Harvey Schacter writes about different consumer reactions to the economic pressures. The categories are a little tidy but made me wonder about my own behavior.
In most respects I'm probably under "Live For Today." I'm still eating what I was before, buying nice clothes when I feel like it, and willing to pick up a bar tab. But am I really living for today? That sounds so... frivolous. It sounds like the antithesis of someone interested in holding the personal finance ship steady.
I think a strong grounding in personal finance actually insulates against some of the broader economic pressures (and ensuing psychological stresses). Practice being rational with money makes you more rational in the face of challenge. Maybe he sees a young urban person living for today but I'd characterize my position as a young urban person who has positioned herself financially for good times and bad, and who has used finance to ensure consistent quality of life.
If you never live like it's a boom you may not have to live like it's a bust.
Showing posts with label lifestyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifestyle. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Welcome to the Good Life
If you read past entries, you know I like bang for my buck. I want it top quality, on sale, with a discount or coupon and charged to my rewards-back account. I was thinking today about how this kind of strategy applies more broadly to making better decisions and how I can describe this philosophy of value convergence to help me make better decisions.
So here's a theory.
Everything you do in life should have benefits to more than one part of your life.
For example, a job should provide money but also fulfill objectives such as increasing knowledge, social contact, or even (shocking) happiness. There have been a lot of arguments that work was never meant to make us "happy." I don't think anyone goes to work and is delighted for the entire shift. However, coming from an agricultural, um, heritage -- I can assure you that although the work was grueling and difficult it was satisfying and my grandfathers remained deeply connected to nature in a spiritual way until they passed away. I aspire to that.
Another example is exercise. I get a lot of lifestyle exercise, partly because I voluntarily don't own (and have never owned) a car. The benefits of a pedestrian lifestyle range from not ripping up my joints with a more aggressive routine squeezed into shorter time spaces, feeling connected to my neighborhood, and still fitting into my (27-34) high school pants. Yeah, winter sucks, but so does scraping the ice off a windshield and cold seats.
Food. This morning I made some local seven grain hot cereal with coconut milk, topped with unpasturized honey and organic cinnamon. Reading that is like gastro-porn for anyone who understands, I'm sure. Food should be good for your body and good for your mind and, often, both of these things meet at a low cost intersection because basic is beautiful. The honey and grain was from a farmers market - providing a bonus social interaction in the food chain that's far more relaxing than a check out.
I have a lot of choices to make in the next while: I'm in the process of finding my next contract and my next apartment. I have to decide what stays and goes, both on my trip and when I move again. I've given broad examples but I want to see if I can apply the theory more narrowly to find solutions. Accompanied by a Kanye soundtrack.
So here's a theory.
Everything you do in life should have benefits to more than one part of your life.
For example, a job should provide money but also fulfill objectives such as increasing knowledge, social contact, or even (shocking) happiness. There have been a lot of arguments that work was never meant to make us "happy." I don't think anyone goes to work and is delighted for the entire shift. However, coming from an agricultural, um, heritage -- I can assure you that although the work was grueling and difficult it was satisfying and my grandfathers remained deeply connected to nature in a spiritual way until they passed away. I aspire to that.
Another example is exercise. I get a lot of lifestyle exercise, partly because I voluntarily don't own (and have never owned) a car. The benefits of a pedestrian lifestyle range from not ripping up my joints with a more aggressive routine squeezed into shorter time spaces, feeling connected to my neighborhood, and still fitting into my (27-34) high school pants. Yeah, winter sucks, but so does scraping the ice off a windshield and cold seats.
Food. This morning I made some local seven grain hot cereal with coconut milk, topped with unpasturized honey and organic cinnamon. Reading that is like gastro-porn for anyone who understands, I'm sure. Food should be good for your body and good for your mind and, often, both of these things meet at a low cost intersection because basic is beautiful. The honey and grain was from a farmers market - providing a bonus social interaction in the food chain that's far more relaxing than a check out.
I have a lot of choices to make in the next while: I'm in the process of finding my next contract and my next apartment. I have to decide what stays and goes, both on my trip and when I move again. I've given broad examples but I want to see if I can apply the theory more narrowly to find solutions. Accompanied by a Kanye soundtrack.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Guilty Pleasures on a Wednesday
The best things in life, for free (or almost). A Canadian edition.
(1) Body Shop skin samples, masks included, in perfect tiny plastic jars that beg to travel. Free.
(2) Tuesday iTunes singles. Free. The Current's song of the day podcast (Minneapolis-St Paul Public Radio). Free. Movies of the week, downloadable on iTunes, this week including Some Like It Hot, aka sexpot training. Ninety-nine cents.
(3) Television on demand from ctv.ca or mtv.ca. Choice picks: Greek and Degrassi TNG (CTV), The City and Real World Brooklyn (MTV). Free. (I never claimed to be high brow)
(4) The NY Times Thursday Styles section. Free (via email).
(5) Complimentary snacks (and people watching) at any Fairmont in the afternoon, delivered by someone who understands gracious service. Free, assuming you order some kind of beverage.
(6) Mac's large organic coffee and giant pudding muffin, right now $2. Alternative: the mint oreo cappucino 7-11 is serving up puts fourbucks to shame. Under $2.
(7) Spritzes of department store fragrances mid afternoon. Free.
(8) Second-run midday matinees on Tuesday (there is nothing better than catching a movie in the middle of the day just because you can). $2-3.
(9) Weekend grocery store samples at Sobeys with your love affair. Free.
(10) Turkey Sub Monday at Subway, preferably on honey oat with extra banana peppers. $3.45.
May vary by location. Not guaranteed. Merely a reflection of my favorite things that are not at all expensive yet completely make my day.
(1) Body Shop skin samples, masks included, in perfect tiny plastic jars that beg to travel. Free.
(2) Tuesday iTunes singles. Free. The Current's song of the day podcast (Minneapolis-St Paul Public Radio). Free. Movies of the week, downloadable on iTunes, this week including Some Like It Hot, aka sexpot training. Ninety-nine cents.
(3) Television on demand from ctv.ca or mtv.ca. Choice picks: Greek and Degrassi TNG (CTV), The City and Real World Brooklyn (MTV). Free. (I never claimed to be high brow)
(4) The NY Times Thursday Styles section. Free (via email).
(5) Complimentary snacks (and people watching) at any Fairmont in the afternoon, delivered by someone who understands gracious service. Free, assuming you order some kind of beverage.
(6) Mac's large organic coffee and giant pudding muffin, right now $2. Alternative: the mint oreo cappucino 7-11 is serving up puts fourbucks to shame. Under $2.
(7) Spritzes of department store fragrances mid afternoon. Free.
(8) Second-run midday matinees on Tuesday (there is nothing better than catching a movie in the middle of the day just because you can). $2-3.
(9) Weekend grocery store samples at Sobeys with your love affair. Free.
(10) Turkey Sub Monday at Subway, preferably on honey oat with extra banana peppers. $3.45.
May vary by location. Not guaranteed. Merely a reflection of my favorite things that are not at all expensive yet completely make my day.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Great Expectations: How Much Do Any of Us Need?
Yesterday, an uncomfortable conversation with a coworker:
My boyfriend is angling towards a specific field that does have the potential to make him very comfortable. However, I also know there's a chance he might take a pay cut to do something less intense and that his financial situation is complicated by a variety of lending versus assets that have paid for school. Let's not count eggs for chickens, I say.
Interestingly, I haven't dated someone without potential wealth for years (familial, professional, entrepreneurial), not because I seek it out but because they seek me out. It's that obvious I'm self supporting and not a gold digger. And, I don't love money.
[Said coworker told her husband (who put her through school) that he should become a dentist instead of a teacher. To fund her expected lifestyle. In front of me.]
The whole conversation made me think about how what we do translates into what we earn, what we should realistically expect, and the values that underlie those things.
Do we get to expect more because we attained a certain level of education? Why? What does that level of education represent that entitles us to more than someone else? What if that someone else didn't have the option but was otherwise qualified? What if that someone else makes a bigger societal contribution than we do?
If you're having trouble drawing the parallel, what entitles the banking industry to... well, lately, anything? Entitlement and unreasonable expectations are two of a kind, at least in my mind, although entitlement results in taking something that you unreasonably expect whereas bare expectations can simply result in disappointment.
My standpoint on work is as follows: you need to make enough money to live, and make a threshold that allows you a safety net. Security is priceless. Beyond keeping the lights on, it's more important to do something I feel good about at the end of the day than to be able to afford life's little excesses.
I do worry this is really naive and idealistic.
I base my values on the following:
(1) I haven't met a lot of genuinely happy people, but those I have met made a conscious choice not to spend their time in ways that don't matter (the double negative is imperative)
(2) I spend too much time working to do something meaningless. Meaning can be broad - one of my childhood friends makes pizza all day and finds real satisfaction in preparing people's food
(3) Not all money is bad, but easy money is often conspicuous. I refuse to gather wealth from what I fundamentally disagree with. I have environmentalist friends who... work for the oil sands. Global warming or not, tar ponds kill living things and are virtually eternal, and arguments you can "influence from the inside" aren't yet persuasive. I never want to watch a news story and know that a disaster in someone else's life paid for the car in my garage
(4) If you can make a living doing something you don't hate, maybe even benefitting the world around you in some small way, it will outweigh the material things you surround yourself with. I always think, Titanic style, about the pictures I want to surround me as a little old lady. Those pictures are people and experiences, not so much the necklace (which you will remember, she THREW INTO THE OCEAN. Life lesson.)
Maybe in twenty years, I'll recant this one. And maybe I do find license to say it because my life is so easy now, because I have sufficient security to not worry much.
FF: I'm not in this to be rich. If I wanted to make money, I would have pursued a different kind of work entirely.
Coworker: So you're saying you could take a $20K pay cut and work for [good cause]?
FF: Yeah. Because I don't love money.
Coworker: That's easy for you to say when you're dating someone who will be incredibly wealthy.
FF: That is so not a factor.
(Awkward pause)
FF: I think that people have unreasonable expectations.
Coworker: I don't think it's unreasonable for me to expect to have a summer home and nice vacations.
(Polite smile)
FIN.
My boyfriend is angling towards a specific field that does have the potential to make him very comfortable. However, I also know there's a chance he might take a pay cut to do something less intense and that his financial situation is complicated by a variety of lending versus assets that have paid for school. Let's not count eggs for chickens, I say.
Interestingly, I haven't dated someone without potential wealth for years (familial, professional, entrepreneurial), not because I seek it out but because they seek me out. It's that obvious I'm self supporting and not a gold digger. And, I don't love money.
[Said coworker told her husband (who put her through school) that he should become a dentist instead of a teacher. To fund her expected lifestyle. In front of me.]
The whole conversation made me think about how what we do translates into what we earn, what we should realistically expect, and the values that underlie those things.
Do we get to expect more because we attained a certain level of education? Why? What does that level of education represent that entitles us to more than someone else? What if that someone else didn't have the option but was otherwise qualified? What if that someone else makes a bigger societal contribution than we do?
If you're having trouble drawing the parallel, what entitles the banking industry to... well, lately, anything? Entitlement and unreasonable expectations are two of a kind, at least in my mind, although entitlement results in taking something that you unreasonably expect whereas bare expectations can simply result in disappointment.
My standpoint on work is as follows: you need to make enough money to live, and make a threshold that allows you a safety net. Security is priceless. Beyond keeping the lights on, it's more important to do something I feel good about at the end of the day than to be able to afford life's little excesses.
I do worry this is really naive and idealistic.
I base my values on the following:
(1) I haven't met a lot of genuinely happy people, but those I have met made a conscious choice not to spend their time in ways that don't matter (the double negative is imperative)
(2) I spend too much time working to do something meaningless. Meaning can be broad - one of my childhood friends makes pizza all day and finds real satisfaction in preparing people's food
(3) Not all money is bad, but easy money is often conspicuous. I refuse to gather wealth from what I fundamentally disagree with. I have environmentalist friends who... work for the oil sands. Global warming or not, tar ponds kill living things and are virtually eternal, and arguments you can "influence from the inside" aren't yet persuasive. I never want to watch a news story and know that a disaster in someone else's life paid for the car in my garage
(4) If you can make a living doing something you don't hate, maybe even benefitting the world around you in some small way, it will outweigh the material things you surround yourself with. I always think, Titanic style, about the pictures I want to surround me as a little old lady. Those pictures are people and experiences, not so much the necklace (which you will remember, she THREW INTO THE OCEAN. Life lesson.)
Maybe in twenty years, I'll recant this one. And maybe I do find license to say it because my life is so easy now, because I have sufficient security to not worry much.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Money Saving Tip: Live Somewhere Boring
Okay, I'm being a little facetious with the title. Valentines weekend this year is kind of a write off. My significant other is on another continent doing aid work (long story) and I'm stuck in the Great White North.
This morning I got up and checked my preferred flyers online, determining there were no great sales. I ate breakfast and considered how I should spend the day.
Recent trips to the magazine racks are fruitless. The fact is, I don't want to read about Money Saving Tips from the editors of fashion magazines. I want lifestyle! I want fantasy! I want stories about celebrities leading unrealistic lives! I do not want to be told to wear things from last season - I already know that. (However, I did discover Zinio... post to follow)
Right now, I'm finishing a contract in the second most boring city I've ever lived in. It's badly planned, closed on Sunday and generally lacking in interesting activities. There isn't even really a good neighborhood to just wander around, grab some food and watch the day go by. The public transit is unreliable and a pedestrian lifestyle is ill supported. The nightlife? Don't get me started. I've discovered all the upsides: decent ethnic food, a better than average downtown public library, good spa service for less, and a redeeming yoga studio.
The result, however, is that my life has never been less expensive. I've become a healthy homebody. The days of late nights followed by early mornings fueld by nutribars claiming to be healthy? Over. The period where I partied with everyone from war journalists to euro-royalty and slept in the bar? Paused. Weeks go by without a single drink, let alone an expensive bar tab. I dress however I want, there is nowhere in town you'll be turned away or treated badly for not wearing something with fashion cred. In fact, when I first moved here and dressed like I did in various metropoles before, people stared.
In some ways, this could be a utopia, temptation free for the voluntarily simple.
But I miss living in a place where there were interesting things going on and every day looked different. Where there were concerts and coffee shops and you could get food BOTH days of the weekend, where there were always people to meet and things to find out about. I miss living in a place where I could dress up to go out, and dancing somewhere that isn't my living room.
On the upside, I earn a decent salary and spend almost nothing to live...
This morning I got up and checked my preferred flyers online, determining there were no great sales. I ate breakfast and considered how I should spend the day.
Recent trips to the magazine racks are fruitless. The fact is, I don't want to read about Money Saving Tips from the editors of fashion magazines. I want lifestyle! I want fantasy! I want stories about celebrities leading unrealistic lives! I do not want to be told to wear things from last season - I already know that. (However, I did discover Zinio... post to follow)
Right now, I'm finishing a contract in the second most boring city I've ever lived in. It's badly planned, closed on Sunday and generally lacking in interesting activities. There isn't even really a good neighborhood to just wander around, grab some food and watch the day go by. The public transit is unreliable and a pedestrian lifestyle is ill supported. The nightlife? Don't get me started. I've discovered all the upsides: decent ethnic food, a better than average downtown public library, good spa service for less, and a redeeming yoga studio.
The result, however, is that my life has never been less expensive. I've become a healthy homebody. The days of late nights followed by early mornings fueld by nutribars claiming to be healthy? Over. The period where I partied with everyone from war journalists to euro-royalty and slept in the bar? Paused. Weeks go by without a single drink, let alone an expensive bar tab. I dress however I want, there is nowhere in town you'll be turned away or treated badly for not wearing something with fashion cred. In fact, when I first moved here and dressed like I did in various metropoles before, people stared.
In some ways, this could be a utopia, temptation free for the voluntarily simple.
But I miss living in a place where there were interesting things going on and every day looked different. Where there were concerts and coffee shops and you could get food BOTH days of the weekend, where there were always people to meet and things to find out about. I miss living in a place where I could dress up to go out, and dancing somewhere that isn't my living room.
On the upside, I earn a decent salary and spend almost nothing to live...
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