First Visit With a Financial Planner

Last month I took advantage of the library's free session with a financial planner. It was valuable, but did not go exactly as I had planned. I had prepared (of course) in advance an overview of my investments. I thought it was very organized. I arranged all my investments by category (small cap, large cap, etc.) and calculated the % of my portfolio in each. Well when the adviser saw my spreadsheet, his eyes glazed over and he told me it was too hard to understand. He thought I had too many accounts and too many investments. So we spent the whole time talking about how I could consolidate accounts. To me this seems like just an organizational thing, not really something that's going to affect my return. I had hoped we could talk about asset allocation. But we never really got around to that.

I have followed his advice and consolidated some accounts. I combined an old SEP IRA into a rollover IRA. I also rolled over my old 401K into my existing Rollover IRA prior to the meeting. Finally, I moved a small taxable account from one brokerage into the larger taxable account at my other brokerage. I closed a savings account too. As a result, I have 4 fewer accounts than before.

I am contemplating whether I want to pay for some time with this or another adviser.

The one piece of advice that he did give me was that he thought there would be some volatility soon, so I don't feel guilty about having a large cash position. I'll probably invest it on the next dip.

The Great TV Experiment

So I think I've mentioned that I have an old school CRT television. I have lately been thinking about whether I should upgrade and also how I can cut my annoying cable bill, since I basically just watch reruns of a few shows. I decided to buy a Roku box. I just set it up. It is so cute and small and super easy to install. I also installed a wireless router. I love that I can use Roku with my current old TV. I feel guilty getting rid of a TV that works perfectly well for no reason. It's wasteful.
Now I can keep my old TV, but jump into the 21st century w/ Roku. I'm going to get the Netflix on demand and Hulu Plus accounts and see if I can just live off that for TV. If I can, it's bye-bye cable!
I'll still have to pay for an Internet connection, but I'm hoping I can cut the bill down at least in half from about $100 now to $50.

Networth

I updated my NetworthIQ entry for Q1. Things look really good. I almost hate saying that because I don't want to jinx it! But basically since I started to be so super organized with my finances in 2008 (after finishing grad school), I've managed to put away a good chunk of money each quarter. So I guess I can be less superstitious because really it's about hard work, the boring day in and day out of making good financial decisions and staying on top of myself to stay organized and on course. I think anyone who manages to save any money at all should take time to feel proud of themselves, because we all know, it's not easy. Most people don't manage to do it at all.

You know you think about personal finance too much when . . .

You are reading a very engaging novel and the main character mentions that he wishes he had more money, and you later think to yourself about how he shouldn't go out to eat so often!

Leakage

Leakage sounds kind of gross, right? It is an annoying concept. Phone companies use it to describe calls that are routed through their networks that they don't end up charging customers for. Kind of like falling through the cracks. I started to realize that I've found some of those charges in my financial life. I'm now in the process of trying to fix them. Examples:

Old tickets -- I have a bus ticket from October that I never used. I have to try to get it as a credit. This is either $50 or $100.
401K fees -- Thanks to Mint.com, I've realized how much my old plan provider is charging me. I'm in the process of rolling it over to my existing IRA.
$ in FSA -- I think the deadline is about up on this. It's only $13, but still. It's my money!
Library fines -- Luckily I don't let these get too high, but I still end up paying some (less than $5 usually)
Health care -- I've made some mistakes here. First, I've been paying more than I need to for my scripts by not using mail order. Sent in the form for my one drug, so that should change soon.
Also, I bought my contacts through my doctor, who does not accept my discount plan. Finally, when I got said contacts, I ruined two pairs by leaving them sitting for weeks (they were all folded up and I couldn't undo them without tearing them).
Financial fees -- This category is pretty low, but I recently paid $10 because my National Grid bill did not get paid last month because in the process of closing my Chase account for charging me fees, the bill slipped through the cracks.
$ in non-interest bearing accounts -- Right now, I've got a lot of this. I'm in the process of trying to re-evaluate my asset allocation and make new investments, to ensure that my money is working for me.

When I add all of these up, I bet they come to a few hundred dollars. Oy vey. I'm happy to have identified them and have started fixing at least some of them.

Kicking it 1990s Style

So if a thief walked into my apartment looking to score some sweet electronics, I think they would be highly disappointed. First, they would be daunted by the massive CRT television sitting on my little wooden stand. Who still has those and how could I possibly get that down 4 flights of stairs, the thief might ask, reflecting on how s/he probably has a better TV at home. Sure, I have a laptop. It's actually an expensive one. I didn't know any better and asked my IT guy when I left my job to freelance/go to grad school what kind I should get. So I've got an IBM T60 that costs $1K. Pretty sure it's the most expensive thing in my apartment. But, it's old, as far as computers go. I bought it in 2006. It runs Microsoft Office 2003. Probably Windows 2003 too, I'm not even sure. The only other electronics are an iPod nano, which I carry with me, so my robber wouldn't be able to access it. My mom got me a nice Bose docking station several years ago, to I have that. I also have a small digital camera that was not very expensive.

Overall, the items that I just named I purchased over a 5 year period and cost a total of about $1500 (the TV was free, as was the Bose sounddock).

This year I am thinking about buying some new gadgets -- currently vacillating between an iPad and a Kindle. I really want an eReader of some type, but then I see how expensive the ebooks are and I lose my enthusiasm. I'm a pretty avid library user, so this would add a new budget line item. Right now I pretty rarely buy books.

I also think about ditching the old CRT for a flat screen, mostly so I could cut the cord on cable and just get HDMI cables to watch shows online on my TV. I'd probably subscribe to Hulu Plus and maybe buy a Roku box. I am tempted, but also kind of waiting for the technology to catch up. Also, something about the experience of putting on the TV and just kind of watching whatever I find is attractive to me.

Whatever I do buy, the prices for TVs and eReaders have come down a lot since they were first introduced, so I'm glad that I've waited.

What I Am Grateful For

I started reading a new book which could loosely be categorized in the personal finance genre. It is called Peace and Plenty by Sarah Ban Breathnach. I got it because it sounded like a fascinating money story -- she made and lost a fortune. But there's a lot of self-help type advice in it that I thought was cheesy at first, but now I think I find kind of valuable. One concept she talks about is gratitude, and making a list of things that you are grateful for in terms of money. So I thought about it and this is what I came up with:

1. I am grateful I do not own a house -- I never have to worry about some big housing related emergency expense that will cost me thousands of dollars in one go, or about my property taxes going up, or whether the homeless shelter they are opening in my neighborhood is going to bring down the value of my property, or feel like I am trapped and can't move for a dream job, or any other reason, or freak out that I sunk my life savings into an asset that has lost more than 1/2 of it's value.
2. I am grateful that I have low expenses -- I have kept my expenses low which gives me a lot of flexibility. If I want to blow some money on clothes or makeup, etc. each month, I can. I never feel deprived, because I can always treat myself without having to sacrifice savings.
3. I am grateful that I can afford good medical care -- I go to a homeopath/therapist. She is really helping me grow as a person. She is expensive. $200 an hour and I go once a week. Insurance covers part of this, but I spent almost 2K last year on her. But I can afford to. Also, if something horrible happens to me, I have long-term disability insurance so that should give me some financial resources.
4. I am grateful that I can afford to travel. I keep praying that the value of the dollar holds up so I can continue to travel internationally. I have seen how challenging it can be for people of developing countries to travel outside their country, even if they are middle or upper middle class, just because of the currency.
5. I am grateful that I had a good example of how to save. My grandmother is a saver, probably more on the stingy side actually, and my mom is a saver. It's like a religion. I was born into it and never questioned it. I'm happy that's my DNA and not to overspend.

I am grateful that I have a lot to be grateful for!