Personal finance

I’ve been doing some reading on personal finance for the last six months or so. These are the ones I read almost everyday.

• Get Rich Slowly: blog, feed
• Sound Money Tips: blog, feed
• CNNMoney: website, feed

The biggest new pieces of advice I’ve learned from these are:

• Ask for a lower rate for practically anything.
• Pay yourself first; no one will fund your retirement but yourself.

After months of reading about it, I just called my credit card company and asked quite nicely for a lower rate, and they nigh-instantly decreased it by 5%. I don’t carry a balance so it’s just a theorectical gain, but still, it was nice. And really, really easy.

Do it!

Before submitting this entry, I called our joint credit card and they did not reduce this rate. But they said to call back in a month. Ok then! In a month, we’ll be in our second year with this card, so maybe something will open up.

Update: I just got our Comcast cable bill reduced from ~$81 to $62! I just said I’d like to either reduce my package or keep the package I have but get a discount. Even though I offered them a choice, they wanted to keep me on the same level of service, but for cheaper. Weird. I was very friendly and mentioned that I had been doing some competitive analysis and that Dish & DirecTV had cheaper offers. This discount is good for 12 months. Nice. Now, who else can I call?

Saying versus Being

Sometimes, I say jerky-sounding things that have nothing to do with what I really mean inside my head. There can be a huge disconnect between how I meant to say something and how I actually ended up saying it.

Sometimes,I am a jerk. Last weekend, I was in fact an actual jerk. I could have said, “I acted like a jerk,” or “I behaved like a jerk,” but both of those statements leave wiggle room to claim that my behavior did not bear out my internal state of mind. I could blame stress, but it doesn’t change the fact of it: I was a big jerko. I not only said a bunch of highly arrogant things that were insulting to another individual who was present (for whom I had no ill will), on reflection it is clear that I actually believed what I was saying at the time.

Afterwards, I agonized over my words and my actions (worse to the recipient of said words and actions) and my state of mind (worse to my self-regard). I don’t want to be arrogant. I don’t want to be a jerk. I don’t want to try to make others feel bad. I don’t want to say things I haven’t thought through and cause collateral damage in the process.

I don’t mind insulting people on occasion — not always, but there are times when I mean it and want to. However, I DO mind when the person doesn’t deserve it at all and I didn’t even think it out enough to realize it would be insulting. It should have been obvious before the fact though.

It’s made me look at myself in a new light. I’ve always been very confident about my own abilities, but I don’t know what drove me to boast and be insulting, and I want to fix that.

Bumps ahoy

My work is raining expectant moms. Last year, we had a run of expectant dads (now, they are dads), but this year appears to be all about the expectant moms. Yesterday, in the span of one 10-minute period, I ran into four pregnant women.

Whoa.

For my expectant friends (or to-be expectant? unexpectedly expectant?), here is a short article from CNN Money that discusses four money-related myths about having a baby.

On a money-related note, I’m trying to find ways to cut recurring costs, but Green Dimes might be something I might sign up for. For a dime a day, you get other people to take you off mailing lists (I’ve signed up with the national registries already, but still), reducing your incoming clutter as well as reducing paper production/processing/delivery costs. In addition, they will plant a tree for you every month you are enrolled. That’s pretty awesome for $3 a month, about the cost of a single coffee drink. I am going to look into who they are and who funds them first before signing up though.