Debt and the City

HSBC Online Saving New Fees - Email Fiasco

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 19:24:00 +0000

Today in my inbox I received the following

Thank you for saving your money with HSBC Bank USA, N.A. We want to let you know that as of September 23, 2012, your Online Savings Account will be renamed to HSBC Advance Online Savings.

Your account number will remain the same and you will be able to use the account without any disruption in service.

The following account fees will change as of September 23, 2012:

•Funds Transfer-In, per incoming transfer - $12 each (the transfer of funds from another person's account, or another financial institution to your HSBC account)
Foreign Currency Draft (DD Commission) - $25 each* (official bank check purchased in another currency)

* US Dollar Draft- DFT (Commission USD) - $10 each* (official bank check)

I read the part in bold and my heart dropped. Fees AGAIN! I had just closed my wells fargo because they started charging monthly fees if you didn't have direct deposit. I already have direct deposit with 2 other banks so No, thank you.

HSBC has been my "e-fund touch under penalty of death" savings. I lost the atm card, I don't get statements and I don't take money out. I even recently automated my savings so that I wouldn't log in so much! Even though the interest rate is no longer the amazing 6% it was when i joined (i still have hope it'll come back), I had no plans on leaving. I was even thinking one day I would have enough money to be a premier member.

Anyway, common sense kicked in and I was like, how is an ONLINE bank going to charge you for transferring money in? How else would you get money deposited? They can't FORCE everyone to have an HSBC checking account (don't even think that would be legal).

So I googled. Found a thread that what the folks at HSBC had meant to say was wire transfers (why didn't they just say that?). Being a skeptic, I had to call myself and the rep basically said it was poor word choice. Sigh of relief.

I'm still wondering how a global bank could make such an error on such a large scale. I mean, can you imagine the number of accounts that were closed? I almost closed mine as well. I just didn't want to find a completely new bank which was why I thought to double check.

So breath easy if you were having a panic attack. You won't get charged $12 for transferring in $25 from your BOA or anything else. Man, I really hope capital one does not play any such games with ING.

Expect a clarification email in 3...2...1..

PS: Still need to update my sidebars.

Housecleaning

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:10:00 +0000

Like I said, I'm back.

Just have to get this blog back in order. I've cleaned up my blogroll quite a bit as some people seem to have stopped blogging years ago :( (anyone remember dog ate my finances? :p). Anyway, I need some new links because I don't have very many and I'm sure the debt blog scene has changed.

I still have to update my debt bars. I don't know if I should change the original numbers or what. Things have changed sooo much! I can't believe I used to have over 70k in debt!! What was I thinking? Not that 50k is any better but still! 70 grand?? That's almost pushing 6 figures! and not in a good way.

So yep, this is another promise to update. I'll have new numbers soon

I'mmmmmm baaaaack

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 11:36:00 +0000

still have debt. But have a better plan (and higher income).

Will update you all shortly

Almost a year later.

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:55:00 +0000

Wow,

Has it really been that long since I last posted? That is not acceptable.

I'm back guys. Those of you that kept me on your blogroll/reader/etc, thanks for believing (or being to lazy to delete). I'll update my sidebars later on today to see what the progress has been in the last 9 months. Hopefully, I've made some good progress.

I started a weight loss blog a couple of months ago and it reminded me about how much being accountable keeps you on track. So I'm back to getting on track.

I'm going to go through my blog roll and clean it up, so if any new readers find their way here (or old readers I never added) want to be listed, feel free to post your url in the comments and I'll check it out.

Free $10

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:30:00 +0000

I love to share.

Ruelala is offering a $10 credit to anyone who joins between now and Dec 24. I talked about ruelala here if you are not familiar with the website.

Here is my invitation link (it's invitation only). Happy shopping!! (wisely of course)

P.S it says the credit should show up within 48 hours

Thank you Chase

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:52:00 +0000

The 10k drama has finally been resolved :).

I got a cash advance from one bank and then about 3 days later I got a chase card that I had applied for and it has a 0% balance transfer for 12 months. I promptly transferred that balance and paid off the parentals.

Now you can bet I will do everything in my power to pay that sucker down in 12 months. So I don't think you'll be hearing too much about that anymore. Once all the transactions clear (I've paid quite a bit of finance charges with all this moving around) I'll update my sidebars with the new numbers :(.

A friend of mine just realized she is going to owe the government a huge chunk of money because her 2nd job was not witholding enough (think $20 on 20K). Everyone, make sure you doublecheck your witholdings so you don't get hit with an underpayment penalty.

Why I hate credit cards (BOA in particular)

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:29:00 +0000

In my last post, I told you a little bit about my frantic search to get all the cash to pay my parents back. I forgot to mention I even tried to open a new CC to get the last 4K. Finally Bank of America approved a cash advance for that amount (that CC was paid of with a limit of 6.6k).

Fast forward 8 days, I get a letter from BOA telling me that my cash advance could not be approved b/c my account had been closed. Further more they had gone ahead and reduced my limit on my ML to 100 greater than my limit. I was baffled. I had spoken to the customer service person and we had a conversation about why I needed the money. She said it was being processed and would be in my account within 3-5 days.

At this point, I didn't even want to call BOA to complain. Truth be told, if I had zero debt, they would be the first company I'd severe ties with. I have had bad experiences with their customer service and I really don't like them as a company. Plus, technically they can close whatever cards they like, i just didn't like the manner in which they did it. You have to keep in mind that i have NEVER in a 10 yr history been late on a payment or over drafted my card.

I am done trying to understand how credit companies work. You would think that a person who carries a balance, is never late and pays more than the minimum would be their ideal customer. That's a crapload of interest they make from said customer. If I were to pay my balance in full every month but got for example, airline miles, I don't think I would be considered a target consumer.

I just wish they would stop taking such a mathematical approach to how they run things. That's what got them in trouble in the first place. There definitely should be a person who looks things over with a more subjective analytical mind.

Anyway, the issue was solved because for a reason I don't understand (and I'm not going to question), I got an access cheque from a CC. I have promptly depoisited the required amount and I'm just waiting for it to clear.

Hopefully, there will be no more updates on this except me updating my sidebar.

****Random tip. I found out that you can just take you credit card to a bank and withdraw the money from a teller. If I'd just have done that instead of calling, I'd have the money I needed already.

Finally feeling the effect of the Recession

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:09:00 +0000

I know it's been almost a year that we've been hearing about the recession on the news. I've had my fair share of friends and people I sort of know get laid off or receive a salary cut. However, I must say that I haven't personally felt the effects of the recession... until now.

Since I've been in debt reduction mode, I don't really shop so prices don't affect me. Luckily for me, I was just hired so I wasn't laid off. My company froze salaries but since this was my first year working, I wasn't accustomed to salary increases at the end of every year so that didn't affect me. Some credit cards reduced my limits or closed my cards but since I have been trying to not increase my debt, that was just fine with me.

Today, the state of the economy came pretty close to screwing me over. Like I said in my last post, I am giving my folks back 10k (it's actually 9.6k since I had already made a $400). I had to pull money out of my credit cards that I had paid down.

First shocker came when I called USbank and was told that cash advances had been limited to 25% of my credit line. In the past, I could borrow up to the whole amount. 25% was not going to be enough to pay my folks back.

Okay, on to Bank of America. I hate them but I have a line of credit with a ridiculous limit. I call them up, only to be told that my account has been closed. I'm confused because I have a letter stating they were reducing the limit not closing the account. I am not really in the mood to argue so I hang up.

Solution happened when I called my Bank of America Credit card. I was able to get the advance from there but they are definitely more thorough about the process. For one thing I was asked a lot about my job and what I did. They also wanted to know what I wanted the money for.

I was definitely scared for a minute that I wouldn't be able to pay back my parents. I'm glad it worked out but I can see that now is definitely the time to beef up savings. If there's an emergency, you need to have something to rely on.

That 10k will just not go away

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:59:00 +0000

As you guys can probably figure out by now, when I don't post for a while, it's usually because I'm not being good.

In what some of my friends have called a very stupid decision, I have decided to give my parents back the 10k. I don't really want to go into too much detail because I'm not debating the issue but basically, they started wanting to know every detail of my financial life (don't get me wrong I can understand where they are coming from with that) and I was not willing to share. Basically, it boiled down to the fact that there were too many strings for me and I just felt too old for all that.

The bad news is that I'm going to have to take cash out of my credit card because I used part of that money to pay down the credit card. Luckily, I have a card that charges same as purchases for cash advances so it's not going to be at an astronomical. I haven't updated the sidebars yet, but it's definitely not going to look pretty.

I know all the arguments against my choice and I know saying I've already made up my mind about it is not going to stop people from telling me anyway, so just know I probably won't respond to comments of that nature.

I'm no longer in a race to pay down my debt. I just want it to go down.

I'm slowing down my debt payments

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:49:00 +0000

I feel like I write a variation of this post every couple of months. The truth is, I really struggle between saving and paying down debt. In the beginning, I was very gung-ho about reducing my debt. My outstanding debt was a big prickly thorn in my flesh.
Nowadays, I feel like it's more like joint pain that comes and goes. In plain english, I'm tired of focusing on my debt. I feel like I'm in my twenties, and there are a lot of things I am sacrificing in order to be debt free as soon as possible and I don't have to be that frugal. On top of that, the fact that I have very little savings is becoming the new thorn in my flesh.

I thought everyone that wanted to get rid of debt did it the way I had been. Pay down as much as you can, as quickly as I can. An article over on debtkids site made me rethink that. He has a lot of debt, and he is paying it down, but he also has close to (or over, I don't remember) 10k in savings. I started thinking about it, and I think that is smarter.

Hypothetically, if he were to lose his job, he could pay his personal expenses AND continue making payments on his debt for say, 3-4 months. In this time, I'm sure he could find another source of income. Now if you look at me, I'm paying a high percentage of my income towards my debt, but if I were to lose my job - I wouldn't be able to pay next months rent AND I would miss my next credit card payment b/c I wouldn't have any extra money. See?

Additionally, I want to be able to do fun stuff. I want to travel and take dance and writing classes. I'm tired of feeling like a college student when I make 62k a year.

All this rambling is just a way to say that I am reducing my payments to my credit card by $200 a month. That money will go towards my various savings accounts (I have like 10 accounts at ING hehe). I'm still going to throw any extra money I get towards my debt, but $1100 a month towards my debt is a bit high and I'm ready to change.

I think I'm going to look at the extra interest I pay due to my decision as the cost of enjoying my life. I'm okay with that.

Thoughts?

Good News for Bank of America Customers

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:19:00 +0000

I read this on boston.com and thought I would share it with you guys. As they say on headline news, we could all use some good news in a bad economy. Basically, bank of america will no longer charge an overdraft fee if you go over your account by under $10 (as long as you correct it withing 5 days). You can read the full story here.

That's right folks, no more $35 for withdrawing a penny more than you had in your account. Additionally, they are limiting the number of times they will charge for overdraft in one day to four (currently it's 10, bloody thieves).

While I'm clearly not advising anyone to spend money they don't have in their account, I'm sure some of you have experienced those darn fees that can occur when a charge you were not expecting came through and took you over.

Something to smile about I guess.

Third Quater Check in

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:56:00 +0000

9/15 finally came and passed and I am back to being a human being again (I'm sure some of you can guess what I do by now). In the interim, there's been a couple of changes to my debt bars.

I got some more money from the parents to pay off what they think is the last of my loans and I applied that to my credit cards. It feels good to have only 2 cards with balances even if said balances are high. My usbank card is almost back to zero paid off (lol).

I haven't done much online writing so side income hasn't been pouring in. I have made some money of my ehow articles and surveys but nothing major.

Right now, my focus is finding a new job and working on my side business. I'm creating a writing a photography business but I need to get my photography skills at a competitive level. I'll let you know how that goes.

Definitely expect more regular posts from me.

What I did with the 10k

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:21:00 +0000

It's been pretty crazy at work. I am definitely looking into other options - working 7 days a week till midnight at this pay is not for me. Anyway, this has obviously impacted how often I can post as when i do get some free time, all I want to do is sleep.

I realized on my train ride back that I never told you all what I did with the money my parents offered. At first, I had told them I was not going to take it because they kept adding all these caveats (which made sense but made me feel like I was 12) and I thought there were too many strings attached for something that would not really ease my cash flow.

After thinking and thinking (and thanks to a comment by a reader) I decided to take it. However, I would use 5k to pay off a card (you can see my ML now says paid in full in the sidebars) and I would keep the other 5k in savings. I realized that it was best to think like i received a 5k gift instead of 10k because I would still have to pay 5k back albeit interest free.

So now I am going to pay them back from the money sitting in my savings (and have it earn a little interest) and it gives me some extra money to play with each month. I put some of that extra to m groceries because $40 a month is not really allowing me to eat as healthy as I want.

I think I am going to try to write a couple of posts at a time an schedule them so that you have regular content.

Oh, one more thing, my ebay stuff did not sell and I relisted them. Here they are again. Calvin Klein leather bag and Purple Prada bag. If any of you are frequent ebayers, fell free to give me tips on things I should modify or add to my listing.

Thanks

Cheap Prada & CK bags

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:08:00 +0000

I can't post much b/c my job is holding me hostage again.... but I figured some of you might be interested in these bags I'm selling.

The first is a purple prada satchel. It's brand new and I've never used it. I just feel now is not the time for me to own such expensive items.

The second is a White leather Calvin Klein Collection bag. It's also brand new and in fact the tag is still attached. I've never used this either and I figure someone else might want it.

They are both on ebay - so if any of you use it, you should check it out. There's about 1 day left to bid.

Great travel Deal!

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:47:00 +0000

Someone just brought this to my attention and I thought I would share it with you. Jet Blue is doing a month long special - Buy a pass for $599 and travel as often as you want between September and October. Of course you are limited to the routes that Jet Blue travels and you have to book 3 days in advance for each flight. Jet Blue goes to the Caribbean so I am so sad I can't take advantage of this (no spare money + no time) but I know some of you have enough savings that this might be something to consider.

Definitely read the rules and conditions. The general thing I saw was that taxes and fees for international flights were not included but they were for domestic flights. I've never flown Jet Blue before but I've heard good things.

It's times like this I really hate being so broke. I love travelling.

I should warn you guys, I've been put back into full slavery mode at work (they want us working all day Saturday and Sunday now and during the week I get back between 11pm and 1am) so posts will definitely be sporadic and shorter.

I also have an update about the 10k but I'll have to work on that later. Already late.

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:40:00 +0000

I have so many things to cover in this post that i just might have to break it into two. First of all, Welcome to all the new readers I got this last week. If you haven't yet, subscribe to my blog via this link.

Subscribe to Debt and the City by Email

I noticed that by posting almost daily last week, my readership grew so I guess I have to work on being more consistent. Okay, I have a bunch of personal updates. It's a mixed bag and I'm not sure how to take it all.

The first major thing is that my parents are going to be having a major impact on my debt. They have been hounding me for the longest time about my credit card debt. They kept saying they had a feeling I had a lot and wanted to know the amounts. I never told them, not because I had a problem accepting money from them (if indeed they wanted to pay it off) but because I knew if they paid it off, they would put numerous (understandable) restrictions and I didn't want to deal with that. I also didn't actually want to tell them how much debt I was in because truth be told, it's embarrassing and I didn't want to deal with a lecture. I resolutely told them, "I got myself into this and I'll get myself out." Fast forward to this past weekend, I got a call from them and the long story short is, she has decided to give m 10k to pay off my debt (I have more than that but that was the amount I was willing to admit to) and they would forgive half and I would pay back the other half over one year. The point of this she said, was so that I would avoid paying interest on my debt.

Now I know some of you have issues with "free money" but I'm not really trying to discuss that. I have heard that point of view and I see your point but I don't feel the same way. The downside of this is since I didn't' admit how much debt I have, I actually end up paying more each month b/c I still have to make payments on the other CC's I didn't admit to. Paying 5k back in one year adds up to $420 a month. So while I will pay off my debt faster (and be debt free before 30) but my monthly situation has not really changed. Now I (almost) which I had told the truth. I say almost because I truly think my mom would have had a massive attack if she knew how much debt I was in.

Second thing is not pf related but it also relates to lying. My mom is having a landmark birthday this year and they wanted to go to Europe (and bring me along). However, my friend is getting married on her actual birthday and I've known about this wedding for a year and a half. Knowing my folks, I couldn't just say "hey, I'd rather go to s friends wedding" so I told them I could take 3 days of work but I'd have to leave the day before her bday. I blamed it on my crazy work schedule. My mom was a bit disappointed but I assured her that we could celebrate the day before and it would not make much of a difference. I thought I was in the clear...until I got a message that plans had changed and the whole family would come to NYC to celebrate since I couldn't get that day off.

*sigh*

I can't win. Now I don't get to travel AND I miss the wedding I wanted to go to. What do you guys think? I am a bad daughter for wanting to go to the wedding? At this point I might make up a story and say "oo, now I can make it to Europe."

Dear bloggers, what would you do?

The Value of (My) Time

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:00:00 +0000

I did a guest post a couple of weeks ago over at debtkids website. It's something I feel really strongly about and since (most of) the readers on this blog have been with me since I started I thought I would share it with you.
Basically, as this year has gone by, I have become more and more disenchanted with my job. I get paid well by the average American's standards. 62k a year in my first year on the job. However, my job is one that feels it's okay to ask employees to work 16-18 hr days 7 days a week. Our weekends do not belong to us and you are considered a write off if you leave before 7pm. I have heard about and seen peoples marriage, relationships, and friendships deteriorate because of this job. One day I decided to calculate how much I got paid an hour - $15!

You're telling me that if I went to work as an assistant manager at McDonald's and worked the same hours, I'd make the same? That's crazy. One of my coworkers left my job to go to medical school. He figured if he was going to work these hours, he might as well get paid more. I totally get where he is coming from. I have decided that my time is worth way more than that. Which means I'm scouting for other opportunities right now.

It's not just the time i put in that's bothering me. It's the fact that I'd like to get another job that I can use specifically to pay my debts and speed up my debt free day but I can't. I am basically chained to the whims and caprices of seniors and managers that might decide they need me to come in and make copies on a saturday morning.

I think we definitely all should take the time to figure out if we are getting paid what we deserve. I know that the economy is tough and jobs are kind of scarce but it's not a reason to stay in a position that you don't feel you an grow in.

I lost my rebate!

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Things are getting frustrating. Right after I found out that I would not be debt free till I was thirty, I decided to update my progress bars. Imagine my surprise when I saw that my balance on my undergraduate loans had gone up about $600 dollars. Now i know that I had stopped paying on my loans when my priorities changed and I wanted to focus on saving. I also know that my interest is calculated daily. But heavens! $600 in 2/3 months? That was ridiculous. I poked around the website and found out that I had lot my rebate because I had not made "one or more of my payments on time."

I was flabbergested. My loans are prepaid till late 2010. I checked my payment history and I saw that I had made a $10500 payment in May of 2008 and had made a payment every month since then. A couple of months I had even made two payments. So what the heck were these people on about? Everyone knows that when you pay school loans ahead of time, they advance your due date.

Filled with righteous indignation, I called customer service ready to give an unfortunate person a piece of my mind. After explaining the situation, the rep. told me that basically i made that 10K payment when my loans were still in their grace period (I graduated in december) and therefore it did not count towards my payments.

Needless to say I'm pissed. I guess it's my fault for not learning more about the rebate terms so I'm sharing my story so nobody else has the same issue. I plan on writing them a letter asking them to overlook it and give me back my rebate (fingers crossed). I'll keep you guys posted.

I won't be debt free till I am 30!

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:00:00 +0000

When I started blogging about debt I picked a random date that I would lie to be debt free. January 2011 I believe. In 2008, that seemed far enough away - 3 years.

Now that I am a more seasoned personal finance blogger, I decided to let excel speak for me instead. I filled out a debt payoff template and discovered that my random date was waaaay off. About 3 years off to be precise.

According to the template, I will not be debt free till November 2014. If that's not enough to depress anyone, i don't know what is. Some people are making their first million by 30 and I'll just be getting started on wealth building.

*********

IF ANY 16-19 YEAR OLDS ARE READING THIS. STOP USING YOU CREDIT CARDS TO BUY THINGS. YOU CAN NOT AFFORD IT AND YOU WILL PAY DEARLY IN THE FUTURE

************

Now I know my D-day (or d-free day) will be a bit sooner because the calculator does not take into account any pay increases I might have or other money I might receive (tax refunds, gifts etc) but it's still depressing.

I'm going back to extreme saver mode.

This is why I track my money so closely

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:09:00 +0000

Sometimes my friends laugh at me because I count for every single penny I make and spend. I can spend half an hour trying to figure out why there is a 10 cent discrepancy between my budget sheet and my bank account. I admit it, I can get obsessive. The other day my friend told me she was tired of hearing me talk about money. "We're young," she said. "We are not supposed to be worried about all these things now." Well to that friend (and all the others) I say a big fat HA!

The obsessiveness pays off every now and then. It's attention to the minutiae that allows you to cut out all unnecessary income loss. Alright let me stop philosophizing and tell you what happened. I got paid on Friday and immediately recorded the income in my spreadsheet. I was a little taken aback because it was about $60 less than what I normally receive. Since I was home, I could only check the details of my paycheck on my blackberry and saw that income from a giftcard I had received was part of my income. "Oh it's just the tax on that giftcard," I thought in my half awake stupor.

Once I got to work, my brain kicked in and I realized that it made no sense whatsoever to pay $60 tax on a $100 giftcard. Upon further inspection, I noticed that some of the deduction for my transportation that should have been taken out BEFORE tax was taken out AFTER. I won't bore you with all the details but suffice it to say that Payroll is working on it.

I know that if I didn't keep such an eagle eye on my finances I probably would have missed this. It's only when $60 less means that you can not pay a bill that these things have a big impact. This habit is something that I take with me when I go to the grocery store. I scan my receipt like a hawk and make sure everything (including sales) ring up correctly. I have caught a couple of things in the past and I think it's a good habit for everyone to have.

I'm slipping into that credit mentality

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:32:00 +0000

All it takes is one swipe.
I swear sometimes I feel like I am on a 12-step program. I can empathize with alcoholics and drug addicts. Not in the sense that I feel I am addicted to debt but moreso that I understand how just one _____ can send you sliding backwards so fast. Even after staying on the right path for so long.

What happened? I used my credit card. I used it and I had no idea or intention of paying back right away. It's not like this was for an emergency or anything. I was going to a friends birthday party and had nothing to wear (blame that on weight gain) and I wanted to look cute. So I bought a dress. Actually, backtrack, I almost forgot what set all this off.

It started with a flat tire. My car had one and I had to pay $80 for a new one. Which I put on my CC b/c I didn't have the money. Once I swiped that first time, it was like unlocking the door. Then I bought the dress and it was like opening the door. Once the door was open, it was like people running out of a burning house.

Okay, I exaggerate but still, I spent a lot. I don't even want to sit down an calculate it but i figure somewhere in the range of $350. I already returned some of what I could but it wasn't everything. The positive thing is that I made about $45 doing some freelance writing for people. I also am going to get a check from ehow this month. I know I would be happier if I just had the extra income without the extra expense.

I'm just going to call this one a mistake and learning experience.
Since misery loves company, what's the dumbest thing you've done while you were trying to get out of debt?

Do you elance?

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:51:00 +0000

This is just a quick check to find out if any of you use elance or guru.com. What was your experience? Is it worth it? If you haven't do you know someone that has?

I'm going to write a book

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:04:00 +0000

I was passing time at one of my favorite sites - stumbleupon - when I came across this gem. I might have mentioned that part of the reason I started this blog was to keep me writing. I would love to write a book one day.

cue music. Enter Nano Wrimo

Then I stumbled across this gem. National Novel Writing Month. The big idea is to challenge the entire world to write a book. In one month. I'm not joking, I swear. The organizers say that this is one time the writing is not about quality, it's all about quantity. You don't win anything but it's a challenge and all those who complete it get a badge :).

I think it's just what I need. A deadline with no pressure. It starts November 1st and ends November 31st. I'm sure some of you might be interested in entering this. If you are, let me know in the comments. I'd love to have some writing buddies.

How to lower your rent

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:05:00 +0000

If you guys remember, I pay a lot to rent my apartment ($1675). Blogging for the past couple of months and staring at my budget convinced me that I needed to move. I was apprehensive b/c I really like where I live, it's convenient and I hate moving. I decided to suck it up though when I received my renewal lease. Just looking at that number depressed me so I started checking out craigslist. I wanted to see what was available before I committed to moving.

I thought about asking my landlord to drop the rent by like 50-100 dollars but I never got around to it as I didn't think it would work especially after reading this. Anyway, I was looking daily on craigslist to see what was out there and I saw that they guy that sold my apartment was advertising apartments from 1475-1675 and I gave him a call. I asked if I could move from my apartment to the 1475 one and he asked which apartment I lived in. I told him and he basically told me that the 1475 was much smaller and not as nice as mine (i didn't mind) and that I should call up the management company and ask them to drop the rent to 1525. He changed his mind and said, ask for 1475 they'll probably settle ate 1525. I called them up and (stupid me) asked if I could pay 1525. He asked what apartment I was in, I told him and he said ok.

Just.Like.That

Obviously, I'm kicking myself for not asking for 1475 but $150 less a month is an extra $1800 that can go to paying off my debt so I'm happy! Like they say, ask and you can receive. Here are some tips on how to lower your rent.

Call up your landlord and tell him/her that you can no longer afford the apartment and you want to know if you can pay less. With many people suffering salary cuts due to the economy this is something they will not find to hard to believe.
If you pay for utilities, mention this. I know at least in New York, electric and gas delivery charges went up so many people play more for utilities. Ask your landlord if they would be willing to pay the utilities or subsidize the increased cost by lowering your rent.
It pays to see how much building around your area are going for. Stalk craigslist and point out your findings to your landlord. If similar places are going for less, it might be hard for them to find a new tenant (in my case, i knew the apartment next to me sat empty for 6 months).
Pay your rent on time. Landlords hate to see reliable tenants go.

Hope that helps

Privilege

noreply@blogger.com (undercover vixen) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:33:00 +0000

I did a guest post over at Debt Kid's website. Nothing major, I was just introducing myself and sharing my story (you should head over there and read it. It's the most detailed I've been) but I noticed something. He's been blogging a lot longer than I have and so obviously has a lot more readers and therefore more commenters. In the comments section I got a vibe from some of the comments that were made and it ties into a theme I've noticed across the personal finance blogosphere.

There seems to be a school of thought that views money given to you by your parent as tainted. It's somehow something bad and a handout. The thinking is, you are supposed to work for every single cent you earn otherwise it doesn't count. Maybe it's an American thing (I didn't grow up here) but it baffles me.

In my experience (and maybe it doesn't apply to most people), parents generally support their kids through college. When they have kids, it's part of the cost the calculate just like buying clothes and what not. My dad actually was confused when I wanted to work at 15. His first statement was, "don't you have enough money?" I did. But I was excited about the idea of being paid. It sounded so grown up. In college, I was given an amount every semester to cover living expenses. My dad made me write a budget before hand of what I thought I needed and usually gave me that plus 200-300 dollars extra to cover fun things. It was enough to be ok but I still wanted to work. After he assured himself I was not working out of necessity and that working would not interfere with my school work (which to him was the whole point of going to school) he was actually satisfied that I had the drive to work.

I wouldn't say I was spoiled. I never lacked basic things and my parents were not tight with money. They didn't buy me everything I wanted but if they travelled they'd ask what I wanted and buy me stuff of the list.

However, the problem lay in the fact that I was not allowed to have pocket money. Ever. If anyone ever gave me money as a gift (relatives and others) they would take it away from me and say they were "keeping" it for me. The reason I call this a problem is that because of this, I never learnt to budget. I never learnt to save. I never said, "if I buy this, I won't be able to buy that." The end result was that when I finally got my hands on some "money" I went a little crazy. To this day, I keep having to remind myself that you are supposed to save up for things you can't afford. That just because you see something and it IS a good deal doesn't mean you can buy it. I posted a while back that I had to learn the phrase "I can't afford it" and that it just doesn't apply to unimportant things like electronics and clothes. That sometimes you really can't afford to go to your brothers graduation in another state or that you might not be able to afford to go out to eat with a friend that's in town for the first year in years.

I don't want to veer to off topic here so i'll leave it at that. I think my parents also made a mistake by not talking about money with me. I had no idea (and still really don't) what my parents made growing up. Money was just something that was in the background. I wouldn't be able to tell you what, if any financial difficulties they might have had and I think all this fed into the excessive spending I did a while back.

I just wanted to know what you guys feel about parent's giving money to their children. I hope to have some great discussion going on in the comments.