Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Investing for Social Good

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This post brought to you by American Century Investments. The content and opinions expressed below are that of Beating Broke.

What if you could invest your money knowing that your investments were making a difference?  We all want to make a difference.  We usually do so by volunteering our time or by making cash donations to a cause.  We do it with intent.  But, we have to actively do it as well.  I’ve talked before about the benefits of passive income, or income that is generated with little to no work on your part.  Can we do more through passive giving?

American Century Investments is an investment company. As of March 1, they manage nearly $140 Billion dollars in investment assets.  But, that isn’t what makes them special.  What makes them special is what they do with their profits.

ACI was founded by a man by the name of Jim Stowers in 1958.  Jim  was a cancer survivor, as is his wife.  In 1994, they founded the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.  To help fund that institute, they created an endowment of $2 Billion that was made up of some cash gifts, and a 40% equity (ownership) in American Century Investments.  Why is that important?

Because of that ownership stake in ACI, more than 40 percent of American Century Investments profits have been distributed to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a non-profit basic biomedical research organization. The Institute is the controlling owner of American Century Investments and has received dividend payments totaling over $1 billion since 2000.

$1.2 Billion in dividend payments.  I’m going to let you think about that for a minute.

$1.2 Billion dollars is a lot of money.  And because of the social thinking of the Stowers’, that money is going towards medical research.  Research that could provide clues to cure disease.

Now, I don’t want this to come out sounding like a sales pitch.  I want you to do your research before you invest your money with anyone.  I do.  If you’ve got a financial planner, talk to them before you do anything.  But, what I do want to say is that, all things equal, if you can invest with a company that does a great deal of social good and still get equivalent returns with equivalent expense ratios, then wouldn’t you do that?

Ultimately, any financial decision you make shouldn’t be based on emotion.  It should be based on numbers and facts.  9 out of 10 times, if you make a decision based on emotion, it’s going to be the wrong one.  I know that.  You should too.

But, I also know that my grandmother is a cancer survivor.  My mother is a cancer survivor.  I lost an aunt to cancer.  Knowing that a portion of the profits of the company that I invest my money with is going towards research that could someday make cancer a curable or preventable disease is a pretty powerful motivator.  An emotional one, to be sure, but powerful nonetheless.

All things considered, when it comes time to choose investments in the future, I’m going to make sure that American Century Investments is included in the options.  That doesn’t mean I’ll pick them every time (or at all), but because of their structure, and the chance to do a little passive social good, they’ve earned a spot in the selection process.

What about you?  What do you think of the idea of passive social good?  How about the idea of an investment company with a higher purpose?

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Saving Money (and Possibly Your Life) With Vaping

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I’ve written about cigarettes and smoking in an offhanded way a few times here.  It doesn’t take an accountant to tell you how expensive of a habit it can be.  I was smoking about a half pack a day.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  Now, I save money with vaping, and I might just be saving my life too.

Why I Switched to Vaping

I was a smoker for almost 15 years.  Over those years, I’ve attempted to quit a number of times.  I tried the nicotine patches, Wellbutrin, and Chantix on several occasions.  All with varying levels of success, and then failure.  Of the bunch, Chantix was probably the most successful.  I think I managed 6 weeks without a cigarette that time.  But, you only take Chantix for about 6 weeks, and then the urge returned, my will power left, and it was back to it.

Saving with VapingAbout a year or so, I started seeing, and reading, articles on Facebook and elsewhere about vaping.  For the uninitiated, vaping is the act of vaporizing a liquid called e-juice.  Technically, those e-cigarettes you see at the gas stations are vaporizers.  Whomever decided that naming them e-cigarettes should be ashamed of themselves though.  The e-juice that you vaporize is a mixture of Propylene Glycol and/or Vegetable Glycol, liquid nicotine, and various flavorings.  The mix is added to a tank that wicks the e-juice to a coil.  You press a button on your Mod (the device that holds the batteries and powers the coil) and the coil heats the e-juice to vaporization.  You inhale the vapor, exhale the vapor, and get your nicotine fix without a lot of the chemicals you’ve been getting in your cigarette smoke.

As I read more and more of those articles, a recurring theme started to show itself.  There were a lot of people who had started vaping and completely replaced their cigarette habit.  And most of the reports I had read seemed to indicate that vaping was a lot safer than smoking cigarettes.  I decided to give it a try.

Luckily, for me, I had a friend who I knew used a vaporizer, and I was able to ping him to get suggestions on equipment.  If I hadn’t, I would have been completely lost, and probably struggled with the process a lot more.  I might have even failed again and written off vaping entirely.  I’m glad I had that help.

I ordered my equipment, and some e-juice to get me started, and on May 25th, 2015 I made the switch to vaping.  I’ve had a total of two cigarettes since then.  And they both tasted terrible.  It’s been almost 6 months.  The urge to have a cigarette is almost entirely gone.  There are still a few triggers that spark the urge, but I can easily overcome those with a few quick vapes.  I’m no longer a smoker.

Saving Money with Vaping

In a way, I’m lucky that I live where I do.  A pack of cigarettes is only about $5 here.  In neighboring Minnesota, a pack will easily cost you $7.50.  There are places where it’s more expensive. For comparison sake, I can buy a 15mL bottle of e-juice for somewhere between $7 and $25 (the premium juices are the top end of that range.  Average is closer to $10-12).  On an average day, I vape my way through about 3-5 mL.  So, that 15mL bottle lasts about 3 days.  I used to smoke a half pack of cigarettes a day.  The cost for e-juice is slightly less overall.  Equipment adds a bit more, averaged over time.  As the cost of cigarettes continues to go up, over time I’ll save more.  That’s assuming that taxes and such aren’t applied to vaping products of course.  They might be.  If so, it might be a wash.

While some of this is unclear, what I’ve read so far indicates that vaping is a whole heck of a lot safer for you than cigarettes.  I fully expect, based on that, so see a lot of the savings from making the switch through my health and health care costs.  There’s really no way to calculate those savings, but I believe they are pretty huge.  Those savings aren’t just in financial terms either.  There’s a very real possibility that my health will improve, my quality of life will improve, and I’ll possibly have saved my life from some nasty cigarette related disease.  That’s my kind of savings!

Over the last few months, I’ve found a few ways to apply some standard saving techniques to my vaping as well.  I’ve used coupons and sales to buy e-juice at bargain prices.  I’ve done the same for some of the equipment.  I’ve started making my own coils which reduces the cost of the coils by a great deal.  And I’ve found some nice subscription offers to get some good e-juice for a far cheaper price.

Ready to Save Money with Vaping too?

If you’re looking for equipment, I fully recommend an open tank vaporizer set up.  All that means is that the tank is refillable unlike those disposable ones you find at the gas station.  Reusable and refillable is excellent.  I use the eleaf iStick 30w Mod.  I wish I had the eleaf iStick 100W TC.  It just adds some additional wattage and other options that I would have liked to have had.  Cost made it a bit of a stretch though.

As for the tank itself, my favorite right now is the Kanger Subtank Mini.  It will take premade coil units in a pinch, but also has the ability for you to build your own coils.  It’s the best of both worlds.

e-Juices come in hundreds of different flavors.  What you need to know is that you can adjust your level of nicotine.  I started off with 18mg/mL and it was too much.  Someone who was a heavier smoker might want it that strong.  I’ve been using 12mg since, but recently started buying 6mg.  One of the coolest things I’ve found is Zamplebox.  It’s a subscription box where you get sent a variety of 15mL bottles each month.  I’m subscribed to the 6 bottle package.  It’s highly customizable, and allows for you to try some flavors that you might not have without. They offer a 3 bottle, 6 bottle, and 11 bottle subscription.  They’re $19.99, $24.99, and $44.99 respectively.  At $24.99, my 6 bottles are just a hair over $4 each.  That’s a pretty good deal.  If you’re just beginning, I highly recommend you give them a try for a few months.

 

Stretching Your Produce Budget Further

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Anyone who has made a simple budget has struggled with making their food budget fit with the rest of the budget.  If you attempt to eat healthy, one of the biggest components to a food budget is the produce.  Stretching your produce budget can be somewhat difficult.  Growing seasons are short, and the cost of produce keeps going up.  But, there are a few things we can do to stretch that produce budget, and make it a bit easier on your overall budget.

  1. Stretching your produce budgetStock Up on Sale: buying your produce on sale allows for you to stock up when the item is cheaper, then store it until you need it.   Canned produce is really easy to store.  Frozen only requires a freezer.  And if it’s the fresh stuff, there’s a few things you can do to store a surplus when you do pick it up in season and on sale.
  2. Canning for stockpiling: When you’ve got a surplus of produce, one of the best things you can do is can it to preserve it for another day’s use.  Canning only requires a few pieces of equipment, and a little time learning the process, then you can be off to the races filling your pantry shelves with preserved fresh produce to use later in the year when produce is much more expensive.
  3. Freeze it: Every year, around the end of summer, corn pops up in the backs of pickup trucks and in the farmers markets.  Compared to the rest of the year, it’s really cheap, and it tastes so good!  Unless we want to eat nothing but fresh corn, though, the season is fleeting, and we’re left with no other corn but the commercially canned or frozen corn you can get at the supermarket.  It’s just not the same.  Last year, we bought a whole bunch of corn (4-5 dozen), shucked them all, then cut the kernels off and combined them in a huge stockpot with some butter, a little bit of salt, and a little bit of water, and then cooked it for a little while.  Once it was done, we let it cool off, and then filled quart size freezer bags with the corn and froze it.  Now, if we want a little taste of that sweet summer corn, we just grab a bag, heat it backup and eat.  We did similar things with pumpkin, squash, zucchini, and a whole bunch of other summer fruits and veggies.  All it takes is a little bit of prep time and the freezer room to enjoy the flavor of fresh produce all year round.
  4. Grow it: If you already grow a garden every year, this might seem like a no-brainer of a tip.  But, growing your own garden can be an excellent way to stretch your produce budget out.  Last year, we enjoyed an abundance of tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onions, jalepenos, cucumbers, and even an eggplant or two from our tiny container garden.  This year, we’re planning on consolidating down to a smaller selection in hopes that we’ll have some extras that we can can as well.
  5. Find a Farmer’s Market: Buying your produce from a local farmer can often be just as cheap as buying at the supermarket.  In some cases, if you order ahead, you can get a deal on bulk orders of produce which is great if you are planning on canning any of it.  It’s also fresher since it only had to make the trip from the farm down the road instead of the farm across the country.  It’s not always a great way to stretch the produce budget, but if you want high-quality produce that will last longer before spoiling, it’s a good place to check out.
  6. Pick it Yourself: A reader on twitter commented that I’d forgotten to add the u-pick farms.  I hadn’t really forgotten them, as they just don’t exist in my neck of the woods and the cost to drive to the nearest one would negate the savings.  But, if you have a u-pick farm nearby, it’s an excellent way to get out of the house, pick a ton of fresh produce (fruits usually) and save a pretty big chunk of change.  Many of the farms only charge about 1/3 of the cost at the grocery store!

Extending your produce budget is important, not just when there are droughts, but as a way to provide healthy options for you and your family to eat year round.

What do you do to stretch your produce budget?