Budgeting Babe Alert: New Credit Card Rules

If you've been spending all your time reading US Weekly and Perez, you may have missed that the government is enacting some new credit card rules.

Read all about it here to get educated on the subject:

NY Times Online
Consumers Dealt a New Hand in Credit Cards

There are some interesting new rules, such as:
"Card companies will have to give 45 days’ notice before raising their interest rates. There’s also a notice requirement for any significant change to a card’s terms, which may keep companies from surprising customers who have been saving their loyalty points for years with huge alterations in rewards programs."

However, some are saying the new legislation won't be that great for those of us who pay off the balance every month and use the cards to stack rewards.

What do you guys think about the new laws? They look pretty good to me.

And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Tips for Loving Your Weekend, Even Without a Road Trip

Some weekends are a neverending swirl of glitzy parties, fabulous dinners and social scene meet-ups. They're incredibly fun, but inevitably exhausting.

This weekend, after several weeks of decidedly unglamorous work travel, I cancelled all my committments and chose to chill in my hometown. B and I were supposed to take a road trip to celebrate the end of finals, B's birthday and our 10-year anniversary but given the craziness of the past few week we just couldn't get it together in time. Instead, we stayed close to home and enjoyed some local treasures together. And it couldn't have been better.

Are you debating a road trip out of town? If time and money are working against you, take some notes on how to enjoy a weekend in your 'hood like an out-of-towner. Here's what we did:

Enjoy Your Local Favorites Like a Tourist
We started the weekend with dinner at our local watering hole, Poor Phil's. Instead of inviting all our neighborhood friends, we made it a date night for two. Instead of staying for too many drinks parked at the same familiar bar, we left immediately after dinner. Moving around the neighborhood, always searching for something new, keeps the vacation feel.

We landed at Hemingway's an oddball of a hotel bar filled with overpriced drinks (just like a vacation), and chatted up some visitors while enjoying fruity "Flirtini Martinis" by friendly bartender Justine. It's off our usual beaten path and the martinis, made with fruit puree, are totally fantastic (and stiff). Being there, among vacation-minded visitors, made us forget we were in our home town (the martinis didn't hurt, either).

Try Something New
On Saturday, we took our bikes to Geneva, IL, home of the Illinois Prairie Path bike trail. Though we had biked on the path before, we decided to plan an expedition to Two Brothers Brewery in Warrenville, IL, roughly 10 miles away. It was a windy, crazy ride but we made it and were rewarded with friendly service and tasty food (two YUMS up for the delicious fish tacos). Had we planned a full weekend, we likely would have overlooked it. So glad we didn't.

Slow it Down
This morning, we walked to a coffee shop we usually drive to, Nola's Cup. On the way there, we noticed two open houses. We stopped at those open houses on the way back, curious to see what today's market offers. And we learned a lot... Apparently keeping our noses buried and books and computers has prevented us from staying updated on the local housing market. In talking with realtors, we found out about new homebuyer incentives that began this week and made two great networking connections. I'm going to pay a lot more attention to our local realtor network starting today. Maybe weekend walks should become part of my usual weekend routine.

Live in the Moment
I was tempted to check my blackberry for email, twitter and facebook updates but for the most part managed to stay offline until now. This weekend, my phone stayed off - tough to do, but it forced me to stop and smell the flowers, so to speak.

* * *
So now, it's time to get offline and get back to my lovely weekend. I'm not sure what tonight holds, which makes it all the more appealing. This is the way to celebrate Spring. How was your weekend?



Read more!

Net Worth Update... Good News Edition

Spring is here, the market has been looking up lately and I'm in need of some good news to prevent me from starting another ridiculous project. Time for a net worth check in to help me refocus on my goals.

The first time I checked my net worth in February 2006, it was a whopping $2,600. Most recently in July 2008, the total had grown to $64,000, and I felt like a rock star. But... it's been a crazy year and July 2008 happened before I lost 40 percent of my 401K and we became a one-income household, so let's see where I stand now.

(I pause here to calculate my net worth. It takes a while. Maybe you should go get some chips or something...)

(OK, I'm back with an update...)

Holy. Crap.

I am super pleased to say that despite the sputtering economy, my net worth has grown to a very healthy and respectable... $82,000! I'm in shock!

I thought for sure my number wouldn't have grown, but I have been putting cash away in my downpayment savings fund, my student loan will be paid off within the next year and I haven't taken on any more debt.

So what am I counting? Here are my categories:

ASSETS
- Checking
- Bank Savings/Emergency Fund
- Downpayment Savings Account
- 401K
- Cash Balance Plan (Retirement)

LIABILITIES
- Student Loan

I think staying away from significant debt while I paid off my student loans really helped me to find a happy balance that allowed me to save. When I'm done paying my loan, I've been quietly thinking to myself that I might buy a car (it would be my first) since ours is paid off and more than 10 years old.

But now I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, this little piece of good news will attach itself to my heart like makeshift angel wings. I'm stable and I'm going to get through this economy. And for that, I can celebrate.

Read more!

Don't Forget Your Finances, but Don't Let Them Slow You Down!

When life gets busy, people can choose to cope one of two ways: they can slow down, take time to relax and get their life in order; or, like me, they can take on more. It seems totally counter intuitive, but I thrive on the chaos. On any given weekend, if I have 10 things to do, you can bet I'll add another three to the mix. It's a mindset that's worked for me, and amazingly, everything usually gets done.

Usually.

Lately, my impromptu projects seems to get bigger -- there was the $500 DIY wardrobe from IKEA that I bought on a whim, an "on the fly" trip to visit my cousin at her university and a reorganizing of my apartment that had to be done NOW. But the biggest project I've taken on recently has been training for a triathlon. I've committed to be in the gym five to six days per week for a total of 10 weeks leading up to the main event, and it's left my blog unattended to, my apartment a mess, my friends upset because I'm never out and my work schedule in shambles. It's a mess.

But truth be told, I feel amazing. I have five weeks of training left, and I'm already in better shape than I've been in for the past two years, I'm sleeping well and I'm less stressed. (Yay me!)

I do feel guilty about neglecting my life outside the gym, but not enough to apologize for prioritizing my fitness above the cleanliness of my apartment or trying to leave the office with enough time to workout. We all make choices, and sometimes the best choice for me means that some other areas of my life won't be picture perfect; I've got to be OK with that.

One area that shouldn't be neglected during busy periods is finance. It's easy to forget about when you're preoccupied... I haven't looked at my accounts in weeks. But the problem with neglecting finances is that, unlike your harmless laundry pile, neglected finances could actually hurt you. If you miss even one credit card or mortgage payment, your credit rating could drop -- leaving you with a lot more problems and less time to tackle your next big challenge.

I logged onto all my accounts today for my May check-in (which I'll share tomorrow), and was surprised to see how tight I cut my payments to due dates this month -- within days. I also forgot to make a student loan payment in April .. Yikes! (Luckily, I'm ahead of the student loan repayment schedule so I'm not in default.)

Moral of the story? Take care of yourself, but don't let your finances fall by the wayside. If you have to adjust your priorities, it's better to stop watching America's Next Top Model than stop paying your bills. Better yet, get an online service like Quicken or Mint to e-mail you (at a working e-mail address) when your bills are due, or set up all your accounts for automatic bill pay. Then, you won't have to worry about stopping to smell the flowers, er, pay your bills.



Read more!