How I Think About Money Now That I’m Out of Debt

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Last week something happened that should have been a momentous, once-in-a-lifetime experience.  It should have led to endless celebrations and singing from rooftops and cavorting drunkenly naked through the streets in ecstatic glee at this thing I’d been looking forward to for well over a decade and a half.

I am now completely debt free.

Paying off that final loan should have caused me to get really excited, but it didn’t—it just felt like making a regular bank transfer.  Maybe the anticlimax was partly because I won’t get to mark the big zero down on my net worth spreadsheet until next month, or maybe it was because I made the payment Continue reading »

An Honest Post About Mental Health and the Academic Life

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Last week a woman I went to graduate school with killed herself.  After graduation she’d gotten a tenure-track job as an assistant professor at a large university, and it was there that she threw herself off one of the buildings on campus.  In a majorly bad move, the university where she worked neglected to cancel classes the next day, and students had to attend class in the building she’d jumped from.  Not cool, guys, not cool.

My former classmate and I hadn’t spoken in nearly four years, though there was a time when we were very close and confided in each other about a lot of things.  We talked about the difficulties that we were going through as grad students, our fears for the future, our frustrations with how the system was run, and the difficulties we faced teaching first-year composition to undergrads in Nebraska.  She was one of a small handful of people I could be open with about my insecurities, and she in turn was open with me.

Our falling out wasn’t a dramatic one, but it was a falling out nonetheless.  After I graduated and stayed in the city to work an editing/greenhouse assistant job in the university’s agronomy department, my skepticism Continue reading »

Here’s How I’m Getting More Money Back on My Taxes

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So the American tax deadline’s almost here, and if you haven’t filed your taxes yet, you probably should get on that…

If you’re anything like me you usually file early to get that sweet refund cash, but this year I’m filing late because I’m out of the country and have to do some extra steps I’ll explain later. I’ve been doing my own taxes since the days of using pen and paper when I was in high school (!), though I graduated to electronic filing a few years later.  The mechanics of taxes are interesting to me, and learning the basics when I just had one grocery store job made it a whole lot easier to step up my tax game as my finances got more complicated.

That’s why I was always surprised to meet people who were like “Taxes? Whatever, my parents take care of that!” or who just threw a bunch of numbers into their tax filing software Continue reading »

Which Do You Value: Your Time or Your Money?

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In the original Legend of Zelda on NES, one of the dungeons holds an old man who refuses to let you pass unless you either give him 50 rupees (which can take a while to get) or one of your heart containers.  Fittingly, in the game’s terse narration, his caption reads “LEAVE YOUR LIFE OR MONEY.”

I remember finding this as a kid and thinking pretty hard about it—you could always get more rupees in the game by killing enemies, so paying the money seemed like the better option.  But, if you were short on cash and a really good player, could you potentially save some enemy-farming time by giving up the heart container?

I never seriously gave up the heart, but I always thought about it Continue reading »

I Paid Off ALL My Student Loans!!!* (with an asterisk)

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Happy New Year everybody—I’m feeling rejuvenated after my vacation and ready to take on a whole new set of challenges for 2019.  Hope you’re feeling the same way.

I also reached a big, BIG milestone, as implied by the title: last month, after making my first wire transfer of money back from Japan, I paid off the very last $3,400 of my very last student loan.  At 5.8%, that final loan was costing me $16 bucks a month in interest, but moreso than the monthly savings is knowing that I’m now COMPLETELY FREE OF INTEREST-ACCUMULATING DEBT, which just feels all kinds of awesome.

It was hard to describe the feeling of pure freedom I experienced when I clicked Send on that last payment, Continue reading »

The Economics of Living in Japan (For Me, Anyway): Part II

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Last week I shared how much I’m paying for rent, health insurance, and transportation in Japan, and it turns out that I’m saving quite a bit!  In the second half, let’s see how my other expenses measure up…

 

Food

 

Groceries Back Home: $150 ~ $250/month

Groceries in Japan: ¥15,000 ~ ¥25,000 ($150 ~ $250, estimated)

Winner: Tie

 

Back home I cooked almost every night (though some nights I loosely defined “cooking” as prepping a box of mac and cheese) as part of my regular routine, and that’s mostly been the case in Japan now that I’m more settled.  During my first few weeks here I found myself relying more on convenience store lunches (which are excellent) and pre-prepared foods from the grocery store, which actually worked pretty well since there’s a lot of sushi, noodle, and meat dishes Continue reading »

The Economics of Living in Japan (For Me, Anyway): Part I

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Here’s how much it costs to live in Japan.

One of the reasons I came here was purely economical: things in Japan are just plain designed so one person living on their own can live more cheaply and efficiently.  This means that for most people, compared to living in the States the same amount of salary will cover more necessities and leave you with more money to save and spend how you want (!!!).

To demonstrate, here’s a rundown of how much I make and how much I’ve been spending living alone in Japan versus living alone in the States.  Obviously this is just intended for reference, since everyone moving to Japan, whether you’re working for JET or for a private company, is going to have a different situation.

So, let’s do some numbers… Continue reading »

I Spent a Bunch of Money on Pens and I Don’t Regret It At All

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Many of you reading this know that I’ve carried the same blue medium-sized style Bic pen in my pocket since high school.  It’s hands-down my preferred writing implement for both creative work and all those little notes and lists I tend to write in my daily life (though not for Day Job-related tasks, as I talked about last summer).

I keep a handful of fancier pens I use for special notes or formal occasions, though for regular writing, I just plain feel better using something familiar.  I love the weight of these pens, their simple style, the way their blue ink stands out against printed black type when marking drafts, and even the way I can cleanly slide their caps off with one hand. Continue reading »

My Weeklong Return to Online Test-Grading and Why It Still SUCKS

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So last week I briefly mentioned that I’d signed on to a week (five and a half days, to be exact) at my old Secret Work-From-Home Day Job grading standardized test essays.  The chance to pick up extra hours arrived conveniently in my inbox six or so weeks ago because I’m still on the company’s mailing list, and at the time I figured, what the hell—I could always use the extra cash, and a week of test-grading wouldn’t set me too far behind, right?

*Cue ominous music here* Continue reading »

Money Leads to Freedom

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(TLDR Version: Money gives you the freedom to make the changes you want in life.)

I haven’t been to any kind of Day Job in over a month…and it feels AWESOME.  Instead I’ve been editing the fourth draft of my novel, studying Japanese, working on this blog, finishing a handful of other writing projects, and taking on a few editing projects, which combined total more than a full-time job while paying decidedly less than full-time money.  I’m able to do this chiefly for two reasons:

  1. I saved up a bunch of money (six months worth of living wages, to be exact) before I left my Day Job
  2. I have more income lined up for mid-summer when I leave for my teaching job in Japan

Both the income safety net and the upcoming job make it possible Continue reading »

I Worked as an Online Test-Grader for a Year and It SUCKED

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If you’ve been following this blog for longer than a year then you know that waaaaaaay back when I started in the fall of 2016 I was working at my part-time Secret Work-From-Home Day Job, which served as my main source of income while I edited the second and third drafts of my novel.

At the time I didn’t talk much about my Secret Work-From-Home Day Job on the grounds that revealing too much about my job or my employer could cause some confidentiality issues, or that I’d be found by company Google searches and they’d discover my decidedly noncomformist workplace philosophies.  In retrospect, though, the secrecy was probably unnecessary since not actually naming my employer or discussing actual work stuff kept me safe Continue reading »

Financial Update: I Saved Enough to Live On For 6 Months!

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The title says it all.

Since I started my Secret Office Day Job last June I’ve been saving a lot—the exact amount ranges between 10 and 40% of each month’s income (well, 40% was only once…) depending on my expenses, how many side gigs I have, or how much overtime I’ve worked.

(Luckily I keep a budget each month to track how much I make and where it’s going—and if you click on no other link in this post, check out my piece on the basics of budgeting, because it’s that important!)

My savings routine works like this: at the beginning of every month I track my previous month’s income, pay all my bills, and see how much I have left.  I keep $2,000 bucks in my checking account to cover unforeseen expenses (car trouble, computer explodes, bills I’ve forgotten Continue reading »