Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Greetings Earthlings!

I’m in that kind of mood tonight. I just changed my blog template to add a hot new thermometer for the PFBlogs.org Challenge at DonorsChoose.org. (Email me if you want the code for the nifty thermometer for your blog. mapgirlsfiscalchallenge at Google’s mail service dot com. Get it?)

This is being organized by HC of One Big Mortar Board, with the sanction of PFBlogs.org. It’s an awesome idea. Our target is to raise $1500.00 for 4 different projects. It’s actually going to take an estimated $2400.00 to fully fund all 4 projects, but since you people were stingy bastards about Jim’s Make-A-Wish-Foundation fundraiser this summer, I’m going to call you names till you pitch in, er. I mean, since you people were stingy this summer, we’re aiming our target a little on the low side. Dang. That still didn’t come out right.

Please, please, please donate. Many of us bloggers complain about the lack of financial literacy taught in schools, so we’ve targeted some programs which will start bringing it into the classroom. It’s literally time to put your money where your mouth is and support a teacher and class in learning financial responsibility. Don’t let me down!

I pledge $75 to the Lenny Loot project because it’s local to me in DC. I only picked that amount because it’s what the IRS needs for a receipt, etc. Feel free to donate what you can. Each according to their own means. It could be those fancy coffees you didn’t drink for a week. It could be the budget surplus from your grocery bill last month. It could be the cost of a haircut you pushed off for another week or two. It could be the cost of the lunch you skipped buying because you packed. Anything will help.

Does it surprise anyone how small the request amounts of money are? It’s so little to make a huge impact. I find it shocking that they don’t need much at all.

ps- When choosing, you may wish to consider if the program can be used with future students or when the request expires. (We have one that is expiring very soon!)

I went to a reunion this weekend and one of my old classmates is a financial advisor. We got to talking and I admit, I was feeling the waters a bit for a consultation. I also was complaining that my parents’ broker has wandered around to about 3 firms in the past 15 years, which I think is sketchy. My classmate thinks that could be sketchy too and advised that I check into his record to see if he’s ever been disciplined by NASD, the National Association of Securities Dealers.

NASD’s disciplinary actions webpage has a monthly report of which firms and brokers were disciplined, fully barred, etc.

This site also has links for arbitration requests as well.

Of course, I’m not saying that my parents’ broker is actually sketchy, but I know my classmate has been with the same firm since we graduated college and in the same period, my parents’ broker has moved at least once.

I just resent that every time he’s moved and taken my parents with him, it’s incurred fees for them that probably weren’t necessary if they had just stayed put and got reassigned to someone else. They aren’t too crazy with their money so I just don’t see the point of eating up their gains with stupid fees just because their broker is unhappy with his firm. That’s his problem, not theirs.

Anyhow, my only other comment is that I actually know a person who went to arbitration against their broker. It turned out the broker was freshly minted, but had a bad history with the insurance industry and had been barred from selling insurance, which is how they turned to securities work. So even if you go check this site, you might want to check a few other trade associations and the Better Business Bureau as well.

Good luck to you!

Washington Post has an article on college costs. (This link may require registration. Try Bugmenot for a login. But FWIW, the WaPo does not spam you. I’ve been registered for years and received nothing.)

I think that it’s fine for kids to go to a community or local college to save money, but the flipside is that they have to do extremely well there to go onward to a presitigious university. Transferring into a good school can be difficult if you get crappy grades during your first two years. Trust me, it does matter if you go to a good school. JP Morgan does not recruit kids from second tier and third tier schools.

I’m an academic elitist. I always have been. But my family has a good track record of academic work and high academic achievement was always expected of us. My parents also recognized that the bonds you make at school last a lifetime. Social networking in college counts, which is why I’m not always thrilled by the suggestion of going to community college first. I think you lose out on the bonds made in dorm life your first two years. Two of the weddings I attended last year were for college friends. They lived in the dorm next door my freshman year. I hardly have friends from college that I made during my junior and senior years.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not always convinced that college is for everybody. I think I could have just as easily skipped college and still ended up where I am. There was only one or two jobs that cared where I went to school or that I went at all. Mostly they cared about what I could do and my prior work experiences. In fact, the programming skills I do have are from taking night classes at community college.

The better trick is to take lots of AP classes and try to get as much college credit for them as possible. However, I have to say that my university didn’t give me credit for any of mine. You’re more likely get credit for a science class than say, Greek.

The best advice in the article is to open a 529 for yourself and then transfer it to your future child later on. I suppose after that your child should transfer it to the next sibling if that’s possible. I’m thinking about this since I could always use the money for graduate school in the future.

Cap on co-signing loans. I bet you can guess his answer.

Free Money Finance on how to earn more money. The short answer? Know thyself. Sure you can go out and get a shiny new degree, but will it be a field you enjoy? Will it give you the other peripheral skills you need to be an effective employee/worker? How well do you communicate with others? Sounds crazy, but having taken 5-years’ worth of support calls, I know that many, many humans out there are ineffective communicators. They can hardly articulate their computer problems with any accuracy and remain ignorant of details. It’s quite sad. Often the folks who succeed in life are those that are effective at getting their point across with clarity. Great leadership excels at this and leadership often leads to great financial rewards. Pause, rewind, repeat. Great leadership excels at this and leadership often leads to great financial rewards.

BeachGirl on the benefits of college work-study. I left a comment there, which I think is pretty good. I should turn it into a post, but perhaps at a later time.

Nicole asks if you’re ready for that? I’d have to agree. One day, I’ll tell you my story on the same issue.

The Frugal Duchess, a day later has another post on the same subject. Are you really sure you’re ready for a home? This post has great questions to consider, because it’s true. I am much more of a homebody now that I have my own place.

Get Rich Slowly has a post about portion control and frugality. I’ll say no more about this now. Dawn also has something about the same topic at Queercents. Click through and answer the question she poses at the beginning of the article. You might find your response very interesting.

Dawn at Frugal for Life has got cheap meal recipes up. What poor man’s meals did you make when you were strapped for cash? I challenge you to eat for less than $3.00 a meal.

SingleMa on saving for education while being a single parent. I really like her rationale when it comes to her priority order for saving. I am not yet maxing my 401k and I am rapidly depleting the Emergency Basket of Cash. But hopefully people I know will stop getting married and this wedding stuff can stop.

IRA points to a great Newsweek story about 15 people who make America great. I’m not sure I agree with all of their choices, but I do appreciate a good inspiring piece. It makes me wonder what will I do in life that is great? What is my mission? I think I know. But do you?

I’m a bad commenter. Sometimes I don’t revisit places I’ve left comment droppings. Today I found this old comment from Seattle Simplicity, a favorite blogger of mine.

The story of the 40% raise is that I built up a lot of technical skill while working a humdrum job. It was high stress and burnout. At the end of 2 years, a promotion wasn’t forthcoming. I was about to make a lateral move within the firm, and was promised an unspecific raise. However, it was a small firm and they were going to ‘transition’ me. Usually those transitions take months, and I was having none of that. I was fed up and ready to walk, so I did. I found myself another firm that was willing to take the job skills I had and value them at current market rate. I definitely did ask them for an outrageous some of money during the interview process, however, it was the going rate.

Salary.com is a great place to figure out what your regional peers are making. The information comes directly from HR and payroll staff. It’s not self-reported/inflated. This is what people ACTUALLY make from the companies that pay them. However, benefits are not included. This is straight wage income.

Finding out that I was woefully underpaid by my last company was a really shocker. I could actually be making 60% more, but sometimes there are priceless opportunities that you cannot pass up. I took the 40% and tried not to be too greedy.

I can make another 20% easily by switching firms in a year and half. I love double digit raises! Anyone who sticks with a company that isn’t compensating them well should reconsider why they work for their firm. Go back and read Mapgirl, Inc.

Credit Bloggers has a good article about how late payments effect your credit score. It points to an article at Credit.com.

Nicole is spot on about college degrees. A nice examination of ‘good debt’. I am not convinced college tuition debt, nor the whole experience of college is for everyone.

Citibank Driver’s credit card analysis by Jonathan. I’m seriously thinking about it since I rack up the miles. Of course, I do get a lot of free gas right now…

Madame X amazes me again with her will & determination to TCB on her own. Try as I might, I still get little things here and there from my folks (see the above regarding free gas). I am still holding off on my Bank of Mom & Dad commentary/editorializing. I’m still twitchy about it.

Not PF-related, but it highlights one of my fears about blogging. It’s like going to a party of crunchy people and taking a drink whenever you hear someone say,’I heard on NPR…’ during conversation. It may require registration. Go to Bugmenot. BTW, you must sip your on-hand beverage whenever I mention NPR in this blog.

I’m mulling this one over.

I’ve known for years that I had better increase my salary. I have made quite a few decisions to make that a reality. As I read this article, I’m not 100% sure what to think. I like my career right now and I made the choices to change what I was doing to get into IT/programming work. Sifting through the meta message in the article, I think it’s aimed at women who aren’t earning their full potential, or are young enough to make radical career path changes.

I’m not sure that the article makes sense to me. Sure women make choices in life to give themselves balance between work and family. Duh. That’s obvious. As a singleton I make more than some of my counterparts (regardless of gender) because I spend significantly more hours at work and get technical training all the time, therefore I demand higher pay and receive it. However, when accounting for the work-life balance choices, are women, in a statistically signficant manner, still being paid less for the same work?

The slideshow had some weird messages too. Like telling women to get themselves a househusband so that the wife can go out and earn more. Hey, why not marry a husband who actually earns a good wage and hire a nanny, instead? The financial analyst slide made me bonkers. Well gee, of course the woman earns more at the office than the shifty guy on the right with 5 o’clock shadow.

Seems like I’m against the article, but I think the advice is sound. If you are a woman looking to make more money, I think these strategies could work. I have moved into a financial analysis/technical position and get training all the time (either through work or self-motivated study) and my salary has doubled in the last 5 years and nearly tripled over the last 10. Of course, I don’t have kids and I can use all my non-work time to get as much training as I am motivated to get.

Two stories of interest to our community, from NPR.

The 50-Year Mortgage . It’s not a fixed interest rate, and the long and short is that it’s a long term rental agreement since you barely have any equity at the end of 10 years.

Teens and credit education. A California bankruptcy judge started a credit education program for teens so they don’t get themselves into trouble.