Pay no attention to the watermark centered on her neck
Today, we’ve decided to let Anne Smith write a guest post. Anne runs MyBoyfriendAndIHaveAdvancedDegreesAndFiveFigureDebt.com, a personal finance site that chronicles “one fashionista’s struggle to stay sane (and stay caffeinated) in a tough economy.” Also, the site’s logo uses $ in place of “S” and ¢ in place of “c” because its author is unbelievably clever. She adds that she’s trying to “make cents” of her life, which is a joke we didn’t get but are applying our collective brainpower to the deciphering of. Take it away, Anne:
Hi there!!!! I’m so grateful that the folks at Control Your Cash let me write a guest post for them! I’m an easily excitable woman – with the maturity of an adolescent girl, even though I’m in my 20s and have a job – so that explains the exclamation points! This week I’m going to talk about personal finance with you! So fun!
I should probably mention off the bat that I have $45,398.39 in student loans. I majored in philosophy and can’t find a job in my chosen field. It’s so unfair! I sent résumés out and everything! So I’m thinking of doing the only logical thing and going to grad school. That way I’ll have even more initials after my name, even more debt to my name, and even more indignation 2 years from now when I still can’t find a job but will be that much closer to death. Sure, I could get a job doing something blue-collar, and maybe even make decent money at it, but why would I do that when instead I can complain about how unfair life is and why society owes me a living? After all, the average college graduate earns a million dollars more in her life than someone who dropped out of high school. Never mind that most people finish high school, but if I compare myself to the people who have not even a modicum of education it’ll make me feel better about myself. And that’s what personal finance blogging is all about. Also, that bit about the million dollars is received wisdom. Right up there with “You lose 60% of your body heat through your head” and “You should drink 8 glasses of water a day”, not to mention “Doing the speed limit is more fuel-efficient than exceeding it.” I either heard these axioms in conversation with fellow idiots, or read about them in O, The Oprah Magazine. Either way, they’re undeniably true.
Oh yeah, my boyfriend (soon to be hubby LOL!) He’s already in grad school, working on his master’s in library science after earning an undergraduate degree in social work. His student loan balance is at $52,498.12 right now. Can you believe Congress wants to increase our rate? So unfair! Because if it were 3.4% we could have paid our balances off this week, never mind that I’m 5 years out of school and have so far barely paid a nickel. Anyhoo, back to my boyfriend. His fixed-gear bike got stolen, so I have to drive him to his soccer game in my 1999 Taurus. Which, by the way, I recently had to spend $1100 on new brake drums, rotors and calipers for. I could have gotten away with a $125 brake pad replacement when I first heard squeaking a few months ago, but…well, let’s just say I was working on getting it fixed and it just kind of crept up on me. LOL!
Did I mention that we’re getting married? I’m so excited! Josh and I spent the last 4 weekends visiting wedding planners and looking for the PERFECT locale for our wedding. We’re going to hold it at the same hotel ballroom where Elizabeth Taylor and one of her husbands, I think #4, got hitched. Isn’t that exciting? Of course, that’s in LA and we live in San Diego, so the whole wedding party (my family, Josh’s family, my bridesmaids, and his groomsmen) is going to have to stay at the hotel. My parents have offered to chip in $5000, which is nice of them but it’s really nothing when we estimate the cost is going to be upwards of $30,000. What a racket, right? Maybe I should have become a wedding planner LOL! It’s expensive, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime magical moment and I want it to be perfect. I said “once-in-a-lifetime” because no one in the history of the world has ever gotten divorced, therefore I won’t. Also, I’m technically an adult so maybe I shouldn’t be relying on my parents for anything financial but what do you want from me, this is the 21st century and me and all my blogging friends are in a state of suspended adolescence.
Anyhow, gotta go. Because…we need to put a deposit down for our honeymoon! We’re going to Tahiti!!!! Sooooo excited! We had to take out a loan for the trip, but fortunately Josh’s dad co-signed for it otherwise we’d have to honeymoon in, like, Laguna Niguel or something. Um, I don’t think so. TTYL!
Today’s guest post was from Anne Smith. Check out her monthly debt updates and list of expensive places she can’t afford to visit yet wants to at MyBlogIsIndistinguishableFromAlmostEveryOtherPersonalFinanceBlog.com. You’ll also find commiserating comments from all her dopey friends, telling her how smart and brave she is for making one awful financial decision after another. No wait, we got the URL wrong. It’s actually MyBoyfriendAndIHaveAdvancedDegreesAndFiveFigureDebt.com. Sorry about that.
