Once a Hater, Now a Lover. Why you should love private loans as well.

I have long been an opponent of private loans as I mentioned in this post.  But I have to eat my words, some what.  For undergraduates, this year, direct federal loans can't be beat.  They are 4.66% fixed, for both unsubsidized or subsidized. The lowest fixed rate I saw was sallie mae at 5.74% but that can get all the way up 11.85%.  Ironically, the same lowest rate applied for graduate students but the max for them is much lower, 8.56%.   And the rate for federal loans for graduate students are 6.21%.  You also have to keep in mind that federal loans have an origination fee, but private loans do not.  So, if you have a good FICO score and are a graduate students there is no reason to get a federal unless you plan to use income dependent repayment.  You could have a .47% lower rate plus, you would not have to pay up to 1% of the loan back to the government.

Let's assume you needed had a choice of pulling out $5500.  If you took out a federal loan you would only get $5,445 and your monthly payment would be $61.64 assuming you paid the interest of $28.46 every month before you graduated.  But if you pulled out $5500 from sallie mae, you'd pay interest of  $26.31 until you graduate and $60.35 as your monthly payment after graduation.  Plus you'd have an extra $55 in your pocket.  Over the lifeline of the loan, if you took 10 years to pay it, you'd owe $1741.48 (not including however years you spent in school) vs $1,897.15 for a private loans.

Now I am not a fan of private loans, I'd much rather go with a federal loan because you have more options, for example interest only for a period of time or income dependent repayment but can you really turn down an extra $210?  I can't.

And that assumes you can want to be the most conservative and get fix rate.  There are 2.75-3% variable rate out there for private loans so if you have gotten a job set up before you graduate and want to kill off your loans quickly, those can be an even better help.

This all assumes you have a good credit score, which for most undergrads is not true.  But lucky for them, the government is offering decent rates.  For graduate students, we don't have subsidized loans and rate are insane.  Time to look to industry for help, not the government.

Frugal Student Hosts: Financial Carnival for Young Adults

 More wonderful articles for my readership to enjoy: 
 Just a note for my loyal readership, I have decided to move the carnival hosting to the second weekend of the month. I have too much to talk about in the beginning of the month so this will be the last month that you will see it on the first Sunday!  And with that, on to the carnival:

Kayla @ Shoeaholic No More writes Holiday Parties and What’s Going On? - Holiday events are in full swing. I’ve got 3-4 holiday parties taking place in the next week.

Maria @ The Money Principle writes Four Ways to Skyrocket the Value of Your Home - The more additions you make to your home, the higher its value – and the heftier your wallet will be when you sell it.

Justin @ iPlugin writes Apple just sold 10 Million new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units - The new iPhone 6 was recently released and, in its first weekend alone, Apple sold over 10 million units, which was better than their previous record of 9 million that was sold during the weekend launch last year of the iPhone 5.

Danielle @ TeacHer Finance writes How Does Cash Advance Work? - A cash advance is very similar to a payday loan, except the terms are generally a bit longer.

Aaron @ Aaron Hung writes Watch out for these Back to School Spending Mistakes - Much to the chagrin of children everywhere another school year is about to start, and that means that parents across the country are busy stocking up on school supplies.

Justin @ Edward Antrobus writes 6 Ways Shoppers are Deceived! - Brands and advertisers use specific marketing tactics to convince shoppers to make purchases There are some tactics that they use that, while not illegal, border on being unethical.

Marissa @ Thirty Six Months writes You Should Always Seek Value - To get yourself financially free, to make good investments and to get through life in a calm and relaxed manner – you should always seek value.

Marissa @ Finance Triggers writes Best Way to Collect Superannuation Funds during Retirement - If you work in Australia, then you are likely to have at least one superannuation account set up to help you out financially during your retirement.

Sam @ The New Business Blog writes Want to be Successful? Avoid These 5 Emotionally Charged Habits - There are, to be sure, many things that contribute to your overall success. Things like your attitude, your ability to lead, your people skills and so forth all have a big influence on it, no doubt.

Katie @ IRA Basics writes 4 IRA Withdrawals that Actually Make Sense - Withdrawing funds from a traditional IRA before a person turns 59 ½ usually means that they’re going to pay a lot of taxes and penalties.

Lily @ Paying Debt Down writes Some Facts to Consider before Filing for Bankruptcy - For many consumers the thought of having to file bankruptcy can cause quite a bit of anxiety.

Bob @ Dwindling Debt writes Looking for a Store Credit Card? Don’t Look Here -

Andrea @ So Over This writes You’re Handling Retirement Savings All Wrong! - Saving money for retirement is something that is very near and dear to me.

Hadley @ Epic Finances writes Stock Investing Myths and Truths Part 4 of 4 - Even though there's plenty of information about what works and what doesn't when it comes to investing in the stock market, many myths still refuse to die.

Lenny @ Best Money Saving Blog writes Stock Buybacks are Booming! - After faltering for a couple of months, buyback announcements from many major US companies shot up to a three month high recently, putting 2014 on track to be one of the biggest years ever for buybacks.

Amy @ Money Mishaps writes These are the Biggest Money Mistakes Couples Make When Divorcing - When people get divorced, it's the spouse who hasn't had a whole lot of experience with the family's finances that often ends up on the short end of the stick.

Jack @ Money Saving Ethics writes These 5 Savings ‘Tricks’ might not be so good after all - Even the best intentions that you have for saving money can sometimes lead to financial problems.

Matt @ Budget Snob writes Investing Doesn't Take Genius Intelligence, Just Common Sense - A quote that's attributed to Albert Einstein goes something like this: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Danielle @ Saving Without a Budget writes Common Money Mistakes - If you're not keen on throwing your money away, the mistakes below should definitely be avoided.

Jay @ Daily Fuel Economy Tip writes How to Save on Gas – Uncommon Ways - I will describe a few less common ways you can save on gas – I hope you will find them useful.

Oscar @ Money is the Root writes Paying Off Debt Smarter and Faster - There are few things better for your financial health than paying off any debts that you have as quickly as possible.

Daniel @ Make Money Make Cents writes The Expenses of Buying and Owning a Home - From finding the perfect mortgage with the appropriate fees, to the year round upkeep and maintenance, this investment requires a lot of time and capital.

Natalie Bacon @ Financegirl writes A 5 Step Guide to Setting Your Priorities So You Win in 2015 - Instead of a resolution try this 5-step guide of reflecting, taking inventory of your values & planning for your future. Intentional living in the New Year.

Brock Kernin @ Clever Dude writes The Things We Do To Save Money - People do some crazy things to save money....would you do this?

Ryan @ Better Credit Blog writes 3 Ways to Fix Your Credit Score for a Mortgage Loan - Many readers have asked me the quickest and easiest way to fix up their credit report and credit score when they are ready to buy a home. The steps below will help you improve your credit score so you can get the best possible mortgage rate.

Natalie Bacon @ Financegirl writes The One Reason You Should Make Paying Off Your Debt A Priority in 2015 - It's the start of a New Year and this is the perfect time to get organized and set goals. Find out why you should prioritize paying off debt this year.

Jill Gatsby - Earth's Personal Dummy @ www.earthspeaksout.wordpress.com writes Earth Speaks Out - Earth has been sitting in the dark for 4 billion years and now she is finally speaking out! Now get Earth's personal take on the news straight up and personal. And she's actually got solutions that could save the human race! So human up and visit www.earthspeaksout.com

Randall Ball @ Discovering Prosperity writes New Year, New You - Tips for conquering the New Year- 2015

Randall Ball @ Discovering Prosperity writes How to succeed in college: 9 Do's - 9 effective tips for succeeding in college

Randall Ball @ Discovering Prosperity writes How to succeed in college: 9 Donts - 9 things that you should not do if you want to succeed in college

Tyler @ Debt Reckoning writes 7 Best Low-Cost Ways To Learn About Investing - Seven low-cost ways to learn about investing, from books to online materials to formal classroom settings.

Geny @ GenyFinances writes Four Personal Finance Tips For College Students - College can be a fun time. You are making new friends, trying out new experiences, and probably have the time of your life. However, it can also be very expensive.

724Credit @ 724Credit Blog writes 4 Tips To Pay Down Your Student Loans - For me, I am all about paying down student loans as quickly as possible. They are probably your biggest or one of your biggest monthly payments each month, and the stress that comes from that can be very high.

BudgetingForTravel @ BudgetingForTravel writes Saving Money On A Ski Vacation - Skiing is a fun hobby, but it can be a very expensive vacation if you want to make a trip out of it. Skiing and “frugal vacation” are not exactly words that are often in the same sentence together.

Michelle @ DiversifiedFinances writes 5 Tips For Renting Out a Room In Your Home For Extra Money - A great way to make extra money each month is to rent out a room in your room. If you have a spare room, a separate apartment (such as above your garage), a finished basement, and so on, then this may be a money making option for you.

Alexis @ FITnancials writes How To Find A Place To Live On Craigslist + Scary Personal Experiences - Before I moved to Chicago, I had to find a place to live. I was a little hesitant to use Craigslist at first, but I wasn’t sure where else I could try. I was looking on Craigslist for a while and it didn’t take too long to find a place, but I feel like I should have done more searching to find somewhere closer to work, etc.

If you want to show off a piece just go here.

Millionaire Update!!! January 2015 and 2014 round up

What a way to start the new year!  We now have $26,752, not a huge jump from the beginning of December but a huge jump from the beginning of 2014 when we only had $16,462.  That was a 62% increase, wow!  In addition, it looks like we invested $9714, saved $4391 and paid off $18194 of  over 2014, 59% of our gross income of $54150.  Wow!  However, it is not fair to say we saved 59% because part of the debt pay off was from savings.  If we remove the $11,000 we save before 2014, we only saved 39% of our gross income. So we still have a ways to go to get to saving 50% of our gross income, but we are definitely on our way up.  My goal for next year is saving 50%!  This will take some side hustling because even in the best case my budget shows me $6213 short of that goal but what is a goal but something to reach for?

I'm still struggling with grocery and restaurant spending, though the restaurant spending has gone down. You can follow my fight with our grocery bill here.  If I want any chance of saving 50% I need to get spending within budget.

But I am proud of my 62% increase and if the market cooperates, even just our auto transfers to my husband's 403b will get another 62% increase.  Here is to both 2014 and 2015!  Let's go!

Last grocery update of 2014

We spent $255.98 in December and were able to, for the first time EVER, have only one major grocery run.  This meant we only spent $56.50/week over the four weeks.  A good savings but our cupboards sure feel empty.  It has been a struggle not to go out to eat recently and I can't wait to shop this weekend.  But this did save us $32.08 this month which mean, for year I was over $334.11 or $6.43/week.  That is almost 10% higher than I budgeted, wow!  But, I do have small budget.  But that small budget is going to continue in 2015 and I can't afford to go over like that.  So, we are keeping our noses to grindstone and will continue to work on keeping the grocery spending low.

I'm going to continue to push for once a month shopping, with little purchases to supplement during the month.  I'm going to work on crockpot meals as well as finding a new recipe to try once a month to keep variety and not cause me to eat out.  Does anyone have any other ideas on how to keep the grocery bill low?

Fully Switched to Ting, And Loving IT!!!

My husband switched to ting four months ago.  We were on a family plan with Verizon paying $55-60/month together, and had previously talked about switching but had planned to wait till January when both our contracts were up.   But then his phone up and died on us.  We switched him to TING using a flip phone we got off freecycle.  We used a referral code so he started with a $25 credit so no matter what we would be ahead of the game.  Two weeks later he said, I'm buying a smartphone, ting is fine but not having a keyboard is not.  Up until then, both DH and I had dumb phones with a qwerty keyboard but that was it.

Since then, my dumb phone's speaker has stopped working for private calls, so all I can use it for is speaker calls and texting.  Therefore, I have been using google talk much, much more and since the person I text the most is my husband I have gotten used to using google chat for texting.  DH still has not paid a penny for ting because someone used our referral link and the first time one gives a referral one gets $50.  Every other referral is $25.  So, so far all DH has spent on ting was the phone, which he bought used for $120, and a case for $20.  I have still been spending $35/month and the savings of $20 has been going to pay off the phone and case.  We have budgeted $10/month for the phone costs but the case cost went into our miscellaneous spending.

This weekend I too bought a phone and case for the same amount of money (total $120).  Our bill now is $26 plus tax and since we set aside $10/month for phone costs, we will upgrade every other year, just like the big plans with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, but for much, much cheaper.  $36 compared to $55-60 and to even get that low on Verizon we had dumb phones, another person on family plan and often we had to spend some amount for the phone (often less than $50).  I am not sure we could even find a similar phone to what I have without paying about $50 which adds an additional $4 expense per month.

Since Ting is on sprint's network I have not seen much difference and am loving the money savings.  This does require some preplanning and money upfront but for us it has been a win.  What do you do though, if you don't have the money up front?  Well, you don't have to buy the phone from ting, you can buy it from amazon and you can earn gift cards from swagbucks so no cash required.

It will take bit to earn the swagbucks needed, so start now with an extra 150 swagbucks. You will start a third of the way to your first gift card.  If you are unmotivated like I am, you'll only get about $5/month but if you are like some of my friends who are always running swag videos in the background and playing video games on their site, you can get about $25/month.  So it is up to you, can you afford a new phone and a cheaper plan by the end of the school year?  Let me know if you are up for the challenge.  If you are up for it, start off with a free $25 by using my referral code.

Join or create a buying co-op to save money

When I first started looking around on blogs to learn tricks to save money many people talked about how wonderful stores like Costco are.  But often unless gas is much, much cheaper and you drive a lot, as a single person, Costco is not a good deal.  But what if a whole group of people went in on the large box items together?  Sometimes then it is a good deal.  And what if one of those people can get free access to a big box store via their parents?  It might become a wonderful deal.

And you can take this idea further than just Costco.  A local butcher shop in Buffalo will occasionally have major deals on chicken and steak but you have to buy 40lbs in chicken or 15lbs in steak.  Besides the fact that 40lbs won't fit in my freezer, I can't afford 15lbs of steak.  But if a bunch of grad students chip in, we all can get a little bit and save a lot of money.

That is the idea behind co-ops, groups of people getting together to buy large amounts.  I have notice quite a few high end co-ops for organic groceries, but you can create your own as well.  So all you need to do is fine one person with a car, one person with a membership to a big box store and a few people who want to buy in and you are set.  Each person picks a store to watch and then a text or email to the whole group when a deal comes and everyone benefits.  

This collaborative approach towards saving money can save you money, time and space, all things many college students lack.  Are their any readers that have tried this before?  Or do you plan to try this during the new year?

School Health Care Clinics, savings?

I went to my college health care clinic for the first time last week because money is tight around the holidays but I needed a refill of some prescriptions but because my insurance is grandfathered in, it would cost a pretty penny to see the doctor.  I did not need much, just basically signature. I have been taking these meds for nearly ten years now yet once a year I need to see a doctor to stay on them.

So I called the clinic to see if they could help me.  And it was great.  They made an appointment in the evening, no copay and I sent in the script to my online pharmacy.  The pharmacy accepted the script and I got my meds just like I would have, if I had spent $50-100 and gone to a private doctor.

So, how much did I pay? Nothing, my school fees covered it.  They don't care blood work or such but for simple problems, I can't see going anywhere else.  I am so excited to find a new savings and be able to remove that cost for next year!

As I always say, never stop looking and you'll never stop finding a way to improve!  So that is my holiday cheer, what about you?

Changing our side income strategy

A few years past, once my husband had taken his subsidized student loans out, I looked around for a place to put the money.  High yield savings accounts were only offering me about 1%, was there are better deal?  I found one, a high checking account offer 3%, with only 10 debit purchases, a monthly transfer in and online statements.  That extra cash became our yearly emergency fund (EF).  But as time past the deal got worse and worse.  First they increased the purchases to 15, then made a requirement that the purchase had to be above $5.  All the while, decreasing the interest.  By the time we closed the account it was only 1.85%, where a high yield savings account ranges between .75-1%.  And with knowing that most of our money would be gone come December to pay off the student loans, why should we keep it?  So we closed it and moved all the money to a high yield savings account.  But I will miss the $25/month in interest.

And that is not the only decrease we have had this year.  When we moved my daughter to her new daycare we found out that they did not take AMEX, so we got a VISA, but that only give 1.5% cash back instead of 2%.  But the VISA is better than the discover (the other card we used when AMEX was not accepted) which only give 1% (except for certain categories), so we started using the VISA instead of the discover.  But, we had been using the discover to get about $50 a year in CVS gift cards.  We did not get that this year and coupled with the serious lack of deals we ended up spending part of our food budget on expenses I did not expect to.  That does mean that we need to find extra money somewhere but how?

Normally that would have come from the yearly EF, but now my interest is pitiful and won't cover it. What else to do?  Well my husband and I discussed opening credit cards for the bonuses and we agreed to count this as part the side hustle.  Our agreement is that half of any side hustle money belongs to the person who side hustled and the other half goes towards savings.  We separate the saving as well.  If the money is tax free, like gifts or credit card bonus, half goes to EF and half to retirement savings.  If the money is taxable, all of it goes to retirement.  Right now we are trying very hard to stay within the 10%, and save any additional money in the Roth IRAs.  We are very lucky to be able to stay within it, so I want to get as much out of not needing to spend money as we can.
 
So what have we gotten so far?  Well my husband opened an account at key bank when they offered $250.  I did the same, but I'm missed the better deal and sadly they only offered me $100.  So far my husband got the $250 and I am still waiting on the $100.  But we need some non-taxable money in here, otherwise how can we fund the EF?  So we both opened credit cards.  He got a $100 bonus offer and I got a $200 bonus offer.  Neither have come yet, but I expect at least the $100 bonus to come soon.  We plan to rotate these offers at least every three month for the credit offers, so assuming we get $100, half to the person who found it leaves $25 for retirement and $25 for EF gives us $100 bonus every year. Not up to $300/year but it is getting there.

Granted I only can do this because we have great credit scores and sooner or later all the hard inquires will hurt that, but since we don't plan to buy another house for at least fives I am ok with that.   The next question is where else can I find money to put in my EF.  Any ideas from my readers?  My motto is to never stop trying to improve and I won't!

What have you changed this year?  How are you trying to improve, financial or otherwise?

Why I decided not to stockpile.....

No, I have not decided to give up on all stockpiling, but there comes a time for each item, even things that don't go bad, when you have to say ENOUGH.  We are over budget on groceries, and even though the sale on toilet paper and bathroom tissue was great, we have enough to last us over three month and that level of sale should come back within twelve weeks.  So I said, enough, I am not spending the money.  I'd rather keep the $18 in my pocket today.  Maybe a few months from now, I'll rather buy items but for now, cash wins.

If you don't stop spending, stockpiling is not for you, because that does not save money.  Not spending saves money.   I stockpile so I can stop spending when I need to and right now we are $366.19 over budget so I need to stop spending.   In addition I am waiting till I get another CVS gift card to spend if I can.  I think I'll be getting it in January so we will have some extra money then. 

Stockpiling is not just when there is a good deal, it is also when you have extra money.  I try to set money aside so I can take advantage of all the deals but no one is perfect.  DH and I have a strict budget because we can't afford otherwise, but we do try to set aside a little money for slip ups.  That is why swagbucks, mypoints, ebates, credit card rewards and rental are not part our budget.

So, are you doing anything different as we finish up the year, to save money?

Joining Moneystepper’s 2015 Savings Challenge

I found two amazing new bloggers last week, Simple Cheap Mom And Money Stepper.  I have been having a blast reading both blogs and highly recommend both of them.  Money Stepper has a great challenge for 2015 that both Simple Cheap Mom I have joined.  He has challenged people to make two goals, 1) increasing your net worth and 2)saving a portion of your income.  Given that I joined the blogger group trying to save 50% of your income, yet I am not saving 50%, I am always up for trying to improve.

In 2014, the highest savings rate I had was 30%, but I just got a COLA raise and in 2015 my employer is putting $600 in my daycare FSA, which given that I spend $9,900 annually on daycare counts as a raise too!  So I think I can improve even more in 2015.  My budget says I should be able to save 37% but I don't think that is good enough.  I am going to aim for saving 40% of my gross income which will require some pretty decent side hustles but also should increase my net worth by 50%.  It is a lofty goal, but I think I can do it.

So, what is your 2015 goal?  Will you join Money Stepper's challenge with me?

Gas is under $3/gallon AGAIN

And I am loving it!  Finally gas costs have dropped down and we are saving a ton of money.  I bet gas will go back up though, so I am not changing our budget one whit!   I am using the savings to make up for the overages we occurred when we bought our second vehicle, a truck with stick shift.  It is a lower MPGs than our car so we had planned for me to drive it and my husband, the one with the long commute, to drive the car.  We overspent the entire first month because I was learning to drive stick and DH was driving the truck 120 miles per day, every day.  Plus his old job paid a lot less and we budget based on the last month's earning so our budget that month was a lot lower.

So how much are we short?  We are short $370 as of today but I expect to cut that about $200 by the end of the month.  So, if we could keep the low price for two more month I'd be ecstatic!

Will I change my budget if by then, gas is still this low?  Sort of, actually.  We don't have enough set aside for car repairs and would have to dip into our EF if something huge happened so I'd like to save more for repairs, and any extra money will go there.  But I'd never budget it towards anything else, because you know that gas can rise and with it food costs and I don't want to be stuck.  Any savings from a discount, IMO, should go straight into savings.

What have you changed now that gas is cheaper?

Financial Carnival for Young Adults December Edition

I'm hosting the Financial Carnival for Young Adults again this month and there are some amazing articles and I discovered a few great new blogs, my favorite being:  The Money Principle.  It is a UK blog so not everything is applicable but I learned a good deal and spent a good deal of time reading.  But enough of my chatter, on to the articles:



Tre @ House of Tre writes Walmart Savings Catcher Update - Have you tried the Walmart Savings Catcher? I did an experiment and this is how much I saved.

Mario @ Adventures in Frugal writes http://adventuresinfrugal.com/favorite-black-friday/ - My favorite thing about Black Friday has nothing to do with the holiday cheer, the name, or the low prices

Maria @ The Money Principle writes Take these seven steps and watch your income grow - When was the last time your income increased?

Alexa @ Defeat Our Debt writes Should You Take a Vacation if You’re in Debt? - Your debt is stressing you out. Work is stressing you out. And you just need a little break from the normal day to day grind.

Alexa @ Single Moms Income writes 10 Small Business Ideas for Women - Are you looking to earn some extra money on the side or to potentially start your own business?

Brad @ Enemy of Debt writes Why You Should Walk Away From Free Offers - When you go shopping and you see a sign saying, "1+1 Buy one and get one free!" what do you do?

Kayla @ Shoeaholic No More writes Updated Plan of Attack - I’ve talked before about my debt attack plan and in which order I was planning on focusing on my debts and why.

Natalie @ Debt and The Girl writes We Paid off the Car Loan!!!!…And Got a New One - I did something last weekend in which I have been waiting to do for the better part of two years.

Justin @ iPlugin writes Apple just sold 10 Million new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units - The new iPhone 6 was recently released and, in its first weekend alone, Apple sold over 10 million units, which was better than their previous record of 9 million that was sold during the weekend launch last year of the iPhone 5.

Danielle @ TeacHer Finance writes How Does Cash Advance Work? - A cash advance is very similar to a payday loan, except the terms are generally a bit longer.

Aaron @ Aaron Hung writes Watch out for these Back to School Spending Mistakes - Much to the chagrin of children everywhere another school year is about to start, and that means that parents across the country are busy stocking up on school supplies.

Justin @ Edward Antrobus writes 6 Ways Shoppers are Deceived! - Brands and advertisers use specific marketing tactics to convince shoppers to make purchases There are some tactics that they use that, while not illegal, border on being unethical.

Marissa @ Thirty Six Months writes You Should Always Seek Value - To get yourself financially free, to make good investments and to get through life in a calm and relaxed manner – you should always seek value.

Marissa @ Finance Triggers writes Best Way to Collect Superannuation Funds during Retirement - If you work in Australia, then you are likely to have at least one superannuation account set up to help you out financially during your retirement.

Sam @ The New Business Blog writes Want to be Successful? Avoid These 5 Emotionally Charged Habits - There are, to be sure, many things that contribute to your overall success. Things like your attitude, your ability to lead, your people skills and so forth all have a big influence on it, no doubt.

Katie @ IRA Basics writes 4 IRA Withdrawals that Actually Make Sense - Withdrawing funds from a traditional IRA before a person turns 59 ½ usually means that they’re going to pay a lot of taxes and penalties.

Lily @ Paying Debt Down writes Some Facts to Consider before Filing for Bankruptcy - For many consumers the thought of having to file bankruptcy can cause quite a bit of anxiety.

Bob @ Dwindling Debt writes Looking for a Store Credit Card? Don’t Look Here -

Andrea @ So Over This writes You’re Handling Retirement Savings All Wrong! - Saving money for retirement is something that is very near and dear to me.

Hadley @ Epic Finances writes Stock Investing Myths and Truths Part 4 of 4 - Even though there's plenty of information about what works and what doesn't when it comes to investing in the stock market, many myths still refuse to die.

Lenny @ Best Money Saving Blog writes Stock Buybacks are Booming! - After faltering for a couple of months, buyback announcements from many major US companies shot up to a three month high recently, putting 2014 on track to be one of the biggest years ever for buybacks.

Amy @ Money Mishaps writes These are the Biggest Money Mistakes Couples Make When Divorcing - When people get divorced, it's the spouse who hasn't had a whole lot of experience with the family's finances that often ends up on the short end of the stick.

Jack @ Money Saving Ethics writes These 5 Savings ‘Tricks’ might not be so good after all - Even the best intentions that you have for saving money can sometimes lead to financial problems.

Matt @ Budget Snob writes Investing Doesn't Take Genius Intelligence, Just Common Sense - A quote that's attributed to Albert Einstein goes something like this: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Danielle @ Saving Without a Budget writes Common Money Mistakes - If you're not keen on throwing your money away, the mistakes below should definitely be avoided.

Jay @ Daily Fuel Economy Tip writes How to Save on Gas – Uncommon Ways - I will describe a few less common ways you can save on gas – I hope you will find them useful.

Oscar @ Money is the Root writes Paying Off Debt Smarter and Faster - There are few things better for your financial health than paying off any debts that you have as quickly as possible.

Daniel @ Make Money Make Cents writes The Expenses of Buying and Owning a Home - From finding the perfect mortgage with the appropriate fees, to the year round upkeep and maintenance, this investment requires a lot of time and capital.

Kay Johnson @ For the Complete Me writes 5 Reasons Why You Need a Plan for Your Life - There is a Divine Plan for your life. Sometimes you may do something that does not line up with this plan, but rest assured, He is not surprised by anything that you do. You need a Plan for your life; a Plan that was designed through prayerful guidance from Him. - See more at: http://www.kaynijo.com/plan-for-your-life/#sthash.fU5wR8sK.dpuf

Brock Kernin @ Clever Dude writes Rotate Your Tires, Or Pay The Price - If you ignore basic car maintenance, it will cost you!

Natalie Bacon @ Financegirl writes Chocolate and J. Crew: The Moment I Stopped Struggling With Money - Here's how a skinny girl uses the "weight loss" analogy to save money - think about money like you think about food.

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Three week grocery round up, with a Serious Fail!

Single week shopping does not work for us!  We averaged 68.97 every week and were careful, so very careful.  We did fine at the main store, but not good and we still spent at the "deal" stores because of course, we found deals. 

We were over a total of $8.97 which makes us owe $366.19 with a month to go till the end of 2014.  Granted only being over by 8.97 with thanksgiving in there is pretty decent, but we can't go with decent, we need good.  We could not shop one bit and still not be within budget.  And, not shopping won't work at all.  So my plan is to go back to once every three weeks shopping (though maybe I will stretch it to once a month, what do you think?) and do my best. 

This has taught me that screwing up is hard to fix, and much easier to just not screw up in the first place.  Now if I can just keep to that.  I am going to be keeping a better eye on my accounts, one reason I got mint in the first place and trying for some more cheap meals during this winter.  This is going to be a struggle for me, but one I fully intend to win.  See you soon.

Updated Millionaire Plan December 2014

We blown past $25,000 and now have $26,316 in our retirement accounts.  Our next goal is $32,200, only $5884 to go!  I have no doubt that baring another Great Recession we will make that goal in 2015.  The goal I really want to focus on after that is my husband's full annual paycheck of $41,700.

Some of my longtime readers may remember that he just got the post-doc position which is paying such a lofty amount and in August of this year his income was just $26,000 as a grad student.  One great thing about being a young person is that your income can jump, but then it does make your savings look a little pitiful. But given our savings rate, if nothing goes wrong I think we can hit $41700 in 2015 too.  It may be a stretch but I think we can do it.  I'm making a few changes for 2015 because of what I learned being a full time student, employee and mom especially for the later half 2014 when my husband worked his post-doc job outside of the area.  These may streamline a few things and save us a couple dollars in the process.
What are your goals as we finish up 2014 and move into 2015?

Pay for living expenses with your 529

I just discovered something very exciting.  Did you know that you don't have to live on campus to use your 529 money toward living expenses?  Me either.  You can't claim more than the school says should be spent for living expenses and some vary that based on where you live, but my school does not.  They allow for $12,000 per year or $1000/month to be used towards living expenses.  Now, the only reason to use this is if you live in a state where there tax deduction for 529s or if the only other option is saving in a taxable account.  Always max out your Roth IRA before this.  Luckily I do live in such a state.  NY allows $5000 to be deducted from your taxes per person.  So a couple can deduct $10,000.

So, I am putting $833.33 every month into my 529 come January and pulling out $1000 every month until it is gone or I hit $12,000.  Since I did not know about this until now, I am putting $1000 in both November and December. Since at my top tax bracket in NY state I pay 5.25%, each $1000 will save me $52.50 in taxes.  How crazy is that.  So I'll save $105 this year and $525 in 2015.  Just for opening a 529 account and funneling money through.  The money sits the equivalent of money money market account so I won't make much but I won't risk the money I need. 

So check if your state allows you to do this.  If you are dependent, make sure they allow you to do this or give the information to your parents.  If so, see how much you save. 

Get your discount target gift cards online!

I was very excited to see target gift cards 10% off today from 6am-12pm in store.  I normally buy them for 3.5% off at cardpool, so that was really good deal.  Because of our normal spending of $300/year I decided to swing by my close target and grab them. But then I was told something great! You can buy them on target.com.   This is better because you don't have to waste gas or time out on black friday.  In addition, if you have a discover or chase freedom card online purchases are 5% back.  In store my best cash back offer is 2%.  In total, I saved over $20 for next years spending.  That is worth a few minutes time for me.  How about you?

So for you east coast people, you online have another hour.  If you shop at target, go get this deal! 

Expenses During Buffalo's Snowageddon and Why They Pale Against the Real Fiscal Armageddon

People talk about the cost of working, and how you only need to save 70-80% of your income because your costs will go down when you retire.  This might be true for some people, but I don't think it is true for us.  We had a perfect example this week when we were stuck at home during a set of storms that hit the buffalo area.

Since we are home the food we are making is a little higher end (the meat store was open one of those days), the stove is on for longer, the electricity is on more and the heat sure is a lot higher.  Granted I am trying to do work while at home (and I do have a kid that makes that difficult) but I think most of the costs would be about the same.

However, I do have to admit I am not spending gas to get to work, which does save some money.  In this case both my husband and I will be working during the weekend to make the lost days up but if we were retired, we obviously would not.  That is about a $26 saving.  Granted my husband drives an hour each way for post-doc, five months ago that cost would have just be $6.  But let's go with $26.   Are the increase costs of staying home add up to $26?

The meat store was an increase of $5, plus some meals we normal eat on the weekends will have to be replaced for probably another $3.  But that is just $8, surely we did not spend another $18 just on utilities?  And honestly I am not sure.  I have not found an easy was of comparing utilities except for assume a 3% decrease of your costs by for every degree you lower the thermostat.   But that is monthly, plus we are not increase it for the entire 24 hour period, just while we are up. And that does not include water or electricity increases which I admit are very much increases while we are home.  Nor does it include the wear and tear of items at home.  Using my computer at home is likely to decrease years the computer useful for.  Same goes for the oven or microwave.  When I think about it, I don't think all of these expenses add up to $18, but there is a big expense I did not cover.

Health insurance
I spend a little over $140 a month for my share of health insurance, pre-tax.  My employer, well now, they send over $550 a month.  So really, I need an additional $550 plus the cost of taxes to cover my health insurance.  I know some people say, well what the ACA?  I am not holding my breath.  We might get something close but GOP won this last election and they want to get rid of it.  If the democrats don't come out in two years, we will have a republican president and congress and then ACA will be gone.  I can't trust democrats to get out and vote, because they don't.  So, I go with COBRA when I looking at expenses.

So, if compare your "working costs" against COBRA, I'm pretty sure you are going to come out ahead by working.  So please let my Smowmadegon encourage you to save and expect to spend more than what you live on now, because health insurance is not getting cheaper and we are just getting older. 

Paying Off My Husband's Grad Student Loans! How did we do it, and why did we have them?

My husband is within a month of the end of his grace period for his grad student loans and we are able to pay them all OFF!!!  A bill that would cost us $195 a month for 10 years will be gone with one click.  How did we do this?  Well, to learn that we have to go way back, to 2008.

DH and I were not married then but dating.  And we just started to talk money.  I found out he had $25,000 in credit card debt.  However, no student loan debt.  But, you know if you have to pick one, student loans can be better than credit card debt (at least the interest rate).  So we sat down and talked and came to a plan.  He decide to make some major cuts, and we changed much of our dating behavior.  He also increased the hours he worked.  Then, he called every credit card up and ask for a lower rate and for most of them, he got it!  But not all.  So next, he started looking a student loans.  I had just gotten a student loan for my last year of college, from discover.  They had no origination fees and because they were subsidized no interest for the year.  He jumped on it and moved $5500 of credit card debt into student loan debt.

Then, as he starting pay the debt down the 0% offers came rolling in.  He moved the rest of his debt to 0% offers (with 3% fees) and continued to pay the debt down.  Life went on.  We both applied to grad school and he got in but I did not.  He proposed and I agreed to go with him to buffalo.  At this time, the 10% tax credit for buying a house, up to $8000 was into effect. We started looking at rent, and house costs and realized we could buy a duplex and spend the same on the mortgage as we would for rent.  But with what down payment?  I had never spent the $5500 student loan I had, plus I had set aside $7000 in my traditional IRA for grad school so I could cover a small downpayment and lucky for us, duplexes in buffalo were going for $60,000-80,000.  We could afford a small one.

But, that was great and all but what about getting to buffalo.  That would cost $3000 plus renting while we were finding a place.  We had the summer to make this money up, plus we needed another $3000 for closing costs.

So we went to work.  We both picked up extra shifts at work plus he picked up a second job.  We cut the budget further and planned a tight budget for when we got to buffalo.  By the end of the summer, we had all the money we needed plus his debt was down to $5500 in student loans and a little less than $9000 in credit card debt.

We camped out as we drove across the country, living mostly out of food bought in the grocery store (which we stored in a cooler given to us by my mother).  We did get a couple treats but that was it.  We landed in buffalo, found a place to rent and off we went to find our new home.  It took the entire semester but we found a place that we bought for $60500 and closing was covered by the seller.  That meant our $3000 could be used as an EF.  And as soon as we closed DH moved the credit card debt to student loans ($8500), again being subsidized they charged no interest.

I was still trying to get into grad school, but having no success.  We started fixing up the duplex and I looked for a job.  I found a server job, making decent money ($20,000 for the year) that I used to pay for our wedding, and pay for the classes I was taking, to increase my chances of getting in the Master's program.  We finally found tenants and that money went into our Roth IRAs.  We got married as I kept beating my head into the wall of grad school admittance and finally got in.

However, beginning in a Master's program I received no aid and this was just when we found out that graduate students would lose subsidized loans.  So to cover me, DH took out another year of subsidized student loans ($8500), just in case.  However, I had enough from working that we were ok.  Then we found out I was pregnant.  Kind of scary, but we were not going to let it stop us.

We ended up using the rental money for daycare, plus we did get some tax aid.  But all through this, the $8500 sat with our $3000 EF in our high yield checking, growing and growing.    We kept the budget tight and soldered on.  Then something wonderful happened, I got into the PhD program and with that came a $25,000 annual salary.
We saved 15% of our income but the rest was split between daycare and debt pay-off.  Now, being in the program 11 months, we have enough to pay off both student loans, and yet still keep that $3000 EF.   We were lucky to get all of these breaks but we took advantage of them as they came along and work hard to get there.  And the reward is coming.  One less debt over our shoulders by the end of the month.

Three Weeks of Groceries, what a spendy time!

We overspent so much this last three weeks!  We spent $283.93, a budget busting $85.93 more than budget!  That is more than a weeks worth of food.  What did we spend it on?  Well we spent $48.13 on chicken because the meat store had a sale for 1.49/lb (.50 cheaper than the grocery store), but we had to buy 30lbs.  And we had bought a couple splurge items when Tops Market had some major sales and then we stocked up. 

So what are we going to do?  We are $357.28 over our spending with seven weeks to go and Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping is in there.  There is no way I can spend $14.96 a week.  However, we won't have to buy chicken for the rest of the year (and probably even longer) so I am going to take this as alright.  We will end up dipping into our EF to cover this which sucks but that is life. 

So what is the plan?  Because we know we are buying our turkey next week at Top's, we decide to not doing major shopping this week.  We are hitting wegmans for some basics on Sunday (which looks to cost less than $40) and then next Saturday will buy our turkey for .48/lb but we need to spend $25 more to get that price, so we will probably do the thanksgiving spending there and spend about $30-40 that week.  The week after we will see what we have left over from thanksgiving and go from there.  We may not be able to make up all of this money but we can do some fixes.

One of the best things I have learned from this is to change things up when they don't work.  It may work great one week but not work the next.  Don't be dogmatic, and you can take on anything!

Get out of the dorm! Save money by moving.

The semester starting to wind down and exams, papers and craziness is starting to ramp up.  But take a few minutes to see if you could move out of the dorms and save some money.  Depending on where you are, living in the dorms may be cheaper than renting a room or much, much more expensive.  How do you decide?

Well you need to add up all the costs associated with each.  Sometimes when you rent, utilities are included, like the dorms but often if you rent directly from a landlord instead of just a room, that is not true.  Ask the landlord what the average utilities costs are.  Google internet in your area and get an idea of that cost. Obviously there is no reason to have a landline because you have your cell, so ignore those ads.  You'll need a way to get to school, should you live near-by or farther out?  That depends if you work and if you have car.  If you don't have a car and can find an apartment on a bus line, that is often better than buying a car.  Remember you are likely to move once you graduate.  Never the less, include the cost of transportation if you did not need in, living in the dorms. Also, remember to add in food costs because you won't need a food plan once you are living on your own.

Then add up the dorm costs and remember to include that food plan!  Once you have everything added up, compare them.  Which is a better choice for you?  If staying put is better, obviously don't move but if moving is better check if you signed the dorm contract for the semester or the year.  If it is for the semester, then plan to move into a new place come spring semester.  If it is a year lease, then you have to do more work.  Every university has someone who oversees the dorms and if you are nice, they may be willing to allow you to break the lease without a penalty.  They don't have to, so don't be a jerk about it, but the answer is always no, if you don't ask.

Come January we will go into how to find a good apartment, from both a tenant and landlord perspective.  See you soon.