Breaking Even, Inc.

Nicole's State Of The Economy Address

I'll be the first to admit that I have little to no-pull in terms of making people think one thing or the other about the economy. I do, however, come to a point where I have collected some cool links that just need to be shared.

I'll cover the economy in seperate sectors of the agreed-upon needs of all people: Food, Water, Clothing, Shelter, and Love (and I'll throw in Government just for fun!).

Food

Food price inflation may not be as bad as we thought (check out inflation explained at Debt-Free Revolution). I also read a completely hilarious blog about media mass hysteria about food prices meanwhile the average barbeque meal only cost $1.65 more than last year... if you know who wrote this post let me know, because I lost the link! Even the Wall Street Journal has reported rice futures going down.

Water

My friend Sarah sent me this fabulous SIGG water bottle for my birthday. It is amazing. It keeps my water cold and crisp and does not leave a plastic aftertaste in my mouth...and, of course, it's refillable. I don't normally endorse products but here's the store if you want to buy one.

Clothing

Apparently, the New York Times is having a hard time believing that Sarah Jessica Parker's newish Bitten line of clothes is so wonderful. They seem to think that attraction towards inexpensive clothes is a phenomenon in these economic times. Those of us who love women's magazines though have seen a "Bitten" example in every issue for at least the past year. Ok slight exaggeration but SJP (and women wanting cute cheap clothes) is here to stay.

Feeling left out menfolk? Please don't: LL Cool J has got your back! (from USAToday.com)

Shelter

If you want to understand how this whole housing debaucle happened, listen to this hour-long program from This American Life. Great storytelling, which you can expect from TAL but makes this whole thing way more understandable.

And if you're a renter, feel free to get angry. Read this fabulous post by Baglady to see why this housing crisis will effect us all whether we rent or not.

Love

Ah, poor Anne Heche. She may love her kids but can't afford to pay child support. OK, if she can't afford it, I think that pretty much lets everyone else off the hook, too. (I have no sympathy for celebrities who make more money in one day then I have in five years then waste their money. Where I'm from we call that gaspilleuse!)(from People.com)

But in the good news bin about love, people apparently love and appreciate small businesses enough to actually pay in a pay-as-you-wish situation. (from Freakonomics blog)

And according to a recent Gallup poll,almost 50% of us are happy and thriving. How happy? People are working on an index for that! (from Freakonomics blog)

Government

Haven't spent your new government stimulus check on a new Wii or a crazy night in Vegas? Good for you! Here are some more productive things to do with it. (from Mighty Bargain Hunter)

And guess what? The government is doing something about credit card companies (from Debt-Free Revolution).

Need even more government fun? Now you can actually prove if you could do a better job then your Congress people. Balance the federal budget...it's a new game called Budget Hero. (Freakonomics blog)

To summarize: things may or may not be as awful as we thought, but we certianly can't control everything. Might as well smile and wave...

Image from www.shorpy.com.

 

Best Advice You Ever Got?

A Little Philosophy About Money And Life

CNN Money recently had a slideshow of financially successful people all answering the same question "What was the best advice you ever got?" The answers are what you'd expect: kind of general, a little profound, and applicable to money and life in general. Here are a few favorites:

Focus on things you do different than others. (Peter G. Peterson)
Get out of your comfort zone (David Petraeus)
Always be the person who signs your checks (Tina Fey)

To be honest, a lot of other people I didn't know. A lot of older white guys who run large companies (at least I'm assuming, a lot of the companies were not recognizable to me). I would have liked to see a broader spectrum of different types of successful people.

Most of the advice that was stated came from fathers or bosses. I wish I could remember advice my father gave me. He was pretty tight lipped on finances in general. (According to the New York Times, it's a movement among young people to not keep their finances to themselves but with the popularity of personal finance blogs, I'm highly doubting it's just younger people.) I had long wanted to pick my dad's brain for financial advice in particular because he ran a successful business and was loved by his family and community at the same time. How did he build his money early on? What were the best things he did for the business and for his life? But sometimes you can't wait too long to ask... As far as bosses, I do remember an old boss who taught me how to "manage up", meaning to manage yourself when your direct supervisor can't or won't give you feedback.

The slideshow is a little superficial but does the job of getting your mind going on what you've gotten for financial advice (both good and bad).

What I always keep in mind, in finances and in life: 1) Everyone is doing the best they can. and 2) If it will make a good story, you should try it.

(And from the Freakonomics blog, some computer-related proverbs for these technological times.)

Have you gotten any really good advice? Maybe CNN Money forgot to ask you but I certainly won't.

Real Simple's Money Issue

March's Issue of Real Simple Magazine Is Dedicated To Money

I've been a Real Simple subscriber for about three years. I like their little tips and the clean layout of the magazine. It's kind of like relaxing fluff reading and learning a few new things at the same time.

First, their reader question of the day was "On a scale of 1-10 how much do you worry about money?" It didn't make for some interesting reads like usual questions (like "best advice you ever got" or "favorite drug store product"). Some people worry, some people don't is what it comes down to. Overall, it wasn't a strong lead-in to the money issue.

I flipped through and found their main article "Your biggest money worries, solved". Let me share a few of my favorite tips:

1) Change all your computer passwords to reflect your larger goal. For example, if you want to remodel your kitchen or move to France, your computer password could be gle@mingkitchen or vivel@france2015. This subconciously makes your goal more ingrained in your head, and makes you more likely to be able to save for it.

2) Have money automatically deducted from your pay check or checking account to put into savings and retirement. You won't even miss it.

3) Write down everything you spend so you can know where you can cut.

4) Find other hobbies besides shopping, like taking a dance class or "watch YouTube videos". (I may add to this personally fulfulling activities that are good for your body or brain. I think we all tend to consume too much media... unless it is the educational variety that is.)

For the 23 year old married girl in my income bracket, they told her she was saving more than enough money and could hold off on her employer's 401K while she saved for a downpayment on a house. Meanwhile, I'm pouring all my extra money into my retirement account, thinking of the value of compound interest. Hmph.

Besides the money portion, the issue includes the best blogs (though they did not list personal finance blogs), how to cook fish, clothing items that will never go out of style, how to make yourhome ecofriendly, and a guide to buying major appliances.

Overall, I was hoping for a little more from Real Simple. There are plenty of interesting topics you can tackle with money (as you have seen with this blog, I hope). But I do understand that a lot of smaller topics are covered in addition to the theme of the issue.

So don't buy this issue for the money tips but do buy it for the other reasons you like the magazine: clean lines and interesting, light reads that are perfect before bed or general perusing.

Tax Savings For Smaller Incomes

I’ve been scouting financial RSS feeds the past week or so for the best money-saving tax tips for the smaller income folks like myself. Here are three that sound like they may help some:

1) Make $15,500 AGI and contributed $2,000+ to your retirement? Uncle Sam has a deal for you! (Via Kiplinger’s) Don’t know your AGI? Figure it out with this handy calculator.

2) Have stock or other investments? In 2008, investors also have a rare opportunity to take profits on stocks or funds and pay no tax…While most investors pay a 15% tax on capital gains, those in the two lowest brackets, which this year means taxable income up to $65,100 for a married couple filing jointly or $32,550 for individuals, ordinarily pay 5%. This year, they pay nothing. (From Kiplingers)

3) Also CNN has ten tax breaks mainly for those with homes, retirement accounts, or kiddos.

Discuss these with your tax professional or keep these in mind when you are doing your own taxes, that is if you haven't done them already... Guess what I'm doing this weekend? 

Taxes On Your Own And Why That's Not A Bad Idea

I just finished an article from Smart Money Magazine called "10 Things Your Tax Preparer Won't Tell You". Apparently there are a few reasons for people to do their taxes on their own:

1) Tax preparers make more and costlier mistakes than the average person doing their taxes. "According to a study of IRS data, 56% of professionally prepared returns showed significant errors, compared with 47% of those done by the taxpayer. And audited taxpayers who used preparers owed an average of $363, while those who filed themselves owed $185."

2) Tax preparers are way less likely to take new clients after Feb. 1, after which they are slammed until the tax deadline.

3) The person you hire may not be the person who does your taxes. It could be some temp employee or some random person overseas. (Not that either of these things are bad. I just doubt that this is ever stated outright, making me think if if a person or firm can be dishonest about who is doing my taxes they are probably capable of larger dishonesties).

While I may have gathered my paperwork in December, I have not gotten the party started with the taxes. But it looks like I'll be doing them on my own for some good reasons besides saving some money. Meanwhile, have you started your taxes yet?

The (Real) Truth About Love's Cost

I was alerted today via another blog about an article on MSN called "The (Real) Cost Of Love". I realized after reading it why there was no place to comment on this article. It was one of the most sexist things I've seen lately and I'm sure the women reading this online would have ripped this guy apart(I'm assuming it is a guy). I'd like to talk a little bit about what I find wrong with this article and, like the article did, back up my article with "sources", you know, like the New York Times, CNN news, and financial journal articles. (Compare the article's sources to mine and I bet you'll see I've already out-researched him.)

First of all, I see in this article, men are the breadwinners. Yes, women make up almost half the work force...(oh wait, that figure was from 1999, but as population has increased and more women are now attending college then men, women are likely entering the skilled work force at a larger rate.) But, ladies, men are still our providers.

I feel bad for how much money men have to pay for us. Who cares that women are also paying more taxes then men; earn 1/4 less than what men earn doing the exact same job; and are still doing more housework then men. We cost men money, ladies. They have to buy us lingerie and jewelry.

So clearly, though I earn less than a man, am more likely to pay taxes than a man, and do more housework then a man, someone can still write an article about how much women cost men and make a few people nod their heads in agreement.

If we wanted to go with this articles cavemen premise, let's assume what this guy does: that men earn the money and women have traditional roles. Values have been assigned to traditional women's unpaid roles ranging from $75,000/year  to $130,000+. I think that means as an average house wife, I'd "outearn" my husband. And let's not even talk about the value-added services...

But wait a minute, women work too! I almost forgot. And I also forgot that I can actually pay for dining out, entertainment, personal grooming, and a lot of the other things on this list myself.

But I tell the author of this article not to worry about taking me on an "expensive dinner to apologize" for undermining the contributions of women in our society. I'll buy my own dinner, thanks.