July 2007 - Posts
So, I've taken the first step at being super-aggressive with paying off my student loans. Before, I was upping my my monthly loan payments on the higher interest student loan by $500 while lowering the amount I was putting into my ING account by $500, so I still have about the same amount of money to budget (if I was actually budgeting...that's another story altogether). But I just transferred $5000 out of my ING to my student loans...I realized paying 8.25% on my loans when I'm only earning 4.5% on my ING, it seems pretty logical in the long run to owe less on the high interest instead of earning more with the lower interest. Plus, I'll be getting taxed on my savings interest, but the interest paid on student loans is tax deductible.
So, I'm proud of myself. This seems like something personal finance bloggers do, that is, post about their accomplishments in reducing debt/increasing net worth, etc.
I'll be posting soon about the ridiculously awesome rafting/camping trip I went on this weekend!
So, thanks to comments on a
previous post, as well as a gchat conversation with
MapGirl I'm getting closer to actually creating a new blog.
Matt recommended going with
blogger.com, Alan suggested trying
vox.com, and MapGirl favors
wordpress.com. The sites all seem relatively easy to use, though I'm drawn to vox.com since it allows you to upload photo albums and incorporate them in your blog. I've been taking photography lessons, and so hopefully I'll have a few pictures good enough to post. I also like the idea of having different privacy settings for different posts...perhaps some personal finance posts might be public, while more personal posts could be limited to family and friends.
Still, blogger and wordpress seem to be a lot more mainstream...vox seems more underground (for now?)
Of course, I have to decide what name I'd want before starting any of these blogs. Whenever you sign up, you need to pick your username/blog name. So, before I begin, I need to figure out what I want my blog for. I suppose I currently have this blog...it used to be more for helping people with MIT, it's currently about personal finance...but who knows what I'll write about in the future? And MapGirl suggested that I make a personal finance blog anonymous so I can more freely discuss financial matters without worry of embarrassing myself or others. Do I make the blog title involve my name, my profession, my nickname, my alma mater, my discussion topic...or none of the above?
Free Money Finance suggests having the name of your blog match your title...and also
suggests writing about what you know...
So, any suggestions? What should I write about? What should I name my blog?
Thanks!
I came across this posting, and continued to follow along.
MakeYourNut.com has a great series with "Advice for New Graduates", and I'd like to share it, because I realized this is all pretty good advice for people in my situation (or similar situations).
Advice for New Graduates: Student LoansAdvice for New Graduates: Credit and Financing, Part 1Advice for New Graduates: Credit and Financing, Part 2 (Maxed Out at Graduation)Advice for New Graduates: Housing and Transportation TipsAdvice for New Graduates: The Tao of the Job HuntMake Your Nut Advice for New Graduates: Series RecapSo, The last link actually has a link to the other pages, but I figure you can either navigate from here or from there.
It's a gorgeous day today, maybe I should go outside? Or maybe I'll build furniture, since I bought some "assembly required" furniture from Target (it was on sale, don't worry!). My mom nagged me the last time she was here, pointing out that I have no real furniture (which is almost completely true, except I have an "assembly required" desk my roommate picked up for free a year ago, plus a bed, and plastic pull drawers, which don't really act as real furniture much). I figured that, yes, it does cost some money, but I snatched them up when they were on sale (Thanks to my Mom for pointing out the sale!), and the piece of mind I'll have from being more organized (it will be much easier to store my clothes in real dressers) and I like the idea of making my room not look so much like that of a college student. I'm trying to be a grown up!
Well, maybe I'll lounge outside for a little bit, take advantage of the nice weather while I can...
So, after reading a
post at
thesimpledollar.com about mistakes he made after his financial meltdown, I decided to respond to one of his "mistakes" (Number 7, "Not asking for credit card rate reduction right off the bat) and ask how to go about doing this.
Mapgirl responded, telling me I just need to ask if there is any way for them to lower my rate. (also check out a
bankrate.com article about it) So I did it...and it worked! I called the customer service phone number on the back of the card, and at first all the phone system let me do was listen to my account balance. I hung up and tried again...I had to play dumb and not enter any of my account information, and eventually, after a bit of a delay after the "last" option, there was another option to talk to customer service. I told them I wanted a rate decrease, and they told me I was eligible, I just had to be transferred to someone else. I talked to the other person, who gave me a lower rate! While it's not great (21+% to 15.9%), it still changed, and they said that in 3 months, I can call back for another rate decrease! So that's pretty cool. Granted, I try not to carry a balance, but it gives me a piece of mind knowing that if I mess up, I'll have a lot less interest to deal with. They did mention that if I do mess up (go over my credit limit or miss a payment) my rate will skyrocket to 30+%...so I have to be careful...
In other news, I've been reading a heck of a lot more blogs than that (thanks to the magic of RSS!), and I came across
BostonGal's
post about the
Pudding Calculator. Basically, it helps you see how you're doing in your retirement funds. As of right now, my score is 69...not great, since the benchmark is 100, but I know that I'm still putting money in my Roth IRA and my 401(k), and I'll be putting more in once my student loans are paid off.
So, anyway, this I guess is me linking to other people's blogs...let me know if that bothers you, or if you like it, or whatever is on your mind!
So, I was thinking about how there are lots of ways to track your finances, and I realzed that my computer came with Microsoft Money.
I tried setting it up...I am not happy!
I can't track anything easily (credit cards, checking accounts, 401(k), student loans). I've found it extremely difficult.
Until I can figure out a way to get the program to do what I was hoping for, I'm ignoring it.
any hints on how to make it more streamlined and easy to use?
So, I've realized that I should maybe set up on a new blog site sooner rather than later, since I don't know if I'll always have access to this blog, and I might as well set up a new blog not connected to MIT.
So my question for you bloggers and blog-readers: what service should I use? I'm not looking to have to pay for posting; I just want a personal blog.
I've used livejournal in the past, but I feel like that's not very popular anymore, and there might be better sites out there. I guess there's
Blogger.com, which seems to be the same thing as blogspot. And since I already have a gmail account, I'm already kind of signed up for a blog there?
It also looks like lots of people have advertisements on their sites. I think I would prefer not to have them, though many people are making money by doing so...not sure how I feel about that.
Anyway, any input on a blogging site to use, please let me know!
Thanks!
[Edit: I also came across
WordPress. Any input on that one?]