Don't Let Debt Haunt You

Happy almost Halloween, everyone! For those of you who have not yet chosen a costume, don’t fret, great ideas come at the last minute. I beg of you though, please don’t be Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke. I’m sure they are very nice people, but there are wittier costumes that won’t make people want to stick their tongue out to the side. It’s just an odd facial expression.

Anyways, we all know that Halloween has the implication of bringing out our biggest fears. I hate horror movies and anything that is beyond the scariness threshold of The Haunted Mansion in Disney World. Most Halloween terrors are seasonal, but unfortunately there are just some haunts that can’t be shaken off, no matter what time of year. One of the biggest ghosts that affects twenty-somethings today is debt. According to PNC, in 2012 over 60 percent of millenials are stressed out about their outstanding debt. Because I feel that this topic is SO important, I am going to make this into a two part blog post series (not including this one) that addresses how to avoid debt if you are lucky enough to not be in it and how to shoo those debt ghosts away (they are, in fact, real).

For now, go enjoy the fun of Halloween! In a green way of course…make sure you are using a reusable bag for trick or treating and make your costume with items that you already have in your closet J.

Have a spooktacular time tomorrow!

If You Really Need an Excuse to Love Sustainability…Blame it on Your Wallet

I will openly admit it…I love Starbucks. I know. It’s against the Holy Grail of all things cool and “actually” hipster, but hey, I’m not a hipster, so it’s all good. I frequent the coffee shop about two to three times a week and I am proud to own a few reusable travel mugs and iced coffee cups that I bring in and hand over the counter to be filled. However, this morning I was in a rush and left my travel mug in my apartment. In the grand scheme of things it’s not a huge deal, but I wince a little bit every time a barista hands me a paper cup (even though they are much more ecofriendly than they used to be). The same thing goes for plastic bags at the grocery store. As a city dweller I walk to and from the store every week, so remembering a durable reusable bag is totally worth it from the I-don’t-want-sea-turtles-choking-because-of-me perspective and from the common sense I-don’t-want-my-vegetables-falling-on-the-sidewalk side of things. Although I have no problem unabashedly flaunting my eco-friendliness, some of my friends find it a little odd that I will go back up the stairs to grab that canvas bag from Old Navy and are slightly embarrassed to do it themselves. It’s not that they are bad people or don’t care about the earth, there’s just a lack of motivation and a societal status quo that encourages us to be lazy and get that cool holiday themed disposable coffee cup. Well I’m going to make you love sustainability, and it’s all because of your wallet. And the sea turtles.

One thing most people don’t know about Starbucks is that when you bring in your own reusable mug, they will give you 10 cents off your drink. Now, that may not seem like much, but let’s do the math on my caffeine habits. If I go an average three times a week, I will save a total of thirty cents weekly. Multiply that by 52, and all of the sudden at the end of the year I have an extra $15.60, which will go straight into my fun budget (or, if I’m feeling really ambitious, my Emergency Fund i.e. my last post). The 156 paper or plastic cups I haven’t used are an added bonus. What was the the total saving in paper cups in 2012 you ask? Well, last year coffee was served in reusable tumblers 35.8 million times, saving more than 1.6 million pounds of paper from landfills. Not too shabby, my friends!  

The same thing goes for paper or plastic bags. If you use your own bag at Whole Foods you save 10 cents for every bag you bring, and in some cities like Washington DC, it’s a mandated law that you can save that 10 cents in any grocery store. It doesn’t stop at Whole Foods either. In every Target, CVS, Safeway, Kroger, Winco and Fred Meyer (I swear I’m not making names up…some of these stores are just regional!) you can save  money off your total purchase if you use your own bags,  If I use two reusable bags once a week for one year, it adds up to $10.40 (considering you receive the ten cent savings). Again, I know that may seem like a pittance amount, but I am stubborn enough to keep these habits up, so over my lifetime I will save around $1500. Oh, what a twenty something could only dream about doing with that sum of money to spend guiltlessly.

From just a sustainability perspective or a financial perspective alone, this argument may not be that convincing. But that, my friends, is what the beauty of my blog is all about. When the two merge together it becomes more than just money and more than just a few trees. So if you’re embarrassed or annoyed at the thought of lugging your own reusable bag or travel mug somewhere, take solace in this: you will make the person behind you in line wince at the thought that they won’t get the discount. And hey, the clink of another dime in your piggy bank isn’t bad either. 

Birthday Dinners and Emergency Funds

It has become known amongst my friends that I am the unassuming finance nerd, so every once in a while it will get me into a conversation that leaves at least one person at the table taken aback. Let me note that I use the term “unassuming” loosely; I did get my undergrad degree in Marketing, I do watch Shark Tank obsessively and I live with two accountants that I happily engage in chats with regarding what they are studying for their next round of CPA exams. Anyways, this inconspicuousness will get me into a conversation that leaves some eyebrows raised…in a good way. This happened to me about a week ago at a best friend’s birthday dinner. Hey, we don’t only talk about the Kardashian’s.

Over dinner we were all joking around about what my friend, who is a year younger than most of us, could accomplish over the next year in her life without Lilly Allen or Taylor Swift’s lyrical input about being anything older than 22. Because there is so much room to grow (and room for error) without the genius input of these two singers, we all started enthusiastically throwing around ideas like, “visit China!” “run a marathon!” and “finish a five pound burger!”.  Although these ideas are very twenty somethingish, Birthday Girl’s idea took us all by surprise. After she finished taking a gulp of her wine she shouted, “I want to finish saving for my Emergency Fund!” Huh?

Birthday Girl is certainly on the right track. A financial Emergency Fund is one of the first things that everyone needs to have under their belt by their mid to late twenties. No, it’s not for those leather boots that you have been salivating over. Rather, it helps you to avoid overspending and going into debt due to a real life emergency, which can be anything from losing your job to getting in a car accident. Most experts suggest that it be the equivalent of three months’ worth of living expenses, including rent, food and transportation costs. Don’t let that statement make your eyes glaze over and your heart start to palpitate. Here are a few tips to make achieving your Emergency Fund goal easier!

Don’t Underestimate What You Spend – It’s rough to come up with an estimate of how much you spend over a month in a certain category off of the top of your head. Spend a month tracking your expenses by registering on a website like www.mint.com or simply creating a note on your phone that you update every time you hand over cash, check or credit card.  An accurate budget estimate will keep you from coming up short in the long run.

Set a Realistic Time Frame – An Emergency Fund is something that can be saved for over a two to three year period. Setting a realistic time frame to save for your Emergency Fund will take some of the pressure off of you, but at the same time a designated time period will keep you from putting your Emergency Fund on the back burner.

Contribute Weekly – Weekly contributions to your emergency fund will not only help you reach your goal faster, but it will also form an invaluable habit of saving that will quickly become natural. One of the easiest ways to do this is to set up an automatic withdrawal from your checking account into your savings account. Your weekly contribution doesn’t have to be huge either. The larger the amount the better, but even $15 a week can make a significant difference. That’s the equivalent of cooking one meal at home as opposed to going out to dinner. Not too shabby!

Contribute Monthly – Some months we get lucky and have a little extra cash left after paying the bills. This is exactly when the green light goes off for a little extra saving! Set a goal of what you want left in your bank account at the end of the month, and if you have exceeded that goal, transfer whatever you have left. Want $700 left in your banking account at the end of the month and end up with $716.63? Put the $16.63 in your Emergency Fund. I promise you will be surprised at how quickly it adds up!

Following these tips, both you and Birthday Girl can be well on your way to reaching your Emergency Fund goal this year. Trust me, the sense of security gained from an Emergency Fund is priceless.

My Other Signature Story

Every girl has a story about when she realized she wanted to change the world. This is mine.

My Change The World Life Goal began to click on our family vacations. We began to take them when I was in middle school, and they centered on national parks and where my mom’s semi-annual sales meetings were based. Of course the national parks were gorgeous and it only took a few hikes for my sister and I to become slight eco nerds. Soon throwing away water bottles made our stomachs start to churn to the point where, if there were no recycling facilities at our hotel, we would pack the water bottles in our suitcases so we could recycle them when we got home or when we spotted a recycling bin on our travels. No joke. Bless my parents for encouraging and putting up with our shenanigans.

I soon began to realize that even though the amount that I would recycle throughout my lifetime would be notable, it wouldn’t be enough. This realization coincided with the global warming “trend” at the time, so gosh darn it my 16-year-old self decided to do something about it! I applied to the wonderful three semester long Pine Jog Fellowship (South Floridians! Apply for this! You won’t regret it!) and was happy to learn that I was admitted, along with four other Change The World Classmates that I went to school with. The second semester of the fellowship required us to take matters into our own hands, and my partner and I (she is now in the Peace Corps…duh) teamed up with our local Home Depot on a mission to change 500 “regular” light bulbs in our community to energy efficient CFL light bulbs. Did we reach our goal? Why yes we did, and our town now has 1,078 CFL’s installed on our behalf thanks to the support of our city government, our community and the Home Depot on Jog Road.

So, after all of this, the proverbial light bulb went off in my head. Corporate Social Responsibility, with a concentration in sustainability, was the way for me to change the world. I haven’t quite gotten there yet, but there have been many experiences in my personal life and toddler of a career that have helped me satisfy the plastic bottle suitcase packing middle schooler inside of me. And at this point, I couldn’t be happier. 

My Signature Story

Every girl has a story that she will tell at a happy hour or when she’s obnoxiously flirting with a guy at a holiday party near the mistletoe. Here is mine.

One of my first memories growing up is when my mom picked me up from preschool. I distinctly remember being buckled into my car seat and looking out the window. When my mom started the car she asked me how my day was and enthusiastically questioned me about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I threw up my hands and said, “Financially independent!!”

That’s right. Little did I know that twenty years ago my parents had already engrained in me that I could do whatever I wanted with my life as long as I could support myself. I not only consider this one of the most valuable lessons that I have ever learned, but it is also one of the most influential lifelong beliefs that I have held. It cushioned the blow of reality that hit my friends and I a few years ago when rent was due, there were no men (boys?) on the radar and the idea of willingly living at home made our foreheads crinkle in doubt. Financial independence has also altered my career path and sparked my love for the business world. I knew I wanted to go into marketing by the time I got my driving permit and began investing in the stock market before I went through my second round of braces.

You would be surprised to know how many laughs this has gotten. It’s not a bad thing to use when I’m going for a free drink, either.