In Memoriam

Total Black: $3,160.16
Total Red: $269,991.43

This time last year I was five days away from the Pennsylvania bar examination when my grandmother passed away.  She had lived a long, happy life, having traveled all over Europe, the United States, and the Caribbean.  When I was twelve years old, she took my sister and me on a cruise to Mexico.  She was the matriarch of our family and showed by example how one family cares for each other.  I am who I am in part because of who she was. 

Sigh of Relief

Total Black: $592.88
Total Red: $252,353.44

Well, just over five hundred dollars is all I have left from the ten thousand dollars my mother loaned me today.  Never thought I’d “burn” through that much money in less than five hours.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t fun. But it was relieving.  A sigh of relief for sure. 

Hoarding and Spending

Total Black: $1,160.18
Total Red: $229,702.52

Another night with bubbles and boys.  I worked two shifts at the theatre tonight.  And between shifts, while I ate, I relaxed a bit and read more of Mind Over Money by Brad and Ted Klontz.  In Chapter 7 they discuss what they refer to as money-worshiping disorders, “disorders that place  disproportionate amount of importance on money: earning it, saving it, spending it.”  They go to note that all three disorders  “share a common thread in that they all arise from scripts that equate money with safety, self-worth, and/or happiness.”  The section on hoarding really struck a cord.

Wear and Tear

Total Black: $94.32
Total Red: $226,478.27

I read further in Mind Over Money this afternoon during down time at the theatre; I worked as Greater again.  Since the authors, Ted and Brad Klontz, are father and son, they benefit from unique insights into their own family’s financial histories and each others.  Something the father wrote reminded me of a refrain my mother repeat often in my youth: wear and tear on the car.

Financial Neighborhoods

Total Black: $1,520.58
Total Red: $229,468.86

I worked both jobs today: contract attorney by day, off-Broadway usher by . . . evening I suppose.  Haven’t found me a “by night” just yet—even though I’ve been consistently looking.  Tonight at New World Stages I worked as Greater, directing patrons towards ticket-taking, the box office or will-call, bathrooms, etc., and then after the shows end back to exit.  Tonight was my first time working that position.  I surprised myself that raising my voice and talking over the chattering crowds crowding the entrance doors caused me a wee bit of discomfort whereas a co-worker next to me just spoke up and shouted out instructions.  Perhaps that’s one difference between an actor and a lawyer: all actors have to be able to project their voices while all lawyers do not.  I don’t recall if I mentioned in prior posts that all but one of my co-workers are actors or singers or just theatre people generally.  The outlier also works in law but as a paralegal.  That my co-workers are all theatre people is one reason I really enjoy working at New World Stages.  The atmosphere is young, and fun, and exciting, full of the optimism of youth.  Life’s endless possibilities waft through the air.  More so than the stank of desolate, staring-at-a-dead-end attorneys.  But I’m digressing from today’s topic: financial neighborhoods.

Lounging Around

Total Black: $681.94
Total Red: $228,415.87

My trip to magical Orlando was a success.  Lounging in the lobby of the hotel as I write this entry.  Meetings have concluded but my flight isn’t until this evening.  I’m leaving with a title and without a tan.  And thankfully I didn’t spend nearly as much as I had feared I would, or would have had to.  Tomorrow it’ll be back to the daily grind.  But that’s ok.  I’m looking forward to it.  Even more so because I learned a new word on this trip that I can’t wait to start using.  And even doing.  What’s the new word?

More More More

Total Black: -$66.34
Total Red: $229,108.48

All day long a non-existent Lady Gaga tune has been going through my head.  An imaginary earworm, if you will.  In that husky voice of hers, she chants “More More More” and sings about all the people pulling at her.  Since this past weekend, I’ve felt the same.  It started with an email from my sister scolding me for not calling my mother.  Credit card companies won’t let up.  Even commenters are getting a bit demanding.  And now the temp job too.  Can you hear her?  More more more . . . .

The Parent Trap

Total Black: $427.04
Total Red: $231,084.38

A few days back, a reader posted a comment accusing me of siphoning from my mother’s retirement nest egg.  It’s prayed on my mind for a while now, so I thought I’d address it directly.  Certainly it’s an area where I’m vulnerable.  I suppose in America, the land of bootstraps, leaning on anyone else leaves you open to criticism.

Small Town Boy in the Big City

Total Black: $22.71
Total Red: $230,281.21

Again Bank of America has walloped me with insufficient funds fees.  This time I don’t even know for sure just how.  A few days ago I received an email notice from Barnes & Noble alerting me to some difficulty processing a check card transaction.  A few months ago I purchased some items on Barnes & Noble and it slipped my mind that one of them wouldn’t be available until the Fall.  I didn’t have enough money in my checking account to cover the transaction, so I figured I’d just let the order be canceled as Barnes & Noble suggested might happen if I didn’t update my order information.  Besides, I’m in savings mode now and those items were purchased before I began this project.  A day passed and another email alert arrived reminding me once more of the inability to complete the transaction.  And again I passed on it (not that I would have had money from anywhere to pull to cover the approximately forty dollar transaction).  The next day a new alert arrives thanking me for my purchase and providing me with the tracking number.  Huh?  I checked my checking account but no pending transaction was listed.  I figured that perhaps it was some other credit card I had used that suddenly became available.  I didn’t really care to go investigating.  Today I got alerted of insufficient funds fees and saw that somehow Barnes & Noble force through the order or Bank of America authorized it despite the lack of funds in the account.  This time, I will get my money back.  I’ve printed out all of the insufficient funds fee notices for the past month and I’m walking into the branch office near my job.  As Ron Lieber of the New York Times reported that “[b]eginning Oct. 19, Bank of America will stop charging any fees for customers who overdraw their accounts by less than $10 in a single day.  It will also limit the number of overdraft fees it charges to four a day, although the bank will continue to charge a fee of $35 per overdraft.”  Unfortunately, it looks like the bank is trying to garner as much money as it can before its new policy goes into effect.

Third Day of Accounting

It’s the 10th and my third day of accounting.

Total Black: $673.47

Here’s the Breakdown:

Primary Checking: $43.21
Secondary Checking $507.02
Savings $1.73
PayPal Account (Personal): $0.52
PayPal Account (Blog): $48.25
Amazon Payments Account $10.14
Mutual Funds Account: $62.60

FICO Score 565 (unchanged from last month)

Total Red: $230,280.28

Here’s the breakdown:

Credit Card Debt

MasterCard $5,650.00
Visa $8,050.00
Visa $5,728.28
American Express $2,500.00
Raymour & Flanagan Credit Line $5,698.98

Student Loan Debt

Federal Stafford Loans: $96,810.17
Private Student Loans: $33,891.93

Back Taxes

IRS (2007): $1,231.72
IRS (2008): $27,792.93
NY State (2008): $2,926.27

Other Loans

My mother: $40,000.00

Just in time for my third day of accounting, my internet service has been restored. It cost $538.70 too. I guess I was quite a bit behind. It’s been a busy past few days.

Laborious Labor Day

Total Black: $75.45
Total Red: $228,312.40

Just a year ago, Dalton Conley penned a New York Times op-ed piece titled “Rich Man’s Burden.”  He noted that, in an era of Blackberries and internet, Labor Day meant very little for white-collar Americans.  “[I]t is now the rich,” he wrote, “who are the most stressed out and the most likely to be working the most.  Perhaps for the first time since we’ve kept track of such things, higher-income folks work more hours than lower-wage earners do.”  What a difference a year makes.

Feelings and Finances

Total Black: -$95.85
Total Red: $228,454.60

Just feelings.  Nothing more than feelings.  Feelings of . . . finances?  Come again?

I started reading Suze Orman’s The Courage to Be Rich: Creating a Life of Material and Spiritual Abundance.  It’s good.  Really good.  Although the subtitle pretty much sums it up, some complain that it doesn’t contain enough strategic financial advice.  Well, that’s not what I’m seeking here.  So this book, it turns out, is just what the doctor ordered.  And just pages in, Suze Orman assigns you the task of considering your feelings about your financial situation.  How do you feel about your finances, she wants to know.  “I want you to address your emotions honestly,” she writes, “and commit your thoughts and feelings to paper.  If you don’t have the money to pay your bills, write down how it feels not to have enough money.  If you’re in debt, write down how that feels.  If you have far more money than your friends, write down how that feels.”  What better place than here to follow her advice?

Mothers

Total Black: $38.60
Total Red: $227,972.40

Not much to write today.  I’m furiously typing to get in under the radar.  It’s nearly Monday as I write, which would mean a day without a post, if time did run out.  That can’t happen–not this early in the game.

So, before I even started my day, my mother called to tell me about an ad for temporary attorney work that a friend of hers spotted in the classified section of the Scranton newspaper.  I made some excuse to end the call.  Yes, it’s sweet and thoughtful and all that other fluff that we feed each other because we don’t want to offend the karma spirits or come across as ungrateful or disrespectful.  But my mother’s friends should not be looking through classified ads for jobs for me.  Has it gotten that bad?  Probably not.  I’d swear that my mother rents those flying banner ads that trail behind airplanes: “MY SON GOT LAID-OFF”  I don’t understand why everyone knows this.  Yes, I see the irony in that I’m pretty much putting up my own electronic flying banner through this blog.  But I’ve not shared my identity.  At least not yet anyway.

Just Your Average Joe?

So, at the outset, here are today’s stats:

Total black: $513.94 ($500 of which is sitting in a separate checking account for an un-cashed check)
Total red: $227,392.05

Black change: -$8.51 change
Red change: unknown

My bank provides software that shows your net worth, based, of course, on the accounts you link to it.  So, going forward, I’m just going to use that number each day to represent my total debt load.  I must note, however, that that number does not include approximately $8,000 my mother is carrying on a credit card I borrowed.  Add that into the number above and you get closer to the approximately $235k quoted yesterday.  Another point: the total red includes the $40,000 I borrowed from my mother, but since it came from a line of credit taken on her home, the monthly fees and charges added won’t be reflected.  Getting an exact number would require my mother giving me the account numbers, then setting up online banking profiles, and syncing my bank with those other sites.  I’ll broach the subject with her, but for now, we’re just going to use the number provided by my bank’s net worth software.  And, at this rate, what’s a couple thou’ difference anyway, eh?

As for today’s blog.  Well . . . morning has clearly past.  Breakfast and then a telephone call with someone who wasn’t looking for me (odd serendipity, or just plain weird, given that the voice mail came through the day after initiating this blog.  I’ll post more on that  at a later date if it materializes into something.  But why average Joe?  Am I an average Joe?  I suppose a bit of the back-story is need here.