The good kind of impulse spending? February 23, 2009

I just set up two extra payments towards my student loans.  One to my ~$15k  at 4.5% loan, and one to my ~$44k at 4% loan.  And it was kind of on a whim.  I was visiting my mint page (as I do, perhaps too often) and saw the reminder to pay my student loan bill.  And technically, I don’t have to schedule payments, as I’ve signed up for their automatic bill pay setup (which I believe gives me a .25% interest rate deduction).  But I can still manually set up payments.

Why did I do this?  I think it was due in part to realizing that my savings account at ING is making pretty crummy interest(1.835% (1.85% APY)), compared to back in the heyday (only a few years ago!), though I will admit it’s still much better than the tiny rate I used to get at my brick and mortar bank.  And so my money is going to do a lot more for me (net-worth speaking) paying down my student loans than it would be sitting in savings.  And I actually didn’t move any money out of my savings account, I just took some out of my checking to pay these extra payments.  So I’m not saving any less.

So, while I feel a bit anxious about the fact that I’ve reduced my liquid assets by ~$1k, in the long term, my net worth will thank me.

In the meantime, I’m also wondering if I should start “shopping around” for better savings account interest rates (or signing up for a CD ladder, which I’m still not very familiar with).  I have heard good things about Emigrant Direct, but I’m not sure how much of an impact a slightly higher rate will have on my savings.  What are you doing to counteract this crumbling economy of ours?

Vote for me (please)! February 18, 2009

Just a little bit of self promotion here.  (We’ll get back to posts with actual content soon!)

I am participating in Free Money Finance March Madness.  The personal finance blog Free Money Finance is running a competition where pf bloggers submit a post they’re proud of to go “head-to-head” against another person’s post.  My post, How Often Should I Contribute to my Roth IRA? is competing against Chops Money’s post, What’s Wrong with Used Goods?.  I actually think Chops’s post is pretty insightful, so I won’t be hurt if you vote for his post instead.  But here’s what you’ve got to do.  Go to this post and comment there with the keyword related to the post you think is better.  So, for our competition, either type Roth (for me) or Wrong (for Chops).

Oh, and if you’ve found this site from following the Free Money Finance link, take a look around!  Let me know what you think of my blog!  And thanks for dropping by!

And of course, thanks to all my usual readers!  I really appreciate your comments and input!

Rewarding good behavior February 10, 2009

So, last night I went to the gym for the SECOND time!  Wooo!

Went on the treadmill, then watched some of the Presidential Address while on the recumbent bike.

I found out what the machine was that I used last time.  It’s an Arc Trainer.  It’s funny, on their website, they like to point out that it’s NOT an elliptical.

So, I’ve decided, that, as a reward for going to the gym (after I go 15 times), I’m going to buy myself a new pair of sneakers.  The only pair I currently own are ones I bought for their look at Payless quite a few years ago.  And I’m thinking that I should probably have sneakers with appropriate support and that are for the type of exercise I’m doing.  And this is where you, my readers, get to help me out.  What type of sneakers should I buy?  Do you have a favorite brand, store, or style?  I guess there are running shoes, walking shoes, cross trainers…I don’t want to spend a lot, but I want a good shoe.  How much did you pay for your shoes?

And let me know if you like these posts, or if you’d prefer I go back to just personal finance postings.

First day at the gym February 8, 2009

I went to the gym for the first time on Thursday evening.  Signed my paperwork, got my pass.

One of the trainers took me around and showed me some of the equipment.  I got a rundown of how to use the different cardio equipment (hey, we’re starting at the basics, here!).  Treadmill, elliptical, stair stepper, stationery bike, and, as I like to call it, “like an elliptical, but not an elliptical”.  (my coworker who goes there knew exactly what I was talking about, but couldn’t name it either!  I’ll ask next time what it’s called.  It’s across between an elliptical and a Nordic Track)  I did a few minutes on each piece of equipment, just to know how it works.  He also explained how I should have ~2 minutes warm up and cool down to let my heart rate adjust.  Most of the equipment have handles that read your pulse, which I think is pretty cool.

After he showed me how to use the different cardio equipment, he let me just go and use it.  So I went on the “not-elliptical” (circular?  haha!) on an interval setting for about 20 minutes.  Maybe a bit more.  My heart rate got pretty high.  It read out at 180 bpm at one point!  I’m not sure if that’s dangerous or not.  The instructor told me that it’s okay to go that high as long as you don’t feel dizzy or anything like that.

I then went on a quick tour of the strength training equipment in the XpressLine.  It’s a bunch of different machines that help you to work on different muscle groups.  I tried each of them just once, and was pretty worn out by the end!

Then I went for a quick ~10 minute jog on the treadmill.

So, that’s that for my first trip to the gym.  I haven’t been there since, but I intend to go on Monday!

I have to say, I felt pretty good after my workout.  I guess that’s what I’ve heard about for a while:  it makes you feel better, releases endorphins, etc.  So I’m psyched to go again!

Complaining sometimes pays off February 4, 2009

Some of you might remember the whole saga of buying my car.  For those of you who don’t, basically, I had to wait for my car to arrive (which, looking back, wasn’t horribly bad, because it is in fact more efficient to have a pull system than a push system (thanks corporate 6Sigma discussion)).  But I felt I had been mislead because they gave me an initial date for delivery, and when it didn’t arrive by then, they said they had initially told me it was going to come a few weeks later than that.  So, I was frustrated.  And I made my frustration heard.  I complained to the salesperson that was in charge of my purchase, as well as the manager and anyone else that would listen!

So, when I finally got my car, they knew I wasn’t quite 100% happy with the way things worked out.  And Toyota demands high customer satisfaction from all of their dealerships.  And in general, it’s a good idea to keep the customer happy, especially when it comes to a rather large purchase (or potential future purchases by me or others).  They said when I first drove off with my car that they’d see what they can do for me in the future to make up for it.

Well, my 5k mile maintenance was due.  So, I shot an email over to the salesman that I had bought my car from, asking him if he knew of any discounts or promotions going on right now in the service department.  I did that with the intent of seeing what he could do for me!  So sneaky!  He called me on my cell AND my work phone to tell me to come find him when I get there, and they’ll take care of everything.

So, when I dropped off my car, I went down to find him.  He was with another customer, but he saw me and came towards me!  He then told the manager that I was the one that they should take care of.  So the manager came upstairs to the Service Center (how weird is it that the sales floor is below the service floor?  so many cars up there!) and told the guy up there that sales was taking care of it.

And that was that.  Free!

Of course part of me wonders if that’s always a free service under the warranty (the maintenance).  So maybe they were just trying to make me feel better.  Either way, it’s good to know that they are trying to stay on my good side.  I wonder how many more times this can work…

Moral of the story:  sometimes it pays to make a bit of a fuss.  Don’t be ridiculous; be reasonable.  And be appreciative when they help you out.