Vignettes

I have eleven credit cards. I also maintain about 45 active accounts in You Need a Budget (great budgeting software you should check out – it’s free for students!), so I’m no stranger to managing multiple accounts. But even though I can manage all of those accounts without undue burden on myself, even I would drive myself crazy if I didn’t consolidate my credit card due dates to be on or around the same day, and in all likelihood I’d probably miss a payment. It makes your cash flow management easier when you have one consolidated outflow. Some banks let you change this online, but most of them will require a phone call. Typically you end up with one longer statement cycle when you do this, as opposed to one normal length cycle and one short cycle.

My commute is 4.5 miles each way and takes about 25 minutes on my bike. It’s a great way for me to start off my day because I really enjoy cycling. But what really clinches the deal is that there are showers in my lab building! In my mind this is a no brainer, especially because short drives are bad for your car. I never forsaw biking as much as I do now, but my dad gave me his old bike when he upgraded his, and I enjoyed it far more than I expected. This strategy can take a long time for it to pay off in a strict financial sense. While the marginal costs of cycling are certainly lower than the marginal costs of driving, you may need to cycle a lot of miles to realize a direct financial benefit depending on how much you spend on your bike and other accessories. However, there is a massive health benefit to cycling, which indirectly reduces future health care costs. Also, it gives you another backup mode of transportation (albeit with limited range) in case your car dies.

Investing seems like a daunting task, but really, it doesn’t take very long to learn how. I knew nothing about investing before March 2014. By the end of the month I knew 90% of what I needed to know (and I didn’t know the other 10% because I simply didn’t know where to look – see links below). I opened a Roth IRA at the end of March and a brokerage account at the end of May. Keep in mind I wasn’t actively reading and learning about investing all the time during the whole month – I am a busy grad student after all! My investing strategy is really simple: I only invest in three mutual funds. At the end of every month, I figure out how much money I have left over after expenses, and just buy those three funds. I’m really glad I got started because I know that while it will be a bumpy ride, taking the plunge and investing in stocks is the best way to grow your money beyond inflation. To get started, I’d recommend Jim Collins’s stock series first and the Bogleheads wiki for details on specific topics.

It’s amazing how much money we can spend on an everyday basis. I think a lot of people will have noticed this at the grocery store – you pile many small non-costly items into your cart, and when you check out the bill is quite large. The same thing happens with your overall budget. It’s usually not the occasional big purchase that blows up your budget, it’s the regular small purchases. And it’s hard to realize just how much you’re spending on those small things until you track your spending. I think what really made this hit home for me was one month where I ended up going to bars more times than normal (out of town friends came by). I spent maybe $5 here and $7 there on drinks. By the time I sat down to total all of that, I realized I had spent $66 at bars that month! These seemingly small purchases really do add up. Imagine what happens if you eat out regularly! You can track your spending passively with something like Mint, or more actively with something like You Need a Budget. It doesn’t matter, so long as you track it.

When I heard about Republic Wireless, I jumped on the chance to use their service. I’ve been with them for two years now and recommend them (and other MNVOs) to everyone. Republic Wireless’s business model is for your data (including VOIP) to go over wireless when it is available and over the Sprint network when it is not. This allows them to offer low prices on (effectively) unlimited service. I pay $25/month for my unlimited everything 3G plan, but you can get a plan for as little as $5/month (no contract). I think the service is perfect for most grad students because we’re under our university’s wireless all day. The downside is that you have to buy one of their Android phones up front. This is a great example of being frugal (and not cheap) because I’m paying very little for a plan that is just as good as or better than what I would get from the major carriers.