How to waste your twenties

May 20, 2013 By 22 Comments

One of my friends recently shared a great TED Talk on Facebook titled “20 is not the new 30″. I was immediately interested. First, because I have that natural desire to see how I measure up on the list of what I’m supposed to be doing, and second, because no matter how many years pass, I’m still not really sure what’s on that list in the first place. While this clip doesn’t have all the answers, I do think it’s a great piece to encourage you to capitalize on your youth by investing in your twenty-something years.

Thankfully, after watching the video, I didn’t feel off track or like I was postponing life to begin in my thirties. While I don’t think I’ll ever say I escaped my 20s completely unscathed, I do feel I put the necessary effort into everything early in the game, and now the last 3 years of this decade are about keeping things on course. Finishing my education, taking care of my finances, and investing in my personal relationships has put me in a great place (in my opinion) and while I am deeply entrenched in the race against myself for professional and personal success, I also feel deeply grateful for and reassured by everything I’ve received and accomplished so far.

In other words, I feel successful because I don’t look back at my twenties and ask “what was I thinking?” or “what was I doing?” — but I know a number of my peers that do. This is what they did wrong:

1. Unnecessarily drag out your education. Students that repeatedly change their major, flunk out of programs, reduce their course load, or go back for extraneous degrees are wasting their time and money. Every year you delay entering the workforce, is a year you lose a full-time salary. Think it’s rough paying tuition? Add the cost of lost income. The title of “professional student” is amusing, but its damage is serious. Figure out what you want and go for it, don’t hang around trying things out and hoping everything will eventually take care of itself — it won’t, and all you’ll have to show for it is a shoddy transcript, a massive student debt, and a few crucial irretrievable years.

2. Procrastinate developing good habits. I had rude lifestyle awakening a few weeks ago when I was making yet another joke about my unwillingness to exercise, emphasizing that if I’m still slipping into a size small, what motivation do I have workout? My friend pointed out that while I might be able to ride on good genetics and a youthful metabolism for a few more years, failure to establish the habit now would make it that much more difficult when I actually need to cash in on the benefits later. That really struck me, and if you follow me on twitter you know I’m now running 10-15km per week like a champ. Developing good habits in your twenties so they stick with you later is true for every area of your life. Now is your chance to get into good habits of how you manage your money, how you maintain your home, how you interact with people, and how you treat your body. It’s never too late to start taking care of your life, but sooner is better than later.

3. Be lazy. The number one way to lose a decade is to not be bothered to seize obvious and some not-so obvious opportunities that the Universe will lay at your feet. In my opinion, NOTHING will hurt you more than long stretches of nothing (no school, no employment, no volunteering) or doing the absolutely minimum to get by. Figuring out the least amount of effort you need to put in to not get fired from a job is NOT a worthwhile endeavour, but as you go through your career, you’ll find it’s a common workplace strategy. I would also encourage you not to be lazy in your personal relationships. Make a concerted regular effort to support your partner, nourish your friendships, and show love to your family. Your main goal should always be to cultivate a reputation of being an industrious, competent employee and a reliable, loving friend or family member.

What are YOUR tips not to waste the “defining decade” of your life?

Filed Under: After Grad Life Tagged With:

Getting my clothing spending down to 5%

May 16, 2013 By 21 Comments

I think it was the lovely Adina J that told me clothing should be 5% of your spending (or maybe it was 3%?). Not sure if she heard this rule somewhere or if she made it up herself, but regardless, she is a frugal and fashionable woman so I trust her judgement. And thus my new personal spending rule is this:

Clothing should be 5% or less of your overall spending.

Why this is a good idea:

  • instead of being a fixed amount, a percentage is proportional to my income. Therefore, the more money I make, the more I’m allowed to spend.
  • limiting my spending on clothing will result in more money elsewhere, which means more for debt payments, savings, or important items like furniture.
  • limits will force you to evaluate your choices. If you know you can’t have it all, you will instead select what’s most important. I’m all for prioritizing my wardrobe to keep junk out!

I’ve been tracking my spending for a few years now, and I know I spend more than 5% of my money on clothes. It never feels like I do, because I don’t own a lot of clothes. When I become bored with something, I give it to my sisters or donate it to Goodwill without a second thought.

I remain really dedicated to a minimalist wardrobe. I can just feel when I have too much stuff and it gives me anxiety until I cut back. If my entire closet amounts to more than 4 loads of laundry, it’s time to get rid of stuff.

However, owning fewer items frequently gives me the illusion that I spend less on clothing than I really do. In reality, I spend a ton of money on clothes.

I like expensive items. Fabrics like leather, silk and cashmere aren’t cheap to buy OR keep, but they’re my favorites. Sweatshop-free cotton tees are 3x the price of those at H&M or Forever XXI, and denim made within North American borders will have a price tag that reflects a North American minimum wages.

My clothing budget also reflects regular tailoring, dry-cleaning, and shoe repair expenses, which count towards the 5% total.

For 2013, I was heavy on clothing shopping early in the year. I bought a pair of leather boots early in January and stocked up on my favorite jeans when I went to visit my parents in Utah. These two shopping trips alone account for at least 1/3 of what I’ve spent on new clothes this year! Since then I’ve slowed my clothing spending down, save for a recent stock up on basic t-shirts from American Apparel for summer (using my spending account, so I shopped guilt-free!), I’m hoping to see the percentage drop. To date this is how my spending looks:

 

Screen Shot 2013-05-15 at 7.44.31 PM

total spending so far for 2013

Eep! Nearly 8% on clothes and I still need a new pair of sandals =( How can I bring my clothing spending down to 5% of the pie? Two ways:

1) Cut down spending on clothing (obvious, right?)

2) Increase spending elsewhere.

Now, I don’t want bigger bills to pay and I shouldn’t go crazy and spend more on food, but if I increase my debt payments and investment spending, each of those categories will grow thus shrinking the clothing spending slice of the pie. All around source of win!

So my plan going forward is to slow down — but not eliminate! — my spending on clothing while increasing my debt payments and buying some more stocks. Can’t go wrong there ;)

Filed Under: Budget, Minimalize Tagged With: ,

My Employer Is Making Cuts

May 9, 2013 By 21 Comments

The Premier of Alberta recently pissed everyone off by proposing cuts to education. This includes funding cuts to public universities, which means my employer which is now facing a $150 million dollar shortfall. 

Bummer.

How this will affect things, including my job, remains to be seen. At this point, students and staff are protesting on the Alberta Legislature grounds on a regular basis, so it’s possible with enough outcry the budget will be adjusted, but personally I’m not super optimistic.

I will save my rant about the value of education and the purpose of universities to educate the populace for another time.

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Rest assured I hold both common and controversial views on the purpose and effectiveness of the Canadian and provincial university system (and culture) that I am always eager to discuss at length, but I recognize that maybe not all my readers care to hear me wane philosophical about education.

Naturally, what I’m most concerned with is how these budget cuts will affect ME.

It’s possible, though unlikely, that I could be laid off. Whether or not I’m taking this possibility seriously enough remains to be seen, but I have considered foregoing additional debt repayments in order to bolster my emergency fund. With so little left to go, slowing down now totally sucks — but is being unemployed with debt worse? I’ve gone ahead and updated my resume, but I’m not looking for jobs. I don’t think losing my job is a likely scenario, so I’m being careful to err on the side of “prepared” rather than “panicked”.

What has already been cut is travel. Every six months, I travel to Vancouver for a few days of work. I usually take this opportunity to tack on a few vacation days to enjoy one of my favorite cities in Canada. A weekend in May in Vancouver is always on the schedule, but when I hadn’t heard anything about it by the end of April I knew the worst was true: it’s not happening this year. I’m on the verge of tears just thinking about how I’m not at Acme Cafe as we speak. I’ve been on one work trip to Calgary this year, but how many more times I’ll head south is unknown, and whether or not I get Toronto and/or Vancouver in the Fall is also uncertain.

Travel was one of my most favorite parts of my job! I was racking up WestJet dollars, hotel points, and premium car rental memberships like nobody’s business. I’ve logged so many hours at the airport, it just feels like a big bus terminal to me. TRAVEL IS WHY I LIVE.

So while I’m really sad one of the best part of my jobs is being axed, I understand I was really privileged to have it in the first place. I had a really awesome time on all my work trips — it often didn’t feel like work! Ok, that’s a lie, there were some snowy days in Calgary that I wished to be anywhere else… but for the most part, traveling for work was nothing but fun. That said, I also understand that traveling for work encouraged me to spend more money than I would otherwise. By adding vacation days to my work trips, I had to pay for those expenses: hotels, dinners out, differences in cost for changing my flights, etc. Hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars more just because I had the opportunity to spend.

Maybe I should adopt the perspective that, as my employer tries to save money, I will be forced to save money?

In any case, you can see that I’m dealing with some uncertainty and challenging circumstances right now — which yes, has been the secret source of stress over the past 8 weeks that I’ve tweeted ambiguously about (5927529742 apologies to everyone I ignored emails from, deadlines I missed, and whatever else. I sucked at a lot of things lately, and this is why). I’m not super keen on job hunting and bolstering my emergency fund, while trying to save up money to buy furniture AND still hoping extra dollars fall out of the sky to pay off the remainder of my student loans.

Life! It gets so tricky sometimes.

Filed Under: After Grad Life, Earn More Money Tagged With:

Walk Off The Earth is the coolest

May 8, 2013 By 2 Comments

Ok, I can’t even handle this.

Walk Off The Earth (the coolest band ever) has partnered with ING Direct (the coolest bank ever) for a contest.

You could win $10,000 by telling ING your “creative” way to save. A friend originally texted me the contest and encouraged me to enter, but I don’t think I have a creative way of saving — I mean, scheduled transfers isn’t that creative is it? Mandatory employer retirement plans? Automatic dividend reinvestment plans? Maybe there’s something I do that is creative and I’m just not aware… might be time to reread some of my old blog posts.

If you have a creative way of saving your hard earned dollars, you can enter here.

Doesn’t matter, what does matter is this wicked video by WOTE (I’m allowed to acronym their name, right?):

This is a song about saving and dating. It’s practically my blog. I am adopting this as the official theme song of Money After Graduation.

“The boy with the cold hard cash is always Mr. Right”.  PREACH, SISTER! (remember that time I dumped a guy because he was $50,000 in debt?)

Walk Off The Earth is the best. I even bought their REVO album for my dad.

Saving is so cool, even cool bands are on board.

Reminder: get a $25 bonus for opening an account with ING if you use my Orange Key referral number. It’s right there in the sidebar! Now is especially a great time since they have a promotional 2.5% interest rate going on until the end of June. Happy Saving =) 

Filed Under: Save

Apartment hunting + redecorating

May 6, 2013 By 27 Comments

Some of you that have been following my blog for a few years might already know this, but in order to bring new readers up to speed, here is my living situation:

In August 2011 I moved into my friend’s furnished apartment while she completed a graduate degree abroad. Originally we had agreed that I would live there until she completed school in a year, at which point she would move back and either take over the apartment with all her stuff OR sell it.

When August 2012 rolled around, my friend had extended her stay in Europe, so I extended my stay with her stuff. I renewed the lease for the apartment (because it’s a cute affordable 1-bedroom in a great location) and another year went by.

Now August 2013 is coming up and my friend is returning to Canada (FINALLY!) and will be reclaiming her belongings. I have kind of outgrown this adorable apartment and I’m considering something different, particularly a new place where I can have a dog since this apartment is no pets. In short, I will have no furniture and am considering moving.

If dollar signs aren’t dancing in front of you eyes, you haven’t been reading carefully enough.

This is going to be EXPENSIVE!

So I have some choices to make over the summer. My friend is planning to fetch her belongings in June, which will leave me in an environment of extreme minimalism (I own a bed, a broken dresser and a handful of dishes. That’s it. Oh, and the TV is mine) and my lease for the apartment doesn’t run up until August, so if I find a new apartment, I won’t be calling it home until September 1st.

Is it worthwhile to fully furnish an apartment if I’m just going to pack up everything and move it to a new place 2-3 months later? 

I’m leaning towards suffering in the interim and waiting until I select a new apartment, then buying the right furniture that will match/look best/fit in my new home rather than my old one. Besides, the delay will give me extra time to save! However, I still have to buy things like pots & pans, which I know are pricey =( Ugh, adulthood.

Additionally, I’m looking for a more expensive apartment.

Yes, on purpose. My current rent is $750/mo which has been unchanged for the past 2 years and is so cheap I literally wonder if someone has forgotten they own this property. This was ideal when I first moved in here and my income was low, but now that my income has increased substantially, I can afford nicer digs. As a general rule of thumb, your housing costs should be no more than 35% of your net income. Even under-estimating my net pay by ignoring blog & freelance income, I can still afford housing costs north of $1,000/mo — and that sum can get a pretty nice place!

I want an apartment that is pet-friendly and has in-suite laundry and a dishwasher. I’m willing to pay more in rent for these things, since I think all three will drastically improve my quality of life.

And that’s what money is for: Enjoying your life! #YOLO

“Why don’t you just buy a condo?”, you ask? Ha! You must be American. I actually still can’t afford to buy a home in my city. A condo here would cost about $250,000 to $300,000. Since I don’t have $50,000 to $60,000 lying around for a 20% down-payment, I don’t fee comfortable jumping into home ownership just yet. Furthermore, I still have a little bit of my student loan debt left. Lastly, I’m not sure if I ever want to own a home. Ever. (but that’s probably a blog post all on its own!) Long story short: renting — even at $1,000/mo — is the best financial and personal decision for me for the next few years.

Alternatively, if I DON’T find a place that’s the right fit, I’ll stay here awhile longer and re-evaluate in 6 months or a year (as my lease allows). But I sure would like that dog sooner..

Overall, I think $1,000 will cover everything I need, since I already own bedroom furniture and essential dishes and kitchen appliances. While I knew this day would eventually come (or maybe I secretly thought my friend would actually stay in Europe forever), I didn’t plan for it and now I have to do some damage control =\ oh well, live and learn!

Filed Under: Spend Tagged With:
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