JSL Financial

No, I haven't forgotten

2006-12-02T23:31:00.000-05:00

This blog hasn't been abandoned. I haven't posted in a while because I have been in a state of financial stasis and frustration. I'm trying to develop ways I can have more money each month and until that really happens there hasn't been much going on financially. I think I may be moving in with a friend who is coming here from Ohio. Nothing is 100% sure yet, but if the move happens it will most likely be in January or February. THe only reason I'm insane enough to move yet again in such a short time is the fact that while I am not living beyond my means, I'm pretty darn close and I would like to save a few undred dollars each month. More on this later...

Free Money!

2006-10-08T10:18:00.001-04:00

Haha, not really.

Well, kinda sorta. I wanted to put up a post about Perkins Loans. If you are currently or were recently in college and you took out a Perkins loan, you may be elligible to have some or all of it cancelled. I teach in a high-need district and I'm considered a "shortage area" teacher (foreign language, mathematics and science are the major shortage areas I know of, but there may be others). Therefore, I'm elligible to have the Perkins loan I borrowed from my university cancelled over a period of five years. It necessitates doing some paperwork at the start of each school year, but they progressively forgive a percentage of the loan each year for five years until it is gone. Now, if you're not a teacher I believe there are other kinds of jobs that are elligible for this forgiveness, but if you ARE a teacher or are sure you are going to be a teacher out of college, definitely look into this. Even if you teach in a wealthy district, you may be able to get the forgiveness if you are in a shortage area.

Knowing all of this, I only wish I had borrowed more through the Perkins program, but back then I didn't know I was going to be a teacher. Hindsight is 20/20, eh?

3, 2, 1...

2006-09-17T11:49:00.000-04:00

Welcome back, dear readers! As the new school year gets underway my financial juices are once again flowing with the influx of my salary, so I've been inspired sit down and think about a new approach to managing my finances this year.

Last year I had just moved to a new state with little more than what could fit in my Toyota Matrix (which had been bought brand new, with no money down a few months before). Soon I was laying out money for housing deposits, rent, car payments and insurance (almost twice as expensive in NY as OH), furniture and the necessities of life that get us through each day. After moving out of a house share and into my own one-bedroom apartment I began to realize what it really costs to live on one's own. The previous year after I had received my job offer and salary information, I stared wide-eyed at a computer spreadsheet that showed me the riches I would have at my disposal and the speed with which I would be able to pay down the debt I had incurred over six years of undergraduate education, a year abroad and my master's degree. As many of you know, these things always look good on paper.

Although I didn't do as well as I had hoped last year (a year for me is September-August), I did end the year in less debt than when I began it.

I have long been a Suze Orman disciple and have followed the idea that as long as I have CC debt, I have no reason to be saving money and that all of my extra income should go towards paying down the debt. After a year of living with a big boy's salary and trying to put this idea to use I have found that I have problems with it, and I'll tell you why. This past spring I was feeling really good about how I had done financially. I had paid off the $3000 I had borrowed from family members to help me with my move, my CC debt was going down and my credit score was going up, and I'd even opened up a retirement account that had quickly amassed $1000. I had a lump of money in the bank to live off of for the summer and set to enjoying the next ten weeks of relaxation, road trips and entertainment.

Six weeks later, I was basically out of money. Aside from the checks I had written in June to pay my rent through September, I didn't have much left to live on. I started using my charge card, thinking I would maybe have to charge a few hundred bucks that I would pay back as soon as I got paid. For some reason, money seems to "spend easier" when you are charging. By the time I received my first check of the year this past week I had run up just over $1000 on a card that had been previously empty for some time.

I realize now that this could have been avoided by setting aside a little money each paycheck throughout the year so I would have a lump in savings that could pinch hit if my big summer check ran out. This year, I'm going to set aside $100 per month or $50 per paycheck in my ING account. (1) I'm going to continue to contribute to my 403(b) at the rate of $200 per month (2). For my CC debt, currently around $8000, I'm going to pay a total of $300 each month towards it, focusing first on a couple of small (less than $1000) balances, then gradually whittling away at the bigger accounts (3). I arrived at these amounts by trying to be realistic about my debt and treating it as an unchanging bill, almost like a car loan. I pay my car payment every month because I have no choice. I could pay more, but I can't pay less. By this logic, assuming I can keep my CC debt at a 0% interest rate (nearly all of it is now), I should have my CCs paid off in two years, while having put over $5000 in retirement and $2400 in personal savings. Here's where it gets interesting, though. I picked these figures based on the assumption that each month I will have maximum bills (I only pay car insurance eight months out of the year) and minimum income (not counting a tax refund, bonuses for extra work from my job or my end of year grant). I'm hoping that in July of next year, after the smoke has cleared, I should actually end up doing better than planned for the year because of those little windfalls I'm not including in my calculations.

Whew! Long post today...Do you have a strategy that works for you? Let me know at joelstuartliving@mac.com

Inactivity Fee?! Screw You, Chase!

2006-09-16T14:02:00.000-04:00

I'm done with Chase Bank. Done, do you hear me?! First, after being a good little credit card customer with Chase for over a year, having taken advantage of a 0% offer from them and always paying at least the minimums (though usually more) on time, I decided to stay with them after the 0% ran out because my rate was still a very reasonable 6.99% and it was a larger balance so I didn't want to transfer at the time. Earlier this month I logged on to my online account to find that Chase had more than doubled my interest rate to over 14%. When I called to ask about this, the gentleman on the phone informed me that Experian had informed them that I had become a higher credit risk because more than 50% of my available credit had been charged on. Hmm...sounds fishy. I bought a credit report and score from Experian and found zero negative items on my report and a score over 730! I called Chase back and they said I could either pay down some of the credit and they may lower the interest rate back down or I could close my account with them and they would lower it then. Sound insane yet? I promptly went to www.lowermybills.com and applied for a new zero percent intro card with Discover. Within a few days I had been granted the new account with a hefty limit so I could transfer the balances. Sometime in the next week I will no longer be carrying a balance with Chase, so ha!

That was strike one.

Strike two came when I received my bank account statement from Chase (formerly Bank One) this month. I have not used the account much since I moved to New York, because when I got here I could not deposit locally because the transfer of accounts from Bank One was not yet complete. So I decided to open an account with the Teacher's Credit Union near where I work. While it has its idiosyncrasies, I have been very satisfied with the service from the credit union, but had intended to begin using Chase again eventually. I had $17 dollars sitting in the Chase account for the past year, and this month I guess they got fed up with me and charged me a $6 "inactivity fee." This week I plan on calling them, bitching to get my six bucks back and closing my accounts with them. I'll leave the credit card open while I pay down my balances so there isn't a sudden impact to my available credit, but I'll be damned if I ever do business with this company again.

What would possess a bank to go after more money from someone who is, in effect, an ideal credit customer? I have CC debt, yes, but it's well under $10,000 and I'm slowly paying it down. I make a good salary and have a great credit score. Who knows? I think this is how people get screwed by CC companies. You think you're doing fine, then something you aren't even aware of happens to jack up your interest rates and suddenly your balances aren't going down anymore. It's just evil. I can't wait to have all this stuff paid off in the next year or two. Credit is a useful tool and important to have if you ever need to borrow money for something, but I've paid my dues and I ain't payin' no more.

Temporary setback...

2006-09-10T15:24:00.000-04:00

Despite my best efforts to budget my "summer money" to last until I get my first paycheck of the school year next week, I basically ran out of money about a month ago. I had enough to cover bills and rent, but not enough to live on. Consequently, I've had to charge some basic necessities and items I needed for the school year and have set myself back a bit in terms of paying down my debt. My goal is to be back on track by the end of October, and with a slightly higher salary this year and less overhead costs I had to pay last year. I'll start posting regular updates again now that I'll have some income. Stay tuned!

$X,XXX

2006-09-03T21:20:00.000-04:00

Well, my fears came to fruition and I ran out of damn money! I've been living on my MasterCard for the past month and I can't wait to start getting paychecks again. This has set me back a little, but I'm still up for the year. No big thing.

$7,073

2006-07-23T16:32:00.000-04:00

Whooo boy! It won't be long before it's under $7000! To think that I started this blog in March with an initial CC/Personal loan tab of $9,791. In just five months I've paid off over $2,700 in debt! That bodes very well for my goal of wanting to get this debt completely gone within the next 18 months. Over the past year I paid back the $3,000 that I had borrowed from family members to help get me started in New York. I think I'm most proud of that. I don't care if it takes me a while to pay back my CC companies, but getting out of debt to my family was extremely important to me. Plus, I'm financially stable enough now that I don't have to make ends meet by charging random things like gas or groceries and I've cleaned up my habit of little indulgences I used to put on my cards.

I should also mention that as of right now I have already socked away $1,000 in my 403(b) plan and I have $525 dollars sitting in savings. I have the money in savings becaue I'm not sure I'm going to make it through the rest of the summer on what's in my checking, but I'm going to try.

Already Spent

2006-07-11T11:55:00.000-04:00

I'm sure I've sung the praises of Quicken before, but lately I've been trying to reign in my spending and stretch my summer dollars a bit further and I found an area where Quicken can be slightly detrimental. You see, I enter everything into Quicken that I put on my debit card (which is most things, I'm big on saving receipts and entering them regularly) or when I take money out of an ATM. There are certain times, though, when having cash is handy or necessary. Toll booths are a good example. If you've traveled in New York by car, you know that the bridges in tunnels that connect Long Island, Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey are not something you can pay for with the loose change in your car's console. One usually needs foldable bills, and many of them (It cost nine dollars the first time I crossed the George Washington Bridge. Nine dollars! They should be able to buy a new bridge every few years with that kind of money!). The way I usually think of money that I take out of an ATM is that, at least as far as Quicken is concerned, the money is already spent. Because of this I tend to be a little more free with the money in my wallet when it comes to items under ten dollars or so, such as Starbucks, movie tickets or other small, consumable things. Now I try to think harder about the domino effect that this has. If I buy some Starbucks now, I'll have less cash in my wallet and be tempted to go to an ATM or get cash back on a debit card purchase sooner. (I love cash back, by the way. I use it a lot because I live about twenty miles from my closest credit union branch and it costs me a few bucks to take money out of other ATMs, and they don't charge the fee on debit card transactions. If you use this a lot, I recommend doing what I do and entering it as a "split" transaction into Quicken, so you can keep track of how much was taken in cash and how much was spent on whatever you just bought).

Now I try to spend a little time thinking and considering if I really want or need that few dollar item that I'm opening my wallet for. Last evening I was at the mall and had intended to eat some food there, but instead reconsidered, realizing I had a Healthy Choice meal still in my freezer. I not only saved the six or seven dollars, but I probably ate a lower-calorie meal as a result of my decision.

For all my fellow financial fanatics, Oprah is doing a series all week this week about going on a "debt diet." She's having three financial experts follow three families who are very much in debt and who are trying to get out of it. The only thing that bothered me was the statistics they rattled off at the beginning of the show about how many Americans are in debt and living paycheck to paycheck (%70 by their estimates), which goes against the statistics that I have read recently that says the debt problem in the US is not that bad, but the statistics are skewed by the outliers. In reality, I believe that most people are not drowning in debt, but probably plenty of us have a few thousand in CC bills we'd like to get rid of. Anyway, I'm going to record the shows and I'll post a reflection of what I think after it's all over. I'm leaving tomorrow for Florida so I may not be posting until next week.

$7,239

2006-07-02T12:42:00.000-04:00

Would ya look at that? It's getting smaller! I sent another lump of money to one of my CCs. I have to be careful with budgeting right now because I have to live off of a lump sum until I get paid again in the Fall. I guess I explained that already but if you're new to the blog, now you know. I also opened up an account with ING Direct. This online bank pays great interest on savings (4.35% right now) because of their low overhead. I know that putting money in savings goes against the Suze Orman principal of putting as much towards debt as possible, but I'm starting small and I want to get myself into the habit of saving up money. I started with $500, plus got an extra $25 from the bank by using a referral a friend had sent me (if you are interested in this and would like a referral I'll be happy to send you one, just email me). When I start getting paid again in September I will automatically deposit $50 each time I get paid into the account. I don't think this will cut into my paying my debt down that much and it will start to make a bit of a cushion so I don't have to charge again if I get into a tight spot with an unexpected expense or something. I will get a slight raise in the fall, so this amount will go almost unnoticed from the paychecks I'm used to.

The ING account was very easy to set up and is very user-friendly. You can transfer money to and from the account whenever you need to without fees or penalties, and the transactions happen quickly, usually within a day.

$7,387.26

2006-06-17T10:43:00.000-04:00

At long last, another debt update! If you'll notice, the number has fallen CONSIDERABLY since my last such update (over $2000). This is because I am paying back the money that I owe to my mother and my aunt, who loaned me $2000 and $1000 respectively when I moved to New York last summer. I had already paid mom back $1000 back when I got my federal tax refund, so I just had the other half to pay off. At first I didn't think I was going to be able to pay them both back this month, but I had miscalculated the amount of pay I still had coming to me for this school year. It turns out there was an entire extra paycheck I hadn't added into the numbers. So, voila, I am now free of all debt that I owed to my family. It was extremely important to me to be able to pay my family members back because, even though I know that both of them would have extended the deadline for my repayment indefinitely, I just didn't feel right paying off other debt before them. Money between family members often leads to no good, but sometimes it works out okay! This also means that when I get larger lumps of money throughout the next year I will be able to put it all towards the CC debt and get it paid off even faster!

Moving is Expensive

2006-06-03T10:12:00.000-04:00

Okay, so the title is pretty obvious. No major revelations there. In fact, I've moved so many times that this unavoidable truth is something I seem to have to deal with at least once or twice a year. I have now moved three times in the past year and frankly, I'm sick of it. The most recent relocation was triggered by my landlord wishing to raise my rent by $100. I wasn't having it. Additionally, I think she had other motivations for raising my rent and she didn't necessarily agree with the way I lived my life. Needless to say, the move will delay my paying down my CC balances by very much this month, but sometimes being happy and content where you live is more important that speedily paying off your debt. My "big check" from my job is coming in just a few weeks, so I will be able to make some progress then. Also due to this upheaval is my lack of online activity lately. My life has been in such flux that it has been hard to find time to sit down and post, but everything is finally settling down so there is more goodness to come shortly.

All's Quiet on the Financial Front

2006-05-21T13:54:00.000-04:00

To all my readers who are wondering if I'm still out there somewhere, I am indeed! I've been very busy with work and life and haven't had much time to devote to keeping up my online projects, so I wanted to slap up a quick post about what to do when you get a lump sum of money. For some odd reason, my job has an unusual pay setup that gives me five paychecks in one on the last day of school rather than paying me throughout the summer. It will be nice because I can "fast forward" a few of my CC and other debt payments and then not have to worry about them for the rest of the summer. The challenge is, though, that I need to actually make five paychecks stretch over six pay periods, as I do not receive the first check of next year until mid-September. For followers of my video journal, I'm also moving next week, which will be sure to add extra expenses that I have not yet calculated. I don't have the best history with dealing with lump sums, but before this point I haven't had as many financial responsibilities as I do now. I think these responsibilities will keep me centered and focused on my financial and personal goals and carry me into the next school year with, hopefully, only a few lean weeks. This summer I would also like to start up a financial podcast on this blog, bringing on guests from the queer money blogosphere to discuss financial issues relevant to not only GLBT people, but really all people. So, stay tuned for that!

The Transfer Game

2006-05-08T16:28:00.000-04:00

I now have four major credit cards! I applied for one to take advantage of the "0% interest for a year on balance transfers" offer. The one downside is that they charge an automatic 3% fee for this service. That fee applied to the amount I transferred comes out to about $75, or roughly two month's worth of finance charges on the credit card from which the money is being transferred. It's kind of a pain in the ass, but I figure that I will save money in the long run by paying of the remainder of the balance on the old card in the next two months and then having no finance charges on the new one until next May. That shouldn't even be an issue since I should have the $2500 paid off before then, at which point I'll have just my one biggie $4000+ credit card to pay, but the interest rate on that card is so low (6.99%!) I don't mind taking a little longer to pay it off. My goal is to put approximately $400 each month towards CC debt. Factoring in that I will try to put part of any windfalls or extra money I get towards the debt, I should be done with it all in under 18 months. I haven't charged anything except my health club dues on the cards in some time, so I feel good about the direction I'm going.

The Queer Money Blogosphere

2006-05-01T16:41:00.000-04:00

I received an email today from Nina Smith of Queercents asking me if I would like to participate in an interview portion of her blog. This email led me to look at some of her links and read about some of the other GLBT financial blogs out there. I was delighted with the diversity of stories and information that people have to share about their financial situations. Reading many of those posts was like having conversations with people you know you would almost never have about money: how they paid off their debt, how they got into debt, how they save for retirement, how they budget expenses, etc. It was fascinating! It goes to show you that there is a lot more behind "the gay dollar" than simply not having children, which is the stereotype many people have regarding why a lot of LGBT people seem to have a lot of disposable income. What really is at work is a lot of intelligent, hard-working people who make good decisions with their money.

What I also found is that some of the habits I have been slowly developing over the years are tactics used by others to manage money. For example, I'm no budgeter. I think budgets are like diets in that they just set you up for failure. You go off your budget, then you just say "screw it!" and throw the budget out the window. What has been working for me more recently is what I'll call the "empty checking account" tactic. Basically, I schedule all of my bill payments as soon as I get them, but sometimes the actual pay dates are still weeks away. What this creates in my Quicken log is a relatively low or sometimes even negative running balance. I get paid bi-weekly and I always get the same amount, so I know exactly how much money I'm going to have when certain bills hit the account. This creates a sense of satisfaction knowing that all my bills will be paid, which I find makes up for the fact that I don't feel like I have a lot of money sitting around. It's not really my money anyway as long as I still have debt, so that feeling is merely illusory.

I will be adding some links to other financial blogs I find interesting. Please email me any I may not have found or heard of. I think it is important to support each other's work and I encourage you to do the same.

Middle Class Mentality

2006-04-26T13:03:00.000-04:00

I am a teacher by trade and recently had a discussion with some of my fellow teachers about how individuals of various classes prioritize and handle money. I teach in what is considered a relatively low income district where many families are more or less impoverished. Despite this fact, one still sees most students wearing flashy sneakers, carrying iPods, or sporting the latest Baby Phat or Sean John fashions. The reason for this is that people who live in what is called "generational poverty" place a higher emphasis on the status provided by having material goods. If you make $1000 per month, it might be a higher priority to spend $300 of than on an iPod so that you or your children fit in better rather than paying bills on time.

I come from a middle class background, and although I wouldn't call either of my parents masters of personal finance, I was brought up to believe that sometimes you just can't have all the things the wealthier kids have. Since I have been living on my own I have noticed the ways in which my mother, who was my primary caretaker, influenced me with her frugal ways. Probably the most obvious area is food. For example, I can usually come up with a meal for supper from items in my cupboards or refrigerator that someone else might overlook. Also, I never put more than the slightest amount of mayonnaise or butter on bread, or meats and cheeses on sandwiches. In general, I tend to think of nearly everything I consume in terms of how much it costs. Whether it is a new TV or a cup of Starbucks coffee, I always feel a little twinge of "could this money be better spent" when I lay out cash (or charge, unfortunately) for these kinds of items. Some of these habits have been eroded by the fact that I have a little more now than my mother did then and I don't have two kids to worry about, but I still value these lessons my mom taught me without knowing it.

I don't mean this to be a reinforcement of classist stereotypes, but the discussion about how different groups handle money made me that much more aware of how I handle (or should handle) my own.

Slow and Steady: $9,527.33

2006-04-19T21:04:00.000-04:00

And down she goes again. I got my New York State tax refund today and was pleasantly surprised. After taking over two months for it to be processed, the amount I received was $50 more than I had anticipated! They must have gone over my return and fixed it for me. Wasn't that nice of them? This money means that I can comfortably pay all of my bills this month and have enough money to breathe with. If I'm really good I might carry a couple hundred extra bucks into next month. Now, I will admit that I didn't send all of my tax refund to my credit cards, which I had intended to do back when I charged this pretty new computer I'm typing this entry on. I probably could have done that and perhaps survived, but that would leave virtually no room for incidentals that may come up throughout the month.

My main strategy is to simply pay off as much as I can without having to charge anything, or pay off any amount I had charged plus a bit more. What I have found is that this will be a better long-term strategy to getting the debt paid down. Yes, it feels good to make a big, honkin' payment to a credit card, but if you end up having to turn around and charge other things as a result then there is no point to that one moment of satisfaction. Not to mention that I started this blog less than a month ago and I've paid off about $235. I will pick up the pace and send a little more next month because I won't have car insurance to pay until July, but all in good time.

It's worse than I thought!

2006-04-18T22:18:00.002-04:00

I came across this interesting article today rearding the truth about credit card debt. I, like many people, was living under the false illusion that everyone was in my boat, struggling to pay down excessive credit debt. It seems the reality is that much of the debt is borne by just a few people, and that most Americans are raeallly doing okay with credit and debt. It shouldn't make me sad to know that others are doing well, but I think there is part of me that longs to feel better by comparison. Certainly, there are worse-off folks to whom it would be easy to compare myself and feel better, but that doesn't change the fact that I KNOW that not everoyone is walking around owing this kind of money. I must say that this makes my motivation to work even harder at paying off this debt even higher. I'm also considering going to my credit union for a consolidation loan so I an get a lower interest rate and pay it off even sooner.

Making Ends Meet

2006-04-16T23:39:00.000-04:00

I realized today that April is going to be an extremely tight month, one in which just about every dollar counts. My bills are all-around higher this month because of things I charged last month that I want to pay off, as well as a cell phone bill that is almost twice what it normally is. Though I will be strapped for cash this month, I think I will see it as a success if I can make it through without having to borrow from Peter (or my boyfriend) to pay Paul. This is also the last month of my four-month car insurance cycle, which will make the next two months $250 easier. It really stinks being financially responsible. I hope that my endeavor to earn some money with these websites pans out in the long run, although I know it will still be a couple of months before I see a return on the time investment I've already made.

$9,662.94

2006-04-14T09:17:00.000-04:00

See? It's going down, little by little. My strategy these days when it comes to spending with my credit card is basically this: I either (a) try not to charge anything or (b) pay off more than I charge each month. This month it had to be the latter because of timing issues with my paycheck. I made a charge for some electronics I purchased, then immediately adjusted the amount scheduled to be paid on my credit card to compensate. I wanted to use this post to make you aware of some of the financial tools I employ in my everyday life that you may find useful if you don't use them already.

The most important tool I use is Quicken. I have used Quicken since 1999 and, because of it, have not bounced a check or overdrawn an account because I thought I had more money than I did. Quicken is simple to use, and if you're an owner of a Macintosh computer that you've purchased in the last several years, then you already own the software. I'm sure it comes installed on some PCs, too, though I'm not sure which ones. For the uninitiated, Quicken is software that helps you to keep track of your finances. What I love about it is that you can make it as simple or as detailed as you want. There is a huge wealth of features, from keeping track of your savings account balance to managing your stock portfolio, this software really can do it all. I know that many of you probably do online banking and maybe you think that is good enough for keeping track of your money, and you may be right. The nice thing about Quicken, however, is that you enter transactions into it as soon as you make them, so you always have the most accurate count of your money possible, even when transactions take up to a week to clear your bank accounts and appear on your statements. I really can't say enough about this software. If you are serious about managing your money, I heartily suggest this as an excellent first step.

The next thing I use almost as often as quicken is Checkfree. Checkfree is a free online bill paying service. I know that many banks offer online bill pay, but the nice thing about Checkfree is that it isn't tiedd to one bank account. I pay 90% of my bills using this service. It has never paid late and I've never had a mistake happen that wasn't caused by me. They have tons of credit card companies, including store credit cards, utility bills, wireless phone services, and tons more. My one complaint is that my cable company isn't on there, but who knows? They may be soon.

The third and final tool I'm going to point out today is Annual Credit Report. Unlike Freecreditreport.com, Annual Credit Report is a truly free credit report service that doesn't constantly pester you to buy more services or packages of credit reports and scores. It keeps you in the database and allows you to access each of your three credit reports each year. The clever consumer will space these out over the year so you basically get a chance to check your report for free every four months. The free reports do not include a FICO score, but each agency offers the scores for as little as $4.95 each. Please, do not pay for one of those packages that gives you everything at once. They really are overpriced when you can get the same info for next to nothing. I'm even a little ashamed of Suze Orman for trying to sell her own overpriced FICO kit, but I like her otherwise.

Going to Univer$ity...

2006-04-10T11:16:00.000-04:00

I read this article on the New York Times website that talks about how parents are passing the burden of college tuition on to their children in what they call a new trend. A new trend?! Nearly everyone I know has student loan debt from their undergraduate and graduate educations, and I think it is about time that a lot of these priveleged kids, many of whom have families that were responsible and saved up money for their educations, take responsibility for their futures. The thing that irked me the most about the article were the kids who felt they needed to go to an expensive or private institution. '"The way I see it is, I only get to go to college once," Mr. Dillon said. "If I have to pay an extra $20,000 a year, that's what I have to do."' Someone needs to sit down with these young people, show them how much debt they will really have to incur to finance their dream colleges, and how much money they will have to make after graduation in order to begin to pay those loans. Here's my own story...

Having grown up in a modest, single-parent household (when I say household I mean a number of rented apartments, and duplexes around the area; between the ages of three and eighteen I moved seven times), I never saw myself as an ivy-leaguer. My mother struggled, even with child support from my father, to bring my brother and me up without us ever feeling we had less than other kids, and we never did. I hate to use the phrase "when I was a kid" because it doesn't seem like that long ago, but I do think the landscape has changed in ten years. When I was a kid, I think there was a more realistic atmosphere and tone in our society, at least where I was living about the various directions young people were expected to head after high school. Rich, smart kids and really smart middle class kids had a chance at ivy-leagues and private schools, most reasonably bright middle class kids selected from a number of very good state schools, and kids who didn't do as well in high school expected to go into a job, a training program or community college. This may sound like social darwinism, but it was the reality and there was no shame in it.

Yes, the lucky kids had mom and dad to pay for their school, but I knew from the onset that I was going to have to cover some of my own expenses. Of course, during the four years of college, receiving overage checks every semester that felt like winning the lottery, it didn't hit me that I would be paying back that money very soon. I accumulated about $20,000 in loans from my undergraduate education, which I consider a bargain when I think of all of the opportunites I took advantage of, including living abroad for a year. To be fair, my father and my grandmother did contribute a good chunk of change to my education. Without them I likely would have had $30-40k in debt from my bachelors degree. To them I am eternally grateful.

After college I took a little time to think about where I was headed. When I decided to go to grad school to become a teacher I hoped that I would get a fellowship or a scholarship to cover the cost. I didn't, so I had to make the tough choice to take an additional $18,500 in loans to pay for it. I chose a program at a state school (one that is nationally ranked for its teacher training program) that only took me one year to complete and I worked for half of that year to put some more money in my pocket. I also lived basically for free with my aunt, which was challenging at times but well worth it.

I just had to laugh to myself. I sat down to write a fire and brimstone post about how kids these days shouldn't see themselves as so self-important that they need an expensive education and that many of them are spoiled already. Then I realized how much financial help, both directly and indirectly, I got from my family and saw myself as the pot and "these kids" as the kettle. Though I made what I feel to be responsible choices in my education and career, I know I wouldn't be where I am without a lot of help. So, what's the point? Educate yourself and your kids about the real cost of college and how much they will have to pay each month when the kegs have gone dry and the graduation robe is gathering dust in a basement or an attic somewhere. Part of the experience, though, is living it.

$9,717.78

2006-04-09T11:36:00.000-04:00

I need more income! It's as simple as that. I make a decent salary and it is enough to live on, but if I ever really want to get this debt paid down faster I need to make some more money. I made a $100 credit card payment, but after the finance charges that have now kicked in on that card as well as the fact that my gym membership gets charged to it every month, the balance didn't go down by much. Also, I'm still waiting on almost $500 from my New York State tax return, which has taken forever. I think it has to do with the fact that I'm a new resident to the state, but still, I thought I would have that money weeks ago. I'm trying to get a job at a retail store I used to work at in Ohio that is opening a location not far from me. I want to work there again because it is a commission-based job and the mall where it will be is usually quite busy. I might go poke around the mall today for any other options. I know that waiting tables is a good way to make extra money, but I don't think I could handle the late hours and I really never enjoyed working with food. I'd rather come home smelling like fine leathers than leathery steaks. There are so many things I still want for my place: nice linens, some more bedroom furniture, coffee table, etc. Not to mention my addiction to techy gadgets. My printer is starting to show it's age, some speakers for my computer would be nice, and I've still got my eye on the Canon Powershot S2 digital camera (5 MP resolution and a great movie mode!).

I know I probably sound materialistic, but you have to understand that I didn't come to NY with much of anything, and nearly everything I have now I have bought since I've been here. Granted, I have charged some of it, but a good deal of it has been paid for in cash, by me, with money that I busted my hump to earn.

My boyfriend works two jobs, has zero credit card debt, and still plenty of time to spend with me. If he can do it, I can do it. I just feel like I can't move forward until I get this crap paid off. Ugh!

I'm retiring.

2006-04-04T20:55:00.000-04:00

Eventually. And hopefully I'll have enough money to enjoy it. Today I decided to enroll in a 403(b) plan through my work. I considered doing it earlier in the year but I was going by the Suze Orman mantra that it doesn't make sense to invest or save if I still have credit card debt. What I have realized in the meantime is that I'm not so perfect with money that I am able to consciously put every extra cent towards my debt, and I'm sure I piss away enough money each month that $100 (pre-tax, which comes out to about $70 out of my take-home) from my check won't be missed too much, and the one thing I can't buy back is time. So, if it takes me two years to pay of my CC debt, I will have missed out on two years of investing time and compound interest. I think for me the key to getting my debt paid down will be to find an amount I'm comfortable paying each month that still leaves me with enough money to buy the things I need without having to use the CCs for anything. If that means it takes me a little longer to pay them off, then fine. I also plan on adding some more income somehow, either through a second job or tutoring or something. My plan is that any extra job money would go towards the debt.

Buying Stuff ($9,791.67)

2006-04-02T11:26:00.001-04:00

I think the hardest part about trying to get your credit card debt reduced is the constant temptation to buy crap that you want. I mean, that's what got me into this mess in the first place, right? To be fair, a good portion of my credit card debt came from what I consider "worthy" charges. For example, there are plane tickets to go visit my mom, car repairs, contact lenses and other things like that. Also, I sort of had to live on one of my charge cards for about a month after I moved to New York because my job hadn't started yet and, frankly, I needed to eat. I won't lie and say that all of that debt comes from justified or necessary purchases. For example, I recently sold one computer to buy another, newer model. Did I need a newer computer? Certainly not. My computer was less than two years old and still in fine working condition, but I justified the new purchase by telling myself I would sell the old one for a good amount, which I did. Then the plan was to take all the money from the sale and put it towards the recently charged new machine along with my NY State tax refund and voila! I'd have a fancy schmancy new computer with no additional debt.

As you can reasonably predict, it didn't quite work out that way. My brother, to whom I sold my old computer, paid in full in a timely fashion, so there was no problem there. I, however, have yet to receive my state tax refund and half of the money my brother paid me is pretty much long gone in the vacuum of groceries, gas and other living expenses. I did pay off about half of the computer, but that wasn't the only thing I charged that month so I did end up incurring another lump of debt as a result. I love ths computer and I'm glad I got it, but in all reality I should have/could have waited until I had the money in hand to get it, because now I'm going to end up paying finance charges on it. Bah!

It is easy to forget about the nice things one already has when one sees the new, shinier models sitting on the shelves. I've been pondering getting a DV camcorder so I can take my vlog outside of my bedroom, but the money for that hasn't materialized just yet. I could go on an on about the things I want but don't have money for but it would be pointless and materialistic. I'm trying to work harder at appreciating what I have and enjoying those things and spending time on activities that don't inherently cost money.

$9,791.67

2006-03-29T16:21:00.000-05:00

As you can see, the title of this entry is a number, which I will attempt to keep consistent with all following posts. The rationale behind this blog is that I wish to use it as a tool to keep myself accountable with my money and help pay my debts down faster. The number in the title of this post represents the current amount of debt I owe to family members and credit card companies, broken down as follows.

Aunt: $1,000
Mother: $1,000
Visa: $3,353.23
Mastercard: $4,387.45
Clothing Store: $50.99

I have other, larger debts, such as my student loan and car loan, but I am not concerned with paying extra on either of those until I have completely eliminated my credit card and personal debt. You may be thinking it is crazy of me to post this personal information on the internet for the world to see, but I do not view it as such. I am of the belief that if people talked more about their debt and their finances in real terms, then the topic would have less stigma and people would be more likely to ask for help when they need it or offer help when they can. I hope that through this record of my own journey out of credit card debt I will encourage others to do the same and to begin to eliminate this debt that is literally strangling many of us.

So, who is the man behind the numbers? If you want to get to know me a little more, please check out my blog and video podcast at http://www.joelstuartliving.com. That is the site and the work which has given birth to this. I have found my blog and vlog to be grerat tools at evaluating my own life and being accountable for my actions, if even to nobody but myself. Additionally, the input of viewers and readers of my work about my personal life and relationships has helped open my own eyes to things I was otherwise blind to. I hope that will continue to happen with this new venture. If you don't care to visit the other site, here is the quick and dirty:

I'm a twenty-five year old gay male living in Long Island, New York. I am employed as a teacher in a public school here and earn an adequate salary. I am currently seeing someone but, financially speaking, I am single and rely on no one other than myself to pay the bills and buy the things I need each month. I have had an interest in personal finance at least since I was eighteen. At that age, my father passed away and I received a sum of money that was larger than any single amount I had ever had before, approximately $7,500. Two years after his death and the settlement of his estate I received an additional $7,000. Neither of these were life-changing sums of money, but, looking back on that time and how I spent it and how I treated that money has taught me much about the value of money and the value of the things we choose to spend our money on. I will delve into more on those lessons in later posts.

Thank you for reading this. I may eventually turn this into a podcast or a video blog, but for now I am content to use the written word as a record for what I wish to do. I would appreciate any comments or well wishes you have. My future begins today.