Money has mystified me.
The last few days I’ve been reading a lot of personal finance blogs. I’ve been a long time reader of The Consumerist and followed some links from there and here I am.
I looked because I wrote a check I couldn’t cover at that moment. I was nearly positive it wouldn’t be cashed before my paycheck was deposited – but I wasn’t sure. And I said to myself, damnit, you’re smarter than this…why do you fear understanding your own finances and money in general?
And in reading stories and ideas, it clicked:
I’m in my mid-20s. I get a pretty decent stipend for studying and I’m in my first semester. I have a stable and reliable income (assuming I don’t fail out or quit). I have a four-year bachelor’s degree with no debt (not my doing—I love my parents). I have no children. I have no wife. I have no car. I have no cell phone. I live in a fairly rural area. I live relatively frugally already. I’ve had no major unexpected expenses.
I don’t have a lot of savings and I have no investments…but I’ve been shit lucky with money to this point…and I’m in a great situation to do something more. So why the Hell don’t I?
One of the first pieces of advice that made perfect sense: track every penny you spend and every penny you get. So I whip up a spreadsheet with pretty colors. I create another spreadsheet of what essentially amounts to a check register. Another spreadsheet to start keeping track of prices.
I started working on a budget. Dear Lord, was that enlightening. Realizing just how much money I’ve essentially wasted over the last four years…wow. I’m an idiot. Even on a grad student’s stipend, even after budgeting over 1/3 of my paycheck for savings – I still had money left over. So, yeah, let’s throw that into savings too…
So get this: I will not buy a car while in school. Assuming no unexpected expenses (medical bills, ineffective birth control, getting the band back together), the day I get to add those three sweet letters after my name, I’ll be able to walk into a new car dealership and pay cash for an above-average vehicle. I won’t, but I love the idea of opening up a briefcase full of crisp $100s…
For the first time in…probably forever…I know exactly how much cash I have. I’ve stared at that number a lot in the last couple days. It’s small, but damn it’s nice to know.
Yeah, so the next few posts, even if they only come once a month, are going to be about money, I think, because I’m a little excited about this.
I’d highly recommend getting software like Quicken or Microsoft Money. It’ll automate a lot of the bookkeeping, because you can set it up to download the latest transactions from your bank, credit cards, etc. You can also generate reports and charts to easily see where your money is going. I’ve been using Quicken since I started grad school, and it has helped me keep track of exactly how much money I have. Since I started using it, I haven’t had any overdraft fees or been late on bill payments.
Comment by Broke Grad Student — November 19, 2007 @ 3:13 pm