Living Practically, Managing and Thriving

Practicality can go a long way if you’re on a budget or trying to save money. Basic expenses are becoming more costly so it’s important to know how to prioritize and manage your money and household. It doesn’t matter what your household is like. Your home and personal finances need to be managed whether you are single, single parents, single with pets, live with relatives, live with partner or live with a partner and children. These are a few of my practical habits for managing personal finance. All of this may be common sense for some but household budgeting and thrift may not come easily for others.

Pay for essentials with your paycheck. If you are a wage earner that earns a regular paycheck use your check to cover your basics. When you get paid use your check to pay for bills that are due. Buy gas, household items, toiletries and groceries. If you are a tither use your check to pay that as well. Once you’ve cared for the essentials the left over money can be saved, invested or used as discretionary income.

Pay for essentials with money you have. Some will disagree with this. By that I mean spend the money you’ve already earned. Some will advise to use credit cards as much as possible and pay the balance every month. I’ve heard people say they do this in order to earn travel points. This may work for a person that is married with children because their expenses are higher and the points will add up faster. I also think this strategy can work well for someone that is trying to establish credit. It’s personal choice but I prefer to keep things simple and pay for basics with money in the bank. Decisions need to be made on personal circumstances and priorities.

I’m unmarried without children so rewards or travel points don’t add up very fast for me because my expenses aren’t very high. I’m not concerned about establishing credit because I’ve already done so. I just don’t think it’s a good practice to make essential purchases on credit. Your budget is how you manage money you’ve earned not really the credit you have.

I think that spending money that you’ve already earned helps to keep you cognizant of your budget. When you’re aware of your real income you will be more conscious of what you’re able to spend. It’s all a matter of numbers and consciousness. Being conscious of the real number will keep you from paying overdraft fees.

Take advantage of sales and specials. Groceries prices have increased. At the grocery where I shop I’ve noticed that the managers have made an effort to make sure that there is a sale item in every category. If you’re not super picky you can usually find a comparable item at a reasonable price. The grocers are trying to help people out.

If you find meat on sale buy it. Freeze it and thaw it when you’re ready to make dinner. The same can be said for canned items and non perishables. Take advantage of sales and save them. The drawback is to make sure you can use the sale items within a reasonable time and you’re not hording. The same thing applies to using coupons.

Save a little bit of money when you get money. Years ago I saw a financial expert on Oprah who said “pay yourself first”. This was great advice and anyone at any income can apply it to their circumstances. Come up with a savings plan even if it’s a jar in a kitchen cupboard where you drop in spare change.

Think about what you want in your future. Consider retirement and things that you want such as starting a business, a car, home, vacations, glasses, medical procedures and luxuries. (There is nothing wrong with wanting luxuries and nice things. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.) Whatever you want for your future is your business and a matter of goals, interests, lifestyle and personal taste. No matter what you want for your future it’s going to take money.

It’s a good idea to invest in your employer’s 401k program. I also recommend opening a Roth IRA. Research or ask your bank or credit union about Roth IRA options. They have different plans for different levels of income. The younger you are the better off you will be long term if you start saving.

Learn to cook. Learning to cook is a basic life skill for men and women, married or single, whether you have children or you don’t. Cooking can save you money, time and can be healthier. It’s also a bonding activity for family and friends. Cooking is easy so don’t be intimidated. If you can acquire a few basic skills such as baking meat or cooking pasta you can create a variety of meals for yourself a guest or your family.

Oven Baked Chicken Breast

Groceries prices are rising but so are restaurant prices. Eating out is usually costly, not great for you and it’s often not satisfying. It’s not hard to learn to prepare chicken breasts or pork chops. Keep a few basic seasonings in the house such as salt, pepper and Lowry’s seasoning salt, lemon pepper or garlic salt. Heat up frozen or canned vegetables or cook rice as a side dish.

If you can read you can cook. Look on Pinterest for recipes. You can also find recipes on seasoning packets and canned goods which are purchased at the grocery store for meals like meatloaf or sloppy joes. Give it a try. There will be some trial and error but it is worth your time to develop some basic culinary skills. You should be able to tolerate your own cooking. I’ve also found that cooking gives you a greater appreciation for people that work in restaurants.

Don’t buy lunch at work every day. Restaurants are expensive. Very few restaurants offer healthy options. Packing a lunch is much more economical. Frozen entrees are between $3-$5. They are tasty and satisfying for the price. I usually pack a snack like an apple, fruit bar or a ziploc bag of chips. That gets me through the day until dinner.

Soups and canned ravioli are good to pack for lunch too. Frozen entrees and canned items like soups and ravioli are high in sodium so it’s important to watch the rest of your sodium intake for the day. Since convenience foods are high in sodium consider taking leftovers to work for lunch. This is another benefit to learning to cook. Invest in food storage containers.

Pay credit card bills off in full at the end of the month. This way you avoid paying interest and fees. At times you may need to make payments on a purchase such as a new transmission or paying for your wedding. It’s a good idea to keep your credit card balance low or clear in case of emergencies or expensive planned purchases.

I prefer to use credit cards on things like travel, clothing, electronics and vehicle maintenance. Plan ahead in order to insure that you will have money in your account to comfortably pay the balance in full once the credit card bill arrives.

Pay what you owe. If you owe your friend twenty dollars and you only have a twenty dollar bill you have zero dollars. You can’t grow financially with a lot of debt. Sometimes debt is necessary to take on. Have a plan to pay it back before taking on the debt and stick with it. If you took on debt in an emergency seek out assistance such as the case of medical debt. Pay your bills on time and avoid late fees. This is how you establish good credit. Your credit rating can make a big difference in the opportunities you’re offered.

Always look for ways to increase your income. Whether you earn extra income from a promotion at work, job change, career change, part time job or starting a business more money is a good thing. More money increases your sense of security, safety and opportunities.

Businesses are always looking for ways to increase revenue so you have no choice but to look for ways to increase your income. Do your best to stay out of situations that keep you stagnant. If a life situation isn’t giving you new opportunities to grow and thrive seek a new path.

These practices that I developed at a young age have been beneficial. Financial advice often grinds my gears because it tends to be geared towards high income people. You can only budget so much when your income isn’t very high. Market values dictate prices of essentials and there is no way around paying minimum prices for items that you need or want. Always be looking for new opportunities to increase your income and give yourself a bigger budget.

The Facade of the American Job Market

The American job market of 2022 is a pyramid scheme. You get a job and then you’re expected to work your way up if you want to have financial prosperity. But in any organization there are more workers than there are supervisors or managers. The job market is designed to uplift some and disenfranchise others.

A lot of jobs don’t offer any real type of career advancement. That’s particularly true for African Americans and women. Despite anti discrimination laws many American organizations only see Black people as workers and White people as leaders and they have a hard time deviating from that. Don’t believe that loyalty, hard work and professionalism will get you anywhere in an organization with racial and gender bias.

Jobs don’t really give raises. The pay increases given each year are between 2-5% which is barely a cost of living increase. It’s not a raise. In order to make more money you need to pivot and find an entirely new career path that can pay off. Be cognizant of career ceilings. Some careers plateau very quickly.

People go to college with hopes and dreams of a glamorous career but there aren’t that many glamorous high paying careers. Take some time and look at career websites. In my area they are mostly looking for office workers that don’t pay more than $45K per year, customer service jobs and warehouse work. At least that’s what I see.

In today’s job market I would recommend going to community college and getting an associates degree unless you have a very specific career path. I’m not sure that the current job market is worth getting a four year degree. Most employers are not worth it. If you pursue a higher education do it for you. I wholeheartedly support scholarship for the sake of learning.

Anyway, we have all been lied to. There are very few glamorous, high paying careers. It’s mostly grunt work. Take it for what it is. At least it’s an opportunity to earn a living. Focus on making money and pursue your interests and passions in your free time.

I Paid Off My Student Loan

I paid off my student loan last month. I don’t have any profound advice about repaying debt. It’s all very simple. Pay it back. Be aware of your circumstances, make a plan and stick with it.

I finished my masters degree in May 2012. In December 2012 I received a letter from my lender about the repayment terms. I believe I owed around $35,000. They wanted around $500 a month. At the time I was making my living by working three low wage part time jobs, two were in retail and one was as a waitress. I found the $500 payments to be overwhelming.

I called the lender and told them I would pay them every month but I couldn’t pay what they were asking. They changed the terms of my loan. My payments were decreased to around $200 per month. I made those payments for a few years and when I checked my balance it hadn’t changed much from the balance of the loan shortly after graduation.

I called the loan company again and they explained the situation better. I learned that I was paying $7 a day in interest on the loan. The $200 per month I was paying wasn’t even covering the interest and my payments weren’t touching the principle. The lowered monthly payment merely kept my accounts in good standing.

Once I became aware of my circumstances I devised a plan to get out of debt. I decided to increase my payments. The interest was aggressive so I needed to become more aggressive. My employment situation improved over time. It still isn’t great but keep in mind I was working three part time, low wage jobs at the beginning of this story. I eventually got a somewhat respectable 9-5 which I’ve had for the last five years.

I worked about fifty five hours per week for five years. I worked three days a week for twelve hours between the two jobs, every Saturday for eight hours and I took most Sundays off. That was my schedule for five years until I quit my part time job for COVID 19 related reasons. By that time I had already paid my car off so I had money free to maintain my student loan payments.

I had increased my payments to over $500 per month which was what they were asking for at the beginning. Most months I made payments between $500-$700. As my individual loan amounts got lower I would pay them off in full. My last few payments were over $1000.

I’ve read many articles and seen You Tube videos about repaying debt. They like to pretend that they have some mystic advice. There is none. There is no oracle speaking money secrets. All these stories about people repaying large amounts of debt back in a fairly short time had the money to do so.

It’s all math. You have to devote more money to repaying debt through cutting back and reallocating money in your budget or you have to come up with more money. There wasn’t much for me to cut back because I am not a wealthy woman so the answer was to make more money to repay the loan. That’s it. That’s the formula.

Working six days a week for so many years was taxing and a sacrifice but it was worth it. The debt is gone. Now that the debt is paid I have more freedom in my future plans. My new focus is saving for retirement. I may also buy a home in the next few years.

I wrote this to encourage others who have debt repayment. It may take a long time but the goal is attainable. It takes dedication and perseverance but your financial future is worth it. If you owe money part of every dollar you earn belongs to someone else.

Repaying student loan debt is difficult but it is not an insurmountable task. Keep in mind I do not make much money so if you graduate and make a good salary it will be easier for you to repay the debt. If you have dreams of furthering your education clearly assess the situation with logic and a clear head, not fear and emotion.

Sit down with a pencil and paper and write things out. It’s all a matter of math and how the numbers work with your life circumstances and goals. Don’t listen to social media opinions of student loan debt on either side of the loan debate.

Consider your variables and do not mistake the life situation for others as your own. Accurately assess your options and long term outcomes. There are too many people blowing smoke and spreading fear on both sides of the loan debate. I also wouldn’t wait for an act of Congress to cancel debt or change the terms of the loan. It’s quite refreshing to not be a part of the great American student loan debate. Best wishes to you and congratulations to me.

Real Talk: Money Saving Tips

I read a tweet a month or so ago from a millennial asking Generation X and Baby Boomers for financial advice. I answered the tweet without actually answering the question. I told her that I felt like most financial advice that I’ve seen given in the media is usually geared towards people with fairly high incomes so I can’t advise anything without knowing her situation.

I’ve often been frustrated by financial advice given through the media because it is usually unrealistic for people who make less than $70,000 annually. Suze Orman expects people to have tens of thousands of dollars in retirement by thirty five. I remember her telling someone on her show once that they just need to make more money as if it was that easy.

Most young Americans spend their youth paying back debts and have no opportunity to save for retirement or a home. I’ve heard financial advisers tell their audience how to get the best interest rates on a mortgage. Well if you are in the market to buy a home or retire you’ve already crossed a certain income and savings threshold. There isn’t much advice out there for people that need it most.

But I have some financial advice for those with modest incomes. I’ve never made a great deal of money but I’ve managed to accomplish a lot with what I have. I got a second Bachelors degree. I’ve travelled out of the country twice. I’ve taken my mom on a few nice vacations. I’ve bought a few cars. And it’s not a problem for me to treat a friend to dinner once in a while. I’ve never really been broke.

I will start with the only financial advice I’ve ever heard on TV that anyone can follow. Many years ago Oprah aired a series on financial responsibility. She had a man on the show who simply said, “Pay yourself first”. He said no matter what you make or what you owe take a bit of your earnings and save it for yourself. It really does work and we can all do this.

Learn to cook. I’m far from a culinary expert but I have some skills in the kitchen. If you don’t know how don’t worry, if you can read and follow a recipe I promise you that you can cook. Cooking saves you from eating out which is very expensive. Even fast food and convenience items from the store is expensive. Learning to cook simple meals will save you money and will probably improve your health.

Clip coupons. People kind of laugh when they see the coupons in my purse but I have learned that there are certain items that you never, ever have to pay full price for. The Sunday newspaper consistently has coupons for toothpaste, body wash, cosmetics, feminine hygiene products, toilet paper and paper towel. Retailers like Walgreens and CVS have their own coupon programs which can be coupled with your newspaper coupons. The savings over time are significant.

Coupon with a purpose. Coupons can be a double edged sword. I am on the coupon list for a few retailers that I frequent. I’ve saved money at clothing stores because of the coupons they send me. Some retailers send coupons regularly and I feel like I need to use the coupon or else I am wasting money. But the truth is I could save %100 by not buying that item. Coupons only save you money if you were going to buy the item anyway and you can apply savings. If you are just buying something so you can use the coupon you are wasting your money.

Shop with a purpose. I’m an impulse buyer and I rarely have regrets. So my personal policy is not to window shop because I can’t. I will always find something I like and I won’t want to walk away from it. Even if I leave the store without whatever item caught my attention I’ll come back for it next week. I stay out of stores unless I am prepared to buy something and have the discretionary income to do so.

Don’t waste money buying money. ATMs often have fairly high fees to get cash from their machine. Use your own banks ATM or get cash when you shop with your debit card at the grocery or drug store. Avoid charging more on your credit card than what you can afford to pay in a month. Paying the interest on a credit card is a real drag especially if you only make the minimum payments.

So there you have it. There are a few of my thoughts on maintaining a budget and saving money. You can make a little go far with a good game plan. Good luck. Go out there and prosper.

I Love Shoes

I really love shoes. I’ve had this fascination with them since childhood. Earlier this fall I decided that I wanted to get rid of all of my shoes and get new ones. I can’t afford to buy all new shoes so I just god rid of some of them and gave them to the disabled veterans store. Despite being underemployed, paying off student loan debt, in need of a new car I’ve bought four new pairs so far. It’s a sickness I tell you. At least I’m more stylish than crack addicts and most alcoholics. I also have a pair of Michael Kors rain boots in the trunk of my car.

The way I see it, I’m not buying no damn house. I could save my money but I don’t make enough to make it amount to anything quick enough. If I scrimped and saved I could probably have a few extra thousand saved up by the end of the year. But one good car repair could eat that up. To hell with it. Buy the shoes. My hope is that I will eventually make significantly more money. Because the whole saving thing doesn’t really work that well for me. I’m unsure of how realistic this is in a country where people think a $15 wage is an exorbitant wage.

I honestly try to save and I think it’s important. I’ve been successful at saving in the past. But even then every time I got a good $6,000 in the bank I took an awesome vacation somewhere. And there’s only so much a single woman can do with a $13 per hour job and $34,000 in student loan debt. I’m forty years old and I’m kind of at a point in my life when I think I should say to hell with it buy the shoes. My life is half over. I think the world is slowly coming to an end. Why not?

Every time I feel like I’m gaining ground financially something stupid happens. My car dies and I need to pay for a new battery It dies again and now I need to pay for a tow truck. An insurance claim is denied and I have to pay for a dental appointment. To hell with it buy the shoes. And call up a friend and go out for cocktails. But that’s just me. I’m no Suze Orman.