Think Outside The Piggy Bank

Monday's money question 3

Do you know your credit score?

I have to admit that I don't, although I plan on changing that. I've been assuming for a long time now that my score is probably just fine, but I'd like to know for sure. And to be honest I don't know enough about credit scores; what they mean, and what impact they have, so would like to learn more. For example, I'd always thought that having lots of credit available would be a good thing, but apparently, that isn't always the case.

I can get credit reports from TransUnion or Equifax online (today!), but will mail in a written request instead. It takes longer when you do it that way, but I don't mind because why pay when you can get it for free? In the meantime I took this credit survey that gives you your potential credit score range by answering ten quick questions. My range was between 750 and 820 (out of 850?), which I believe is good, as the higher the number, the lower risk you are to creditors. I think. Still, I'd like an official report!

Maxine: on AOL

Snort. You tell 'em Maxine!

I forgot to mention a couple of things about credit in my post yesterday. I've been noticing lately how certain credit cards are pushing us to charge for stuff like groceries and gas. I seem to remember a time (yes, I'm afraid I'm more of a fall than spring chicken) when credit cards were used mainly for emergencies and big-ticket items. Now it seems like we're encouraged to use them for just about everything. I suppose it makes sense if you're collecting air miles or participating in some other rewards system, but I'm not sure if I like this trend.

The other thing that caught my attention when I was still paying off my line of credit that I'm not sure I like either, is the change they made to the monthly minimum payment. Initially they charged 3% of the balance, but then decided that I only had to pay accrued interest. Hmmm. Seems to me that I was better off when forced to pay some of the principal (which I usually did anyway), but giving me "flexibility" (as they put it) to make an "interest only" payment was likely more for their benefit than mine.

credit card payment holiday?

So I get my VISA card statement in the mail the other day inviting me to Take a Break this month:

Because you are a valued cardholder, we would like to offer you a name of bank Visa payment holiday by waiving your minimum payment this June. Of course you may still make a payment if you wish. Standard monthly interest charges will continue to accrue and the minimum payment on your next monthly statement will be calculated in the usual way. To be eligible for this offer, your account must be in good standing.

Gee, I guess I should feel flattered being valued and in good standing and all, but this benefits me how? Sure, it might be kind of nice not to have to make a payment, but if standard monthly interest charges aren't waived either, I don't see how taking a "holiday" will help me much. Normally, I try to do the ideal thing and pay the balance in full, but my general rule of thumb is that if I can't or won't, then I'll aim to pay at least either double or triple the minimum payment. Otherwise it's kind of like riding a stationary bike -- you're moving, but going nowhere fast.

I don't find those "convenience" cheques that come from credit card institutions very convenient either since they're treated as cash advances. No thanks, I'll either use the credit card itself, or if for some odd reason really feel like writing a cheque, fill in one of my own.

Darn, guess I'm not going on holiday come July!

a clarification or two

Yikes! I lost 8 subscribers in one day? If my calculations are correct, that means that 80% of subscribers (I had 10) told me to go take a hike. At best that means you got bored, but at worst that means I offended you, and if that's the case I truly am sorry. As opinionated, and unwittingly tactless and undiplomatic as I may sometimes be concerning topics I'm passionate about, at heart I hate conflict, and don't like to unduly offend.

If it was Tuesday's post title that led you all to flee, yeah, it was probably in poor taste. But I love words, and wordplay, and sometimes get carried away without thinking about the impact. More likely, it was the post content, or maybe my tone? While I still think that in many cases how money is handled can be more important than the actual amount, I probably didn't word it well, and may have left the impression that people are always to blame for whatever financial state or predicament they're in. And that's not the case.

I also want to clarify a couple of things I mentioned in Monday's post. When I referred to myself as poor, I was basing that upon the fact that my annual net income of about $12,000 is over $5,000 lower than Statistics Canada's 2006 poverty line of approximately $17,500 for a single person in a city with a population 500,000+. Having said that, in many ways I don't consider myself poor because I'm able to pay my rent, cover my bills, indulge in a few "wants" now and then, put a bit aside, and am fortunate enough to carry no debt. In that sense, I may even be richer than most! And then there's the definition of rich. See that's part of the problem too, because we tend to throw those terms around not knowing what people actually mean when they use them. I guess for me being suspicious of those who are or want to be rich meant those having or pining for millions. That kind of money I can't even envision, and can't identify with those who can, if you know what I mean.

Like I said, if I've offended, I'm sorry. But it could also just be a lack of interest that drove you away. Have I mentioned yet that I tend to take things personally and have a bit of a thin skin? Guess I'll have to work on that.

S&M (twice)

Okay, now that I have your attention, snort, SSMM is my own financial term referring to stretching, saving, managing and making -- skills everybody needs when it comes to money. In my case, as mentioned in the previous post, I excel at stretching those slippery little dollars. I'm also good at saving and managing, but have to admit that my money-making skills pretty much suck. Still, three out of four ain't bad, and those three skills have saved my hide more than once.

Throughout this blog I hope to sprinkle tips on how to improve your stretching, saving and managing techniques (I'll leave the money-making side of things to someone more qualified), because I firmly believe that it's not what you make, but what you do with what you have that determines your (self-defined) financial success. Because let's face it, if you have difficulty managing smaller amounts of money, how will you fare when you start making more? How often haven't you heard of lottery winners gone broke? No, it's not the amount that counts, but how you manage with what you have. Learn the basic principles, and you'll do fine whatever your income level.*

* I'm obviously not talking here about people living in abject poverty where even successful managing will only take them so far.

Monday's money question 2

In response to my what is money anyway? post, a friend commented on another site and asked me:

1. what does money mean?
2. what does money mean to you?

Both good questions, and because I couldn't come up with intelligent, succinct (and possibly amusing) answers right away, I mentally filed them under the "reply when thinking cap is found" category. But the truth is that these simple looking enough questions are bigger than they appear, and one of the reasons I started this blog. The dictionary definitions of money in that post I wrote struck me as being dull and dry and lifeless. I mean they practically put me to sleep as I was writing them, so I can well imagine what it would have been like reading them. Where is the emotion I thought? The excitement, and energy and pizzazz? Because really, money CAN be pretty exciting, and if it's a major source of fighting for couples, and possibly more taboo than talking about sex (do you, like me, get a bit riled when someone straight out asks what something cost you?), then it's got to be more than what my dictionary failed to allude to.

But I still haven't answered the above questions even though I did find said cap. And that's because various posts on this blog will be my attempt to explore and find those answers. All I know for sure right now is that my relationship with money is an ambivalent one: I'm not particularly good at making it (although I excel in stretching it), tend to be suspicious of those who are or want to be rich, am wondering if I could be a poverty addict as I'm comfortable being poor (poverty being relative of course), am sometimes resentful at having to support myself (completely unreasonable I know), and am downright fascinated by how money snakes through all of our lives relatively unexamined. Where was the course The Meaning of Money that I certainly would have signed up for in school?

So bear with me, my friend, as I work my way towards those elusive and hard to pin down answers. And what about you? Have you figured it out? How would you respond to those questions? Post here if you like!

Friday for you, Sunday for me

It's odd how soon one comes to look on every minute as wasted that is given to earning one's salary. --P.G. WODEHOUSE

Funny guy that Wodehouse. But hopefully most of us don't view our jobs quite that way and have managed, or will manage, to find work that expresses our true strengths, values and interests. I haven't yet, but am lucky enough to have ample time outside of work to do what I love most: writing and photography. But speaking of odd, I'm still not used to having to gear up on a Friday to go back into work (I have a 24-hour work week compressed into two days), while others are gearing down. It's strange to begin one's job at 6:45am on Saturday and finish at 6:45pm on Sunday. Then again, it's a wonderful feeling getting up Monday morning, coffee in hand, knowing that the week stretches out in front of me while others have to head out the door. Snort.

why I "save your money" with ING

In a word? Colour.

Yep, I know, it's silly, and I'm even a bit embarrassed to admit it, but when it comes right down to it, that's the main reason. I love orange, always have (see my Flickr page for proof), and having been born in Holland, the national colour tugs at my heart as well. Almost as if I'm honouring my ethnic roots somehow. Because really, at 3%, their interest rate isn't great anymore (in fact, it's pretty lousy), and I'm sure there are oodles of places where it's higher. So my reasons aren't as strictly financial (some would say not even rational) as it was when I first signed up. But I stick with them because I like their newsletter (orange and filled with Dutch trivia!), like their commercials, like the actor they hired (that pure Dutch accent, by the way, is very different from the Dutch-Canadian landed immigrant accent, both of which I can recognize within two seconds), like their fun automatic savings plan goal setter which tells you how long it will take to reach your desired amount depending on how much you're stashing away, and of course, the colour.

how not to grow one's blog

(Warning: post to be read tongue-in-cheek. No cheating allowed!)

You may have noticed that I recently added the cute little orange RSS button to my page, and am now also proudly showing off the number of subscribers in the equally cute feedburner box. That got me to thinking that I should investigate how one "grows" a blog, and I'm glad I did, because according to a number of scallywag sources (see skelliewag's excellent post), I'm doing it ALL wrong. Snort.

Apparently no self-respecting blogger posts their count number until it reaches a number they can be proud of. This number could be 100, 300, or 1000, but definitely not 7. Seven, although considered a lucky number in many other respects, is decidedly not lucky in growing one's blog. I'm also guilty of not putting it in the proper place (where exactly IS above the fold?), am not letting people subscribe by email (okay, maybe I'll change that), am not welcoming people at the beginning of every post, and am not begging (er, politely asking) readers at the end of each post to subscribe.

I'm amiss in many other ways as well. My online social networking skills, as it turns out, are about as good as my offline ones. Hmmm, that's definitely not promising. I shall make amends and do more linking, commenting, and perhaps start a blogroll. My blog itself has key flaws too, notably that it doesn't have a well-defined target audience, and covers too many topics. Passion, purpose and creativity will have to be set free if I want the blog to be more focused. Even "fascination with all things money" is probably too broad. Oh dear.

My posts too, are problematic. Too long (Internet readers are NOT readers, but skimmers), not value-packed enough, lacking in content, and lacking catchy titles. The one thing I have done right I believe, is to keep my blog looking nice and clean. Although, it really does look like a regular blog, and not a website that would have readers think of me as an authority. A popular authority at that.

Which leads me back to my 7 (has it gone down already?!) readers. Even if you're not a number I'm supposed to be proud of, I actually am, because I value every person who makes me think that I'm not just writing into thin air. I appreciate every visit, every comment (I'm quite friendly, so come and join the backstage fun!), and every subscription. I will also continue to reflect and post on most of the topics mentioned in my bio, because they're all important, they're all connected, and I can't help but think that readers of this blog will be as multi-faceted as the blog itself.

So welcome, old and new readers. I look forward to getting to know you better. And because I really wouldn't mind a bigger readership, I may even award prizes to the 10th and 100th subscribers! So, um, click the orange button if you don't mind. Please?

techno gadgets I DON'T have

Well, it would probably be easier to list the ones I DO have, but not as much fun, snort. Oh, while I'm at it, I might as well include some services I don't subscribe to either:

• cell phone
• iPhone
• iPod
• BlackBerry
• Palm Pilot
• MP3 player
• Kindle
• TiVo
• satellite dish
• cable (nope, not even the basic package)
• laptop
• inkjet printer
• LCD monitor
• LCD HDTV
• high-speed Internet access
• Wii
• Playstation
• camcorder
• text messaging
• IM
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter
• Netflix
• RSS news reader (ha, figured I'd better get this as I offer a feed myself)
• Digg (okay, guess I should learn how to digg and stumble after all)
• Vista (gotta love those Mac vs PC commercials!)
• Photoshop
• Gmail
• and others that I've either forgotten or don't know about

I also apologize for any misspellings because frankly, while I'm still in confession mode, I'm not even sure what all of the above are. I just know that I don't have 'em. What does that leave me with? Let's see:

1. portable phone (but only in the last few years)
2. DSL Internet connection
3. huge honking monitor taking up way too much space
4. dot matrix printer (don't laugh!)
5. VCR which doesn't work
6. DVD player (also in the last couple of years)
7. Fuijifilm FinePix S700 camera (a gift)
8. CD player (yay, don't have to use my TV to listen to CDs anymore!)
9. 20" Citizen TV with 4 channels (reception varies according to strategic placement)
10. and any other items I can't remember

Am I bragging in reverse? Okay, maybe just a little. And what do the above lists mean? That I'm:

• older?
• behind the times?
• a Luddite?
• hopelessly technologically illiterate?
• poor?
• left with more in my wallet?
• at least 3 of the above?
• all of the above?

Dear reader, I shall leave that up to you.