How are you spending your summer?

Summers are great times for students, it is a time of great opportunity.  Right now I am looking around at undergraduate students who are spending 10 weeks working a lab (being paid!) through the CLIMB UP program here at UB (http://www.buffalo.edu/climb/climb-up.html) which will help them decide if they want to go to graduate school.  Unfortunately, this kind of summer opportunity was never one I could take advantage of because I had to work to pay for college.  This meant that because my work was not alright with taking a summer away, I never took advantage of such a great program.  My husband did and it was one of the reasons he got into a PhD program and I only was able to get into a Master's program.

So, what if you don't want to get into graduate school or can't afford to take a summer off from work?  Well, you still have opportunities during the summer.  The last summer before my husband and I left for buffalo we knew money was going to be tight.  We had to pay for moving, save for an emergency fund, and save for closing costs because this was the Summer of 2009 and the government was giving tax credits for purchasing a house and in buffalo it is cheaper to buy then to rent.  So, we worked.  My husband picked up a second job as a referee because loves hockey.  I picked up as many hours as I could at work.  Summers are great for earning money.  As a student I was always, go, go, go.  But the summer takes away all those class hours, all that studying.  Even if you add in a lot of fun times, there is a serious amount of time you can spend working. 

Your work can be something related to your hobby like my husband's refereeing, or just picking up extra hours from your school year job like I did or it can be a small internship.

Internships can be great but many are unpaid.  So how do you find one which is paid?  Tap your network.  Ask professors if they know anyone who needs extra help during the summer, talk with people at you career center, cold call companies that you would like to work for and ask if they have any summer opportunities for students, any of these may work.  Even if all you are doing is making coffee and stuffing envelopes, you can spend the summer making more connections for your future career or your next summer's wage.

Maybe you are sitting there and saying, but the summer has already started, what can I do NOW?  Hit the pavement, start dropping applications off.  Yes, most employers have hired their summer work force but often this is when they drop the ones that are not working out.  Connect with your friends, see if their jobs need anyone.  Ask your parents if they know anyone who needs help.  But this is not the time to be picky.  If you are good with dogs and someone needs a dog walking in afternoon, TAKE IT!  This is your time to be a freelancer, find opportunities for yourself.  Does someone need a tween driven somewhere, grab that opportunity.  Make everyone in the neighborhood know, you are there to help.  Someone is cleaning out their basement for a yard sale, can you help for a share of profits?  You may not make much at first but in this connections matter and by the end of the summer you so busy you won't know what to do with yourself.

But don't forget to have fun this summer.  By the time you finish college, summer break will be a thing of the past, so take advantage of it. 

Updated Millionaire Plan June 2014

In May we decided to start funding my Roth IRA and to do so need to connect our bank accounts to Fidelity, and because of some technically problems that did not occur in May.  We did deposit $71.97 from our FIA credit card (https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/american-express-cards) but nothing else.  But thanks to the market we still have had some nice gains. We now have $19587 in our retirement accounts.

We do plan to add the $625 that we missed in the month of May but because my husband is changing jobs in a few months we are holding on to the money for now.  Sadly we are still short of our minigoal of 6 months expenses including COBRA by $1413 (total minigoal is $21,000) but I bet we will make our goal by our August update.  After that our next minigoal will be $25,000, my gross annual income which will allow us to diversify outside of target date funds and therefore will lower our expense ratios.

I dislike paying extra if I don't have to and in eight to nine month, I won't have to.  I am still a fan of target date funds for new or inexperienced (or even lazy) investors but I have spent the entire time I have been building up our retirement funds learning about investing using index funds and have a pretty good idea on what I want to do.  That said, because of my husband new job, things may change in what we chose to invest in based on their retirement offerings.  I never want to stagnate, I always want to keep learning and being open.  Part of being a student is learning how to learn and my schools have done a great job at teaching me that. 

Getting ready for college, different for males and females?

This is a hard topic to discuss, but an important one.  Rape and sexual assault are common on college campus.  The rape epicenter at my university is the undergraduate dorm, and that is common on many universities, according to the campus cops I spoke to at last years take back the night event.  A tweet was posted tagged with #YesAllWomen and said "Because when girls go to college they're buying pepper spray and rape whistles while guys are buying condoms".  A girl's first two weeks on campus is the time in which she is most likely to be raped.

Keep in mind that many people will have access to dorm rooms, even if both students sharing are careful with closing the door and locking and you can't guarantee that.  RAs, and maintenance people both have keys that can be stolen or more horrifying, used.  And, what happens when your daughter goes to take a shower and is not able to lock the door?  Freshmen are often required to dorm, but you can pay more to share an apartment which will have a private lock on both the bathroom and bedroom.  You can talk to both your sons and daughter about consent, alcohol and rape.  You can support your child if she comes to you and tells you she was raped, even if it was because she was drunk.  You may even be able to convince the school to allow your child to live off campus if you push hard enough.  I'd have the rape and sexual assault information about the area they want your child to live in hand. 

During college the average rapist rapes 5.8 times but they do not call themselves rapists.  Only when they are asked about the actions of rape do they admit it.  "Have you ever had sexual intercourse with someone, even though they did not want to, because they were too intoxicated [on alcohol or drugs] to resist your sexual advances?" and 1/16 college men said yes.  Please explain that lack of no does not mean yes, a lack yes means no.  Teach both genders to stand up to sexist and aggressive comments. Know how to get help off your campus, because sadly the cops on campus answer to the president of the university so they may not help you.

This is suppose to be a time of excitement, of new experiences and growth, but growing up females means being aware of the risk of being female.  #YesAllWomen  Don't let this stop you from your goals but be aware of what is happen.  Speak up and talk.

Beer Brewing Club Now Open, the benefits of getting involved

My husband came home from the graduate student association monthly meeting with some fun news!  There are a group of graduate students forming a beer brewing club and the GSA (graduate student association) just gave them $300 for the school year.  My husband loves beer and used to brew a lot but lack time and money changed his habits.

He had been talking about getting back into brewing, but had not pulled the plug but THEN here comes the brewing club.  He can brew for free (and drink for free).  He was pretty happy about it.  Funny thing though, going to the GSA meeting meant that he learned about this a month earlier than everyone else and contacted with the organizers.  It really shows that getting involved can have some pretty nice rewards.

Has anyone ever gotten involved in something that had some nice fiscal rewards?

Updated Millionaire Plan May 2014

We are plugging away with our $625 invested again this month and we have a total of $19,118 as of May 1st.  That means we only have $1,882 to go before we reach our mini-goal of 21,000 (6 months of expenses, including COBRA).  So, if we keep this rate we will be there in three to four month.  We are so close I can taste it!  Our next goal after that will be $25,000, my yearly gross salary and if we keep up with our investing and market does not work against us, we will be there in nine to ten months. 

It is kind of crazy to me to see how close I am to having, what to me is, a lot of money.  This money is my freedom.  It allows me to make the choices that are best for our family and our future without worrying.  That idea is what pushes me to save when I want to spend more than I can afford. 

As a young person, especially one with student loans and a family, I'm being pulled in so many directs when it comes to money.  Should I pay my loans, invest, go on vacation?  What is best?  I have to make choices that are right not only for me but for my future self and rest of my family.  The more we can decrease our required bills and increase our income and assets, the more choices we will have.   And I like choices and freedom.  What makes you choose the way you do?  What is your goal?  What will it do for you?

Food plans are bad plans

Last year a lab mate of mine ate out for lunch every day, but would talk about not having any money.  Finally someone said, well then don't eat out!  But, he already bought $500 per semester of meals which equaled to one meal a day during the week.  Our semesters were 16 weeks long so that equaled $6.25/meal.  There were nights that he did not eat because they had no food in the house, because they could not afford to buy any.  How does that make sense?

We had access to a fridge and microwave at school and he had access to a fridge, stove and microwave at home so why spend $6.25/meal to eat out when that meant no dinner?  It really seemed like it was just another bad habit from undergrad.  You hear of the freshman 15 because freshman are eating out and can't cook in dorms.  Why are we setting these kids up to fail?  We set them up to overeat and overspend.  Neither of these are good and this is how we start our adult lives.  So what is a better idea?

First, cut the meal plan out if your university allows, if not call and see if they will waive the requirement and let you rent an apartment on campus.  Most colleges only allow that for upper-division students but sometimes, if a parent pushes prior to acceptance, they fold for the younger students.  As much as I believe in doing things for yourself, in this instance a parent has a lot more clout even if you have gotten a full scholarship or you are taking loans and working and therefore your parents are not paying.  If you do have to take a meal plan, take the smallest plan you can so you do not spend too much money.

If you are in a small dorm room, get a mini-fridge and microwave and use that for breakfast and weekend lunches.  You may even be allowed to have a crockpot which can make some wonderful dinners, all ready when you come home from classes or your part-time job.  Speaking of part-time jobs, restaurant jobs are wonderful for college students.  I paid my way through university on a server salary though I did a year of hosting to get enough experience to move up. 

Does anyone have a positive experience with food plans that I am missing?

Updated Millionaire Plan April 2014

We are doing steadily well, we added $625 this month but our account is now worth $18,532, a $698 increase.  We plan to keep depositing $625 per month for the foreseeable future which means as long as we don't lose money we will make our first mini-goal of $21,000 (6 months expenses including COBRA) in about four months and our second mini-goal of $25,000 (my entire annual income) in about 10-11 months.  Obviously the market can either help us and we may get our goals sooner or it may hurt us and it may take much longer than four or  eleven months to beat these mini-goals.  But I am optimistic that we will make it to $25,000 within the 2014 tax year!

We have considered trying to increase our deposit amount but have decided that paying off our student loans, saving a emergency fund and moving fund at a higher priority right now.  As young people we have a lot of expenses vying for our money and very little money to spend so choices have to be made.  I am doing the bare minimum right now and hope to increase my savings over time as my income increases.

I am also looking at seeing if there is anything more I can cut without hurting my lifestyle too much.  I do want to have fun, and have some spending money but as I continue in my frugal life new ideas pop up.  Never stop looking and you will find ideas where you least expect them.    

How are your investments going?