Selling Stuff
I was up at my parents house this weekend and ended up coming home with even more crap that I didn’t need. While I appreciate the sentiment, even as an adult, my parents are still trying to provide for me, it is a pretty inconvenient considering the rather diminutive size of my little condo.
The one upside to the whole situation is that it got me motivated to start selling stuff. So I spent a few hours yesterday cleaning out my storage closet and figuring out what stuff I can sell. I ended up listing three things on Ebay and three more things on craigslist (too big to ship) – not to mention I took the opportunity to list the tickets for the Penn State football games I’m not going to make it to this year.
The whole thing got me thinking – does all of this ’stuff’ I’ve acquired over the years really make me happy? There are some things that I really enjoy – but a lot of it is just taking up room. For example, I have a kitchen/dining room table that I may have eaten at five times since I bought it. Really, it has just become the target location of my mail as I come through the door.
So I go through this semi-yearly purge of all the of things I don’t use anymore, and try to get a little bit of scratch for them. The whole thing would be great if I were actually making money off this stuff, but I’m not. I’m just averting a bit of the loss that I would incur if I just threw the crap out.
What do you do with your old stuff you don’t use anymore? Do you donate it to your local charity? Do you throw it out? Have you tried getting rid of any of it on ebay or craigslist? What have you decided was the best thing to do? Other than maybe to stop buying crap you don’t need…
The Long Ride Home
As I’m writing this, I am just getting back from a round of golf in Richmond. We had a great time, but invariably we got stuck in traffic coming home on 95. I hate traffic. And getting stuck in a traffic jam at the end of a perfectly nice but tiring day is just enough to ruin the entire experience. I’ve found that the same thing can ruin my entire workday as well. Maybe I got stuck somewhere on my ride in. Sometimes it’s the ride home – it doesn’t really matter, both can very easily put me in a foul mood. And as most of you as both friends and readers can attest, I’m not a lot of fun when I’m in a foul mood.
So, I’ve been thinking that maybe I should buy a bike and ride to work. This isn’t completely crazy – Arlington is crisscrossed with bike trails that go most everywhere I might need to go, and the work commute most days is under ten miles. I also have access to showering facilities once I arrive. There’s only one problem – I don’t own a bike, and I’m remiss to purchase one that might get used a dozen times and then lie dormant in my closet for the rest of eternity. I always loved biking places when I was a kid – it was the way to get around my neighborhood growing up. But I really haven’t done much of it at all since I started driving, and that has me worried.
So, in true bWgH (okay, that’s a lame acronym, maybe I shouldn’t use that again) style, I decided to do a financial rundown of the cost benefit to buying a bike and how many times I’d have to ride it to and from work to make it cost effective. I’ve got a few friends who are avid cyclists, and I’ve at least asked their opinions on this stuff, so my costs shouldn’t be out in left field.
Because of my limited space, I need a folding bike. The only one I found that didn’t look ridiculous for a reasonable price was the Dahon Jack 7-speed – I can get it with a helmet from Performance Bicycle for ~$500. And when it’s unfolded it looks like a normal bike. I have been told that unlike when I was a kid, riding around on busy streets without a helmet is a bad idea, drivers don’t have much respect for cyclists. I know I’m usually frustrated when I get stuck behind one, so I figure I’m being given good advice. Over the course of the summer, I’d probably have to spend another $50 on maintenance (tubes and the like, I promise I won’t buy a little bell for it).
So let’s assume this whole experiment would cost me $550. Not a drop in the bucket, but also not the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought. Assuming I save about $5/day in gas and maintenance for my car, I would pretty much have to use it as my primary commuter vehicle for the next 5 months to be net even on the entire experiment. Granted, I would also be great exercise, so maybe it’s not fair to judge it just through a financial light, but it’d making it hard to justify. But it does alleviate some of the traffic problems I normally have to deal with in the mornings.
I could go cheaper if I had a place to keep the thing and could avoid the whole folding thing – if I just wanted to give this a shot maybe that would be the way to go. I can also keep my eye on craigslist for something less expensive – as long as it’s in good shape, I could care less if it’s new. Would you buy a bike just because you want to try riding it to work?
Cheap people aren’t lazy
Are you someone who goes out of his or her way to save a buck? Do you walk places, not for the exercise, but because you’ve calculated that the extra food you eat is less expensive than gasoline? Do you bring your own sandwiches to restaurants? Do you spend countless hours doing comparison shopping for a $50 item? Did you stop buying frozen food because it’s cheaper to make it yourself (not because you like to cook)? Have you ever bought an espresso in a large cup at Starbucks, just to go over to the coffee bar and load it up with milk and chocolate powder (the poor mans mocha)?
If you can say yes to more than one of the above questions, you’re probably a frugal person, and your friends might think you’re cheap. I make the differentiation in that cheap people will spend money on themselves but not on others, where frugal people just don’t like to spend more money than is necessary. But whatever way you cut it, cheap people are pretty much never lazy people.
Think about it? Being cheap almost requires you to do things the hard way – people pay for convenience, and if you’re cheap, you go out of your way to avoid those conveniences, much to the chagrin of those around you.
Okay, so you’re asking, why the heck am I writing about this? Because cheap people are on to something. I’m not saying you should start making poor man mocha’s to save yourself thirty cents – what I’m saying is that you should go out of your way to save money where it matters most. Shopping for a new apartment is a great example – you could just sign the dotted line when you find a place you like. Or, you could haggle with the landlord for a hour to save yourself $100/month. Better yet, maybe you did some comparison shopping and saved yourself even more.
Call the cable company and ask for a discount. Spend consciously, rather than having money leak out of your wallet. Spend more time shopping around for larger purchases. Yeah, it’s going to take you a bit more time than going the easy route, but learn something from your cheap brothers and sisters – sometimes taking the road less traveled will save you several hundred dollars that you didn’t need to spend.
But please, if I see you making the poor man’s mocha at your local coffee shop, particularly if you use up all the milk and there’s none left for the rest of us, prepare to get smacked around.
The Soda Machine Factor
Okay, so today some of my coworkers were giving me crap about Monday’s post. First off, even though they thought I might be a bit off my rocker, at least they are reading it – so thanks for the support. They wanted to see a follow up post from me about how all of that stuff I talked about Monday really doesn’t apply to you if you are buying an investment property.
Okay, I admit it, the post assumes that you don’t have anyone paying you rent, and it also assumes you bought a house that was in livable condition. However, since I have never been a landlord and I’m not all that handy with power tools, I think I’ll skip that discussion and just say that I’m not saying a house can’t be a good investment, just that renting isn’t throwing away money, and you can make out on top without ever buying a home.
All of that being said, I want to talk about something else we were chatting about at work – the fact that I buy sodas from the soda machine in the office. First off, I guess there is a perception that because I write a financial blog, I think you shouldn’t buy stuff. I buy stuff all the time and I have a budget for it – at long as I’m not breaking that budget, I generally don’t worry about what I’m spending. That being said, a point was made that I could bring soda into the office and probably save myself a ton of money over my current spending.
I have already cut out the coffee spending – I bought a pod coffee maker and threw it on my desk. I even have something that makes pods for you that was given to me as a gift, although I will admit I have yet to use it (and the guys at work think it’s lame – that’s probably where they got the idea that I didn’t want to spend the money). So it makes sense for me to bring soda into the office, right?
From a financial standpoint, definitely. I’d probably save myself $2 a day if I stopped buying sodas out of the machine for a buck and a quarter. What I’m worried about is that I’d end up drinking even more of it because it ended up being so convenient. I already drastically cut back on how much of it I was buying for my house – if it’s not easy to get to, I don’t drink as much of it.
But let’s run the numbers – $2/day is about $10/week, or about $40/month. That’s $480/year. That’s not bad, but not a game-changer as to how much money is in the bank. What I will say is if I were to cut out all spending during the work day, and bring everything from home, I’d probably save close to $8/day, or $160/month. Now we’re talking about something that’s worth considering. Because let’s be honest, the effort of bringing in drinks from home isn’t all that much lower than just making my lunch.
Now, the question I have for you is this – do you have the time and discipline to pack your own lunch everyday and bring it into the office? I do, off and on, but I don’t seem to be able to keep up with it. Maybe I should – anyone want to start a bring lunch from home club?
What’s with kids and credit cards?
Who are these parents that are giving their kids Visa cards? I was at Dairy Queen yesterday picking up a Blizzard for my girlfriend (who wasn’t feeling well and wanted something cold/sweet) and the kids in front of me were paying with plastic. I thought, okay, maybe these kids are teens with jobs and checking accounts – but then I got a look at the card and it was issued by a major credit card provider, not a bank.
I can only come to the conclusion that these kids parents signed them up as authorized users on their credit accounts. The question is – why? Does your kid really need the convenience of plastic to buy a soda or maybe a Barbie doll? Seriously? I don’t even want to think about the finance charges a kid could rack up if they realized that your card was basically a license to spend.
Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s great for a working-age teen to have a debit card so they can learn how to handle their finances like an adult. But I have a big problem with that same kid having access to a line of credit, particularly one they are not on the hook to pay for. Now, that being said, and with the caveat that I don’t have kids, I want to open up the question to everyone else – do you think it’s okay for a kid to have a credit card?
Opportunity Costs
Cost is a funny thing – we can talk about it in terms of dollars and cents, but really, what something costs is what you are willing to forgo for whatever it is that you are gaining. In theory, that means everything has a cost – and a truly cold person would calculate what will bring them the greatest return and go after those things. Other than the basics, which is time spent in exchange for more time on earth (you won’t last long without food, water, and shelter), everything else you spend your money on is at your discretion.
So, what is the return you’re getting? When you’re spending your money on someone else, it is the joy of knowing that they appreciated the gesture and enjoyed the fruits of your labor. It’s funny, but giving a bit of yourself away like that is very fulfilling, even though there is little if any material gain from it. If you’re spending money on a new toy, hopefully you’re getting some enjoyment out of it. And then, there’s spending money on an investment, with the idea that you’ll get more money back in the future – that way, you fight against money degrading value over time.
What should you do with your money? Honestly, I have no clue. I would say “do what you think is best, as long as it won’t put you into debt.” But even that piece of advice has to be taken with a grain of salt – some people think that there is such a thing as ‘good debt,’ I just don’t happen to be one of them. But remember that when you spend on one thing, you can’t spend on another – so weight those benefits before making whatever purchase you are thinking about.
Don’t Throw That Out!
This week my personal file server kicked the bucket – I’d only had it for about 8 months. This is where I store a copy of all my music (it’s not the only place, luckily) and some movies I’ve bought using my XBox. I didn’t lose anything of value, but it’s still fairly annoying that I no longer have access to it. And I’m pissed because I’m out $250, because it didn’t last nearly as long as I’d planned.
Then, I remembered that I bought it using my American Express, and that Amex doubles the warranty on everything I buy. YES! But still, I have to find my proof of purchase, and call the manufacturer to find out if they will exchange it first. It turns out I was still under the manufacturers warranty, and I put in an RMA request to get it replaced.
Funny thing though, I almost always consider electronics, like this little file server, as disposable pieces of equipment. If I hadn’t been so pissed that it wasn’t working when I needed it, I probably would have just chucked it, or maybe scrapped it for parts if the hard drive was still good. Because of that, I’ve decided to come up with a little list of things I should do before I throw anything of potential value (broken or not) out.
- Would someone else buy it?
- Is it under warranty?
- If it isn’t, did I buy it with a credit card? Will the credit card company warranty it for me?
- Can I re-purpose it and get more use out of it?
- Can I scrap it for parts and use them elsewhere?
In this case, I could have said yes to #2 and #3, and maybe #5 if it wasn’t completely dead. Good stuff – and since I would have otherwise replaced it, I saved myself $250 just by realizing I shouldn’t have to spend that money. Have you ever bought something, and then chucked it when it broke, without thinking about these things?
We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Programming…
Last week they turned off analog television broadcasts across the nation – that means, if you don’t have a digital tuner (either a set top box, or integrated into your TV) you won’t be able to get over the air television anymore. In general, this is a good thing – but I don’t care to write about the merits of it. Rather, I want to talk about how much it cost.
It cost a huge amount of money to turn something off. I’m not talking about the money that TV stations had to pay to get upgraded to digital, I’m talking about the money that we had to invest so that grandma could still get TV over her rabbit ears on the TV she bought in 1983. Isn’t it kind of crazy that we had to spend millions upon millions of dollars to do this? Talk about a hidden cost… who would have thought it cost that kind of money just to pull the plug on something?
If you think about it though, there are a lot of smaller examples of this in our own micro-economies. For example, the cost of moving to a less expensive apartment might include what you have to pay someone to haul away your stuff, the cost of moving the stuff you’re keeping to the new place, the cost of the 15 phone calls you have to make to the cable company to actually get them to discontinue your service, dammit.
Yes, as a matter of fact, I hate the cable company. I get crappy service and I pay a lot for it. Maybe I should start using rabbit ears like your grandparents.
Anyway, these hidden ‘end’ costs are all over the place, and I know that I personally do a lousy job of keeping track of them. Do you recognize them in your life? I’m wondering how much of those are sunk costs, and how much of them could actually be avoided with a bit of due-diligence. Honestly, I’m not sure. I do know that moving to a slightly less expensive apartment is rarely a good deal, because of the cost of moving (unless you have some VERY good friends, and even then it’s close). Even just getting rid of old appliances (not the buying new ones part) can be very costly, with disposal procedures and having to pay people to come in with special equipment to remove whatever it happens to be.
Oh, and don’t even get me started about cell phone termination fees and the like – totally nuts. But there are a few things that we can do about these things:
- Know about them ahead of time
- Plan for them
- Budget for them
- Include them in the total cost of the item or service before you make your purchase
At least that way, there aren’t any surprises like there were with turning off analog TV.
Strippernomics
The economics of stripping amaze me sometimes. There you are, participating in a friend’s bachelor (or bachelorette, I suppose) party, and you’re being harassed by naked people who want your money because they took their clothes off. But they won’t actually do anything for it that they won’t already do for free (well, maybe with the exception of a lap dance). Why would anyone throw money at these people? How is that fun?
You’re right – I just don’t see the appeal. I get the whole ‘right of passing’ thing that goes along with it being a bachelor party, but couldn’t we find a better way to be debaucherous, other than paying some naked girl to pretend like she is the guy’s girlfriend and not have sex with him?
Now that I’ve ranted a bit, the reason I wanted to talk about this here is that I think this is a brilliant business model, since it literally has people throwing money at you and there is almost no investment on your part, other than a bit of shame and some of your time. I’m not suggesting that people go out and do this for a living, but if you’re looking to make some extra money, it behooves you to consider businesses that require very little or no capital investment.
If you already have a sale-able skill, such as writing or programming, those are perfect because they don’t require you to spend any money to make money in return. I’m sure other skills fit this bill just as well. Maybe the answer to your financial issues isn’t to spend a bunch less money (although that can be good), and rather focus on ways to bring more in every month. Even if that means working at the strip club outside of town…
Buying used
Buying a used car can be a scary experience. There’s no warranty, but you’re still spending a lot of money, and who knows, you could end up with a lemon. However, there are some things you can consider to protect yourself, particularly if you are buying from a private party:
- Make sure you’re getting a good deal – check kbb.com or a similar site and make sure you aren’t paying more than the 3rd party price for your car. You can use this as part of your negotiating – particularly if the car is in slightly less than perfect condition.
- Have a reputable mechanic inspect the car prior to purchase
- Consider Auto Repair Insurance – if the car has less than 100k miles on it, you can probably get what is in effect an ‘extended warranty’ – you might be able to get the seller to pay for it.
- Get all of the maintenance records for the car – if the seller doesn’t have them, make sure you get a significant discount on the vehicle and tell your mechanic about your concerns before he inspects the car.
- Get a vehicle history report from a company like Carfax
Even if you end up spending a bit of money on the car after you buy it, though, you are probably still better off than if you had bought a brand new car. So don’t worry too much. The last time I bought a used car the starter on it died a month later – it sucked, but since I got a great deal on the car anyway, it wasn’t much of a problem.
-
Find It
-
About
So, you want to know what's up with the brackets in the name? "Curly brackets (also called braces, or "squiggly brackets") are sometimes used in prose to indicate a series of equal choices" and "Square brackets are mainly used to enclose explanatory or missing material usually added by someone other than the original author, especially in quoted text." So basically, if you really want to be wealthy in life, you have to figure out how to get happy. Since that whole spiel would make a crappy name for a blog, I decided to do something a bit creative with some brackets.
Quotes from Wikipedia -
Recently Written
-
Categories
-
Monthly Archives
-
Blogroll
-
Twitter
