SERIOUS THOUGHTS/GOALS

[nekokoban]

Because things are more true once they're said aloud. :|a

** Looking at my finances, I realized that my savings were going down, which is ... not okay! Not good! So I investigated, and what it boils down to is: I have accounts with three different financial institutions. One is Fidelity, which has accounts for a general money market account, as well as my two retirement funds (a Roth IRA and my 401K); the other two are Bank of America and BECU [Boeing Employee Credit Union]. The latter two are for my immediate/liquid funds, where my bills are paid out of and my paycheck direct deposits to! The credit union gives me a much higher interest rate, as well as feels a lot less skeezy than the BoA--at this point, I am considering closing the BoA, because I'd initially had it open so I'd have access to more ATMs/money in other states, buuuut ... as wonderseal pointed out to me yesterday, Washington's BoA is on a different computer system than like THE REST OF THE COUNTRY minus a few states; it's why my parents could never directly deposit money into my account when I was in college. The BECU account is where my paycheck now direct deposits, but the BoA account is where a set amount of money is automatically withdrawn, monthly, to my Fidelity account--which is used to fund both that aforementioned money market AND my Roth IRA. However, because that money's coming out of an account I now barely touch, I ... "overspend," in a way, the money I have in my BECU account while whittling down the savings I have in the BoA. WHICH IS FINE, I still have the lowest baseline of money that I want! BUT IT IS GOING DOWN AND THAT IS NOT COOL. Therefore, I:

--> Need to cancel PrivacyAssist with BoA
--> Redirect the monthly withdrawals from BoA to BECU
--> Probably close my BoA account, while keeping those credit cards open, as this is like ~eight-ten years of credit that I would really rather not lose, lol!
--> Decide if I want to have a secondary bank account compared to BECU, or if I want that to be my sole bank. I am considering possibly an ING or Ally account, something that has a high interest rate, but it may be good to just put everything in BECU, which gives me a decent rate as-is.
--> Start putting away more aggressively for my immediate savings. GENERAL WISDOM is three to six months, but Dad once suggested six to nine months, and ... well. I can do that! I should be able to do that! I DO NOT NEED TO BE SO FRIVOLOUS.*

* I don't think I am super-frivolous, but I do tend to be sort of ... "I can afford it, so why not!" And I need to actually start stopping myself and being like, no, I need to start trimming extra expenses where and when I can. Once I hit my goal of nine months, then I can be silly again. I have hit a point where I have handled all my needs, so now everything I am buying are wants, and that I can do without.

Basically, I can afford to save more, and I don't. I need to go back to bringing my lunch to work regularly and to being less wasteful of excess food. I cleaned my fridge yesterday and it was like fffffft BE MORE RESPONSIBLE, GOD.

If I start saving more aggressively/spending less, I can hit what I need for nine months innnn about eight. Which is kind of :B but it's better than the two-ish years it was going to be, at my more leisurely saving rate. I've crunched numbers and IT IS DOABLE. I will be able to pay all of my bills and still eat decently and feed my cat nicely; I just can't be too silly with extra purchases.

MAY STARTS THIS WEEK. THE BEGINNING OF THE MONTH IS A GREAT TIME TO START A NEW PLAN.

GO GO GO.

Also I know I have been loltastically fail at updating about my writing progress, but IT PROGRESSES. I AM MAKING MY WORDCOUNT, if only barely, b-but I've hit a point where life is like HELLO, LET ME TOUCH YOU and I'm like AHHHH WHERE DID YOU COME FROM! so. :B I'm starting to have ideas again, and I probably owe halcyonjazz birthday fic I GUESS, so hopefully will be posting again soon. I'M SORRY TO ALL OF YOU WHO FRIENDED ME FOR FIC AND FOUND ME TO BE AN EXTREMELY BORING PERSON.

Comments

[lilisin.livejournal.com]

That's great incentive for saving.

I'm good at saving (I put away about 2/3 to 4/5 of my money every month) but it's just a standard bank savings account. I want to look into more investing type options and savings accounts with higher rates.

Just sucks being a full time employee but not. I'm basically working for free. So dumb.

[nekokoban]

I've found that if I actually say something "aloud" in a public forum, I'm that much more likely to actually go through with it--it helped with my writing, so I'm sure it will help with my finances, too. :|a

I'm not bad with saving, again--I'm saving stuff on top of what automatically gets withdrawn every month, but I'm feeling like I'm not saving enough. I've been doing a LOT of reading of various personal finance sites these past few months, which is part of what's gotten me into thinking about it. (Right now mostly it's MSN Money and Get Rich Slowly.)

That is weird, though. What's going on with that?

[lilisin.livejournal.com]

The deal is that I'm a full-time employee but still a contractor since I'm not moving to New York. So I get paid well but I have no benefits which is where the whole comment of working for free comes from.

I need to start finding a new job soon since I'll only have this job till the end of the summer before my branch moves to New York.

I figure once I get a job with benefits I can start looking at serious savings account since I'll be set up with a 401K at that point. For now though I'm saving in case I can't find another job right away. It's dumb since I could have moved to New York but I just really don't want to go there, even with the guaranteed job.

[nekokoban]

Ohhh, yeah, I've done the contractor route, I know how that goes. :|a And if you didn't want to move, I don't think it's that dumb--I know I wouldn't want to move out of Seattle at this point; I really love the city and I know it well, and I have friends and roots here at this point.

The thing about the 401K is that it's one of those accounts that you can't withdraw from until you're a certain age without severe penalty (it's something like 10% of the total? it's bad, at any rate); I would say that a good serious savings account the sooner you can the better, because a lot of them do compounded interest, so you earn interest on your interest. It adds up pretty nicely, if you find a decent bank!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

How are you liking BECU, btw? Fond as I am of Chase (and how can you NOT be fond of the bank that bought out the bank you'd used since you were eleven? Oh, wait...), they kind of give shit for interest when it comes to, like, everything. And I would sure like my savings to be actually accruing interest rather than just sitting there looking pretty. :P

[nekokoban]

I actually really like them! I mean, I think it depends on how often you go to ATMs--but they are part of the Co-op ATM network, which means you can use those as well as the regular BECU ones for free. Also, I get interest in both checking AND savings, which is a pretty nice bonus every month; if you want, I can email you more of the details!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That'd be awesome, thank you! I don't use ATMs much, honestly, so... my original reason for not switching to BECU long ago is pretty much moot, it turns out. So I'm definitely looking to switch at least the majority of my savings over, if they have good terms. :D

[nekokoban]

o/ I WILL REPLY TO OUR OTHER EMAIL innabit.

[white_aster]

Go you! \o/

One thing that I've been really fond of lately is Smartypig. They are an online banktype-thing, where you set a goal, then set up regular withdrawals from wherever so that you reach that goal in a certain amount of time. In the meantime you get 2% interest on up to $50,000 in your goals, and I haven't found any place short of a mutual fund or such that gives that good a rate without a hella long committment. Also, if you reach a goal, you can cash in your goal for a gift certificate to certain retailers that will then add on another few percentage points to your balance (Amazon's perhaps the most useful of them and gives you an extra 4%) So interest-wise, Smartypig's pretty good. The "catch", though, is that there's no in-and-out with the account: you can get close out the goal and get your money transferred back to your regular account at any time, but it's all-or-nothing: you close out the goal and you get all of it back, not piecemeal. So it's great for saving for things that you want to buy OR (like me) saving an emergency fund that you won't need ATM/check access to.

I've been with them for a litle over a year and had no problems with them at all.

[nekokoban]

\o/

--Oooo, that looks super interesting. :o (And is funny because the other day I was telling my girlfriend that I wanted to save up for a new computer, SO WHAT SERENDIPITY.) I know there are a few general online banks that have decent saving rates, but the idea of a goal actually really pleases me. :|a I will definitely have to take a look, because that sounds pretty much something I could really go for. THANK YOU FOR THIS HEAD'S UP. ♥

[white_aster]

You're welcome! :D I hope it works out for you! I've never really used Smartypig for goal-oriented type of stuff, but they seem really set up to appeal for that: you HAVE to have an automatic deduction happening, and you can also drop in money whenever you want, and others can also donate toward your goals if you make it public, which would be good to link family to for gift-giving stuffs. And really, esp. if you take out an Amazon gift certificate? You really can't beat the interest rate.

[halcyonjazz.livejournal.com]

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WRITE ME ANYTHING YOU KNOW THAT

also I had a dream last night where GetBackers Season 2 was announced and I woke up all I HAVE TO TELL TOTO!!!! and then realized it was all in my head :(

[nekokoban]

I KNOW THAT but I do want to, okay. ♥

... booooo. :( HOWEVER, the mangaka are doing a new project, and it will focus on Oniwaka and Ushiwaka, so I am SUPER EXCITED kyaa kyaa.

[sarraceniaceae.livejournal.com]

If it helps at all, something that I found surprisingly useful when I was switching bank accounts was checking to see if any internet banks had any offices nearby. Surprisingly, there was an HSBC office nearby, so basically I get all the advantages of a bricks and mortar with internet interest rates.

Either way, good luck!