Category Archives: Money

Money

I Bought Stock Some Stock and You Can Too

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Confession: I’m completely clueless when it comes to anything financial. While I understand the basic idea of living within a set budget, numbers just aren’t my favorite language. NASDAQ? 401(k)? I prefer romance languages and speaking in sample sale.

But while savings and investments won’t provide me with the instant gratification of scoring a really great pair of shoes at a good price, I do realize that they are important to understand and think about. The younger you are and the earlier you start, the more you stand to gain. Think about it–when you’re younger, you have a little bit more freedom to be both selfish and risky. Yes, it hurts to tuck away money when your paycheck can barely cover the essentials and your tax refund has the potential for so much fun, but starting to invest early allows you to be more adventurous and, potentially, reap more in rewards. With all this in mind, one of the goals I set for myself this year was to figure out the basics by investing a small amount in some fun stock.

It took some time and research, but I finally figured out how to begin and manage my tiny portfolio in a simple manner that I’m comfortable with. And, trust me, if I can do it, you can too! Fair warning though: the process I used it pretty much the furthest thing imaginable from anything seen in The Wolf of Wall Street. I doubt I’ll be rolling in Jonah Hill-esque money anytime soon, but I’m ok with that.

If living like Leo is your goal, you might want to stop reading now (and maybe check on your morals). But here’s a How To guide of process that I used and found comfortable for investing a small, budgeted amount (in this case, my tax refund) on my own:

Step 1. Google “How to invest in stock.”

The obvious disclaimer here is that you can’t trust everything you read online. But with some browsing and clicking, I was eventually able to find this article from CNN Money that was filled with tons of great, easy-to-understand information; it was the perfect compliment to Sara Hamling’s The Stock Market, published earlier this month. While I definitely recommend reading both articles, these are some of the highlights that I found to be particularly helpful:

  • A smart stock portfolio will include stocks from several different industries. This way the portfolio is somewhat protected if one area of the economy takes a downturn.
  • It’s smarter to think ahead and invest in purchasing stock that has the potential for long-term growth.
  • There’s no set standard or magic formula for stock evaluation – different brokers will evaluate stocks based on different formulas, but the most important thing is to feel comfortable with the company’s profile and potential. Generally speaking, large companies will offer stable, but small, returns, while smaller startups offer more risk and (potentially) higher returns.
  • Stock can be purchased from three different types of vendors: Full-service brokers will execute your stock orders while also offering their expert opinion, making them they most expensive option – you get what you pay for. The other two options are discount and online brokerages, which require you to do the background research on your own.

Step 2. Research online brokerages

Because I was only going to be making a petite initial investment and, partially, because I’ve always had the impression that trading stock in person involves a lot of pushing and yelling, I decided to look into using an online brokerage. I won’t lie, this was super scary. Some sites, like E*TRADE and TD Ameritrade, seem like they have great deals on the surface, but the fine print makes it clear that a substantial upfront investment (think +$10K) is required; others offer great terms and fees to their existing banking customers, but little incentive for outsiders.

Confusion regarding which site to use was definitely not something I had prepared for, so I did what I always do when feeling utterly and completely let down by the Internet/real world – I asked my friend Gina.

Gina is one of those magical people who always seems to be able to give the exact right advice (If you don’t have a Gina, I really recommend getting one ASAP. I found mine in college, but maybe try your favorite coffee place?). Fortunately for me, Gina has recently been doing some experimental investing on her own and pointed me to Sharebuilder.com. This site, which is geared toward small time investors like myself, proved to be exactly what I needed – there’s no minimum requirement to begin and each trade costs $6.95.

Step 3. Research your (potential) stocks

Once I had setup my Sharebuilder account, I need to figure out which stocks I actually wanted to purchase. Though my overall goal was to have fun throughout the process, I still wanted to try to protect my initial investment; this led me to decide on investing in a larger company, despite the fact that it would mean purchasing fewer shares.

Once this decision was made, I set about making a list of companies and brands that I happen to enjoy or find interesting. For me, this included Facebook, Twitter, Disney, Dreamworks, Time Warner, Yahoo, Netflix, and Apple. I then set about researching the stock prices and predictions, using Google and Sharebuilder’s provided tool. Ultimately, I decided to split the difference between protecting myself and taking bit of a risk, and narrowed my selection down to Disney and Yahoo.

Step 4. Place your order

Once I decided what to buy, I logged into my Sharebuilder account and placed my order; on my budget, this came to two shares of Disney, three shares of Yahoo, and, since I had a little extra, two shares of Dreamworks. Small potatoes, but it’s a start. The whole ordering process was just as easy as online shopping – which, it a sense, it is.

Step 5. Keep going

Moving forward, I plan to monitor the performance of my stocks and learn as much as I can from their performance. This includes reading up on Sharebuilder and seeking out additional articles. And, when a term is used that I don’t understand, I’ll just look it up. Ultimately, I hope that I can learn enough to expand on my earnings, reinvest profits earned, and even feel confident enough to get into some mutual funds.

Sounds pretty easy peasy, right? Here’s hoping.

Photo by Rob Adams

Photo by Rob Adams

Money

Let’s Ask: UE’s Finance Guru

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So far, Sara Hamling has done a wonderful job of effectively enlightening the financially frazzled. But some of us are just a bit more money-muddled than the others, so fellow UE contributor Michael Cox instigated a intense investigation into our investments.

Michael: Hi Sara, thanks for helping us out again! I like the way that you laid out some ideas for what is and what is not okay to spend money on from short-term and long-term spending accounts. Do you have similar advice for credit purchases when the ol’ short-term spending account isn’t up to snuff for (perhaps pet- or car-related) emergencies?

Sara: So your short-term savings account isn’t as full as you need it to be, and you’re facing a true emergency: you lose your job, your car needs new brakes so that you can get to work, you have a medical emergency. In those cases, it’s okay to use your credit card even if you can’t pay it off in full the next month. Pay at least the minimum every month (try to pay a little over) and most importantly, make a plan for how you are going to pay that money off as soon as possible.

That sounds like a good practice to follow. When the hits keep coming, what’s the risk?

Any time you are carrying a balance on your card from month to month you’re taking a risk—credit card companies can change almost any rate or term with little notice. Plus carrying a balance will not help your credit score. But, if you’re facing a true emergency, using your credit card can give you time to get back on your feet without ruining your credit (compared to, for instance, neglecting payments on a home or auto loan).

I’m trying to focus on not getting hurt by interest (too much) and not damaging my credit score. Thanks to some help from mint.com and Google Calendar, I’m pretty on top of paying everything on time, so as long as I’m not at risk of forgetting to make a payment it shouldn’t hurt, right?

Exactly!  What I did was setup auto-pay on my credit card accounts and, a week before it’s due, I can double-check that my auto-payment went through and my balance for that month is paid off.

My fiancée and I have a shared credit card that we use for our joint purchases (like the new bathroom towels, Saturday’s “Let’s have amazing food!” dinner, and any Sharks game we can make) so that we can easily divide our expenditures later (and not have to juggle credit cards at the counter in the moment). Assuming we pay it off every month (or very close) to avoid interest, is there a better way to do this? Is doing this actually hurting our credit?

Assuming you pay the card off every month, you should be fine. There’s nothing wrong with having and using a couple credit cards as long as you have the money to pay them off.

Like the seasoning in a recipe for financial success: “Use in moderation,” right? What else?

One other thing to look at is what percent of your credit limit are you using at any given time. Owing more than 30% of your available credit will actually affect your credit score negatively. So, if your card has a $3,000 credit limit and you regularly have more than $1,000 on the card—that will negatively affect your credit. You want to have low balances, pay bills on time, and pay more than the minimum if you’re going to be regularly using your credit cards.

That said, going over that $1,000 is absolutely okay in emergencies, especially if you can pay that balance off right away (and perhaps pay it back before it’s even due, if you can to get it back under 30% of available credit).

You had some great recommendations for online savings accounts in your previous article. Do you have similar recommendations for credit cards?

If you have carried a balance in the past or think you might carry a balance in the future, look into credit cards that have the lowest APRs. The APR is the annual percentage rate you will pay on the money you don’t pay off in full every month. Typically, this is between 10-25%.

It certainly makes sense to just pay off the remaining balance each month.

If you have consistently paid off your balance every month, focus more on rewards. Most cards give you 1 “point” for every dollar you spend. This is typically equal to 1% back on a purchase ($1 back on $100 purchase). So, look for a cards that will give you more than that amount for certain purchases.

I like the sound of that! But from that word, “certain,” it sounds like there’s a catch?

Let’s say you wanted to get a couple credit cards with different rewards. You could get a Bank America Cash Rewards Card which gives you 2% back on groceries and 3% back on gas purchases. If you eat out a lot, you could get the Chase Sapphire Card which gives you 2% back on dining. Or you could look into the Chase Freedom Card which gives you 5% back on different types of purchases every three months (i.e. movie theatres & gas stations, or Amazon & department stores). Just make sure you know which cards give you what rewards and use them accordingly. (Note: All the above credit cards will give you the standard 1% back on other non-category purchases.)

So, we could use a different card for every kind of purchase, or…

Or, if you don’t want to have to remember what cards give you what rewards, you could get a card that gives you 1.5% back on all your purchases like the Quicksilver Cash Rewards Card.

Regardless of what you’re looking for, use credit card comparison sites to figure out which offers you will use most.

That sounds great but… Should holding multiple credit cards be avoided? It seems like a delicate balance between “You have enough credit history to get a mortgage” and “Your credit isn’t quite good enough for a livable mortgage.”

There’s nothing wrong with holding multiple credit cards so long as you’re not abusing them. I wouldn’t get more than about four, but two or three is totally fine especially if they give you points for different types of purchases.

That sounds like a good rule of thumb. So what’s the recipe for success?

The ideal situation for your credit cards is that you have a few, you keep low balances on them, and you pay them off in full every month. Now—that’s not always possible. But that’s what’s going to get you the best credit score if that’s what you’re looking for.

As a gamer, I always want the best score. I’m curious though. You said “low balances,” not “no balances.” Is not using your credit cards bad, too?

It’s not great to never use your cards. But… it’s probably better to not use your card for a short amount of time than to close the account. It’s awful for your credit if you open and close credit cards any more than you absolutely need to. Say you’ve opened too many credit card accounts, and you realize you really don’t need them all: don’t close them (unless you have a tendency to abuse credit) and don’t stop using them entirely. Just charge one small thing a month to them and then pay that off in full every month.

I feel like this should be taught in school; do you have any homework for me?

Sure! Here’s a good article on how balances affect your credit score.

Now, for those 20-somethings who are lucky enough to be investing and not just borrowing: when the world looks messy (I’m looking at you, Russia) or the market looks testy (well, this isn’t the ’90s, so maybe this isn’t so terrible a threat), is it ever the right decision to pull your stock market funds?

I’m already following your advice on using passive investment strategies in Mutual Funds/Index Funds/ETFs because, seriously, who has time to micromanage this?

It depends on what kind of account your stocks are in.

If your money is in a retirement account where your money is in Mutual Funds/Index Funds/ETFs—don’t move your money. Do not move it. Maybe you think you can time the market and avoid a dip, but even the best brokers fail to do this regularly. Money for retirement has a long time to grow if you’re putting it in before age 30, and even before age 40. It’s much better to ride out the market’s highs and lows if you have the time and your money is invested diversely.

Don’t touch the retirement. Got it! What about all the other types of investments?

If you have a separate brokerage account though that is not for retirement but is, instead, say…. money for that wedding, money for a house, money for a big trip… money that you are planning on needing in a couple years—then, you may possibly want to pull your stock market funds. If you know you will need that money and you don’t have confidence in the market (or you just don’t want to take the chance because you know you will need it soon), it’s okay to take the money out and put it in something less risky (hello, high-yield savings accounts or CDs!). Or, take half your money out and keep half in—another way to be slightly more risk-averse.

Okay, so keep your ultimate money goals in mind when deciding where and when investments should be managed. I feel more fiscally fit already! Thanks, Sara!

Michael Cox is a contributing writer. He is also a really tall computer engineer, app developer, musician, computer gamer, and San Jose Sharks fan. Twitter: @TehMiikay.

Sara Hamling is a contributing writer. Graphic Designer, Foodie and Baseball Enthusiast living in San Francisco and exploring the rest of California. Follow me @shamlingdesign

Photo by Rob Adams

Photo by Rob Adams

Food, Money

Food on the Cheap

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Once upon a time, I made a rash, but good, decision. I decided that I really wanted to live near my university instead of commuting four hours every day. But, I also knew that getting a job there would be hard without a local address. So, I did the fairly irrational thing: I moved there without having a job lined up. I had enough savings to pay my rent for a few months—except, oops, I totally forgot to budget for the other costs of living! Like food.

Photo by Sara Slattery

Photo by Sara Slattery

Food is kind of a big deal so I did some research, looked at basic nutrition, and then bought what was the cheapest. This was not at the “nice” grocery store with the nut bar and open bins of nutritional yeast and gluten-free oatmeal. This was at Grocery Outlet or Food Maxx. This was the “ethnic” Mexican, Vietnamese, or Indian market. This was the last half hour of the farmer’s market when the person behind the table wants to get rid of the last bag of oranges.

I took a notebook with me and, over a couple of shopping trips, saw what was cheapest and weighed that against my personal needs. For example, I find large grocery stores very overwhelming, so I get some stuff at Trader Joe’s that is the same price almost everywhere: milk, eggs, butter, bread, frozen vegetables—even organics, if I wanted them. I’m not including prices because they vary widely, and the best thing to do is compare prices at whatever is local to you!

In an attempt to balance my nutrition, I tried to have a carb, protein, and vegetable or fruit with every meal. For breakfast: hot rice pudding and fruit, or toast and an egg with frozen sautéed spinach, or just some oatmeal and brown sugar if I was feeling especially lazy. The oatmeal packets at the store are ridiculously easy to recreate. Lunch or dinner was maybe Spanish rice (rice, spices, canned tomatoes) and bean tacos, lentil and rice soup, black bean burgers, homemade French fries, pudlas, or stir-fry.

The Staples for a Cheap Kitchen

When I was living on the cheap, I filled my pantry with basic staples in bulk because they will spoil the slowest!

  • Dry rice
  • Dry lentils
  • Dry beans
  • Other dried goods (oats, bulgur, etc.)
  • Large bagged spices

I found that the following brought a lot more variety into my meals, so I bought as much as half my freezer and cupboards could hold! Discount and bulk stores, for the win!

  • Flour
  • White/Brown Sugar
  • Pasta
  • Potatoes
  • Frozen, dried or canned fruit and vegetables
  • Olive oil for cooking
  • Bouillon Cubes
  • Tofu
  • Eggs

Since we all have our own preferences and dietary restrictions, don’t feel limited because you can’t follow my examples above.  There are a lot of cheap alternatives for you to consider when stocking your own cheap kitchen:

  • Bulk Tea (instead of soda)
  • Corn Tortillas (instead of flour tortillas)
  • Bread ($2 for 12 servings!)
  • Fresh vegetables (when in season!)
  • Coffee (because everything is cheaper than Starbucks)
  • Mozzarella and Feta (the cheapest cheese I’ve seen)
  • Bacon Ends or Ham Hocks (great for flavoring soups and stews)
  • Meat and Fish on sale (throw it in the freezer if it is about to expire!)

Did you notice what’s not on here? I considered dairy, meat, and pre-processed foods “special items” because, when comparing price-per-ounce, they were way more expensive than other protein and carb sources like beans, rice, flour, and frozen/canned produce. Except for the occasional cheese wedge or free pizza, I didn’t see a lot of meat or dairy. It’s weird, but I was so into making affordable stuff actually taste good that I didn’t even miss meat. The key to cooking deliciously on the cheap is spices, spices, spices. I experimented with what I liked and started to add it to everything!

All this dried food requires a lot of cooking. I learned that it’s best to soak beans overnight to soften them, lessen gastrointestinal issues, and decrease cooking time! I just put some beans in a bowl, cover with water, and let them sit overnight. The next day, simmer until soft. I then discovered that it’s prudent to invest in a rice cooker if you like rice, and a crockpot if you hate standing over a stove. These meals usually come out to be cheaper per serving than frozen or boxed meals, and way more nutritious. It makes sense to try to safeguard your health when you can, because hospital bills in the future are definitely not frugal!

If you do like farmers’ markets, vendors usually lower their prices or are much more willing to haggle during the last half hour. They often don’t have long-term storage for their produce, so it’s better for them to get rid of it before it spoils. If you can pick from multiple markets, try them all, especially the ones in the less swanky parts of town: honestly, I’ve found the prices are much better there. I’ve seen the same vendors at multiple locations, and their lowest prices are usually in cities and more working-class parts of town, not the suburbs or the ladies-who-brunch neighborhoods.

I hope this article gives you some insight into eating cheaply without resorting to McDonald’s and Top Ramen! Some great resources with tips and recipes I’ve found include Budget Bytes, Broke Ass Gourmet, and Poor Girl Eats Well. If you’ve got any of your own suggestion, share them in the comments. Bon appétit!

Money

Not Going Broke, A How-To

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After vacationing in Japan, visiting New York, and moving in with my boyfriend, all within three months, I had a lot of debt and needed to have a plan to get rid of it. I have a decent job that sort of allows me to live comfortably, but the reality is that I needed to budget my spending and hold myself to it. Budgeting my way out of debt and into better savings sucks. It really does, but it’s part of being a responsible adult who maybe wants to buy a house, or get married, or take another big vacation abroad.

Photo by Meaghan Morrison

Photo by Meaghan Morrison

Let’s take a look at how I try to set up my budget, which is generally applicable for a young working professional living in the major Bay Area. Please note that the cost of living can be scaled down (or up) depending on where you live.

How Much Money You Make

For salaried workers, this is pretty simple. How much do you get paid? How often do you get paid? Multiply accordingly to figure out about how much you make each month. For example, let’s say my annual income is $40,000–after taxes. It comes out to about $1,200 per paycheck twice a month. We’ll work with a baseline of $2,400 dollars each month, subtracting as we count our expenses.

Cash Flow: $2,400

How Much You Have to Spend

Car payments, rent, and insurance are some typical costs. These are required for not losing your car, your home, and your health (or maintaining any of the above), and as such, these are your priority payments each month. In addition, since you have to buy gas for your car, you should estimate the average cost of a tank and the number of times you fill up in a month. I generally go to a gas station about three times a month, give or take a week. There’s not really an opportunity for cost savings here, barring trading down your current car and moving back and forth.

Cash Flow: $2,400

Rent: -$700

Car Payment: -$306

Gasoline: -$120

Car / Renter’s Insurance: -$110

Cash Flow after Necessities: $1,164

How Much You Have for Food

Barring rent, food is where I spend the majority of my money each month. Cutting back from having sushi two to three times a week sucked, but I had to devise a plan for saving money where I usually spend the most.

First, I accounted for breakfast and work lunches. I normally don’t eat breakfast, but sometimes I do get coffee. Paying $4 three times a week for a coffee and snack comes to $12 per week for breakfast. For lunch, the cafeteria at my work tends to charge about $6 per meal, but I want a little breathing room to eat out with my co-workers once a week at about $15. A $6 cafeteria lunch four times a week, plus $15 for eating out once a week, comes to $39 per week for lunch. Next, we should account for dinners, desserts, and other snacks you would normally eat at home. I try to eat something of moderate size and of moderate price from the grocery store most nights of the week. This usually comes out to about $10 a day, sometimes serving for two or more.

To account for eating out, I let the cost savings roll over, and try to not binge on alcohol or appetizers. In order to calculate how much you’d spend each month, multiply your weekly costs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner by about 4.3 (the average number of weeks in a month). It isn’t an exact number, but it generally works out to be fairly accurate (and then I round up to the nearest whole dollar).

This part of the budget varies greatly from person to person, as some people care more about what they’re eating, how often they’re eating it, and if they can stand leftovers. I for one don’t mind leftovers, but hate monotony in the variety of my overall meals, so I spend a little more on some meals for bigger tastier foods.

Cash Flow after Necessities: $1,164

Breakfast: -$51

Lunch: -$168

Dinner: -$300

Cash Flow after Food: $645

How Much You Have for Fun

Shit gets tricky here. You have a finite amount of money left this month. You could spend it on drinking, a new pair of shoes, or a coffee table. I like all of these things, but my savings are more important to me. If you don’t have any, what happens when you run into trouble? I’m a bit proud and don’t really want to ask my mom and dad for help, so I put a small, but decent chunk directly into savings.

After that, it’s sort of like juggling. You can revise how much you spend each month on entertainment, such as movies or small trips. Or maybe, you want to spend more money on material things, and go shopping more often. These budgets are flexible because you still have money left over. I recommend that you put anything remaining from your cash flow into savings.

Cash Flow after Food: $645

Savings: -$200

Entertainment: -$120

Shopping: -$200

Cash Flow after Fun: $125

Getting Out of Debt

Above, there’s the basic outline of a budget, but you can see that at the end, there’s not a lot to pay back toward existing bills. Here’s where you look at all the things you’re spending money on and figure out where you can afford to cut back. For example, you don’t really need to spend $200 a month on shopping for new things. This could be cut down to $50 for new games or some new makeup, bringing your debt repayment funds up to $275. Furthermore, not everyone is like me and spends a lot of money on food. Some folks I know spend less than $200 a month on food, and that could be you too! Saving money to pay debt sucks, but it needs to be done if you want to be a financially responsible adult. Just learn to cut where it doesn’t hurt as bad.

Note that if you have long-standing credit card debt, you should try to pay it off first before putting a lot into savings. Your savings doesn’t accrue interest, while owing money to credit card companies costs you more in the long run. You should also aim to pay off your credit cards every month, making the bills in the long term much more manageable.

Making Everything Easier

Finally, work out your budget in Microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheets: it’s an excellent way to have a copy that you can manipulate and track your progress. Alternatively, you can use a site such as Mint to have them track your spending. Such websites can pull records from your credit cards, bank statements, and other bills to better show much you’ve been spending, and usually they have great ways to analyze your spending or track your goals. You can use these to see where you’ve been putting all your hard-earned cash, so you can decide where you need to cut back.

Good luck with the budgets and the savings!

Money

Things You’d be a Sucker to Buy New or Full Price

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As a millennial managing my personal finances in the wake of The Great Recession, I have had to find creative ways to cut back that I otherwise might not have. This includes buying used things when, in more prosperous times, I may have bought the item brand new. On this pauper’s pilgrimage, I’ve discovered that if you can find what you’re looking for secondhand, you’d be an idiot to buy it for the full price.

Thrifting Square

Photo by Sara Slattery

Tools, books, cheap sunglasses, furniture, stylish clothing… These are all on my list of things you should never buy new, because you can find them used on Amazon, eBay, at thrift stores/flea markets, or used bookstores, from half price to pennies on the dollar. More importantly, you can feel rich for a couple of hours while directly supporting your local economy! Got twenty dollars in your pocket? Well, well, well—look at Mr./Ms. Fancypants-Highroller!

There’s a reason why the word cheap has such a bad connotation: being cheap means that only the bottom-line dollar amount matters. If that’s the case for you, you might as well stop reading. However, being frugal means extracting a high amount of value relative to the amount of money invested. Who doesn’t want good quality stuff without breaking the bank?

Enriching the Local Economy

With relatively few exceptions, new goods are sourced globally from giant corporations. Putting aside the typical ranting against them, this means that rather than enriching your friends and neighbors, your money supports factory labor thousands of miles away and mostly enriches several hundred institutional shareholders.

Buying used and in secondary markets usually entails going to a local thrift store, which often is family owned (like one of my favorites: Lost and Found in Sunnyvale, CA), or buying from individuals at flea markets. The further your money travels, the less stimulating it’s going to be to your community. Generally speaking, it’s more responsible to spend locally.

Only Got 20 Dallaz in My Pocket

Thrifting is also a fun, inexpensive activity! Half the fun is going with friends to look at all the awful stuff that’s there—like I do (shameless plug). Also, sometimes you will see things at the flea market that were obviously shoplifted and are now being fenced for sale. Some might view this as participating in a legal wrong—cool, keep walking to the next stall. Personally, I play too much Skyrim, so I like think that I’m acting like a member of the Thieves’ Guild or the Ragged Flagon, reveling in the cloak-and-dagger nature of a ‘black market’ (when really its mostly just razor heads and Similac). It’s nerdily exhilarating, and I get a kick from it. Plus, I don’t really know for sure if it’s been stolen, and I can’t exactly go around lobbing accusations. Since the presumption of innocence is the bedrock of American justice, shop away, moral relativists! Besides, what’s more immoral: benefitting from shoplifting, or charging $40 for a hammer made at forty cents per unit by a nine year old Chinese kid?

Things to Never Buy New

  • BOOKS:

Especially the following:

-       Any book by Tom Clancy
–       Any book by James Patterson
–       Any book by Danielle Steel
–       Any book by John Grisham
–       Any copy of The DaVinci Code (Ew.)
–       Any copy of Wild Animus (You’re a sucker if you pay any money for this, they give it away on all college campuses)
–       Any objectivist propaganda by Ayn Rand
–       Any copy of Shōgun

  • TOOLS:

People are always trying to get rid of their tools—they bought new ones or they don’t use them anymore: whatever the reason, they want to get rid of theirs. You can buy tools at anywhere between 10-20% of what they’d cost at a Home Depot. And if paying a fraction of the cost for tools and enriching your local economy wasn’t enough incentive, you should be aware of the political campaigns Home Depot supports and determine whether or not they align with your own beliefs.

If you’re moving into your first place and you’re looking to build your kit of indispensable tools, look out for these items at your local flea market. You could save a nice bundle of money. The tools commonly spotted:

-       Hammer
–       Scissors
–       Basic screwdrivers
–       Razor heads
–       Razor blades
–       Duct Tape
–       Tweezers
–       Nail clippers
–       Saw blades
–       Drill bits

  • OTHER:

-       Sunglasses

Seriously, unless you’re buying Ray-Bans or Oakleys, all sunglasses are basically plastic shit made in China. Twenty dollars for cheap plastic crap is a crime, and retailers that sell them at that price ought to have bamboo shoots shoved underneath their toenails. At a flea market, you can buy them for about $5 a piece, or cheaper.

-       Leather jacket

This is important, because a brand new one rarely (if ever) costs less than $150 and they can cost as much as $200-400 or more, depending on the brand. But if you hold out for exactly the jacket you want, you can usually find it between $10 and $40 at a thrift store. These are the real gems of thrifting. If you have a nice leather jacket like I do, you wear it all the time. You will have saved hundreds of dollars and look like you stepped out of a Macklemore music video (can I refer to that song a little bit more? I definitely haven’t done it enough).

Getting Started

Yelp. Google. Seriously.

First, finding the thrift stores presents a logistical problem. You rarely ever want to hit just one. The most fruitful method I’ve found is to Yelp it, and then transpose the positive Yelp hits into a Google Map. From there, I group the stores into sectors, or ‘circuits,’ that I can hit as part of a planned trip or if I just happen to be nearby. This type of informational awareness allows me to attack all the thrift stores with optimal logistical efficiency. No wasted gas, no yo-yo-ing back and forth across town—you will be a precise, methodical, lethal thrifter.

If you choose to hunt at a flea market, make sure you have cash. Since there is no ‘check out’ save the person who is manning the stall, take the opportunity to hone your haggling skills. Some people will be receptive to it; others will not. The method of haggling I have found to be most effective is to hover and look indecisive. An experienced fleamarketeer will sense the opportunity, and swoop in and make you an offer. Make your best “Aaaggghh, I dunno…” face, and watch the price fall. Finally, take out some cash, make sure they see it, and undercut the second offer by about 10% or try to get a bulk deal if applicable. Do not do this at a brick-and-mortar establishment—it is a major protocol breach. Likewise, at a brick-and-mortar store, cash isn’t as important as it is at a flea market or garage sale, since most thrift stores take credit cards.

So support your local economy, save some money yourself, and have some social fun in the process. Thrift, you magnificent millennial bastard children of capitalism, thrift!

Health, Money

Disputing a Medical Bill

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Usually, when navigating the confusing world of health insurance, after every procedure, check-up, etc., you get a lovely little statement from your insurance company. I liked these—mostly because they said “Amount You Owe: $0.” Until last year, when a tiny billing discrepancy with my dentist crumbled into a massive back-office mess. My dentist was really good, and I truly used to like her, but in 2012—almost 3 years after I started seeing her—I got a big bill.  As in a several thousand dollar bill. There had to be a mix up! I just assumed they must have billed me for the wrong procedure and all would be straightened out soon enough.

So, I called in. Turns out, the dental office had only received checks for one or two of my seven appointments. Then, I called my insurance company, who told me that the practice had to call them to figure it out. I called the dentist back, and her office told me to hang tight. Three months later, we had the same conversation. And again at the six month mark.

Finally, when we rolled into 2013, I got another bill, and I was fed up. No one from my insurance company or my dentist’s office was listening to me.

And then I discovered how to dispute a claim. And now, I can tell you.

To clarify, this dispute didn’t involve lawyers—if you want to read about that, you can hit up Google. I contested this myself.

First, find out how to file a grievance with your health insurance provider. A grievance is a basically a formal complaint. You can actually call in a grievance, but I chose to file one online because it was quick and I had a written record afterwards.

Grievance forms ask standard questions such as when the incident occurred, who the persons involved were, and what exactly happened. Awesomely, grievance forms also ask you if you tried to handle the issue on your own, what the outcome of your discussion with the providers was, and (perhaps most importantly) what you want the outcome to be.

My dispute ended there. Problem solved: I ended up only owing a mere $9.

But, let’s say your insurance company doesn’t do a great job at responding in a timely manner. You have rights. These are usually spelled out by your insurance company at the bottom of the grievance form. In my case, the insurance company had 30 days to give me a written decision. If I was in that process longer than 30 days, I could file a grievance with my state. This is often done through a branch of the health department, usually called the Department of Managed Health Care or something similar.

No insurance company wants to get the state involved, so hopefully you won’t ever get this far. If things still haven’t cleared up, you have other options before even hiring a lawyer, such as contacting your State Insurance Commissioner. This government line of defense can help you in more areas than just insurance issues. When a friend of mine was going back and forth with AT&T for months on replacing a faulty landline, she called the Public Utilities Commission and someone high ranking from AT&T called her back within hours.

And then, when it’s all over, be sure to tell your state’s Better Business Bureau. Other consumers can use your experience to make informed decisions about their insurance companies. At this point, you have had a rough experience and you should let other potential customers know.

Pro Tip: When filing a customer service complaint in any area—from health insurance to fast food service—the words Better Business Bureau can often help turn things your way.

In some serious cases, you will need a lawyer’s help; but, know that if you look around there are already many avenues carved out for you to get your problems solved.

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Food, Money

Drinking on the Cheap: Wines

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So, you need to buy some wine. You’ve been invited to a dinner party and asked to bring a bottle of wine, or you want to buy a decent bottle for a friend. Problem is that you don’t know anything about wine (we can help with that) and while you don’t want to spend $80 on a nice bottle, you don’t want to look cheap either. Well, good news! You can get good wine without blowing a day’s pay. The number one rule about wine (contrary to what the fancy-pants “connoisseurs” would have you believe) is that it doesn’t always matter what the wine costs.

Where does one find these awesome cheap wines? Anywhere from your local grocery store to BevMo!, Trader Joe’s, Costco, or Target.

BevMo! is great if you don’t know what you want, because they have a little blurb about the wine on the shelf tags, with descriptive words like buttery, fruity, or earthy and a rating from Wilfred Wong, their own personal taster (who seems to have good taste in my experience). These descriptions usually try to embrace the experience of the wine, not necessarily exactly how they taste, so I would suggest going for whatever sounds good to you. BevMo! also has a pretty knowledgeable staff, so talk to them if you need help—they answer questions from novice drinkers all day, so no question is too weird for them. Their 5-Cent Sale is fantastic and available at most branches at least twice a year (plus there’s always a rotating selection of valid 5-Cent wines on their website), so you can buy one bottle that looks good and get the second for 5 cents. I like this sale because it’s a little easier to justify buying a $20 bottle when you get two for $20.05.

Trader Joe’s gets the overstock from wineries making room for new bottles, so their wines are awesomely priced. They have the famous stereotype-crushing “Two-Buck Chuck” Charles Shaw wine that’s now, contrary to the nickname, $2.50. Charles Shaw does make great award-winning wines, beating out higher-priced competitors, and it is a great, reliable wine for a dinner party. I probably wouldn’t give it as a gift though, since it is well-known for being an inexpensive wine.

Now that you know where to go, what the heck kind of wine should you get? It’s always good to match the wine with the food being served if you’re buying for a dinner party or event. Rule of thumb: white dinner wines with fish and lighter foods; red wines with red meat and hearty foods; and, leave the syrupy dessert wines for after dinner. A great website to bookmark is WineToMatch.com, where you can enter a description of your meal, and it will recommend wines to pair. Chardonnay (a crisp and sometimes buttery white), Pinot Noir (a lighter, fruity red), and Cabernet Sauvignon (a dense red) are good go-to wines for gifts, because they’re so popular and easy to find. A few good labels to look for are Yellow Tail (ignore their silly commercials), Sterling Chardonnay, and Ravenswood Vintner Blend series. [For more information on the different types of wines check out: "Wines: Understanding that Shit."]

It really boils down to what you like. Taste everything, and don’t be afraid to buy a bottle just because you think the label is awesome or it’s got a fun name (especially if it fits with your fellow guests’ or gift recipients’ sense of humor). If it looks good, go for it! Keep a wine journal, or a list of wines you’ve tasted, and write down what you thought of them. Find a wine you like and use that as your go-to. Your own favorite wine will make a great gift to give: it might be something they hadn’t tried yet and it makes the gift a little more personal. You may not love every wine you try, but at least if you stick to the less expensive ones, it’s not a big loss and you can always use it for cooking!

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Photo by Meaghan Morrison

Money

(Cheap) Holiday Gifting

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Gifting can be tricky: Who is on your list? Can you afford to gift with all your friends? What about your coworkers? Here is a quick guide to holiday gifting from someone who is young and broke.

A good place to start with gifting is to make a list. Who is on it? Do some of them get more expensive gifts than others?

Try splitting your list into groups. I broke my list into A, B, and C and assigned each group a budget range. This helped me budget the entire cost of my holiday shopping before I started looking.

Making Sure the Perfect Gift is the Cheapest Gift

Once you find the perfect gift, make sure to Google it before you buy it. There are so many retailers out there, you never know if you are going to find your gift on sale on a different website. I unexpectedly saved 75% on a gift this year because Neiman Marcus’s Last Call had a one-day sale I stumbled across in a last minute Google!

Gifting with Friends

Let’s say you have made your list and there is just no way you can give each of your friends a substantial gift this holiday season. Consider banding together for a Secret Santa (or Secret Snowflake) gift exchange. You can set a cost ceiling ($20 max is a good idea) to keep anyone from outspending anyone else but still devote your attention to one perfect gift. Additionally, you and your friends will probably get more thoughtful gifts. It’s a lot easier (and cheaper) to find the perfect gift for one person than five.

Also consider gifting an experience. If you are a good cook, gift a home cooked meal. Or a movie night. It’s thoughtful and you get to spend more time with your friend.

What About the Co-workers?

Office gifting can be super awkward. One way to share the love is to host an office White Elephant gift exchange. My office hosts one every year and we reward a “trophy” to the best White Elephant gift each year. The goal of the gift exchange is to re-gift an item, usually one with a story behind it. You are not supposed to buy things! These are just our rules but the basic idea is the same and everyone goes home with a gift.

But what about your boss? Should you get them a gift? First off, good boss etiquette says they should be gifting you something—especially if you don’t qualify for a bonus of any sort. You have worked hard all year and you deserve that recognition. I personally am getting my bosses gifts because they are pretty solid people. But last year I had only been working at my office for a couple weeks–I had no idea what to do! My advice today would be to ask around and find out what the precedent is. Maybe the office pools together funds and buys everyone the same gift. Or maybe everyone is chipping in $5 to buy the department head (or front office manager) a gift card to his or her favorite restaurant. Be aware of the office culture around gifting and if you do decide to go against the norm, try to be discreet about it.

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Photo by Anastasia Heuer