My Finance: Going in Different Directions

Mr. HM and I had what we call "The State of Our Union" address last night. This is when we discuss our relationship, our goals, our future, etc. It is kind of like when Mr. President interrupts every non-cable channel on television a couple of times a year to address the citizens of America and tell us what his new plans allegedly/supposedly are. Well, we do that in our marriage every so often.

Our main discussion last night was to talk about our goals in our careers and in our finances. You should know that for the most part, Mr. HM and I are in the same career field and we used to work for the same firm. I had all these grand plans about increasing my contributions to my retirement account, saving for our kids 529 College savings accounts, saving 6-9 months of salary in case of a job loss, increasing the amount in our emergency savings account, and taking steps to advance my career. All of that is a bit too ambitous right now considering the amount of student loan debt we both have and the daycare expenses for the twins. However, I feel that my career goals are doable (is that a word?). Mr. HM left the company that we were both working for in January to pursue his own business. That alone cut our income by half making a lot of my (maybe our) financial goals impossible. In order for me to advance in my career, we would have to move (which I really want to do) possibly to another state.

Half way through our "State of the Union" discussion, I realized that we are going in two vey different directions. Then I thought, how can you have a functional marriage when you do not have similar goals? Mr. HM doesn't seem to have the same financial aspirations as I do or the same career goals. Each of these issues may not seem important or connected to you, but trust me, in our relationship they are interconnected and I have left out some details. Does that mean we love each other any less? NO! What it does mean is that we have a serious problem that we need to figure out how to solve immediately. When we got married, we had similar career goals and financial goals. How do we get back to that? Is it necessary for us to get back to that point? I don't know. Stay tuned. I'm sure we'll have a "State of the Union" talk almost every week now.

My Finance: Changing Banks

One of my favorite blogs is Fabulous Financials written by Single Ma. A few weeks ago, she wrote an article about her bank increasing the interest rates after she had already found another bank. If you recall, one of my short term goals was to find another bank as soon as possible. Well, the time has come for me to make a BIG move. My bank is trippin'!



Mr. HM and I have about 6 or so accounts with the same bank. Yes, I know, you should not keep all of your accounts with the same bank. However, when you live in a small town and there are only 2 "hometown" banks, you don't really have much of a choice. But now, the time has come for me to move on.

ACCOUNT MAINTENANCE FEES
One of the worst things for me to do is to keep paying those stupid monthly account maintenance fees. My bank does not have "totally free" checking. GASP! That's right folks! My bank has not come out of the stone ages. The only accounts that do not have maintenance fees are the savings accounts for minors and there are free checking accounts for college students. I am paying $10.00 per month for 6 accounts, which is a total of $60.00. I've been with the bank for almost 24 months. So 24 multiplied by $60.00 is $1,440.00! Yes folks, I am ashamed to admit that over $1,000.00 of my hard earned money has gone to stupid fees.

BANK HOURS OF OPERATION
If the account maintenance fees aren't already enough, the hours of operation totally suck! Get this, the bank is open Monday thru Friday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM! One branch of the bank keeps their drive thru open until 6:00 PM. Like that is any better! I work from 8:30 AM until 5:00 PM Monday--Friday. I usually have to spend my prescious lunch break in the bank, or I have to leave work to go to the bank. One branch of the bank is open on Saturday from 8:00 AM until 12:00 AM. There is also a branch of the bank in one of the local grocery stores, but the hours still aren't much better.

CRAPPY CUSTOMER SERVICE
The customer service at the bank is also crappy. Customer service in this town is crappy overall at most establishments. I hate to go in the bank and hear loud tellers discussing other people's business and the party they went to last weekend. That is just tackless to me. I've been a bank teller before, and I know you want to talk to your co-workers about non-work related stuff, but geesh, wait until the customers are gone!

THE FEW BENEFITS OF MY BANK
One of the only benefits to banking with my bank is that I can easily transfer money between my accounts and my husband's accounts (we have one joint checking and savings and individual checking and savings accounts). Now that I have mentioned that one benefit, I really can not think of any other benefits. So, as you can see, the negative far out weighs the positives in this situation.

I'm looking for a new bank, any suggestions? Where do you bank? What do you like about your bank?


My Life, My Love, My Finance

Love ya,
Ms. HM

My Life: My Job--When to Leave?

I have so many goals that I want to accomplish in every aspect of my life. I am trying to grow spiritually, career wise, and financially. Right now, I feel that my job is hindering me from growing financially but may be helping me spiritually. I'll be talking in greater detail about my job later, but today, I'm just going to give you a little bit of my dilema.

I love my job MOST of the time. I try to be more thankful and grateful that I even have a job in my field right now. We are in a recession and people are losing jobs with every merger of a company. My job right now is in the nonprofit sector, so you automatically know that means---NO MONEY! In order to achieve my financial goals, it seems to me that I need another job that pays more. In my field, I could get a job making three times what I make now if I move to another area (more about that later) or leave the nonprofit sector. I have only been in my field about two years, I'm trying to figure out if I just chalk up the less money issue to the fact that I'm just starting out and I'm getting invaluable experience (which I question sometimes)?

Finally........As Promised....My Long Term Goals--Part I

Okay, I know that I promised to discuss my long term goals with you a month or so ago. I got side tracked by the need to purchase a vehicle. Now that is done, I'm back on track. I have so many long term goals, so I am going to just talk about them one at a time. For me right now, long term is within the next 5-10 years. I will be discussing my financial, profesional, spiritual, and maybe even my personal goals. My first goal is HOMEOWNERSHIP! Right now, I sort of rent my home. Actually, I'm blessed that my father in law owns my house and we really don't have to pay much in rent right now. Thank God for family and favor! Anyway, I am a HGTV fanatic and any show that comes on that has to do with owning a home or being a first time buyer, my eyes are glued to it. This goal is a long term goal for me because I am not sure if I actually want to buy a house in the area that I live right now. Homes in my area are older and need a lot of repairs. Also, I don't live in the best school district, so that is one of the things that I will be looking at when deciding where to buy.

Secondly, it takes a LOT of money to buy a house. Yeah, I know you can do the 100% financing programs, but I want to try to save up the 20% down payment before I purchase. For me and Mr. HM, that is a big task at this time, BUT, I'm committed. I also want to know as much as possible about the home buying process before I actually buy a home. Some things I know I won't understand until I actually go through the process myself, but there are other things that I can be researching and understanding now. I'll talk more in depth about my plans to achieve homeownership and how important this is for me and my family. I feel that I probably over simplified this goal a bit, but as I said before, we'll revisit this issue often. For right now, I'm just fulfilling my promise to my very small audience of readers and discussing my Long Term Goals.

My Life, My Love, My Finance

Love ya,

Ms. High Maintenance

My Financial Goals

I shared with you on yesterday that I am not where I would like to be financially. Most of that is because I'm working my first "real" job so of course I now have to pay back those things called student loans and then the dynamic of my family has drastically changed (for the better) . Anyway, here are a few of my short term goals. I haven't listed all of them, and I will periodically update you on my progress. I'll get with you on tomorrow with my long term goals. I was about to do short and long term goals today, but my twins say otherwise.

SHORT TERM GOALS -- To Be Completed Within One Year

1. Invest in a 529 College Savings Plan for Skateboard Boy (SB)-- SB is 9 years old and will be 10 this year. I plan to open an account for him by the end of the year with at least $$1,000.00. I have looked into my state's 529 College Plan and it seems pretty straight forward. I've also looked at the plans from other states near me, but if I invest in those, I wouldn't get the tax benefits offered through my state. Unfortunately, my employer does not do a payroll deduction for 529 Plans. My how I wish they did!

2. Find a New Bank!-- You might wonder why this is a goal, but it is. I live in a small town where there are only 2 banks, so you can imagine that they try to milk the customers out of every penny they have. Of course, Mr. High Maintenance insist on us banking at the same bank, but I refuse to pay a maintenance fee of $10.00 a month on each checking account I have at the bank! I have a total of 3 checking accounts which means I pay $30.00 a month in fees! What the heck! If you figure that out for a whole year, I am paying my bank $360.00 . Are you serious!? At first, I was banking at this wretched bank because it was convenient and I live in my husband's home town and he has always banked there. Code for "I have always given away my hard earned money to them." Yeah, I'm not feeling it. I have got to do better. I will be ending this banking relationship really really soon!

3. Educate myself on investing and start investing-- As I told you on yesterday, I don't know crap about investing. Yes, I should know. Yes, I'm embarrassed that I don't. What do I plan on doing about it? Educate myself. I am working on a list of books, blogs, and websites that I will be reading throughout this year to get myself up to speed on investing. Stay tuned for how my progress is going.

4. Save $1,500.00 in MY Personal Savings Account -- This account is separate than the account me and Mr. High Maintenance have together. To some of you, this might not be that much money, but as I told you before, I am working my first "real" job and starting my career, raising a new set of twins and a 9 year old, and Mr. HM has 2 new businesses.

5. Curb My Spending Habits -- I spend about $1.43 everyday on a cup of coffee . Well, actually it is coffee and cappuccino mixed. I know that is relatively cheap compared to what you spend at Starbucks, but as I said, I live in a small town. The nearest Starbucks is an hour away which is a good thing . If it were one closer, I would truly be broke. Anyway, if I didn't buy coffee every work day, I could save $7.15 week which is a little over $28.00 a month. I'm addicted to coffee, but I' m optimistic.

I spend roughly $24.00--$50.00 a month on my nails. I'm still up in the air about cutting this expense. People look at my hands all the time. I like them to look good---but at the same time, I want to go on a "spending diet". We'll see how this goes as well.

Since I just had twins, I haven't gotten back to my original size. Frankly, I don't want to either. I was a stick. Now, I have a little "meat on my bones" and I like it. The only problem is that I can't fit anything I wore before I was pregnant. For that reason, I have to constantly buy new clothes, especially for work. I will have to figure out a way to cut down on clothing cost. Maybe buy a few key pieces and mix and match? I don't know. I'll figure it out.

Like a lot of other people, I like to eat out. I have already started working on cutting this out. I feel much better when I cook my own food anyway.

Now that I've published my goals here, I feel compelled to really stick to them. I'll give you an update in a month or so on how it's going. Blog with you tomorrow!

My Life, My Love, My Finance

Love ya,

Ms. High Maintenance