Life - Another year older

It's true... I am another year older.

Apparently this time of my life would be the best yet, but we will have to wait and see.

For now, take a look at the lovely flowers my husband got me. For being from a Brooklyn bodega, they have lasted a long time... 11 days. What?!?

Life - There's always one

Or, in contrast to the animals I posted before, you could get this mildly disturbing cat. I'm not sure what they were thinking.

Life - Easter Baskets

Easter is coming up, and I'm being reminded everywhere I go. (I felt like there was almost no mention of St. Patrick's this year. Weird.)

Don't you want any of these cute creatures to show up in you basket Easter morning?

Life - Luck to the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day. To those who can actually price their Irish heritage.

Local market is celebrating in a weird way. I don't think that bagels are Irish.

Life - Spring is Calling

So maybe I was wrong a few weeks ago. And maybe the groundhog was right. But boy, is it spring outside today!?!

It's the day after daylight savings. This morning was horrible. Trying to get going, no enthusiasm, dreading the day. But round about 10 am, things got a little brighter. I accomplished a task I've been putting off for weeks, and that shook the winter blues out of my heart. It's been lovely and sunny and such an easy day.

I have never looked forward to spring this much!!!

Life - always new things to see

I've lived here on and off for 10 years, and I'm always surprised to run into things I've never seen before.

Life - Changes (update)

1) Open a business checking account.
I intend to do this so that I am forced to save more by actually cutting myself a "paycheck" twice a month. All of my money, besides monetary gifts of less than $100, will be deposited into this account. When it's time to pay bills (my rent at the first and other bills on the 15th), I will tally up exactly what I need and transfer that amount to my personal checking. Any business related expenses will come directly from this account. Quarterly, I will check how much I've saved and see what possible business related purchases I should make. If there are none, I plan on investing 50% of the saved amount. I don't want to invest it all and have no cash for a rainy day, and I don't want to have it all sitting in my checking gathering dust.

So this innately is a simple thing to accomplish. Open a bank account. That, I did.

I have been able to cut myself a paycheck for a while now. I didn't open a business account, just a basic checking account. I use the debit card to make tax deductible purchases. I transfer a set amount of money twice a month. All very simple and easy.

The other half of my task has been much harder. Making business related purchases to offset my tax bill hasn't happened at all. And there has been absolutely no saving of any money whatsoever. With vacation and random downtime I haven't had that much extra income. Plus, what is left over goes to paying the previous year's tax bill. So I have nothing saved for this year's tax bill or for a rainy day.

These issues can be called a cash flow problem. Because my money comes in various amounts at various times,  it is hard to understand what my income actually is and what I should pay when. Plus like most people, when times are tough, I often want to stick my head in the sand and hope the problem goes away. Not actually helpful.

I aim to have a monthly check-in - where I pay bills, reconcile my bank statements, and assess my progress on my financial goals. I do most of these things on a regular basis, just not at a set time. I do it approximately monthly or every other month. I think monthly is best. Bank statements do only come once a month. The one thing I don't do at all is assessing goal progress. If I don't know where I am supposed to be each month, it is easy to leave it to the last minute, like saving for my taxes.

Now before anyone suggests it, I have tried Mint to keep track of these things. According to Mint, my money in is a good amount less than my money out, so that demotivates me. This inequality is caused by Mint not recognizing my deposits as income. Since my income is random, I can't set-up Mint to see certain checks as income. There's a lot of maintenance that I don't care to do.

Anyways, consider this the plan: First Saturday in every month (starting this Saturday) will be money day. I need to establish goals for the year, and monthly progress goals for each one. Also on this day, bills will be paid and statements will be reconciled.

Fingers crossed.