The Gurly Life

I love it when...

... I call the cable company and the first thing they say to me is that I'm paying too much for my services, and offer me a better package which includes DVR and will save me $50/month. That's $600 in a year, people.

How do they know?

And frankly, I don't mind.

Earlier this week, my credit card was frozen. When I called last night to find out why, they said they needed to check some transactions. Two were mine, and one was not. They determined that the account was compromised, and it was canceled.

The transaction occurred on Monday and was for about $12 at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I have shopped there a number of times, so the only thing that was different was that it was a phone order (I usually shop there in person so I can use the coupons), and perhaps at some odd hour of the day. 

How the heck did they know? I've made much larger expenses, used my card in different states and different countries, and the card has not been frozen. I have received phone calls to verify certain unusual charges, like a new computer, before the credit card company verified them, but the card has never been frozen.

But something about this transaction triggered the fraud alert. Was it the phone order thing? I mostly shop in person or online, but not always. Was it the time of day?

Well, whatever it was, that's a pretty sophisticated program they're running over there. I'm comforted because they really are vigilant, which is good because identity theft is never fun. And frankly, I wouldn't have a problem with having a GPS locator in my neck, so if anything happens to me, I can be found, like one of those stolen car locators, you know? I wouldn't mind because I am comfortable with our government (I know not everyone is). But it occurs to me that if things changed and we suddenly found ourselves in an Orwellian totalitarian system, I won't be so eager to have GPS on me.

Anyway, I should be getting my new card tomorrow. Apparently, I'm a premier customer so they are expediting it. Mmph. By premier customer, I think they mean I pay my bill.

Oh, the loud banging is a joy

Construction has begun at my building. I'll give you the background: my building is an apartment conversion. Converting apartments into condos became very popular when Santa Monica dropped its rent-control requirement about a decade ago. I'm not in Santa Monica, but it's now more common than it used to be for developers to purchase an apartment building, remodel it, and then sell the units as condos. Or maybe it's always been popular, I just didn't know it. Whatever.

As I said, my building is an apartment conversion. The developer who remodeled the building did some things well, and some things ass. One of the things he didn't do well is weather-proof the building. Yup. You can see the problem. The very first winter after the units were sold, 2004-05, we had the craziest rains I've ever seen in my 17 years here, and the defect was revealed in all its glory. The HOA (home owner's association) sued the developer for construction defects. We were chugging along at the speed of molasses on a cold day, when the developer saw fit to die in a plane crash. We soon discovered that the developer's wealth was a house of cards, a Ponzi scheme, if you will.

The HOA therefore decided that we can't hang out with this construction defect, each time it rains it damages the building a little more. We voted, and the vote was to fix the thing. Yesterday, construction began. There is a lot of loud banging all day long, and there will be for about a month. Today I work from home, and it's distracting but frankly, I'm glad it's happening. Not only will the defect be fixed, I will get new windows (to the tune of $4,000 - still, let expensive than if I did this all on my own, because then I'd have to pay for the permits, the crane, etc. etc.), and I will be able to refinance at the current super-low rates and save myself hundreds of dollars every month. I greatly look forward to that. Greatly.

Bang on, I say.

Intention + action = results

A couple of months ago I wrote a post about not feeling like I'm really in control of how much money I'm spending and saving, decrying how whenever I'm careful and pay attention, life throws me a curve-ball and then I end up spending what I was planning to save that month.

I don't mean to suggest here that there has been an end to curve-balls, however, I wanted to give you an update on what I've been doing to save money and how it's been going.

I began with an intention: to keep a much closer eye on what I'm spending, and also to spend less money on things that are not necessary. Some examples of unnecessary things: eating out or ordering in, except occasionally; purchasing clothes or shoes at full retail price. There are other examples, but you get the gist.

Here are some of the actions I'm taking:

• I've cut back on traveling. Not my favorite thing, but I can't comfortably book my next trip if it cuts into my savings.
• I make regular contributions to my retirement account. This is set up to happen automatically, so I'm not tempted to use the money otherwise. I've been doing this since starting my job at the firm.
• I am not eating out much, and when I do, I try to spend less than $10. But generally, I don't eat out.
• I've cut back on my charitable contributions. Same charities, smaller amounts. For now.
• I only buy clothes/shoes on sale or at wholesale or discount outlets.
• I use coupons.
• For things I need, like this new-fangled computer, I take advantage of no-interest financing. I make minimum payments while no interest is due, and the money to pay off the balance is in a CD accruing interest.
• I've opened a CD (see above), and will open another in a couple of months.
• I pay attention to how much money I'm spending. I check my bank balance and my credit card balance every few days so I know how much money I have at all times, and know how much money I have left to spend for the month.
• Thusly, I have a monthly budget.
• I might be refinancing my home mortgage at a lower interest rate (for those of us too daft to understand the point of adjustable rate mortgages and who have a fixed rate mortgage that is actually real, there are now opportunities opening up to save some money). This could save me several hundred dollars a month, with the added advantage of paying off my car. That money will be disbursed monthly anyway, except now in a savings account.

That's what I have so far. And in the last couple of months I've saved a surprising amount of money, i.e., results. I hope that some of this is useful to anyone who reads this, though you may all be thinking, duh!

Of course, if you have further suggestions, please leave a comment.

Sometimes being ingorant is a good thing

When I bought my condo, the real estate market was peaking. I already mentioned how terribly clever I was to buy my place, which sold for almost $80 less than comps. At the time, my mortgage broker was trying to convince me to get an adjustable rate mortgage. This would not have been a subprime loan, but it would have meant having a lower payment for 5 years, and then the interest rate would have gone up as far (and as fast) as it was allowed to go.

I don't understand adjustable rate mortgages, unless you know you're only keeping the property for a short time, then it makes sense. Pay low interest for a few years, sell the thing, and you've got nothing to worry about. Otherwise, I don't understand it. I know, I know, it's simple, it makes sense economically, whatever. But the truth of the matter is that if I'd had an adjustable rate and my payment had started going up, I would not have been able to afford the increased amount. Not without giving up a few things that are not necessary but that I really like.

So now, no matter what happens, my payment is a fixed amount and will remain so for a good long time. That makes me sleep well at night.

A knack

For buying in before the prices get crazy.

At Anne and John's wedding luncheon (see previous post) I found out that tuition alone at USC law school right now is $40,000 a year. Gulp. I went to law school only a few years ago at UCLA (2000-2003) and tuition then was about $11,000 a year for in-State residents. Now it's $26,000. The cost of law school for me, including living expenses, was $29,000 per year. I ended up with about $74,000 of school debt. This is A LOT of money, but it is dwarfed by what it would cost now.

Same thing with my new car, Pixie the Red Prius. I bought it in early March. Then the price of gas shot up, and now the same car costs $10,000 more than what I paid for it. In a rather unusual twist, I could sell my car for more money that I paid for it.

And same thing with my condo. I bought it for about $80,000 less than comparable units in this area.

So perhaps I'm better with money than I give myself credit for, or just plain lucky. Whatever it is, I'll take it!

A proactive approach to finances

Yellow sun, originally uploaded by The Gerli Life.

I begin with this lovely rose because last night I was very upset, but upon waking this morning I was clear that being upset about some aspect of my life that is not how I want it to be is a waste of time and energy. First, please do not be concerned about my upset. I tend to wax dramatic at night, it's just a tendency I have, so all there is for me to do is go to bed and get a good night's sleep and I'm over it. I kid you not, it's that simple. Anyway, I'm starting the day sunny and bright, just like this gorgeous flower.

As I mentioned, I am taking my focus off relationships and putting it on money and abundance. Don't misunderstand, I am still going to be proactive about finding the man of my dreams, I am not giving up by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm not pretending that it doesn't matter. But I am a little bored with myself right at this moment, I think I've been and continue to be diligent to be the best person I am, and that is sufficient. I'm not a lunatic about this area anymore, and I am comfortable with my ability to toss out a guy who ultimately is not going to be right for me. The relationship will come when it comes, and since I'm not interested in being in one for the sake of being in one, it might take another 5 years, or 5 months, who knows. Anyway, the bottom line is that there is another area of my life that could use a little attention, and on which I have not focused: money.

This brings me to my upset. It seems like no matter what I do, I pretty much come out even. (I know: boo fucking hoo, right?) I have a retirement account through my firm, so that is building, but I just don't seem to be able to save much money at all. I've been doing ok, but now I have a car payment, and saving money every month is more of a pipe dream than an achievable goal.

This month I was all about saving. I maybe ate out 3 times, and only because Faith was visiting, I went to the movies a few times, but basically I only spent money on the basics. I got rid of my old car and took it off the insurance, and I've been figuring out ways to not spend money unnecessarily. Ok, great. My big expense this month was my ticket to Europe in October, which I bought with miles, plus $600+ in taxes and fees to pay.

As an aside, I was telling a colleague that my ticket, in cash, would have cost over $11,000 (round trip business class from LA to London), and she did not believe me. She went online to check, and it was actually almost $12,000. That, my friends, is obscene. Yay for miles. Digression over.

I was satisfied with how the month was going. The plan was to get the rest of the ticket in July, from London to Sicily. Then I went to pick up my car and it all fell apart. First, the car rental place withdrew $500 from my credit card (the amount of my insurance deductible) for the dent in the bumper; then, when I got home, I realized that the suit that was in the trunk, which I forgot to take out after the accident, was gone. A $400 suit.

I don't imagine I'll get that suit back, between the idiot tow truck driver and the dozens of people who work at the auto shop, who the heck knows what happened to it. I will call and ask if someone took it "for safekeeping," you never know, but seriously, I doubt I'll get it back. As for the bumper, it might cost less than $500 to fix, or the insurance company might waive the deductible -- the rental car lady said the insurance typically does that when the rental is because of an accident with your own car for which you have a claim -- but still. All the money I had arranged to save in various ways just went out the window in one afternoon, and then some.

Needless to say, I was angry and frustrated, mostly because both losses are entirely of my own devising. Carelessness is what it comes down to. And I'm not really a careless person, but like most people, I am unable to be 100% on top of absolutely everything at all times. But what a price to pay for it -- literally.

It occurs to me that this is just how my money situation is all the time. When I save, some big expense plops out to undo any of it. Each and every time. This has been going on for decades now, you understand. The situation is not dire by any means. I'm fine, and I can pay all my bills and have a great lifestyle, and I have a retirement account and some savings, so please don't think this is a sob story about how poor I am, because I'm not. The point is, however, that this is a frustrating state of things, especially since I really want to be able to spend and save a lot more. A lot more. I always feel like I just need to make a little bit more money, just a few hundred dollars more a month would do it. But I felt this way when I made one third of what I make now, and I still feel this way, so I'm thinking it's not how much money I'm making, it's how I'm being about money that is keeping the situation static. And frankly, I'm bored of it. 

Starting today, I declare that I am no longer a victim of my finances. This means that I intend to get to the source of the issue: if it means rearranging my life and managing my money differently, so be it; if it means that I need to transform my relationship to money and abundance, so be it; if it's both, so be it.

I begin with some CD's and a coaching session with a long time acquaintance who used to be an actress and now is a coach, and she coaches people around money and abundance. Her approach is that having the money you want is an access to other breakthroughs in other areas. Money may not buy you happiness, but lack thereof can be quite upsetting, so I can see her point.

So this is my new endeavour, to become one of those people who have the Midas' touch. It's not about changing jobs, necessarily, or working harder. Let's see if it's possible to become one of those people who generate lots of money.