Making Sense and Losing Cents of the Economy

Like everyone else who has a dime or more invested in equities, I’m concerned about the future of the stock market. Whenever the market looks so bleak, everyone is concerned. And that’s usually the best time to invest. Yet with my yearly investments becoming more sizable, this feels a lot like Las Vegas. Even with diversification, it doesn’t help when all (or most) stocks are on red.

After receiving my paycheck for the past months and reimbursed expenses, I realized that I’m sitting on $16k liquid in my checking account. Part of me hates writing about this because I know I’m so lucky to have the luxury to ask the question “where should I invest?” But this may also be a temporary income boost and I want to invest wisely.

Yesterday, I pulled out my social security statement and studied my yearly income since 2002. Other than last year, I made somewhere between $0 and $25,000 each year. Last year, I broke $60k for a full year’s worth of work. This year as of Sept 1, even with 2 months of unemployment (unpaid), I have earned around $70k this year. And with the way some contracts are shaping up, I expect to make an additional $10k to $30k by the end of the year. So now I face the unlikely problem in a time of economic crisis – what do I do with all this money?

The easy answer is: spend it. Not on wasteful purchases, but things that I need or will need soon. I could buy a new car, or a “new” used car. Or I could invest in property somewhere (though that requires stable long-term income, which I am not confident I’ll have, especially with my plans to go back to school in the next two years.) So where do I put the excess cash?

I’ve already maxed out my IRA and will, within this month, max out my 401k (no match, bummer.) I will likely put another $2000 in my HSA which is invested in very low-risk funds. My IRA is in Sharebuilder and I bought 5 funds – the gold ETF, the silver ETF, two high-dividend ETFs and a REIT ETF. My 401k is invested in a mix of equities and bonds, and I’m not clear what is in it exactly. With a large chunk of my savings this year going into my 401k, I’m concerned that in the next ten years we’ll have deflation, high taxes, and my 401k will turn to mush.

But I’m willing to take that risk with $16.5k because it could be a very good time to invest as well. I’m just not sure I can stomach taking that risk with more money. Not without understanding the real economic situation in this country and the world. History doesn’t always repeat itself, or even if it does it may take a longer time to turn around. I’m young now, I can handle that, but if the next 5-10 years will be lost decade #2, why should I play?

The whole media fueling the fire is disturbing as well. I can’t tell how much of the stocks slipping these days is all the fear stories about how bad the economy is doing. It’s a domino effect that goes in a circle downward. What if all the news resources lied and said the economy was turning around and there’s a ray of sunshine close ahead? If people would invest and spend money than… well, that seems to be the only way to dig ourselves out of this mess right now. I don’t know if I agree with that, but what else can we do? We need people spending again so companies will start hiring again. That’s how capitalism works, right?

But it will take a long time to trickle down to lower and middle classes. The media couldn’t lie for that long. News would get out that the future is not so sunny. And everything would crash again.

Or you can just – apparently – print money until the cows come home and thus make every dollar worth less and less and less. That can’t be a good thing.

Right now lots of big names in economics are saying that we may have a “double dip recession” or – worse? – a depression… because we never actually recovered from the first recession. I wish I understood economics jargon more so I could make sense of this, this, this and this ... and the thousands of other economic gloom and doom stories I'm reading.

Any feedback from those of you out there who are more economically savvy?

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3 NSF Fees from Bank for Same Transaction: The appropriate acronym is WTF

My bank (which will remain nameless) charges me a $35 fee when I don't have enough funds to cover a transaction. Normally I'd say -- ok, that's a bit steep, but it's my fault for sending out a check that I can't cover with funds in my account. But this summer things got a bit wonky.

For work I need to put all of my expenses on my card and then get them reimbursed. I ended up spending a lot more than I expected and although my American Express payment wasn't due, I wanted to make sure it was paid of asap. For some reason I thought I had enough money in my account to cover the $3500 payment. Well, I didn't. I found this out by seeing a $35 charge on my account activity page. Crap, I thought to myself, I can't believe I just wasted $35. So I was going to let it slide.

Then, two days later, I saw another $35 fee. I called up my bank to find out what's up. Apparently American Express is allowed to automatically try to get the payment through a bunch of times, and each time they try it hits my account with a $35 fee. I called up American Express and they told me that once I approved the payment, it's all done automatically, and I had to wait for it to be denied.

So I called up my bank account and after a few minutes of begging got them to remove one of the $35 fees. I hoped that American Express would be done with the requests for payment, but a few days later another one showed up on my account. I called my bank again and the conversation went something like this:

"Can you waive the $35 fee because I am already paying a $35 fee for that transaction. I now have the money in there to pay for the entire American Express payment and then some. I'm a good customer (yada yada) so can you help me out this one time?"

"No, sorry, it won't let me do that, we already removed one fee."

"But it's for the same transaction. It didn't even pay it, it was returned to American Express. I will probably have a fee from them as well."

"I'm sorry it's all automated there's nothing I can do... ... ... unless ... unless you have some sort of hardship, are unemployed or something...?"

(A pause. I wonder how much I should stretch the truth)

"Well, my job is ending soon" I started, adding "my job is ending next week."

"You should call us back next week," she starts.

"What? This is ridiculous." I brought out my inner actress here. "My job is ending... next week, and you can't put that I'm unemployed now? I will be unemployed next week. On..."

"Today is your last day?" she adds, as if trying to help me through my lie.

"Yes, I don't have work on Monday," I said, "today is my last day."

"Let me see if that will work," she said. A few seconds later I had my $35 refund.

So... does this make me a bad person? Truth is I AM losing my job next month unless my contract gets renewed. Not on Monday, but fairly soon after. Really, though, I figure I'm paying the one $35 fee for my stupidity and the bank does not deserve a cent more.

Since fairness has nothing to do with bank fees, I also take a little consolation in knowing I'm heavily investing in bank stocks. If they're going to get bailed out by the government and charge ridiculous fees, I'm going to get in on that action.

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Eat. Pay. Money can't buy you Love.

Life has been too busy, for better or worse, to update this blog as frequently as I have in the past. Mostly, though, I'm afraid of being found out -- I know far too many people who are experts in finding things online accidentally or otherwise, thus I'm concerned about writing details of my professional or fiscal life at this point to identify myself. Heck, one gal who read my livejournal for a few years guessed this was me just by my writing style and some other details. What, am I the only insecure yet semi successful gal who writes in run-on sentences in this world?

In any case, it's time for a real update. I'll take my chances and hope that I don't say anything too incriminating here to get me into trouble in the real world.

This summer I spent most of my time traveling for a business trip, and then a short vacation since I was already abroad and needed a breather. The best part about it -- other than seeing some cool new places and having great professional opportunities -- was how much money I made in a month. I ended up working extremely long hours and billed about two months worth of work in one month's time -- which is especially great since my contract will be expiring soon and it's not sure yet whether it will be renewed.

I'm not too concerned on that front, though. I've already made more money this year than I did last year, even with just seven months of work. I also have a few startup projects that I'm working on which are extra income streams -- though they're more to keep me sane (I can't just work on one thing at a time) than for the money. Then again, I've found consulting in my field can be quite lucrative. Sure, self employment tax sucks, but once you can call yourself an expert in something you can get away with charging enough to cover that and then some. What I really love about those jobs, though, is the ability to work from home. I'm so much less anxious at home so I get much more done and do better work. Ultimately, I'd like to find a full-time job or consulting work that I can do mostly at home.

That brings me to my current plan to actually apply to graduate school this year. It's definitely the right time for me to do this, if I'm going to ever go to grad school. I'm 26 and I'm not getting any younger. I want to have my graduate degree by the time I'm 30 and given that a few programs I'm looking at are 3 years long, it's now or never. And now is a great time... I don't have an extended full-time job (even if my contract does get renewed it will end in another six months) and my consulting projects could feasibly continue into grad school if my bosses feel I add enough value to the company, and ideally I could work a few hours a week to cover some of my basic expenses outside of loans.

Still, I wonder if grad school has a place in my life. This year (not counting my two months of unemployment) I would have made over $120k -- most graduate programs, even top-ranking ones, boast that their graduates that are on the high end of the salary scale score jobs that pay that must post graduation. Of course, the reason for me to go to grad school isn't exactly for salary alone... it's about having more flexibility in my career, more respect, and more knowledge. I just wonder how much that's worth... because I seem to be doing ok so far -- which I'm proud of and also somewhat guilty about, given the state of the economy. I certainly don't feel like I deserve the income... yet I know I'm most comfortable in the upper middle class, and I don't expect my boyfriend to ever get me there. It's all on me.

My goal this year was to end 2010 with a net worth of $100k. Even though I've been making a lot and saving a lot, the stock market (as we all know) is not doing well enough to boost my savings to that goal. Right now it looks like I might hit $80k... which means I would have saved $30k this year (not so bad.) I might be able to make it to $100k if some of these side projects work out, but that's all up in the air. It's tough because some weeks I love working the extra hours and other weeks I just wish I had time to have a life! For instance, I've been spending all day working... instead of hanging out with my boyfriend and enjoying the nice weather. Hopefully I'll have a few hours away from the computer tomorrow.

I have a hard time sticking to my goals because everything in life is so transient. Working for a big corporation has been a great learning experience, but I also struggle to find motivation in working for 'the bottom line' when even my direct superiors and their superiors don't have a lot of say in what we're doing. I definitely like working for smaller companies where you have a say. Then again, in a bigger company it's a bit easier to just hang on for the ride... do what you're told... which is nice sometimes. But not what I want to be doing for the rest of my life.

Well, I have to get back to work. I don't know if anyone still reads this blog since I never update, but if you do say hi as knowing folks still read will encourage me to write more. :)

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Overfunding my Retirement Contributions?

This year I've done much better than in previous years, so I decided to get a jump on my retirement savings. I'm maxing out my 401k and my IRA. I still don't know if I'll qualify for the Roth IRA or not (depends on whether I keep my job through Oct, Nov & Dec) so right now I have a regular IRA and I'll reclassify if needed at the end of the year.

What I'm most excited about is being able to max my 401k. My company doesn't match but the good news is that I'm funding the 401k in preparation of a Roth conversion. Being 26, I have plenty of time to let the tax laws work their magic. Sure, $13k is not a huge amount of money, but that's a good thing because I'll still have to pay taxes on it when I convert. I plan to wait to the year I go to grad school to do all the conversions because surely I'll be making very little money then, if any, and be in a low tax bracket.

Now if only my boyfriend would start saving for retirement, I'd worry a bit less about it.

I'm also a little concerned that I'll never be able to afford a house, but oh well, at least at this rate I should be able to retire. Hopefully I'll live that long.

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Contemplating a Serious Career Change

Maybe it's because I'm an INFP with ADHD, but I always feel the need for a career shift every couple of years. I get bored at jobs but that's not the only reason I look for a change. There is something missing at every job I've had so far and what that thing is becomes clearer as I get older. That thing is feeling like I'm helping people.

Of all the jobs I've had so far, the moments I've liked most were when I felt most connected to my "NF" side. Admin? Hated data entry. Liked answering questions when people needed help. Retail? Hated "selling." Loved helping people shop for something that fit what they wanted. PR? Hated "pitching." Liked helping journalists get the information they need. Journalism? Liked when I got to write articles to give a voice to people in the local newspaper who otherwise wouldn't be heard. Disliked when my whole job was getting stories first about corporate drama. Marketing? Well, it's hard to find a lot to like here in this sense. I do enjoy the strategy end of things, but I'm lacking motivation to promote something that doesn't benefit people in any way. Notice a trend?

This has me sitting here, wondering if I have gone the entirely wrong direction with my life. I'm "only" 26 but some jobs out there require years of training... a high GPA... and a whole lot of commitment. The worst thing is that now I am making really good money. That would be great if I loved my job, but it's hard to stop everything and go into debt for another x number of years of school to ultimately learn less money. My secret TJ side is screaming "that's stupid!"

One of the fields I'm tossing around is nursing. If I like helping people so much, and I like jobs that are fairly high paced, why not be a nurse? I always wanted to have a job where I could be special and different. Being a nurse is not about you at all. It's a job just like any other job. But where I'd never get recognized by the masses, I'd be recognized for helping people every single day. Would that be enough to make me happy? Maybe.

The only thing I know is that if i keep on the route I'm on now, well, I'm looking at doing what I do best... getting fired, or laid off, or quitting, and being depressed, but too scared to change my track, and then managing to find something else that is "better" in theory (better pay, more reasonability) but worse in getting me closer to career happiness. If that exists.

There are other things I'm interested in... especially psychology... and if I'm going to be a nurse why not just go for the PsyD? Or, heck, get a postbac in premed and go to school for 12 years to become a psychiatrist? It feels too late for all of that. And I don't want to kid myself. I'm definitely interested in psychology, but I'm also not a good test taker and I'm of average or only slightly above average intelligence and below average focus and motivation. I'm on a roll right now faking it in the field I'm in, why change? -- and, granted, I don't totally fake it - but I feel like a big phony. But... if I have one life... why give up a chance to feel like I'm helping people every day? Wouldn't that be worth more than any salary?

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IRA or 401k? Is it too late?

When I realized I would be earning too much this year to qualify for a Roth IRA, I cried a little bit. Ok, that's overly dramatic, but I have been so proud of myself for saving my pennies each year of my $20k to $50k / year income to max out my Roth IRA that I felt a little empty knowing my savings this year could not be invested in tax-free growth.

So I thought I'd do the second-best thing... open a traditional IRA and deduct the money now, pay taxes on it later. Not the best option in the world, but at least I'd get to deduct the money from my rather high single tax rate.

This morning I found out that I was completely wrong about that. I admit it's my fault for not doing my research appropriately, but now I'm totally bummed. Apparently the income you're allowed to have to get the benefits of a traditional IRA is LOWER than that of a Roth IRA. This makes absolutely no sense to me right now because why would anyone want to invest in a traditional IRA if you are in a low-ish tax bracket?

I guess if you do not have a retirement plan at work you are allowed to deduct up to $5k for your traditional IRA in each tax year. Funny how this is the first year of my life I will have access to a retirement plan... a 401k (no match or anything, of course, god forbid I work for a company that would match my contributions.) I signed up for it, and I am supposed to start making contributions in mid July. I wanted to max out my 401k and my IRA for the maximum deduction to reduce my AGI. But it looks like that's not happening.

The only reason I can see a traditional IRA having some benefit is that I think I can still put up to $5k in there each year and $16.5k into the 401k and later, when I'm not making a lot of money over the year, I can convert both of those accounts to a Roth IRA and pay taxes in a lower tax bracket. Given that I obviously don't understand tax law very well, I may be off on this logic as well. At least then I can see why a traditional IRA has some value. But as this conversion thing is fairly new - why would anyone want to open a traditional IRA? Is there ever a good reason for this?

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Mint's "Goals" Depress Me.

It's been a while since I've written on here because I've been so busy lately. Which is a good thing. I'm working a full-time job, spending some time on a side project, and not spending all that much money. All in all, I'm doing "good." Heck, I'm doing amazing right now in relation to how I've done at any point in my life before - financially, personally, etc.

Yet I feel so far away from reaching any of my goals. Mint's new Goals feature makes my future look terribly bleak. Especially given that my current salary -- of about $120k per year, give or take -- is temporary at best -- and even WITH that salary I can't save enough to reach my "goals." At least according to Mint.

I made four different goals for myself...

Emergency Fund -- I have my $8k in that, and it's the only goal I'll reach.

Save for Grad School -- I need to save $110k, I've saved $1.4k. Yikes. At this rate I'll go to to grad school by the time I'm 90.

Buy a Home? Yea, right. I need to save $207k for a downpayment. I haven't really saved anything for a downpayment yet, but I'm counting my various non retirement investment as savings for a downpayment (which, it is if I ever want to buy a house.) Ok, so how much do I have saved now? A whopping $13k. Mint so nicely reminds me that I'm "4 years and 10 months behind" my savings goal. Granted, I wrote that I want to buy a million dollar house - but that's not unreasonable where I live. That's a pretty small house where I live. And I'll never do it. Ok, so I'll rent forever. Or I need to more to Kansas (I guess I'm renting forever.)

Retirement? Well, I'm doing OK on that goal. It doesn't LOOK like I'm doing ok since according to Mint I need to save $6,362,665 by the time I'm 65 to hit my retirement goals. Yikes. Yea, so that's giving me $80k per year in retirement income and I doubt I'll need that much money when I retire, but I wouldn't mind having it. I have $22.8k saved so far, at 26. You may say I don't REALLY have $22.8k saved because that money will probably have to go to the down payment on my house one day when/if I want to buy one. Which SUCKS because I don't want my retirement savings to go back to zero.

I know it's good to be honest with yourself about your goals and how much you have to save, but really this is just terribly depressing. And as I contemplate seriously applying for graduate school next year, I am forced with knowing that grad school will make my goals even further from ever becoming a reality. It almost makes me want to give up. I'll never own a house and never have enough for retirement. I'll be lucky if I can buy myself another car when this one dies.

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Is Capitalism Evil?

I'm a little late to the table on this question, but is Capitalism evil? My boyfriend and I watched the Michael Moore film Capitalism a few days ago and have been arguing since. My boyfriend believes the whole capitalism is evil argument, while I'm torn. It is a system based on greed and greed ultimately equals corruption (because that's just the way people are), however it's the best system I know. That's not saying it's the right way to have an economy.

If my boyfriend had his way, he'd live in a real communist society. One where everyone really gets exactly the same. His happiness will never come from material goods. He could live in a cardboard box and be perfectly happy as long as he had the freedom to live as he chooses and more importantly that he knows everyone else is equally compensated.

I, on the other hand, live my life squeezing out pennies from my salary, negotiating for higher pay, working long hours at two jobs to earn as much income in as little time so I can put it into the stock market and other less risky savings vehicles and have compound interest hopefully work it's magic for the future. It's not that I need a lot of money to be happy... I more so need a lot of money to feel comfortable. Maybe that's the evils of capitalism telling their story.

My boyfriend likes to compare Hitler killing all the Jews to capitalism, because in a capitalist society you have the super rich and then everyone else is poor, and there's very little in between. As a Jew, I kind of take offense to this argument. I don't think it's the same thing at all. In Capitalism, everyone DOES have a chance to succeed. Not everyone will. Some people do have an unfair advantage. But no one is taking masses of people and killing them in gas chambers. The comparison is unexcusable.

But -- I'm not sure where I stand on the whole capitalism thing. If I knew that I could make less money but have stability over the years (a pension, enough to buy a house, live a decent life, take vacations every few years) then maybe I wouldn't be so set in supporting capitalism. The only way I can see living that life is through capitalism now. Even if I'm able to sock away $50k per year after tax for the rest of my life, it will take me 20 years to become a millionaire. I'll be 46. That's not so bad, but that also means that I will need to keep renting an apartment with roommates, will need to keep working two jobs with one of them being for a large corporation that can afford to pay a 6 figure contractor salary, and I'll have to sacrifice much of my life for work.

At least with the stock market there's the chance that those 20 years can be shorter, or that I can save less each year and through compound interest have my million or two million in retirement. I know I won't have a pension. I don't know how much social security will be around by the time I retire. I can't lead a comfortable life unless I know I can save money and have it grow.

Ok, so the biggest argument in the movie that I can say my boyfriend and I agree on is that politicians shouldn't be allowed to be funded by private corporations. That really is just asking for corruption. It doesn't even help the small businesses because the only companies who can afford to have major influence are the ones who are already super rich.

But I don't want to live in a communist society. I like making money. It seems that's the only thing I'm passionate about these days. I don't even like spending money anymore. The more I make, the less I want to spend, because I'm able to start saving thousands of dollars a year. My goal this year is for my networth to go from $50k to $100k. And what's amazing is that it's possible. I'm one of the lucky ones, sure, but I'm still working two jobs. I'm still finding out what my skills are and applying them to roles where I can make a decent wage. I still know that I can lose my job at any second, so I have a sizable emergency fund, and I don't have debts so if I need to cut back on my spending I could feasibly live off $1,000 a month. I wouldn't get to save any more, but I wouldn't be losing money. I wouldn't be evicted.

Maybe I can't understand yet because I don't have a family. I'm sure it's a lot harder with kids. I have so much freedom as a single person to say I can live on $1k a month. But that's why I believe in spending your 20s earning as much as possible and saving as much as possible. Living as cheaply as possible. Work hard now, play later. Hope the stock market doesn't completely crash. That's my motto. Does that make me a capitalist? Eh, I guess so. Will my boyfriend ever understand? I think not.

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The Value of Each Second

I've been making an insane amount of money so far this year. I still owe taxes on my freelance earnings, but I'd guestimate I've taken in about $30k so far.

But I still feel empty. I'm not saying a job is supposed to give me my ultimate fulfillment in life, but I'd like to feel proud of what I do. I work for a very cool company but ultimately I am not a huge fan of the product I'm paid to promote. I'm given very little power to impact the product, so all I can do is work with what exists. And that's not the easiest job. That's why they pay me so much.

Still, I don't know how long I can do this successfully. After less than two months in the role, I feel myself lost for what to do. My contract ends about half way through the year, so my goal is to make it that far. If I can do that, I'll have earned at least the amount I earned for an entire year of work in 2009. Sure, I won't make my $100k Net Worth goal by the end of the year, but I'd be doing ok.

I just want a job that I feel like I can DO a good job at. I like feeling like I've accomplished something, and it's a lot easier to do this with a product that is useful. Ultimately, I think the only way I could ever really be happy in a work environment is if I have a say in the product and get to help make it useful. Not just to market whatever it is.

Ok, so I'm not destined to be a marketer. I've done a good job marketing myself and getting this far. But my introverted and honest nature makes me struggle with any sort of promotion. It's even harder that my role requires me to be "honest" and seem like I'm not promoting a product. Instead, I have to actually like the product and talk about it like I use it all the time. That could be a lot of fun if it were true. The problem is that it's not, and I can't bring myself to flat out lie.

The good news is that I'm strongly leaning towards applying to graduate school for 2011. I see no reason to put it off any longer. I'm still terrified of the debt I'll rack up (my top choice program is $33k a year for two years, not including room & board, yikes! so long savings!) and even more terrified that I'll find out what I want to study isn't right for me either. And it's still hard to justify going to grad school when I could have $100k+ in the bank instead of -/~0.

But everyday I am anxious because I can't do my job well. Because whatever my boss asks me to do, I am unsure how to do it properly. Because I'm not really good at my job. And if I'm going to manage to survive my life, I need a job I can be good at. Really good at. I'm looking forward to the day I figure out what that is.

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Which Credit Card Should I Use for Business Expenses?

Over the years, I've accumulated my fair share of credit cards. I was lured in by cash back programs in the olden days when they were actually giving decent cash back rewards, so I have Chase Freedom and American Express Blue Cash cards. I also have a Chase Amazon card, a Bank of America card (my first credit card), a Macy's card, a Bloomingdales card, and an Express card, oh, and a shiny red Virgin America card that has a lot of miles on it I haven't used yet.

Lately, though, I've faced a new kind of credit card spending that I'm not sure how to approach. I work for a company that requires their employees to pay for all their expenses up front. While for small expenses this isn't a huge deal, I'm talking international trips here. Thousands of dollars. On my credit card bill.

Now, the good thing about this is I can rack up miles fairly quickly, and ultimately I'm not paying for the travel, I'm just paying up front. I am sure I will be reimbursed. It still concerns me that this is on a credit card under my name just in case there is a delay in that. But this is for a large, trustworthy company so I don't foresee this being an issue.

What I'd like to get your advice/opinions on is...

1) Should I put all my travel on one of my cash back cards (like the American Express Blue Cash) so I actually reach the 5% cash back after $6500 spent, even though now it's only for purchases like gas and stuff?

2) Should I open a mileage card on United or Continental, esp now that they're merged? I hate the annual fees for the mileage cards... they just seem so stupid. With the processing fees they charge to book flights now with frequent flier miles, is it even worth it?

3) Should I get a business credit card (like the American Express Gold Business Card?) These cards also have annual fees (even higher than the mileage cards) but they do, at least, keep my business expenses in a separate account. It's just, for the sake of the expenses spending, I don't really own a business. I'm a W2 consultant. Not a contractor. I do have a side business but have yet so spend any money on it, except car mileage. Maybe I would if I get a business credit card. But are the benefits/rewards really worth it? Also, I read that you have less protection on a business card. That scares me. What if it gets stolen when I'm traveling or something? I do like the peace of mind that I have with consumer credit cards while traveling. I'd have those too, but what if a business credit card was lost?

Any other ideas? I'm worried about having too many cards because it will do something to my credit history. I am not sure what, though.

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