Category: To Occupy my Time

Essay: Mr Money Mustache has rejuvenated my life

Along with being busy with many various and sundry things, I keep a close eye on my money.  I grew up without a sense of abundance around money–though we were solidly middle class–and while I’ve had off and on times of cultivating feelings of abundance around money, I do worry about having enough.  “Enough” being defined specifically as enough to live comfortably now while also saving enough to keep me from eating cat food in my dotage.

There was a time in my 20s when I would regularly check out the library’s 332.024 call number, which is the personal finance section.  A friend, seeing my interest in money, gave me the book Your Money or Your Life when I was 26 and I applied those principles for the next decade or so.

I’ve slacked off over the last few years. In 2015 I took a pay hit when I left my job of nine years.  My justification was that taking a reduced salary (which also gave me summers off) would result in many more opportunities within the organization in the future. It turned out to be a bad gamble. After a few months of observing the organization, I concluded I wouldn’t want to work there for another few months, much less for the rest of my career.

Happily, the job hunt was brief and successful, and I landed a new position where the salary exceeded my job-of-nine-years salary.*  I received two raises the first year, boosting my salary to its highest level, ever.

(*Though actually, due to the 32-hour week and 7 weeks vacation at the job of nine years, I was making less money at the new job.  I knew that once I left that particular job it would be very hard to equal the pay/benefits ratio.)

This new position fits me well, and I’m happy to have the job.  O! But I miss the days and days of time off I used to have.  It turns out that what was fueling my many projects over the years, was being supported by having enough time to do the projects.  And I didn’t just have time for the projects. I had time to read a ton and goof off and not get a lot of things done too.  Now, working 40 hours per week, not even having ALL the federal holidays off, it seemed like there wasn’t any time left for rebuilding the planter box out front or painting the back doors where the painters declined to finish the job.  I had even solicited names of handymen to rebuild said planter box.  Because when you barely have time to get the laundry/grocery shopping/cooking done, how can you even think of finding time to do the fix-it things?

Then, two things happened in quick succession.  The first was that I took an online class this summer.  It took up time.  The first three weeks, in particular, took up 12-14 hours per week.  After that, things settled back to 3-4 hours per week, but I noticed that even during the weeks that took the most hours, I had time to finish all my assignments.  Could that time be applied to other things?

The second was a link in the YNAB newsletter. YNAB is the budgeting program I use to manage my money.   They are very good at helping people get an understanding of the money coming in, and how to allocate for your priorities.  Their newsletter is full of stories of people who paid off gobs of debt in small amounts of time, or people who saved for the exact vacation they had dreamed of.  One week, there was a link to an older post by Mr. Money Mustache about appreciating the work you’d done to grow you ‘stache.  And to enjoy life.

Who was Mr. Money Mustache, and what was this ‘stache to which he referred?  Happily, there was a “start here” post.  

I started.  

Mr. Money Mustache (MMM) is the online persona of a former tech worker who through his 20s saved large amounts of his large tech salary and “retired” by the time he was 31.  He believes in saving much more of your money than spending it, in reducing your consumption of many things and of not wasting your time on things that aren’t worth your money. He also believes in both “insourcing” as much of your life as possible, and living in frugal luxury.

He’s funny,  swears a lot, and also suggests a good punch in the face, often self-applied.  (In one of my favorite “punch you in the face” posts, he discovered that Mister Money, a check cashing firm, had opened in his town.  Aghast that people who don’t have any idea what they spend in the first place would go to Mister Money and pay a $15.00 fee for a payday “loan” he contemplated opening a competing store next door where people would give him $15.00 and he would punch them in the face and not take the payday loan.)

Mr. Money Mustache writes a lot of things that elicit a reaction of, “Nuh-uh” for the general population.  Never buy a car using a loan, bike everywhere, hang your clothes to dry, save 75% of your pay, stop buying stuff.  Stop buying most everything. 

There’s a part of me (MMM would call it the complainypants part of me) that has the same whiny response. I don’t have a tech worker’s salary! 75% of my pay isn’t enough to live on!  It’s hard to bike everywhere, especially when it’s rainy! Clothes take forever to dry if you hang them in the winter! Sometimes I like to buy stuff!  

But even as these thoughts were crawling through my head, I there was a louder drumbeat:

Mr. Money Mustache is your people!  

And that voice was right.  While I still live a fairly frugal existence–cooking my food, riding public transit to work, buying a lot of my clothing second hand–over the past winter, I noticed a small voice asking where was that person who biked a lot of places, got excited about projects and got stuff done?  Where was the person excited about anything?

Reading Mr Money Mustache posts feels like a shot of the best “early-rising-farmer energy” the kind that usually kicks in around May every year and lasts through the summer.  That energy boost didn’t happen this in May, and I wondered if it would come at all. It turned out what I needed was a good talking to from MMM.

I’m already set up for the MMM lifestyle.  Laundry? I bought a really nice outdoor clothes dryer years ago.  Plus I have two in my bedroom for when it gets raining again.  Biking?  My bike is tricked out for all sorts of errand running. I don’t even need a bike trailer for most stuff.  Saving money?  I’m crazy good at it.  When I looked at my budget 40% of my net pay is already going either to my retirement accounts, or to speed up debt repayment.  Not buying stuff?  I’ve got some room to improve there–just last weekend, even after reading MMM, I spent almost $50 on window washing gear–but I’m game to try.

And guess what?  If I found 3+ hours per week to study and do my classwork, you bet I can find time do some projects. And I love doing projects. I love to plan projects, and I love to work on projects, and I love having done projects. (Finishing them is not my favorite thing).  My house is full of cool stuff that wouldn’t be there unless I (and whomever I roped into helping me) hadn’t done the projects. And my house is just waiting to be cooler than it was because there are still projects to do.

Am I biking EVERYWHERE?  No, not right at the moment.  My work pays for a transportation pass for me, and I don’t love that bike to work, so for now I’m keeping my commute the same delightful (and free!) experience it is.  But I did get out a compass and draw a circle on my the big map in my living room that shows me one mile journey in every direction from my house.  I’ll start by biking to all of those places and make the circle bigger as I get my biking muscles back.

Am I saving MOST ALL of my paychecks? No, but I’m keeping a much better eye on what I spend, and I’m excited to finally do the project where I find out how what the best price for the food staples I use really is.**  I’m also looking into some side jobs that can bring in extra cash.

(**I really want someone to build me an app for this.  Here’s what I’m looking for.  A way to list all my staples: brown rice–long grain, pinto beans, peanut butter, apples, etc.  A way to be in the store, and to quickly find a particular staple on the app. When I find it, it will show me the average price I pay, the lowest price I’ve paid in the last (specific amount of time) and the price I paid the last time I bought it.  I would also like to have a desktop interface, so I can type the newest data on something besides my phone. If you build me this, please let me know you have done this.  In the meantime, I’m going to make a Google sheet.  So unfancy!  I would pay up to $5.00 for a no-ad app.)

Am I thinking of doing a big landscaping project–one that will bring much daily joy to me after it’s finished, as well as adding curb appeal–armed with only my wits, books from the library, the tools I already own and the willing help of the boyfriend? Why yes I am, and I know that Mr. Money Mustache would be proud.

Will I be able to save enough to retire in 10 years, at 52?  Maybe.  But regardless, I don’t feel so hopeless about working until 70. Because I’ve got the skillz to get the savings in order long before that. I’ve spent all of my adult life honing them.  I just needed Mr. Money Mustache to remind me.

The biking diameter

I’ve not been biking as much as I used to.  And I don’t love that.  But it’s so easy to take the car to short errands.  I’ve also learned enough about myself to know that if I decree “Must Bike Everywhere” I won’t do it.  So I’ve established a radius of one mile from my home.  Anything needed to be gotten in this area will be either walked to or biked to.

In a few months, I’ll increase the radius to 1.5 miles.

Why let ten-cent increments of money get away from me? The BottleDrop Green Bag program

A few things came together recently.  One is that my company did some work for OBRC, and I learned of the existence of the Green Bag program. The second is that the bottle deposit rate went from five cents to ten cents. (Since 1971, if it had kept up with inflation, it would be around $0.25 now).  Plus, Matt started drinking Propel, which is water with something in it.  Also, my company started providing bottled kobucha for its employees.  That also has a bottle deposit on it.*

Thus, I started looking at five kombucha bottles in the work recycling bin and thinking, “That’s like fifty cents.  That’s real money.”  In junior high, when we were introduced to the magic of vending machines (also known as: FuSESKiJuK Funding School “Extras” by Selling Kids Junk Food) candy bars were fifty cents and thus forever more fifty cents will always be my “real money” threshold.

There’s a lot not to like about redeeming bottles.  For me, the number one thing is the smell.  I’m not a hugely smell-sensitive person, but the combination of elderly beer/soda dregs really turns my stomach.  Plus, there’s the time it takes to actually redeeming, which is another step in my very full days.

Happily, the Green Bag Program exists.  For this program, you visit a BottleDrop center, open an account, and purchase 15 bags for $1.50.  Then, you fill them and drop them off at any BottleDrop center.  You don’t even have to go inside.  They have an outside drop place that can be accessed before and after hours by using your card. Then, employees at the center redeem the bottles and cans for you and credit your account.  This costs $0.25.  So for $0.40 (four bottles) I can avoid most of the problems I have with redeeming.  Plus, if you cash in your credit at specific stores (Fred Meyer is one) you get $0.12 per bottle and not $0.10.

I’m excited about this program, especially because I’m collecting bottle redemptions on items I haven’t paid the deposit on.  It’s free money for me!

*It turns out that kombucha has been ruled “juice” and thus should not have a deposit on it.**  I’ll keep collecting those bottles until the label changes and I can’t redeem them any longer.

**The weirdness of what does and does not have a bottle deposit bugs me.

Portland Hill Walk re-routed

We took another Portland Hill Walk, but I did not know the Lower Macleay Trail was closed for renovation.  Instead of taking that red line back to where the car was parked at 29th and Vaughn, we took the very long detour which is the blue line that runs below the solid red line of the Lower Macleay.

However, it did take us by this building, the Historic Fairmount Apartments.  I’d been wondering if anything had changed with this building.Back in 2002, when I first moved to Portland, I secured a job with a company.  I’d been living with my aunt, which made it much easier to get established in Portland. With a job in hand, I started looking for studio apartments and I toured the Fairmount Apartments.

It was great!  For $275/month (or maybe even less?) I could get a studio with a shared bathroom in a building that was built as part of the Lewis & Clark Exposition. (!!!!Cheap!!!!Alternative living arrangements!!!!!Historic!!!!!) I was about to put in my application when the company rescinded their offer. By the time I found another job, an apartment came open in a co-worker’s building and I ended up in the more expensive ($500/month) and also delightful Rosefriend Apartment (now sadly gone.)

But I wondered if such cheap lodgings were still available in this building. When we walked by, I guessed that they they were no longer for rent.  I crossed my fingers that the chain-link fence didn’t mean the whole building was coming down.

Good news!  According to UD+P’s website, this building will be renovated.  To quote:

Over the next year, the property will be overhauled with new plumbing and electrical, a new roof, and new landscaping—all while preserving the historic charm of the Fairmount’s beautiful brick exterior. The renovated Fairmount Apartments will have approximately 80 modern units, all with private bathrooms, with street-facing entrances for many first-floor units.

The smaller-than-average square footage of the units will allow for cheaper rent than is typically found in comparable downtown Portland apartment buildings. This will help to set up The Fairmount Apartments as a viable choice for those who wish to live in a well-appointed historic building without the expensive rent associated with larger, similarly located apartment units.

Score and score!  While I remain skeptical that “cheaper rent” will translate into “amount of rent I could afford to pay today” I really appreciate what they are attempting.

Estimated date of completion is Summer 2018.  I wish them good luck.

Also, here’s a quote from a DJC article about the situation when the building went up for sale in 2011

The apartment complex has about 80 units – 26 with either one, two or three bedrooms on the first floor, and 54 studios with shared bathrooms on the second floor. The studios start at around $300 per month, a near rock-bottom rent for Northwest Portland.

So it seems that yes, until 2011, the super cheap rent was still available.

Portland Actor’s Ensemble: A Winter’s Tale

We traveled to Concordia University (not far from our house) to take in our second PAE outing this summer.

The jealous King Lontes

There’s always good people watching at outdoor Shakespeare

A very pregnant Hermione talks with her ladies.

I was obsessed with this audience member’s perfect summer sundress.

I also noticed that the Hermione on the program (sitting in the middle) did not match the Hermione in our production.  I wonder what happened to her?

As with most Shakespeare plays, the “rustics” were fun to watch. It was a good season of outdoor Shakespeare.

Employing all the devices

I’ve been busy this summer with the class Grammar Lab, which is taught by the UC San Diego Extension Service.  It’s class number one (of four) in a copyediting (or possibly copy editing–the term is spelled both ways) certificate. *

Though it very clearly stated when registering that this is NOT a learn-as-you-go class, it turned out to be just that.  The 10-week series was loaded on the first date and the instructor said things had to be done by the end date.  He recommended not getting very far behind.

This was great news to me as I had a vacation scheduled during Week 10, and I prefer to vacation during my vacations, not work on schoolwork.  After the first three weeks (which were killer) it got easier, so I’ve got a plan to work ahead and finish a week early.

The class requires taking multiple quizzes per week and one can use notes and other helping devices.  To save flipping between windows, I’ve started utilizing both my tablet and desktop computer.  The quizzes go on the tablet, where I’m able to type using my wireless keyboard.  Then I can look at my notes and online resources as I go using my desktop computer.

Speaking of online grammar resources, the internet is very generous in this area.  It’s as though the grammar people would like nothing better than for you to be properly able to use grammar correctly.  I’ve enjoyed Grammar Bytes for both its content and aesthetics, but the most helpful site for me this summer is the Guide to Grammar and Writing.  On this site you will be charmed (or repelled) by the early web page layout, but you will be incredibly appreciative of the clarity and volume of information. The guide to tenses alone saved my bacon repeatedly.

*And now that I’ve officially announced that I want to be an official copy editing-type person, all of the many mistakes contained in this blog look that much more terrible.  I hang my head in shame.

When the spell check fails

Signs like this break my heart, a little.

Shanna is, of course, speaking of crocheting–the thing with yarn and hook–rather than the game of croquet–the thing with wickets and mallets.  Writing this post, it turns out I can’t spell crocheting either, without spell check helping me. Luckily for me, my inability to bring together the letters in the correct order is paired with an ability to picking out the correctly spelled word from what I’m trying to say from a list.  Shanna seems not so lucky.  I would also guess from her handwriting that she is older, and perhaps not familiar with computers and word processing.

I hope that Shanna did get some interest and was able to create a book of everyone’s creations.

Matt’s birthday is celebrated

Matt wanted to do an escape room for his birthday, so we visited Portland Escape Rooms for their Steampunk-themed escape. We made it out of the dirigible (although we did neglect to find that last life jacket for the captain.  He said he was fine to go down with his ship)

Matt, myself, Greg, and Burt joined five other people we hadn’t met to conquer the various puzzles presented to us.  This room had a reset factor, which kept everyone occupied the entire time.  Whenever people were standing about, the costumed actors would tell us the flux-capacitor (or whatever it was) needed to be adjusted. I quite liked this as it eliminated the need to beat previous teams’ times.

It was also my first time with employees as characters in the room.  They were very fun.  This was an improvement over the guy who sat in the room with us, but was not a character.

After, we went to eat and I caught a picture of this group of men through the window.  Their age span makes me think this is a family group, but they could also be enthusiasts of some kind.