Knowing Yourself and Your Budget

Why do you love or hate budgeting? 

For me, it's soothing. It sounds weird, but I can control and count on my budget. I can map it out and (ideally) stick to it. How many other things in your life are like this? 

I also really enjoy planning ahead. I like to have my calendar ready months in advance, so my budget is pretty similar. I know when I'll need a present for my parents' anniversary and to add extra funds to my alcohol budget for Halloween celebrations. 

Maybe others enjoy budgeting because it's a challenge. For some, it's an experiment every month. All that matters is finding the motivation and fun in budgeting. Find that and the saving will come soon after. 

Giving Back

One of my part time jobs is for a non-profit 501(c)3. The organization receives no financial help from the city, despite what most of the community thinks, and raises all of their own funds. They do this through a membership program, but primarily though many many types of donations. Working side-by-side with the volunteers and staff shows me how necessary it is to support our non-profits.

I enjoy reading all about the financial community's goals of getting out of debt and acquiring a vast amount of savings for a relaxing retirement, but don't all of these get stale after a while? Every now and then it's refreshing to read about the importance of giving back to our community. Helping those who don't even have the opportunity to budget, because their food comes from the local shelter.

One way I've tried to overcome my temptation to keep everything to myself is by having my donations to a non-profit be deducted right away from my paycheck. Many organizations offer this, so look into it if you don't already have a non-profit picked out. This way that money isn't even factored into my monthly income. It's making donating a priority. The percentage that comes out of my income is not large at all, but it's the thought and habit that counts.

What non-profits do you support? How do you make donating a priority? 

Are you a smart cookie?

In my quest for continued financial education, I turned to my local library in search of some books recommended by Even Steven Money, but they are pretty darn popular. I'm on the list, so those reviews should be coming shortly. For now, I picked up a few personal finance books written for and by women.

The most notable, so far, is The Smart Cookies' Guide to Making More Dough: How Five Young Women Got Smart, Formed a Money Group, and Took Control of Their Finances by the Smart Cookies and Jennifer Barrett. Just from this title I thought it would be a good place to start. In synopsis, five ladies formed a social group to tackle their money issues and support one another. They were inspired by an Oprah segment and even appeared on the show as one of the success stories from the season.

This book doesn't offer as many hard numbers and formulas as I had initially expected. Instead I got a lot of advice and stories about how to curb one's spending and for readers to consider WHY we spend. Although spending less is essential to saving more, these authors chose to cover the topic for two thirds of the book. Many many times they illustrated how much just cutting down on one Starbucks run a day can save someone.

Some of their tricks to curb shopaholic natures were helpful and certainly could apply to a lot of Americans already in credit card debt. They suggested trading clothes with friends, calling someone before buying an item, sleeping on the decision, and even putting something on hold while at the mall. My personal favorite piece of advice was to think  "Would I rather have ____ or reach my goal?" before a purchase.

The groups' major trick to making more money, was literally that. Each member of the group increased her salary by getting a raise, acquiring advanced degrees, or becoming self employed. If someone is motivated to save and pay off debt, a key to success is being passionate about his or her career.

Overall, I would recommend this to women looking to get a jump on their finances. Ones, like the smart cookies, that have no grip on their finances and haven't even looked at their credit card statements will benefit the most. We all can be smart cookies.

Mint - My Obsession

I alluded to it before, but I will officially claim that I am obsessed with Mint.com. I have the app on my phone and I check it at least 15 times a day.

For those not familiar with the website/app, it links with your checking, savings, credit cards, student loans, auto loans, and pretty much any other financial account you have. It also can be used to estimate net worth, but I don't really want to think about that right now.

What's great about the app, for those new to budgeting, is that it has a great interface for general budget watching. Each month I estimate about how much I'll be making since my income varies. Then I use the categories to separate my bills and "personal choices." If for some reason I underestimated by income, I try to stick to my initial budget and save the extra.

For me, Mint is a great way to keep tabs on my monthly spending. After debt payments, I have the flexibility to maybe go over budget on gas, but make sure to stay under on food. Many people would consider this cheating, and if so then you can always stick to the initial settings. I consider this part of my budget similar to the envelope system, except a digital version. I have X amount of dollars after bills and need to stay within that guideline.

The only aspect of the app/website that I'm still mastering is the "goals" section. It's great in that it will project when I reach my savings goals and when I will pay off my car loan if I add extra every month. The only time this gets screwed up is while using the actual website. It includes the goals in the monthly budget, but I set it up so that my budget is based on my income minus my savings "payments." This is based on a theory called "paying yourself first." By doing this, I make saving a priority.

I'm sure I'll have many more posts about my love (or maybe eventual outgrowth) of Mint. For now, hopefully my summary has brought some new users. Do you have any special tips for using Mint? How do you categorize your budget?

Digit: Helpful Friend or Pesky Foe?

Saving can be tough, so another app geared toward financial stability is Digit. It uses a "complex algorithm" to determine what money you could save without even noticing it. Once you've saved enough or need the funds, you can send a text message to transfer the amount. I've read multiple reviews of how helpful this app can be.

Personally, I find it unattractive. I enjoy that time of the month when I personally transfer over my funds to different accounts and watch my Mint goals' progress. If I started to use digit, my mint tracking would get all messed up. That doesn't sound appealing since I try to keep it as neat and orderly as possible.

As someone who is consciously trying to save any extra funds, I find it a bit insulting. I'm sure there are a few more dollars here and there I could be stashing away instead of getting an extra sundae from Culver's, but I'd rather not admit it.

For someone who isn't staying on top of their budget or even saving at all, Digit could be a great way to start the saving habit. Digit could also be a good opportunity for those who do not use online ways of tracking their spending/savings. It may seem counterintuitive, but if I wasn't using Mint, I would probably give Digit a try.

Here is the website to learn more, try it, and form your own opinions. https://digit.co/ Let me know what you think!

Nobody Likes You When You're 23

As Blink 182 said, "Nobody likes you when you're 23." I'd say that some people really do like me, especially BMO Harris, Great Lakes Higher Education, and Fed Loan Servicing. My auto and student loans consist of $896 from my monthly budget of approximately $1,500 a month. I have given approximately 40% of my money just to my two student loan payments since I have been using mint.com last August.

My budgeting probably seems to go against every financial planning rule out there, but actually I'm not too far off base. According to the 50-20-30 rule I'm doing decently well, even with my numerous loans. Feel free to read up on the theory here http://www.doughroller.net/budgeting/is-the-50-20-30-budget-a-good-rule-of-thumb/ and here https://www.mint.com/budgeting-3/the-minimalist-guide-to-budgeting-in-your-20s.

If 50% of my budget is "Housing, food, transportation, and utilities fall into this category" (Mint.com) then my gas and food would fall into this category. The theory will work for anyone, but it depends on how your categorize your budget. For me, I am still living at home with my family. As you'll see by my budget, this is how I am able to make it work. I consider my two student loans and my car loan to be "necessities." They are bills I HAVE to pay.

They are:
Student Loan - $175
Parent Plus Loan  - $361
Auto Loan - $360
Totaling $896

Some Notes: I pay the Parent Plus Loan, because my parents cannot afford it and it is my education. I also am paying slightly extra on my own Student Loan and about $100 extra on my auto loan.

The 20% for Financial Obligations is what I consider my savings and my credit card payment. I save about $185 towards multiple goals. I split it up between my emergency fund, a new car (eventually I'll need this), and an end of the year reward. My credit card payment is something I have started to force myself to pay off in full every following month. I let my card go for a few months over the holidays and it came to bite me in the butt in spring.

My 30% for "Personal Choices" is where I put my food, alcohol, gas, shopping, home improvement, and gifts. I use this section as an opportunity to enjoy budgeting. I always allocate an amount, which may be none if I do not plan on using a category. We all know that one month may include birthday shots and another may include a destination wedding. This section allows me to be flexible with my funds, but it is also an area on which I could improve.

Overall, my goal is to stay under the amount that I made for the month, including my allocated savings. How do you split up your income? Have any interesting theories?

The Begining

Today I start my first money blog post. If anyone actually reads this, it's nice to meet you and I'm Maggie. After Google searching and finding inspiration the last few months from J. Money at http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/ and the multiple bloggers at http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/ I've decided that it's time I put in my two cents. (Maybe one since we're all so frugal.)

Whenever I stumble upon a great blog or advice column, I try and apply it to my own life. Being a 22-year-old woman with lots of student loan debt, a car loan, and working about 60 hours a week to try and get ahead, I sometimes have to really think broadly to apply the concepts. My financial mentors seem (at least from my perspective) to have everything figured out, or at least a reliable income.

I wanted to add my blog out to the universe, because I'm sure there are more twenty-somethings out there like me. Ones that are taking their first cracks at being self-sufficient, trying to land their dream job, and budgeting for the first time. My blog is for these people. No, I don't have everything figured out or some great advice about IRA's, but I'll learn with you. Hopefully, by sharing my experiences and hopefully getting some feedback, we'll all get a leg up on this whole personal finance and financial independence thing.