January 2009 found Mr. T graduated and thrown into a pool of software developers without jobs. Unfortunately for him, he also had no full-time experience. He found himself applying for the same entry-level jobs for which people with 10-15 years of experience were also applying. Everyone was desperate. I wasn’t much help since I was still a graduate student working on my thesis and Penny was less than one year old. To help expedite Mr. T’s job offers, we moved into my parents’ beach house on the Oregon coast so Mr. T could be within driving distance of the Portland and Seattle metro areas. Within a month of moving in, all the big tech companies in Oregon and Washington had announced layoffs. What we thought would be a 2-4 week stay in the beach house became a more permanent housing situation as we faced the uncertainty ahead. We counted ourselves among the 30+% of millennials living with parents (though not technically with my parents).
Category: Personal Finance Page 5 of 6
“It’s okay. We just kissed a little. No big deal.” I can’t imagine Mr. T would take that well if it ever came up in a conversation. We know honesty in marriage is important. And we know that cheating is wrong. But somehow, finances get left out of those discussions. Did you know there is a term called “financial infidelity”? Do you know what it means? Secrets. Money and sex are tricky. We like them, but we don’t like talking about them. When we get married, we just expect both to happen without discussing either of them. But there’s one difference: with sex, we know there shouldn’t be any secrets. In money, there isn’t a consensus about secrets. In fact, 33% of people admitted lying to their spouses about finances. And that’s just the people that admitted it!
Yes, Mr. T and I are on the road to financial awesomeness. But our road is different and complicated because we’re already down a path. So we have to chip our path over to the one of financial awesomeness. We already got a job, bought a house, and started living on nearly all the income we made. Those things don’t allow for a simple path. But what about you? I hear you are about to get your first job out of college! Congrats! That’s an exciting adjustment! I bet you’re looking forward to actually making real money! And guess what? I have great news for you! Your path to financial awesomeness is completely simple! Let me tell you about the magic number:$23,500. Let me suggest that you take whatever offer you are given for your next job and subtract $23,500. Just pretend it isn’t part of the package. Wait, wait, WAIT! Hear me out before you walk away. I’m only asking for FIVE YEARS. I know, that may be nearly half of your offer. But how much money were you making in college? Isn’t that still an improvement? Before you decide, let me show you just what $23,500 can do in five years and why that number is so magic.
“Hey Everybody!” by 5 Seconds of Summer – Have you heard this song yet? When I first heard it on the radio, I wasn’t quite sure where they were going with it. Luckily, the actual music video gives a little more to go on. It’s the usual story: they’re broke so they dream about living in a gigantic mansion and literally raking up their money. Here’s where I stand on this message:
Recently, Adam Chudy issued a challenge for several bloggers to condense all of their financial advice onto a single index card. It was a fascinating idea and I loved reading through them. Go check out the index card challenge entries if you haven’t already.
First of all, here is my entry. It’s a lot less technical than others’ advice (and includes a lot more color. Yay markers!), but I’m a firm believer that if you get the right mentality in place, you’ll be able to figure out the details because you’ll care enough to do so.
This past week and a half, I have been traveling with my family. I work part-time as a remote behavioral economics researcher. Once a year, I actually work in the office for a few days to remind people I exist, do a presentation on stuff I’ve been working on, and spend some face-to-face time with co-workers. We turn it into a big family vacation at the hotel with the pool and made-to-order breakfast and we all have a great time (minus the days I actually have to work in an office!). This year, thanks to a boost of confidence from my amazing brother-in-law’s advice on getting a raise, I decided this was my year to get a raise!
One of the most important things for maintaining good finances in marriage is a plan that includes differences. Making a financial plan together is important, but it’s also important to consider that you are two different people and this will require a good discussion about priorities and compromising on what you find most important. Things also change as time goes on. This discussion needs to happen frequently.
Mr. T and I have always been good at making sure we’re on the same page. I do sometimes worry, however, as the outspoken one around here, that maybe he’s just going along with what I say because I say it (he’s a man of few words). Since this year we embarked on our plan to reach early retirement and we’re also approaching our tenth wedding anniversary, I’ve been looking for a new way to discuss priorities and finances as a couple.
I was chatting with my brother-in-law last week. He just earned himself a nice promotion that is several steps above his current job and arguably above his current credentials (because he’s awesome like that). I asked him how he made that happen. He said: “You can’t ask for a raise or promotion. You have to set yourself up for one so they have no choice.” Of course, I inquired a bit more. Mr. T and I are not good at things like getting ourselves raises. We want to just be given them (ha! amiright?). So this whole concept intrigued me. Here is what he told me:
Tonight, I’ll go to bed as I usually do, and when I wake up, I will be $10,000 richer. The secret? Live in Alaska. Okay, so the title was clickbait. But it’s true. Tomorrow every eligible Alaskan will be $2,072 richer than they are today because the Permanent Fund Dividend will land in bank accounts and be mailed out to others. (To celebrate, it decided to snow last night!) With five of us, that makes us $10,360 richer tomorrow.
Last week, J. Money over at Budgets Are Sexy mentioned in a post about becoming a mad scientist with your money that he makes sure he never misses a blog post. At the beginning, he was anal about it because he didn’t want to “accidentally quit.” He mentioned that as an aside, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it. How many things have I accidentally quit? The answer is: a lot. Then, another J in the blogosphere over at Hey, It’s Just Money, had a realization: “I don’t need to have monthly goals because I actually want to accomplish pretty much the same things every month.” And I thought: “Me too! I’ve had the exact same goals forever! So why do I fail?” Both of these posts snapped me into action. I’ve already declared that my own failure is my own fault, but I didn’t make an action plan for anything but my finances (which are going just fine). Let’s look at what works for me: