July 2008

The College Money Network recently welcomed its newest member, Spilling Buckets. While we only added one new blog, we gained two new members, because Spilling Buckets is run by a blogging duo. Be sure to check out their blog after you’re done here. Now it’s time to meet another member of the College Money Network. This week I’d like to introduce you to MFA or Bust.

1. Describe yourself in 10,000 words or less, preferably less.

I’m the 20-something female blogger behind MFA or Bust, where I write about my personal-finance travails in trying to live the good, yet financially (and occasionally socially) responsible life in New York City. But having just gotten my foothold on financial stability–my credit cards are finally all paid off, and I’m saving aggressively–I’m about to leap back into the stormy waters of debt for… a master of fine arts in creative writing (gasp! shock! horror!). I’m looking forward to putting all my new found PF knowledge to use as I revert back to genteel student poverty.

2. What made you decide to start a personal finance blog?

I was struggling to get out of credit-card debt (my all-time debt high was $10,707.87 in January 2007, and ten months later, I still owed $7,292), and I began reading PF blogs as inspiration to change my slippery one-payment-forward, two-credit-card-charges-back ways. I started MFA or Bust to track my own progress, but the idea of being publicly accountable remains a powerful motivator in keeping me more or less on the path of budgetary righteousness.

3. What has surprised you the most about blogging?

How *hard* it is. I assumed that I would have so much to share and say, but I’ve been surprised that 1) I’m really concerned about remaining anonymous and 2) I need time and thoughtful consideration for even really simple posts. I have the highest respect for more prolific and expansive PF bloggers. How the hell do you guys find so many relevant, meaningful, and interesting things to blog about?!

4. What is the most important financial lesson you have learned from college?

If you’re going to pay good money for something, make sure you’re getting the most you can out of it–and this is as much a qualitative judgment than a quantitative judgment. So, for instance, if you’re paying for up to five classes, but only taking four, consider auditing an extra class (perhaps in subject that’s unrelated to your major, but that you’ve always been intrigued by) for the learning experience; at the same time, make connections and create new opportunities–academic, social, or otherwise–by engaging with your professors and your fellow students outside of the classroom.

5. If you had to pick three of your favorite posts to share with a first time visitor, which would they be?

I’m going to cheat and pick two sets of related posts. (She’s obviously not going for a master’s in counting.)

• Forecasting student loans — a grim estimation of my worst-case scenario for student loans
• Student loans revisited — a happier reassessment of my situation

• Current stats — my very first budget
• Updated income vs. expenses — serious squeeze edition — my latest budget

Thanks for your time, MFA or Bust!

This past weekend I was hanging out in the city with a few of my friends. The city is the place to be on the weekends. You’ll find some of everything there — residents, tourists, freaks, geeks, foreigners, dudes, chicks, dudes dressed as chicks, chicks dressed as dudes, and the homeless. While we were hanging out in the city, my friends and I were approached by homeless people multiple times.

Having spent four years of my life bombarded by panhandlers in Chicago, saying no is practically second nature to me now. Seeing the same people on the El asking for money every weekend made me grow rather cynical. There was one incident in particular where one of the perpetual panhandlers started saying his lines, and a lady started warning the other passengers not to give him money because he didn’t need it.

In other incidents, I’ve seen homeless people flat out refuse food from others just trying to help them out. Apparently, some of them are hungry for money, not food. Other times I’ve seen people give a homeless person some money, only for the homeless person to get mad when they can’t spare a little more. These experiences have left quite an impression on me, and that’s why I never give homeless people money.

I know it sounds selfish, and maybe it is. However, this study shows that I’d fit right in with the college students at UNC when it comes to giving handouts to the homeless. Here are the main reasons I never give homeless people money.

You don’t know what they are going to do with it. I really hate the feeling of not knowing if they spend the money on something useful. Of course, their signs always mention they need money for food, but we all know that it could just as easily go towards drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. I’m not trying to stereotype all homeless people this way, but my biggest concern is that I have no idea which ones are being genuine and honest.

Sometimes they aren’t even thankful. As I mentioned before, some homeless people blatantly refuse food offerings because they’d prefer money. That’s like having a friend throw away a birthday cake you made for them because they prefer pie. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve helped an old lady cross the street and held doors open for strangers, and these people have been more grateful than any homeless person I ever gave money to before I adopted my new policy.

There are better alternatives. In fact, maybe the reason some homeless people aren’t thrilled about money and food is because they’re really just looking for conversation, as this article suggests. As far as money is concerned, I prefer donating to organizations that help the homeless rather than giving money directly to the homeless, because I know that the money will be used appropriately.

With that being said, my friends see things differently. All of them ended up giving change to most of the homeless people we ran into this weekend. In fact, one of the homeless guys tried to make me feel guilty for being the only person in our group to not give him some money, and it made me wonder.

Do we give money to the homeless to help them out or do we do it to feel better about ourselves?

Most, if not all, of the people I’ve met who regularly give money to the homeless mention a common feeling — guilt. When you mention that the homeless person could spend the money on something bad, they usually say something like, “That’s not my responsibility anymore.” Basically, they’ve done their good deed, and the overwhelming feeling of guilt is gone.

Do you give money to the homeless? Is the act of giving a selfish act?

I have a confession to make. What the hell, let’s make it two. First and foremost, headlines are fun to write. You should try it sometime if you haven’t before. Second, I lied about my student loans. There, I said it. It’s out there, so now I guess I have some explaining to do.

When I, Broke Grad Student, started Broke Grad Student 8 months ago, I was really struggling to come up with a tagline. All I could think of was stupid stuff like “Tales of Ramenhood” or “…at least I’m not going for a PhD”. At one point, I considered just giving up and not having a tagline at all.

Eventually, I came up with the idea for my current tagline, and this is when my pants caught on fire. As descriptive as it is, “Adventures in paying back $21,863.57 in student loans” just doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, so I took a little creative liberty and rounded the number down to $20,000 without thinking about the future repercussions. The main one being that the numbers in my progress bar would be off by about $2000 up until now.

Well, I’m happy to announce that today, I’m finally ready to tell the truth and admit to the rest of the world that I really started with $22,000 in student loans, not $20,000. To satisfy the really picky readers, the exact balance was $22,012.63. While I hope that I haven’t upset any of my readers by doing this, I can understand if I did. Even though I can’t undo what I’ve done, those of you who are upset can at least get some satisfacation out of the fact that I lost a really nice pair of pants in that fire.

It has been another exciting week here at Broke Grad Student, but Sundays are always a good day to sit back, relax, and do some reading. After announcing the launch of the College Money Network a little over a week ago, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to organize our first writing project and giveaway contest. To make sure you don’t miss it, be sure to subscribe to my feed via RSS or email and automatically get updates whenever I post new content.

Now it’s time for a leisurely stroll through the College Money Network with some of my favorite posts from this week.

• Green Panda Treehouse discusses how to Use Budgeting and Savings to Cope with the Economy
• MFA or Bust talks about the ethical cheapskate.
• This Writer’s Wallet is excited about Unexpected Blessings, financially
• Broke-Ass Student presents FDIC Bank Insurance Teetering; Is The FDIC Deposit Fund A ‘Myth’ And Have Americans Become Too Complacent?
• Poorer Than You shares how to get some Cash Back and a $100,000 Sweepstakes

Also, I’ve been interviewing one member of the College Money Network each week and sharing it with my readers, so take some time to get to know Broke-Ass Student and Grad Girl if you haven’t already.

• An Interview with Broke-Ass Student
• An Interview with Grad Girl at This Writer’s Wallet

Finally, there are tons of great articles to check out in this week’s carnivals.

• Carnival of Personal Finance: Baseball Edition at Taking Charge
• Festival of Frugality at Antishay Ventenne
• Finance Fiesta at Taking Charge
• Carnival of Money Stories at Almost Frugal