the woodwork and are all "You think you have it bad? Well, let me tell you about how bad I have it and will continue to have it. Also, I love you so much." The last part is probably really helpful, but the rest bugs me. Whenever I read posts about people with depression or anxiety, I feel like I should tell them that they aren't alone and that might help, but at the same time, nobody experiences everything the same. I know I've felt really upset when people have tried to empathize with me before. I'll be in the middle of telling someone that I'm sad about something and don't feel well, and they'll chime in with their own sad story, which makes me feel like I should be focusing on them instead of me. Can't people just have their own sadness and have others just be supportive? I mean, I think that stories with concrete "this is how I got out of this" or "and then I felt better, so you can too" are helpful, but I'm not so sure about the stories about people who have struggled for years. I know that doesn't usually help me. It just makes me feel like I'm a whiny b****. Oh, ABC, how I love you for making that a reasonable thing to say and type.


The guy is cleaning all the things. Or at least mopping all the things, which is weird because he's not mopping it the way I would do it and I wanted to clean. I STARTED CLEANING ALREADY, you jerk! Normally, I wouldn't be mad at someone doing my job for me, but in this case I am. He's not doing it to the standard that I would do it and I usually use my cleaning time as zen-music listening staying awake time. I don't understand why he can't just be better. I'm sure he thinks the same thing about me. I bet he's thinking that I'm just this lazy person right now who always stops working right when he starts in an attempt to get him to do my job. ARGH. I hate all the things right now. I would call S except it's 3:30 in the morning and last time I made a decision at that time, I ended up with felons almost living in my house. Which I'd be fine with except that I'm pretty sure it would be a conflict of interest due to my other jobs.

*** UPDATE*** He totally did not do his job at all. Which is mopping the floor in the entryway. He really does just do things that I've already started to do. What is the deal with that? Is he unaware of what his job is? Probably. What do I DO?!!! Anxiety setting in. Do I do the stuff that he should have done? Because I don't want to and I don't think that's fair. Also, the mop has disappeared. But the people coming in the morning are super-picky and also hate me because I dodge their phone calls. AHHHHH....


So yeah... Less alert than I thought I was. Just full of unreasonable anger. Maybe the unreasonable coworker is me. I wish I could convey tone through type. That last sentence would be artificially sincere and be all sarcastic. Also, if you're awake right now, S, go to sleep. Just because I'm not hogging the tv with korean soap operas does not mean you should play Skyrim all night. Actually, whatever. You're an adult. I can't really fault you for doing whatever you want. Because again. ADULT.


I think I'm going to read more funny blogs now. Or keep reading that book. Maybe ponder my goals and my lack of progress on them.

Last Year vs. This Year

I subscribe to a service called Penzu, which allows me to journal online and, for some odd reason, also sends me updates about what I wrote in my journal years ago on the same day. Today, I got an update about two years ago, when I was in the middle of bar preparation and pondering my week. I thought I'd set a schedule to see how I've advanced... Or not. 
2012


Monday: July 2


6:30 - 7:30 Prepare for work
7:30 - 6:00 Work
6:30 - 7:30 Dinner - I forgot to defrost the chicken, so... soup, salad and pasta it is/ Water plants
7:30 - 8:00 Clean up from dinner
8:00 - 9:00 Hang out with S.
10:00 - 5:30 Sleep




Tuesday: July 3
 6:30 - 8:00 Balloons with S. 
8:00 - 8:30 Grocery shopping
8:30 - 12:30 Work
12:30  - 5:00 Movie watching or going home. If movies, Magic Mike and Spiderman; if home, unpacking games and cleaning
5:00 - 7:00 Freedom days and colonial fest  with S. 
7:00 - 10:00 Cooking and cleaning
11:00 - 8:00 Sleep


Wednesday: July 4
8:00 - 10:00 Clean and set up
10:00 - 12:00 Read
12:00 - 2:00 Set up better - Cook
2:30 - 6:30 Games and food
6:30 - 10:30 Unknown
11:00 - 6:30 Sleep


Thursday: July 5
7:30 - 6:00 Work
6:30 - 8:30 Cook, clean, eat
8:30 - 10:30 Sit around with S
10:30- 6:30 Sleep



2010 
Friday: July 2
5:30-8:30 Balloons with S.
9:30 - 2:00 Sleep
2:15-7:00 am Work
Saturday July 3
7:30- 2:00 Sleep
2:15-7:00 am: Work
Sunday July 4
7:30- 2:00 Sleep
2:15-10:30 Work
10:30-7:30 Sleep
Monday July 5
8:30- 11:00 Parade
12:00-2:00 Bar Review: Contracts 2
2:15-10:45 Work
11:00-7:15 Sleep
Tuesday July 6
8:00-12:00 Contracts 3
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 5:00 Real Property 1
5:00 - 6:00 Dinner
6:00 - 10:00 Real Property 2
Wednesday July 7
7:00 - 10:00 Real Property 3
10:00- 12:00 S. or something
12:00 - 2:00 Idaho Essay and MPT workshop
2:15 - 10:45 Work






In theory, I have a lot less to do this year, but in practice, I feel much more overwhelmed this year than when I knew what to study and what to do at work. I like my job a lot now, but it's really not as low-key as my previous one. Especially with the driving. Maybe I'll just move. That'll solve my problems, right? Except that I am just starting a yard renewal thing... Oh well...

Challenges

No, this is not a post about my life sucking, which to be fair, it really doesn't lately. I have been struggling with things that stem completely from my view of the world and some issues I've had in the past, but rationally speaking, my life is fine right now.

That being said, this summer is shaping up to be one of the busiest I've had in a while because of my new job, not counting that summer where I did three internships in three different cities, two of them simultaneously. So, in order to suck the marrow from the bones of the meager time I have to myself, I'm planning on some challenges that will motivate me. First, a caveat. (I really shouldn't say first because I haven't been keeping on topic very well, so it really should be third or fourth or something. But I digress... Again.) I have a nasty tendency to be really "into" things for brief periods of time, whether it be a particular person who I just have to hang out with because I think they're the bee's knees; a type of food that I just adore (my sushi kick comes to mind); or tv shows that I watch in a week (in order of descending recentness: Boys Over Flowers; Bones; Arrested Development; Raising Hope; My Name is Earl; countless anime, etc...). It's a ridiculous habit and usually ends with me not being interested in that person; food; or thing for a really long time after the initial infatuation. Wreaks definite havoc on my relationships. (Speaking of, I recently became a regular at a little cafe where I work and the people started to know my name and orders before I put them in and do some kind of version of the whole Greek Opa thing when I came in. Then, I got really freaked out and decided they were probably spitting in my food because I rarely tip them because I don't usually have cash and they don't give me the receipts to sign. Which I really think is their own fault. They would get more tips if they made people sign. I'm not opposed to tipping... I just don't carry cash. So I think it would be unfair to spit in my food, but I ordered a loaded baked potato and one end of it was foamy, which could have been melted butter, but because I'm not sure that it was melted butter and not spit, I've decided not to go there unless they have a really delicious lunch special and if they do, I'll just call it in instead of email and then definitely tip. I also just realized that I no longer have any cash, which is probably from my inability to do math and also giving S my cash to buy shaved ice... Which brings me back to the topic at hand.) (Just looking at that giant wall of text makes me feel bad for S. He says he likes to hear me talk and I really hope he does because it is HARD to get me to stop talking when I get started.)

*** Update. I just found another place near my work that has Greek food and daily specials. Woot! Except I'll have to work longer because I typically don't get a lunch hour. But still... Lemon chicken over rice plus a Greek salad sounds delicious


Okay. Starting over again. Challenges for the summer... Because I like to get things done and blog about how cool (or sucky) I am.

1. Taste every single flavor at the snow cone shack near our house. Not the fancy one. The cheap one. And rate them. Estimated cost: at $1.50 per cone, probably around $90
2. Watch  all of Angel
3. Run a mile without getting out of breath
4. Fit into a size 4.
5. Eat a whole bountiful basket in a week

So, that's the plan for this summer so far... I'll bet I add more on eventually.