Long Legs and other Personal Problems

Project Net Zero

3 Comments

Money is on a lot of our minds nowadays. Some people are worried how to pay bills this month because the government discontinued unemployment checks. Others of us are on Amazon every day buying our happiness to our doorstop. Either way, one thing is for sure: all of our spending habits have changed this year.

I am incredibly lucky to still have a job, and despite losing all of the income I was bringing in by teaching at the gym and braiding hair, I am still saving more than ever because I can barely spend any money. I’m cooking meals at home, having drinks at home, making coffee at home, not traveling anywhere… basically everything I spent money on BC (Before Covid), I can’t do anymore!

This change in spending habits came at a very interesting time, right after I got engaged. You may remember that my now-fiancé was the first person to whoop my finances into shape in 2017. He works in finance and needed to give me a crash course on how to be fiscally responsible. Now that we are talking about combining our lives and finances FOREVER, we talk about money a lot!

Back in 2017, he was horrified that I had credit card debt (not to mention my sky-high pile of student loans from law school), and he quickly taught me the importance of a retirement account. Also, I didn’t understand the concept of a savings account. I mean I did, but I didn’t have any money to put in said account.

I posted a blog in April 2017 to talk about my newfound addiction to mint.com. I finally gave in to my dad and boyfriend’s pleas to start budgeting and tracking money, and I became obsessed. At that time, I was checking my account every day. Now, it’s a little bit less, but it’s still fun to check! There’s something about watching the graphs populate that makes it fun to save. There is some science behind this; it’s all about the gamification. There are studies proving that this can work, and there are many apps that have been created specifically with this in mind. I love to look at the Trends tab with performance graphs and pie charts, and I love receiving the emails congratulating me about my increased credit score. The whole thing is fun. And since there’s nothing left in 2020 that’s fun, I was checking my mint the other day when I realized something… I’M ALMOST AT NET ZERO. That’s right, my net worth is approaching equilibrium. I told my fiancé and he said that when I get to net zero, we can throw an “Emily is Worth Nothing Party.”

Amazing News: I think I’ll get to Net Zero in a month or two.

Bad News: I was SO PSYCHED about the prospect of a party I didn’t realize that Covid would still be going on, so it was likely to be a party where I wear a party hat in the house and drink alone. Meh.

Anyway, I know you want to know how I got here. When I started using mint in September 2016, I had a net worth of $-107,000. At my lowest in November 2016, my net worth was $-111,612. Talk about daunting. I didn’t understand how I would ever dig myself out of 100K of debt by sticking to a $20/month coffee budget. You may recall my wake-up call was when my dad asked if I needed a payment plan to pay for my $120 state taxes. I was determined to try and get out of debt. Some of these tips and tricks you may be able to use, and some, I realize may not be applicable.

  1. Track your spending. This is pretty straightforward. Over time, tracking spending does change spending habits. For me, when I realized my $100 bar tab would show up at the end of the month on my mint, I thought twice before ordering another round.
  2. Get a roommate. I know, this seems dumb but BY FAR the most expensive thing each month in New York is rent. It’s astronomical. I never had a crazy expensive apartment, but I saved $500/month when I moved in with my boyfriend (now fiancé). The other day I added up how much I’ve saved on rent since we moved in together: $21,000 (42 months x $500). That’s a lot of moolah. Maybe you can’t move in with a boyfriend, but seriously consider how much of your paycheck you’re spending on rent before you sign a lease.
  3. Credit Card Churning, baby! This is a complicated concept for some, but if you’re spending money anyway, spend it in a way that earns you money back! (Spend more and save more! HA) I wrote a whole blog on it before, so I won’t reiterate, but I have probably saved $10K-$15K in travel in the past 4 years by solely using points.
  4. Set Goals. You guys know I’d rather set a goal than “make a resolution,” but SMART goals work! I had 4 financial goals in 2019, and by putting pen to paper and looking at them periodically, it kept me honest and committed. I surpassed them all! Make sure they are attainable, so you aren’t dejected.
  5. If you have student loans, try to understand repayment options and interest rates. Again, I wrote an entire blog series on my student loans, so I won’t say it again. But it’s important to know the interest rates of your loans so you can pay off the high interest ones first. Maybe combine it with #3 and get a credit card to pay off some of them.
  6. Take advantage of any retirement contribution from work. I am super guilty of NOT doing this. When my fiancé found out my work had a matching program that I was not taking advantage of, he literally texted me the next day at work to ask if I had signed up yet. And that means a lot because he does NOT text me during the day (we’ve worked on his texting; it’s gotten better since 2017). If your employer is matching any percentage of your contribution, take advantage. That is literally FREE money.
  7. Advocate for yourself at work. I’m talking about raises. Have you been at the same job for years without pay increases? You are your own best advocate. You need to figure out how to get compensated for your work. Is this easy? Hell no! It’s super hard. I coach people every day on how to ask for raises, and it’s still not easy for me to do! If you are very lost on where to start, I recently listened to a podcast with Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, where he laid out a specific plan on how to speak to a supervisor about a raise.

I did all of the things I listed above, and more. Between lack of travel this year and decreased all-around spending, I am almost at Net Zero! Do I still have student loans? You betcha. Almost $100K still. But my retirement is growing, I have a 401K, a Roth IRA, a savings account, the whole deal. And more than the numbers, I feel like I’m in control of my finances for the first time in my life. Do any of you guys set financial goals? What’s the hardest part about it? Have you had any big achievements? What do you do to celebrate?

Continue Reading

Long Legs and other Personal Problems, Miscellaneous

Credit Card Churning

4 Comments

You’ve probably heard the phrase “money doesn’t grow on trees” or, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Well, ladies and gents, I’m here to tell you that everything you learned is FALSE and there is a such thing as free money. It’s in the form of credit card bonuses and it is complete sorcery.

http://gph.is/1a4df5e

I was never part of the magic until I met my emoji boyfriend who got me in DEEP with “credit card churning,” and I’m loving every second of it. We actually have a little jig we do in our house called the “free money dance.” Not lying. Churning basically means that you get a new credit card to access the sign-on bonus, and then after a certain amount of time, you get another one, and start all over again. Some people think that this affects your credit score, which it does, but usually not enough for it to matter if you do it right. In general, a hard inquiry, which is what a credit card company does every time you apply for a new card, affects about 10% of your credit score. But if you do it infrequently enough, then your credit should be fine.

Yesterday, I just signed up for my 7th credit card in 3.5 years’ time. Aka the amount of time I have been with my boyfriend. It all started when we began to talk to each other about finances. These finance bros get off on this stuff. JK. But really, he was very interested to hear about my student loans, etc. We got to talking and he found out that I had a credit score in the middle 700’s, but had a credit card running balance of about $4,000. He was FLABBERGASTED. Literally, I think I had to pick his jaw off the ground. Maybe not literally, but he was gaping at me. He told me he didn’t understand how a person with my credit score could be paying interest on a balance, when I could just open a new card and do a balance transfer to buy myself time. Now, guys, if you’re confused, I was, too.

Quick explanation: Another reason people like to open credit cards is because they offer “balance transfer offers.” This means you can open a card, transfer your outstanding debt to a new card, and they offer to not charge you interest on it for a certain amount of time. I looked at this, realized I was getting free money, and I was HOOKED. I was able to pay off my credit card debt by saving all of the money I would have been spending on interest, and I did the same thing with my private student loans! I transferred my $6.5K from Wells Fargo to a credit card, and I have been making minimum payments for 18 months, without paying any interest! I have enough money now to pay them off by May, when the interest will kick in (this particular card had a 21-month interest-free grace period).

Again, balance transfers are not even the tip of the iceberg of this money, as the “real money” lies in the sign on bonuses. It seems crazy to me that this free money exists out there in the universe and people don’t access it left and right, but the truth is, most people don’t know how! There are millions of Reddit threads on the topic, but it can get very technical, very quickly. I am lucky to have an in-house financial advisor who is patient with me and explains the intricacies. I will try my best to give an equally-as-elementary explanation here.

I am not new to this credit card business. In fact, growing up, our family used to carry around little laminated cards in our wallets that my dad would make, to remind us which cards to use every quarter based on the percentages back we would get on different categories of purchases. Example: January through March, you should use the Discover card for gas, and the Visa for groceries; they’re 5% back. My parents still do this! This is #LevelExpert, and I do not recommend it for novices. Also, although 3% v. 6% does add up, most people “churn” for the bigger money bonuses. The Showcase Showdown, if you will, is the sign-on bonus.

Here’s the simple summary: credit card companies want to hook you on their cards, so they offer a bonus if you sign up and spend a certain amount of money, generally within the first 3 months. These bonuses differ from card to card – sometimes it’s miles, sometimes it’s points, and sometimes it’s cold hard cash in the form of a statement credit. The catch here, of course, is that you need to “spend money to save money.” The trick is not to open a card with a sign on bonus if you will need to make purchases you wouldn’t normally make in order to get the bonus. However, sometimes it’s still worth it if you come out on top!

Here’s an example: when I signed up for the Amex Platinum card, they offered a $1K bonus but you needed to spend $5K in 3 months. That is MUCH more than my budget, if you don’t include rent. So, I paid my rent on the card for a month to make the minimum. Rent in NYC is high. Now, this complicates things because my landlord charges 3% on credit card payments. But overall, it was still worth it to get the bonus.

I see some of you guys rolling your eyes, saying that this whole process isn’t worth it. But I ask you, if someone said you’d get $1,000 for it, wouldn’t it be worth it? That’s the trick. You need to get a bonus that’s big enough to be worth the work.

So far, I have gotten:

  • Citi Double Cash for 18 months interest free
  • Citi Diamond Preferred for 21 months interest free
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred for 40,000 bonus points
  • American Express Platinum for 100,000 bonus points
  • American Express Charles Schwab Platinum for 60,000 bonus points
  • American Express Blue Preferred for $200 back
  • Barclay’s Arrival Plus World Elite for $700 in travel back
https://gph.is/2OWJkaQ

I want to let you guys know, I am not the only one out there doing this. A lot of people do, especially if they know they have big purchases coming up where they will be dropping a lot of mulah anyway. Another example: a friend of mine got the Amex Platinum because he bought his fiancée’s engagement ring with it. So savvy.

I have traveled many times now by using bonuses. My trip to Spain last year cost me $120 out of pocket. My trip to Costa Rica was completely free. Durham, North Carolina? Free. I also transfered $110,000 Amex points to a Charles Schwab investment account at 1.25 cents/point, which means I got $1,375 FOR FREE! I have been very fortunate to have someone explain this to me and I hope I have been helpful as well.

Still confused? Try checking out The Points Guy; he is one of the most famous churners on the internet nowadays, and you can filter cards by the category you want rewards for (airline, cash back, etc.). He does receive money from clicks, and he does have partnerships with certain cards, but he is pretty clear when he receives kickbacks from companies, and he is also very reliable with his information. He even has a beginner’s guide!

A few warnings & tips:

  • If you have bad credit, you may not get approved for certain cards. Most credit cards rely on your credit score when they decide whether to approve you. You can check your credit score for free on Credit Karma to see where you stand.
  • Opening cards does affect your credit score, as I said earlier, so don’t do it too often. The general rule of thumb is to not open more than 2/year, or one every 6 months.
  • Closing accounts too often can also affect your score. When you close a card, your overall credit limit decreases. This increases the percentage of credit you are using (or “utilization”), and lowers your credit score. Try to keep the account open. You don’t need to use the card, just keep it in a safe place. At home.
  • Beware of annual fees! Some of these cards charge hefty annual fees. Sometimes it’s worth it for the bonus but be aware. You can always downgrade the card after you get the bonus, before you have to pay the annual fee the next year. Downgrading means keeping the account open but changing it to a less prestigious card without an annual fee. This way you aren’t closing an account, but you aren’t paying fees. I did this with my Chase card, switching from Sapphire Preferred ($95 annual fee) to Freedom ($0 annual fee).
  • Don’t carry a balance on cards. It can be very tempting to buy things. Especially when it takes 45 seconds to be approved on a new card, and they grant you a $12K credit limit straight out the gate. IT’S A TRAP! Make sure you can pay off your statement balance when it’s due, otherwise you owe interest and then THEY WIN.
  • A related point: If you’re opening a card to do a balance transfer, make sure you set up auto-payments for the minimum payments. You don’t pay interest, but you still have to make minimum payments, and you don’t want to miss those. Just set it on auto-pay and forget about it. Otherwise they charge interest and again THEY WIN. DON’T LET THEM WIN!

I hope this was helpful. I am not a financial planner. I am not good at this stuff. But I am understanding it more and more every day, and if I get free money and free trips, then I feel obligated to share the wealth. By wealth, I mean knowledge. Y’all b*tches aren’t getting’ any of my trips!

Do you guys have any other tips or tricks? Card recommendations? I’ll need a new one in 6 months!

Continue Reading

Long Legs and other Personal Problems

Student Loans Part Two A

8 Comments

I want to thank everyone for reading my LONG first post about my student loans. I received some great feedback in the form of comments here on the blog, and also in the form of private messages from across the country. It means a lot to me that you took the time to read it, and that you are grateful I opened the conversation. I was incredibly nervous to talk about this, but I know from the response I received that I made the right decision. I decided to definitely add an entry (after telling my own story) to address some of the questions and comments, so please continue to give me your feedback and your responses so I can talk about them in a few weeks!

This installment is the most personal one yet because I talk about the staggering amount I actually owe. I know that there are many of you out there who owe more, and some who owe less, but no matter the exact number, it has an effect on our decision-making and our futures. Therefore, I am splitting this entry into two parts, with the second one addressing the impact my loans have on my decisions, and the compromises and concessions I make in my daily life. This stuff is depressing, and this blog is not called #LongLegsBigLoans, so I will try to intersperse these with lighter topics. As always, please subscribe and I welcome all comments. Also, if you know anyone else struggling in silence (you probably do, if you look at the numbers), feel free to pass it along! Thanks for reading ♥

Part 2 (A) – Amount of Money; Loans on Loans on Loans

Soundtrack: Bills, Bills, Bills by Destiny’s Child

“Can you pay my bills? Can you pay my telephone bills? Can you pay my automo-bills?”

Student loans are a generational problem caused by a hat trick of terribles: 1. Higher education is now necessary to get any sort of high-paying occupation, which it was not during our parents’ generation. 2. Education costs a sh*tton of money. Tuition has gone up 538% in the past 22 years! And salaries have not followed suit. 3. Banks and the Federal Government know that, and take advantage of it by charging astronomical and stifling interest rates, and not forgiving loans when they originally said they would. Some states have taken it into their own hands and have actually sued FedLoan servicing over their unethical practices, acting as the enforcer when FedLoans has repeatedly mis–charged borrowers and refused to reimburse them. Even the Massachusetts Attorney General called them out on their “unfair or deceptive practices.”

So let’s say you don’t actually get overcharged and you are just being “rightly” charged an arm and a leg every month for the indeterminate future. This installment is going to be about the sheer quantity of loans people carry. There are a lot of numbers at the beginning, so don’t let your eyes glaze over. The math will be over quickly and then I will explain in laymen’s terms how terrible this all is while I listen to the “Songs to Cry Too” (sic.) playlist on Spotify. Spoiler Alert: there’s a lot of Ed Sheeran.

People are afraid to say the true magnitude of their loans, so I’m going to start by just straight saying it: I currently owe $92,907 in federal loans and $6,713 in private loans. Total Owed = $99,620. In a few months, it will undoubtedly be 6 figures. I finished law school with $86,702 in federal loans and $12,000 in private loans. Let that sink in, I went from $98,702 in loans when I graduated, to $99,620 at the current time, 4 years later, and I have made thousands of dollars in payments over the years. My federal loans have literally increased by over $6,200 despite the fact that I have paid hundreds, and at some points, thousands of dollars to them every month since I graduated.

The good news is, some states are trying to curtail this problem by offering free tuition to state schools (GO NEW YORK, GO!). The bad news is, there are no such programs for graduate school, and if you go to a grad school, you’re basically f*cked. Americans owe over $1 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 44 million borrowers. That’s about $620 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt. Approximately 40 percent of the $1 trillion student loan debt was used to finance graduate and professional degrees. Also, the interest rates on grad loans are higher.

There may not be any state-funded programs for grad schools, but there are still some scholarship programs or merit-based options. I received $39,000/year in scholarship from Brooklyn Law School. That means that if I did not have that scholarship, I would have completed law school with a whopping $216,620 in student loans. Just think about that for a second. If I did not have scholarship, I would have left school with the amount of loans that could pay for a nice, suburban home.

I cannot believe I just admitted that I had that much money in loans. As you read in Part One, one of the major emotions associated with loans is shame. But really, why?? Everyone has them. Or at least 70% of us do. What about the people who didn’t have scholarship? I was almost one of those people. I applied to 10 law schools, and I was accepted to 7. Many people suggested that the decision was simple: go to the highest-ranked one. For me, that was Boston University, ranked 20 at the time. Top 20 school, they said. No brainer, they said. However, BU didn’t offer me any financial aid. I decided not to go there, and that decision was based solely on money, not at all based on the fact that I saw a roach when I toured the building. (Ok, the roach probably made an impact, too.)

In hindsight, especially since I do not work in law anymore, I think I made the correct decision. But how would I have known that for sure at the time? Anyone I asked advised me to go to a better school, one that would improve my marketability, and therefore improve my job prospects, and therefore would improve my earning potential. When I was applying to and choosing between law schools, the conversation of student loan repayment almost never came up. In hindsight, that seems incredibly short-sighted and a bit unbelievable.

I was speaking with a friend who does not have any loans recently, and I was pitching the idea of writing about this topic. I cited a few vague statistics, noting that I owed about $100K, and that I had a combined $120K in scholarship. He looked at me like I had 5 heads, and he said, “What? That can’t be, that means that people can graduate from law school with over $200K in loans!” It seems crazy, but it is entirely possible. Brace yourself for some more math here; it’s basic, don’t worry. Tuition is $50K/year., which means 3 years of law school = $150K. That leaves only $50K for room and board for 3 years if you want to leave school with only $200K in loans. That means $16,666/year. Let’s say you live in a modest apartment in New York with roommates, for about $1,000/month (what a great deal!). That means your rent is $12,000/year, not including utilities, and that leaves you $4,666/year for food, utilities, metrocard, oh, AND BOOKS. Which can be $1,000/semester. Basically, there is no way you can get out of law school with only $200K in loans if you don’t have scholarship. And then school ends and the interest hits you.

Last year, my dad was asking me questions while filing my taxes (thanks again, daddy!), and he asked me, almost incredulously, “you didn’t happen to pay over $2,500 in interest on your loans this year, did you?” I basically laughed in his face. OF COURSE I paid that much in interest! Thankfully, the one place student loans come in handy is when you do your taxes, thanks to the big break you get for interest. But the fact that my own father had no idea that literally ALL of my payments I make toward my loans go ONLY to interest, shows the ignorance that most people without loans have about them. Last year I paid $5,500 toward my federal student loans. Of that, $5,500 of it went to interest. That’s right, all of it. Here is a screenshot of my payment to my federal loans from June of this year. $462.32, $0 of it applied to the principal.

But this brings me to my next obvious point: the reason some people cannot empathize is because they do not have any first-hand experience. I talked about this in Part One dealing with emotions, so I won’t say much about it here, but those who do not have loans just don’t think about it. Their world doesn’t revolve around these monthly payments, so they don’t realize just how much of a lead weight it is for so many people.

I have one friend who told me she used to pay student loans 8 separate times throughout the month until she consolidated them recently. Talk about a constant reminder. She was basically hemorrhaging money EVERY FOUR DAYS. According to CBS Money Watch, students typically end up with five to seven different loans at graduation. Each one can be for a different amount and carry a different interest rate.

I have another friend who told me her monthly student loan payment is higher than her mortgage. She lives in Utah, but STILL. For those of us not in Utah, or those of us without spouses, how are we supposed to purchase homes, build families, or become independent humans, when we are paying ridiculous amounts every month just to stay above water? It really is a huge problem.

THE MOST DRAMATIC BLOG POST CONTINUES NEXT WEEK!! Stay tuned and subscribe; next week I will explain the small and big ways I try to save money to stay above water, as well as the huge life decisions that will be impacted by my student loans: career, family, home, retirement, basically everything. The following installment, I will tell my personal story about which repayment plans I have opted into, and out of, and how I am using free credit card offers to pay off my private loans. $$ FREE MONEY! $$

Continue Reading

Big City Living

New Yorkers and the Side Hustle

2 Comments

New York is filled with interesting people. Master of None did an episode in Season 2 called “New York, I Love You” where it explored the lives of the people we pass in our everyday lives: the taxi drivers, the guys who sell you your breakfast sandwich at the bodega, the doormen. But the reason I find New Yorkers fascinating is because even the people you see in their normal jobs, they all have a side hustle. I consider myself the Queen of the Side Hustle. I deserve a crown. For a while, I was even taking surveys online just to get free Starbucks gift cards. Most recently I joined Influenster in the hope that they send me free products. Hopefully I’ll start instagramming them soon.

New York is a tough place to live; the average price of a one bedroom apartment is $2,700/month, $3,000 if you only look at Manhattan. One job just won’t cut it. The New York Post recently wrote about it, as did CNN. CNN reported that over 44 million Americans have side hustles. Roughly the same amount of Americans who have student debt. I wonder if that’s a coincidence. But this multiple-jobs-just-to-keep-a-roof-over-our-heads lifestyle is what makes us all interesting. And multi-faceted. And tired. But that’s for another post.

Here are a few things I know people do as side hustles: uber driving, waitressing, bartending, lululemon educating, blogging. Oh, and of course group fitness. Don’t get me wrong, there are some people who do all of these things full-time. But it’s more likely that people cobble together multiple things to make a living. Waitress/Actor. Or is it Actor/Waitress? Does it make a difference?

Even the people who don’t think they have a side hustle often have one, but they call it a “hobby,” like investing. As far as I’m concerned, if you spend a few hours a week on it, follow finance blogs, have a special tweet deck for finance, and it makes you some mulah, it’s a hustle. Cough Cough Emoji BF Cough Cough.

One of my coworkers who just started at my full-time job kept one shift a week at her old job, bartending at a bar/restaurant/karaoke spot. She only works on Friday nights, but the extra cash she gets pays for her expenses for the week. Plus, it can be fun to meet people at your side hustle! People whose paths you probably wouldn’t otherwise cross. It’s fun for me too, because I can visit her and sing karaoke to my heart’s desire. It’s always helpful to know a bartender in New York. The problem is, she also works at our full-time spot on Fridays. That means her work day is basically 9 am to 4 am, 7:30 am to 5 am if you include the commute. WOAH. In what other city is working 22 hours normal? But I can’t judge, I do it too!

For a while, I was flipping clothes. I know you’re thinking that is ridiculous, but there is a HUGE second market. I would go to SoulCycle sample sales every time they happened, and I would go as soon as they dropped prices a second time. I would scoop up ANYTHING lululemon brand (they had other brands, too, but ew), and then I would sell it on apps like Poshmark (SIGN UP WITH MY CODE JLDNQ for $5 off!) and Mercari (SIGN UP WITH MY CODE FDXTKW for $10 OFF)! as “NWT” or, New With Tags. I turned hundreds of dollars in profit! It took time to take the photos, post them, monitor the listings and re-post them to my followers. And of course it took time to pack and ship them, but it was worth it!

Another side hustle of mine: retail. Two years ago, I worked at lululemon for a holiday season. I won’t lie, I did it first and foremost for the discount. Also, I liked the company and its goals. (Read: I drank the luxtreme koolaid.) When I had my interview with the manager, she asked me if I was sure I wanted to do this, and made sure I would have some semblance of a work-life balance. She only let me work Fridays after my other job and Sundays, insisting I took Saturday off. Most other companies wouldn’t give a sh*t about your “balance” from another job, but I did appreciate having that one day to myself every week. In fact, working at lululemon was one of the highlights of my past few years. As I’m sure you know, I have a passion for fitness, and it was fun to just chat about workout clothes and new niche studios with customers (also have some of my classes comped!) and get paid for it! My Fridays often went from 8 am to 10 pm, but I found myself looking forward to it. Having a side hustle is a good way to get out of the daily 9-5 grind and to keep yourself on your toes.

My main side hustle is being a fitness instructor. I’ve had that side hustle fitness job for 11 years and counting, through undergrad, “unemployment,” law school, lawyering, and now, my #JewJob. When I started, it was my only job, on the side of being a full-time student, but it was fun to have extra cash in my pocket, and it was also fun to see people at the bars who recognized me from my classes. I felt like I was semi-famous. In NYC, I get paid 3 times what I was paid to teach in Florida. Granted, my rent is more than three times as high. Also, since February, the YMCAs of Greater New York centralized their subbing system online so I can pick up classes at gyms throughout the five boroughs. If I need some extra cash, I pick up an extra class! Who am I kidding, I ALWAYS need extra cash (did you see my ongoing series about my student loans?!) and I am always looking for an extra workout. I pick up every class my body and schedule allows! The best thing about this particular side hustle is that it also good for my health. That’s a win-win. Until I sprain my ankle again.

Do any of you guys have a side hustle you enjoy? Can I join it? A penny saved is a penny earned is a penny saved. Or something like that.

 

Continue Reading

Long Legs and other Personal Problems

“Saving” Money Using Mint.com

9 Comments

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!! How much money am I going to spend today on margaritas? It’s no secret that drinking is expensive. And living in NYC, there are so many other things that cost money. You’re always either paying with time or money, and since no one ever has any time, the question is always how to save money. Recently, I started using mint.com, and I have not been more addicted to a website since I discovered Facebook. I have the app and I sign on twice a day. It’s that serious.

Here’s how you use mint:

  1. First, you import all of your accounts. So easy having everything in one place!
  2. Then you create settings so they email you every time a large purchase is made. What an awesome idea! You can keep an eye on your credit card security!
  3. Then, you go through every single transaction you made and you create categories. The OCD in me LOVES this step. Carefully put each expense in a category. Such a sense of satisfaction when everything is labeled!

Things are fabulous! Ease of use, fraud alerts, categories, color coding, SO FUN!

And it IS all fun and games until you realize that it’s your actual money and that your “net worth” (which is the largest number on the screen, front and center) is approximately $-100K in the hole. Not so fun anymore. Quick reminder here again not to go to law school. Cue self-hatred and regret.

Continue Reading