Tag Archives: planning

What is Your Goal?

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I almost never mention my first husband.  It was a short marriage that ended decades ago, so it somehow seems like part of a different lifetime.

He and I differed on one very important issue, and I think that is what ultimately drove us apart.  We had different financial goals.  Or at least a different order in which we wanted to pursue them.  All of my life I had two primary goals: earn enough money that I don’t have to be dependent on anyone else, and own my home.  When we married, I had finished my Master’s degree and was started on my career as a financial aid professional.  I had achieved goal number one.  But I was living in a rental apartment.  A year after we got married, we moved to Chicago.  I continued working as a financial aid advisor (this time at a law school—I found my niche!).  He started attending law school.  Within a year of our move to Chicago I was looking at condominiums.  I still wanted to own a home.  He didn’t agree.  He claimed he didn’t want to make that kind of commitment to Chicago.  And that was the beginning of the end.

Ultimately, we divorced.  And a year later I bought a condo in Chicago. A studio was all I could afford, but who needs a bedroom when you have a 27th floor lake view?  It was all mine. And I loved it.  My home, my mortgage, and my rules. After only three years, I sold that condo at a 25% profit.  I moved back to Pennsylvania and started working for Penn State.  And as soon as I was able, I bought a townhouse.  I’ve bought and sold my home two more times since then, and now I know that I’m in the home where I plan to stay for a very long time.  I’ll probably even manage to pay off the mortgage in full.

What I learned over the years is that when the real estate market is strong enough, you don’t have to commit to a home forever unless you want to.  It is possible to sell a home after only a few years without taking a loss on it.  Real estate is more than just a place to live…it’s an appreciating investment.

My first husband still lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his wife and kids.  Ultimately, he did make that kind of commitment to Chicago. We just didn’t have the same goal at the time when it really mattered.  Everyone has their own financial goals. And before you too far into a relationship, it’s important to be clear with your partner what your goals are, and hopefully they will match up with each other’s.

Owning a home and being self-supporting were my goals.  My current goal is retirement at age 60.  Some people have a goal of saving a certain amount of money.  Some have a goal of being debt-free.  Others have a goal of starting their own business.  Your goal is the thing that is important to you.  And everyone’s goal will be a bit different. What is important is that you have a goal and you set your sights on working toward it.

What are your financial goals?

Procrastination

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Procrastination.  Sometimes I feel like it’s my lifestyle.  But I know it shouldn’t be.  Procrastination almost never makes things go better.  It usually makes things go worse.  And it frequently makes things more expensive.

I have a lot of deferred maintenance happening at my house.  There’s a super-long list of things that I keep saying I’m going to work on myself “when I have time” or hire someone to do “when I have more money.”  But reality dictates that I’m never going to have enough time or money to take care of everything.  So things remain undone until it becomes urgent–like when my water heater died a few weeks ago.  If I had tended to the water heater BEFORE it failed I would have had time to shop around for a better deal.  Because I was dealing with an emergency, I got the water heater and the plumber that were available the quickest.  And I’m sure that I paid more than I would have in a less urgent situation.

The same theory applies when you defer maintenance on your body or your teeth.  Preventative medicine costs a lot less money (and time) than if you get really sick or let a whole tooth rot away before you seek help.

Managing your money also goes a lot more smoothly if you don’t procrastinate.  When you pay your bills on time you avoid late fees.  When you time your deposits with your outgoing money, you avoid overdraft fees.  When you plan food in advance you save money by avoiding convenience foods and restaurants.  Typically anything that is planned in advance is cheaper than just flying by the seat of your pants.  Textbooks are cheaper if you buy online or buy used (which requires buying early).  My personal favorite “early is better” (in normal times) is music festival tickets—they are almost always less expensive if you buy super-early (usually before the lineup is announced).

Procrastination can cause a number of problems.  Many of them will require money you don’t need to spend.  The quick and easy cure is to STOP PROCRASTINATING!  I’m sure I can do that.  I’ll get around to it someday…

Running on Empty

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I’ve been running on empty lately.  With an assortment of time-consuming things going on in my personal life, I haven’t had any time to take care of myself.  When your physical being is running on empty you add fuel by either sleeping or eating (or both).  But when your emotional being is running on empty your only cure is to find some time to feed your soul.  For me this means some physical activity (like running or walking), some social activity (like attending a concert), or some purely down time (like watching Netflix and knitting with a cat on my lap).  I haven’t really been able to fit any of those in for the last week or so, and it’s had me focusing on situations where it hurts you to be unfueled.

It’s never a good idea to be running around without fuel in the tank.  With your car that means get to the gas station before you run out of gas. (Pro tip:  the Rutter’s in Bellefonte has had their unleaded price at $2.059 for over a week now—definitely worth the drive for the savings!)  Running out of gas can cause you a multitude of larger expenses (towing, potential damage to fuel pump), so it’s best to fill up before you absolutely have to.

When your wallet is running on empty you may find yourself in a situation where you need cash (because believe it or not there are still situations where plastic is not accepted) and have none.  To brace myself against these situations I keep what I call my “emergency $20” tucked away behind my driver’s license in my wallet.  I put it there and forget about it.  It’s never a part of my cash on hand.  Until I need it.  And then I have it.  And I replace it as soon as possible after it is used.  This way my wallet is never running on empty.

When I’m out and about I always try to make sure I have emergency snacks and beverage.  I try to keep granola bars in my car or my purse.  And I always have a travel coffee cup or water bottle (or both) with me when I leave the house for more than a few minutes.  That way if things don’t go according to plan, I don’t have to high tail it to the closest Sheetz because I’m hangry or thirsty.  I can keep my physical body fueled up without having to spend extra money to do so.

I have a vacation coming up next week that will likely serve to refuel my emotional being.  I’m hoping that my anticipation of that event will carry me through this week (likely with the help of the cheesecake I made yesterday).  It’s never a good idea to run on empty.  A little planning can make it so your car, your wallet, and your physical being never have to.

Things I’m Looking Forward To: A Perspective Change

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Undated planners have become a big thing in the last couple of years.  And I jumped on board.  I use the Panda Planner.  I never really use the calendar part of it.  That part of my life is much easier to manage electronically (Outlook for my work life, Google for my personal life, and a smart phone app that combines them together for me on my phone).  But I love my planner because it helps me to focus my attention on the things that matter.

My planner has a daily To Do List as well as an area to prioritize those tasks, and also a place to identify the day’s focus and a place to track my exercise.  But the part of my planner that has been most helpful during this time of social distance is two daily small lists.  Every day my planner asks me to list three things that I am grateful for and three things that I am looking forward to.  When I look back to the “before times,” my lists were very different than they are now.  Some staples on my grateful list have always included my cats, my husband, music, and coffee.  My looking forward to lists have often included travel, music festivals, concerts, and nights out at my local brewpub.  And while I am still grateful for those things and am still hopeful that I’ll be able to attend a music festival again someday, my priorities have become different over the last month.

I regularly write down that I am grateful for a job that allows me to work from home, a good broadband internet connection, a house with some outdoor space, and the occasional sunny day.  I could easily make a list of 10 or more things I’m grateful for every single day.  But the looking forward to lists have gone a whole different direction, and are much more difficult to produce in this time when every day seems exactly like the one before.  I find myself looking forward to dragging my wagon full of recyclables down the street to the temporary drop off spot.  I look forward to whatever my husband is creating for dinner each day.  I look forward to a phone call with my parents.  I look forward to whatever my current binge watch is (currently The Sopranos, so I should be good for a long time).  I look forward to a treadmill run.  A craft project.  A virtual happy hour.  I’ve learned that I can look forward to the little things, much like I’m grateful for the little things.  It’s a change in perspective to accommodate the current times.  But I hope that I can carry it forward into the new normal once we get there.  Because looking forward to things (and of course being grateful for things) feels good.  And we could all stand to feel good right now.

Sometimes You Need to Reboot

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Sometimes you just need to reboot.  We’ve all had it happen with our phones and computers.  The system just gets so overwhelmed that the only way to fix it is to turn it off and turn it back on again, giving it a fresh, clean start.

I was away from the office last Friday because I needed to reboot myself.  Spring is a pretty overwhelming time of year in the Financial Aid Office, and my work and personal worlds both had me feeling a bit out of control.  So I took a long weekend to go to a small music festival (one of my favorite things to do) and disconnect from normal life.  Today I’m back in the office with the same mounds of undone work surrounding me…but I feel better than I did last week.  Because I’ve had a reboot.

Sometimes your finances will feel overwhelming and you won’t be sure how you’ll ever be able to dig out.  At those times you may need to reboot your financial plans.  Maybe you have a credit card balance that you could save money on by transferring to a different card.  Maybe your student loan payment is uncomfortably high, but you can make life more manageable with a different payment plan.  Maybe your housing cost is too high and you have to make the difficult choice to move to a less expensive situation.  If your money has you feeling like you are sinking rather than swimming, you may need to look at things from a different angle and reboot your plan.  You will experience this many times throughout your life.  But nothing is hopeless.  You just need to reboot.