Invest in the Future
I’ve always wanted to invest in the stock market, but never knew how — so I did what I always do, online research! I have been researching the best way to lightly invest. I mainly looked into online brokers, like Charles Schwab, Scottrade, and TD Ameritrade. I discovered that fine print is very important. Some of the companies require balance minimums (of over $1,000), have fees for inactivity (if you do not make a trade in a month you get fined), and minimum share trades. I really wanted to find a simple way to invest a small amount, like around $300.
After a long search I landed on ING Direct’s ShareBuilder.com. I have had a savings account at ING Direct for over 7 years and really trust the company. I was very happy to see that ING Direct had entered the investment world. I read every line of small print they had and found nothing I did not like. They have three account types, the base account has no monthly fee and no minimums (the other accounts with fees are for more advanced investors, providing more options).
The account I selected has $4 automatic trades and $10 real-time trades (each for buying and selling when the market is open) — with no balance minimums, that’s really fantastic! The site is also set up to help you make wise investments. It has a calculator to help you earn (or even set up an IRA/401K) by predicting what companies, bonds, mutual funds, and more, you should invest in based on your personal financial situation (you fill out a detailed questionnaire about your finances and future goals) — a diversified portfolio customized just for you.
So, I’m sharing my information so you can invest in your future too. Also, until April 31, 2010, if you let me know you want to open an account I can use the “Tell a Friend Offer.” As an award, if you transfer $200 to open the account (which you don’t have to) you will get $50 free (some stipulations, you cannot withdraw it for 90 days) and I’ll get $10 for bringing you on board.
Health Insurance Makes Me Sick
I’ve been thinking more and more about health insurance. I keep hearing about it in the news — but now I have to do something about it. I have been on my mom’s good health insurance for years. The kind of insurance you can go to any doctor (pay a small copay) and the insurance company pays for everything else. The reason I have been thinking of health insurance so much is I turn 25 in a few months — no more mom’s insurance. Why can’t my mom keep me on her insurance if she wants? Oh no, no, they want me to get my own plan and pay them the same my mom is paying, so they can make twice the income.
Anyways, so I looked online to see how much private health insurance would cost me a month. First of all, why does it have to be so confusing? And what the hell is coinsurance? Now I need insurance just for my coins? (Get it? Coin-surance?) And why does private insurance only pay a percentage of the bill? Every plan I looked at pays 80% of this or 50% of that. Why are they not paying 100%? Where is the “you pay me $100 a month and I pay for any medical bill” plan? Oh, and don’t get me started on the unreal deductibles. Who has $15,000 laying around for medical bills? It might be easer just to put $100 in my savings account every month and use that money as my “insurance.” I guess that would work until I get a really big hospital bill.
Right now, with all the quotes I got (and looking at my budget), I can either pay back my student loans or get health insurance. Guess which one will win? I’ll give you a hint — the one that prevents collectors calling me every day. I’ll just have to hope I stay in good health — or win the lottery.
Small World, Money, & 90 Days
If you read my previous blogs, you know I have a few New Year’s resolutions. Well, you’ll be happy to know I am working on all of them. I even got a chance to use one stone for two birds (make a Dallas friend/workout).
The other week I made an acquaintance that has had a personal trainer for over 7 years. We made time where he would come over to my apartment’s gym and help me setup a workout program. After he showed me how each exercise is to be done and in what order, we went up to my apartment. The first thing he saw in my apartment was a picture of Meryl and me on my nightstand. He looked at me and said, “How do you know that girl?” I responded, “Oh that’s one of my best friends, you wouldn’t know her. She is in Houston right now.” He answered, “Is it Meryl?” Needless to say, my jaw dropped to the ground. Turns out he was Meryl’s psychology professor a few semesters ago. Small, small world. Go figure!
In other news, I filled my 2009 tax return yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised to discover I am getting a $700 refund. I love e-filing. I should get it in 10 business days, directly deposited into my checking account — oh, the magic of technology. Of course 10% is going to savings (10% of all my income goes to savings). I am thinking of spending 40% on apartment stuff and upcoming wedding gifts, and then 50% goes to either credit card and/or student loans.
In upcoming events, next Tuesday (Jan 26, 2010), i’ll have lived in D/FW for 90 days (3 months). I guess this means work is keeping me and I’ll be getting business cards soon. I am happy with my job, residence, and Dallas. I am still getting over being homesick and so far from all my friends. I’m not going to lie, it has been hard being alone and getting used to a new city — especially with the events that are happening with some of my friends. I feel so helpless, distant, and don’t know what to do. Sometimes I wish I had all the answers, sometimes. Yet, part of the fun in life is trying to figure them out, right?
Forbearance
It finally happened. My student loans found me. As of last week I finally got all my bills for all my students loans. I was expecting 112 monthly payments of around $275 (at the max.) Oh no, no, no, no. Boy, was I foolish. The total of my monthly payment was over $500 — way out of my budget.
So, I figured I need to consolidate my loans. The thing about consolidating is that you pay more over time, but get a lower monthly payment. Right now I have 6 loans with interest between 2.4 and 7%. I am consolidating with the Department of Education and based on the calculator, it looks like I will get 4.2% interest with 220 monthly payments of around $240. That fits in my budget — but I will end up paying an additional $18,000 in the long run.
Oh, and as my loans are consolidating, I don’t need to make any payments because I put them all into forbearance. It does feel good to finally get this all taken care of. At least now I know I can make the payments and not worry about defaulting.
Where I Work
I have been getting a lot of questions about my new job. So, I am going to tell you about where I work and a typical day. I am intentionally not putting the name of where I work because I do not want this entry to come up on a Google search above the new office’s website. I work for a landscape architecture design studio specializing in high-end residential landscape projects. The majority of our work comes from homeowners, architects, and builders with whom we have had the pleasure of working (and yes, I built the website — released it November 30, 2009). Most of our work is within the Dallas/Fort Worth Metro Area. We work on high profile, well known, people’s houses — just so you know, I will never write about our clients/projects on my blog — so don’t get your hopes up. But, I will tell you the average cost of the houses are $1 to 5 million.
In a typical day, I wake up at 7:30am. I shower, dress, do normal morning stuff. At 7:50am, I head to my apartment’s clubhouse for free breakfast — I get orange juice, a pastry, and either hot chocolate or tea. I then drive to work and arrive at 8am. I unlock the office, turn the lights on, and eat while I fill out my timesheet from the pervious day. I usually start my day with just general administration work. Then I continue working on things from the previous day. My boss arrives around 9-10am (he does morning client meetings — sometimes he doesn’t even arrive until after lunch). When he does arrive, he gives me a list of things to work on; usually red lined site/planting plans (changes to make), design concepts, and more recently, pool concept drawings.
When noon rolls around, I drive back to my apartment and have lunch. I usually watch my DVR-ed Price is Right or some show I did not watch from the night before. I get an hour for lunch, so I head back to work 5 min before my hour is up. Once I get back, either of two things happen. One, I continue working on red lines/concepts/the office website, or two, my Boss and I go drive around the D/FW metro area for site visits/Client meetings. A site visit consists of going to the site, making sure it is being built like we drew, and solving issues that arise (usually last minute changes). If we go for site visits, I normally get back to the office and then head home around 6pm. If we stayed in the office, I head home at 5pm — unless I stay longer to get something finished for an early client meeting the next day; then I end up getting home at 7pm.
Once I get home, I eat dinner, do housework, watch TV, play on the computer, write blogs (duh), and chat with friends. Sometime when I know a good show will be on, I will go to my apartment’s fitness center. The cardio machines all have personal 13″ flat screen with cable TV. It makes working out so much more enjoyable. Just flip on the show I know I am interested in and work out — it makes the time go by really fast. That is the one thing I hated about the REC at A&M, I like to work out for an hour, but I would run out of things to keep my mind occupied. Anyways, back to the main topic. At 10:30pm I get ready for bed and fall asleep around 11pm. That’s it — that is a typical weekday for me.
Happy New Year — 2010
I knew how to bring in 2010 right — asleep. Yes, I slept through New Years! Here is the story. After work I went to the bank, Target, grocery store, and then home. At home I watched some TV and ate dinner with a glass of sparkling wine around 8pm (it was a special day, I started to celebrate early). I knew I had a few hours before going out, so I decided I would take an hour nap, then get up and get ready (a nap so I would be more apt to staying up late — sounded like a good idea, right?). But no — the “once in a blue moon” blue moon had another idea for me (at least that is what I am “blaming” it on).
If you don’t know, the Full moons used to have 12 names, one for each month, such as “harvest moon.” The term “blue moon” referred to the rare 13th full moon in a year. It only happens on New Years every 20 or so years.
The old wives tale goes that the moon can effect humans, for me, I guess it made me sleepy (and as you may know, I have not been sleeping well for the past few weeks). My quick nap turned into 8 hours. It’s the first night I slept over 5 hours straight through in two weeks. I guess that’s the silver lining — at least I got some sleep — I’ll catch the next New Years in 364 days. When I awoke groggy and realized what happened at 4am, I figured it was to late to call/text anyone “Happy New Years,” so I just went back to bed. But that didn’t last long, now it’s 6am, I’m groggy but awake, and I have a headache.
Oh yeah, because I did not do my regular after work routine, I forgot to un-silence my phone. I am so sorry to the people that called/texted me Happy New Year –Happy New Year back!
As for my New Year’s resolutions, I have come up with 4 (for now). First, I want to make friends in Dallas. To do this, I am going to put myself out into the social scene. Not just bars/clubs, but gatherings, such as things held by my apartment complex or volunteering at events — anything that I find information on that intrigues me, I will try and go. Second, I want to lose 10 pounds. According to the weight charts at the doctor’s office, I am still overweight by 5 pounds for my height and my ideal weight is 10-15 pounds less then I am now. I am going to lose the weight by using my apartment complex’s gym regularly, at least 3 times a week, and eating smaller portions (with counting calories). Third, I want to try and reduce self-inflicted stress in my life. I need to stop analyzing everything to the point where it drives me crazy. This is going to be a hard habit to break and I am still trying to figure out how. Fourth, I need to stop relying on spellcheck and Google. I have become lazy when it comes to spelling. I need to focus more when typing and only use Google when I honestly don’t know how to spell a word.
Happy New Year! Here’s to a fantastic 2010 — wow, 2010!
Merry Christmas
The week before Christmas was miserable for me. Let me explain. I have now realized that almost 90% of your christmas spirit comes from decorations and friends/family — all things I did not have around me. Because I am newly on my own, I don’t have any Christmas decorations — in fact, the only thing I had was 1 Christmas card from my grandparents. As for the friends/family, my close, close, group of friends are now living all over the world. The closest friend/family is a three hour drive from me. In my mind, I kept thinking about what I had last year at this time — before the “divorce.” With all this in my mind, I was in a real melancholy state. Now you have the context, here are the events that pushed me over the edge.
The weekend before Christmas my mom came to visit. We had a fantastic time, then she went home. You know that feeling of when you have to say, “Goodbye” — then the rest of the day just feels empty and quiet? Yeah — empty, quiet, and alone. Now the events of the week — I got really bad news from a close friend, could not sleep all week, my eyes were always red/puffy so I used my old eye drops that I now discovered have a side effect of dilating eyes (party of self-conscious +1), badly burnt my tongue, found a dent (looks like it is from a rogue shopping cart) on my car, bashed my shin into my platform bed (so hard it bled and bruised), I got two (yes, two) canker sores, my face broke out, I still hate my hair cut (and can tell I am losing/getting gray hair — which is adding to the self-consciousness), and was forcing myself to “keep it together” because I still had work everyday.
When I finally got home to my mom’s on Christmas Eve (after a long three hour drive), I walked through the door and said “Hi” and busted out crying. I just could not keep it in anymore. We sat around and talked for a few hours. My mom said it best, I had the holiday blues. I’m so used to being around people. When I was in a relationship I was always around someone, when that ended I was always around my mom, then I went traveling — always around people. Now, I go to work and come home to an empty apartment — it is really starting to get to me. Yes, now and then I get together with old friends — but it is only once in a blue moon.
(Side note: If you know me, while I was writing this blog, my mom’s cat (Chloe) just attacked Salem, and I unknowingly yelled, “Morgan, stop!” — sigh). Anyways, enough blubbering.
Christmas Day, I felt slightly better (still kinda down, but I finally got over 5 hours of sleep). My mom and I opened gifts. I got furniture, home decorations, kitchen supplies, and a 40″ flat screen TV (TV has been my closeted friend in Dallas; it talks to me and always has interesting topics to entertain me — yeah, i’m anthropomorphizing my TV, that’s how looney I have been). I got my mom a new Blue-ray DVD player that also streams Blockbuster and Netflix video on demand. I helped her set that up and for the rest of the day we watched movies. It was a perfect gift for her. She loves movies. Now with the Netflix VOD, she can watch unlimited movies anytime she wants all for only $9 a month — perfect. We have already watched 5 movies.
Saturday I got a full night sleep. My mom and I have been running around catching the sales, mainly window shopping. Sunday, I am going to go visit some old college friends. Monday my mom and I are going down to Houston to shop and see my best friend at the hospital (I have not seen her in over two months — since she went in for her transplant). Tuesday, I am going to the doctor to get the burn on my tongue checked out and get a general checkup. Then I will head back up to Dallas — I have work on Wednesday.
For New Years, Pam and Briana invited me to a New Year’s party they are going to in Denton — now I have something to look forward to. My next post will be around New Years. It will include my new year’s resolutions, how I plan on making friends in Dallas, and just a small blurb on my fantastic job (I told you I would never write about my jobs on my blog — but because everyone keeps asking me about it, I will write a small general description). I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas/Happy Holidays!
The L.A. Test
I graduated from college, but still have to take a test. Now that I have my Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree, I still need to become a licensed landscape architect. Each state does licensing differently. In Texas, after you graduate, you can begin to take the Landscape Architecture Registration Exam (LARE) after 6 months of supervised employment directly under a licensed landscape architect. You then have 5 years to complete the 5 sections of the LARE from the date you take the first section. Now heres the kicker — not only do I have to take this life altering test, each section will cost me around $200 — if you can’t do the math, thats a total of $1000! Ouch. But, over lunch the other day, my boss made me an offer. He told me he will reimburse me for every section I pass! Ultimately — under the best conditions of me passing every section the first time I take it (HA!) — I could take the LARE, and get my LA license free. Looking at my calendar — based on my internship in 2008 and my current job, I can start to take the LARE in February 2010. The first section exam is given March 2010.
$3500 Music Box
I was organizing today and stumbled upon my stuff from my study abroad. I’m still trying to find a way to display it all. I am thinking of a collage of some sort, but don’t want it to look cluttered. Anyways, this is beside the point. I want to write about the Reuge catalogue from Zurich, Switzerland.
A little background, I have always wanted a 100% mechanical music box with over 60 prongs/notes. I would love one with over 100, but that would be an unholy price. When I was in Zurich I went to a store called Schweizer Heimatwerk. They had the most beautiful music boxes from Reuge. What I was really impressed with, was they had modern style music boxes. They are usually some sort of hard wood with inlay decoration. The one I fell in love with was a slick glass arch with exposed mechanics and played 3 parts of Canon in D. With the current exchange rate of today, it costs $3445.00.
I don’t ever think I will be able to afford that — but it is a goal in my life. I am kicking myself because in the small tourist shops in Zurich they had smaller music boxes. I found one that played Eidelweiss and was about 6″ x 4″ solid mahogany with inlay of oak in a fern pattern. It only had about 30 notes, but it did play wonderfully. With the exchange rate at the time, it was $120 — looking back, I so should have gotten it. Maybe if I go back, I’ll find something comparable and correct my mistake.
That German Feeling
My studio friend Briana got a job near Garland Texas (next to Dallas) so we have been hanging out. Because it is getting cold, I have been wearing all the clothing I bought in Germany to stay warm — makes me felt like I am back in Germany. It really felt like it when Briana, Kyle, and I hung out last weekend (we were all in Germany together a year ago) and walked around downtown Dallas exploring. You need to understand some things. I feel like I am living alone back in the dorm in Germany, Briana is in a host family (she is staying with family friends in Garland), Kyle lives really fare away from everyone, i’m having Glüwein (been making it home made), I live just down the road from where I go everyday, I have been walking a lot, no one cares where Blake is (yet, he is in Dallas), my neighbors just found out they are pregnant (just like Catrina & Josh), and I’m exploring all of Dallas because it’s foreign to me.
This all brings me to the German Market in Dallas. I told my boss’s wife about all this and she told me where to find a german market near me (becuase it feel like I am in Germany I have a lust for bratwurst). The place is called Kuby’s Sausage House. According to the website, in “1728, Friedrich Kuby opened a neighborhood meat market in Kaiserslautern, Germany, that specialized in fine sausages and specialty meats. After two centuries of satisfied customers, Karl Kuby, direct descendant of Opa Friedrich, immigrated to the United States, bringing with him the unique art of sausage making and specialty meat preparation. In 1961, Karl opened Kuby’s Sausage House, Inc., in Dallas, Texas.”
In addition to the fleisch (meats), they now carry many products from Germany that I found to be common. To start, my favorite, toothpaste condiments! No, it is not toothpaste, they are condiments in squeeze tubes. It really is a good idea — you can get to the last drop without a knife. They also have waffle cookies, candy, fish in jars/cans, all types of mustard, pre-mixed spice and sauce packets, so on. Only if they had Nuremberg sausages. I didn’t look that hard, they closed in 10 min after I arrived, so I was in a rush. I’ll have to go back and see (Nuremberg sausages were my favorite sausage, I think I ate hundreds of them — just ask Dominik). This place really felt German. In fact, the only thing about it that was not German was that it was open on Sunday.
When I go back, I am so going to get the Goulash beef stew packet. For lunch I ate goulash from the Bonn farmers market everyday for almost two weeks. I loved the stuff so much. When I saw this packet my mouth watered. I am thinking I will get it and have Briana and Kyle over for goulash and Glüwein — a german dinner party. Sounds like a nice night.