Blog - Page 10 of 19 - Rebel with a Plan

Does Age Matter When It Comes to Money?

December 2, 2016

Recently, while listening to an episode of the Stacking Benjamins podcast about beginner savings advice, a sound bite caught my attention.

One of the show’s guests mentioned how many people don’t reach financial maturity until age 30-35.

I immediately slammed my hands against my desk and blurted out a long “YESSSSS”. Several co-workers proceeded to stare at me in confusion.

It wasn’t that I was excited about people not achieving financial maturity until their thirties. The line connected with me because of the several times people have brushed me off whenever I discussed personal finance.

“You’re only 22! You don’t know anything about personal finance!”

That was the general saying people gave whenever I had anything more than the short, small talk discussion about money. Older adults would dismiss me due to my age, saying that I surely didn’t know that much about personal finance because I was young.

To be honest, it got to me for a while. I would feel under confident whenever I had to mention this blog to people outside of the blogosphere/online world. People couldn’t comprehend why I would be writing about money instead of, I don’t know, working a retail job and partying on the weekends (that’s what the youngins do, right? :)).

The feeling of inadequacy happened even when I attended FinCon, the financial media conference, where everyone is so welcoming. There were established bloggers who were older than me and had several financial experiences under their belt. Certified financial planners were in attendance. The idea of being too young to talk about personal finance definitely got to me.

In a society that likes to have a hate/love talk about all things mortgages and investing, many older adults didn’t know what personal finance topics I would even talk about that would connect with twenty-something young professionals.

So what exactly do you write about on your blog? They would ask with a perplexed expression. It didn’t register with them. They didn’t know why a young twenty-something would want to write about money and love talking about it. In their eyes, they thought the only thing someone my age needed to know about personal finance was to start investing sooner since the magical compound interest train would leave once you hit 30.

Their mindset was relatable in a way, given how many personal finance articles and websites typically just focus on the strict cut and dry rules of how to save money, make money, and make a budget.

The unique behavioral attitudes towards money and things like the psychology of debt and diversity in personal finance are still under-represented.

Before sites like The Financial Diet, there weren’t many places for twenty-somethings to talk about money in a casual, relatable way. Outside of just the “x things to do” and “how-to” articles.

There are several things I talk about on this blog that really should be discussed more among twenty-somethings: refinancing student loans, understanding the psychology behind debt, how to go about picking your first or second credit card, how to pick funds for your 401k and IRA, properly saving for an emergency fund, NOT financing new cars, and learning about how to be more intentional with your spending.

I like covering those things and mixing in personal development with it. Because personal finance isn’t just numbers and following a rule book. It’s a process. Aligning your financial self with your goals to be the best you want to be. Being financial fit.

Will people discredit me, because of my age, when it comes to personal finance?

I don’t seem to be the only personal finance blogger who wonders this.

There was an episode of The Afford Anything podcast that featured several young personal finance bloggers. When the question of if age reduced credibility when talking about money, all four of the show’s guest agreed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever said a word about investing that has been taken seriously by an older person” – Emma Lincoln

I pondered the idea of being an anonymous blogger and how much of a difference it would make. Personally, it doesn’t seem like it would be any different considering most of the “you’re so young, what do you know” comments happen in the real-life, offline world.

I may not have 40 to 50 years of life in me or the experience of dealing with a mortgage but I do have 22 years within me. 22 years of filled with seeing my parents struggle with credit card debt and overconsumption, the experience of taking out and contending with student loans, and most importantly, being around an age group who couldn’t care less about money (but really should).

My questions to you are this: When did you achieve financial maturity? When do you think most people achieve it?

How To Fly Spirit Airlines

November 21, 2016

There are a bunch of ways to save money when flying: book on a certain day at a certain time, use reward points, pick a less popular time to fly, and so on. Another big way to save on airfare is to book with a low-cost budget airline.

Not too long ago, I started looking into flying with a low-cost airline. Let me tell you, it can be amazzzing (because of the whole saving $$ thing) or terrible due to…well, lots of things (bad customer service, non-existent leg room, etc).

Spirit is the most well-known budget airline in the U.S., for both good and bad. Spirit has had public relations chaos and dealt with a notable bout of hate from people who have flown on the airline. Never fear! There is a way to fly Spirit airlines and have it not suck (for the most part…).

Spirit has routes running all over America, the Caribbean, and Central America. When you first see their pricing, you’ll be blown away. The fares are very low when compared to other airlines. You’ll think you scored some massively awesome deal. You did! Sort of.

In an effort to provide the lowest of low airfare prices, Spirit cuts out everything you would normally expect when flying. The mission is simple: get you from point A to point B. If you want the traditional amenities you’ve been accustomed to when flying, you’ll have to pay up with additional fees.

Peanuts? That costs extra. Picking your seats? Costs extra. Reclining your seats? Hahaha, nope.

When I flew with Spirit on a trip from San Diego to Houston, the base fare for the flight only cost $61. Adding in some fees, I ended up having to pay $113 total. Still a way better deal than the other airlines, and the experience of flying with them was mostly okay.

BAG CHARGES

Spirit charges additional fees on everything you can probably think of. It really is a bare bones flight. Be aware of how you will be flight (how many bags, how big, etc) when booking so you can add on anything extra at the time of booking rather than paying more for it later on.

There is no free carry-on. You are allowed one personal item per person. For my flight from San Diego to Houston, I paid an additional $35 to bring one carry-on bag with me on the flight.

flying with spirit airlines — Only one personal item is allowed per person. A carry-on bag costs extra

BRING YOUR OWN SNACKS

Spirit doesn’t give out peanuts or even a small complimentary drink. For a person like me who orders ginger ale and sips it as I look out the window pretending to be in one of those cool alcohol commercials, it can be a bummer not to get anything.

Think ahead and bring some snacks and an empty water bottle with you to the airport. Fill up the water bottle after you get through security.

If you buy a snack and soda on the flight, it’s going to run you around $5-15. Although apparently Sprit’s on board alcoholic beverages are cheaper than other airlines. Maybe that’s something to be excited about? 🙂 (I wouldn’t know, not much of a drinker).

OTHER CHARGES

Seat selection. On default, Spirit will pick your seat for you. Not something that’s ideal if you’re flying with someone else or in a group and want to stay together.

Customer selected seats range from $1-50. The big front seats, which have more leg room and no middle seat, cost between $12-199.

On my flight from San Diego to Houston, I opted to let Spirit choose the seat for me. It would have cost $10 if I had wanted to pick a standard seat of my own and $50 if I had wanted one of the big front seats.

If you book over the phone or online (a.k.a. they way almost everyone books flights nowadays) you will be subject to a “passenger usage fee” which ranges from $8.99 to $17.99. I got charged $17.99. The fee is waived if you go directly to the airport and book at the clerk counter. So if you happen to live close to the airport, book there.

Getting your boarding pass from the clerk desk costs $10, so either print at home or at one of the airport kiosks (the kiosks are free!).

I remember another blogger mentioning how Spirit felt like a “greyhound bus in the air” because of how not great the flight was. Many people have mentioned how Spirit’s flights are frequently late on arrival.

My experience flying Spirit was positive and I didn’t have any problems. The seat was a little tight, given that I’m 6’2 and Spirit puts their seats closer together but it wasn’t too bad. I had snacks I brought on the flight and kept myself entertained with a book and my flight arrived on time.

Have you ever flown with Spirit or another low-cost budget airline? What has your experience been like?

Don’t Leave. Fight.

November 16, 2016

This past week has been a whirlwind with the election, even more so being abroad and hearing about it.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, November 9th, I sat at my desk, grading papers. My hands were tensed up and I could barely concentrate and kept making mistakes with the grading.

I had forgotten to top up my phone that day so I didn’t have mobile data to furiously check Twitter every five minutes. All of the teachers were banned from talking about the election in the office. Everything felt like it was halted in a slow motion. I did my work and continued to go on with my day. The lingering feeling still stayed. In the back of my mind, I knew madness was going on back in the U.S. and on social media, Twitter especially.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats to see what the outcome would be.

Then I heard the news. From one of the Filipino teachers. Then from one of my Thai teachers.

Not too long afterward, I started getting messages from friends about it, with some saying how lucky I was to not be in the U.S. during this time. This has been said to me a lot lately in the past few months, many of them coming from Americans. The…I bet you’re glad you’re not in the U.S. right now! comments.

Thinking back to the long lead-up to this election, I remember the constant comments of people saying they would leave the country if Trump was elected president. Some were said in jest while many contained an actionable tone. Celebrities continuously made their announcements to the public of fleeing abroad. My brother talked about moving to Ireland (he has citizenship there), and several travelers I have encountered these past few months talked about how they loved not being in America.

The traveler, with all the melodramatic-ness in their voice, would proclaim how they disliked America and dreamed of permanently moving abroad.

Fellow English teachers who, with a few months or years of English teaching experience behind them, would state that they would never return to America.

In these talks, the same general negatives about America would be spouted: the rising health insurance costs, gun violence, low stagnant salaries, seedy politicians, and rising costs of living. These would be contrasted by talking about how delightful it was to be in a low cost of living place like Thailand and how it was “so cheap” to travel Southeast Asia.

These people kept the conversations firmly veered in talking about the negatives of America and never about why it really was “so cheap” to live in Southeast Asia. They were the types of travelers who, while certainly in the minority, were ones I actively tried to avoid.

I moved from America to Thailand in March 2016. These past eight months living abroad, keeping up with the election cycle, and seeing America from an outside view has been interesting to experience. I’ve gotten to see how people around the world keep up with American news.

And it’s been disappointing.

Fellow Americans, who, while denouncing their own country, would travel abroad and spout messages of taking charge of one’s life and embracing change. It didn’t add up.

They visited countries, talked of the rich history via long Instragram captions, and extolled the virtues of travel and being a worldly citizen…all while ignoring their homeland of America. It looked like all they wanted to do was watch America from the sidelines. Not participating, not being involved, and not staying up to date on news.

The biggest discouraging moment to witness is seeing someone give up when faced with an obstacle. That person is in office!? I’m leaving the country! The course of action is to leave rather than stay and work to improve. To participate in change.

Somewhere along the way, people have forgotten to remember the small everyday wins. They’ve forgotten to push forward and push past adversity. The bench is warm and nobody wants to get up and go out.

When they do get up, it’s not always in the best way. Making slapstick jokes on Twitter, liking political-themed memes on Instagram, arguing with someone on Facebook about it, and signing an online petition every now and then shouldn’t be the course of action.

It’s about stepping up, making efforts to educate yourself on the different perspectives, contributing to causes you care about, and understanding that progress isn’t always linear.

Don’t leave. Stay and continue making change, however small it may seem at first.

Is The Millennial Bootstrapping Narrative a Good Thing?

November 1, 2016

Everyone loves a good rising of the ranks story. Individuals who have worked hard, put in the earlier mornings, caffeine-induced late nights and laborious 14 hour days. Success. We all want it in some way. We love reading tales and hearing anecdotes about it.

The stories of putting up with terrible bosses, dreaded working conditions, and fighting one’s way to the top (wherever that is). It’s inspiring. We feel connected to the stories because it feeds the scrappy bootstrapper mentality we crave but still seem to secretly hate.

Accepting responsibility of your personal situation, working hard, and not giving up no matter where you started from. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, as the saying goes.

In a tough love kind of way, this mindset is great. It instills a mindset in people to work hard and not give endless excuses. Accepting the cards dealt. Working up from where you are, with what you have.

But is the millennial bootstrapping narrative always a good thing?

The well-intended millennial bootstrapping advice inadvertently has a negative side: people underestimate their worth.

I sometimes get myself into a long session of reading those ubiquitous “What I wish I had known when I was younger” pieces. Many of them are really good (I love Oprah’s!).

A lot of those “advice to younger self” pieces are also very similar.

I wish I hadn’t worked so hard when I was younger.

Time’s a precious commodity. People look back on their life and think, “Maybe working those 14-hour days and/or juggling those three jobs wasn’t worth that much after all”.

What other option do you have other than hustling hard? When you’re making an entry-level salary and faced with multiple savings goals (paying down debt, saving for a house down payment, wedding, life investments, kids,etc), you have to find some way to reach them and often it isn’t sufficient with just a singular job.

I should have negotiated the salary at my first career job

People are told this over and over yet many still don’t negotiate. They’re afraid. Afraid of looking greedy and overindulgent. The millennial bootstrapping narrative has made them (especially creative industry types) believe that struggle is somehow a prerequisite for success.

That unpaid internship? Gotta pay your dues. The shockingly low salary? Gotta start somewhere.

A funny thing happened when I graduated college. I, and several other people in my public relations program, talked about how salaries were either stagnant or falling for entry-level account coordinators. Employers were paying well below the typical rate for the job and adding “need 2-3 years experience, internships don’t count” to the job descriptions.

All of us discussed salary negotiation tips to make sure we were would be compensated fairly upon taking a job offer. You wanna know what happened? Several of us encountered older adults (and even some people our age!) saying we were greedy for trying to ask for more money and that we should have just taken what is offered because “every has to start somewhere and pay their dues” (there goes that infamous saying! 🙂 ).

I shouldn’t have worried so much about what other people thought

Did you read the bitter differing perspectives of starting out by a former Yelp employee and the rebuttal from another millennial? Millennials feel scared into not saying anything for fear of being judged or labeled as entitled and privileged.

They dismiss their self-worth and strictly follow the perspective with least resistance.

Dealing with hostile work conditions, accepting a pay rate without negotiating, and staying silent about your problems is all wrapped up with the idea of “paying your dues”.

With its negative side effects, the narrative is still rooted in a good-hearted manner.

The millennial bootstrapping narrative is a good mindset to have when you’re trying to avoid spending triggers and push away pesky distractions. I mean, do you really need to ‘keep up’ with the Kardashians or see who got the rose on The Bachelor? If that activity is disrupting a potential for further reaching your goals, then it needs to go. It can be good to flex your resourcefulness instead of just charging $300 to your credit card for a purchase you think might help you.

If everyone got their elusive dream jobs and picture-esque Carrie Bradshaw lifestyles right away then they wouldn’t ever have the chance to hone in on their tenacity and persistence.

Sitting at your desk, slowly eating saltines while you drudge through work in a soul-sucking job can show first-hand a lot about what you don’t want. The only real way to find out what life you want to live is by testing things out with experience.

It’s just sometimes the narrative can be taken too far.

What do you think of the millennial bootstrapping narrative? Is it a mindset good for instilling the value of hard work or something with serious negative side effects?

Don’t Look Down!

October 24, 2016

I don’t have a fear of heights (within reason) but I still don’t look down. Although, heights aren’t the issue here. The issue is my compulsive obsession with scrimping and loading up on money knowledge at every chance.

I used to have a big problem with constantly checking my retirement accounts, savings accounts, and other accounts. I would check them several times a week, daily, and whenever I had downtime. It was a bad habit brewing stronger every day.

My handy dandy smartphone didn’t make it any easier.

Reaching for my phone was simple, though. With mobile apps for banking stuff and lifestyle, checking up on my money and figuring out more ways to get better became dangerously easy. I started to question and micro-manage everything.

Why is the rate of return so low on this?! Should I sell it off?

Maybe I should invest in some new funds. *obsessively researches for the next half hour*

Let’s see if I can save a few bucks doing it this way vs. the other way.

The obsessive checking happened when I was watching TV, trying to do blog work, or even errands. The ridiculousness went into overdrive when the money reading turned into recurring subconscious money thoughts and one too many dreams about me and my FIRE ambitions.

The most memorable dream included visiting Antartica in a penguin costume immediately after retiring at age 40. Weird…although something I wouldn’t rule out. 🙂

It seemed harmless at first. Reading personal finance info and checking my accounts several times a week gave me a feel good “responsible” vibe. It became second nature and that wasn’t a good thing.

When I signed up with Wealthfront for my Roth IRA, I downloaded their mobile app to stay up to date with my investments. Even though Wealthfront is a robo-advisor and handles the managing of my portfolio, I would periodically check in via the app. It felt like a good way to not be too passive about my investing.

Well…I checked the app constantly. Every night, curled up in my bed, with my body patiently waiting to fall asleep, I would open up it to monitor what had happened. In my mind, some big stock market crash would have come out of nowhere in the timespan of the 12 hours since I had last checked.

Without even realizing it, I had developed this apocalyptic mindset. I would question different sorts of small purchases and how my investing account was doing. My hand developed an automatic movement of reaching for my phone, check things to ensure all was good. My money scarcity mindset came back to me. I needlessly questioned everything and started to consume more and more information. It became exhausting.

As I like to think of it, I was spending too much time looking down.

Personal finance, to me at least, is about keeping your eyes up, focusing on the things right in front of you, fixing them, and moving on to the next. Doing small actions one at a time towards bigger goals. There’s a lot of information down below you. A lot of money “shoulds”.

These money “shoulds” feel immediately necessary when you read about them. I should build up a 10k, 15k, 20k, etc emergency fund, I should be checking my brokerage account a lot, I should be doing this, that, and so on. Sometimes we like to focus on way too many things when getting started with just one is the better case.

Emotion reveals itself in damaging ways. Not in the stereotypical hysterical crying, eat all the ice cream, type of way (Although if you do, I would make sure it’s Ben & Jerry’s, gotta have the good kind of ice cream at least).

Checking my accounts constantly wasn’t doing any good. It grew my sense of worry about whether I was doing everything right. It prompted me to seek out way more information than I needed.

Insecurity and comparison syndrome set in. Being “good” at personal finance felt like some elusive clique that would take forever to reach. Rather than just focusing on the one piece of information I needed to get going, I wanted to fix and monitor everything in one big swoop.

The habit has been mostly remedied. The former compulsive tendency looked a lot like what happens when you go to WebMD to find answers for your sickness. You type in your symptoms and suddenly you think you’re going to die by next Tuesday.

There’s a lot of information, good information, down below but I’m learning to not always look down. Big changes result from small actions. Small actions happen when you keep your head up and plug away, slowly but surely.

Little by little I’m building up my savings, learning more and growing more. As long as I’m making progress, I feel good.

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