Owner: Laws of Finance URL:http://lawsoffinance.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2007 21:14:58 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: The tale of a law student trying to navigate his way through school without declaring bankruptcy. The personal finance stories, ideas, and suggestions should be interesting. Site statistics:Click here
Studying in Europe is Getting Expensive 2007-04-03 03:34:00 This may not be news to most people, but for those who are planning to study abroad in Europe
or even vacation there sometime soon, it may be an eye opener. The dollar has been falling recently. By falling, I mean dropping like a rock. And by recently, I mean for at least the past five years. It is true that there was a little bit of a rebound during 2005. Since then, though, the downward trend has continued. Let's take a look at the numbers.The Euro:Five years ago, the dollar was worth about 1.15 euros. Today, it is worth just under .75 euros. That is a decline of roughly 35% for the dollar. Looking at it another way, the euro has become about 53% more valuable.The Pound:Five years ago, the dollar was worth about .70 British pounds. At today's close, it is worth a bit more than .50 pounds. The dollar's decline versus the pound is around 29% for the period, meaning that the pound appreciated 40%.The Rouble:Yes, the dollar has even tumbled against the Russian rouble. Five
Paying for Trash Pickup? 2007-04-02 04:22:00 Perhaps I am a bit out of the loop on this one, but I didn't know that there were metropolitan areas where one had to pay to have his trash picked up? Well, I know that I pay for it in my taxes, but I have never had to pay separately.Someone was telling me the other day that, where he lives, you have to purchase "trash pickup stickers" and attach them to the trash you want picked up. The stickers cost $X dollars per pound of trash. So, not only do you have to pay for the stickers, but then you have to estimate the weight of your trash. I have never known any system like that.It seems like this system could cause lots of problems. For example, people could add their trash to another person's bag or even steal the stickers off someone else's trash. As if there aren't already enough problems between neighbors?Is this the norm nationwide, even in medium/large metropolitan areas? Am I just oblivious to something very common or is the person who told me about this just living in a Read more:Pickup
, Trash
April Fool's Day Net Worth Update 2007-04-01 16:57:00 I updated my net worth just now and I have some good news! My net worth increased for the month. I think this is mainly due to a rebound in the markets, especially my international assets (and the small earnings from my part time job). My net worth currently stands at -$16,975. Not very good, but I don't think it is all that bad for having over $80,000 in student loans.A question that might arise is: why would someone keep over $60,000 in assets when he has student loans of more than $80,000? That is the topic for another post, but one I hope to write soon. Until then, you will just have to be satisfied with my most recent decision - to post quarterly asset breakdowns. At the end of each quarter, I will give a thorough breakdown of my assets, down to the individual stocks and ETF's I own. That is forthcoming for the first quarter of 2007 once I get it prepared.
Read more:April
, April Fool
, Update
, Worth
Link Love 2007-04-01 06:21:00 My list of blogs to the right could always use some new additions. As I write this, the list is about as short as it has ever been. Not to say that I don't enjoy reading those already listed there, but I could always use some more. Please let me know if you would like me to add your link to my blog list. All I ask is that you link to me in return. Let me know at lawsfinance (at} yahoo [dot) com. Happy blogging.
What to do with Large Capital Gains 2007-03-31 22:14:00 People often struggle with decisions regarding their assets that have large capital gains built up in them. The driving factor here is the tax consequence of a sale, but that should not be the only consideration.First ask yourself, what are your long term expectations for the price of the asset in question? If you expect that asset to continue to grow (at least as much as the broad market does), then you should feel no immediate desire to sell. If, on the other hand, you expect the asset's price to fall, remain flat, or grow sluggishly, then you have a decision to make. My basic rule of thumb is that you should not own an asset if you expect it to perform badly in the future. Your money could be better invested in other areas. So, while there may be capital gain tax consequences, you should probably sell the asset if you do not expect it to perform well. That said, do try to hold out for the long term capital gain tax treatment (one year for stocks) if you can.There are other f Read more:Capital Gains
This Blog is Now Firefox Compatible 2007-03-31 06:47:00 Until yesterday, I always had problems getting my blog to display properly in Firefox
. After a little formatting work, though, I solved the problem. You see, using my limited HTML knowledge, I had tried to insert a third vertical column into one of Blogger's standard templates. Sadly, I failed miserably. I got everything to look alright in Internet Explorer, which is what I use, but it never displayed properly in Firefox. I never used Firefox, so it took me quite a while to even realize there was a problem. In the end, I just went back to one of Blogger's original templates with only minor changes. So, now there are only two vertical columns. I guess I can live with that. At least it looks alright now. Well, at least it should. Let me know if there are any display abnormalities, especially if you use Firefox.
Payday Loans 2007-03-30 17:51:00 I ran across a website the other day called NationalPayday
.com. It got me thinking about the entire short term loan industry. I have seen entire brick and mortar businesses dedicated to this sort of thing. Check cashing and short term loan businesses have been spreading like wildfire, it seems. Perhaps this is a testament to the problems Americans have with consumer debt.In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me explain. Short term loans or "payday" loans are relatively high interest rate loans for a short duration of time. The loans are in anticipation of your upcoming paycheck(s) and are based upon that income stream.Short term loans, while generally not a good idea if you have other options available, are a reasonable alternative for people in certain situations. For example, I saw an episode of CSI a couple weeks ago where a woman needed cash in a hurry in order to pay for her child’s medical procedure. That woman, unable to get the money any other way, despite th Read more:Loans
, Payday Loans
My Summer Firm Refers to Itself as "The Firm" 2007-03-30 04:39:00 As I have said a few times before, I was lucky enough to find a position with a law firm this upcoming summer (after my second year of law school). I have received several letters from The Firm (which I will call it from now on) and at least a couple of them have referred to The Firm explicitly as "The Firm" throughout the body of the text. Capitalization and all. Honestly, it gives me a creepy feeling. You know, kind of like a bunch of crooked lawyers are out to get me or something. I will just have to watch my back, I guess.
Read more:Itself
, Summer
A New Spin on the Old Golf Ball 2007-03-29 06:19:00 Saving money is about finding cheap ways to entertain yourself. Well, of course, after paying for life's necessities. I hold that golf can be one of those cheap forms of entertainment. And, what's more, the worse you are at golf, the greater its entertainment value. More on that in a minute.To begin with, if you go to a municipal course, golf is not tragically expensive. Near my home, 18 holes can be played for around $15-$20. Of course, golf also requires clubs. All you really need, though, is a starter set. Those come fairly cheap. Alternatively, you could probably pick up an old set VERY cheap at a garage sale. The problem for bad golfers comes in the form of golf balls. Even "experienced" golf balls can get expensive when a round might set you back eight balls or so. So, golf is not a "cheap" sport when all is said and done, but it is not too expensive if you play at the right places. Plus, golf is decent exercise - especially if you carry your clubs.Now to say a bit Read more:Golf Ball
Starbucks Wannabe? 2007-03-28 22:03:00 According to this article, McDonald's is testing lattes and cappuccinos. Wasn't McDonald's once a bastion of low quality, low cost food? Wasn't the idea with these specialty coffee drinks? Do you think the latte will be on the dollar menu? I doubt it. Assuming it's not, would you rather have a latte or two McChicken sandwiches?Perhaps it is simply my aversion to coffee talking here. Am I really the only person in this country who doesn't like coffee?
Read more:Starbucks
Spring Break 2007-03-27 04:02:00 Ah yes, SpringBreak
, that time of unnecessarily expensive trips to exotic tropical locations for a week of inebriated debauchery. For most schools, it seems that Spring Break has come and gone. There are a few, though, still in the swing of things.Spring Break seems a little different in law school than it was in college. There are certainly more people who simply hang around the school and "catch up on work." That said, there are also quite a few people who do those same things that the undergrads do during Spring Break. It seems that the 1L's and 2L's hang around school the most. 1L's stay at school for the obvious reason - studying. I have a little harder time understanding that as a motivating factor for the 2L's. And the 3L's just don't seem to care about anything anymore. They are in a nice position right now.3L's have already worked a summer at a firm (hopefully) and have seen the pay that will be coming their way in the future. I think what happens is the mone
Is Law Conservative? 2007-03-22 16:15:00 I was thinking about a conversation I had over lunch this summer with a law partner at a relatively large law firm. He told me that law was the conservative choice. He elaborated a bit by saying that he believes he could have chosen a different path, say, into investment banking or general business management, or possibly even started his own business. He seemed to contrast going to law school most directly with opening a small business.From there, it was relatively easy to see where he found that law was conservative. It seems that going to law school ensures some kind of job coming out. It may not be the job you want necessarily, but it is almost certainly something. There is a reasonable certainty of some amount of income. This is not so with starting a small business. In fact, starting a business often requires a cash (and credit) outlay to get things off the ground.So, while he did admit that inordinate wealth is possible from starting a business, failure is also quite pro
Computer Games in Law School? 2007-03-17 20:38:00 I saw someone playing a computer game in the student lounge the other day. He was in the corner playing on his laptop. It wasn't the games I see in class all the time, like solitaire. It was a real computer game. One that requires a CD and everything. I wondered if people had time for such things in law school. Honestly, as a 2L, it does seem that there is a lot more time for "recreation." So, taking a cue from him, I started playing a game (not in school, though). I haven't played a game like that in a long while. It is rather fun.In the finance world, I have been watching the shaky markets lately. You never know what is going to happen. It seems like they could drop 5% any day. It's a weird scenario, really. Anyway, I'm in it for the long haul. I'm not one to buy and sell constantly based upon market swings. Although, if the correction turns out to be very significant, I'm sure I will be looking for ways to get more cash into the market at the lower prices.
Read more:Computer
, Games
, Law School
, School
Summer Rental 2007-03-11 16:51:00 I located housing for my job this upcoming summer in Ohio. The Firm (which was actually referred to as "The Firm" (yes, with capital letters) several times in a letter I recently received) sent me some housing information a while back. I used that as a base for my search and went from there. After reading about a few places and making a couple inquiries, I finally decided on one particular apartment complex. The thing that strikes me as funny is that I never actually saw the place. Yet, I have an apartment reserved and everything seems set.As to the financial part of this, the apartment (including all utilities, internet, and parking) will cost approximately 13% of my gross monthly pay. Now, upon hearing that, it certainly sounds like this place is a dump. Apparently, though, it is one of the nicer apartment complexes in the immediate area. That is certainly what I'm hoping. It was one of the places The Firm recommended, so it should be pretty nice. Still, 13% is low. But I Read more:Rental
, Summer
Lower Net Worth 2007-03-02 05:34:00 Sadly, my net worth plunged a bit lower this month. Stocks had a very bad day at the end of the month and that certainly affected my bottom line.I got my tax refund and it was just over $3,000. Not too bad, although I wish I could have kept that money myself instead of giving our lovely government an interest free loan for six months. Oh well, c'est la vie. Unfortunately, most of that money was already spoken for as a result of the repairs that needed to be done on my car.Hopefully it will only be a couple more months of slightly lower net worth before my big jump this summer. I'm looking forward to that.
Read more:Lower
, Worth
Vacation Sign 2007-02-28 04:32:00 I know it has been quite a while since I posted. In fact, it is almost time for another net worth update. And after today's abysmal market performance, I'm not really looking forward to it.As to the lack of posting, in my defense, I have been out of town for the past couple weeks. I just wanted to share this interesting sign I saw. Does anyone know what it means? No children? No walking with children? No holding hands? I have no idea.
Read more:Vacation
Net Worth Heads Lower 2007-02-03 18:29:00 My net worth crept lower this month. My car repairs, as well as my substantial income tax refund(s) will be showing up within a couple months. I also made my entire contribution ($4,000) to my Roth IRA for 2007 at the beginning of January. Read more:Heads
, Lower
, Net Worth
, Worth
Questioning Rebates 2007-02-01 03:45:00 I saw an advertisement in USA Today a few days ago for a high definition plasma television... You know, one of those ridiculously expensive (but very cool) tv's. Anyway, it said there was a $200 instant rebate that would be paid at the register. From my understanding, this meant that you paid the $200 and were then given $200 in some form, most likely a credit on the credit card you just used. I could be wrong on the mechanics, but this is not the point.This led me to question the purpose of rebates in general. Take the standard rebate, where you buy something and then mail in for a rebate that you (presumably) receive 8 weeks later. Now these, I understand. Or, at the very least, I can come up with a rational explanation for their existence. The company selling the product gets to keep your money for two months and earn interest on it. Very simple. The customer is still happy because they are "paying less" in the long run. Everybody likes a discount.But this instant rebate Read more:Rebates
Car Repairs 2007-01-29 04:00:00 Thanks to those who expressed concern after my latest post.In related news, I received word that the work on my car should be done soon. It will end up costing me something close to $4,000 in the end. It seems that I have just enough cash in my accounts to pay for the repairs and some other various expenses I have coming up. I just hope that there are no other major unforeseen expenses on the horizon.
Read more:Repairs
Car Accident 2007-01-19 05:14:00 I was in a car accident a couple days ago. The whole experience was somewhat traumatic, but I am alright. My car, however, is not alright. According to preliminary estimates, it needs something like $4,000 worth of work, which is actually about 70% of its value. Sadly, I was not carrying full coverage on the car, so the full cost of repairs is on my shoulders.As I said, this is only a preliminary estimate. I expect a more detailed report in the next few days. If the cost to repair the car gets too much higher, though, I might have to explore some other options. At that point, it may not be worth it to have it repaired.From a financial perspective, this is a perfect example of why it is necessary to keep a large quantity of cash readily available in some form of emergency savings account.
Read more:Car Accident
Closing ING Direct 2007-01-10 19:22:00 I finally got around to calling to close my ING Direct
online savings account. It was actually much easier than I expected. Very little wait time and I didn't have to fight through any telemarketing. Very simple. ING was a class act.
Net Worth Tumble 2007-01-06 16:20:00 As I expected, my net worth shows a huge drop for the past month. The combination of cash tuition costs as well as new student loans fueled the drop. Check it out at NetWorth
IQ.In other news, I recently funded my Roth IRA with the $4000 contribution for this year. I sold my position in Vanguard's Windsor II fund and split the money somewhat evenly between VTV and VBR. All this was done at Firstrade and, I must admit, I have been rather pleased with their service thus far.
Read more:Net Worth
Cheap Airfare 2006-12-16 03:18:00 I have been searching various air travel sites, such as Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and the like. The ones that offer the "flexible dates" type of feature are most useful because I have not been in search of anything specific, just generally cheap flights.It seems that cheap flights abound in the period from roughly January 5 through February 20. Depending upon the destination, though, they may last even longer than that. Warm locations tend to get more expensive around that time because college spring break starts to kick in, I think.Seriously, though, if you have anywhere that you want to go, at least look into it during that time frame. I found direct flights to Orlando from the northern states for $123 round trip, including all taxes. That is just one example, though. There are many more. Happy flying.
Read more:Cheap
Selling Textbooks Online 2006-12-14 17:26:00 I have already sold two of my books on Amazon.com. I did significantly better than I could have done at the school’s official textbook buyback. I always check the price of the online textbook buyers before I list on Amazon, though. If I can get a reasonable price immediately (and without paying the Amazon commissions, then I will go that way. This year, I have done much better by waiting to sell on Amazon. Although, that will change if my two other books don’t sell. Then again, I could always just sell those ones to one of the online textbook buyers or wait until next year and try to sell them to law students here at school (assuming the classes use those same books).In general, the moral of the story is to sell your books as quickly as you can. New editions seem to come out every thirty seconds.
Read more:Textbooks
Articles Galore 2007-04-03 15:10:00 I have two articles up around the web this week:What to do with Large Capital Gains is up in Carnival of Personal Finance #94.A New Spin on the Old Golf Ball is up in Festival of Frugality #68. Sadly, my article comes with the "bad golfing joke" classification. I have received better reviews in the past, but I guess I can live with that.
Read more:Articles
Of Festivals and Automobiles 2007-04-07 19:25:00 First off, one of my posts is in this week's Festival of Under 30 Finances #20.Secondly, as a result of my accident this winter, my car still has some residual defects. I won't go into the boring detail, but suffice to say that it is drivable and that I am currently driving it. It needs one replacement part that I will get when I am at home and it has one other annoyingly noisy issue. At least, I hope that it is only annoying and nothing more. The car tends to make sounds like something is loose whenever I go over large bumps. And, around here, there are large bumps (and some seemingly bottomless pits) everywhere! Oh well, I'll have it checked out when I get home.
Read more:Automobiles
Don’t Consolidate Debt - Eliminate It 2007-04-13 05:05:00 I must be honest with you. I did not come up with this topic on my own. I discovered it at InvestInYourDebt.com.The idea is a simple one. You can’t just consolidate your debt and then forget about it. Consolidating is alright, but then you have to pay it off - quickly. Just because it has a lower interest rate doesn’t mean that it’s ok to service the debt for 30 years. In fact, from the standpoint of total cost, it would actually be better to pay a higher interest rate but pay the loan off sooner (depending on the exact numbers, of course).Don’t get me wrong. If a loan has a low enough interest rate, then it might actually be a good idea to service the debt for as long as possible. But that is only if you are doing something more constructive with the money that you could otherwise use to pay off the loan. Investing at a higher return while servicing debt at a lower interest rate is simple leverage and is a fine investment strategy (albeit a risky one).InvestInYourDebt.com cate Read more:Consolidate
I Love Lexis 2007-04-12 03:53:00 I cashed in most of my Lexis Nexis Ultimate Rewards points the other day. For those of you who don't know, Lexis is an expensive legal research site that tries to get law students hooked with free usage and rewards in law school. I save them up all year and get gift certificates at the end of the year. This year, I got $175 worth of gift certificates. I chose a couple of department stores and a restaurant to spend them on. I will probably get some more clothes for the upcoming job with the department store gift certificates. As for the restaurant gift certificate, that is to keep Girlfriend happy. I might even end up with another gift certificate or two by the end of the semester, but I wanted to make sure that I got at least something before I start work.Regarding my Westlaw (another legal research site) Rewards points, I have been saving those up since I started law school. As opposed to the Lexis points, which I use every year, I keep the Westlaw points for something big a
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