What I Want

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On my birthday, my mom asked me what I want and I couldn’t think of anything. Since then I’ve been thinking about what I want. The only thing I can think of is a tablet computer. But that isn’t something I want very much and I think if I put off buying a tablet for a couple months I’ll either find a really good deal or decide I don’t even want a tablet. When it comes to material goods there isn’t much I want.

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.”
— Socrates

Although I am content, there are a couple things I want. One thing is to lose weight and get in better shape. The other is to write a book. Both of these things are achievable. I will turn these wants into SMART goals and post the details on Friday.

Getting Your Free Credit Report and Credit Score

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A couple weeks ago I decided to check my credit report and credit score. It had been over a year since I had checked it and since a lot had happened since then I wanted to make sure that there were still no blemishes on my credit report and that I still had a good credit score.

I went to annualcreditreport.com to check my credit report. That is the official free site for checking your credit report from all three credit bureaus. It is supposed to be easy to check your credit report online, but I’ve had trouble doing so in the past. One reason is because I had my identity stolen several years ago and had a 90 day freeze put on my credit. At least one of the credit bureaus took several years to lift the freeze. The other reason is because I have a hard time passing the identity test. I’ve lived in so many places that I have trouble remembering them all.

This time I was able to pass the identity test. I was a little worried since two of the answers were none of the above, but it seems like that is the most common answer. Since you can access your credit report free once a year, it is advised to just check one report every three months so you can see your credit report more often. This is a good plan, but since I was so surprised that I was able to access one of my credit reports I wanted to see if could access the other two as well.

I was able to access all three credit reports. I was happy to find that I had no negative information on any of my credit reports. The only potential worry was that one of the credit bureaus showed my student loan as a line of credit which makes it look like I’m using nearly all of my available credit. I pay my credit cards off every month so I actually have plenty of available credit. Since I don’t plan on applying for any loans or credit cards I’m not going to worry about the available credit issue right now.

Next I wanted to get my credit score. When you are accessing your credit report the credit bureaus will offer to sell you your credit score also. I’m guessing the credit bureaus probably make a lot of money off of people accessing their free credit report. I didn’t want to pay for my credit score so I went to CreditSesame.com. They offer a free credit score from Experian. In exchange for the free score they will try to sell you credit cards or other financial products. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my credit score is 776. The last time I had checked it was in the 730s. Although, I don’t plan on applying for credit in the near future it is still helpful to have a good credit score.

I’ll have to wait a year to check my credit report again, but I can check my credit score every month. If there are any major changes in my credit score then I’ll know something is up with my credit report.

Have you checked your credit report and/or credit score lately?

 

Stuff I Don’t Spend Much Money On – Personal Care

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Many people have wondered how I’m able to keep my spending so low. The reason I”m able to keep my spending so low is that I don’t spend much money in some areas that most people spend a lot of money on. One of those areas is personal care or personal hygiene. In the personal care category I include such things as haircuts, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste,floss, shaving supplies,etc. I think you get the idea.

I probably spend about $20-$30 a year on personal care. Lots of people probably spend more than that on just a haircut. Cutting my own hair is one of the ways I keep my personal care costs down. I bought a $10 razor* in 2006 and have been using it to cut my hair ever since. The razor has paid for itself many times over. Since I keep my hair buzzed it is easy to cut my own hair. I realize not everyone has this option, but if you do it is a great way to save money. *To make the razor deal even better it was bought with a free $10 gift card my local CVS was giving away as part of their grand opening.

Another plus of having a buzz cut is that you don’t need to use much shampoo. If I’m using body wash, it works fine as shampoo too. And shampoo works fine as body wash too. In a pinch, you can even use bar soap to wash your hair. Using less is a strategy that works for most personal care products. It probably takes less than you think to get clean.

Another way I save money on personal care is by using an old-fashioned safety razor. A safety razor is more expensive upfront, but it doesn’t take long to recoup your investment and the razor should last for a lifetime. The blades I buy only cost eight cents each and last about a month, which is less than a dollar a year. This is much cheaper than disposables and you get a better shave. Sometimes, the cheaper option is the higher quality option.

I used to take advantage of the drugstore deals for free personal care products. That can be a good way to save money on personal care, but the time investment wasn’t worth it for me. You can get shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, and more for a $1 or less regularly priced. I know people will disagree, but I don’t think there is much difference in quality.

The fitness center I’m working out at now provides free shampoo, body wash, deodorant, shaving gel and q-tips. Since I already have a supply of all my other personal care needs I probably won’t need to spend any more money on personal care this year.

The money I spend is enough for me to be clean, have a neat appearance, not smell, and even occasionally attract members of the opposite sex. That is good enough for me.

Should You Take the Job You Can Get?

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I’ve only put in a few applications in my job search so far, but I’m wondering if I should look for a different type of job. There doesn’t seem to be many job openings for attorneys and so far I’ve just gotten the one interview and they never bothered to contact me about my status after the interview. At this point I can figure out I wasn’t hired. I’m wondering if I should set my sights on a more easily obtainable job.

I delivered pizza before law school and during law school so now that I’ve finished law school I could probably get another pizza delivery job. This isn’t the type of job that I ultimately want, but at least I would be making some money. A pizza job or other entry-level job wouldn’t be very impressive on my resume, but not having a job doesn’t look good on my resume either.

It is possible that I might not even be able to get a pizza job. A potential employer would have to wonder if I would leave as soon as I found a better job. And I would have to admit that I would leave for a better job. If I do take an entry-level type job I will still be looking for a job that utilizes my law degree.

For now, I am going to continue looking for a legal job. I’ll also look for a part-time job that can bring in a little money. Hopefully, I can find something more professional than delivering pizza that would be ok to include on my resume.

How to Get Free Books for Your Ereader

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I love to read and usually read one or two books every week. Sometimes I might purchase a book using a free Amazon gift card from Swagbucks, but the vast majority of books I read are free. If you have a Kindle or other popular ereader it is easy to find lots of free books. This includes popular books like The Hunger Games.

Before I started reading on my Kindle, I used to get all my books from the library. Most libraries now have ebooks available to lend for a variety of ereaders. In my experience, there aren’t too many titles available and the more popular ones are always checked out. Your local library might be better, so it wouldn’t hurt to check out their ebook selection.

My preferred method for getting free ebooks is to get them from Amazon. For a list of the currently available free books on Amazon you can go to a site like HundredZeros.com that will compile them for you. I usually just go to the Amazon Kindle books best seller list. There you will find the top 100 free books. You can click on a category, such as investing or mystery, to see that category’s top 100 list. This will give you tons of options for free reading.

Although you can find lots of free books on the Amazon free best sellers lists, the most popular titles are rarely on there. To get a copy of popular titles to read you need to join a borrow and lend site such as Lendle. On these sites you list the books you have available to lend and request books you want to borrow. This is how I was able to get free reading copies of the last two books of “The Hunger Games.” The loans last 14 days and after that the book is returned to the owner. Bonus tip: If for some reason you are not able to finish the book in 14 days it is possible to keep the book longer if you have a wi-fi ereader. I wasn’t able to finish “Mockingjay” in 14 days because I kept reading other books that were more interesting to me. In order to finish the book, I just didn’t connect to wi-fi for a couple of days. They can’t pull the book off your Kindle if you’re not connected to the internet.

If you don’t have a Kindle you can still use these methods to get free ebooks. There are Amazon Kindle apps that allow you to use your iPhone or Android phone as a Kindle. There are also apps for your PC or Mac. Or you can just read in your browser using the Amazon cloud reader.

If you have an ereader that is not a Kindle you can still read Kindle books on it. You will need free ebook conversion software such as Calibre. It allows you to turn a Kindle format book into a variety of other formats. For example you could convert a book from the Kindle mobi format to the Nook epub format. With this free software you can read almost any ebook on almost any ereader.

There are a lot more sites than what I’ve mention that have free ebooks available, but I haven’t used them. I am able to find more free books than I can read just from the methods in this post.