Money – Page 8 – mardihumphreys.com

Give Me Some Credit

Back in the good old days of easy credit, it was common practice to have cards from all your favorite stores and two or three multi-use cards (e.g., Visa, Mastercard, Discover, etc.). It was also common to spend to the cards’ maximum limits, but only make the minimum monthly payments. We told ourselves we were building a good credit history. Then bad things happened in the US economy and wealth advisors urged us to cut up all our credit cards and pay for everything (even big ticket items like houses) with cash. Now the financial pendulum is swinging the other way again. There are several philosophies on managing credit cards. Here are three things I’ve learned.

1. Limits

The amount of credit cards you can have is limited only by the number for which you can qualify. Be aware that every time you apply for a new card, the issuer will check your credit score. If several companies do that in a short amount of time, your credit score could temporarily go down. I’m a primary and a backup kind of girl, so I have two multi-use cards and no store specific credit cards and Clark Howard approves. Which card I use depends on where I am (E.g., I have a card that rewards me for spending money on gas, groceries, and eating out).

2. Retail card

At the check out, cashiers ask me if I’m paying with their store’s credit card. When I say no, they ask if I want to open one and give me an elevator pitch of why I should: I’ll save $X on this purchase, X% on future purchases, earn points to get discounts on future purchases, and receive offers in my email. Since everyone’s situation is different, you may benefit from a store credit card. I avoid them because they make me want to spend money unnecessarily. Here’s a good pros and cons article on store credit cards.

3. Payment

There is one best practice that hasn’t changed since I started using credit. Pay the current balance in full every month. We forget credit cards are loans. The financial institution issuing the card is lending us money. If we don’t pay back the full amount we borrowed by the deadline they set, we owe them interest and finance charges. That’s how they make money and that’s why they offer a minimum payment. The longer we carry a balance, the more we owe and the more money they make.

Navigating the waters of credit card use is treacherous. It’s so tempting to buy whatever we want, but just because we can doesn’t mean we should. You work hard for what you earn so stop and think. Will you be mad at yourself every time you use that $1599 Gaggia Accademia espresso machine because you could have used that credit to pay a mechanic to fix your car that just broke down? Know your limits and stick to them. If you can’t trust yourself to be responsible, leave the credit card at home.

What’s your take on how many and what type of credit cards to have? Please share in the comments section below.

Full Belly, Empty Wallet?

We’ve talked about saving money at the grocery. Now let’s tackle eating out. Americans spend about $3008 a year eating at restaurants. Talk about treat yo self. One of the fastest ways to save money is to stop going to restaurants. Since that’s not going to happen, here are three ways to save.

Skip the Drinks: Skip soft drinks and alcohol and drink water instead. For sanitation purposes, I’d avoid ordering it with a lemon wedge, but don’t get me started on restaurant cleanliness. Restaurants make a tidy profit from your drink order because most mark it up 10-45%. Water is free and better for your body.

Work the System: Eat at restaurants that have dollar menus or order from the kids’ menu if the restaurant doesn’t have age restrictions on it. Plenty of restaurants serve huge portions (I’m looking at you, Cheesecake Factory). Order something you know you won’t finish; something that won’t get soggy overnight, e.g. order spaghetti and meatballs instead of a Rueben sandwich. Take the rest home to eat for lunch at the office tomorrow. You can save money by either skipping the appetizer or making it your meal. You could also split a meal if you are eating out with someone. E.g., you order eggs and bacon ala carte; he orders an omelette that comes with bacon, hash browns and toast. You eat the hash browns. If you have a choice, eat out at lunch time. A restaurant’s lunch menu is smaller (so are the portions), and consequently cheaper, than their dinner menu. If you have to go out in the evening, you could opt for just dessert, or just appetizers or go to an ice cream parlor or a coffee shop.

Convenience Costs Money: Buying a cup of coffee on the way to the office every day can add up to over $1000 a year. I brew Starbucks at home and actually use 1/3 of generic ground coffee to 2/3 Starbucks to stretch it even further. Your favorite restaurant’s website probably offers to send you ecoupons if you sign up for their mailing list. If you can stand a bunch of ads clogging up your inbox, you could save some cash. Our favorite pizza place puts a coupon in a monthly direct mailer. We only eat there with the coupon. Uber Eats, GrubHub, and DoorDash add up. If you have to have Chipotle, pick it up on your way home from work instead of having it delivered to your door. Skipping the breakfast drive-thru (you can pack your breakfast as well as your lunch) helps your waistline as well as your wallet.

These suggestions require planning, but a little brain power can save you a lot of money. Make eating out a treat, not a habit. When our daughter was little, we went to McDonalds so infrequently that she used to get excited to eat there. Yes. We were THOSE parents.

What do you do to save money on eating out? Please share your tips in the comments section.

Food for Thought

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American household spent $7729 on food in 2017 (the latest information available as of April 2019). The only items we spent more money on were housing and transportation. We have a little control over how much we pay for housing and transportation, but we have a lot of control over how much we spend on food. Here are five strategies I use to save money at the grocery.

Prep – I plan meals for the following week before my husband and I go to the grocery. I use our grocer’s weekly circular on their app, find out what’s on sale, look up recipes online featuring those ingredients, make a list of them, and buy only them. I avoid the dazzling displays tempting me to buy impulsively. Many groceries have a Manager’s Special section where the food whose sell-by date is imminent. We shop those and if the price is right and we can either eat it in the next few days or freeze it before the sell-by date, we buy it. This prep means all lunches and dinners for the following week are made, so it’s super easy to pull leftovers out of the fridge instead of hitting the drive-thru for lunch at work.

Convenience – Pre-cut mixed fruit bowls cost more than buying the fruits, cleaning them, cutting them up, and mixing them myself, so I don’t buy them. The same thing goes for meal kits, frozen dinners, and pre-washed salad. You have to decide if the convenience is worth your time and money.

Coupons – I look for paper and electronic coupons for the items on my grocery list. I don’t use coupons to try a new brand name product. If I can buy a sale item with a coupon, that’s a win. My research turned up other apps that save money on groceries and I’m anxious to try one.

Generics – Did you know groceries are strategically laid out so popular items like produce and dairy are on opposite sides of the store; forcing us to walk through the entire grocery and be tempted to buy what we didn’t go there for? Grocery shelves are organized so the most expensive brand name products are at eye level. There are very few brand-named items we think are worth the extra cost. Generics are usually on shelves higher or lower than eye level. I have to remember to look at the shelves above and below what’s right in front of me to find cheaper brands.

Budget – I’ve calculated a realistic amount of money to spend weekly at the grocery based on what products we buy and how many people we’re buying for. As we put items in the cart, I ballpark a running total in my head to make sure we’re sticking close to that number.

Does this sound like work? It is, initially. But once it became a habit, these processes got faster. Is it worth my T.E.A.M.? It definitely is for me. What about you? Please share some of your money saving grocery tips in the comments section.

Tighten Up the Purse Strings

Neil Diamond sang, “Money talks, but it don’t sing and dance and it don’t walk.” Although, it can run (out of our accounts). When that happens, it’s time to get intentional about managing it. Here are eight things I’ve learned about spending money.

Have a maximum of two credit cards and pay them off every month. More on this in a later post.

When buying a car, pay cash and avoid monthly payments. If that’s not an option, we pay the maximum amount we can afford for the down payment. The less money we borrow, the better off our credit score is. Car loans are the devil. Vehicles depreciate so quickly that we can easily get upside down (owing more on the car than it will sell for).

Invest in quality. My job requires me to make a good impression, so I buy quality clothing, haircuts, handbag, briefcase, etc. When I buy cheap clothes, I end up replacing them more often than if I’d just purchased quality in the first place. That’s not even taking into account the time (and gas if I go to a brick and mortar) I waste looking for replacements.

Protection plans on laptops, mobile phones, etc, are usually not worth it. Instead, I put aside the amount a new cell phone costs in our savings account. Then I can replace it whenever I want, even if it’s not broken.

Don’t buy on impulse. I’m a bit extreme on this one. I waited 48 hours to buy the $1.29 text tone I wanted. But waiting instead of buying is in my best interest more often than not. I even carry an item around the store for a while and think about how often I’d use it, if it’s really necessary, how much joy it would spark, etc. before heading to the check out. Usually, if I can easily live without it, I do. If I regret my decision, return to the store, and it’s still there, I buy it.

Pay bills electronically through the bank rather than through the company billing me. The fewer companies that have my bank account numbers, the better. I make bill paying a weekly habit. If nothing is due, I’m still consistently keeping an eye on where the money is going and when.

Think about the total cost. If I’m at Kroger and I know a loaf of bread is a dollar cheaper at Aldi, is it worth the time and gas to go there just for the one item? If I spend $10 for a drive-thru lunch, how much money would I have saved if I’d brought my lunch to work?

Spend less than I earn. Living modestly and within our means brings peace of mind; which I can’t put a price tag on. Having money left after paying bills means we can put it in savings. I know some people feel restricted by saving instead of spending, but it gives us so many choices: More money in retirement, the ability to pay cash for Christmas gifts, a vacation. Money is a tool. When we use a tool wisely, it makes life easier.

Do you have any suggestions for spending money wisely? Please share them in the comments section.

It Depends

Over coffee, a friend asked how my new job was going. I told her my trainer is a former calculus teacher, so I’ve assumed the role of student in order to communicate. She said, “Isn’t it funny how we just do that? How we instinctively alter our personalities? When in Rome…” Which made me wonder, why do we do that? It’s beyond mimicking an arm crossing, leaning in to show non-verbal agreement, or any number of behaviors that help synch us as humans. This behavior actually has a name: situationism. It’s the theory that human behavior is determined by surrounding circumstances rather than by personal qualities. I started researching situationism and it made me wonder a few things.

Do women alter behavior more than men? I didn’t find a definitive answer in my queries. If you’re curious and go searching, please let me know what you find out. I found an interesting (and unsettling) article that counsels women how to communicate with men if they are the only female on a team. If there is demand for articles like this, (and I found far more articles for being the only woman on the team than for being the only man on the team, btw) it leads me to believe women do change our behavior more than men.

Could situationism be a contributing factor to the gender wage gap? This article says the causes of the gender wage gap are female under representation in executive positions, gender discrimination on the job, and socially enforced gender roles. In meetings I’m often the only female in the room. I use gentle persuasion and ask leading questions when I’m trying to prove a point or get the team to act on my ideas. I operate on the you-catch-more-flies-with-honey-than-with-vinegar theory, when what I really want to do is say, “Hey guys, here’s the plan.” This situationism means I’m participating in the socially enforced gender role of sensitive nurturer that keeps women out of leadership positions, but I don’t think I’d succeed as often if I tried to be more dominant.

Is situationism keeping women out of C-Suite positions? Female leadership style is typically leading by example and developing talent. Male leadership is typically more command and control. Women are expected to foster and cultivate which aren’t generally viewed as leadership qualities. Men tend to take charge and try to establish dominance. When women display the aforementioned male qualities, we are viewed negatively. Often as a result of these differences, women can be excluded from out of the office bonding moments, like on the golf course for example. Being left out of informal networking opportunities denies women the chance to connect with potential mentors and/or managers who can promote us.

My friend’s observation led me to some interesting speculations. Please check out the links I’ve provided and explore for yourself. I never thought about situationism before, but it explains a lot, doesn’t it?

Have you ever morphed your personality to better communicate with your coworkers? Please share your story in the comments section.

Volunteer Opportunity

My mother is retired from the workforce, but I think she hustles harder now more than ever. She’s a perpetual volunteer in ministry to people. She offers her time and service to God as an act of worship. Some of her activities include: Teaching a weekly ladies’ Sunday School class, working in her church’s nursery, intervention counseling at her church’s private school as well as proctoring. She mentors younger women, facilitates Grief Share meetings, and visits shut-ins. That’s not the complete list, by the way, and I’m exhausted just typing it. I don’t know how she makes time to accomplish all her volunteer ministries. If she were job hunting right now, her volunteerism gives her a 27% better chance of getting hired than a job seeker who doesn’t volunteer.

How does volunteering help you get a job? Employers want to know you like to work even if you’re not paid for it. If you volunteer at an organization where you’d like to be employed, you have access to finding out about job openings; maybe even before they’re posted to the general public. Even if you don’t volunteer at an organization you want to work for, spending time helping others actually helps you. You feel good about yourself when you give. Feeling good about yourself makes it easier to maintain a positive attitude which bleeds over into your job search and in interviews. If you’re looking for a job because you’re unemployed, volunteering looks good on a resume. It fills time gaps. It telegraphs to potential employers that you value giving back to your community (and you want to work for an employer who feels the same way, right?). Volunteering gives you stories to tell when answering interview questions (e.g.: “What are you passionate about?” “What are your hobbies?”), and expands your network. You never know who you’ll meet, where they work, or who they know. Don’t volunteer too much, but don’t volunteer too little either. This study shows volunteering more than 100 hours a year does not raise your chances of getting hired; nor does volunteering less than 20 hours a year. When you do get hired, you might not have to give up volunteering. Ask your manager if the company offers Volunteer Time Off (VTO). It’s a trending perk. One in four American companies and non-profits offer VTO.

Mom and I, along with my husband and my dad, will spend this Mother’s Day attending my daughter’s college commencement ceremony. She is also known for her volunteerism. During her time at university, she’s volunteered on both her campus activities board and at Gospel Mission, and tutored African refugees. I’m grateful Mom has this influence on her. It’s no doubt one of the reasons she had a successful college career in both her classes and her student employment. It will no doubt continue contributing to her success as she begins her next life phase in the workforce.

Do you volunteer? Please tell us about your experience in the comment section.

Dollars and Sense

Our daughter moves to Chicago next month to begin her first full-time job. She’ll earn more money than she’s made in her entire life. There are lessons my husband and I taught her about managing money that I feel good about and lessons I wish we’d known we should teach her, like:

How to use a bank: When our daughter was sixteen years old, my husband helped her open a debit account and linked it to ours. We not only see how much she’s spending, but can also transfer money between our accounts in case of emergencies.

Save your allowance: We struggled to develop a satisfactory allowance plan. One one hand, when she asked for the latest iPhone, we said, “Save your allowance.” On the other, if you get $10 a week just for existing, what does that teach? Some chores you should just do because you’re part of a family: clean your room, put your dishes in the dishwasher, do your own laundry, etc., right?

If you have a car, you have a job: My parents gave her money to buy a car and we paid for insurance, but gas and oil changes were her responsibility and her allowance wasn’t enough to cover those. My husband and I think working either in retail or food service should be mandatory and the earlier in life, the better. Those industries teach excellent customer service lessons. Our daughter got a job at an ice cream shop. We got discounts. 🙂

You need skin in the game: We had a Roth IRA to pay for college. She used it up freshman year. To pay for future years, she had a scholarship, financial awards, and student loans, but these didn’t cover all her expenses. So we made a deal. We’d make up the difference for the next three years. Any classes beyond four years, grad school, and student loans are her responsibility. She also had to work part-time. As a result she figured out how to get her bachelor’s degree in four years, sought free money (e.g. she received a grant for being a vice-president of her campus activities board), and worked; sometimes three jobs at a time. In other words, she learned how to hustle.

Be generous: When you’re comfortable giving money away, it loses its power over you. Growing up she helped us give and serve. Today she is known for her generosity and volunteerism.

Good credit is important: We intentionally avoided helping her get a credit card until her senior year in college. My husband counsels her on what to charge, how to check her balance, and when to pay the bill.

There are a few things I wish we’d done: Taught her how to make a proper budget, forced her to save for a goal (e.g., buying her own car), and avoided student loans. Last week she was at the grocery looking for something over the counter to take for her allergies. She texted me a photo asking if the drug would make her feel better. The package revealed she’d chosen a generic instead of brand name; maybe she learned something after all.

How do you teach your children the value of a dollar? Please share your story in the comments section below.

Self-Care is a Thing

I recently discovered self-care is actually a thing. I’ve always equated it to “Treat Yo Self”, but I was wrong. It’s an entire sub-industry of wellness and mental health rooted in medicine. (Here is an interesting article on its origins.) Innumerable products can be marketed for self-care: Frappuccino? Sure. Designer handbag? Absolutely. New car? You deserve it! It’s easy to quickly spiral out of control. In theory, self-care is simple (though not necessarily easy): It’s making time to relax and do something you enjoy. But, it’s faster to buy yourself something than to carve out time in your schedule for a bubble bath. You need down time. It helps your brain make new connections between existing ideas, prevents burn out, and keeps you from stress-eating Snickers. We should take care of ourselves, but it becomes a task and that list is already too long. Attempting to decrease our stress increases it instead. Isn’t that counterproductive (and ironic)? Here are five low maintenance self-care ideas. Choose a couple that don’t stress you out.

Rest – Get ruthless with your schedule and prioritize sleep. Do you need to cut back on after-work girls’ nights? Can your partner take the kids to volleyball practice this week? Do you have to attend that Pampered Chef party? When I feel like I’m not following the Golden Rule, I put myself in time-out. I come home from work, put on my jammies, and take an evening to snuggle the dog and watch Jeopardy until I can fall asleep. If that’s 8:00pm, so be it. I ban caffeine, sugar, and social media. The next morning, I’m ready to roll out of bed and get back to the hustle.

Be Good to Yourself – or nobody else will (Shoutout to Journey). What clears your mind? Music? Exercise? Reading? Make wise choices regarding what you allow in your mind as well as your body. Be aware of what you think about yourself and how you talk to yourself. Carefully evaluate negative comments about you and discard opinions that are invalid. Choose what to believe and build yourself up. Don’t let the haters live rent free in your head.

Tune Out – I’m guilty of checking work email on weekends because I lie to myself: “I need to know if Joe Sixpack replied to the message I sent him on Friday.” No, I don’t. So, unless the sky will fall if I don’t check my work inbox, I’m not, and don’t you do it either. Sometimes I set my phone’s timer for fifteen minutes and journal, close my eyes and box breathe, or surf Pinterest for new chicken recipes. Whatever reboots your brain is how you need to spend your T.E.A.M.

Spend Money – I give myself a weekly allowance and save it. When I find something I want, I spend that money and feel zero guilt. Put a few dollars aside to invest in yourself. Go buy a new nail color, get a new workout outfit, or visit your hair stylist. The indulgence doesn’t have to be solitary. Take a friend out for coffee or take your mom to brunch.

Or Not – Self-care doesn’t have to cost money. Walk the dog. Take a nap. Get a book from the library. Watch a concert on YouTube. Sleep in an extra half hour on your day off. Take a vacation day from work. Stay in bed and watch movies. Go for a bike ride. Self-care is about time. It’s about taking a break to rest, recharge, and rejuvenate. Isn’t it about time you took a break? Please share how you manage self-care in the comments section below.

Get S.M.A.R.T.

It’s come to my attention that I often endorse setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, but have yet to explain how. Oops. Since the acronym S.M.A.R.T. varies, let’s define some terms, give some examples, then discuss how to set and sustain them.

When referring to S.M.A.R.T. goals, I mean:
Specific – Answers: Who? What?
Measurable – Quantifiable results
Achievable – Can be planned
Realistic – Makes sense
Timely – Has a deadline

What a S.M.A.R.T. goal is and is not:
Specific – Is: “I will read for at least 15 minutes every day.” Is not: “I will read.”
Measurable – Is: “I read 15 minutes yesterday.” Is not: “I read yesterday.”
Achievable – Is: “I will read 15 pages every day.” Is not: “I will read 500 pages every day.”
Realistic – Is: “I will read for 15 minutes every day.” Is not: “I will read for 25 hours every day.”
Timely – Is: “I will read for 15 minutes by the time I go to bed.” Is not: “I will read for 15 minutes by the time I go to work.”

The above illustration is a template. It may not be true for you. I read for 15 minutes by the time I go to work, but that might not work for you. On the other hand, reading 500 pages every day may be achievable for you. It isn’t for me.

How to set S.M.A.R.T. goals:
First figure out what you want to accomplish. Start with a small goal, (IE: a low risk goal with a short deadline like reading more) then move up to big goals (IE: managing diabetes with lifestyle and not drugs). This way you can practice and document, make adjustments to your process, and gain confidence.

This blog is a real life example of how to set a big S.M.A.R.T. goal:
Specific: I want to launch a website that houses my resume, book, and articles. I want it to be a place for a community to gather for encouragement.
Measurable: I can track the number of posts I publish.
Achievable: I can plan for how much money and time it will take.
Realistic: I can publish one post weekly for the foreseeable future.
Timely: I want to launch the website on January 1, 2018.

I broke the process into steps:
I took a year to write content: blog posts in various stages of completion, copy for the Bus Stop Devotions page, updated my resume, etc.
I researched: read blogs by people I admired, checked out hosts, platforms, domain name providers, and security providers for cost, ease of use, and support.
I thought about what I wanted it to look like (theme, colors, layout, etc.), its purpose (advice for my daughter? Finding my tribe? Both?), and would it be worth my T.E.A.M.?

How to sustain S.M.A.R.T. goals:
This website has just passed its one year mark and I feel like I’m achieving this S.M.A.R.T. goal. It gets tricky some times. I post on Sundays and they come with excruciating regularity. To sustain it, I reward myself for achievements both small (IE: publishing a post) and big (IE: the one year anniversary), and I celebrate wins both small (IE: weekly linking on social media) and big (IE: asked to be a contributing writer for Fairygodboss.com).

Give S.M.A.R.T. goal setting a try. With performance reviews right around the corner, set a small one right now for practice and bookmark this page to refresh your memory come performance review time. Your manager will be impressed when you bring S.M.A.R.T. goals to your meeting. If you need support as you prep for your review, get in touch. I’m happy to help. Tell me about your progress setting S.M.A.R.T. goals in the comments section below.

Present Pressure

One of the biggest elements of the holiday season is gift giving. When it comes to work, under what circumstances should you give presents? As for coworkers, I address that subject in my latest article for Fairygodboss, but what about the other people in your work life?

Holiday gifts are an opportunity to remind clients and contractors of the goals we achieved together over the past year. I try to deepen the relationships, but I keep the gifts shallow; in other words, not overly personal. You won’t receive a tie or perfume from me. You may, however, receive a subtly (think watermark) company branded cell phone wallet or journal. I want my receivers to remember me fondly, not feel like they’re walking advertisements for my employer. If I know my receiver well enough to know their interests (or if they have an assistant I can ask), a personal gift is the way to go. But if I don’t, I go local. For example: I live in Dayton, Ohio and am blessed to have access to Dayton specific gifts appropriate for business giving: Bill’s Donuts, Esther Price candy, anything from Dorothy Lane Market’s bakery, gift certificates to Marion’s Pizza or Carillon Park, etc. Plenty of companies have rules about employees accepting gifts including dollar limits (IE: they can’t accept gifts worth more than $25). If I don’t know what the rules are, I check with their HR department. I had a customer for whom receiving gifts was against company policy. I took him a dozen cookies from a local bakery so he and his staff could eat the evidence. I stay away from humorous gifts unless I know my receiver REALLY well because senses of humor vary greatly. A gift doesn’t have to be a physical object. Here are three things you could give that don’t go under a Christmas tree:

Words: Amplify their blog posts, like their pictures on social media, endorse them on Linkedin, share articles they write, leave positive comments on their websites. Write a nice review on their company Facebook page, be intentional with kind words. When our daughter accepted a position pending graduation, she announced it on social media. She not only expressed her excitement at the job, but also thanked the university that helped her get the job. Her post implies if you attend this university, you could get a job after graduation. Her testimonial is a gift because the university promotes post-graduation employment in their recruiting.

Service: Everyone is going through something – offer to help. Be value added. Serve their needs. I had a customer who didn’t want to participate in my program because it required her to notify hundreds of people. I created a document she could email and distribute. It sealed the deal. I saved it as a template and offered it to all my customers after that. Providing extra customer service distinguishes you from your competitors. If you make your customers’ lives easier, they want to keep you around.

Generosity: Go beyond a thank-you-for-your-business-this-year email. Donate to their favorite cause. It gives you an opportunity for follow up. Or, even better, volunteer at their favorite charity alongside them. It gives you an opportunity to bond. Be generous, but not extravagant; that can get real creepy real fast. Don’t expect a gift in return. If you do receive a gift, be gracious even if you don’t like it and be sure to send a thank you note; preferably hand written and sent snail mail. Gift giving can be tricky, but let common sense, kindness, and authenticity be your guides. Share your business gift giving suggestions here and Happy Holidays!