be the change you wish to see in the world
So in the past week, I made it to yoga 4 times, climbing 1 time, and I walked into work twice. I wasn’t much of an early riser either. So I only hit 1 of my 4 goals, and was halfway there with 2 of them.
So to wrap up the month:
1. Wake up by 7 am every day. This one was so-so. It’ll be a goal for next month.
2. Go climbing 2-3x a week. I only made it once a week the whole month. Definitely need to add this for next month as well.
3. Practice yoga 2-3x a week. I think I hit this every week, or at least 3 weeks out of 4. Not bad!
4. Walk to work 3-4 days a week. I got pretty close to this one – I think only week 4 was missed.
Overall, it wasn’t too bad at all. I’ll be setting my July goals too.
Once again, I spent the week reading blogs. Here are my faves:
Plonkee asks about living together with unequal incomes.
Rocket goes grocery shopping.
Michelle thinks those pants make you look fat.
Four Pillars asks how long you can do without a paycheck.
Trent remembers that love don’t cost a thing.
Also, I was in 2 carnivals this week: The carnival of careers and the carnival of personal finance. Check them out!
Unless you live in a cave (and grow your own food), you’ve probably noticed that food prices have risen a bit in the past few years. I think it’s a good thing, personally, if it makes us think harder about what we spend our money on.
Americans spend a much smaller percentage of their budgets on food costs, compared to the rest of the world. At the same time, we spend more proportionately on discretionary spending (ie, luxury goods) than the rest of the world. So even with the higher cost of food, we’re still spending less than anyone else.
So why has the price of food gone up? There are a number of reasons. We’ve seen declines in supply of various staple foods because of lower production, failure of crops, etc. We’ve seen farmers switch from food crops to commodity crops (ie, corn for ethanol). We’ve seen oil prices rise, which increases the cost of transportation. And we’ve seen demand rise sharply, as incomes and populations increase.
What can you do to combat the rising cost? Well, there’s the traditional method – clip coupons, place the grocery game, etc. Or, you can adjust your whole approach to food and your diet:
Go vegetarian. Vegetarian staples cost less than meat. They are also healthier for you. If giving up meat altogether is too much, considering cutting it out once a week or more.
Go seasonal. Buying food out of season is expensive. This is because the food comes from much further away, and the cost of shipping is built in. Out-of-season food is also not very fresh, and thus not really good.
Go basic. Purchasing a few major staples and building meals around them can be economical. If you buy beans or grains in bulk, for example, you can see significant savings. These dry goods will also store well, so as produce goes on sale, you can plan meals around the vegetables that fit your budget at the time.
Go green. Plant a container garden. Your local garden store will have kits that you can place in your window. You’ll have fresh tomatoes or peppers all summer.
Go local. Locally produced food is cheap and plentiful. Visit your local farmers’ markets and check out the options. You’ll also reap the benefit of fresh and often organic produce as well.
There is no consensus as to whether we’ll continue to see prices rise, or if they’ll level out, or even drop. There is some indication that they are leveling out this year in some areas (ie, milk) but will continue to rise in other areas (ie, rice). That leaves us with trying to find more sustainable ways to maintain our lifestyles.
Earlier this week, the first loan I made on Kiva was fully paid back. It was an 11 month loan, and I contributed $25. The recipient was a woman, Ana, in Mexico who needed funds to expand her food supply store. Ana lives in a village where the average interest rate on a loan is 100%.
For those not familiar with Kiva, the idea is simple: lenders make microloans to recipients through the microlending process. Kiva acts as “middleman” (though they don’t take a cut), bringing together the local microloan institutions and interested donors. Recipients are vetted through the local microlender, who is in turn vetted by Kiva. Details on the lending institutions can be found on the Kiva page, including average interest rates, default rates, loan size and length of terms.
Kiva consolidates this information and posts the loan options on their website. You as the lender can search through the options and find the loan that interests you the most, pledging $25 or more. When the loan is paid off, your money is returned.
How does Kiva differ from other types of peer-to-peer lending? In a few ways:
Kiva is nonprofit. They don’t make money on these loans; they are merely providing a vehicle by which lenders and loan recipients can be brought together in a financially efficient way.
Your return-on-investment is not monetary. You don’t make interest on the loan, but you do gain the satisfaction of knowing the “donation” is going to a good cause – a hardworking small business owner. You also have the knowledge of knowing exactly how the money is being spent.
The risk of default exists. Sometimes the business plan doesn’t work out. In that case, the loan recipient will default, and you will lose your “investment”. There are no collections agencies. That is why I think of it as more of a donation (with the possibility of a nice surprise at the end of a year or so).
Microlending is not without its problems, of course, but in terms of “charitable” contribution efforts, it can be a good compromise for those who worry about how their donations are being spent. In addition to the above, it is important to understand that microlending does not operate like traditional loans do. Loan recipients pay high interest rates (up to 30-40%) because they are very high risk loans. But without the microlending option, recipients are often forced to resort to local money sharks, who employ harsh methods to ensure repayment.
Ana’s lending agency was a Grameen affiliate in Chiapas that lends mostly to women. They have been on Kiva for 13 months, and currently have a 100% repayment rate (all Kiva partners experience a 2% default rate). Women have the most difficult time finding loans for a variety of reasons, but they are also the most likely to contribute meaningfully to community development. Thus, microloans to women have the benefit of not only aiding an individual, but her neighborhood and community as well.
So I find myself facing a unique challenge now:
I am going to Mongolia next year for 10 months. For the remaining two months, I will be at my current job. I budget a year at a time, except I can’t really do that next year. For January and February, things will remain the same, but come March, everything gets turned upside down. To make things tougher, I plan to spend the first part of the following year traveling.
For now, I’m trying to make a list of known expenses, and then I will start googling and/or asking people in my network for estimates of costs. Here is where I stand now:
1. International flight. The flight to Mongolia can really vary, depending how I want to go about doing this. Even more complicated is the fact that I can’t really book a return flight. I will be talking to the travel agents to get an estimate for this, but for now, I’m eying $3000 roundtrip.
2. Housing. I will be renting an apartment in Ulaan Baatar. Ideally, it would be a month-to-month option, fully furnished, with utilities included (hot water please!). I will be asking my local partners for help on this, in the hopes that they will find something cheaper than I would (being an expat). Currently, I’m looking at $300/month, or $3000 total.
3. Food and Entertainment. I need to eat. Mongolia is a primarliy meat and dairy country, and I am a vegetarian. So I expect that my daily diet will be more expensive than the norm. I think I can use my estimate for my current monthly costs, and assume that, even with more expensive vegetables, I won’t be spending more than I do now. I will budget $200/month, or $2000 total.
4. Equipment. I will need some technical equipment for my project. Specifically, I need ArcGIS software and a GPS unit. I am shopping around for some deals, but I don’t want to skimp on this. So I think I will need $1000.
5. Language classes. I need to be able to get around. Usually, I find that some instruction in advance, plus some intensive study when I arrive is the best option. The advance instruction is difficult to budget for, but I will assume that the courses I’ve found online will suffice. In addition, I’ve been told that private tutors in Mongolia can be had for $5/hour. So, the advance online course ($800) plus the intensive instruction (100 hours) means I need $1300.
6. In-country travel. I will need to travel around in country to do my project. I would also like to take in some sights. This is an area about which I am unsure, so I cannot budget properly. But assuming 12 weeks of travel at $30/day, that would be $2520. I will round up to $3000.
This brings my total to $13, 300 for ten months in Mongolia. My grant covers $14, 500, which brings it pretty close (given that I have not accounted for miscellaneous expenses). There are some areas I can cut back (like finding a cheaper place to live), but I think my best option will be to seek additional funding. There are a couple places I can try.
Beyond the fellowship, I plan to travel. I’ll save that cost breakdown for a future post.
I want a life free of regret and resentment. This is easier said than done, because I think it’s a part of human nature to feel both from time to time. Buddhism says this is because we are too fond of our attachments, and from there springs the majority of our problems. Practice detachment, instead, and you find yourself with no expectations. Then you can just enjoy the moment as it is.
There’s a saying that I love, about how it is better to regret the things you’ve done than the things you didn’t do. I agree with this, but now, I’m practicing not having any regrets at all. Regret can be useful in terms of reminding you not to repeat a harmful action, but it’s useless in terms of changing the past. Instead, I try accept that something happened (or didn’t) and just try to move forward.
Resentment, on the other hand, is part and parcel of our human relationships. It is hard to never feel resentment. We are flawed beings, and it is inevitable that we will hurt and be hurt by others. And so resentment breeds.
But unlike regret, resentment serves no purpose. Being resentful means holding onto a past that you can’t change, and having unhelpful expectations about a future you can’t control. Resentment discolors your friendships and partnerships and causes additional pain. And sometimes, if the resentment builds up too much, it spills out and can cause irreparable damage.
I can’t change the way people behave. I can’t prevent someone from hurting me. But I can control whether or not I am hurt. I can choose to take someone’s actions in any number of ways, and I would like to choose to believe that they are acting out of a self-interest that just might not coexist with mine. And that is ok. Not everyone is out to get you.
And more importantly, I would like to nip resentment in the bud. I know what my trigger points are. I know that I can swallow my tongue when someone hits those trigger points and leave things be. If I choose to do that, however, then I also choose to let it go. And if it’s big enough that I can’t let go, then I need to let it out. But I need to do so in such a way that I can look back at my actions and say, “I have no regrets”.
Checking in with my June goals:
1. Wake up by 7 am every day. I was hit and miss with this one all week. Half a check?
2. Go climbing 2-3x a week. Once again, only went once. I must be better about this!
3. Practice yoga 2-3x a week. 3 times this week. Check!
4. Walk to work 3-4 days a week. 4 times this week. Check!
I’ve been doing more reading than posting these past few weeks, so I thought I would share some of my favorites:
Penelope Trunk visits a farm and in the process learns a bit about perspective.
Chris offers thoughts about gratitude (guest post).
Steve wonders if he’s not desperate enough.
Emily shares her mantra.
PaidTwice asks how much money would change your life.
I like to read a lot of career blogs. There is always useful advice being offered, and more interestingly, some intriguing opportunities to view social psychology and organizational behavior at work. But most career blogs are aimed towards the private sector, or life in the corporate world. Often some of the advice given is not as useful for me, being in non-profit.
I used to work in corporate America. I was at a start-up that eventually grew into a corporation. It was fun at first, but I quickly grew tired of the corporate lifestyle. I also didn’t like that i wasn’t contributing meaningfully to the world. I tried to alleviate that by using my skill sets in volunteer work, but it wasn’t really the same thing.
So I switched jobs and switched careers. In doing so, I hopped the line from the private to the public sector, without actually going public. I now work in a unique slice of worklife – a nonprofit that is subject to many of the regulations imposed on federal agencies, but operates like academia. It brings with it its own unique challenges too, in terms of navigating the work place.
Career advice is often about career progression. i think it holds true in the nonprofit world as well, but not in the same way. In corporate America, I found a lot more flexibility in terms of advancement. Positions could be “created” to justify promotions, if the profit motivation was strong enough. We don’t have that in nonprofit world. I happen to work somewhere with a large turnover, so promotions are more forthcoming than otherwise would be. But our “business case” is not as easily made as it can be in the private sector.
Another major difference between nonprofit and corporate life is the entry point. i found entering corporate America far easier than I did entering the nonprofit arena. At a nonprofit, it’s not what you know, but who you know. Often, jobs are posted with someone already in mind; cold applications are rarely acknowledged. In 5 years at a non-profit, I’ve learned a lot about the ins and outs of NGOs, government agencies, and foundations. The one clear thing that emerges is the fact that your network is your most important career asset.
But besides these two issues, I really don’t think the differences are so stark. In both arenas, I dealt with office politics, with restructuring, with salary and benefits issues. Even balancing work and life is no easier at a nonprofit than it is at a corporation. So I still think the career blogs are just as useful for me as they ever have been.
So I am not an enemy of debt. I find that having a little bit of keeps things in check. And being open to taking on debt means allowing greater opportunity. The trick, I’ve found, is not to be owned by the debt, at least not for a long period of time.
I’ve had a changing relationship with debt. On the one hand, being in debt means that I don’t extravagantly spend like I used to. On the other hand, one does start thinking about how the debt repayment funds would be much more useful in savings…
I used to live well beyond my means, taking on debt without really caring about it. One day, I sat down and tried to figure out exactly how much in debt I was. I was really surprised. So I started tracking it, in the hopes of paying it off. I realized that the payoff couldn’t really happen unless the spending habits changed.
But the spending habits don’t change until you start thinking about where you want to be in life, and where you want to go. Until I started thinking a bit further into the future, I didn’t really think about what being in debt really meant. And in the same vein, for people who aren’t in debt but also aren’t saving.
I realized one day that I want to travel. I want to be able to work part-time. I want to have a job that pays pennies but gives me an enormous amount of personal gratification. And these aren’t really things you can do with debt. And it was at this point that the debt took over my life, and I was consumed by the need to pay it off.
After a few months at the extremes, I found my way to the center. I am no longer consumed by the need to pay off my debt, but I’m also not spending like I won’t live through the week. I have a much healthier relationship with my debt, and my finances overall.
Of course, now that I’m past the crossover and well into the final stages of payoff, I’m a bit obsessed again. But with a final payoff date of early August, it’s so close I can taste it. I’ll forgive myself a little obsession again.
Just a little peek at my success – in just over a year and a half, I will have paid off the equivalent of half of my salary. No small sum! At the same time, I’ve managed to fully fund my Roth IRA every year. I’ve also started putting money towards my 403b (about 2.5%). And I’ve got a few grand in savings. And I never let myself feel deprived – I am as socially conscious of a shopper as I can manage, my work wardrobe is up-to-date, and I’ve taken 4 international trips in the past 2 years.
Now I am aggressively saving, because I have some ambitious plans for the next 10 years!
