Posted on: June 15, 2009 by Matt
For the past couple of months I have been looking to find a piece of software that would allow me to manage my money in one central location. I looked at Mint.com but was disappointed to discover that they do not offer services for my bank. I also had used Microsoft Money in the past but it looks like Microsoft will be discontinuing Money later this month. The copy of Money I have is from 2005 and is on my desktop computer that now lives in my girlfriend’s office. I do not spend a lot of time working in her space and therefore (due to the OEM license) do not have a copy on my laptop. I began to search for alternatives by looking down the Quicken product line and discovered the free option of Quicken Online.
I created an account and figured I would give it the quickest test I could think of: trying to add my checking account. My checking account is at a small local bank and the folks over at Mint.com do not have my bank as an option for adding the account. Despite submitting a request to add the bank nothing has happend over the past couple of months that I have tried. Considering my previous luck I did not expect that Quicken Online would have access to my bank but when I started to set the account up I was pleasantly surprised to see my bank listed!
I went through the process and set up all of my accounts without issue and began to dig into the product a little bit. Overall the product is very similar to the offering from Mint.com but appears to have less in the way of sponsored services / ads. The interface is clean and intuitive and offers most features that you need to manage your finances on a basic level (exactly what I was looking for). The service offers the ability to view all transactions for all accounts lumped together or for individual accounts only, trends for spending, income and savings and a “goals” section to plan a budget. Additionally – the Quicken service offers the ability to manually add items like bills to your accounts which appeared to be missing from Mint.com’s offering.
Overall – I am fairly impressed by the quality of the “free” service offered by Quicken. They have access to all the information that I need to have rolled up in one place and the ability to view that data in several different ways. For me it seems like the most cost effective and robust choice available and I will probably use this as my new personal finance software (for now anyway). The ability to have access in multiple locations and the broad range of features (including SMS alerts) will be enough to hold me as a customer for a while.
Posted on: June 8, 2009 by Matt
Last night my girlfriend and I were watching a show called Taboo that featured a segment on the Freegan lifestyle. Freeganism is an anti-consumerist lifestyle choice that focuses on living as inexpensively as possible. From what I could gather – they lifestyle consists largely of not buying anything and gathering your belongings and food from other people’s trash. The segment included clips of people foraging through dumpsters digging up all sorts of food including:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Meat
- Breads
- Soda
Basically – you name it and they were dumpster diving for it. It was like frugal living taken to the extreme.
Now – to be totally honest: I have on occasion picked a couple of items in the past out of the trash. Mostly a piece of furniture here or there that was left next to the dumpster. My first entertainment center came from a neighbor that was throwing one away. I figure if something is in good condition and I have a use for it then why not? One person’s trash is another person’s treasure right?
However – the thought of digging through dumpsters looking for food never really crossed my mind. The folks on the show seemed to pull quite a bit of decent looking produce out of dumpsters and they claimed that they have not ever gotten sick from the food. They also noted that they do wash all food that they gather through a bleach mixture prior to cooking and eating just to make sure any nasty bacteria are killed off. I found the idea rather intriguing but also a bit dangerous with some possible serious health risks (hazardous or medical waste in the dumpster with your food? Not for me).
On the other hand – I did start to think more about how wasteful we are as a culture. We throw away a lot of food on a daily basis that is perfectly good for consumption and I would like to see that diminish a bit. The concept is great for those that do not mind gathering their meals from the trash and I think the concept is somewhat admirable – just not for me and my family.
Posted on: April 29, 2009 by Matt
Shortly after exhausting my inheritance from my mother’s estate I discovered credit cards. However – I had no clue how they worked or how they could effect my financial future. The only comparable reference to how I felt that I can think of came from an episode of the TV show Undeclared (the only episode I remember seeing even). In the scene one of the students is running back to his friends, huffing and puffing while yelling something like “Guys!! They’re giving money! Money they’re giving it away!“ If you have any interest in checking it out just watch the first 50 seconds or so over here at YouTube.
I think that pretty much sums up my impression of how credit worked. I knew that the credit card folks expected to get their money back plus interest but I did not really take credit cards seriously. So I somehow managed to secure two credit cards and maxed them both out within the span of my junior year. I somehow managed to make a minimum payments for a while but eventually stopped making any payments at all.
Eventually I was sent off to collections for the two credit cards that I could obviously no longer use. I stopped answering my phone and stopped checking my mail. I was terrified that I was going to jail or they were going to track me down and send the police for me. I really had no idea what would or could happen so I just avoided all of the uncomfortable situations. I got to the point where I checked my mail about once a month – usually after the mail room called and left me a message that the box was overflowing.
After about a year or so the calls stopped and the mail became less frequent so I thought I was in the clear. After a couple of years in the work force I began dealing with all of my bad and defaulted debts. Most of the debt was student loan related but there were still the lingering balances for the two old credit cards. I made arrangements with both companies and paid them off in full but the damage had already been done. Luckily – the bad credit card debts have since fallen off of my credit report so the negative information is no longer listed.
I lived in complete fear of credit cards and taking on any new debt for a couple of years after my experience with credit cards in college. The whole series of events could have probably been avoided if I had taken the time to educate myself and understand what I was getting into. My father tried to explain but simply told me that I should not have a credit card and got frustrated when I asked the obvious “Why not?”. He was unable to explain how credit works or how bad debts can carry on through the rest of your life. His flustered answer was along the lines of “because it will effect your credit”. I know he had the best intentions but the explanation seemed obvious to me at the time – I mean that was the point of credit cards right?
I believe the lessons learned here include that credit cards are not to be used lightly, not repaying debt can have serious long term ramifications on your future plans, do not spend money you do not have and communicate with your creditors. I still work on practicing some of these items (hence my current credit card having a balance – which is going down quickly) but have worked really hard to ensure that I do not get back into yet another cycle of harassing collection calls.
Posted on: April 28, 2009 by Matt
Originally uploaded by Gnerk
Shortly after my 18th birthday my mother passed away. I had plans to head off to college about a month later and intended to go just to get away from all the old memories lingering around where I grew up. I had very little in my bank account and all of it was probably going to be needed for books and other expenses related to college.
Later that semester I received notification that I was due to inherit my share from my mother’s estate which amounted to about $11,000. To date this was easily the largest sum of money I have received in one lump sum. I had no idea what to do with the money and was still grief stricken and in shock from the loss of my mother (I really had trouble coping with her death). I did what most college boys probably would have done: deposited the money in my checking account and spent frivolously. Of course the nice lady at the bank attempted to give me some advise but I wanted nothing to do with saving money or planning long term. I more or less told her to just give me the money and shut up.
For the most part I do not remember what I spent the money on. From what I can recollect now I can recall buying:
- Lots and lots of booze on a regular basis: I developed an even bigger drinking problem in college that I carried with me until a little over a year ago. At this point in my life I have come to realize and accept that I am an alcoholic and can not drink. I have been sober now for about 16 months.
- A PlayStation2 that I had to have: I was a guy and in college – of course I needed the newest video game console.
- A beat up car from my girlfriend’s (at the time) brother: This was my first car. I did not get my license until I was 19. It was a little beat up but ran well and I managed to get quite a bit of mileage out of it.
Needless to say – I spent every last dime within a year or so. I do not regret spending it but do think that I made some poor choices. I suppose that if I had to start all over again today I would probably look to start out by:
- Learning how to manage money: Not just large sums but also general personal finance. I was fairly clueless, nobody had taught me anything about money management and I had not taken the initiative to learn on my own.
- Parking the money in a CD where it is locked for 3 to 6 months: Actually – I probably would have opened a few of them that would mature at different lengths of time. Maybe break it into quarters and put 25% in each 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. I was in no emotional state to make any financial decisions and knew little to nothing about handling money.
- If I needed money, get a job: I had limited to no income the first three years of college. I cited having to focus on my studies as the reason for not working but the real reason was I was too busy drinking and generally slacking off. I could have easily worked a part time job.
I do not regret spending the money or wish to change the past but do try to learn from my mistakes. In this case I learned that having a large sum of money float into your life requires that you press a pause button and do some planning and possibly some healing. When the inheritance arrived in my hand I was still grieving (at a point where I maybe should have put college off a semester or two) and was not clear headed. Parking the money and forgetting it existed would have given me some time to work on healing myself. Once I was in a better place emotionally I could have moved forward with learning how to manage money and planning. My lesson did not have to be learned the hard way – I could have listened to the nice folks at the bank but I chose not to. So I guess there is also a general life lesson here as well: Listen to the advise of people who specialize in a field you know little or nothing about.
Tags: Banking, Budget, Budgeting, Cash, Family, Financial Team, Frugal Friday, Future, Health, Personal Economy, Personal Finance, Planning, Relationships, Savings, Spending Filed Under: Banking, Budget, Health, Lessons Learned The Hard Way, Planning, Savings
Posted on: April 9, 2009 by Matt
The area that I live in is cluttered with small antique shops and many of them offer a range of items from inexpensive to higher priced rare items. I tend to like to find time to browse through the shops and see what kind of deals I can muster up. Most recently on Sunday I was helping my sister move into an apartment over a small antique shop and I took a stroll through.
I was not looking for anything in particular but when I walked by the jewelry case I noticed a decent looking silver ring with multiple colored stones in it. The price tag was set to $9.90. I figured it was probably glass or plastic set into the ring but upon further inspection noted that it was not plastic and was probably a material worth more the $10 they were asking (the silver in the ring was 925 sterling, easily worth more than $10). I asked them to hold it and opted to take the ring as a surprise gift for my girlfriend as she has been looking for a multi gem stoned ring.
She was pretty excited when I gave her the surprise gift and even more surprised at the cost. She is a bit of a jewelry nut (makes her own and such) and immediately began inspecting. She was not certain of the exact make up but noted that the “stones” looked like they were probably crystals of some sort if not the actual gem stones they appeared to be. All said and done – I was pretty happy with my surprise find.
I used to associate antique shops with over priced junk from another era but really enjoy walking through and finding what kind of deals I can find (occasionally leaving pleasantly surprised). Have any of you had any surprising finds at antique shops? What kind of deals have you picked up?
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