Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Hat tip to Madame X. This one is great. Why people leave their jobs.

Boston Gal on Identity Theft. It’s usually done by family members who are privy to your details.

Hat tip to Amanda at Young And Broke for pointing me to this article about a ‘Potemkin life’, and generally regretting overspending and keeping up with the Joneses.

Savvy Saver is traveling on business. Her advice on expensing things is wonderful. I admit, I’ve gone overboard in the past when I had an expense account. I also admit, that I also have saved my company money by staying with friends instead of at hotels, done the Saturday night stay to save on airfare etc. Then I didn’t feel so bad maxing out the per diem and paying the rest out of pocket to take my host out for an excellent meal. Using her criterion, was it a place where I would have spent the money anyway? Yes it was. I wish I could name the place in NOLA I went with a friend. He had a La Crema Chardonnay in hand where we went and dragged me to Pat O’Brien’s for a Hurricane. (He gave me no choice but paper cup or souvenir glass. The restaurant was past Audobon Park and was called something like Nat & Jenny’s.)

Free Money Finance tries his darndest to convince me that moving out of a major city is the prudent financial thing to do. He may be right working the numbers, but I’ll never, ever, forget going to hear Kiri Te Kanawa in recital. She sang a Puccini aria for her encore and I got chills. The ticket cost me about $75, but was worth every thrilling penny to hear her sing. Yes, you can get opera on the cheap. There is Opera in the Park, student recitals at conservatory, etc. But a superstar, well. That was worth the money.

Just something to think about. Read the article today before it gets archived. The article is from the 19th and free access will only last for 8 days. It requires login, so get one from Bugmenot.

When I was younger, I did payday advances at Wells Fargo ATM’s when I was short of cash. I would never do that now since I have money saved up, but I figured paying the advance fee was better than bouncing a check. This is the way poor people think. They will spend more money/get into more debt to avoid spending more money/debt. It’s kind of a weird circular logic.

There is a premium that poor people pay for goods and services. It’s predatory and disgusting. I won’t get into politics, but the free market solution might be to seek out goods and services that are a bit further away. Of course people who say crap like that have never had to ride the bus in the rain or wait for it in swampy humidity, or in the dark. But I’m not sure how you’d do that for car insurance. You’d have to move to make a difference there.

Geography matters. They don’t call me mapgirl for nothing. Where you are located can make a huge difference in terms of what you spend. Fight the tide of your demographics and ignore the Joneses living around you. Is it possible to save money by moving to a more expensive neighborhood? It depends.

I ran an analysis the other day on my mortgage payment and rent. I know if I sold my condo and moved closer to my job, I could rent a room in shared housing for the price of my interest and condo fees. I would have to pay extra for utilities that I would not use, like a roommate’s cable TV, but in the end, I wouldn’t be pissing anything away since mortgage interest doesn’t go into my savings account and the surplus cash I’d have would go into savings instead of equity in a property. There is the further analysis of including my mortgage interest tax deduction, but if I bumped up my 401k contribution, I could probably offset the lost of the deduction. So complicated!

If I rented close to my current home, I probably would not come out ahead because rents are much higher where I live (but still less than my mortgage and condo fee).

Three words are running through my head right now, location, location, location.

Serendipitiously, the NYT has an article today about places to rent in NYC for $1000.00 a month. No, they aren’t in Manhattan, but they are certainly cheaper than my condo fees and mortgage. Does that mean I’m ready to make a move to NYC? Not hardly, but if you’re willing to live in a 350 sq. ft. studio, there may be something out there for you.

Best piece of advice from the article? If you see something you like for the right price, jump on it.

Tip: May require login. Visit Bugmenot if you need one.

I was inspired to write this after following Flexo’s apartment search posts.

A friend of mine works in IT in Pennsyltucky. To be more generous, it’s in Amish Country. We were discussing rents and when we decided to compare the DC market to Lancaster, PA. A quick look at posted rents at Craigslist.com will show that DC 2-bedroom apartments are at least $1500 depending on your amenities and neighborhood.

A 2-bedroom apartment with hardwood floors, high ceilings, dishwasher, disposal, off-street parking in a safe commercial/residential district in Arlington runs for much more than that. You’re probably going to pay $1700. In Lancaster, try less than $600. I nearly choked when I heard that figure.

Of course, I would hate living in Amish country. Scrapple is a nostalgic breakfast item for me, but I really hate riding in traffic behind horse and buggies. Oh wait, I’m still going faster than I would in rush hour traffic on the Beltway.

Cow tipping isn’t fun for me, so the price I pay for living near the center of power in the free world is the high cost of housing.