I (Heart) Elizabeth Warren

Black Friday

One of the surest ways for me to upset folks is to blog about personal finance.

That's not surprising; the entire issue of personal finance/prosperity/money is pretty fraught within the overall Pagan community. There are likely a number of reasons for the "issues around this issue," including the squick of New Age Prosperity gurus, a still-lingering notion from the late 60s/early 70s that it's "wrong" for tarot readers, reiki workers, Pagan clergy, etc. to charge for their work (although that's become less of an issue lately and was always kind-of tempered with a grudging, "well, at least bartering would be ok"), and a general preference for a more egalitarian, less hierarchical community (and little separates and creates hierarchy within the overall culture than disparate economic circumstances). Lots of Pagans simply have priorities other than "material success" and many of us have very grave concerns about the planetary impact of overconsumption of Earth's resources. You can probably think of other reasons. And, Goddess knows, the current completely dysfunctional economy has vastly exacerbated all of these issues; it's pretty difficult to read advice about personal finances when your job's been send offshore, you've lost your home due to mortgage fraud, or a health problem bankrupts you after years of work, thrift, and prudence.

All of which often leads, in my humble experience, to people reacting to what they hear in their head rather than to what's actually being said.

Which is, as seems lately to be too regular a practice with me, a long wind-up for saying: For the love of the Goddess, do NOT put yourself into debt this holiday season. Debt, like fear, is the mind-killer. Debt can poison your life, threaten your home, ruin your chance for a comfortable old age. Kate Moss, the anorexic model who has done as much as any single human to poison the body image of millions of women, is infamously supposed to have remarked that "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." (Ms. Moss has, obviously, never had good caviar, the soup at Bayona, my friend E's apple pie, Son's bar-b-que, DiL's clam chowder, my friend B's chopped liver, or a well-buttered lobster roll on a hot day at the National Cathedral's annual flower sale. And she is poorer for the lack.) I've looked at debt from both sides now, and I will say that almost nothing that you buy on credit is as good as debt-free feels.

My "almost nothing" qualifier consists of this: (1) I think that education is priceless and that, since, sadly the United States doesn't support quality life-time education, it can make sense, over a lifetime, to borrow money for an education. Often, though not always, the investment is financially sensible, as a good education can result in earnings high enough to justify taking out the loan. I can also think of situations in which the way that education enhances everyday life can make it worthwhile to incur an educational debt even when it won't be financially rewarding and will require lifetime sacrifices in other areas. (Yesterday, I mentioned to family that G/Son is getting quite good at arithmetic and can count to 100. G/Son disappeared, and I thought at first that I'd embarrassed him by making him the center of attention. But in a moment he re-appeared from the table where he keeps his recent papers from Montessori school and said to his other grandparents, "I can count to 100 and this will help me." Then, he used the number chart that he'd handmade at school to count off the numbers from 1 to 100, including the teens which, for some odd reason, still give him a bit of trouble. Later in the evening, he brought me a map of the world that he'd colored in and showed me the names of the continents. I can't put a price on that.) (2) I think that, in some circumstances, borrowing money for a mortgage can make sense. Certainly, in the midst of today's mortgage fraud crisis (and it may take a number of years to work this out), and joblessness epidemic, I'd be very hesitant. You can always rent for one more year and put the difference in the bank. But buying a small home that you can pay off in 10 or 15 years can be a good investment because, even if the Catfood Commission reduces us to penury in our old age, one can at least be generally certain of a roof over one's head. (3) I think that, for people first starting out, and especially now while interest rates are quite low, if you live in an area where a car is necessary (and, ask, first: is it really necessary, right now?), it might make sense to borrow a small amount of money to buy your first car, especially if this will allow you to get to a job, get out of your house with your small child, get to college, etc. Eventually, your goal should be to be able to pay cash out of savings for a new car. (4) In some rare circumstances, when you are just starting out in life, it can make sense to use a credit card in emergencies. Here's the kind of emergency I mean: You're out of college, in your first home, with an infant. The used car that you bought a year ago, that you use to drop your child at day care and get to your job, needs a new radiator. Your trusted mechanic says that a new radiator will get you at least another 18 months out of this car. Your savings won't cover the repair. W/o the car, you'd have to take 3 busses to get your child to day care and yourself to work and then 3 busses the other way at the end of the day. Put the repair on your credit card and then cut expenses to the bone to pay it off as fast as humanly possible. Once it's paid off, start putting the amount of your monthly payment into the bank for at least a few months. Next time, you won't have to borrow to cover the repair. (5) You're in the middle of Full Catastrophe. You've lost your job, you've got huge medical bills, and you need to rent a U-Haul to move out of your house and in with a relative. You need another chemo treatment to stay alive. You need to buy a plane ticket home to see your dying mother.

Beyond those sorts of instances, my advice (and, feel free to ignore it or dispute it) is to not borrow money, esp. via credit cards. Whatever you think you need, you really don't. If you buy things with a credit card that you cannot pay off at the end of the month (ie, you're using the credit card for convenience or to earn airline miles) then you are, simply, living beyond your means. And you cannot live beyond your means for any length of time.

This time of year is especially difficult. No matter which, if any, holiday(s) we celebrate about now, there's a pressure to spend money whether we have it, or not. What kind of creepy parent wouldn't get their child everything they want for xmas? What kind of jerk can't donate to the office fund for the xmas party? What kind of friend are you if you don't buy cards to send to everyone you know? What sort of person doesn't get a gift for the doorman, the mailman, your secretary, the guy who does your hair? What kind of niece doesn't go buy her aunt another unwanted bottle of eau de toilette? Do you want to be the only one on your block without flashing lights that up your electric bill and pollute the planet? Everyone else you know can afford to go camping on the Winter Solstice. What kind of money-grubbing jerk won't contribute to the gift fund for the Circle? Are you really going to wear those thread-worn robes to the Solstice celebration?

Come on. Stop. We're Witches. We deliberately live outside the village, at the edge of the woods where things are wild. And one of the first elements of effective magic is the ability to perceive reality. Send an email: Dear Friends and Family, This year, with Bob out of work and my medical bills, we can't afford to send gifts. Please feel free to reciprocate by not sending gifts to us. We hope that you have a wonderful holiday and that you don't spend even one minute standing in line to buy "stuff" for us.

You'll feel better as soon as you hit "Send."

Here are some additional very worthwhile thoughts about spending money just now:

Every dollar we put into the strange river which is the economy is a vote for the kind of world we want to live in. Do you want a world of blood and exploitation (which is the one we live in now), or a world of art and effort and justice? The choice, as ever, is yours.

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Not That Complicated

hat tip: stoat

Not Complicated

Can, we, however, please quit calling them the Bush "tax cuts" and call them what they really are: "The Bush Welfare for Paris Hilton Program"?

My New Name for a Blog

What Athenae Said

Democrats aren't going to be losing seats in a few weeks because liberals haven't internalized being nice to the rich. They're going to be losing seats because THIS ECONOMY BLOWS and there's no real sign of it not blowing because of anything Democrats are willing to say they've done. They're going to be losing seats because there are no jobs. They're going to be losing seats because they didn't fix enough about how busted health care is. They're going to be losing seats because college still costs too much, elementary schools have holes in the roof, and the universal response to hard times in any town in this country is shutting down the library and firing the cops and the guys who fix the sewers.

They're going to be losing seats not because they didn't think or feel the right things but because they didn't DO the right things. Because everybody's tired, and everybody's scared, and everybody's tired of being scared. Tired of worrying about savings. Tired of worrying about debt. Tired of worrying about saving to pay off debt. There never seems to be enough money and every time the phone rings it's $600, and the message from Washington is some incoherent combo of "it's already okay, so your desperation is all in your head" and "don't blame me, man, I was never even HERE."

Yet pricks like Sullivan think it's about what narratives we've internalized.

Go read the whole thing. You'll thank me.

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You Should Go

My New Name for a Blog

What Crabby Old Lady Said.

hat tip/Diane in comments at Eschaton

Picture found here. Warning: Lots of ads.

True

Monday Poetry Blogging

They Sell You What Disappears
~Hoa Nguyen

They sell you what disappears it’s a vague ‘they’
maybe Capital T who are they and mostly
poorly paid in China

Why does this garlic come from China?
It’s vague to me shipping bulbous netted bulbs
Cargo doused with fungicide and growth inhibitor

What disappears is vague I can’t trade for much
I can cook teach you cooking ferment
bread or poetry I can sell my plasma

They are paid poorly in Florida
picking tomatoes for tacos
Some CEO is surely a demon
in this poem

Need to buy need to buy or else
you are always paying rent one month away
from ‘the street’
3 neighbors asked for money this week
We are guilty
bringing in sacks of food bought on credit

Trademark this poem mark this poem with a scan code
on the front and digitally store it somewhere
not to be memorized “by heart”.

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What If?

Lots to think about.

I've been hearing these economy-based explanations of the Wizard of Oz for years. When I retire, I need to really study this, starting with reading the whole series.

My New Name For A Blog

What Digby Said.

My New Name For A Blog

Athenae Speaks For Me.

What Atrios Said

I totally stole this from Atrios.

Dear Gen Xrs:

Please ask yourselves qui bono from convincing you that "I'll never collect any Social Security"????

Love,

Hecate

My New Name For A Blog

What Athenae Said.

Yeah, everybody's losing their jobs, there is nothing the boss man can't do and walk away from scot-free, your years of service to a company barely get you a shrug when you're shoved out the door, so far, so good.

Yeah, the rule of law's been destroyed, we basically live in a police state, Miranda rights no longer mean all that much, there's nothing the authorities can't do and walk away from scot-free, so far, so good.

Yeah, it's getting harder and harder to breathe, the ocean is filling up with oil, nobody gives a fuck about the polar bears, everyone has asthma, there's something in the drinking water the town said was safe and now the kids have cancer, so far, so good.

Yeah, the guy we elected to end the wars and close the torture prisons isn't doing that so much, Congress is still full of assholes, our state legislators are too busy gobbling corporate knob to take our calls, our school boards want us to worry about if Jesus rode a dinosaur and if our kids can't read it's because they just don't want to enough, so far, so good.

Yeah, poverty and ignorance have been institutionalized, walled off, and called the acceptable price of living the way the top five percent live while the parts of the city the tourists don't visit might as well rot for all anybody gives a damn, so far, so good.

Go read the whole thing.

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In Which Our Heroine Rants

So I'm driving home from work and I have the radio set to WTOP, the local news station, mostly because I want to find out if I need to move the potted brugmansia BACK into the house tonight because May has decided to turn cold (I do, damn it.) And they have on some "experts" to talk about recent and proposed changes to legislation concerning credit cards, including a proposed change that will limit "interchange" fees (fees charged by credit card companies to retailers every time a customer uses a credit card; generally about 2% of the price of the purchase).

The moron "expert" says: well, if the credit card companies can't charge this fee to retailers, they'll just charge it to consumers, one way or another.

Dude. Do you think I'm so stupid that I don't get that the retailers are ALREADY charging consumers these fees? In fact, unless my understanding is wrong, they now have to charge ALL consumers, even those who pay cash, a price high enough to cover these fees, because the credit card companies specifically prohibit retailers from charging a lower price to consumers who pay cash.

Kali fuck, WTOP, could you please just not insult my intelligence?

And, weather every five minutes vs. every ten, esp. if you fill the other nine with this kind of brain-eating stupidity.

Dear Readers: Don't buy stuff on credit unless you're going to be able to pay it all off at the end of the month and you're getting money back or airline miles. That is all. (Mortgages and some student loans excepted, but you didn't use credit cards for those, anyway, at least, I hope.)

Got A Bonus?

This is the time of year when some folks will get either tax returns or bonuses based on last year's work. In my never-ending quest to help more Pagans live economically-sound lives, here are some ideas for what to do if you manage to come into a chunk of change sometime in the next month or so. The important thing to realize is that the universe has just deposited a package of usable energy at your doorstep. How will you use it?

The first thing you have to ask yourself is: "How secure is my job?" If you think that you could be out of a paycheck anytime in the next year, there's only one answer to what you should do with your lump sum: bank it. Bank it in an FDIC-insured bank account, even if they are only paying about 1% interest these days. (Most standard savings accounts are FDIC insured; just ask when you walk into the bank.) You may need that money to pay rent, print resumes, buy bus tokens to go to interviews in the next year. And, once you bank your bonus, sit down and make a list of your debts and the interest rate that you're paying on each one (look at your monthly statement; it will tell you the interest rate). Then, begin throwing all that you can at the debt with the highest interest rate. Thus, if you have credit card debt at 18%, a car loan at 12%, and student loans at 9%, you pay the minimum on the car loan and the student loans and you throw all that you can get, including all that you can get from taking a second job on weekends and evenings, at the credit card debt until it is paid off. Then, you start on the car loan. Finally, if you are worried about you job, NOW is the time to use your health insurance. Get your teeth checked, have your mammogram, fill your prescriptions each month as soon as possible (most plans will let you refill a months' worth of pills in 26 to 28 days. Those few extra pills can add up to almost a month's worth of free meds to be used once you lose your job and your health insurance.)

But if you reasonably expect to hold onto your job for the foreseeable future, there are a number of things that you can do with your bonus or tax return that will really help to make you more comfortable, secure, safe.

1. Put it in savings. If, in these economic times, you don't have between 9 and 12 months' worth of your net salary set aside, you're in real danger. In other words, if you get paid two times a month, multiply that amount by 18 and that's the minimum amount that you should have in FDIC-insured savings. Some of that amount could be in certificates of deposit, which pay a bit more interest but require you to not withdraw your money for a given period, but you really don't need to worry about that until you've got a chunk set aside. It is often taking experienced workers 6, 9, 12 months to find new jobs and those jobs often pay less than their former jobs. There is a law of the universe that requires your roof, your car, or your hot water heater to die just after you lose your job. You need to be able to pay your rent for months and months in case you do lose your job. And, hell, if the economy suddenly rebounds, times are great, and suddenly your prospects are unlimited, you can always use the money to redo your kitchen or take that cruise up the Nile that you've always dreamt of.

2. Go back to school in the evenings. Can you use your windfall to take the computer courses, paramedic certification, or massage therapy classes that would allow you to make even more money, do the job you want, be more secure in your present job? Then do it.

3. Replace the weakest link. What is it that's really not working in your life? An old, fuel-inefficient car that always breaks down? A computer you can't rely on? An ancient and rusty fridge that lets the food go bad? A basement that leaks? A wardrobe that doesn't work in your current job? Do the research, buy the best that you can, and do a ritual to kiss the old frustrations and inefficiencies good bye.

4. Get yourself organized. Go buy a good file cabinet (or two), boxes and boxes of colored folders, a real desk set, a paper shredder, trash bags, and some funky pens. Gather all your stray papers and put them in a pile. Several piles. A room full of piles. Blue files are for "home": make files for warranties, home insurance, repairs, etc. Orange files are for "car": make files for insurance, loan payments, repairs. Green files are for "finances": make files for paychecks, 401(k), savings. Yellow files are for "work": make files for work expenses, forms from work, professional orgs. Pink files are for "health": make a file for each doc, a file for health insurance reimbursement, a file for your advance health directive. Purple files are for "personal": make files for passports, birth certificates, awards. Spend 20 minutes a week filing the papers in your pile. In a year, you'll love yourself for it.

5. Go pay a lawyer to write your will, your power of attorney, and your advance medical directive. I don't care how young you are. You'll feel all kinds of better once it's done. Have fun with it. What causes should get all your money if you die after everyone you love? What songs should be played at your memorial service? It's your stuff. Do you really want your fundie cousin to get it all and give it to her fundie minister? If you have kids and you haven't spelled out exactly who will be responsible for them and how they should spend your money on them (College is ok, but funds to tour with the band aren't? A year to hike around Europe is ok but an MBA isn't? It's your call, but only if you make it), you're being negligent. Do it now. Go out for dinner and a nice glass of wine afterwards. Now, you really can die happy.

6. Go get one of those "executive" health exams. Have your damn mammogram. Buy a home treadmill, or a membership in a gym, or a new pair of glasses. Get your teeth fixed. Buy a mountain bike, a set of free weights, some sessions with a personal trainer who will help you develop a regular exercise routine. Buy a good pair of walking shoes. Finally learn to fence.

7. If you can do it and it works in your life for all the right reasons, now is a good time to make a down payment on a home. Do the research first. Make sure you know about every government incentive program that's out there. Make sure you get a fixed-rate 30-year mortgage. Make sure you get the home inspected. Make sure you've negotiated hard for the lowest price. And, then, throw your bonus into the pot of money you've already saved and do it. There's nothing like committing to a very specific piece of land.

8. Green up. Can you use your windfall to install energy-efficient windows, buy new appliances that use less energy, install a green roof, invest in solar panels that will allow you to sell power back to your local utility? Get on the web, spend an hour doing research, and then go for it. Buy a rain barrel, pay a green company to install insulation, buy some mesh bags that you can use every time that you go to the grocery store.

9. Spend the money on plants. Buy, and get a gardener to install, some trees that will give you shade in the summer so you can cut down on your air conditioning bills. Buy a few fruit trees that will give you fresh fruit for years to come. Put in a vegetable garden that will cut both your carbon footprint and your grocery bill. Buy into a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group and have a local farmer deliver food to your door all year long. Pick a color scheme (black/white, orange/yellow, purple/pink) and put a cottage garden outside your door.

10. Prepare for an emergency. You should have at least a few days' worth of food, water, and meds set aside. Take your windfall and buy canned foods, bottled water, basic meds (aspirin, antiseptic, bandaids, etc.), vitamins, etc. Find a good place to store them. I buy one can of something on sale each time that I go to the grocery store. A can of beans, tomatoes, tuna fish. A bottle of vitamins, a box of powdered milk, a few extra batteries. It can, as it has here in the MidAtlantic, snow quite a bit, but it will be a long, long time before I'm starving. Make a list of what you'd like to have on hand in case you are confined to home for a week or two and then go shopping.

11. Finally, here's my one hard and fast rule about bonuses and tax refunds. Set aside 5% for fun and 5% for a good cause. You've got to feel like you're enjoying the money, a little bit. So go buy a lovely scarf and give some money to a candidate you like. Take the family out to dinner and give some money to a homeless shelter in your area. Buy yourself a camping trip and make a micro loan. Buy a tree for your yard and a tree for the local hospice, library, school. Do what will make you feel good.

Money, especially money that shows up as a lump, is just a form of energy. Witches are good at directing energy. How will you direct yours?

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What Incredibly Sexy Hands She Has

Harvard Law Professor. Oklahoma Girl. I love her.

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What She Said

That's Not Change We Can Believe In

and

My New Name For A Blog

What Ruth Said.

The horribly skewed politics of right wing oppression is all the more disgraceful because it is wielded under a banner proclaiming family values. Valuing the family has been the most neglected practice of the administration we just tossed onto history’s dung heap, where it belongs.

The country needs to forge ahead to rebuild our economy, even though the wingnuts continue to bray about tax cuts for the wealthy, their continuing answer to the stagnation caused by…tax cuts to the wealthy. What has been ‘trickled down’ on the kids is a nightmare, made out of what was given to our generation in the form of the acclaimed North American dream.
The nuts and bolts of the real economy are always under the threat of ideology that thinks hardships are fine for the working class as long as the wealthiest get all the benefits. The remnant of supply-side delusion is undead and still struggling to climb back out of the grave it dug for this country and its treasures. The ranting you hear from teabagging ideologues is the death rattle that will go on until we can end it with real solutions.


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