financial zen

What generation are we on now? X? Y? Z? AAA? According to MSN Money, I’m in the Generation Y category.

JLP at AllFinancialMatters has written about Young People All But Ignore Planning for Retirement. It’s quite distressing when you actually see the numbers presented.

Lucky for me - I’m one of the “numbers” that actually save - with a higher percentage contributed (and a higher balance). I feel a little good about that, because it means I’m on track with saving - now I jsut need to update my networthIQ and my NCN Network to show the dents I’ve made - that is a project for the weekend, more than likely.

It seems work went from “ain’t got nuthin’” to “omgwtfbbq” so I’ve been slammed - nine hour days n’ such. The sucky part of being salary!

How does your retirement fair - or if you’re out of the bracket - how *did* it fair when you were that age?

No doubt if you’re involved with Personal Finance, you’ll have figured ways to reduce your bills by some.

“Ways You Can Decrease Recurring Household Bills” from the Real Estate Journal brings it up but I think they’re missing a few key points.

They are working on cutting their bills down - but it seems they also went for more bang for their buck! They didn’t reduce prices, they allowed themselves to be upsold on their cable and internet. They didn’t look to decrease their bills, they looked for more for what they were paying.

It’s not that getting more for less is bad, but when your goal is to reduce spending, keeping bills at the same levels is detrimental and counterproductive. So you get ten more channels for the same price - great! Now you have more to watch instead of doing something with your life. Maybe that’s a bit too harsh, but do we really need 100+ cable channels when you know nothing is on that is going to satisfy you?

At the end of our test we racked up a net savings of $323 a year. Not bad, but we hoped for more after negotiating through the tangle of phone trees and inscrutable pricing plans. We actually let ourselves be talked into paying more for an upgraded service from one provider and struck out completely with two others. On the bright side, we’re no longer completely in the dark about our electric bill after hearing a clear explanation of it for the first time.

I think that one line (emphasis mine) is the saving grace. They got a better explanation of one of their bills - my problem is why didn’t they do this sooner? You should very clearly understand every bill you are paying - if not, why are you paying it? Why are you getting that bill? Will you pay my bills if I send them to you?

I’ve found an effective way to help my budget is to sign up for the budget plans with the utility companies - I’ve done it with gas and electric. They give you an estimated bill monthly, and after a year’s time they reevaluate it - I saved a ton going this route, although I initially overpaid, at the end of the year my next year’s bill was much cheaper - but I monitored my usage and made sure I wasn’t abusing the system. Personal Responsibility!

Have you had any experiences lowering your bills, or getting a better understanding of them?

Don’t worry, articles coming soon - and I’m also going to be toying with the PHP and CSS so the site may occasionally look funky in-between articles.

I’m wanting to help incorporate the EMERGY-C color palette - an “eco-nerd” move (did you know if Google was a primarily black site it could save about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year? Allow for rough estimations and some rough logic - but still, saving is saving, even if it’s a little bit!

So it’s my goal to implement the new EMERGY-C palette this week to make Financial Zen a little more zen in action - losing the white space and becoming a black site.

I’m going to be late on posting this week (and until probably Monday of next week).

It’s Midterm time, and this is my first “break” of the week to write something other than notes on economics.

Coming soon: Economics and the psychology of spending!

(Note: My Personal Finances is calculated using my salary - not my wife’s income, so we’ve got a good idea what will happen after the baby’s born)

Our personal finances for the month of April - we went over by $146.11! - mainly because of our inattentiveness to our fast food fix! I’ve noticed my weight slowly declining since we noticed the unhealthy fast food trend. Our goal for this month is to keep our dining out to <$40 (I promised The Wife Sonic if we can manage our budget this month). We had a slight increase in clothing expenses - namely a couple prego clothing items (we buy mainly used - but we found a couple cheap garments we'd prefer new). We also bought sunglasses! Stylish and $10 from a mall kiosk (I love to haggle). A large chunk was dedicated to paying off bills (and knocking out some student loan).

Also increased! Medical bills! Who knew kids were so expensive? He's note even born yet and The Baby Logan is looking at a $2500 bill (possibly less).

Our gas intake is under control some - we're averaging about a tank a week (it's a long drive to the office - thank God we car pool!) My car should be back from our Friend the Mechanic this week - for a lot less then my first estimate (it was between $800-$1100). Thank God for Mechanic friends.

I’m moving to a new office closer to our home, but that could change in the coming month (I’m weighing a few job options - one is a lot closer, the other is right next door to my current location). This should effectively increase my budget - it depends on the location and pay.

Lastly - I’ve got a chart with the No Credit Needed Network! I’m anxious to update my progress - all in good time, I suppose! I’ve got a lot going on (hence my less than stellar posting) but I will not neglect writing! I’ve got a stash on incomplete writings I’ll try to have ready (and relevant) so I can hopefully keep this up every morning.