Wicked Wallet

I’m so excited for my trip this weekend! I scored a free ticket voucher on one of my last trips (for volunteering for the next flight) and knew it would come in handy to cover the recently steep flights to Atlanta (about $450).

Best of all, I decided to stay an extra day to take advantage of the holiday and called up United to change my flight. Ironically, if you PAID for a flight you have to pay $150 to change it, but since I used the free voucher the fee was waived. Now that’s a great deal. Combine that with my car rental of $15 per day (used a coupon code; I always Google coupon codes for the rental company with the lowest published rates), well $49 with taxes and insurance (I get the insurance just in case), and I feel like I’m doing pretty well.

According to a recent article, in 2004 the numbers of registered motorcycles in my state was 41,000 which “includes scooters. By 2006, there were 8,000 more. but in the last two years there has been a big surge as 24,000 more riders bought motorcycles.” It’s the way to go! At 120 mpg on Sam my Yamaha scooter, I’ve not worried about gas prices or really any big transportation costs all summer. It’s the way to go!

I’m loving Give Me Back My Five Bucks, a new blog I’ve stumbled across recently. Graduating with $20,000 in debt and with little to her name, the author decides enough is enough and 1) sells her car and buys a scooter, 2) moves back in with her parents to save on rent (but now lives on her own again), 3) gets a job with a government agency where she earmarks $1,000 a month to debt repayment 4) attains a part-time job to help boost her debt payment funds and 5) pays off all of that debt in a little under a year. INSPIRING! The above link takes you to the “how she did it page” be sure to check out her actual blog here. How inspiring!

Okay, it’s time to really get this party started. I’m more inspired than ever to give WickedWallet the attention she deserves, probably because I’m more inspired than ever to get out of debt and start building up my retirement and travel funds. I’m not sure who lit the fire under my feet, but I’m feeling really serious about this all of the sudden. And…my apologies for the lapse in posts.  It seems summer has had me en todos lados, as we say in Spanish. All over the place with camping, weekend trips, hiking, new friends, family, etc.. It takes a lot of your schedule.

The Debt Trap, a recent article in the New York Times, chronicles a single mother’s downward spiral to $280,000 in debt. The math is shocking, “in 2007, when she earned $48,000 before taxes, she was charged more than $20,000 in interest on her various loans.” Ouch! A must read to get a fuller perspective on what is going on, financially, in America.

Turning Five Dollars Into Thousands is sure to inspire creative ideas on becoming a “saver”.

An excellent article by Steve Pavlina on earning your first love dollar. For those who are ready to mix it up a little and make the switch between making a living from a mediocre job to making a living from something you are passionate about.

If you’re a Federal employee, like myself, than you’re familiar with the TSP program (the government’s version of the 401-K).

Important facts: the government vests after three years of employment, they will match 5% of your pay (first 3% dollar per dollar and the next 2% .50 per dollar), and you have to decide in which funds you would like your money invested (in other words, you can’t just let it sit there for it to start making you money).

I did a simple calculation of the averages for each of the funds over the past five years and here’s what I came up with:
S Fund: 4.4%
G Fund: 4.4%
C Fund: 13.4%
S Fund: 18.6%
I Fund: 21%

Enjoy!

Following is a snapshot of my finances as of the first of the month.

Another $1,000 of reduced debt this past month. I’m stoked. Especially because we had to move houses kind of suddenly in mid-June, which meant some of my resources (a.k.a. about an extra $800 worth) had to go toward a new deposit, half a month’s rent, etc. Right. So I’m stoked because I was still able to pay off a good chunk of debt.

Here’s what I discovered this month: Whether or not you buy into the whole Secret philosophy, it’s kind of a truth that if you put forth the intention of truly desiring something good the Universe will make it happen for you.

This month:

$22,106

Difference From Last Month:

$1,004

The Role Call:

Sam the Scooter $915

Big Student Loan $15,033

Small Student Loan $1,530

Grad School $2, 345 ($3,600 total but I put 1/3 on my 0% APR VISA)

0% APR VISA Card $2,283

Goals For July

Inexpensive curtains for my new bedroom

Work on new budget (centered around snowballing method)

Good morning Wicked Wallet readers. It’s 5:30am. I’ve taken a fancy to arising early to write. My goodness. Is she some sort of weird ultra-early-morning type? I assure you that I am not. But I have discovered that, for me, getting my top priorities taken care of makes the rest of my day 1) more relaxed and 2) more accomplished.

It’s classic Steven R. Covey á la 7 Habits and since reading it for the first time at age 16, it has really affected how I go about my day. The basic idea is that you:

• Decide what your top priorities are (make it a short list of two or three things that are seriously most important to you).
• Plan those into your day, accomplishing what you can first thing.

Because I work at 7:00 am (my choice, I could work start at 9, if I wanted), waking up at 5 or so gives me a perfect deadline. I know I have to get ready about 6:10 or so, so procastination is virtually impossible. I’m not waking up that early to dust under my bed or mend my socks in order to avoid writing.

Its a simple way to streamline your life accomplish, first thing, those priorities that are key to your happiness.

Whoa! I’m a little behind this month, but I would say June was a great debt reduction month (yay! for selling the car and buying my scooter!).

This month:

$23, 110

Difference From Last Month:

$3,604

The Role Call:

Sam the Scooter $1,450

Big Student Loan $15,033

Small Student Loan $1,582

Grad School $2, 345 ($3,600 total but I put 1/3 on my 0% APR VISA)

0% APR VISA Card $2,700

You know how some years are just full of random income streams? Having just returned home from an 18-month stint in Argentina at the beginning of 2007, and not sure where I wanted to go from there, I ended up with multiple gigs throughout the year. I know it’s already mid-08, but I was reviewing where I worked last year and it made me laugh.

• The year began with a job I loved teaching English to Latino parents and how to read and write Spanish to their children.

• I also worked at a beautiful little sushi bar with a demeaning boss (that lasted only a couple months).

• A couple months later came an offer to move to Puerto Rico and do some translation work.

• Once that ended, I returned to Montana, where I worked during college, and helped out at the restaurant for a month (most exciting week was while the owners took a vacation and asked me to be them. 93 working hours later, when they returned, I finally slept….)

• On a random trip, Tricia and I were in a movie as extras (most mundane work of my life! Trish convinced me finish out the day and make my $80).

• I moved to my new city and started work as a seasonal event planner at the best caterer with the best boss in the world!

• I also picked up a few weekend jobs early this year (2008) until I got hired at my super cool government job:

• • Peddeling super cute jewlerey at roadshows
  • At a Geico gig (I have a picture to post one of these days)
  • Promoting the Spiderwick Chronicles (p.s. FANTASTIC!)

Whew, that’s nine for FY07 (February to February)!

I loved that constant whirlwind, and now I’m happy to have a full-time job. Yay for progression, huh?