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Posted
Jun 29 2009, 05:01 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
I recently attended a party with some of my former high school classmates. Many of the other guests were artists. I don't know many artists, so it was fascinating to listen to their stories, especially about the economics of selling art during a recession. I learned a lot.
Later in the evening, I spent some time chatting with my friend Jonathan. He asked me about the blog. "What are you going to write about tomorrow?" he said.
"Well, I'd like to write about earning extra money," I said. "That's the topic for the podcast I'm doing Monday afternoon, and I think it would be fun to also post an article related to the subject. I've been picking the brains of these artists, hoping to find a story, but I haven't found one yet."
"I've got one," Jonathan said. "Let me tell you how my mother earns extra money."
Garage sale gold
"My mother makes money on eBay," Jonathan said. "She likes to travel, but it's not something she could normally afford to do. So, she's found a way to generate extra cash that she saves just so she can off to Europe -- to France or to Italy. Wherever she wants to go."
"How does she do it?" I asked.
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Posted
Jun 22 2009, 05:46 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Kris and I recently bought another side of beef. Well, to be more accurate, we purchased one third of a cow. Every year, we go in with several other families to split an animal. This year, our portion of the purchase comprised:
- 46 pounds of lean hamburger (in 24 packs).
- About 36 pounds of roasts (in 10 packs).
- 31¼ pounds of steak (in 20 packs).
We also received 2¼ pounds of beef tongue that we're giving to the guys at the box factory. José and Jesus tell me that lengua is delicious, but I'm not willing to prepare it myself. (If they want to make something for me, I'll eat it.)
We received a total of just over 115½ pounds of beef for $425, which is $3.68 per pound. (In December 2006, we paid $300 for 83 pounds of beef, which works out to $3.61 per pound. In November 2007, we paid $277 for 81 pounds of beef, or $3.42 per pound.)
The problem is, Kris and I can't eat this much beef. We love it (sorry, vegetarians), and we think we're getting a great deal at this price, but we're not willing to prepare beef more than once a week. This year, we recruited help. We found two other families to split our share. They each gave us $100, and we gave them one-quarter of our load.
This still leaves us with a lot of meat. Fortunately, we have a 20-year-old upright freezer, which we picked up for free from one of Kris' co-workers. This freezer is a godsend. We use it to store our beef, and plenty of other food besides. But whenever I mention the freezer, I get comments asking me how cost-effective it really is. That's a great question. I finally found time to answer it.
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Posted
Jun 15 2009, 06:19 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Recently I had lunch with Hardy, a Get Rich Slowly reader here in Portland, Ore. We chatted about life (and personal finance) over burgers and fries. He generously offered to pay the bill. When the waitress returned with the credit card slip, she asked to see his driver's license.
"What was that all about?" I asked.
"Asking for my ID?" said Hardy. I nodded. He flipped over his credit card and showed it to me. He'd written "see ID" where his signature ought to be.
"Does that work?" I asked.
"Some of the time," he said. "It gives you an idea of which places are paying attention. But not every place will accept it. It's technically against the rules because the card has to be signed. Plus, businesses aren't really allowed to ask to see your ID."
"What do you do if they refuse to take your card?" I asked.
"I carry a backup," Hardy said. "This is my main card. My backup card has my signature, but I rarely have to use it. The only place that I know will refuse the main card every time is the post office. I have to use a signed card there."
I was intrigued by this attempt to thwart identity theft, so when I got home I asked my Twitter followers:
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Posted
Jun 08 2009, 05:35 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Each of us has a unique relationship with money. Some have always used it wisely, have saved, have avoided debt. Others, like me, have struggled. I carried consumer debt for 20 years. I didn't open my first savings account until I was 36. But now, after just over four years of intense effort, I feel financially secure. I still make mistakes -- boy, do I! -- but my momentum is leading me in the direction of my dreams.
Some people -- through luck or right action -- have good careers with comfortable salaries. Others -- through luck or poor choices -- face a daily grind in a low-wage job. Most of us fall somewhere in between.
Seeking change
Each of us is different. We all have different attitudes and relationships to money. Obvious, I know, but it needs to be said. That's why I try to cover a wide range of topics at Get Rich Slowly: We're each starting from a different financial place. I think it's wrong to judge anyone based on their situation. If you're trying to improve, I'm willing to help, no matter whether you're deep in debt or financially secure. Read More...
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Posted
Jun 01 2009, 05:31 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Some people never take control of their finances because they're afraid that doing so would require them to give up everything they enjoy. I don't believe that's true. Getting out of debt requires hard work and sacrifice, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun along the way.
Aaron recently sent the following e-mail:
You paid off $35,000 in debt in just over three years. Does that mean you were (completely) dedicated and had no frills and were dour-faced the whole time? Were you using every spare penny to pay debt? Did you give up all luxuries and all fun? Did paying off the debt consume you?
That's my greatest fear about the whole thing. What makes it worse is that I'm serious about getting out of debt -- I just don't want to be miserable in the process. Especially since I'm going to be married soon.
Any encouragement you can give would be greatly appreciated.
When a person decides to make a lifestyle change -- financial or otherwise -- there's a temptation to GO ALL OUT. With the zeal of a new convert, you leap headlong into a life of thrift, for example, giving up everything you valued before.
There's a problem with this.
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Posted
May 26 2009, 04:36 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
I thought it would be fun to share an interview with my real millionaire next door, a man we'll call John. He used the basic tenets of money management to build wealth and to retire early. Here's how I described John when I first wrote about him last year:
John is a 71-year-old retired shop teacher who lives in a modest ranch house on half an acre, the same house he's had for over 40 years. He has an old barn filled with salvaged lumber, outdated appliances, and who knows what else. When he's around, he drives a junkie 25-year-old station wagon. But most of the time, he's not around.
He spends his winters in New Zealand helping friends on a dairy farm. His summers are spent fishing in Alaska. For a couple of months each year, he's home, puttering in the yard. Year-round, he rents his house to boarders. He leads a very active retirement.
John's story was popular with Get Rich Slowly readers, and many of you asked me to interview him. I had to wait for him to return from New Zealand, but recently the opportunity finally presented itself. John agreed to sit down for a chat.
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Posted
May 18 2009, 06:20 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Over the past few months, the mainstream media have been filled with stories about the "New Frugals" and the return to thrift. People who once lived beyond their means, financing their lifestyle with debt, have "found religion." They've begun to embrace frugality, and have discovered the joy that can come through spending less.
Not everyone is happy about this. The March issue of Redbook contained an article called "How to benefit from the recession," which profiled how four women are coping with the recession. The story prompted the following letter to the editor in the May issue:
While I love Redbook, something in your article ... rubbed me the wrong way. When describing the economic crunch, after rightfully blaming the banks and consumers who were charging more than they should have, the author wrote, "Basically, we'd all been spending way more than we could afford." I don't appreciate being in the same category as overspenders. I am frugal with every cent, and I use every item to its utmost capacity simply because I don't believe in waste of any kind. I always will be like that, regardless of the economy. Even though we're all in this together, not everybody contributed to the country's financial mess. -- Darcy Bailey, Mount Holly, N.C.
I've heard similar sentiments from GRS readers -- and from my wife. To a degree, I sympathize. None of us wants to pay for the mistakes of others. When people make poor choices, they ought to face the consequences.
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Posted
May 11 2009, 05:08 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Recently, I spoke with personal-finance writer Greg Karp about how young adults can save money. We brainstormed ideas for one of his upcoming newspaper columns. "I'm willing to bet that many young people can save money by cutting back on their cell phone," I said. "It's kind of shocking how these have become a need instead of a want."
"Yeah," Karp said. "And what about prepaid phones?"
"I don't know anything about them," I said.
"They're great," Karp said. "My wife and I are saving hundreds of dollars a year by switching to prepaid phones. I'll send you a link to an article I wrote."
It turns out that Karp is something of a prepaid phone evangelist. But no wonder. In this piece from last December, he describes the benefits of switching two cell phones in his household to prepaid:
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Posted
May 04 2009, 05:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
On the first day of college, I opened my first bank account.
The gym was filled with registration tables, not just for classes and clubs, but also for local businesses wanting to sell themselves to the students. There were even a couple of banks. Because I was getting a small payment from the school to cover living expenses, I needed to open a checking account.
The two banks had very different methods of attracting students. One displayed a sign that said "free checking." The other was handing out Frisbees. My choice was easy. I wanted the Frisbee. (Free checking? How boring.)
I signed up for my checking account, got my free Frisbee, and spent the afternoon on the quad, tossing the disc back and forth with my roommates. When it was time for dinner, I took the Frisbee up to my room, put it in the closet, and never used it again. But I had that checking account for nearly 17 years.
Classes started. I forgot about the Frisbee, and I forgot about the checking account. The next month, I received my first bank statement. There was a $5 service charge, but I didn't care. It was just $5, right? I accepted the fee as part of the package, and as part of being an adult. My parents had always paid service charges on their bank accounts, and I expected I always would, too.
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Posted
Apr 27 2009, 04:59 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
I had lunch with my friend Bo recently. Over our enchiladas, we talked about how dumb we were when we were younger, and how we'd do things differently if we could. To what point would we return if we wanted to change our lives?
"I'd go back to the end of my sophomore year of high school," Bo said.
"That's a long way," I said.
"But think of compound interest, J.D. And by then I was earning money. I was earning money and I was spending it. If I could go back, I would save like crazy. I would invest in mutual funds. I would buy a house -- a fixer-upper. I'd spend much less on food and clothes and comics."
Like me, Bo is a comic-book collector. In fact, when we were in college, I gave him a bunch of my comics. Boy, was I dumb. I was dumb in a lot of ways then. If I could go back, that's the time I'd pick.
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