Well being late to the party, is better than never, right? Well while all of the richy rich or at least richer than I in either cash or free time financial bloggers are in New Orleans for FinCon, debtdebs put together this great idea for us bloggers left behind to unite! And in this unity we get to answer any questions, you – the read, ask! Also, I plan on doing this instead of a weekender, just something a little different that will hopefully be fun!
So.. ask away!
I will get things started.
Q: So, Kipp, being a cool guy and all that you are, what is up with how much you spend in gas? Aren’t you more frugal than that?
A: Well thank you Kipp, I know that I am pretty cool, but it is nice to hear someone else say it. Anyways… most of our fuel expenses is with the wifey’s commute. It is 25 miles one way, so 250 miles a week. Not the most frugal commute, but it will do for now. I won’t force her to look for another job just to save a few bucks. Happy wife, happy life, right?
Ok, now your turn readers! I will be gone for a bit in the morning tomorrow so I hope I have some questions to answer when I get back!
Update #1:
Q: From Femme Frugality – What is your favorite past post?
A: Hmm… that is a difficult one I would probably say my Life is Short – You Only Live Once would be my choice.
Update #2 (kind of difficult on a tablet)
Q: From Brian: what’s your favorite and least favorite thing about Michigan?
A: Favorite would have to be the lakes, but I don’t think I would actively choose to live here if I wasn’t close to family because of all of the snow!
Q: From Lorraine: How do you handle family and friends who whine about or complain about money and hint that you should give them some?
A: I don’t appear rich (and I’m not yet either) so that helps with not getting direct requests for money. If they want to complain or talk about money I will try to help them out and have good conversation about money. I got one of my wife’s sisters on mint and she was complaining about how much her student loans are so I suggested trying to pay off a single loan to increase cash flow which basically hit a brick wall. Can’t win them all.
Q: From May: Has anything about blogging surprised you?
A: Time is definitely more than I expected, but I am probably not the most organized in blogging yet.
Q: From Tre: What is your greatest financial accomplishment?
A: When I graduated college I had enough cash in the bank to wipe out my student loans. I did not however, because I had just gotten married and the wife had some unsubsidized loans that carried a higher interest rate and it grew during school so it was the better decision to pay those off. But I could have been at zero student loans right after college which is great when your support is only the cost of books.
Q: From DebtDebs: How are your friends at handling finances? Do they or your family know about your blog? If not, why?
Update #3
A: Well friends-wise, best one passed… almost 9 years ago, but he wasn’t really the best with money, but hey we were late teens early twenties and the only thing we were taught money was for was for spending. My new best friend, well he has gone through quite a bit, divorced and got stuck with the house. Was in school while working, then the company he worked for closed during the recession, so he was continuing to goto school while looking for a job on unemployment. Graduated and couldn’t get a job in his field, ended up getting foreclosed on. Also his house was a duplex and he rented the bottom half. The person he previously considered his best friend was in the army and he and his wife ended up renting the bottom unit and while his friend was gone his wife cheated on him and wasn’t paying the bills. So basically when his friend got back he lived with him in the top half and he had to evict his wife’s friend, whom wiped out all of the money he made while overseas. Then his friend living with him wasn’t helping him pay any bills or do anything even though he didn’t have a job… it was just a great big ole mess. He is now in Ohio so I don’t get to see him that often now, but try to make it down in that area at least once a year as he is down there plus one of my wife’s cousins & husband along with their kids whom we grew closer to during college. And her cousin’s family is not great at managing finances it seems either, but that is an entirely different story. I think part of that has to do with small amount of time to make the best decisions when you are either working a ton, or going to school full time while trying to raise more than just your family.
Now the second part, as far as they know they don’t know about the blog. For one – I think it would be kind of a difficult conversation to have with my friend because, well, given his situation and how far back he is in life. And it isn’t like he isn’t doing frugal things, he took his car off insurance and just walks to work. And of course student loans. His choices are truly limited as he was born with one lounge so that gives him alot some difficulties for physical work and would probably be denied to go into the army because of it. Family wise if they wish to seek out this time of information and happen to stumble upon my blog (if they found it… they know it would be me, I have my picture here) I would gladly talk to them about it. But they need to be wanting to know about personal finances to listen. I don’t shy away from conversation about finances with family and do subtle (and some not so subtle) hints to my and my wife’s family about some things… like at least invest in your 401(k) to get your match… and try to pay off a single student loan to increase cash flow… stuff like that. Don’t always know what action they end up doing, I think if it ISN’T brought up you can probably assume no action. I got my bro investing to get the company match and linked him to MMM’s article on the simple math behind early retirement to show him the rates you need to save and how many years until retirement. That is the closest to the blog realm I have gotten with a family or friend.
On a side note with my friend in Ohio, the odd thing is about how our friendship began. I used to work with his ex-wife at a grocery store during college and through her is actually how we became friends. Kind of funny how things work out, huh?
Q: From Kirsten: Do you splurge on anything? If so, what?
A: Well… I like to think we purchase alot of luxuries each and every month if how are spending is. For example just last month we bought a couple of new bicycles (yea I know, still need to get pics up). One thing that I like to do, and this is something my friend, whom I mentioned in my reply to Debt Debs, and I used do together is watch UFC fights. Now I don’t order the PPV… it is cheaper to goto buffalo wild wings and eat than to pay for a PPV, but that is a regular splurge for me I would say. Also we consistently get pop each week and or usually some alcohol which isn’t necessary, but more of a splurge. I would also say we don’t hold back on traveling to see family either, so we don’t restrain our gas budget and say no to visiting. Even all of our direct family is fairly close by, the cost still adds up, but the time with family is worth more than the gas.
More personal splurge areas, one would be my wife’s scrap booking stuff. We picked up a cuttlebug embossing and die cutting machine this summer at a garage sale and she has been getting stuff for that every month. For me – I spend probably too much on computers. We both have desktops that I had built. Although I used to be more into computer games, I am not so much now so my computer should last a decent amount of time.
An InLinkz Link-up
Blah used to have a job that was 60 miles each way. Sucked for gas, but I loved the job and the pay was worth it. I don’t think I’ve been here before, so I’ll ask for you favorite past post for me to check out?
Answer in the post!
What’s you favorite and least favorite thing about Michigan?
Replied earlier! Ran out of time to comment back!
How do you handle family or friends who whine about money and needing money and hinting at you to give them some money when the whiners are not financially doing what they should do to live a frugal and secure financial Life?
Answer is above Lorraine!
Hi Stopping by from #frugalFinConFiesta. Question for you (and I have asked this to a few bloggers during the party) Has anything about blogging surprised you? If so, what and why? Cheers!
Answer above May!
What is your greatest financial accomplishment?
It relates to student loans if you believe it or not!
Yay, Kipp! Glad you’ve joined in! Happy wife, happy life. You’ve got that right!
How are your friends at handling their finances? Do they know about your blog and does your family know? If not, why not?
Answer above – those paragraphs didn’t look so big in the post edit! But told ya it was a bit of a longer response to come in my 2nd update!
Do you splurge on anything? If so, what?
I think we have plenty of luxuries! Answer above!
Just a hello and an aside —- I visited Michigan in May with the family for a roadtrip and hockey tournament – we had a great time. Was introduced to the “Michigan Left” – was tricky at first but once I figured it out – awesome at controlling gridlock. Not sure why they don’t do it everywhere.
Well when they add a light for the Michigan left it doesn’t help the gridlock at all (and not every intersection does that, but enough do). I actually like the round-a-bouts better or there is one intersection after a bridge where they couldn’t do a left so you take a wide right after the road and loop back coming the other way. But I think those two ways and a Michigan Left flow better than a regular intersection with 20 different light cycles.