Here is the thing. I kept putting off buying a coffee machine because I felt like I was wasting money. The cheapest coffee machines are around $20. Buying coffee and coffee filters would probably cost $20 for 50 cups of coffee. $40 for 50 cups of coffee now and then $20 for 50 cups of coffee in the future. What a smart idea, am I right?
But for some reason, the fact that I had to buy those two additional items and go through the hassle of packing my own coffee made me stop myself from buying a coffee machine, even though I was buying coffee for $5 per cup at Starbucks or a local coffee shop almost every day.
Do you guys see the problem here? The thing is I can be so irrational about my finances sometimes when I am doing a perfectly great job with other aspects of my finances. I noticed that it is challenging to do everything perfect with personal finances because there are so many different aspects to it. If one was to write a book about personal finance, then the book would have to be divided into so many different chapters. Therefore I decided that it was okay for me to take some time and make slow progress along the way. That it was okay for me to make mistakes like this as long as I learned from them and I made progress.
The good news is that I finally got a coffee machine! For $5! (I got it from a Black Friday deal and I am sending my rebate out today). I guess all the wait and my indecisiveness on which coffee machine to get kind of paid off, haha.
If you guys are struggling with your finances and too harsh on yourself for making financial mistakes, please remember that we were never taught this in school and that we are all just starting off. Cheers to all of us who are making improvements!
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Sunday, November 11, 2018
Emotional Spending
Hello, all.
Are you stressed? Worried? and/or tired? If you are, do you spend more money than usual? Because I do. And I have been stressed, tired, and slightly worried lately (although the worried part is pretty much gone), which means I have been spending or have been tempted to spend my $$$. Here are a few things I am doing to prevent myself from clicking that check-out button on Amazon.
1. De-stress.
The source of emotional spending is stress. So what do I do to prevent emotional spending? De-stress. It took a long time for me to realize what makes my stress go away. I used to think that doing big fun things was the key for de-stressing and it didn't work well since I would have to do something fun or eventful very often to de-stress. These days, one of the most effective (and cheapest and fastest) ways to de-stress for me is to take a hot shower. I believe that people build up tension in their bodies when they are stressed. So, for me, hot steamy water running down my body takes the tension out, helping my mind to relax. Not allowing stress to build up in my system is the key to preventing emotional spending.
2. Procrastinate.
This is the only place I fully celebrate procrastination! Welcome, my friends, to the world where procrastination turns into a reward, haha. Procrastination is something I have always felt guilty about, but isn't it amazing that I don't have to feel in such a way? Okay, getting back on track. So whenever I want to buy something, I take a break from the places where I can buy things. I close the websites I was shopping on and procrastinate buying those things until I really, REALLY need it. Procrastinating will help you realize if you really need something or not. So yay, procrastination for emotional spending!
3. Review your goals.
When nothing works, this is the last thing I do. I go back to the post where I talked about my financial goals and read them over. This reminds me of the things I need to do to reach my goals, the effort I need to put in to ensure that I can reach my financial independence.
Before I end this post, I want to make sure that you guys know that if you guys end up shopping emotionally, don't feel too guilty about it! It is important for us to remember and reflect on what we did and move on, making a mental note not to repeat it. It is OKAY for us to sometimes not be perfect!
Thank you so much for reading this post, I'm sorry I have been slacking off on this blog! I will make sure to post more things here. Meanwhile, please come check out my Youtube channel, breezytime. Cheers to all of us starting a new work week tomorrow and good luck!
Are you stressed? Worried? and/or tired? If you are, do you spend more money than usual? Because I do. And I have been stressed, tired, and slightly worried lately (although the worried part is pretty much gone), which means I have been spending or have been tempted to spend my $$$. Here are a few things I am doing to prevent myself from clicking that check-out button on Amazon.
1. De-stress.
The source of emotional spending is stress. So what do I do to prevent emotional spending? De-stress. It took a long time for me to realize what makes my stress go away. I used to think that doing big fun things was the key for de-stressing and it didn't work well since I would have to do something fun or eventful very often to de-stress. These days, one of the most effective (and cheapest and fastest) ways to de-stress for me is to take a hot shower. I believe that people build up tension in their bodies when they are stressed. So, for me, hot steamy water running down my body takes the tension out, helping my mind to relax. Not allowing stress to build up in my system is the key to preventing emotional spending.
2. Procrastinate.
This is the only place I fully celebrate procrastination! Welcome, my friends, to the world where procrastination turns into a reward, haha. Procrastination is something I have always felt guilty about, but isn't it amazing that I don't have to feel in such a way? Okay, getting back on track. So whenever I want to buy something, I take a break from the places where I can buy things. I close the websites I was shopping on and procrastinate buying those things until I really, REALLY need it. Procrastinating will help you realize if you really need something or not. So yay, procrastination for emotional spending!
3. Review your goals.
When nothing works, this is the last thing I do. I go back to the post where I talked about my financial goals and read them over. This reminds me of the things I need to do to reach my goals, the effort I need to put in to ensure that I can reach my financial independence.
Before I end this post, I want to make sure that you guys know that if you guys end up shopping emotionally, don't feel too guilty about it! It is important for us to remember and reflect on what we did and move on, making a mental note not to repeat it. It is OKAY for us to sometimes not be perfect!
Thank you so much for reading this post, I'm sorry I have been slacking off on this blog! I will make sure to post more things here. Meanwhile, please come check out my Youtube channel, breezytime. Cheers to all of us starting a new work week tomorrow and good luck!
Sunday, October 7, 2018
How I Cut Down on Eating Out
Hello, everyone! The first week of October has already passed. Isn't that crazy? I feel like I somehow fastforwarded to October from the beginning of January. It feels surreal to me that 2018 will be over in only 3 months. 3 MONTHS.
I want to manage my time better and improve my productivity on the things I desire to accomplish this year. One of them, as you guys all know, is my financial independence.
As you can see from my last month's expense history, I spent a lot of money on food for eating out so this week, I tried my best not to spend any money on eating out. I was successful! Except for one purchase of a Chik-fil-a spicy chicken burger (yum!).
How did I do it? Here are my tips.
1. Plan out what I'm going to eat for the next day. I know I sound like a broken record (meal prep, meal prep, meal prep). However, it does work. I made my own adjustment to this golden rule because I am the type of person who likes to eat what I want and have no idea what I would like to eat on the coming Thursday if it's Monday. Because of that, I made a rule where I plan out one day ahead. I can go grocery shopping more often than before so I will grab things I would like to eat.
2. Make cooking times as short as possible or as easy as possible. I find that I am willing to cook more when it's simple and easy. Now remember, I am just starting to "adult", so my cooking skills aren't honed to the point where I can minimize my cooking times to the max. Unlike pro adults out there, I take a long time to cook a lot of my favorite dishes. So I tend to stick to things I know how to cook quickly.
3. If all else fails, I go to prepped meals at grocery stores. Trader Joe's has a great selection of prepped meals at the cost of $5. Yes, it is usually more expensive than you buying food and cooking but it's a lot cheaper than eating out. Even McDonald's set menus cost around $9 these days. So it will be a win to get prepped meals (which are so much more delicious than McDonald's although I love their fries).
This past week was such a proud accomplishment of mine since I have been struggling so hard to cut down on eating out. I am planning to keep up with this for all of October and then improve on my cooking in November. Cheers!
I want to manage my time better and improve my productivity on the things I desire to accomplish this year. One of them, as you guys all know, is my financial independence.
As you can see from my last month's expense history, I spent a lot of money on food for eating out so this week, I tried my best not to spend any money on eating out. I was successful! Except for one purchase of a Chik-fil-a spicy chicken burger (yum!).
How did I do it? Here are my tips.
1. Plan out what I'm going to eat for the next day. I know I sound like a broken record (meal prep, meal prep, meal prep). However, it does work. I made my own adjustment to this golden rule because I am the type of person who likes to eat what I want and have no idea what I would like to eat on the coming Thursday if it's Monday. Because of that, I made a rule where I plan out one day ahead. I can go grocery shopping more often than before so I will grab things I would like to eat.
2. Make cooking times as short as possible or as easy as possible. I find that I am willing to cook more when it's simple and easy. Now remember, I am just starting to "adult", so my cooking skills aren't honed to the point where I can minimize my cooking times to the max. Unlike pro adults out there, I take a long time to cook a lot of my favorite dishes. So I tend to stick to things I know how to cook quickly.
3. If all else fails, I go to prepped meals at grocery stores. Trader Joe's has a great selection of prepped meals at the cost of $5. Yes, it is usually more expensive than you buying food and cooking but it's a lot cheaper than eating out. Even McDonald's set menus cost around $9 these days. So it will be a win to get prepped meals (which are so much more delicious than McDonald's although I love their fries).
This past week was such a proud accomplishment of mine since I have been struggling so hard to cut down on eating out. I am planning to keep up with this for all of October and then improve on my cooking in November. Cheers!
Friday, October 5, 2018
My Budget Planning
Hello, everyone! Here is my budget plan for this semester. I usually like to plan my finances according to my academic year since my loan money is the only source of income for now.
Here is my September expenses.
Yikes! I had many birthdays and I had to activate a few services for my new apartment so this month's expenses were a lot more than usual.
So here is my plan for the rest of the year:
I will cut down on coffee by making coffee at home. My boyfriend and I are doing better at not eating out anymore. Also, there won't be many birthdays that I have to attend.
My income plan will come together as planned. I must work hard from now on to make it work! I will be planning my income sources as I finish writing this. It will be challenging but fun.
Anyways, it is frustrating to be a student and not work at all. However, this will be a great time for me to improve my budgeting and avoid lifestyle inflation once I graduate in the future. Cheers to everyone who is struggling like me but aspiring to be a personal finance expert.
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Living Alone
After 6 years of living with someone who was not blood related to me, I was done with that. I know I eventually will have to go back to it once I move somewhere else more expensive than where I live. Which is going to be everywhere else.
When I decided to take a break from all the hassle with roommates, I came to the realization that living alone is costly. Which means that I will be making unhealthy financial decisions. In order to compensate for this, I looked for one of the cheapest places in a safe area. Then it was time for me to find and buy things I didn't have anymore because there was no roommate who had all those things. Microwaves, vacuums, and all the condiments for food.
For now, I'm putting off buying a lot of things since my amazing boyfriend is letting me borrow his cleaning supplies and donating to me his condiments. However, how have I not thought about this? Well, I did. But like I mentioned above, I needed a break from living with someone.
So here is a list of a few things that are costing me extra, whereas if I had been living with someone else, wouldn't be costing me too much.
-buying things you don't own: like the things I wrote above.
-paying for your utilities on your own: water, electricity, internet, etc.
-all the stuff you want to buy for decorating your place! (I've been going nuts with pinning home decorating items on Pinterest)
These things add up! I have to say this cost me an extra $300 compared to when I was living with other people. This will cost me an extra $3,600 per year with ONLY regular payments. But I am okay with this because I really needed my own space and I calculated this before making my decision. Sometimes we have to make some sacrifices. And I decided that I would take that cost for my personal space.
So if you guys are in the same situation as I was (being tired of roommates), please consider all these costs before you make any decisions! Because once you make a decision, there is no going back.
Cheers to going through a pros and cons list and making a decision like an adult (although mine was not the right financial decision but sometimes we all need to make sacrifices for our sanity).
When I decided to take a break from all the hassle with roommates, I came to the realization that living alone is costly. Which means that I will be making unhealthy financial decisions. In order to compensate for this, I looked for one of the cheapest places in a safe area. Then it was time for me to find and buy things I didn't have anymore because there was no roommate who had all those things. Microwaves, vacuums, and all the condiments for food.
For now, I'm putting off buying a lot of things since my amazing boyfriend is letting me borrow his cleaning supplies and donating to me his condiments. However, how have I not thought about this? Well, I did. But like I mentioned above, I needed a break from living with someone.
So here is a list of a few things that are costing me extra, whereas if I had been living with someone else, wouldn't be costing me too much.
-buying things you don't own: like the things I wrote above.
-paying for your utilities on your own: water, electricity, internet, etc.
-all the stuff you want to buy for decorating your place! (I've been going nuts with pinning home decorating items on Pinterest)
These things add up! I have to say this cost me an extra $300 compared to when I was living with other people. This will cost me an extra $3,600 per year with ONLY regular payments. But I am okay with this because I really needed my own space and I calculated this before making my decision. Sometimes we have to make some sacrifices. And I decided that I would take that cost for my personal space.
So if you guys are in the same situation as I was (being tired of roommates), please consider all these costs before you make any decisions! Because once you make a decision, there is no going back.
Cheers to going through a pros and cons list and making a decision like an adult (although mine was not the right financial decision but sometimes we all need to make sacrifices for our sanity).
Friday, August 17, 2018
Vacation, sort of
Hello, everyone.
I am back!
I apologize about my absence, I was traveling and needed some time to myself. Many things happened.
As I was in my motherland, I was able to not worry about my finance because my parents were sweet enough to give me allowance. It was so nice. However, I am back to that student loan life.
In the next week, I will be uploading my financial plan for the rest of this year. This will keep myself on track and let's see how I follow my own plans.
Anyways, thank you guys for reading this e-mail and let's get started again. Cheers!
I am back!
I apologize about my absence, I was traveling and needed some time to myself. Many things happened.
As I was in my motherland, I was able to not worry about my finance because my parents were sweet enough to give me allowance. It was so nice. However, I am back to that student loan life.
In the next week, I will be uploading my financial plan for the rest of this year. This will keep myself on track and let's see how I follow my own plans.
Anyways, thank you guys for reading this e-mail and let's get started again. Cheers!
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Apartment Hunting
Hello, all.
It's been awhile, because I am busy looking for a new place while also packing for an international trip.
Before I went apartment hunting, I set out with two things in mind.
1. Budget
I already had a budget set, and from there I started researching where I should go. My original budget for rent money was $500. It is very cheap considering the fact that I'm looking into a place by myself (aka live by myself). I would be okay with $50 more since I really wanted to make sure to have the next thing down, which is...
2. Neighborhood.
As a student living in a university based city, I have been around in some areas that I don't want to go back to. I've grown so tired of uncivilized neighbors that I decided to make this one of my priorities when looking into my next apartment. Also as a female living by herself, safety is something I cannot ignore.
As soon as I set these two things that I could not compromise on, I used apartmentfinder.com to narrow down my options to save my energy and gas. It was nice that I had lived in this city long enough to know which areas are good and which apartments are decent since it made my search so much easier and faster. I was able to find 2 apartment complexes that fell into my price range and satisfied my neighborhood standards.
I went to those places and checked them out. One thing I noticed is that apartment finding websites might have inaccurate information. One place I really loved actually ended up being $150 more expensive than what I found on the website.
Because the first apartment I saw was out of my price range, I went to the second one hoping that their price was the same as the one stated on the website. And it was. Apartments' rents differ depending on the location of the apartment unit and how renovated the unit is. There was one property which was fully renovated and still had the same rent rate as the older ones. Unfortunately, someone had already taken that unit. So I had the option of either paying $84 more for a renovated one vs. an old one. I was really tempted to take the renovated one because the old one looks... old. However, considering the fact that I will be at this apartment for at least 11 months, that would be a $924 difference. With $924, I can do so many things. So after a few very dreadful moments, I decided to go with the smarter choice: the cheaper option. I will work something out to hide those ugly cabinets in the old model and make good use of the money I save.
Once I move in after I come back from my trip, I will post about decorating my apartment with a budget. Since I hate having too much stuff (because it gets so difficult to move), I decided to limit myself to 11 new items to purchase for my new place.
Well, if you guys are also apartment hunting like me, hope you guys find a great place! Cheers to your new places. and new starts.
It's been awhile, because I am busy looking for a new place while also packing for an international trip.
Before I went apartment hunting, I set out with two things in mind.
1. Budget
I already had a budget set, and from there I started researching where I should go. My original budget for rent money was $500. It is very cheap considering the fact that I'm looking into a place by myself (aka live by myself). I would be okay with $50 more since I really wanted to make sure to have the next thing down, which is...
2. Neighborhood.
As a student living in a university based city, I have been around in some areas that I don't want to go back to. I've grown so tired of uncivilized neighbors that I decided to make this one of my priorities when looking into my next apartment. Also as a female living by herself, safety is something I cannot ignore.
As soon as I set these two things that I could not compromise on, I used apartmentfinder.com to narrow down my options to save my energy and gas. It was nice that I had lived in this city long enough to know which areas are good and which apartments are decent since it made my search so much easier and faster. I was able to find 2 apartment complexes that fell into my price range and satisfied my neighborhood standards.
I went to those places and checked them out. One thing I noticed is that apartment finding websites might have inaccurate information. One place I really loved actually ended up being $150 more expensive than what I found on the website.
Because the first apartment I saw was out of my price range, I went to the second one hoping that their price was the same as the one stated on the website. And it was. Apartments' rents differ depending on the location of the apartment unit and how renovated the unit is. There was one property which was fully renovated and still had the same rent rate as the older ones. Unfortunately, someone had already taken that unit. So I had the option of either paying $84 more for a renovated one vs. an old one. I was really tempted to take the renovated one because the old one looks... old. However, considering the fact that I will be at this apartment for at least 11 months, that would be a $924 difference. With $924, I can do so many things. So after a few very dreadful moments, I decided to go with the smarter choice: the cheaper option. I will work something out to hide those ugly cabinets in the old model and make good use of the money I save.
Once I move in after I come back from my trip, I will post about decorating my apartment with a budget. Since I hate having too much stuff (because it gets so difficult to move), I decided to limit myself to 11 new items to purchase for my new place.
Well, if you guys are also apartment hunting like me, hope you guys find a great place! Cheers to your new places. and new starts.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Making small changes
Hello, all. Hope today is going well for you guys.
I have made a few changes the past two days since I was in shock with the amount of loans I had. Also, I read an article about crazy things people did in order to pay off debt on makingsenseofcents.com (https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2018/05/strategies-to-pay-off-debt.html). After reading this article, I realized how little effort I was putting in towards my finances. I was inspired.
One thing I started doing was to reduce the number of times I was going out to cafes for my study sessions. My friend and I started going to different coffee shops every weekday in order to work on our projects ever since summer started. However, I decided that I have enough Korean instant coffee sticks at home, so I cleaned out my table to have my own work space. I'm virtually saving around $5 everyday (not including the lunch money I would spend since we would stay out for the entire day).
Another thing was actively searching and reading successful and established financial blogs. Somehow, I did not know where to start looking for these blogs, so I started listening to a podcast called Optimal Finance Daily. This is a podcast that narrates successful financial bloggers' posts everyday from Monday to Friday. By listening to this, I was able to not only learn about cool personal financial facts but also discovered many financial bloggers that were out there. So now, I'm in the process of reading their posts to learn about other ways to increase my income.
Well, that's it for today. I feel like this post is mostly a report on what I've been doing today (like a diary) but the real reason for this blog is to track down my personal finances so that I can be more comfortable with these types of posts from now on. Cheers to me who's always trying to improve and you guys who are working hard to improve your financial situations!
I have made a few changes the past two days since I was in shock with the amount of loans I had. Also, I read an article about crazy things people did in order to pay off debt on makingsenseofcents.com (https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2018/05/strategies-to-pay-off-debt.html). After reading this article, I realized how little effort I was putting in towards my finances. I was inspired.
One thing I started doing was to reduce the number of times I was going out to cafes for my study sessions. My friend and I started going to different coffee shops every weekday in order to work on our projects ever since summer started. However, I decided that I have enough Korean instant coffee sticks at home, so I cleaned out my table to have my own work space. I'm virtually saving around $5 everyday (not including the lunch money I would spend since we would stay out for the entire day).
Another thing was actively searching and reading successful and established financial blogs. Somehow, I did not know where to start looking for these blogs, so I started listening to a podcast called Optimal Finance Daily. This is a podcast that narrates successful financial bloggers' posts everyday from Monday to Friday. By listening to this, I was able to not only learn about cool personal financial facts but also discovered many financial bloggers that were out there. So now, I'm in the process of reading their posts to learn about other ways to increase my income.
Well, that's it for today. I feel like this post is mostly a report on what I've been doing today (like a diary) but the real reason for this blog is to track down my personal finances so that I can be more comfortable with these types of posts from now on. Cheers to me who's always trying to improve and you guys who are working hard to improve your financial situations!
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Student Loan
So... I finally signed into my fedloan servicing account. HAHAHA. Joke's on me, talking about personal finance when I didn't even know how much I owe.
Right now, I currently have an auto loan and student loans. Since I am responsible for making payments for my car at the moment, I am well aware of my situation with that. However, for my student loans, I have been putting them off because I was too scared to know. I don't know what it was back then (even a few weeks ago), and a part of me didn't want to check because I felt like I would be too stressed out about something that I can't pay off at the moment. But recently, something changed. I decided that if I'm going to take my personal finances seriously, that I need to face the facts, and I did.
As of right now, my student loan is $116,625.85😵 . And I have one more year to go till I graduate! OH HO HO. Now that I checked my debt amount, I'm surprised about how not-stressed out I am about this. I'm in shock, yes, but not stressed out.
This puts everything in a different perspective. I've been slacking off lately with my money and this number really makes me think about what situation I'm in and how much effort I need to put in. In one of the posts, I mentioned that my goal was to pay my student loans off by 2021.
Okay, I CAN DO THIS. I believe in myself. I have 4 years to go now, and I will make this work. I'm going to brainstorm tonight.
Right now, I currently have an auto loan and student loans. Since I am responsible for making payments for my car at the moment, I am well aware of my situation with that. However, for my student loans, I have been putting them off because I was too scared to know. I don't know what it was back then (even a few weeks ago), and a part of me didn't want to check because I felt like I would be too stressed out about something that I can't pay off at the moment. But recently, something changed. I decided that if I'm going to take my personal finances seriously, that I need to face the facts, and I did.
As of right now, my student loan is $116,625.85😵 . And I have one more year to go till I graduate! OH HO HO. Now that I checked my debt amount, I'm surprised about how not-stressed out I am about this. I'm in shock, yes, but not stressed out.
This puts everything in a different perspective. I've been slacking off lately with my money and this number really makes me think about what situation I'm in and how much effort I need to put in. In one of the posts, I mentioned that my goal was to pay my student loans off by 2021.
Okay, I CAN DO THIS. I believe in myself. I have 4 years to go now, and I will make this work. I'm going to brainstorm tonight.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
More Financially Conscious
I slipped with my receipt journal. However, after doing it for a month, I became more aware of my financial situation. I noticed things that I would've missed before and I put more effort into reducing the unnecessary expenses with the things I now notice. So what are they?
1. Eating out.
Don't get me wrong, I still eat out a lot. However, my choice of places I go to or the selection of the dish that I order is totally different. If I am eating out, I go to places where I wouldn't use over $8 most of the time. If I end up going to a restaurant with more expensive dishes, then I try to go for an appetizer (since my portion is small) or pick something that is on the cheaper side.
2. Coffee.
Once again, I still go to coffee shops most days out of the week since my apartment is packed with moving boxes (temporarilyy staying here) and I can't focus in this mess. So I go to coffee shops to get my daily work done. This means $$$ on my drinks. So what I started doing is to get drip coffee, which tends to be the cheapest drink at a cafe. I love the sweet lattes, which makes the whole converting process a bit challenging, but regular coffee is better for my health anyways.
3. Clearance section.
Whenever I go grocery shopping or buy necessities, I go to the clearance section first to check if they have the items that I need. Now, this only works when I write down a list of things that I need before going to stores. Otherwise, I will be going through the section and grabbing many things I don't need.
4. Clothes.
Since I'm moving, I went through all my clothes and piled up the clothing items that I don't wear anymore. Then I took them to a second hand clothing store and sold whatever I could and donated the rest. Another thing I do is to go to an actual retail store to buy clothes and check out the clearance section. As you guys know, retail stores are struggling with sales so they have a lot more deals going on and they have different sales than their online stores. Sometimes, the online stores have cheaper deals (which is why I always check before I buy anything), but I usually find cheaper things at an actual store.
I still have a lot of work to do for fixing my financial habits but at this point, I decided that it will be a slow working process. Thank you guys for reading this post and cheers to your efforts for your financial goals.
1. Eating out.
Don't get me wrong, I still eat out a lot. However, my choice of places I go to or the selection of the dish that I order is totally different. If I am eating out, I go to places where I wouldn't use over $8 most of the time. If I end up going to a restaurant with more expensive dishes, then I try to go for an appetizer (since my portion is small) or pick something that is on the cheaper side.
2. Coffee.
Once again, I still go to coffee shops most days out of the week since my apartment is packed with moving boxes (temporarilyy staying here) and I can't focus in this mess. So I go to coffee shops to get my daily work done. This means $$$ on my drinks. So what I started doing is to get drip coffee, which tends to be the cheapest drink at a cafe. I love the sweet lattes, which makes the whole converting process a bit challenging, but regular coffee is better for my health anyways.
3. Clearance section.
Whenever I go grocery shopping or buy necessities, I go to the clearance section first to check if they have the items that I need. Now, this only works when I write down a list of things that I need before going to stores. Otherwise, I will be going through the section and grabbing many things I don't need.
4. Clothes.
Since I'm moving, I went through all my clothes and piled up the clothing items that I don't wear anymore. Then I took them to a second hand clothing store and sold whatever I could and donated the rest. Another thing I do is to go to an actual retail store to buy clothes and check out the clearance section. As you guys know, retail stores are struggling with sales so they have a lot more deals going on and they have different sales than their online stores. Sometimes, the online stores have cheaper deals (which is why I always check before I buy anything), but I usually find cheaper things at an actual store.
I still have a lot of work to do for fixing my financial habits but at this point, I decided that it will be a slow working process. Thank you guys for reading this post and cheers to your efforts for your financial goals.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
My Youtube Channel
Hello, all.
I have been preparing a Youtube channel for the past 6 months and it's finally here!!! (*celebratory dancing*). I honestly dreamed about starting my own Youtube channel for the past 10 years. However, I never had the guts to do it. I made excuses here and there and postponed it. But I told myself that that's it. That I can't make excuses anymore. So here is the video that I took about 2 months to make: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKj2Qm2o0zs
Hope you guys like my first video ever. I am going to continue with my blog while I post two videos per week on my channel so please come around and explore.
Thank you and cheers!
Instagram: breezychoice1
Youtube: breezychoice
I have been preparing a Youtube channel for the past 6 months and it's finally here!!! (*celebratory dancing*). I honestly dreamed about starting my own Youtube channel for the past 10 years. However, I never had the guts to do it. I made excuses here and there and postponed it. But I told myself that that's it. That I can't make excuses anymore. So here is the video that I took about 2 months to make: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKj2Qm2o0zs
Hope you guys like my first video ever. I am going to continue with my blog while I post two videos per week on my channel so please come around and explore.
Thank you and cheers!
Instagram: breezychoice1
Youtube: breezychoice
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Hobbies
I find my hobbies somewhat costly. For my mental health, I decided to start having hobbies. Although I enjoy looking at Instagram or browsing through Pinterest and watching many Youtube videos, I don't think those things count as hobbies, simply because I don't get much out of it and don't feel accomplished. So I decided to get creative and start my blog, draw, paint, and read. But once I started doing these things, I realized that my hobbies can be expensive and that I need to find a balance between reaching my financial goals while enjoying my hobbies. So here are a few things I do to keep both my wallet and my sanity happy.
1. Drawing: use my pens, pencils, and a blank notebook. There is no need to buy expensive art pens or pencils or nice sketch books. Yes, it would be nice if I had those fancy pens with a fine point, but realistically, am I gonna use it everyday? Nope. Luckily, my friend gave me a nice drawing notebook for my birthday. So I have that going for me. But unless I become a professional drawer?? (haha) or unless I draw every day, I don't think I will purchase anything expensive for this hobby.
2. Painting: unfortunately, this is something I have been longing to do but was not able to make any progress on. Painting is expensive. I need an easel (I mean I could go without it but it would be annoying to move my painting around every time I have to use my desk for studying), canvas or nicer papers to paint, brushes, and actual paint. I would really really really love to paint and create a piece of art for my apartment but I have to delay this since I don't want to buy paint and make it go to waste after using it once or twice.
3. Blogging: this does not have any additional costs so I am happy with this hobby.
4. Reading: I already have so many books that I bought and never finished reading so I am not worrying about buying new books at the moment. But what I try to do is to compare the prices for paper books vs. kindle versions and go with the one that is a bit cheaper.
When I first started posting on this blog actively (last month), I felt a bit sad that I was avoiding doing certain things because it was costing me too much money. For example, going out with my friends or grabbing food with them. And the same thing happened when it came to my hobbies. To be honest, I never had the time to enjoy my hobbies but now that I have some off time, I am enjoying doing the things I like to do. So what do you guys enjoy doing in your free time? What are you doing to find a balance between your hobbies and your finances? Please let me know and cheers to having a balanced life!
1. Drawing: use my pens, pencils, and a blank notebook. There is no need to buy expensive art pens or pencils or nice sketch books. Yes, it would be nice if I had those fancy pens with a fine point, but realistically, am I gonna use it everyday? Nope. Luckily, my friend gave me a nice drawing notebook for my birthday. So I have that going for me. But unless I become a professional drawer?? (haha) or unless I draw every day, I don't think I will purchase anything expensive for this hobby.
2. Painting: unfortunately, this is something I have been longing to do but was not able to make any progress on. Painting is expensive. I need an easel (I mean I could go without it but it would be annoying to move my painting around every time I have to use my desk for studying), canvas or nicer papers to paint, brushes, and actual paint. I would really really really love to paint and create a piece of art for my apartment but I have to delay this since I don't want to buy paint and make it go to waste after using it once or twice.
3. Blogging: this does not have any additional costs so I am happy with this hobby.
4. Reading: I already have so many books that I bought and never finished reading so I am not worrying about buying new books at the moment. But what I try to do is to compare the prices for paper books vs. kindle versions and go with the one that is a bit cheaper.
When I first started posting on this blog actively (last month), I felt a bit sad that I was avoiding doing certain things because it was costing me too much money. For example, going out with my friends or grabbing food with them. And the same thing happened when it came to my hobbies. To be honest, I never had the time to enjoy my hobbies but now that I have some off time, I am enjoying doing the things I like to do. So what do you guys enjoy doing in your free time? What are you doing to find a balance between your hobbies and your finances? Please let me know and cheers to having a balanced life!
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Moving with Little Money
School's over and the moving season has officially started for those in college/universities/etc. I was lucky enough to not have to move for the past 3 years but now my time's up. I will be out of the country before my lease ends so I am in the process of moving my stuff into my friend's apartment.
Here are a few things I am doing to save money on moving:
1. Figure out your moving car situation. If you own a truck/minivan, that's amazing. Borrow your friend's car and move your stuff and treat your friend out. Or, if you have a friend who is also moving, then you guys can rent a truck together and split the cost. Even if it's only $20 to rent a u-haul, once you add up all the miles, insurance, and gas, they add up. So consider asking a friend before you move.
2. Boxes. I know it sounds very weird, but I usually ask retail stores for boxes. I used to work at one, so I know that they have many boxes stacked up somewhere waiting to be thrown out. Another trick I do is to cut amazon shipping boxes cleanly and save them in storage so that I can use them in the future. Also, don't throw away your boxes just because you're done moving, because from my experience of frequent moving, you will regret throwing them away. This is good for both the environment and your wallet.
3. Lock up your car/truck/minivan. I have heard of my friends' getting stolen when they left the truck open. Now if you are in a good neighborhood, this will not be a problem but if you are not, then it would be best to secure the car.
Another piece of advice I have: if you have the option, move things slowly. This does not particularly help with the financial aspect of moving, but this will definitely save you energy and make the moving process easier. Since I am not limited to a timeline, I am moving all of my stuff over a week so I can do little by little and not get burnt out in the desert.
Well, once I'm done with moving and start apartment hunting, I will update posts on moving and apartment hunting. If you are moving, hope you guys don't sweat too much. Cheers!
Here are a few things I am doing to save money on moving:
1. Figure out your moving car situation. If you own a truck/minivan, that's amazing. Borrow your friend's car and move your stuff and treat your friend out. Or, if you have a friend who is also moving, then you guys can rent a truck together and split the cost. Even if it's only $20 to rent a u-haul, once you add up all the miles, insurance, and gas, they add up. So consider asking a friend before you move.
2. Boxes. I know it sounds very weird, but I usually ask retail stores for boxes. I used to work at one, so I know that they have many boxes stacked up somewhere waiting to be thrown out. Another trick I do is to cut amazon shipping boxes cleanly and save them in storage so that I can use them in the future. Also, don't throw away your boxes just because you're done moving, because from my experience of frequent moving, you will regret throwing them away. This is good for both the environment and your wallet.
3. Lock up your car/truck/minivan. I have heard of my friends' getting stolen when they left the truck open. Now if you are in a good neighborhood, this will not be a problem but if you are not, then it would be best to secure the car.
Another piece of advice I have: if you have the option, move things slowly. This does not particularly help with the financial aspect of moving, but this will definitely save you energy and make the moving process easier. Since I am not limited to a timeline, I am moving all of my stuff over a week so I can do little by little and not get burnt out in the desert.
Well, once I'm done with moving and start apartment hunting, I will update posts on moving and apartment hunting. If you are moving, hope you guys don't sweat too much. Cheers!
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
My Financial Goals
So what exactly are my financial goals? I can't believe I've never talked about my goals on here when I started this blog.
Here are my long term goals:
1. Retire by 2027 or have the freedom of retiring in 2027 (I might choose not to).
2. Pay off my student loans by 2021.
3. Buy a condo/house by 2023.
Here are my short term goals:
1. Have a side income source by 2019.
-Be creative and use my creativity. I can use my hobby and see if I can sell its products online. I will continue to do my blog and start a Youtube channel about my passion on my financial independence.
2. Pay my auto loan off by 2019.
-$3,000 is left in my auto loan. I am using my auto loan pay off worksheet to recalculate and make sure to finish it off so that I won't have to worry about it by the time I graduate.
3. Save $1,000 and have an emergency fund of $1,000 by the end of 2018.
-Start saving $25 every week and increase the amount I am saving each month.
I added details on the short term goals so that I really follow my steps to reach these goals. Now that I actually wrote them out, I will revisit these goals in August and re-evaluate. It will be a fun and challenging journey and I am looking forward to see how far I can go. Why don't you guys write what your financial goals are so we can work towards them together. Cheers to our financial independence!
Here are my long term goals:
1. Retire by 2027 or have the freedom of retiring in 2027 (I might choose not to).
2. Pay off my student loans by 2021.
3. Buy a condo/house by 2023.
Here are my short term goals:
1. Have a side income source by 2019.
-Be creative and use my creativity. I can use my hobby and see if I can sell its products online. I will continue to do my blog and start a Youtube channel about my passion on my financial independence.
2. Pay my auto loan off by 2019.
-$3,000 is left in my auto loan. I am using my auto loan pay off worksheet to recalculate and make sure to finish it off so that I won't have to worry about it by the time I graduate.
3. Save $1,000 and have an emergency fund of $1,000 by the end of 2018.
-Start saving $25 every week and increase the amount I am saving each month.
I added details on the short term goals so that I really follow my steps to reach these goals. Now that I actually wrote them out, I will revisit these goals in August and re-evaluate. It will be a fun and challenging journey and I am looking forward to see how far I can go. Why don't you guys write what your financial goals are so we can work towards them together. Cheers to our financial independence!
Monday, May 14, 2018
Celebrating with Little Money
Graduations, birthdays, engagement parties, weddings, anniversary, etc. You name it. We have so many things to celebrate in life (why not, because we all deserve to celebrate our lives) and it is not cheap to do so. Especially, as a grad student, it gets overwhelming since I'm not making any money as some of my friends are.
So here are things I've learned to do along the way to celebrate things while not overspending.
1. Party at home. If you are the one who is being celebrated, have a party at your own place. I had a whitecoat ceremony and usually parents or family pay for a meal afterwards. Since I had no family at this ceremony, I felt pressured to treat my friends out to lunch. However, they all knew that I have a tight budget so they were nice enough to pay for their own meals. For my graduation, I would like to plan a party at my place so I can treat my friends. If it is too much to prepare all the food by yourself, then ask your friends to bring a food item, like in a potluck.
2. Limit your alcohol consumption. I don't usually drink but I did recently because I wanted to celebrate for myself and for others. And it adds up quickly. I took advantage of happy hour but it still was a bit pricy for me. So what I am going to do from now on is to limit myself to one drink per week whenever I go out (which means a lot of pre-gaming).
3. Buying a gift with your friends. Gifts can be expensive and when you want to buy a nice gift, it gets overwhelming to pay for it by yourself (at least for me). So many times, I try to ask a friend if he or she wants to buy a gift together. It is going to be a nicer gift than what I can afford by myself with less money. So the next time you buy something, ask a friend and buy a gift together!
4. Be honest. If you are struggling and can't afford to do something, then be honest. There are many times when my friend and I skipped Christmas presents because we were both too broke or one of us was too poor. If your friend gets upset at the fact that you have to buckle down and cut some expenses, then it may be a good time to re-evaluate your relationship with them.
So, how's everyone celebrating? I hope you guys are celebrating on a budget so we can reach our goals. Cheers!
So here are things I've learned to do along the way to celebrate things while not overspending.
1. Party at home. If you are the one who is being celebrated, have a party at your own place. I had a whitecoat ceremony and usually parents or family pay for a meal afterwards. Since I had no family at this ceremony, I felt pressured to treat my friends out to lunch. However, they all knew that I have a tight budget so they were nice enough to pay for their own meals. For my graduation, I would like to plan a party at my place so I can treat my friends. If it is too much to prepare all the food by yourself, then ask your friends to bring a food item, like in a potluck.
2. Limit your alcohol consumption. I don't usually drink but I did recently because I wanted to celebrate for myself and for others. And it adds up quickly. I took advantage of happy hour but it still was a bit pricy for me. So what I am going to do from now on is to limit myself to one drink per week whenever I go out (which means a lot of pre-gaming).
3. Buying a gift with your friends. Gifts can be expensive and when you want to buy a nice gift, it gets overwhelming to pay for it by yourself (at least for me). So many times, I try to ask a friend if he or she wants to buy a gift together. It is going to be a nicer gift than what I can afford by myself with less money. So the next time you buy something, ask a friend and buy a gift together!
4. Be honest. If you are struggling and can't afford to do something, then be honest. There are many times when my friend and I skipped Christmas presents because we were both too broke or one of us was too poor. If your friend gets upset at the fact that you have to buckle down and cut some expenses, then it may be a good time to re-evaluate your relationship with them.
So, how's everyone celebrating? I hope you guys are celebrating on a budget so we can reach our goals. Cheers!
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Tax Day (give me my money back!)
It's been only 3 years since I started doing my own tax. I am not even sure how I did my first one, I don't even know where the report is. I always use a guidance program for tax report, particularly turbotax simply because that was the only program I knew about.
After the last year's tax report, I'm starting to realize the importance of keeping all my records with me, specifically my receipts. It has been difficult for me to estimate how much I spent for medical and educational purposes. Since it has been only recent that I started keeping track of my expenses, I had to travel back to 2017 to realize where I spent my money on.
First, I called several places, especially medical offices for the record of payments. It was somewhat difficult to track things down because I have been to so many different medical offices last year but it was doable (I'm so glad that I'm doing my receipt journal since I need to keep track of things). I went to pharmacy and showed my ID to get the record of last year's medications and payments. I called my insurance to get a report of last year's records.
Then, all the forms. I put all the forms together in a file organizer and have them together so I have an access to the forms I need for tax report.
The report. I would say that turbotax made it easy for me to follow the steps (although I'm not sure if I'm doing it right). So it took me about 3 hours to finish the report. I did the PLUS option since I wanted to be able to access my report in the future. I also noticed that if you use Ebates and haven't started using any tax report services, you should look into other options since they offer a pretty good return rate.
Anyways, one of the things I will definitely do in the future is to hire an accountant to check my taxes. I was listening to a podcast episode called 'How to Optimize Your Taxes and Make the System Work for You with Shane Mason' from Journey to Launch by Jamila Souffrant. Although the episode itself was not that relevant to my tax situation, but it was still nice to learn more about taxes and that there are actually good accountants out there (I had a horrible experience with my mother's tax accountant in the past). So when I actually get to the point where I can afford a personal accountant, I would like to learn about more about taxes and how shitty of a job I've been doing with my taxes, haha.
So this year's tax season is over for all of us and I'm glad it is. I will not look forward to doing it again next year but I am excited about improvements I will make next year and learning about taxes along the way. Cheers to those of you guys who waited till the last day to do the taxes just like me and we will do a better job next year!
After the last year's tax report, I'm starting to realize the importance of keeping all my records with me, specifically my receipts. It has been difficult for me to estimate how much I spent for medical and educational purposes. Since it has been only recent that I started keeping track of my expenses, I had to travel back to 2017 to realize where I spent my money on.
First, I called several places, especially medical offices for the record of payments. It was somewhat difficult to track things down because I have been to so many different medical offices last year but it was doable (I'm so glad that I'm doing my receipt journal since I need to keep track of things). I went to pharmacy and showed my ID to get the record of last year's medications and payments. I called my insurance to get a report of last year's records.
Then, all the forms. I put all the forms together in a file organizer and have them together so I have an access to the forms I need for tax report.
The report. I would say that turbotax made it easy for me to follow the steps (although I'm not sure if I'm doing it right). So it took me about 3 hours to finish the report. I did the PLUS option since I wanted to be able to access my report in the future. I also noticed that if you use Ebates and haven't started using any tax report services, you should look into other options since they offer a pretty good return rate.
Anyways, one of the things I will definitely do in the future is to hire an accountant to check my taxes. I was listening to a podcast episode called 'How to Optimize Your Taxes and Make the System Work for You with Shane Mason' from Journey to Launch by Jamila Souffrant. Although the episode itself was not that relevant to my tax situation, but it was still nice to learn more about taxes and that there are actually good accountants out there (I had a horrible experience with my mother's tax accountant in the past). So when I actually get to the point where I can afford a personal accountant, I would like to learn about more about taxes and how shitty of a job I've been doing with my taxes, haha.
So this year's tax season is over for all of us and I'm glad it is. I will not look forward to doing it again next year but I am excited about improvements I will make next year and learning about taxes along the way. Cheers to those of you guys who waited till the last day to do the taxes just like me and we will do a better job next year!
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Trapped
But it's okay. It's okay that I spent some time and money with my friends before we go into the real world. It's okay that I didn't feel like listening to educational daily Podcasts for my personal finance. It's okay that I stopped recording my finance journey on this blog. It's okay.
As long as I get back on track.
One of the things I have a tendency of doing is being too harsh on myself when I make a mistake and giving something up altogether. So this time, I will not do that. I will give myself a break so I can get back on my path to my financial independence.
Cheers to those of you guys who are struggling like me and we will get there.
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Unsubscribing from All Those Shopping E-mails
Promotional e-mails. I don't really get influenced by them since I don't check my other e-mail too often (If these e-mails were linked to my daily e-mail, I probably would spend a lot more money on online shopping). But it is quite annoying to see them pile up in my e-mail and make the unread e-mail count to be over 1,000 (my fault too cause I never delete them). I already went though a cycle of unsubscribing to these e-mails over one year ago and it was time for me to do it again. Some of them were never unsubscribed to although I had requested it (or they would start sending e-mails after a month) and I found that I had signed up to numerous online shopping websites within the past year (tsk, tsk...).
Anyways, it is quite a simple process to unsubscribe from all these shopping websites. The only hindrance is that, it's very time-consuming to go through all of them. Usually, if you click on the e-mail and scroll all the way down to the bottom, you will see a tiny, a very tiny, word "unsubscribe". Here are some examples:
No offense to Colourpop and LuLu's (I love their websites and products), but do you guys see how tiny the unsubscribe buttons are? That's usually the case. Once you click on them, some websites automatically unsubscribe you and some websites require you to take a few extra steps to be unsubscribed. Some of the websites are confusing, so make sure to read carefully before selecting unsubscribe. Some of them really don't want you to be free from their bombarding e-mails.
It took me a good 30 minutes to unsubscribe from all of them and I shall be free from them (for awhile). This will not only clear up your e-mail but also help you reduce the amount of time spent on shopping websites (aka less shopping).
Cheers to saving time and money!
E-mail: bchoisg1@gmail.com
Youtube: BreezyChoice
Instagram: breezychoice1
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Vacation Time! Cheap Flights
Hello, everyone. Summer break is coming up for you students and some of you guys are probably planning a trip or trips to go on during break. Well, for me, rather than a vacation, I have a rotation in South Korea so I will be going there this summer.
I actively started looking for a plane ticket 3 weeks ago although the rotation dates were decided a long time ago. My mom has been bothering me about this for awhile but I didn't buy the tickets until today. There are two reasons for this.
First, I am lazy, haha. I'm lazy, especially concerning things that my parents bother me about. It's just something about parents, when my parents tell me to do something, then I don't wanna do it. They have gotten better about bothering me and trust me to do my own thing as I got older, but they still worry.
Second, I learned that flights are at their cheapest 3 months before your flight date. I was planning to leave either in May or June so I waited until last month to search for my tickets.
While I was looking for my tickets, I selected certain days out of the week to book my flights. This is another thing I learned from a Business Insider video on how to get cheap flights. I selected Wednesday for departing and Friday for returning. Usually, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the cheapest days to get plane tickets. The next are Thursdays and Saturdays. I had to choose Friday for my return date because I had no choice. I also found an article which talks about what dates are the cheapest to fly on (this article also has extra information).
Another thing I did for finding cheap plane tickets was to use Google flights. This is actually really neat. It makes my search so simple yet effective. You search for a flight and a really cool function they have is "track prices". If you were looking at certain flight tickets and want to keep an eye on the price, you simply click on "track prices" and they automatically send you an e-mail every time there is a price change. Actually, when I decided to purchase my tickets, the price went up by $300 right after I had logged in a few days prior. So I went to my e-mail and checked how price changes had been, and I knew that they would lower the price in a few days (I was right, luckily). I kept checking my e-mails and when I saw that there was a price change, I went ahead and purchased my tickets. I saved $300, thanks to Google flights.
Although this does not apply to me yet since I haven't accumulated enough mileage points, I highly recommend that you guys try to use one airline for rewards. Or you can use multiple airlines, but make sure that they are partners so you can use your rewards points. I had to fly long flights ever since I was young and my parents would always look for the cheapest prices instead of saving my miles by sticking with one airline or its partner airlines (I would have so many points saved up if it wasn't for this). So please be smart!
Anyways, hope you guys are excited to plan fun trips over the summer. Although I'm traveling to do some schoolwork, I'm grateful that I will have an opportunity to travel to South Korea. Cheers!
E-mail: bchoisg1@gmail.com
Youtube: BreezyChoice
Instagram: breezychoice1
Friday, April 6, 2018
Financial Mistakes I'm Making
As much as I try to improve my personal finance, I still make so many mistakes.
Here are a few:
1. Savings account: remember how I did a research on savings accounts? I still haven't made my savings account. Here is my thought process. I currently don't work and don't have direct deposits set up to my checking account. The bank I'm trying to open the savings account with has a deal where they give you $300 for opening up a savings account if you have a direct deposit set up with them. So that's why I didn't make one because at the time, I was debating if I should go back to my part time job or not. But I decided not to (or should I????). Then I got lazy and here I am, still not saving. I shall do this tomorrow.
2. Tax report: I have been planning to do my tax report way ahead of time but I only started yesterday. I'm usually not this bad with my tax report but I am being lazy this year! I don't know what it is... I guess I wanted to research more about taxes before I started doing mine to ensure I'm not making any mistakes on mine, but now that I kinda studied (aka listening to one-hour-long podcasts about taxes), I don't think I know anything more about my taxes (the podcast episode didn't talk much about filing tax reports as a student). I guess I will finish this this week too.
3. Coffee, tea, and other beverages: ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!! This is the point I struggle the most with. I hate using tumblers because it's hard to see if they are clean or not, it's hard to clean them, I hate when they stain and when they smell, I hate carrying them around, and even if I finish everything in there and put it in my backpack, the chance of it spilling something in my backpack is high....The list goes on! I actually tried to carry a mug around but not having a lid became a problem in my car. Some day, I will find THE perfect tumbler, but until then, I'm going to struggle with this. Another thing is that my boyfriend and I enjoy spending time at cafes. We love getting a cup of coffee at a quiet cafe we go to and spend time together studying. I'm going to try to limit this to 3 times a week so we don't spend much money on this anymore.
4. Receipts: I must admit, I hate looking at my bank account especially when I'm not making any money and am only spending it. This is why I haven't organized my receipts every day. I usually wait 3-4 days and then do them all. I'm kind of getting better at checking my bank account balance though...
Excuses, excuses, excuses. But hey, I started somewhere and I'm aware of my mistakes. So now, the next step is to improve myself. I can do it. What are some of the financial mistakes you make everyday and how are you trying to improve them? Let me know, please, so I can learn from you guys. Anyways, cheers to all of you guys who are working your asses off to achieve your financial goals and we can do this!
Email: bchoisg1@gmail.com
Youtube: BreezyChoice
Instagram: breezychoice1
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Scholarships To Do List
Hello, I'm back again with a scholarship post. I realized that the last worksheet I posted for scholarship searching was not enough for those of you guys who are actually applying for them. So, I made another worksheet where you can write down the names, websites, deadlines, and things to prepare for for scholarships, which will help you keep track of what to do. All my scholarship applications were due on April 1st so I hope this is not too late for you guys!
Also, here are some tips I have for scholarship applications:
1. When searching, look at the criteria. You might be eligible or not depending on your qualifications. There is no need to waste your time on the ones that you don't qualify for.
2. If it asks for a letter of recommendation, please ask your teachers, advisors, employer, or whoever you are going to ask ahead of time. I usually like asking 2 months before the deadline, and then remind them 1 month before, 1 week before, and 1 day before (try not to do too many times cause they can get irritated). They are doing this favor for you by taking a chunk out of their own time, so it is nice to give them enough time to prepare the letter for you (I also always get a thank you gift afterwards).
3. Check your grammar. I'm going to be honest, I'm not so great at this either. Because I know this, I always ask someone to double check for me. I mean, out of all these people who are asking for money, would you want to give it to someone who cares enough to check over their grammar or someone who doesn't?
4. Be creative with your writing style! This is not your traditional English class where you have to follow a certain style. I usually find that integrating pathos into my scholarship applications helped me get them. Pathos is using emotion as a way to connect to your audience. I feel the most connected to content creators when I can understand their emotions, so I figured it would work well for other things as well.
I know my tips were pretty basic and kind of common sense but I hope they help you guys. Anyways cheers to free money for your expensive education and to stepping up our game!
E-mail: bchoisg1@gmail.com
Youtube: BreezyChoice
Instagram: breezychoice1
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
E-mails, E-mails, E-mails: How to Have a Good E-mail Habit
Ah. E-mails. They are such a crucial part of my student/work life but I hate them. They make my life more convenient but I hate them. They save millions of trees and enable fast communication around the world, but, I HATE THEM.
(Why is good e-mail etiquette so crucial? As you probably have already heard, it's considered a communication skill. Before, there used to be a stack of paper on your desk for any sort of communication at work. But now, it's all about e-mails. Any real working adult or professional has mastered this essential skill (well, maybe not everyone, because I still have coworkers not being responsive everywhere and even at my school) or is expected to master this before they get hired.)
My e-mail life started in my undergraduate school years. I was a preceptor for a class with a professor with high standards. One of the things she emphasized was e-mail etiquette. So whenever I received an e-mail from her, I was rushing to reply to her as soon as possible. This was not that horrible. I actually liked this because I learned how to communicate via e-mails and to be responsive. However, when I got to my graduate program, I started getting overwhelmed. In undergrad, I only had to worry about e-mailing one person. But when I got more officer positions in student organizations in graduate school, the number of e-mails I was reading everyday increased exponentially.
The first two years, I was not stressed out too much. When I started getting sick, that's when the domino effect started. I wasn't able to carry out basic daily tasks (such as showering), so naturally, e-mails became the last thing on my mind. Not off my mind, though. I would be in too much pain to worry about it and then when I was feeling better here and there, they became heavy weights on my mind. I kept thinking about how I should be replying to these individuals but wasn't, although a few minutes on my phone would have sufficed. When I got better, it was challenging to get my good e-mail habit back. I took a few days to reply to things, I didn't reply to certain e-mails, and I wasn't checking e-mails at all some days.
What did I do to get back my old good habit of e-mailing? Here are some tips:
1. Read them at certain times of the day.
For example, I designated 9AM, 11AM, 3PM, and 6PM to be reading e-mail times. One thing I noticed is that I got distracted by e-mails when I heard a notification sound or mark indicating that I got a new e-mail. I would immediately stop everything I was doing, go on to my e-mail, and start doing what the e-mail asks me for. This eventually made everything take a longer time. So I decided that I'm not going to check my e-mails outside of these times to improve my productivity. I'm trying to see if 9AM is necessary or not because I don't like starting my day with e-mails due to the same reason.
2. Reply right when you read them.
One thing I noticed is that if I don't reply right when I read the e-mail, I forget about them and remember them a few days later. So I just reply right then and there. This way, I don't have to worry about the e-mails throughout the day. Another trick I do is marking the e-mails as unread (the ones I can't reply to right away), which will make me read the e-mail again later on.
3. Always be the last one to end the communication.
If someone asks you to do something and you actually finish the job, then please let them know that the job is done. Or if they said thank you to you, then reply back saying the same thing or something as simple as 'you're welcome'. This will make other people feel less ignored and have them notice you. It will make them think that you are genuine, that you are responsive and responsible. Unfortunately, workplaces have a tendency of rating someone's performance based on the person's likableness. So it won't hurt to take a few extra seconds to reply to a simple e-mail with a "thank you" or "have a great day".
So what do you guys do for your e-mails? I would love to hear feedback from you guys and cheers to being a better professional and having good communication skills.
Saturday, March 24, 2018
My Auto Loan
It's been almost 4 years since I got my car. According to the plan I had when I first purchased this car, I was supposed to be done with the payments this May. But... I don't think it's going to happen. I was traveling a lot every year and my trip to Italy last year wrecked my finances. Now that the last year of my graduate program is nearing (aka I won't be able to work at all), I'm kinda getting nervous about still having to pay a large amount of money every month.
Because of this, I made my own auto loan pay off sheet so that I would be able to keep track of my payments and stay close to my goal timeline. I'm still going to shoot for my original plan of paying everything off in May. In front of each "2018", I'm writing in the months of the year, so please fill them out according to your plan.
Here are things I learned for the past 4 years by making payments (must read the last one!):
1. Refinance.
I didn't learn about this until later but there is a minimum amount of debt you have to have in order to apply for a refinance. I always considered refinancing my loan but got too lazy with it. By the time I was looking for a refinancing opportunity, they couldn't offer me anything because the minimum amount of auto loans you had to have was $5,000. So look into your loan contract and consider refinancing it to get a better interest rate.
2. Negotiate.
When I went to my bank, I was going to transfer my auto loan to a federal credit union since I heard that they usually offer the lower interest rates and because my bank was not offering an interest rate that was lower than what I already had. BUT you can negotiate with a banker. When I told the banker that I was going to transfer my loan, she said that she would be able to look into something that would offer me a lower interest rate although it was not "officially" offered to everyone. So talk to them! (I wasn't able to get the refinance due to the low amount of debt that I had).
3. Transfer.
Just like refinancing, look for another option for your car loan. You can look into federal credit unions or another bank. There are many options out there that can offer you a better interest rate. Please research before you go in though, since applications can affect your credit score.
4. Learn: Regular Payment vs. Principal Payment.
There are many things I wished I had googled before I was at the end stage of my car loan. One of them is types of payments in loans. "Regular payment" is a regular payment you are supposed to pay and your regular payment pays off your interest first and then your actual loan. But your principal payment is the amount you actually borrowed and what your interest rate is based on (I didn't know about this until this week?!?).
For example, you owe me 100 apples and your interest rate is 5%, which means your interest is 5 apples the first month. You have to make a payment of 10 apples every month. If you make the regular payment, the 10 apples you pay goes towards your interest first, and then towards the 100 apples you borrowed. In this case, only 5 out of the 10 apples you pay are going towards your actual loan. So now, you owe me 95 apples with a 5% interest rate (which equates to 4.75 apples) for the next month. Got it?
Okay. Then what if you pay me 20 apples the first month instead of 10 apples? Then you are paying me the first month's interest and actual loan and the second month's interest and actual loan. So you paid me 5 interest apples and 5 actual loan apples, then, 4.75 interest apples and 5.25 actual loan apples. Another thing about this is that you don't have to make any payments until the third month.
But if you pay me 20 apples and pay the extra amount to the principal payment, then you are paying the first month's interest, 5 apples, and putting the rest into the actual loan, 15 apples. This leaves you with 85 apples that you owe me. The second month, you will owe me 85 apples with the interest being 4.25 apples. Although you made a payment with extra apples, you still have to pay the second month's payment since the extra was not applied to the next month's regular payment.
If that was too difficult to understand look at the pros and cons of paying extra into regular vs principal payments:
Regular payment:
-pro: you don't have to make a payment until you are actually due since you paid your next month's required payment
-con: you pay more interest overall
Principal Payment
-pro: you pay less interest overall
-con: you have to make monthly payments no matter how much you pay
5. Consider.
Refinancing and transferring your auto loan can affect your credit score. I'm not sure how much of an effect this has on your credit score. This is one post I found so far: https://www.supermoney.com/2016/12/refinancing-car-loan-hurt-credit-score/. I will do more research and write a post on it.
Once again, cheers to those of you guys who are as lost as me in this finance game and let's work hard towards our goals!
Because of this, I made my own auto loan pay off sheet so that I would be able to keep track of my payments and stay close to my goal timeline. I'm still going to shoot for my original plan of paying everything off in May. In front of each "2018", I'm writing in the months of the year, so please fill them out according to your plan.
Here are things I learned for the past 4 years by making payments (must read the last one!):
1. Refinance.
I didn't learn about this until later but there is a minimum amount of debt you have to have in order to apply for a refinance. I always considered refinancing my loan but got too lazy with it. By the time I was looking for a refinancing opportunity, they couldn't offer me anything because the minimum amount of auto loans you had to have was $5,000. So look into your loan contract and consider refinancing it to get a better interest rate.
2. Negotiate.
When I went to my bank, I was going to transfer my auto loan to a federal credit union since I heard that they usually offer the lower interest rates and because my bank was not offering an interest rate that was lower than what I already had. BUT you can negotiate with a banker. When I told the banker that I was going to transfer my loan, she said that she would be able to look into something that would offer me a lower interest rate although it was not "officially" offered to everyone. So talk to them! (I wasn't able to get the refinance due to the low amount of debt that I had).
3. Transfer.
Just like refinancing, look for another option for your car loan. You can look into federal credit unions or another bank. There are many options out there that can offer you a better interest rate. Please research before you go in though, since applications can affect your credit score.
4. Learn: Regular Payment vs. Principal Payment.
There are many things I wished I had googled before I was at the end stage of my car loan. One of them is types of payments in loans. "Regular payment" is a regular payment you are supposed to pay and your regular payment pays off your interest first and then your actual loan. But your principal payment is the amount you actually borrowed and what your interest rate is based on (I didn't know about this until this week?!?).
For example, you owe me 100 apples and your interest rate is 5%, which means your interest is 5 apples the first month. You have to make a payment of 10 apples every month. If you make the regular payment, the 10 apples you pay goes towards your interest first, and then towards the 100 apples you borrowed. In this case, only 5 out of the 10 apples you pay are going towards your actual loan. So now, you owe me 95 apples with a 5% interest rate (which equates to 4.75 apples) for the next month. Got it?
Okay. Then what if you pay me 20 apples the first month instead of 10 apples? Then you are paying me the first month's interest and actual loan and the second month's interest and actual loan. So you paid me 5 interest apples and 5 actual loan apples, then, 4.75 interest apples and 5.25 actual loan apples. Another thing about this is that you don't have to make any payments until the third month.
But if you pay me 20 apples and pay the extra amount to the principal payment, then you are paying the first month's interest, 5 apples, and putting the rest into the actual loan, 15 apples. This leaves you with 85 apples that you owe me. The second month, you will owe me 85 apples with the interest being 4.25 apples. Although you made a payment with extra apples, you still have to pay the second month's payment since the extra was not applied to the next month's regular payment.
If that was too difficult to understand look at the pros and cons of paying extra into regular vs principal payments:
Regular payment:
-pro: you don't have to make a payment until you are actually due since you paid your next month's required payment
-con: you pay more interest overall
Principal Payment
-pro: you pay less interest overall
-con: you have to make monthly payments no matter how much you pay
5. Consider.
Refinancing and transferring your auto loan can affect your credit score. I'm not sure how much of an effect this has on your credit score. This is one post I found so far: https://www.supermoney.com/2016/12/refinancing-car-loan-hurt-credit-score/. I will do more research and write a post on it.
Once again, cheers to those of you guys who are as lost as me in this finance game and let's work hard towards our goals!
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Investing Your Future (Scholarship)
It seems like there is a race between students trying to graduate before tuition costs are increased and schools trying to raise tuition before students graduate.
Being in professional grad school equates to not having many scholarship options. That's what I thought before I started my program. One of the reasons why I chose to go to my school was that it had a good scholarship program, which was unheard of, especially for my major.
Luckily, the scholarship that I have been receiving is a four-year scholarship, with the requirements being that I keep my GPA above a certain number. On top of that, our program has scholarships that they give out to students who are in need (aka taking student loans out). With those two scholarships, it adds up. Since I'm taking out student loans and I don't physically see the money, sometimes I don't even feel like I get them. But when I calculate how much help I'm getting or when I purchase a laptop with that money, I'm immensely grateful. I hope to be the one giving to others in the very near future.
In order to help you guys get the most help you need, I made a scholarship checklist. This is my way of giving back to others for now. It has a list of places where you can look for scholarships for free (yes, please be careful about some websites out there) and I got this information from this website: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/finding-scholarships, which is the FAFSA website, which is reliable. Left is the preview to the checklist.
Please use this very simple checklist I made to plan your scholarship process, and cheers to getting your education and working towards your future!
Being in professional grad school equates to not having many scholarship options. That's what I thought before I started my program. One of the reasons why I chose to go to my school was that it had a good scholarship program, which was unheard of, especially for my major.
Luckily, the scholarship that I have been receiving is a four-year scholarship, with the requirements being that I keep my GPA above a certain number. On top of that, our program has scholarships that they give out to students who are in need (aka taking student loans out). With those two scholarships, it adds up. Since I'm taking out student loans and I don't physically see the money, sometimes I don't even feel like I get them. But when I calculate how much help I'm getting or when I purchase a laptop with that money, I'm immensely grateful. I hope to be the one giving to others in the very near future.
In order to help you guys get the most help you need, I made a scholarship checklist. This is my way of giving back to others for now. It has a list of places where you can look for scholarships for free (yes, please be careful about some websites out there) and I got this information from this website: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/finding-scholarships, which is the FAFSA website, which is reliable. Left is the preview to the checklist.Please use this very simple checklist I made to plan your scholarship process, and cheers to getting your education and working towards your future!
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Receipt Journal Update (1 week later)
It has been over a week since I started my receipt journal. Not going to lie, even a simple thing like gluing your receipts on a notebook was hard to keep up with. There were days I forgot to do so and had to do two days worth of receipts. 56 more days to go (takes 66 days to build a habit) to be comfortable with this.
Warning: my handwriting and organization skills are not the best in the world. But here is a photo of my journal.
Excuse me for all the blurred out parts. I don't want to give out any private information and I am super paranoid about that kind of stuff so I had to do what made me feel comfortable.
So as you can see it's simple. This is the first step towards my financial independence. This is it! My daily journal. I didn't include how much money I have left in my bank account either (more like I forgot to), which seems a bit stupid now that I think about it (I will include this from now).
Then I organize this into an excel every Saturday. Like this:
Wow, I spent a lot of money this past week (sad all over again). I will work on reducing my shopping money.
Now, the excel spreadsheet provides several pre-made templates on budgeting, so feel free to use them. I wanted to start my own and customize it later.
It feels like I have a long way ahead of me, but hey, I've already taken the first step. Cheers to everyone and let's buckle down on the buck!
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Savings Account (Finally!)
I used to have a savings account back in high school and during the undergraduate years of college. However, I ran low on money and had to transfer the money in my savings account to my checking account and get rid of the savings account (otherwise, I was going to be charged for the account). Ever since then, I have not saved any money.
Why? Because I was running out of my loan money at the end of each semester and thought that I was too poor to save any money. Boy was I wrong. I realized that if I saved at least $10 every month from the time that I had gotten rid of my savings account, that I would have had $720 by now.
I want to start saving money so I can have a fund for investing and emergencies.
I kept a savings account with a bank that I regularly use, like Chase or Bank of America. The nice thing about this is that it's easy to transfer money between accounts. Also, these banks are everywhere. The downside is that the interest rate is usually very low. One thing I learned about savings accounts is that federal credit unions offer better interest rates than banks (they usually offer lower rates for loans too but I will talk about that later).
So, I simply googled "federal credit union", looked into a local federal credit union, and started my research on a savings account. I specifically compared two savings account products from a bank (Chase) and a federal credit union (Hughes) because these are the ones that I will most likely open my savings account with.
Here are the results of a few hours of research while worrying about my kinetics exam next week.
Here's what I found:
Pros of bank savings account:
-easy online banking,
-no ATM fees at the bank's ATM machines
-many locations
-usually lower minimum deposit
Cons of bank savings account:
-lower interest rate (for example Chase offers 0.01%)
-service fees applied (conditions apply)
Pros of federal credit union savings account
-higher interest rate (for example a local federal credit union offers 0.2%)
-variety of savings account for different purposes
Cons of federal credit union savings account
-fewer locations
-ATM fees and fewer ATM machines
-higher minimum deposit
-membership needs to be approved and termination fee may apply
After all this and asking around, I decided to open mine at a bank. Why? There are several reasons.
I'm not good at keeping up with my money. I recently started (literally 5 days ago) working towards improving my finances. I'm working on building a habit of saving and I would need to closely monitor how I'm doing and have easy access to my account (physically and online).
My savings will not be some huge amount of money. 0.01% vs 0.2% will not make much of a difference for me at the moment. Once I have more money and experience, I'm planning to move my money. Meanwhile, I really want to get myself started with saving.
Lastly, I am not sure where I will be. Because I don't know where I will live after graduating, I would like to use a bank I can have easy access to. It is crucial for me to be able to go to a bank or federal credit union without wasting my time (I need to save my time for studying and all these extra things I'm doing).
So here I go. I will update you guys on how I have been doing with my savings in 3 months. Cheers, everyone! We can do this.
p.s. if you guys are looking into high interest rate savings accounts, I found a nice article. They do get compensated for their articles though so make sure to keep that in mind. https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/best-high-yield-online-savings-accounts/
Why? Because I was running out of my loan money at the end of each semester and thought that I was too poor to save any money. Boy was I wrong. I realized that if I saved at least $10 every month from the time that I had gotten rid of my savings account, that I would have had $720 by now.
I want to start saving money so I can have a fund for investing and emergencies.
I kept a savings account with a bank that I regularly use, like Chase or Bank of America. The nice thing about this is that it's easy to transfer money between accounts. Also, these banks are everywhere. The downside is that the interest rate is usually very low. One thing I learned about savings accounts is that federal credit unions offer better interest rates than banks (they usually offer lower rates for loans too but I will talk about that later).
So, I simply googled "federal credit union", looked into a local federal credit union, and started my research on a savings account. I specifically compared two savings account products from a bank (Chase) and a federal credit union (Hughes) because these are the ones that I will most likely open my savings account with.
Here are the results of a few hours of research while worrying about my kinetics exam next week.
Here's what I found:
Pros of bank savings account:
-easy online banking,
-no ATM fees at the bank's ATM machines
-many locations
-usually lower minimum deposit
Cons of bank savings account:
-lower interest rate (for example Chase offers 0.01%)
-service fees applied (conditions apply)
Pros of federal credit union savings account
-higher interest rate (for example a local federal credit union offers 0.2%)
-variety of savings account for different purposes
Cons of federal credit union savings account
-fewer locations
-ATM fees and fewer ATM machines
-higher minimum deposit
-membership needs to be approved and termination fee may apply
After all this and asking around, I decided to open mine at a bank. Why? There are several reasons.
I'm not good at keeping up with my money. I recently started (literally 5 days ago) working towards improving my finances. I'm working on building a habit of saving and I would need to closely monitor how I'm doing and have easy access to my account (physically and online).
My savings will not be some huge amount of money. 0.01% vs 0.2% will not make much of a difference for me at the moment. Once I have more money and experience, I'm planning to move my money. Meanwhile, I really want to get myself started with saving.
Lastly, I am not sure where I will be. Because I don't know where I will live after graduating, I would like to use a bank I can have easy access to. It is crucial for me to be able to go to a bank or federal credit union without wasting my time (I need to save my time for studying and all these extra things I'm doing).
So here I go. I will update you guys on how I have been doing with my savings in 3 months. Cheers, everyone! We can do this.
p.s. if you guys are looking into high interest rate savings accounts, I found a nice article. They do get compensated for their articles though so make sure to keep that in mind. https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/best-high-yield-online-savings-accounts/
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Being Sick is Expensive: Medical Bills
For a twenty-something-year-old grad student without any income, I have had appointments with too many doctors in the past couple of months. I got to the point where I didn't care how expensive my medical bills were going to be because I was sick and was feeling horrible.
One frustrating thing about medical bills is that I wouldn't know how much I was being charged until a few weeks after seeing the doctor or getting a procedure done. Aside from being sick, I even had to worry about checking my mail since I knew the bill was coming.
So naturally, when I got my first, my first (SIGH), medical bill, from a lab, I couldn't believe how much I owed them. It was from a visit that I didn't find helpful at all in any way (and in retrospect, really wasn't helpful), and I owed them around $300 (even after the first adjustment)? But guess what? YOU CAN NEGOTIATE YOUR MEDICAL BILLS (it does not always work but it's worth a try). Luckily this place attached a form where I could make a request for an income-based adjustment for the bill (medical offices usually don't, maybe this place did because it's a lab). It was a simple process. I filled out the form, scanned it, and sent it to them via e-mail. Then I called them a week later and found that I was eligible for a 98% reduction on my bill.
I got another bill saying that I owed them around $250 for my procedures. So I called the billing department to see what they could do for me. I asked them if they could adjust my bill but the person on the phone said that the adjustments were already made. I asked a lot more questions to attempt to get some sort of adjustment, but I was not successful. I felt embarrassed because having to ask for discounts and admitting that I have financial issues to a stranger on the phone was not an easy thing to do. I gave up after a few tries and paid half of my bill. After this, I soon found an article written by Shannon Insler with great negotiation tips for medical bills as I started researching for this post (wish I saw this before this morning). Please check this article out before you make any phone calls to talk about your medical bills: https://studentloanhero.com/featured/how-to-pay-medical-bills-you-cant-afford/. I am definitely going to try these tips the next time I have to pay my medical bill.
I'm still waiting for few more bills to arrive in the mail. I get a mini heart attack whenever I check my mail and see an envelope from a medical office, but I believe that I will get through this. I hope everyone is well and if you are not, you know you are not alone in this shit hole of sickness with a pile of medical bills (I'm with you guys). Everyone, stay healthy!
Monday, March 5, 2018
Where Do You Spend Your Money: Receipts
Tracking where you spend money is crucial to understanding your own finances. There are now a large number of great apps that categorize and analyze your spendings. I have downloaded them but I always ended up not using them. I don't know what it is but pressing the icon of the app in order to check how much and where I had spent my money was difficult for me. I mean, I don't even check my bank account everyday...(gotta fix this).
So in order to counter this problem, I am going back to the old school way. Receipts, a notebook, and a glue stick. I mean, I love arts and crafts so why not have fun gluing things on paper? I started yesterday and because I'm not used to it, I forgot to save my receipts from some places. In these cases, I decided to go back into my bank account and write those down (this will force me to check my bank account everyday). There are some places that don't offer paper receipts and I am going to get a text receipt for these. I will be organizing my receipts at the end of the day every day and do a weekly and monthly summary. I am still debating where I will put these summaries, but it will most likely be saved onto my laptop as an excel spreadsheet. I will post pictures of my receipt book and the spreadsheet as I continue on!
Why am I doing this? What are the benefits of keeping track of your receipts at the end of the day?
First, it is going to help me realize how much I spend every day, every week, and every month. I still don't know how much I usually spend every month. If I check how much I spend every night, then the next day, I will be more conscious about how much I spend.
Second, this will help me to analyze where my spendings go to. This helps with decreasing the amount of money I spend on certain things. This will give me extra money!
Last, with extra money, I can start saving and investing (by the way, I don't have a savings account yet so I am going to research this)! At age 26 and after working for a while, I realized that I didn't want to spend my life working day after day at a job that I don't like. So investing would be something I need to start looking into. My goal at this time is to generate $300,000 without working (it sounds crazy but there is no harm in having a big goal, right?!).
For me, it's always a good feeling to look back and review yourself not only in your finances, but also in many other aspects (health, goals, etc.). With my receipt book, I will be able to see where I spend my money and where I have made improvements every day. I hope to see myself grow financially stable and independent (I hope you guys achieve your financial goals). Also I hope this financial independence can help me achieve my other goals.
So in order to counter this problem, I am going back to the old school way. Receipts, a notebook, and a glue stick. I mean, I love arts and crafts so why not have fun gluing things on paper? I started yesterday and because I'm not used to it, I forgot to save my receipts from some places. In these cases, I decided to go back into my bank account and write those down (this will force me to check my bank account everyday). There are some places that don't offer paper receipts and I am going to get a text receipt for these. I will be organizing my receipts at the end of the day every day and do a weekly and monthly summary. I am still debating where I will put these summaries, but it will most likely be saved onto my laptop as an excel spreadsheet. I will post pictures of my receipt book and the spreadsheet as I continue on!
Why am I doing this? What are the benefits of keeping track of your receipts at the end of the day?
First, it is going to help me realize how much I spend every day, every week, and every month. I still don't know how much I usually spend every month. If I check how much I spend every night, then the next day, I will be more conscious about how much I spend.
Second, this will help me to analyze where my spendings go to. This helps with decreasing the amount of money I spend on certain things. This will give me extra money!
Last, with extra money, I can start saving and investing (by the way, I don't have a savings account yet so I am going to research this)! At age 26 and after working for a while, I realized that I didn't want to spend my life working day after day at a job that I don't like. So investing would be something I need to start looking into. My goal at this time is to generate $300,000 without working (it sounds crazy but there is no harm in having a big goal, right?!).
For me, it's always a good feeling to look back and review yourself not only in your finances, but also in many other aspects (health, goals, etc.). With my receipt book, I will be able to see where I spend my money and where I have made improvements every day. I hope to see myself grow financially stable and independent (I hope you guys achieve your financial goals). Also I hope this financial independence can help me achieve my other goals.
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Adulting
'This was the first time I ever felt like an adult but who am I kidding? I still don't know what I am doing with my life'
Twenty something years of my life and I still feel like I have no idea what I am doing. Every time I'm doing my taxes, I wonder if I'm entering everything correctly. 'Am I going to get a call from IRS saying that I didn't fill this part?' Then I do my FAFSA and push off looking at the interest rate for my loans. 'What do you mean by dislocated worker?' And thank god I am in health care field, otherwise I wouldn't have known a single thing about what to do with my insurance.
I am still as lost as I was when I was in high school. Am I ever going to grow up and learn all these things I am supposed to as a responsible adult? I hope I do, because I am going to document my journey about my adulthood here and help my fellow twenty-something-year-olds to be better at this life.
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