But as I explained to him, I'm making more money than I ever have in my life (how sad) and so I want to "maximize my dollar" and become a "millionaire before 30" and all the other mantras endemic in the personal finance lit.
But seriously, actually, I do want to be smart with the money I'm making and the money I owe. Not "smart" as in investing in Apple stocks or whatever, but smart as in "how do I get out of student loan and credit card debt, and buy a car, and take a Mediterranean cruise, as soon as possible?" (okay the cruise actually isn't on my top 10 list... for the moment.) Also I am acutely aware that I am coming late to the game of grown-up wages and have a lot of catching up to do in terms of life stuff like: buying a house eventually, actually having savings, thinking about retirement, etc.
Did I mention that I did my taxes last weekend and owe $987 federal and $102 state on the $8109 that I earned as a third party contractor? Yeah, I don't ever want to get burned like that again (though I do still believe I "needed" to take the contracting designation to get my foot in the door).
In my skimmings from the last month I've learned a few things.
1. There's no real quick way to make money. This was a total bummer to learn.
2. There are a lot of huckster authors who tell you otherwise. (Most egregious example to date: this book which essentially counsels readers to take out as many mortgages as they need to buy a house and then flip houses and borrow against the houses and after two or three years you will be a millionaire. Right.)
4. There are lots of ways to save money, but they aren't "real" revenue streams as much as tax deductions, tweaks to insurance policies, etc.
3. All the legit books have pretty much the same advice. A) figure out your budget B) pay off debt C) set up retirement arrangements asap D) save a lot of money E) get yourself a will, power of attorney, etc.
For the past month weeks I've been tracking every dollar I spend. I knew what all my regular bills are, but I didn't have a solid handle on how much I spend at the grocery store and at restaurants. I had a ballpark figure, but I have been surprised to discover that it is a tad lower than I thought.
This tracking also revealed that I didn't really know how much I spend on "other" things. This month "other" has included several co-pays for various doctors and a large amount of home furnishing stuff. (Who knew? but seriously, it was time to unpack my moving boxes. From July.) Looking are previous bank statements and credit card statements, this "other" category seems to be my money pit. It's not that I'm extravagant--I would argue that all the clothes that I bought in the summer were necessary for my new job, and my conference trips in the fall were necessary for professional development. But it is interesting to see that each month there are (sometimes large) one-off expenses that I wasn't considering when I began figuring out my finances.
On a semi-related note, I got my year end summary from my credit card recently and was extremely (smugly, even?) validated to figure out that for all the car renting I did last year, it was still cheaper than owning a car. [I don't own a car and maintained a long distance relationship for half of last year. After Honey and I moved in together we were still doing a lot of renting for various family and friends events.]
So here are my favorite books to date. Suze Orman's Young, Fabulous and Broke book and her Women and Money book. (Caveat, do not, for the love of all things sane, actually try to watch her on Oprah or her own show. In person she is kinda obnoxious. I discovered this after I had pledged my undying love to her and started e-stalking her. It was kinda a let down.) I like the YF&B book because it is very much targeted for where I am currently. The Women and Money book is good because it has very detailed lists of how to accomplish certain objectives. The first three or four chapters of W&M are blahblah (a lot about how women are emotional with money and how they need to break free of depending on someone else to handle their money, etc.). It's really the step-by-step lists in the final chapter that I found most helpful.
Jane Bryant Quinn has a massive tome (1264 pages!) which gives the low down on pretty much everything you want to know. I gathered some good nuggets, but alot of it is general reference more than process. It explains alot of the cogs behind the process, which is great to know, but there are less "game plans" in this book. So if I want to know more about money markets, I'll probably start with Jane Bryant Quinn, but follow Suze's steps.
There are a lot of bad books out there--condescending ("Ladies, say shoo to Jimmy Choo!"), harebrained ("Clip coupons and make $30,000 this year!"), unhelpful ("Psychological Urges of Spending"). Need I go on?
I think I've come to the end of the line on "personal finances" which I'm sure makes Honey extremely relieved. But this has been an extremely valuable month--I feel like I totally "get it" and have a plan. Thank you public library.
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