One Carnival and One Festival, Right This Way...

Sorry for being so light on the posting. I'm on vacation for 9 days starting Saturday, and it seems like all my free time is being taken up by things that have to get done before I go.

Anyway, in the meantime, don't miss the Carnival of Personal Finance and the Festival of Frugality from this past week!

Hurry up and consolidate your student loans!

There are just a few days left until the deadline to consolidate your student loans. If you're a graduate and haven't consolidated, you should do it now*; if you're in school, especially if you're a rising senior, it may also be a good idea. And since Congress ended the "single-lender rule" last week (as of June 16, 2006)-- which means that now borrowers are free to consolidate with any consolidator they want-- you have a ton of flexibility.

Last week I put on my "financial advisor" hat-- as I tend to do for my family-- and made some recommendations for my sister, class of 2007. Not only does consolidation get you the benefit of a 1.8% lower interest rate (2.4% if you lock in while in school or during your grace period), but a lot of places offer great incentives. Here's a long thread at FatWallet about it. However, a lot of consolidation services give me a really bad feeling; many of them are for-profit, have popped up overnight, have a lot of fine print, etc.

I ended up pointing my sister towards Student Lending Works, which is a non-profit organization connected to the state of Ohio. It gives you an 0.25% interest rate reduction for signing up for automatic payments from your bank account, and a 1.0% interest rate reduction if your first 36 payments. (That's a pretty standard incentive package.) If you're an Ohio resident or go to an Ohio school, it's an even better deal. There are actually a couple other incentive packages they offer, like earning a 3.3% credit off your loan balance after 30 on-time payments.

What will happen for my sister is that her loan will go into repayment, but she'll then qualify for an in-school deferment, so she won't have to pay until she graduates. She will lose the 6-month grace period after graduation, though.

So my sister will have $11,000 in loans consolidated with this service for a payment of about $80 a month. Then she'll have about another $5,000 for her senior year at a higher interest rate. I encouraged her to try to get the smallest payments possible on her consolidation loan, so that she can pay off the higher-interest loan faster.

If you still want to do this, you really have to hurry up... interest rates go up on Saturday, July 1 (and there are some other changes taking place that date), so all the paperwork has to be done by June 30. However, you may still have a chance; the consolidators really want your money, so they'll work hard to help you get it done in time.


*You should do it now if you've been planning to for a while but procrastinating; there are certainly good reasons not to consolidate, especially if you are in a line of work where you could get your loans forgiven, since consolidating can end your eligibility for that.

The Upsides of Downtown: Frugal living in the heart of Chicago

Sure, living downtown in a big city can be kind of pricey. But there are also some amazing perks: not just quality-of-life benefits, but things that can save some serious money, too.

This list is based on my own experience in Chicago, but I'm guessing much of it applies to other people in other cities as well:

• No need for a car.
• Spending less on public transportation by walking instead.
• Getting lots of exercise from walking, so no need to pay for a gym membership.
• Lots of big apartment buildings/condos with exercise rooms, so no need to pay for a gym membership.
• Lots of restaurants around, with lots of coupons. (Every 3 months a coupon book comes in the mail with buy-one-entree-get-one-free coupons for 8-10 restaurants within walking distance, so most of our dinners out end up being half-off!)
• And best of all, there are so many incredible free entertainment options within walking distance! Millennium Park has tons of free concerts in the summer, and free ice skating in the winter. There's SummerDance: dozens of free one-hour dance lessons all summer long, plus live music to dance to afterwards. There are movies in the park. There are free evenings at the Art Institute. There are fireworks at various times year-round. There are all sorts of parades. There's easy access to the great deals designed for tourists, with all sorts of neat freebies on "theme weekends." Man, I love Chicago!
  

Terrific CoPF with some terrific posts...

There's a great birthday edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance at Consumerism Commentary, including not just the best posts of the week but some of the best of the last year!  Here's some favorites...

Check out Nicole (the Budgeting Babe)'s post A Rewarding Life about volunteering:

 

How does this all fit into personal finance? Well, for me, the quest for smart money management is not only the search for security, it's the journey to find balance. If I can fill my life with unforgettable, fulfilling experiences, I don't think material goods will matter as much to me. Sometimes the search for the perfect pair of jeans, the latest make-up, the most extravagant furnishings, is less about what we have than what we're missing.

Then there's a post called Are we doing enough about poverty? at a blog called Clay and Wattles (subtitle: Sustainable Living in Northern Canada):

Like many of the issues I have considered here, the problem of poverty is so complicated that I am tempted to throw up my hands and do nothing - go back to distracting my better self with TV, music, and sugar. Yet I know that would be wrong. I have an obligation to find a compromise between my own interests and those of, for instance, hungry children... Sorry, no answers today - just questions.

And then there's Don't Give Up Your Latte at My Financial Awareness:

Third, you should have a few things in your budget that bring you peace, love and joy.  For some, it is the morning latte that gives them joy.  They may find it relaxing to drink their coffee at the park or just walking to work.  It is about the moment of peace that they get before entering their non-stop job.  So, if a cup of coffee gives you happiness, do not deprive yourself of it, as long as it fits into your budget... Sixth, look at what really gives you peace, love and joy.  You may think that the cup of coffee brings you peace, love and joy.  However, it may be the few minutes of peace that you spend before going to work.  Instead of buying a cup of coffee and reading the paper for your few minutes of peace, you may be able to get the same experience by sitting out on your deck.  We sometimes think that the material object we buy brings us peace, love and joy versus the experience itself.

Are consumer surveys, focus groups, etc, too much promoting commercialism?

I'm wrestling with a conflict between money and my values. I have a strong distaste for advertising and commercialism-- so is it wrong to involve myself with them to make money?

I really don't like advertising. I mean, I don't like consumerism and materialism period, so it's logical that I wouldn't like the advertising that promotes it. But it's more than that. Advertising tries to make us dissatisfied with our lives and ourselves, and then tells us that buying things is the solution. Advertising works very hard to create new desires for us and convince us they were there all along. Advertising tries to convince us that our love for the important people in our lives should be expressed by giving them material items. Advertising inundates us with racial, gender, and other stereotypes (it's obviously not the only culprit). Advertising helps perpetuate class inequality by pushing products as status symbols. Advertising helps damage body image and self-esteem. Frankly, I'd be glad if there was no advertising whatsoever, and we relied on sources like Consumer Reports and Epinions.com.

So, given my feelings on the subject, I'm thinking I must be a hypocrite for supporting advertising in the ways I do. (I probably feel more strongly about it than most people, so I'm not saying there's anything wrong with other people doing the things I do!)

I do Pinecone surveys. I was pondering the ethical implications of this before I signed up, but in mid-ponder, one of the signup links showed up. Knowing from various pfbloggers that Pinecone's are the best surveys out there, and that signup links only show up occasionally, it seemed the prudent plan was to sign up first and debate later. So I've been rolling the issue around in my mind ever since, even as I fill out surveys and get a couple $5 checks a month.

I don't know. I mean, I wonder how the surveys I fill out are used. If they use my responses to adjust the products to help suit my interests and preferences, that's no bad thing. If they see that I think that it's important that their food be healthy and they decide to make it healthier, that's great. But if instead they keep the same product but adjust their advertising strategy to suggest it's healthier than it actually is, that's really problematic. I don't want to help companies do that!

Another thing I've done is focus groups-- well, one, anyway. It seemed like an awesome deal: $75 for less than two hours of my time. But after I arrived and realized that the product was a particular soft-drink, I started to panic as I tried to remember whether it was a Coca-Cola beverage. See, I try to boycott Coke, but I do a bad job of keeping track of all the various drinks associated with Coke (Sprite, Minute Maid, Fanta, Dasani water, etc). It turned out that it was a Pepsi-affiliated drink, but my relief was muted by the fact that it could easily have been Coke and I wouldn't've known until I got there. It turns my stomach to think that I could be helping a company I disagree with so strongly.

But on the other hand, if it had been a Coke-related focus group, what an opportunity! My simple act of boycotting Coke products is virtually invisible to corporate HQ; but what if I said in a focus group, "Sorry, no, I won't be drinking Coke beverages until you start taking accountability and working with employees in Colombia, community members in India, and other people who your decisions have hurt"? I'm not saying it would change everything, but it would sure get a bit more notice. On a similar note, in one of my Pinecone surveys recently I got asked how important it was to me to buy products from a company that treats animals humanely. I was proud to answer that question and send a message. If people like me avoid these sorts of endeavors, that perspective won't be represented.

Or is that just a good escape hatch for me to justify the fact that I like making a little easy money this way? I don't know.

(Then, of course, there's the ads I voluntarily place on my blog. I guess I figure that they're so simple and unobtrusive that it's really innocuous. But again, maybe that's just justification.)

So, I've gone through the arguments and I'm not much closer to resolution than when I started. I think I'm leaning towards stopping... it's a relatively small amount of money, and it does make me feel strange. But I'm still wavering (largely due to the whole "representing the ethical consumer" thing). Any thoughts?

Highlights of 3 months of "Money and Values"

I was checking back in my archives for something, and realized that today, 6/13/06, is the three-month anniversary of Money and Values. It doesn't seem like it's been a quarter of a year already!

In those three months, I've made 49 posts (if my count is correct), and have had just shy of 3,400 visits. I know that's small potatoes compared to most pfbloggers, but it's really exciting for me. Thank you so much for being one (or many) of those visitors!

I've accomplished many of the things I wanted to when I started out blogging, but have fallen short of others. I'm not writing as many posts about values and ethics as I expected, but I have some ideas that I'm really excited about floating around in my head and waiting to be written. And I need to work on writing more posts more consistently!

Here are some highlights from the last few months:

Money and Values

• Community Development Banking, 3/20
• Work, Retirement, and Financial Independence, 3/28
• Gandhi on Budgeting, 4/6
  
• Socially Responsible Investing: Part 1, 5/5
  
• Socially Responsible Investing: Part 2, 5/7
• Ethics and the per diem travel allowance, 5/19
• My giving plan: donations to support social justice and social change, 6/1
  

Frugality

• Coffee Talk, 3/22
• Cable TV for -$7, 3/31
• Eating out for free, 4/9
• It can't hurt to ask! Part 1: Airline compensation, 4/16
• Can you be frugal when you're out drinking?, 4/17
• Are you "naturally" frugal, or not? (or, Penny Is Hearing Voices!), 5/14
• Frugal vacations, 5/21
• Could you walk (or bike) to more places?, 5/26
• Free Souvenirs (Another Frugal Vacation Idea!), 6/2

Don't pay ATM fees!

Now, I'm sure most of you are more organized than I am, and you solve this problem the easy way: by always having extra cash around if you need it. But since I use my credit card for almost every purchase, I don't carry much cash in the first place. And while I try to keep some emergency cash in my bag, I always forget to replenish it after I've used it. As a result, it's not entirely rare that I find myself in the situation I was in last Tuesday: I needed cash, and was nowhere near an ATM for my bank. There was a different-bank ATM nearby, of course, but I shuddered to think of paying $3+ in fees, and I thought, "There must be a better solution."

After a few minutes of thought and searching, I spotted a CVS across the street. 5 minutes and a $0.99 package of on-sale candy later, I walked out with $35 in hand. When you're stuck, see if you can find a place to get cash back with your debit card! That 99 cents was already way cheaper than the ATM fees, even disregarding the fact that the chocolate was something I needed anyway. (What's that you say? No one needs chocolate? Clearly you have not been to my desk at work at about 2pm...)

You should watch out for debit-card fees, though. Check and see if your bank charges you for doing a pin transaction on your debit card (mine doesn't, but I hear it's a growing trend). But you'll probably still come out ahead, since ATM fees are just awful, especially when you get double-teamed by your bank and the ATM's bank.

Any other useful ideas like this?