Guest Post by Myrtle

Wow! We already have a guest blogger, which is very exciting. Myrtle is a fab 20-something with a good financial head on her shoulders...and she has some great stuff to say - let's hear it for Myrtle!!

Hello. I am Myrtle, Guest blogger #1.

I am completely in line with Doris’ idea of being Zen about money. I am a true believer in the Jedi way, thus think we have the ability to use the Force (=$) for good or evil. We sometimes get so obsessed with how much we aren’t saving and the money that we don’t have that we forget the positive things on which we choose to spend our hard earned cash.

I look at the lives that some of my friends and I live and I wonder why we spend so much time and energy fretting over our financial situation. I don’t think that it’s a bad thing to splurge every once in a while. As long as you avoid constantly splurging, I believe we’ll be ok.

A travel opportunity recently presented itself to me. The trip was unexpected and thus presented unanticipated expense for the month. For this reason I contemplated not going. After some deep thought I realized that the cost of the trip isn’t really prohibitive. ($250 for a plane ticket and a long weekend of fun.) While this is perhaps steep it’s not outrageous. I am young and unattached. If I can’t pick up and go now, then when will I ever be able to do so? It’s summer and I have no real vacations planned, so why not spend a little extra money for a little bit of fun.

Some of us are reluctant to jump on these types of opportunities when they arise because they throw off our budgets. I believe many of my cohorts and I are not strapped financially. Yes we are battling school loans and rents/mortgages and car payments and insurance on salaries that are much less than we deserve. Despite the occasional financial hiccup, we’re doing alright. We don’t yet have to worry about children and we are fortunate in that we don’t have any REALLY serious chronic health issues that require attention. We DO still get to go out and have fun with friends on occasion. We have some car payments and phone bills, but that also means we have cars and cells to use. Yes, loan payments suck… but it’s largely educational debt, which is not necessarily a bad type of debt to have.

I think we get caught up in micromanaging and we forget the big picture. We ARE doing ok. There are millions of people who are worse off than we are and we’re certainly feel fortunate to be in the position in which we find ourselves. I also recognize that by using the phrase “we” I am making some presumptuous claims, but I do believe that there are several readers who can relate. Yes we’d all like to save more and perhaps spend less, but maybe what we need most is to step back and breathe.

Thanks to Myrtle for her guest post!! I love advice from Myrtle because she always is so logical, even-headed and wise about most things.

If anyone else wants to be a guest blogger, or if you want to hear more from Myrtle...let me know. Happy Wednesday!

March Madness

Happy Monday everyone!!! That was for K. I personally do not approve of Mondays…but since they keep coming, I guess I should be somewhat nice to them.

I live in ACC country (and attended an ACC school), so am fully vested in the NCAA tournament. I was planning on only filling out a free bracket online with my old roommate’s family, but then I got roped into the office pool. Now, I know $5 is not a lot of money – but it’s a day’s lunch, or a skein of yarn (or two) or a pair of shoes from Rack Room Outlet! I mean…I’m just being practical here. Although I was unwilling to put my $5 in the pot, I must admit it makes work much more interesting when your boss shouts down the hall that she’s in the lead! Soooo I guess it’s ok.

March Madness doesn’t only refer to the crazy and unpredictable action of the NCAA tournament (DAVIDSON?? Seriously peeps, I’m proud of you and everything, but you seriously messed up my bracket.) – it also refers to the fact that M and I are trying really hard to get on track with our budget. We are sooooo close – and as I shared in an earlier post, I obsessively checked online and I think we’ll be OK this month.

However, there are some interesting things that came to light this weekend. M and I were at my parent’s house for the holiday weekend, and somehow I got on the subject of planning a trip to Europe. Don’t roll your eyes! I know we are in debt and have very lofty financial goals…but I thought that if we just put a bit of money aside every month, in a few years we would be able to go abroad. Well, that turned into Mike telling me that he would like to own a house by then (as in, within four years). The whole idea sounds very normal – I mean, he would be over 30 at that point – but it just seems very scary…and very unattainable. I’ve read some other PF blogs about people taking that leap, and it scares me for them!! It’s just a really adult thing to do.

Also, talking about this “Four-Year Plan” brought up another thing. Babies. M and I have talked about kids in the general…as in “oh, that baby is cute! Oh, that baby has giant ears! Ooooooh, that baby is scary!!” We’ve also talked “timetable” – such as…not now. With me leaning towards nursing school…it will definitely be a few more years (we hope) until we hear the little pitter-patter of feet. But, we don’t talk about it so much…and that’s ok. However, I realized with all this time talk that I was thinking about a five-year plan when it came to kids. Holy crap! It seems like we have a LOT of financial planning to do!

So yeah – that was my nutty weekend! I also re-learned how to knit, and started a quilt! I have a ton on my plate right now, but that’s how I like it. AND, my boss just came around with our paychecks! Yippie!!!

How was everyone else’s weekend??