I KNOW that there are people out there complaining that with today’s US economy, they can’t afford to save anything. They’re behind on bills, so the money should go there. They’re paying $4.20 a gallon in gas, so the money’s going there. They’ve been buying organic food for so long, they can’t bear to switch back to the cheaper stuff, so the money’s going there. They don’t have the time to soak beans, so the money’s going there.

I’m tired of all the excuses, because dammit a dollar is a dollar!

Now, am I perfect? Hell no. Do I eat out more than I should? Yep. Do I drive more than I should? Probably. Do I use more laundry detergent than I need to? Yes. Do I neglect to turn the computer off when I’m not using it? Uh-huh. But I’m still saving money. I’m making deposits ALL THE TIME into my ING business savings account.

Is it a lot? Nope.
Maybe $250 a month for right now. But it’s $250 I’m not touching. I’m not spending it on clothes, or new makeup, or getting my nails done. I’m not spending it on dining out, and I’m not putting it in my gas tank. I’m also not smoking anymore, which technically saves me another $300+ every month, so that’ll eventually go in there too I’m sure.

Let’s say you make $600 a week take-home pay. My situation is extremely different, but for most working Americans, this is the case, a weekly pay.

That’s $2400 a month, or $28,800 a year, again, take home pay.

It’s not a lot of money, is it? I remember graduating from high school 14 years ago, and thinking that $30k a year was pretty damn good. Not anymore. Especially if you have a mortgage, kids, that kind of thing. So why bother trying to save, right? WRONG.

Putting just $10 a week away at the end of a year gives you $520 not including interest.
(You can find $10 in just two fast food meals, or 5 daily takeout coffees.)
Putting just $20 a week away gives you $1040 after a year.
(You can find $20 by skipping out on dinner at a restaurant one night per week.)
$30 a week? $1560 after one year.
(You can save up $30 by bringing your lunch to work every day, especially if it’s leftovers from dinner.)

The point is, at the end of that year, you have anywhere from $500 to $1500 MORE than you did at the end of the year before. If you spend that money, particularly on those things mentioned, you have NOTHING to show for it at the end of the year. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Think about it – what ways can you cut back, and put that money to better use than an buying all that coffee or pre-prepared food? How much CAN you afford to put away every week, and if you’re already doing it, how much MORE can you put away?

Why am I writing about this, this way? Because I’m the first to admit that I have VERY little knowledge in investing. I mean, like, next to nothing. I know how stocks work, “buy low, sell high”, and I know about Roth IRAs versus Traditional IRAs, I know a little about 401k’s and employer (which I don’t have) matching, but when it comes to managing my own investments, I’m pretty clueless.

Yep, this is when most people go out and hire a financial planner.
Instead, I took $90 and tossed it into a ShareBuilder account.

What I’m hoping for here is that my measly little sum will do something (positive or negative) that will help teach me more about money markets and such. I’ve currently invested portions into AGG and SPY, which apparently gives me a moderately conservative investment portfolio.

My goal is to play with this little money, as opposed to slapping it into my ING account. In fact, I pulled it out of there to get the ShareBuilder account started. I’m not ever going to put the money in unless I know I’m going to have it to “lose”… much like if you go to a casino (or at least whenever I used to go), you only bring what you can afford to lose. (FWIW, I haven’t been to a casino in years now, but whenever I would go, I’d bring no more than $60 with me. Once that was gone (if it was gone), I was done. If I made some, I’d take my winnings and head for the door. I couldn’t stand to watch my friend who would rack up $800 on a $20 deposit on a slot machine, and then she’d blow it all, hoping for the bigger payout! So I’d take my piddly profit of $50 and book it right to the bank.)

Anyway, I’m getting off topic here.

While I know that making uneducated investments is probably pretty stupid, I love how ShareBuilder ran a little quiz with me to help me find out what would be the best investments for me right now. These two funds were what was recommended to me by ShareBuilder (See? I’m not THAT gutsy!) so I figured it’d be a fairly safe bet to start with.

Anyone investing in any funds, or have experience with ShareBuilder that they want to share?

Oh, and if you’re interested in signing up with ShareBuilder, let me know and I’ll send you a referral by email. If you sign up under me, I’ll get 5 free trades, and you’ll get a FREE $55!

Here in NY, a pack of “premium brand” cigarettes is going up to about $6 a pack in a couple days. Figuring on a pack and a half a day (sometimes more, sometimes less), that’s a total cost of $272 a month, or $3264 a year.

Just for fun, let’s take a look at how much I’ve spent on cigarettes since I started smoking at the age of 17.

1.5 packs per day = 547.5 packs per year
547.5 packs per year x 14 years = 7665 packs since I started
7665 x $4 (the average cost over that time) = $30,660!

Okay, so $31k is the amount I’ve spent on cigarettes in my life. Had I invested that money all along, like a SMART person would’ve done, I probably would have well over $150,000 (if not much more, depending on how I invested) by now, which would be enough to pay for a house in CASH around here.

Can you say, “STUPID”? I knew that ya could.

So anyway, back to present day. I mentioned “luck” in the title of this post, and here’s where that luck factor comes in: Apparently, my insurance company (to which I give $241 a month) actually covers Chantix. I found this odd, because most people I’ve spoken to who have gone on it have had to pay anywhere from $80 – $130 a month for it for three months. Most of them even stopped taking it after the first month (you’re supposed to go for three) because the cost was so high (even though it’s not as high as the cost of cigarettes).

I also got a booklet from the doctor that explained the drug, gives a little workbook, and also has a card inside for $10 off each month for three months. With my Rx coverage from the insurance company, I’d normally be paying $20 a month for the pills, but with the card, I’ll now only pay $10 a month! And before all this, I had been prepared to budget out $100 a month for three months, plus the cost of cigarettes for the first month (you’re supposed to keep smoking as it trains your body to stop by rejecting the effects of the smoking). And now I’m only going to be paying $10 a month plus the cost of cigs for the first month! Can you believe it!?

Now, for the sake of facts and figures, let’s say I were to NOT have made this choice, and instead continued to smoke for another 15 years. Assuming that the packs would continue to increase in price over that time, and taking the average assumption that it would amount to about $8.50 a pack on average, here’s some interesting figures:

8212 packs over 15 years x $8.50 = $69,802!
That amounts to $4,653 a year/$388 a month.

If I were to invest that money each month, in a fund that somehow got me about 6% compounded monthly, that would give me a grand total at the end of 15 years of $112,765, nearly doubling my money.

Unfortunately, I don’t know for sure that I’ll be able to do that, but it’s nice to do the math sometimes!

WaMu is now offering personal savings accounts at a current rate of 3.25% (3.3% APY) with what they’re calling “relationship interest”. Otherwise, it’s only 0.25%, which honestly makes it not worth it unless…

Open an Online Savings account with a WaMu Free Checking™ account online, or link a new Online Savings to an existing active WaMu checking account, and your Online Savings will receive the Relationship Interest Rate/APY (3.25%/3.3%) and a monthly service charge waiver. Minimum balance to open checking and savings account is $1 for each account; minimum balance to earn APY on savings is $1.

Now THAT seems worth it. Throw $5 in a WaMu Free Checking account, and then attach a personal savings account to it, and earn 3.25% interest on your money in your savings.

I’ve always been in favor of having multiple accounts, with multiple institutions, to accomplish my financial goals. You could effectively earmark your new WaMu savings account for a certain goal, like maybe a vacation, or a car, or home improvement costs. (That’s another post for another time… )

Also, these rates are determined by the state you live in, and I happen to live in New York. Other states may have different rates, but you’ll find out for sure when you get to the site.

We’re in the process of getting all new windows and siding on our house!

Let me give a little background. This house was built in 1979, with 2-pane Andersen casement windows, and this MDF type “siding”. I’ll get to that in a minute, but plant this seed in your mind now: MDF SUCKS.

In fact, so do casement (crank-out, vertical) windows. The only air conditioner we could find for that type of window was made by Montgomery Ward, and was likely made in the mid-70s! We had to put up that pink insulation board stuff to fill in the rest of the huge window, and it was just awful looking (and nevermind so very NOT cost/energy efficient!)

The outside of the house has been looking pretty shabby for a number of years now. It’s been in dire need of stain, protection, new decorative cross boards, you name it. It was rotting out at the bottom (because MDF, if not completely sealed and re-sealed, absorbs water like a sponge) and just was so completely awful. I was getting worried about insects and pests being able to get in, but moreso that the siding was simply just going to fall off the side of the house.

Allow me to illustrate in photos:

Now, you may have gotten a glimpse of the new windows in there, but I’m going to save that for tomorrow’s post. Yep, I’m sneaky like that.

The thing here is that the outside of this house is clearly in dire need of some new siding and windows. You can’t deny it. And the best part of the whole project is that we WILL be saving on energy/heating costs, because the house is going to literally have another layer of insulation (behind the new siding) as well as the fact that it’s all going up OVER the MDF (after they clear away the really rotted stuff) so that too will help with insulation since it will be protected by the new siding.

We chose form-fitted insulation for the siding, as we didn’t want the air gaps between the siding and the insulation. Pardon the crude illustration, but here’s what I’m talking about (The insulation is grey, the house wall is the black block, and the siding, well, that’s the curvy lines. The air and moisture is the blue sprinkly dots. I’m such a great artist on the fly!)

So there you have the “before” photos. As of this writing, I’ve got all new windows, new siding, and the masons are putting up some cultured stone. No, this isn’t a “cheap” project by any means, but it’s so worth it. We’ve already had two people pull into the driveway to ask about the colors and everything, it’s really become an eye-catching home!

I went to a New York State Quit Smoking website (NY residents only) and got 2 weeks of free nicotine patches. Hopefully this is going to work! I’m already battling the physical habit of grabbing a cig, it’s tweaking me out, kind of like you hear those stories of people who lose a limb, yet they can still “feel” it itch or something… I keep thinking there’s a pack of smokes and a lighter right here by the computer. I go to pick it up, and it’s gone!

SO…

I’m wearing a 21mg/24 hours nicotine patch. You put a new one on every 24 hrs.
After spending 2 weeks NOT buying cigarettes at $5.40 per pack (when bought 2 packs at a time), I’ll have saved spending $75.60! In TWO WEEKS TIME! (Figure that for a year? $1,965.60!)

That two week total is more than enough to buy another two weeks of the patch, or very close to what it costs to buy Chantix, the newest stop smoking pill about which I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from now ex-smokers.

I’m trying to find ways to feel even better about quitting, can you tell?

Seriously though. You can apply this thought to many of the world’s bad habits. Take fast food for example. You spend about $5 on a value meal at a fast food chain, every day (yes include weekends), and you decide to cut that out. That’s $1,820.00 a year. Sure, you need to replace the fast food with something else, but I’m willing to bet you can bring a lunch to work or eat one at home for about $3 a day, which is a total savings of $728 a year. That’s STILL plenty of money to afford a REALLLLY nice vacation somewhere!

Yeah, relating this whole thing to money makes quitting smoking make a lot of sense. But of course there ARE health benefits too.

At 20 minutes after quitting:

* blood pressure decreases
* pulse rate drops
* body temperature of hands and feet increases.

At 8 hours:

* carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal
* oxygen level in blood increases to normal

At 24 hours:

* chance of a heart attack decreases

and so on… and so on… and so on!

Okay, I’m off to find things to keep myself busy (like more ways to earn/save money)!