Search Results for: budget

Frugal Estate Planning

March 31, 2014 By MelissaB 2 Comments

One of the joys of getting married and having kids is that you then must face your own demise. The poet Donald Hall wrote about this in his poem, “My Son, My Executioner” stating, as a man and his wife look down on their newborn son, “We twenty two and twenty five/who seemed to live forever/observe enduring life in you/and start to die together.”

Cheery, thought, eh?

Estate Planning Isn’t for the Faint of Heart

Yet, if you have children, you must plan for their future should you die while they’re still young. I know, no one wants to do this. In fact, 4.5 years ago when I was pregnant with my last child, I sat down to do a will and trust kit that I got online. I only got about three questions in, before, in my wild hormonal state, I broke down crying when I started facing the questions about when I would want the cord pulled.

It took me another four years to feel ready to have our will written.

I know. Irresponsible. Yet, it took me that long to accept that yes, I will die at some point, and yes, I need to plan for it now, while I’m still healthy and (relatively) young.

It Takes a Strong Wallet, Too

However, facing my own mortality was only part of the problem. Once I was ready to have a will written, I had to face the fact that it was unbelievably expensive!

We live in the suburbs of a large city, so I don’t know if that’s the problem, but the first lawyer we contacted quoted us $2,500 to set up our will. When I told him that we are living on a smallish income and paying down student loan debt, he generously agreed to put us on a payment plan without charging interest. While I appreciate the generosity, we still couldn’t afford $2,500, even on a payment plan!

Next, I contacted a lawyer from my small hometown, but he still was expensive, quoting $1,200 to $1,500. As Dave Ramsey would say, “It’s not in the budget.”

A Frugal Estate Planning Option

In the end, we made a compromise. My husband and I both knew we needed a will in place, but we didn’t have the kind of money lawyers were asking for. Instead, we turned to LegalZoom.

For less than $250 total, my husband and I each had our wills drawn up. We each answered a few simple questions online, and each will took less than 30 minutes to create. Then we paid and waited for the lawyers at LegalZoom to look over the document.

Less than a week later, the wills came through the mail and were in our hands.

When we don’t have so much debt and have a larger income, we plan to get a will and trust set up in person with a lawyer. However, for now, on our budget, LegalZoom works perfectly. We have a will in place should anything happen.

Have you used LegalZoom for a will? Would you consider it? Does $1,200 to $2,500 for a will created by a lawyer seem outrageous or normal to you?

Time to Plan Your Garden

March 17, 2014 By Shane Ede 5 Comments

Spring is finally here. The sun is shining a little brighter (and warmer too), and the ground is starting to warm up. And with all of that, those of us who garden are beginning to get a little antsy to start putting seeds and plants in the ground and begin growing them. In many parts of the states, it’s still much too early to start planting though. So, what is a anticipatory gardener to do? It’s a great time to begin planning the garden and preparing for the planting season.

Maintenance and Clean-up of your Garden

I like to start with the maintenance and clean-up of the garden area as soon as I’m able. I get to go outside and, while I can’t plant anything, I can begin to prepare for doing so. There’s always some leaves that fall after I rake for the last time in the fall that can be collected. We do most of our growing in containers, so it’s a good time to make sure the dead plants from last year are removed (fall quickly became winter last year and I didn’t get a chance to remove them) from the containers. If you’ve got any gardening structures, like lattices, nets, etc, you can give them a quick once over to make sure that they’re all still in usable condition and don’t need any repairs.

What Will You Grow?

For several years, we’ve been playing with and experimenting in our garden. We’ve been planting some new varieties of plants that we haven’t before (last year we had Eggplant and Brussels Sprouts) and planting some things in different locations than we have before. This year, we might do the opposite and refine what we grow a little bit. There are a few staples that we’ve grown every year that we’ll grow again, like Tomatoes, Potatoes, Green Beans, and Cucumbers. We added some Snow Peas to the garden last year and they did really well, so we’ll be planting more of those this year as well. A couple of crops that we have grown in the past, but all depend on space are Carrots and Onions. We’ve never had a whole lot of success with them, so they might get scrapped to leave more room for more of the other plants. We’ve also got a few smaller containers that we’ve discovered are a little small for most of the stuff we’d like to grow, so we might throw some herbs in those and see what we end up with.

Start Your Seeds Indoors

This is one thing that I’ve really struggled with over the years. For whatever reason, I always end up with most of my seedlings dying before I can transplant them, or with them dying shortly after transplanting. It is much cheaper to buy seeds and then start them indoors for transplanting, than it is to go and buy plants at the nursery, though, so I keep trying. I’ll do so again this year, and we’ll likely supplement with a few plants from the nursery just to be sure we get some strong plants. The growing season (outdoors) here doesn’t really start until late May or early June, so I generally try and hold myself back from planting seeds indoors any sooner than mid to late April. Even that is probably pushing it, and probably should be pushed out to early May.

I find that giving some thought to the garden before you get to the planting stage acts a little like a budget. If you’ve got a plan for what you want to plant, and when, you have something to stick to and keep yourself from going overboard with plants you won’t have room for, or that won’t do well in your garden. It saves you money, and work.

What do you do to begin the gardening season?

No One is Going to Save You

March 13, 2014 By Shane Ede 6 Comments

I have some bad news for you. If you’re waiting on someone to show up at your door ala Publisher’s Clearinghouse and hand you a big cardboard check that will solve all of your financial problems it’s not going to happen. No one is going to save you from your financial woes. No one is going to suddenly decide that you, and you alone, are worth pulling from the depths of your financial hole, pay all your bills and set you up for life. No one but you.

In truth, I’m writing this post as much for me as I am for you. I need to hear that message occasionally, just as you do. It’s nice to daydream about winning the lottery, or some sweepstakes and having some of your problems solved. It really is. But, if you, like me, find yourself lingering in those daydreams a little too much, too often, you need to hear those words.

You and you alone can be the savior of your finances.

You (and I) are the best prepared, and the most willing (without fees), to take on the ratted nest of bills and accounts that we call our finances. You (and I) are the most able to figure out how to sort out where our money is coming from and where it has gone. You (and I) are the only ones that can drum up the willpower to make the changes necessary to begin telling our money where to go that it will be most helpful to our finances. No one else is going to do it for you.

No one but you.

If you (and I) don’t do it, do you know what happens? Nothing but the same. Your paycheck comes in (maybe on time, maybe not), your paycheck goes out. At the end of the month, maybe we ask “where did it all go?”. And if we do nothing about it, we’ll never really know. We’ll just continue the pattern; wondering why we aren’t paid more, and wondering why what we are paid never seems to be enough.

[Tweet “You and you alone can be the savior of your finances. #personalfinance #saveyourfinances”]

You can make a difference in your finances though.

Uniquely. No one but you.

You can budget your money and tell it where it belongs. You can know where your money is going, and control how it works for you. If you actively manage your money, it can no longer control you. Create a budget, track your income and spending, then take back your financial life.

Put your finances in order; be free. Be debt free. Be free to spend as you choose. Be free to earn as you choose.

What are you doing today to break old financial habits and take control of your money?