Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

My mom really liked her present. It was the best $25 present I’ve ever bought for her. She bounced around trying on her necklace and pulling outfits out of the closet to match.

What a relief! I always undergo stress when I’m picking out her presents.

The only downside is that my mom had to work all day at the store. She’s short staffed and working a full shift all day long.

The holiday falls within days of my parents’ wedding anniversary. Because I hate getting my mom a Mother’s Day present, so usually I send some flowers or take my folks out to a fancy dinner.

However this year, I found the perfect gift with which my mother should have no complaints. At Eastern Market there are several vendors selling pearl necklaces at really low prices. If they aren’t pearls, they are definitely carved shells with the beautiful natural lustre of nacre.

I found something really cute in a pastelly pink sort of color. It’s about 15″ and kind of elaborate, but still simple. It was amazingly only $25. They had huge 22″ strands that would have gone for thousands of dollars when I was a kid for like $30-50. Really pretty stuff too. There were colored pearls in black, rose pink, lavender, and peachy colors as well as traditional white-cream colors.

I hope my mom likes it. Since the stroke, dad doesn’t really eat much so I hate taking them out to a steakhouse like I used to do. Honestly a pretty necklace is a lot cheaper too.

ps- I am starting a new project today. I’m excited, but I’ll be driving all summer long at $4/gallon of gas. *sigh*

Apparently, this is the case. My mother, in her loving Korean way, tried to tell me that I should turn my modest studio into a palace. I had to remind her through gritted teeth, that I am doing the saving she always exhorts, paying for the family cellphone contract, and going to help her with her roof. Exactly where do I have money left to beautify my home after the bills get paid? Sumptuous draperies are not my aspiration. Never has been.

I suppose I could find the money to spend on my condo, but I don’t think my mother understands that I like my studio’s small footprint. I like that it’s got the furniture it needs. While the kitchen and bathroom need updating, I put *her* roof ahead of my home and any money I’ve got will be heading towards my debt and the roof she wants next year.

I got a nice birthday card and $100 cash over the long weekend. I’m not ungrateful. It’s very sweet of my parents to continue to give me a birthday present. I just want a little perspective though. I’m not a miser. I just live more simply than my parents think I should. I also didn’t tell them that I’m hardly in my apartment. And when I am, I’m sitting at my desk staring at the computer. Mostly I need a nice desk chair and maybe a new mattress.

The point of living in a studio is not to live lavishly. It’s to live. Period. I don’t need, nor want it to be a castle. *sigh* When are my parents going to get it? They won’t. It’s ok. But then they wonder why I don’t want to come home to hear their litany of shoulds and shouldn’ts.

Please stay in your lanes. I watched an SUV swerve into my lane several times this evening. I suspect, the driver had been to happy hour, or else was totally clueless about the size of his vehicle. If you think I’m slamming SUV’s, guess again. That silver Mitsubishi Eclipse got me on the 495-Port of Wilmington split today. I was passing on the right (I know, that’s bad, but the lane was totally free and clear!!!) between the middle lane and the Jersey wall. For some reason, Mr. Sport Car Idiot swerves into my lane without turning his head to check to see if I am there. I nearly crash into the wall! Thanks bub.

At any rate dear drivers, today was an Almost No Spend Day. I only bought gas this morning and spent money on tolls. Gas at the local independent retailer in VA was $2.98 this week. I got gas on Tuesday morning. I stopped in again today to fill up and it was $3.01. The Citgo was $3.08. The DE rest stop I like was $2.99 STILL!!! However, I’ll fill up on the way back. Mom let me fill up tonight for free, otherwise it costs $3.13 at her station, per the nightly news, that’s about the norm here in PA.

The luggage I bought for Mom went over well. It was a $220 Samsonite 26" spinner bag in light blue. The link is for the “Aspire Lite”, but it was marked “Silhouette 8″ at the store. (It appears I could gave gotten a better deal on Amazon, however, I didn’t know what I wanted till I was at the store getting it. Bummer, but there is time-value to factor in. She needed the bag before our trip to CA for Christmas.)

Mom was very happy with the lighter color. She hates confusing black bags on the luggage belt at the airport, so blue suits her just fine. I think the bag is from a discontinued line from the outlet store. Along with the bag, there was a special deal on a huge sturdy tote bag for one penny so I got one for myself. However, I gave mom the penny tote too since she seemed to like it. I told her the roof was a no-go next year and that it’s very possible I won’t be getting any bonus since I haven’t heard from my director if the numbers look good. I will assume the near worst for now. (Worst being a RIF, but no word on that either and I’d be the last to go. Someone has to shut the servers down.)

Please expect light posting since I’m actually going to have some no spend days or almost no spend days this weekend.

CELEBRATE BUY NOTHING DAY THIS FRIDAY!

And with all that, please have a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday weekend!

Very very mundane. There’s a lot going on at work, plus the holidays this weekend, so there was no post yesterday and probably light post for the rest of the week.

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It’s down. But you knew that. I decided to put my dental bill on there as a liability since it’s going to take me several months to pay it off. I sent them $500.00 last week. It’s actually a small ding to the net worth that is offset by my 401k contribution and a recovering stock market. My entire portfolio is up by 9%. That’s pretty crazy if you consider that it’s up 4% because of my contribution. The remaining 5% it’s up is pure market rebound. Of course, I did also have a liquidity event, i.e. dividend reinvestment, on one of the funds.

What’s nice is that I did meet my goal of having $30K in retirement money by the end of 2008. Since I’ve met that goal already, I feel ok with stopping my 401k contributions for the moment.

There’s no way I’m going to meet my total goal of having $60K net worth by the end of the year. I am only focused now on two things:

1) Pay off the entire dental bill by January 1, 2008. This means ~$800.00 a month for the rest of the year. It sucks, but c’est la vie.

2) Reduce my credit card debt. I had a tough goal of $9K in credit card balances for 2007. I know I can’t meet that either, but I would like to nudge my NCN Network graph down again. So I will focus on getting this down under $16K. That might not seem like a lot, but with the Christmas holidays approaching, I have no idea how to pay for planned family vacations other than to dip into my savings. I have pretty much eliminated paying myself first right now. I hate it actually, but to meet goal #1, it had to be done. I’m only saving about $35 a month at the moment. (Considering that I was socking away over $1000 a month at one point, saving less than $50 seems like nothing.)

My family’s been talking about LA/Disneyland for Christmas with the nephews and my parents. My mom would like some new luggage, which is fine with me, but after looking at some of the monster bags out there. I am afraid that she won’t be able to get them into her car without needing some help. Luggage is also crazy expensive, so I’ve been shopping around for a good deal on quality stuff. I don’t want to get her something crappy. I’m being picky, but I think this is one of those areas where value and quality is just as important as price.

Please don’t bug out over the mention of Disneyland. I have a few friends who work for The Rodent and can get discounts for us if we plan properly. What’s also nice is having a frank discussion with my sibling over what to get the babies as presents. I can get them whatever I want and I can spend as little or a much as I want. (I was asking about clothes vs educational toys vs toys vs money.) That’s a relief. I like buying the boys cute things, but I really worry that they won’t have college money with the way things are in the America these days. 15 years is a long time for things to change, but a little extra money at Christmastime for their savings accounts could not hurt.

What’s also nice is that my mom sent a full sweater, shirt and pants outfit for the older nephew’s birthday, and he’s really fixated on the green sweater. He’s starting to exert preferences on his clothing so maybe he’ll like some cute, but frugal clothing I send as presents. I’m really big on Old Navy for kids’ clothing right now. Decent quality and inexpensive. I haven’t been in one in years so I was surprised this summer to find that I could spend about $120 and get two skirts and two dress shirts for work. (But I didn’t. I just *thought* about it.)

ps- I did have a No Spend Day on Saturday. Lunch was provided at my volunteer training gig. My laddie cooked me dinner. And the drink I got at the bar later that night was paid for by my old college friend who was squeezing in a visit with me. As he puts it, “I make enough for three people to live on.” I walked to the training session, rode my motorbike for fun in the parking lot, and drove only to my laddie’s house and to the bar in a series of trips. Not bad.

aka Posts I’ve read today that I’ve enjoyed.

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity on finding out that a co-worker makes more for doing the same job. I think he’s got good advice, but my comment has a slightly different take on it.

SF Ordinary Girl at SF Money Musings on juggling her financial priorities and that of her family. I swear, I should make good on my suggestion and start an online support group and separate blog. The subject just won’t go away for me.

That is all for now. I think I might have time for a late-night post later tonight.

I’ve been avoiding comment about millionaires in Silicon Valley who feel like the rest of us working joes. Finding time in my schedule to stop and think hasn’t been there and I’ve been avoiding the issue because unlike most PF bloggers, a large chunk of my family lives and works in Silicon Valley. I would like to move back there. And I suspect some of my family are exactly like the people described in the article. I think a lot of my friends in NYC also have the feeling like they don’t have enough to buy a place unless they look outside Manhattan.

I find it entertaining that PF blog commenters think this is a stupid subject, but it’s not. You have to remember these are real people and picking up and moving to East Podunk is not realistic for them because there is nothing there for them. If you are wondering at all about why, try reading Regional Advantage, by Annalee Saxenian. As a geography major, I can tell you, location matters. Ms. Saxenian’s book can tell you exactly why where you are means something to your livelihood and the economic future of the entire region. When my father was ill last year, I looked for work in Philadelphia, but to trade down from the hottest tech market in the US around DC to go home was a serious step down financially. Oracle work is just not valued there like it is in DC.

That said, some of these people on the hamster wheel of 80 hour work weeks like to work that hard. It comes in cycles with time off in between to go be lazy. My folks always told me they’d retire when they die. And that’s been pretty true so far.

Members of my extended family and friends work/have worked at places like CNet, Amazon, PayPal, etc. As far as I know, no one has hung on to their IPO money. Post-9/11 stock markets eroded everything. There is luck and then there is market correction and realistic valuations. My family has been lucky, but that lasted about 2 weeks during the 120-day blackout period and evaporated when they could actually sell. The article is kind of shallow and doesn’t get into the deeper issues surrounding the gulf between incomes there. Why some people got lucky and others did not.

It’s a little weird out there. Culturally, there are a lot of nouveau riche who don’t know what to do with their money and spend it like crazy on silly things like Ferraris. On the other hand, my cousin’s husband, a budding venture capitalist, is telling me how insane it is that they can’t afford a $600K mortgage on a $1 million house even though he’s an MD and she’s got a Harvard MBA. I told him he could just buy investment property in DC and it would be cheaper. Strangely, I also had that conversation with another friend of mine who works in San Francisco. He used to live in DC and is seriously considering buying a rental near his old apartment.

Sometimes my sibling and I think we’ll move my folks into my sibling’s current house so they can upgrade to a bigger home for their two kids. I’ll assume the mortgage with my mother, or buy it, and then I’ll have a place to move when I’m ready to go to California. (Will I ever be ready again, like I was when I was 22?) Retiring TO Silicon Valley seems impossible. But my uncle did just that. He salted away his money and was able to buy a home in Morgan Hill. Admittedly, that’s very far south South Bay, but it’s still driving distance to the rest of our family for a weekend brunch. Reading that article carefully, I can tell you Moraga doesn’t float my boat and Bend, OR is great to ski and vacation, but not for the rest of my life.

In two weeks I will be visiting and snuggling my wee baby nephews. The oldest is turning two and I’ll be there for his birthday. He’s not getting any smaller. But his parents are torn between staying where the market is so good for their skills, and leaving because the kids will end up seriously warped about money and wealth and what it means.

Since I’m no where near the league of wealth these working millionaires are, I highly doubt I’ll have the feeling that $10 million is not enough.

Ms. MiniDucky called me out in her post about loaning her parents some money for a new business venture. This took some time and soul searching for me. I don’t usually respond to direct solicitations for advice. I’m not an expert on financial matters. I’m not professionally trained, but I think she’s asking me because this is about family relationships and the link between love and money. This scenario takes filial piety to a whole different level. I keep editing out stuff about me and my parents, telling all, and then scrubbing it. It’s so damned PERSONAL.

Basic outline, if you don’t want to click through (but you should to get more info), is that she’s considering loaning her father some money for a new business venture supplying other service companies vs direct to consumers. Complicating it are some past intrafamily loans she’s made and her feelings about those loans, as well as her feelings about her own financial stability as well as that of her family. I wrote a good chunk of this post directed at ‘you’ but I actually mean ‘her’, Ms. MiniDucky.

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Him picked a humdinger of a week to ask me about my family obligation. I write this while I wait for a tow truck for my mother’s car. She’s a ditz and left the keys in the ON position and drained the battery by accident yesterday. She wanted to roll down the windows and let a breeze through before we left for dinner.

After everyone arguing about where to take the car this morning, I find that I start screaming,”I’LL PAY FOR IT. JUST SHUT UP.” So the car is going to the local garage that is open vs the dealership which is closed. It’s $45 to tow. Something I gladly will pay to make sure my mother’s car is taken care of TODAY before I leave Philadelphia. (HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.)

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