Class Warfare,Being Broke and Being Poor

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Trent at The Simple Dollar recently had a couple posts on Class Warfare and Being Broke and Being Poor. These posts generated a lot of strong reactions and I want to share my own thoughts coming from the perspective of someone at the lower end of the financial spectrum.

The “Class Warfare” post sprang from this quote-“You paid off $17,000 in credit card debt in a little over a year? You’re not a poor person, you’re a rich person. You don’t have financial problems and you can’t relate to my situation. I will have to find another website to read.”- that Trent received from a reader. I can somewhat understand where the reader is coming from. It can be irritating to read on blogs how you should lower your expenses by turning off your cable or cutting out the daily latte. Any sensible person at a lower income doesn’t indulge in those luxuries anyway. Advice to spend less than you earn can seem irrelevant when almost all your earnings go to basic necessities.

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Where to Keep Your Emergency Fund

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There are a couple of schools of thought on where to keep your emergency fund. Many people like to keep their emergency fund at their local bank so they can get immediate access to their money. Others, including myself, prefer to keep their emergency fund in an online savings account for the higher yield, low minimum balance requirement, and lack of monthly fees. The drawback is that it can take a couple days to transfer your money to your checking account. My solution to this would be to use my credit card for the immediate spending needs and then pay it off when the funds transfer was complete.

Since I have opened a few online savings accounts in order to receive bank bonuses I’ve been able to compare which accounts I like best. My favorite is probably the ING DIRECT Orange Savings Account
(aff link). My affection for this account probably has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve made about $500 in referral bonuses from them. Their yield of 3.0% isn’t the highest but it is much higher than most banks and the referrals have more than made up any interest deficit. If you want to open an account with $250 or more and receive a $25 bonus just click on the link on the Make $$$ With TFM page.

My newest and highest-yielding account is with FNBO Direct. This account currently pays 3.50% and has no minimum or monthly fees. After you open the account you can receive a $25 bonus for opening an online billpay account.

Technically, my Wachovia Way2Save account is my highest-yielding account. I’ve been receiving a promotional 16% interest on this account and when the promotional rate ends I’ll still be receiving 5% . The catch with this account is you’re limited in how much you can deposit in it. There is a $25 referral bonus for this account as well which you can find on the Make $$$ With TFM page.

There are a lot more good online savings accounts out there. These are just my current favorites that I have personal experience with.

My Latest Money and Health Hack

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My latest money and health hack involves not buying a parking permit for school this semester. That saves me the $96 cost of the permit. I have classes starting at 8am Tuesday,Thursday, and Friday. If I arrive on campus by 7:30am I should be able to get a parking spot on the street. If not I can park at metered parking for $0.75 an hour. Having to feed a meter should provide me some motivation to get to school early.

Now for the health part of the hack. To be absolutely sure that I can get a parking spot on the street I plan to arrive to school before 7am. I am going to just get out of bed, get dressed and go. I’ll need to take my shower at the fitness center and since I’m already there I’ll get a workout in. This is somewhat like the plan I had earlier this year to go without hot water at home, forcing myself to shower at the fitness center. That plan was derailed by the closing of the locker rooms and showers for remodeling of the fitness center. Since the remodeling is all finished the plan should work this time.

There is one more way this plan should help my money and health. In the past I usually went out for a fast-food lunch when at school. I can’t do that now because I’d be extremely unlikely to be able to find another parking spot on the street when I returned. This means I’ll need to pack my own lunch which will be cheaper and healthier than a fast-food meal.

Using this hack will make it simpler for me to save money and improve my health. I’d love to hear any money and/or exercise hacks you guys have.

"A Million Bucks by 30" Book Giveaway

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I’ve posted a review of A Million Bucks by 30 on my other blog Bank Bonuses. I’m also giving away a copy of the book. You can enter by leaving a comment on this post or the review post. The only stipulations are that you can only enter once and I’ll only ship the book in the U.S to keep my mailing costs down. The deadline for entering is 8am on Friday Aug. 15,2008.

The MPRE

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*Note- My intention has been for Saturdays to be for posts relating to law school and law but I haven’t been doing that on a regular basis.

A passing score on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam(MPRE) is required for admission to the bar in most U.S. jurisdicitions. Missouri is one of the states that requires it and I took the exam yesterday.  You can take the MPRE before or after you take the bar exam.  Most law students take the exam in either their 2L second semester or during their 3L year so they will have one less thing to worry about when studying for the bar exam and fulfilling all the requirements for admission to the bar.

Most (all?) law schools require you to take a Professional Responsibility course which covers much of the same material that will be on the MPRE.  I would strongly advise anyone who needs to take the MPRE to take it when they are taking the Professional Responsibility course.  This way the studying you do for Professional Responsibility or the MPRE will serve you for both.  This will make taking the MPRE much easier.

I took my Professional Responsibility course this spring but didn’t take the MPRE then because I wasn’t sure if I would be continuing in law school.  Once I knew I was staying in law school I registered to take the August MPRE.  I thought I would still remember most of the material I learned in Professional Responsibility and be fine for taking the MPRE but I had forgotten a lot already.  I’m hoping that I passed the test but not taking it in the spring is looking like it might have been a mistake.