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Archives for October 2014

Should You Donate While In Debt?

By Frugaling 14 Comments

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Colorado State University Endowment Report Donate

I started fundraising and creating an endowment for suicide prevention at Colorado State University in 2010-11. Before I graduated and went to my doctoral program in Iowa, the fund was permanently endowed — reaching $25,000 in about a year. Last week I received my annual “Endowment Report,” which provides the earnings, contributions, and total value of the fund.

As I opened the report, it was hard to stay standing. Today, about 3-4 years since the founding, the scholarship has nearly $34,000 in funds! When the scholarship reaches about $50,000 in savings, it should be able to pay out multiple scholarships each year — or one large check. Ultimately, this can go into the pocket of a college student in need, who hopes to make a difference in the field of mental health.

But back in college, I only had a few hundred dollars in my name. When I got the idea to start a scholarship, I donated nearly everything I could to help seed the fund. I was passionate beyond belief and this cause was everything to me. I remember looking at my bank account, wondering how much more I could give without going broke. It was a delicate financial time, but I had money. And that’s an important point.

When I entered graduate school, I took out massive amounts of student loans, was ignorant about budgeting for the semesters, and irresponsible in spending. Between car, credit, and student loans, I amassed about $40,000 of debt in two years. Throughout this period, I never stopped giving to charity.

Each year, I spent anywhere from $200-500 — small sums in the grand scheme of things — in donations. I kept giving and giving — even when I had nothing. Zilch, nada, zero. Loans were the only thing keeping me afloat.

Even worse, I began to feel the pull of credit debt. This is the particularly nasty kind — an undertow that’ll sweep you out before you know it. With thousands in credit debt, I started engaging in credit balance transfers. These are financial shell games that you can play with yourself and credit companies. You open a new account that provides a 0% balance transfer, and then pay a little fee. Usually, that company provides 0% interest in those funds for about a year. A great deal, if it weren’t for the fact that my spending never stopped.

My spending was out of control and that included charitable spending. I hate writing that line. I hate the idea of cutting back gifts to charity. And I certainly hate the advice I must give today.

I need you to be ruthlessly defensive of your finances when in debt. I need you to ignore your desire to help others, so that you can help yourself. I need you to consider a future where you can help others even more, when you have the savings available.

To those in debt today, you need to put the mask on yourself first — before helping others. Now you may ask, “Why would I do that? Generosity is exceptionally important to me!” In response, I’d say, “I can relate to that feeling. I have given every year of my adult life to charities — in and out of debt.” But it’s time to change our perspective to charitable giving while in debt.

See, when you spend beyond your budget and give to charities when in debt, you’re actually writing a fat check to banks. Those that retain and house your loans — from the federal government to private corporations — receive their own donations when you make this financial mistake. The interest on loans given to you allows banks to realize ever increasing profits and earnings. Worse, it forces you into debt longer than you need be, and prevents you from being able to give more at a later date.

It’s with a pained heart that I must suggest that you stop giving until you’re back in the green (or black). I don’t want banks to make another dime off you, and I’m sure you don’t either. So let’s make a pact to stop giving until we’re done with debt. Then, and only then, let’s consider how we can best help those in need.

Special shoutout to Ben and Stefanie at The Broke and Beautiful Life for an awesome article that inspired this!

Filed Under: Loans, Save Money Tagged With: Cards, Charity, Colorado State University, credit, debt, donate, Giving, poverty, Student Loans

The Partitioned Life Destroys Creativity And Fosters Income Inequality

By Frugaling 13 Comments

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Ralph Steadman Art Cartoonist
I Am Not Like The Others by Ralph Steadman

Recently, I watched a documentary of Ralph Steadman. He’s an infamous cartoonist whose work graced the covers and pages of Hunter S. Thompson’s rowdy reads. Steadman has a natural ability to start with a splash of paint and envision the result. Sometimes what starts as a mean dragon, turns into a wicked politician. It’s a beautiful form of art.

The other day I set out to write a brief update on how much biking is saving me. But something larger was calling. What I realized in crafting my next article was that biking was part of a grander picture. This article is about life, partitioned; perhaps more catchily titled, “The Partitioned Life.”

The specialized workforce we never wanted

The separated, divided, specialized life is largely due to our strict capitalistic culture. Adam Smith, writer of Wealth of Nations and oft-cited theorist about the “invisible hand” of markets, suggested that capitalism would succeed via economic specialization. Essentially, with professional expertise emphasized, we could separate the economy into different vocations. These vocations would enable society to produce at faster rates, because time would simply be spent on one’s expert area.

Lawyers, doctors, and teachers all take distinctly different directions to accomplish their career goals. Most go to graduate school and receive mind-numbing didactic training. But each is partitioned and specialized.

The days of da Vinci are gone. Leonardo da Vinci was a polymath — a man with various skills. This painter, sculptor, philosopher, and anatomist was responsible for early explanation of medicine, astronomy, art, and more. Without his versatile background, each would suffer. He was the antithesis of singular specialization. But our economic interests have destroyed this path. The generalist is less valued compared to the highly-specialized “expert.”

We are partitioned beyond our wages

With disparate workforces, specialized employees are needed for a variety of tasks. Now we need a secretary, assistant, web designer, etc. But each of those three jobs could be accomplished by one person. This is the conundrum and false growth that’s associated with Adam Smith’s legacy. The more specialization associated with our jobs, the more employees that are needed for administrative needs.

Now, we need to partition even further. Picture your local city. What do you see? I see a series of shops, restaurants, bars, research parks, industry, fast food, and gyms. Break it down even further, and I see the burger flipper, salt and pepper shaker, and checkout representative. I see management, accountants, lawyers, bosses on bosses on bosses. We are operating within this highly specialized economy that works beyond vocational structure — it fundamentally affects how we shop.

The following is highly dependent upon your age, demographic, socioeconomic status, and personal interests, but the partitioned life also affects your monthly costs. Last time I flew into New York City, I asked a Millennial what she recommended I do in the city. She talked to me about the bars, restaurants, and museums. Then, she asked if I liked exercise. I do! She suggested Soulcycle.

When I landed, I Googled the name and found the chain was all over the city. Soulcycle has developed a sort of cult following. It intrigued me until I saw the price: $39 for one class. I’m always ballin’ on a budget, and $39 for a bike class was senseless. Needless to say, I didn’t go.

That price, class, and exercise studio impacted me. Here we have an economy so separated and partitioned that people decide to work all day, go home, and then go to a workout class. This Kubrickian hallway seems to be an endless procession of work on work — working to work out.

Bike in Autumn LeavesCrush the divides for creativity, clarity, and savings

Buying and riding a bike 90% of the time has changed my relationship with our economy. Every day I choose my bike, I feel a minor pang of anarchy. I’m doing my own thing to contribute to the collective — not contributing to climate change, capitalistic malignancies, and health problems that are affecting us all.

As mentioned, I started this article with the desire to focus on a number — the true savings associated with riding a bike. Instead, I’ve decided to talk about the bigger economic effect of our partitioned lives. But let me briefly entertain some calculations. With a bike, I pay for my gym membership ($0) and fuel up with food ($0 in gasoline). If you were to analyze your car-less savings, you’d need to immediately start with a couple hundred dollars every month.

Over the last 30 days, I’ve biked about 200 miles. There have been no parking fees, maintenance costs, or police to worry about. If I drove those 200 miles, AAA estimates that that would cost me $156.60 per month. But the savings goes beyond this and works to break the traditional partitions that our economy has parcelled off for us.

Recognizing and appreciating the generalist in all of us

We currently live in one of the most unequal times in American history. We have followed the wizened advice of economic thinkers like Adam Smith, and it’s led us astray. The “invisible hand” and free market principles have led to broken roads, broken budgets, and broken families. We are a country of financial elite and impoverished masses.

Economic specialization is no longer working. We must recognize the generalist is more powerful. Knowing how to repair a bike, being fit, planting your own garden, collectivising, and democratizing are our last hope. It’s our world’s last hope.

We must create an economy and emphasize the power of the generalist. We deserve to give ourselves the opportunity to be radicalized and empowered by the next da Vinci, don’t we?

Filed Under: Save Money, Social Justice Tagged With: Adam Smith, bike, Biking, Business, Economy, Generalist, Income Inequality, Inequity, Leonardo da Vinci, Partitioned Life, Polymath, saving money

Mark Cuban’s Horrific Student Loan Debt “Solution”

By Frugaling 15 Comments

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The stock market’s been horrific. Volatility has been at record levels. Stocks are at 6, 7, and 8-month lows. The losses prompted me to stay glued to CNBC. Every morning this week, I woke one hour earlier and listened — rapt to the dancing futures and opening moments. Then, I’d be off to work, school, etc.

But this article isn’t about stock market woes. Instead, I want to focus on a CNBC guest and favorite, Mark Cuban. Cuban is an entrepreneur and billionaire (about $2.6 billion). He’s an owner of the Dallas Mavericks and serially invests in startups, businesses, and other money-making ventures. This week, he decided to speak out against the rising tide of student loan debt — something we can all agree is crushing our future economic potential.

At first, I welled with excitement and thought, “Finally, someone is going to start critiquing our financial destruction via student loans and provide sensible solutions to the $1.2 trillion debt.” Cuban exclaimed that we couldn’t continue this and that we were hurting the entire economy with this burden. But after complaining about the problem at length, he provided no solutions.

The CNBC anchors recognized this and asked him to elaborate on his answer. And that’s when I nearly soiled my pants. His big fix to this growing problem was to — ugh, it’s hard to write this — cap the federal governments tuition aid to students. More specifically, he proffered that students shouldn’t receive any more than $10,000 each year in aid.

The billionaire entrepreneur, successful businessman, and all-around sports guy said that a cap like this would force schools to reduce tuition and fees. This is when I began screaming at the TV with a rebuttal, desperate to be heard by the conservative messengers on CNBC. That didn’t work, so I took to my keyboard to muddle a rebuttal.

Unfortunately, there’s a growing movement among “experts,” pundits, and pretenders that solving the student loan crisis is as simple as cutting funding opportunities. Cut the funding and institutions will be forced to lower their costs. Economically speaking, they’re partially right. When you reduce the funding opportunities, this manipulates the “free market” for education.

With the “Cuban Plan,” the idealistic message is: cut aid funding and watch the tuition/fees crumble. With a $10,000 cap on tuition, Cuban expects institutions to follow in line. But that’s not what will happen. The reality is that the market for private loans and corporate, profit-hungry, debt-ballooning machines will take its place. Suddenly a controlled market of lenders by the federal government will be swamped and stalked by private lenders — only out to massage another percentage point (or more) out of desperate students who are eager to get educated and attempt to better themselves.

Many will be priced out of an education. The bloated budgets of higher education institutions won’t be able to simply adapt. Universities have been spending astronomical amounts on recreational centers, educational facilities, and residence halls (aka: dorms). While frivolous, the tuition and student fees are established. If they were to be reduced or cut due to federal aid money, schools may default on hefty loans to pay for these extravagances.

Cuban’s idea is a lose-lose. Schools will default, close, and/or fire massive amounts of educators. Students will be stuck with private loans to pay the gap, or be forced to relinquish their dreams of a higher education (and the future earnings potential). The only winner will be Cuban and his cronies — the 1 percent.

See, the rich will benefit because it’ll be another federal program that’s axed. And anything federal, governmental, or communally good is inherently bad among rapacious 1 percenters. Moreover, private funders such as Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America will be able to roll up their sleeves, sell some toxic loans, and collect for decades. Those holding stock in those companies could escalate their wealth — all off the backs of low income and desperate students.

What we need is government reform. What we need is debt forgiveness. What we need is a growing mass of people that believe in future generations and their education. What we need is a long view — not the myopic, shortsighted one that Cuban propagated.

He’s right about one thing: there’s a crisis brewing and we need to change our relationship with student loan debt immediately. Tuition and fees need to be cut. For-profit universities should be unable to receive federal funding whatsoever. Taxation to support higher education of public institutions needs to increase dramatically. Be it from estate taxes or net worth taxes or capital gains taxes, somebody’s got to pay for it. And we can’t keep giving the bill to future generations.

These are the people that will take care of you when you are aging. These are the people that will discover the cure to cancers. These are the people that will reduce climate change. These are the people that will pioneer ever greater technologies.

It’s time to support them and ourselves.

Filed Under: Save Money, Social Justice Tagged With: college, debt, federal aid, Fees, Mark Cuban, Student Loans, tax, taxes, Tuition, universities

You Know What Would Be Nice?

By Frugaling 6 Comments

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Ikea Store Nice!
I like Ikea a lot, but this place makes me think, “You know what would be nice?” Photo: Håkan Dahlström/Flickr

A dendritic response arcs across my brain, as a firing of emotional and processing centers make me think, “You know what would be nice?” It’s the beginning of a dangerous game for me; at times, that question begets rampant spending.

“You know what would be nice” is a phrase that envisions the bigger picture, better future, and more attractive self. It encapsulates my desire for nicer clothes, electronics, furniture, etc. I can see and feel how an iPhone 6 might complete my left pant pocket. The svelte thickness and aluminum texture captivate me in these moments.

“You know what would be nice” is the reason Ikea, Target, and other big-box retailers exist. They perfected the art of the ensemble. It wasn’t enough to get/have a couch; now, you needed the accoutrements. They suggest “what would be nice” and show you the pairing. Their catalogs and stores are expertly laid out to exemplify an orgiastic group of accessories.

A small rug could complement the dining room. That watch would make this outfit POP. This lamp shade would make my room cozier. This shirt would be great for a night out.

“You know what would be nice” is the dream hypothetical that only lives in marketers’ models. Realizing this is one of the most painful lessons in consumerism. No matter how many “nice” things I own, the question will continue to putz around my little mind — craving me to cave and spend.

I’m not sure when I started saying this phrase. It’s led to horrible spending habits at certain times in my life. And I’ve heard others, mouths agape, vomit this treacherous line, too. The reality and solution is far simpler.

All we need to do is change the desired answer — a détournement to the prescribed answer. “You know what would be nice?” To be content with who I am today, the things around me, and the life I lead. “You know what would be nice?” To quiet the racing mind that suggests I need anything consumeristic to complete me. “You know what would be nice?” To make purchases out of necessity and enjoyment, rather than compulsion and marketing pressure.

Filed Under: Save Money Tagged With: buying, Consumerism, Consumption, Ikea, money, Save, stores, Stuff, Target

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