New Car

If adulthood were simply a series of things that you need to check off, then Kevin and I would be one step closer. We just purchased our first new car!

This has been on the radar for a while. At the beginning of the year, when I was trying to figure out our expected 5-year expenses, I knew that it wouldn't be long before we had to replace both of our cars. At the time we were expecting to get two newer used cars. Or maybe one new and one more used, depending on our needs and when things ended up happening. Then Kevin's car started struggling more and more. As his annual safety inspection approached, we knew we should get serious about looking for a new car. There was a chance his car wouldn't pass, and it's just too old to pour a significant amount of money into.

A bit of internet research led me to the conclusion that buying a new car would definitely be worth it. The prices of used cars simply aren't dropping the way they used to. A certified pre-owned car isn't that much cheaper than a new car, and they're much harder to find. I believe this has something to do with all the computers and electronics in cars these days. Those don't lose value quickly; they just lose it all at once after several years.

The next step was to start narrowing down types of cars. I definitely wanted a lot of cargo space, more than we have now. And I had my heart set on a Subaru Outback, because I still miss my first car. But we looked at some other models with hatchbacks.

Then it was time to go for some test drives. All the dealerships are lined up along one road just a few miles from our house. It made it easy to go after work during the week. We started at Subaru, where I was surprised to learn that the Forester is actually smaller than the Outback. But it does have you sitting higher, which neither of us liked. Then it was over to Hyundai. Kevin has driven several Hyundais as rental cars over the years, and he likes the way they handle. We drove a couple, and I quickly fell in love with the Elantra GT.

Our new Elantra GT!

We did go out one more day to try out a Prius. But honestly, a new car is a new car on some level. Kevin wasn't really interested in a Kia or a Mazda, and the Elantra fit our needs pretty well. Plus it was nearly half the cost of the Outback, thanks to a variety of specials the dealership was advertising. They also do free oil changes, tires, and loaner cars for life, and we got a really good deal on extending the warranty from 5 years/50,000 miles to 10 years/100,000 miles, which will hopefully cover that gap when all the electronics fail.

At the end of the day, I didn't get my Subaru. The truth is that it just doesn't make sense for us. All-Wheel Drive was necessary in Colorado, but we'd never need it in Virginia, where we just stay home if the roads get that bad. It was bigger than what we need now and significantly more expensive.

We do probably want a bigger car eventually. Once we have kids. But the reality is that the Camry probably only has 2-3 years left in it (if that). We'll be doing this again before long, and by that time we should have a better idea of what we actually need in a bigger vehicle. Hopefully it doesn't happen until after the Elantra is paid off.

What's Mine Is Yours

On the one hand, money all gets combined the moment you sign the marriage certificate. That's one of the main points of marriage: combining your assets. You get some tax breaks (depending on how much money you make) and you become liable for each other and all the money you make or spend is in the same pot.

On the other hand, it's a lot more complicated than that from a practical standpoint. And an emotional one.

Money was always a fraught issue with my dad. Moreso as I got older and started caring more. This peaked in college, when it seemed like every fight we had came down to money. Then I graduated and got a job and disentangled myself as much as I could. I bought my car from him and got off the family phone plan sooner than anyone else I know. I never asked him for another cent, even when I lost my job, and our relationship started improving.

So I've got some baggage around the idea of combining finances with someone. Even someone with whom I've already combined literally every single other aspect of my life. There's a feeling of independence that comes with making and managing your own money, and I've been loathe to give it up.

But that's part of marriage.

Lucky for me, Kevin and I have very similar views when it comes to money. We make about the same amount. We save and spend about the same amount. We value the same things. Money isn't something we've ever fought about. But even with someone on the same page as me, it's scary to relinquish some of that control.

So it took over a year of marriage for us to broach the subject of a joint account and start taking steps to combine all of our assets.

And then you have to deal with all of the headaches and decisions that come with that. Which bank should we choose? How much money do we want in each account? Which credit card should we get for shared purchases? What's the difference between a joint account and an authorized user and how much does it matter? All in all, I think we've talked about money more in the last month than we did in all the previous five years of living together. Which is a good thing. It's nice to get reassurance that we're on the same page and be forced to do some more research when we aren't.

But once those decisions are made, it's not like the stress just goes away. I'm a bit of a control freak, and this mostly plays itself out in how I manage my money (and my kitchen, ask anyone who's attempted to do the dishes in my house). I don't have any of my bills set up to auto-pay, because it would just cause me more stress, checking every few hours to see if the money has been transferred yet. Hell, I get stressed when a statement shows up a day late because of a holiday. I get used to paying it on the same day every month and having to wait throws me off.

So you can imagine how stressed I've been with everything currently up in the air. You open the new account and transfer enough money to get things started. But you have to leave enough money in the other accounts to avoid fees. Because it can take a month for direct deposits to get switched over successfully, and closing the old account too soon will just exacerbate the problem. Money disappears for a day or two while it's being transferred, and I always have a moment of panic before I remember where that money is. Mint's notifications aren't really helping with this stress.

I just have to tell myself that it will all settle down soon. The new accounts will be funded, the old ones closed. Everything will get transferred over and we'll end up with a much more complete picture of our financial lives. In the meantime I'll keep taking deep breaths.

Mint

About a month ago, I signed up with Mint.com. This was in an effort to a better sense of my financial situation. I want to start saving more money and possibly pay off some of my loans a little quicker. Mint is great at giving you an overall picture of your finances. It also has several other features. I've really liked some of them, and I'm still learning to use others. Mint is pretty customizable, so I can always change settings when I don't like the defaults. But I've been laughing at some things.

The best thing about Mint is having everything in one place. I can see my checking and savings accounts, my debt (credit card, student loan, and car loan), and my 401k. By far my favorite thing is being able to play with my 401k. Mint provides several features that aren't provided by the 401K itself. For instance, I can see the value every day, instead of simply receiving quarterly statements.This allows Mint to build graphs that let me see performance over time and compare my own performance to the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones. It has me excited to start some other investments, though I still need to do some more research on that.

Mint also adds up all my assets and debts and lets me know my net worth on any given day. I was really excited to discover that this is a positive number. I can also see how it changes month to month. Mint is all about the graphs, which is probably my favorite thing about it. I can see spending or income over time and break spending down by category or merchant. It's pretty handy for looking at where all my money goes.

There are a ways to set budgets and goals, which I'm still playing with. Mostly I use the goals to calculate how quickly I could pay off a loan with this or that payment amount. But since they don't integrate well with the budgets, I decided not to actually set up any goals. For example, my required student loan payment each month is $211, but I've been paying $300 to pay it down faster. When I enter in the budget and the goal, Mint decides to allocate $511 for student loans which isn't right and skews the budgets I have set up. So I just allocate the $300 right off the bat and forget about the goal.

I also haven't been able to figure out how to make budgets work for things I don't buy every month. I can say that I want to spend x amount each month and break that into categories. Mint builds little bar charts to show how much I've actually spent in relation to what I'm planning to spend across the categories. But if I make a one-time purchase in a different category (like a Father's Day gift), the amount doesn't show up in my total spending. It just disappears into the ether. I have to keep remembering to add my "uncategorized" spending to my "total" spending to get the actual total. I wish there were an easy way to integrate the two.

Mint also occasionally has problems categorizing things correctly. When I transferred money from my checking to my savings account, it got recorded as additional income. According to Mint I'd earned that money twice. I've also had some problems with credit card purchases getting recorded twice. My card doesn't get charged twice, but it looks like it was. This mostly happens at restaurants, when the card is initially charged for the meal amount and then a second time with the tip added in. Even though this overrides the initial charge, Mint doesn't always figure that out. It led to me thinking I'd spent significantly more while visiting a friend last weekend than I actually had. It's easy enough to delete or recategorize transactions once you figure out what's going on. But figuring out what happened can lead to some stress.

There are other features that are probably helpful to many people that I just find funny. On the mobile app, mint shows your net cash flow every month as a simple income - spending calculation. Since I get paid on the last day of the month, this is always negative and doesn't end up being very useful for me. There are also a lot of alerts I've had to turn off. Over the weekend I had to stop at a gas station ATM to get money for the tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike because I'd forgotten to do this before leaving home. Mint immediately emailed me to let me know that the ATM had charged me a fee, something I was perfectly aware of. It also let me know when my rent check got cashed with a warning that "someone" had cashed an exceptionally large check.


All in all, the features I like make up for the ones that I'm finding less useful. There are a lot of customization options with Mint, and it's taking me a while to get it to the best state for me. I would definitely recommend it. Seeing the big financial picture has been a big help for me. Although I have yet to see if I actually succeeded in spending less this month than in months past.