An elderly couple upgrades their ride and trades in my dream car.

My local car salesman calls me because he knows its in my price range. The month is coming to a close and he has bills to pay.

The mechanic says it’s clean and mechanically sound with a great price.

The owner of the dealership says he’s hoping my husband’s company makes it because his car dealership is dependent on its employees. He’s also running for school board and wants our vote. He thanks us for buying the van – and he means it, he doesn’t want his business to go under.

We stop and buy insurance from our friends from church. They thank us for getting the loan locally, they’re also on the bank’s board.

My husband calls a local bank, he does freelance work for them, the manager gave us an interest rate at 6%, 3% lower than other banks we asked.

They make plans to play golf in the future.

We spent $7,500 for our dream van.

The salesman made a commission, the car dealership made a profit, the insurance broker made a commission, the bank manager made a commission and the bank took its cut.

That’s at least 5 families and 3 small local businesses whose economies were positively impacted by the purchase of my van.

Hopefully, all of them will look to my husband in the future for freelance graphic design and advertising and it will come full circle. We’ll be needing another car eventually.

That’s what we did to affect the unemployment rate and the economy yesterday.

Post from: Blisstree

Economic Dominos – Buying Local

Today we’re going to stimulate the economy.

Car dealers are hurting, nearly bankrupt. If George Bush were still president he’d tell us to be Good Americans and go buy a car. It will help the banking, credit industry and the car industry.

Our van, our only car, died last week. DEAD. There’s no fixing it. It has 238,000 miles on it and needs a new engine, a new air conditioning system and a new electrical system.

I’ve written that having one car is not an emergency. I’ve been riding my bike around town for months. It’s fun. It’s good exercise. All that sunshine and exercise is good for the positive attitude.

Plus, seeing my kids and I on our bikes makes everyone smile. I feel like an ambassador for happiness, exercise and joy.

No car at all in rural America actually IS an emergency.

We have no money saved for a car. We were too busy bailing water out of the sinking ship that was our van and our other money suck car from the 1990s for the last 2 years. A lot of our savings – our master plan – tanked this year.

Can anyone think of better option than to buy my Dream Ride at 8-9% interest?

This 2005 Dodge Caravan is the Mac Daddy of all minivans. It’s a moving hotel as comfortable as my living room.

The leather seats heat your bootie.

The two side doors and the hatch back open and close electronically with a key clicker.

It beeps when you get too close to something behind you.

So, we’re going to do our part America. We’re going to do our part to stimulate the economy.

Post from: Blisstree

Saving the Car and Banking Industries or Being a Good American

Today is our 8th Wedding Anniversary.

We feel like wearing an “I survived the 7 Year Itch” t-shirt.

We’re in a better, happier, more comfortable, more stable, more loving, deeper, more affectionate, more real, place now than we ever have been. At least I feel that way.

The 7 year itch was like a journey into marriage war, but at least we finally worked some stuff out (where previously we’d been applying Band-Aids).

The overwhelming feeling on this anniversary is Phew. We made it. Thank God (literally) we’re on the up-side.

Honey, I’m so glad we struggled through and worked it out. I’m having a lot more fun being married these days. I can honestly say I’m happily married.

As my friend, Jen from Jlogged.com put it, We found our sweet spot.

We’ll be celebrating on Friday when we go on vacation for 2 weeks! We’ll be heading to Utah to see my family and San Francisco to BlogHer, where I’ll be speaking.

I can’t say enough about our experience with Vow, a marriage education initiative sponsored by the federal government to help couples find a way to be happy.

I also can’t say enough about having more money. They say money can’t buy happiness. But, in my experience, it can buy a lot of marital peace. Certainly, there can be no marital harmony if you’re not on the same financial page.

Visit the Vow website if your marriage has some issues that need resolving.

Visit Dave Ramsey’s website to get on the same $$$ page.

Read Save a Marriage – Stop Sharing.

Photo Source: Jennifer Lea, Jlogged.com

Post from: Blisstree

8th Wedding Anniversary

It’s a series of 13 classes in churches and community centers around the country. You meet in a group to watch these hilariously entertaining videos about money – can you believe math and finance is interesting and funny?

Then you interact with a group getting moral support. You know, sharing a goal with like-minded people can help you keep a resolution in a BIG way, that’s a scientific fact, as reported in Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life. I still have financial accountability partners and when I feel like I should go finance a new living room set for my new house, I just call up my friend Jennifer over at Jlogged who asks me what’s so urgent I can’t wait 3-4 months. I think I’ve talked her out of financing a new mini-van about 6 times this year already. People need support to keep resolutions and you can find that at an FPU class.

My husband and I took the course about 3 years ago and we paid off all our debt (except my student loan, which is next) – had a baby without accruing any debt, bought a used mini-van with cash, traded our gas-guzzling truck for an economy Nissan, we keep an emergency fund and learned to save and invest automatically. We just bought our first home and I not only understood how an interest rate works, I felt like I won the Haggle Olympics.

We were bankrupt before taking the class. Now I have no doubt that we’ll retire with at least a million dollars.

The classes are CHEAP at around $100 per family and they offer free childcare during the class, two books, a set of audio tapes, a bunch of planning documents on CD, and financial advice for the rest of your life.

This kind of finance is hardcore and it’s not for the weak and spineless. It’s finance like my depression-era grandparents lived by. Save first, spend what’s left, buy what you need not what you want, make hard sacrifices early so you’re secure in the future. It’s pretty hard actually. I’ll remember the last four years as some of the hardest, most painful of my life, probably. But, it’s sound and there is peace from knowing what the right thing is and doing it in the end. We don’t do it perfectly, but, we’ll get there.

Visit www.daveramsey.com – and enter your zip code and you’ll find out when and where classes are being held in your area. They might even have a live event near you.

Post from: Blisstree

Money Resolution?

Picture this with a big, giant red bow . . .

Yes, that’s a ski lodge sized fireplace. Yes, the entire wall to the right is built in 1950s book shelves, drawers and cabinets. Yes, there are original parquet wood floors. Absolutely, there is lighted vaulted ceiling. See that lovely Christmas tree? It’s an 8.5 foot tree. The ceiling fan has a remote control. I’m totally serious.

To understand exactly how much I appreciate our first home, let me tell you about my last living room. For starters it had no central heat or air conditioning. Yes, in freaking 2007, we had no heat or air – my grandma got central heat and air in the 1970s, but I digress. Instead, it had a Dearborn Heater. Maybe you don’t know what that is – well, it is this little gas heater without an exhaust vent and no one does maintenance on them anymore. They are illegal and the gas company will confiscate them. Everything I owned was covered in soot. There is a serious risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Our previous living room was so small we had to remove the coffee table so the baby would have a place to learn to walk. We could only fit one couch.

Zack and I have terrible allergies. The window air conditioning unit would blow all the pollen right into the house. Not to mention the indoor mold problem that made it hard for Zack to breath. I could put up with it, until the baby got sick. Then it was way too much to ask.

It would get so hot in the house that it truly and literally melted the oil on my paintings. I s#$& you not. The heat warped six hours of video biography I did of my elderly grandmother.

We lived in that house for four long, not fun, very unpleasant, contentious years. Why? Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University, which while you’re living the hard years feel more like Pergatory than Peace. Now. . . well, okay, now it’s about the Peace. I mean, just look at that living room that we can afford.

I realize that millions of people own homes already and probably at least half of them have a bigger, better, newer home than mine. But, when you juxtapose our previous living conditions to our current ones you understand and agree no one could appreciate their home as much as we appreciate this.

We went back to our old house on Saturday to scrub the 4 years of grime off. Every day we lived there I thanked God for that roof over our head. I realized there are many, many people who have it much, much worse. But, I am so profoundly thankful that we don’t have to live there any more. When I start waxing poetic about how much simpler life was back when we lived in that tiny little house -feel free to tell me I’m totally full of crap!

That chapter of our lives, of our marriage is closed. And not a minute too soon. This chapter, the one where we have 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a spacious kitchen with new appliances, an office with French doors in a tree-lined neighborhood and new paint, is going to be infinitely better. I just know it.

Merry Christmas!

Post from: Blisstree

Welcome Home

Time for the family vacation. Then school clothes. Then, Holy Crap, Christmas! In fact, I’ve recently had two conversation with people who are already dreading the mass extended family gifting.

We use no credit cards. Period. Since our income doesn’t increase around Christmas we must be strategic about our giving.

I’m not taking a second job to pay for Christmas and though it was our goal, we don’t have it together enough to save all year for a Christmas budget. Much easier to boycott the psychotic gift giving and set some boundaries that everyone can agree to.

Every family is different. Coming from a large extended Mormon family, my family was quick to snap up alternatives and accept my bowing out. The previous generation of my large Mormon tribe had already worked out a system.

I adapted theirs asked my siblings to agree.

I did contact my father’s extended family and ask to be removed from the individual drawing, as the expense was simply too much for us to absorb. They were very gracious about it.My husband’s family took our boycott of Christmas pretty hard.

It really took 3 years to accomplish. They were emotional about breaking the connection of giving at Christmas. Upon further examination my mother-in-law felt that my mass email boycotting Christmas gift giving was like a commando attack on her. She felt these things should be handled with herself as middle person or negotiator.

Truly, I had tried to do that the year before and she caved to whining about the blasted “Christmas Spirit.” I thought a mass email stating simply “we’re not giving gifts and don’t expect to get any,” was more effective. I was. We’ve settled on a fun game of White Elephant.

The reality was that all of them were overstressed and anxious about the amount they were spending to meet basic gift-giving obligations. With a little persuasion and logic they too were relieved. It’s the passionate discussion part that motivates me to write about boycotting Christmas NOW. If you wait until November, when you realize your bank account hasn’t been magically endowed with a bunch of extra money, people are already emotionally invested in Christmas.

In June, July and August no one cares about Christmas and can see your proposed alternatives with more objectivity. In the end, I’m sure there are those who will put you in the “bitch who stole Christmas” category. But, many will thank you for saving them from $300 – $1,000 of credit card debt.

It is glorious to start January without playing “financial catch-up.”

While it’s already November and Christmas is just around the corner something tells me our current financial crisis will encourage people to take your suggestion to tone it down very well.

Post from: Blisstree

Boycott Christmas Now

Halloween has a few more days to arrive, but the Christmas push to buy more stuff is already making the national blood pressure rise.

Maybe my Boycott Christmas in June idea didn’t seem reasonable. But, now that it’s November, I’m thinking you might be considering a part-time job or scratching some extended relatives off the list.

Might I recommend a budgeting technique that will make sure you don’t end up doing the big recover from Christmas through March?

Write down the income you expect to get through January on a spread sheet. We get paid weekly, so I have a budget that accounts for income each week.

Add up a total of income and subtract all of your regular non-negotiable expenses like your mortgage and light bill. Don’t forget your insurance needs renewing and your taxes are coming due.

What is left is your Christmas budget. You should be able to buy all gifts, tree, pot luck meals, party clothes and postage for this amount.

See you didn’t need a second job. You just needed a better plan.

Honestly, there is nothing better than having a New Year’s Resolution that doesn’t include Pay Off Christmas Credit Cards.

Oh, and see that picture up there? A $250 life-sized mechanical horse is what sane parents and grandparents do NOT buy their children. Know why? An $8 stick horse is better exercise and requires more imagination and absolutely no financing. And it’s not hard to top next year.

Check out 10 Christmas Gifting Alternatives for ways to stretch that budget.

Post from: Blisstree

Budget Through 2008

In the same way I’ve noticed there is something in the air breeding discontent. By discontent, I mean dissatisfaction with the present situation. Nearly everyone I know is, all the sudden, dissatisfied.

You just can’t stand your living situations, homes, clothes, cars, budgets, hair style, etc. And it feels like an emergency. Like you can’t take the present situation one more freaking second.

You want a new van, a new car, a new house, new jeans, new shoes, new clothes, new hairstyle, new wardrobe, new couch. And you feel like you must do anything to get it. Get your parents to co-sign on the loan, hock your wedding ring, take a terrible interest rate, exceed your budget, get two more jobs, violate your principles and throw out your hard-won financial education and go into debt.

I understand completely – I feel it to. I’m calling mortgage brokers and real estate agents and contemplating brunette or red hair. I bought a new pair of jeans and some red pumps. My husband is scouring classifieds for a car. My daughter informed me today that she needs new clothes and shoes. I’m sure the baby is secretly pining for the must-have baby toy.  

I propose that it’s really not that intangible – it’s marketing. The change of seasons seem to trigger some kind of emotional response to marketing even small children can’t help responding to. More likely marketing efforts are greatly increased to sell school clothes and last year’s car and we find it difficult to resist. It’s difficult to maintain contentment in the face of so much marketing insisting we should updating everything immediately.

Remember last September? You felt just like this. Next September, expect it again. When Christmas rolls around, you know what to expect. Brace yourself now and save up some dough.

Repeat after me: I am not a consumer. I am a person. I have what I need and can exercise patience and good judgement about my money. It may be time for a new-er car, but I deserve for it to be burden free. It’s time to move, but I deserve to not overextend my family to get it. I want new clothes, but I need to respect my self and not destroy my budget over it. My couch will do until I save for another one.

Now take a deep breath.

Perhaps you should satiate this monster of discontent by hitting a discount store, garage sale, thrift store or clearance rack. Knowing I have some buying power often makes me feel better. Cash only under $20 spending can be absorbed into the budget. It might quiet all those voices saying you don’t have enough. It also might give you time to think about that big purchase and how prepared you are to make it. The time to think often saves us from paying lots of stupid tax.

Remember: I am a person not a consumer.

Post from: Blisstree

Smell That?

Don’t tell my Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Counselor.

 Truth be told, and I’ve been candid about this before, my husband and I got into some financial trouble a few years ago and cut up every credit card we had. We had vowed never, ever to get another credit card as long as we lived. Man, I wish I could have lived up to that.

But, here’s the thing, in The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness, which I highly recommend to help anyone and everyone develop a sound and healthy respect for their money, Dave Ramsey asserts that you don’t care about your credit because you’ll never need it.  

Pay cash for everything, Ramsey says. I’m a total convert to the principle. However, I’ve discovered first-hand four real world scenarios in which I NEED a better credit score.

* We haven’t bought our first home. We’ve been approved for 100% financing, but the interest rate isn’t that great. If we had a better FICO score we’d be offered a better rate. The way to get a better FICO score is to use a credit card and pay the bill. Having no credit card only allows the clock to tick on negative credit and doesn’t improve the score much. It would take us a couple of decades to be able to pay cash for a home and I just can’t muster up that kind of dedication to the cause, while we suffer terribly from mold allergies in our current residence.

* I’ve been denied employment due to my poor FICO score. It’s embarrassing and humiliating to admit, but I’ll tell you so my fellow poor-credit citizens don’t feel so alone. When we were paying off our debt with extra crappy jobs a bank denied me a job as a data entry operator because of my poor credit score. While I’m working from home now, I need to know that I can get a job if I need one. I also need to know that my husband can look for another job should he need to.

* We can’t afford to lend my husband’s employer money out of our monthly budget. Most companies do this, I guess, but they expect you to charge expenses on your personal credit card and reimburse you later. Well, if you don’t have a credit card that comes straight out of your monthly zero-based budget. Who can afford that? Dave Ramsey suggests that we should have a savings account for this. But, on what planet do I have enough money laying around to lend to my husband’s employer so he can go on a business trip to Chicago for a week? Not planet Earth, which is where I live.

* The last reason is that my FICO score is effecting the rates I get on my car insurance and will effect my home owners’ insurance rates.

To be honest, I’m totally conflicted about my choice to get a credit card. Suze Orman recommends that I have one in my name only. I do now. But, I wish I could have boycotted credit card companies forever.

Post from: Blisstree

Orman and Ramsey Duke It Out (in my head)

A friend of mine is going through the upheaval of life that awaits all middle-class Americans. Hubby has been out of work for one month. Only one month and we’re talking about the wholesale of all furniture and other house-fillers like the washer and dryer, Suburban about to be repossessed, house going into foreclosure the whole scary maddening mess.

Something to keep in mind is that even though they are happy to move anywhere he gets a job, the employers expect them to pay the moving expenses and then reimburse them three months down the road. Obviously, the employer wants to make sure the employee is going to come and stay. But, how many Americans have enough money saved to make a major move across the country? U-Hauls, deposits for utilities and apartments and all the extra-expenses that come with a major move?

The Carnival of Budgeting is up and there are interesting articles about budgeting your family’s money.

There is an interesting piece about how Ken and Barbi have financed the dream house and are making terrible financial mistakes at Watson Inc. The most interesting thing about that one is my own childish envy/loathing of Barbi that I wrote about last week. Coincidence? Or is Barbi a bigger problem in the American psychy than we thought?

One issue I’m exploring more fully is tackled in Should a Married Couple Combine Their Finances? at Finance is Personal. The author’s answer is a simple Yes. When you have separate finances, you’re just a joint financial venture, he says. He makes some valid points about the caring for your spouse including finances.

My husband and I share money, but other financial experts (like Suze Orman) are saying one of the biggest mistakes women make is to not have their own money. I admit I was very aware of my own precarious financial dependence earlier this year when my marriage was having a difficult time. Sharing all the money seems to require the Suspension of Disbelief of Reality (it’s a psuedo-literary term). The reality being that half of us are getting a divorce. For Orman this is evidence enough that all of us should have our own emergency fund.

I’ll be writing lots more about this issue as we do the Virtual Book Club of Suze Orman’s book Women and Money, in the meantime, browse the carnival of budgeting.

Post from: Blisstree

Budgeting Carnival