In today's interview we speak with Nut, who hosts the Writer's Coin blog. As a young newlywed in a big city, Nut does a great job finding ways to balance frugality with living in the moment and shares them with his readers. If you can relate to the challenges of achieving that balance, I encourage you to check out
his blog.
Mrs. Common Cents: I've noticed in your blog that you occasionally make parallels to money and life with baseball stats. I, too, make parallels between money and life, but my parallels mirror my interests. I'm not so interested in sports, but do love to cook and find food, in general, an interesting topic. One of my new favorite books is In Defense of Food
by Michael Pollan. Michael's philosophy of the entire book could be summarized in his 7 word introduction– "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." If you had to summarize your philosophy on money in this way, what would that be?Writer’s Coin: That's tough, and before I narrow down my “philosophy” down to a few words, I would just like to say that drawing parallels to the things that interest us when talking about money is a great way to engage readers and get them into this stuff. It shows people your personality and interests,and makes it much more interesting. My money philosophy would probably be something like, “Think and learn about money a lot. But don't obsess.” I'm caught in the obsess part still, so there you go. I should try to follow my own advice.
MCC: You've recently married. I'm sure you've heard that money is one thing couples often argue about. What are some of the challenges you face in combining financial lives? Any advice on what's worked for you?
WC: Well, we just set up our joint account and are going through our first month of “jointness” so I may have to report back on how this goes later. It's tough because I'm way too obsessive about saving (we want to buy soon) and when it was just my money it was fine, but I sometimes feel likethat obsessiveness is making M feel like she can't/shouldn't spend money. And that's not good. So I have to get better at that. The biggest challenge is accepting that this isn't your money or her money, it's “our money.” It sounds simple but in practice it's a tough concept. So far I don't know that anything has worked for me—we're two weeks into it. But I know I have to chill out with the micromanaging of our account. Instead of obsessing about it day in and day out, maybe just sitting down once at the end of the month to go over things would make both of us feel better.Money is important, but it's not worth getting all bent out of shape 24 hours a day (unless you're in a serious financial catastrophe, which luckily we are not).
MCC: We hear about the state of the economy everyday, so much that it seems omnipotent in every news bite, article, TV show, etc.. As someone who writes about money, what are your thoughts on the economy? How will this impact our generation?
WC: You know what, the more I read up on all this stuff I get very fatigued by it. Like you mentioned, I'm a huge baseball fan. Well, it's like the draft: you see it every year, “This guy is going to be a superstar, he's incredible!” Every year it's the same thing over and over and does anyone really know how good a player is going to be in the big leagues? No. It's the same with the economy and the market and all of it. You should keep track of what's going on (like right now you should know the housing market is depressed and why), but don't worry so much about a lot of the panic around it. Make sure your financial house is in order and most of this stuff will just be noise. As for the impact of our generation, I think it'll be a good thing. A lot of people our age don't know/care about this stuff and this is a wake up call. Maybe they will learn a lesson or two about high gas prices, helping the environment because of it, and the things that can happen when you borrow more than you should for a home. All it can do is teach us something. Of course, in 10 years when all this is behind us, it'll all be forgotten and we'll make some new mistake. But that's just life. It's one of those things where you have to try to be even keeled about things.
MCC: You speak with a lot of insight surrounding personal finance. Have you always lived frugally or did you have a financial turnaround?WC: I guess I always lived frugally but didn't really know it. My dad doesn't really care a lot about stuff. I asked him what he would do if he won $10 million once and after telling him his answers were boring (“Save it”), he finally splurged and said “Another Terios.” Which is the car he alreadyhas now—a paper-thin car masquerading as an SUV. I was like, “come on dad!” So that's just the mentality I've grown up with. But I lust for stuff just like everyone else. I wanted a Wii forever and the iPhone is so cool. My “turnaround” was just becoming aware of things; I call it my “financial awakening.” It happened while reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I just made me change my thinking about money—I had never really thought about that stuff before. I have major issues with Kiyosaki, but he got millions of people “into” money, so you have to give him props for that. Sorry I don't have an exciting story here, I've seen people with much better ones. I was never in debt up to my eyeballs, never had to sleep in a car, etc.
MCC: I've noticed a few posts lately about looking into buying a home. What are some of the challenges you face there? Any thoughts on renting vs. owning? Any societal pressure to start the American Dream as soon as you can?
WC: Well the big challenge is being responsible about it. And by that I mean putting 20% down. Not putting it down but finding out a way to come up with the money. That's a LOT of money. I like renting because it gives you flexibility, but when you know and love a city and you're not going to go anywhere anytime soon, it makes sense to buy. Especially right now. So I think we're in luck because our situation (newlyweds) is lining up pretty well with the beginning of the end of this housing mess. Pressure... I think there's pressure every day. If you aren't someone that's got plans to “start their own business,” it feels like you're being lazy or something. It may be in my head, but that's the way it feels. When I meet someone who runs their own business and is my age, I'm immediately 2 inches tall in this person's presence. “I bow down to you oh achiever ofthe American Dream.” But it's silly, I know. Other than societal pressure, I don't really feel anything like that. I put pressure on myself and I'm an optimist, so if there is any other pressure out there, I haven't felt it. Keeping up with myself is enough work right now.
MCC: Do you feel pressure to compete financially with your peers? Why do you think so many people in our generation struggle to buy things they can't afford easily?
WC: For sure. I used to work in publishing so I was usually the person who made the least amount of money. And even now I don't know that I make the average of the people my age, but that's just the way it is. It can be tough when a couple starts talking about buying this and that, traveling here and there, and so on. For me, the toughest part is not being able to give that stuff to my wife. I mean, she is not a high-maintenance person (which I love about her), but you want to do nice things for her and make her happy. Sometimes it takes money to do something special and sometimes I wish I had more to just treat her.
As for why people struggle so much with buying things they can't afford, I don't know. It feels like everyone makes more than me so I don't see how they would struggle, but it has to mean that they are buying too much stuff, right? Also, I think they don't plan for it. Planning is huge. Itcan save you tons of money if you do some research and find the best deal (coupons, sales, etc.). And also planning on the money side of it. It's simple: save $25/week and in two months you can buy an iPhone instead of buying it and worrying about how to pay for it later. Just plan it out and you'll save yourself money and stress.
MCC: What are your long term financial goals - where do you see yourself in 10 or 20 years down the road?WC: Oooh boy. Long term I want to have the money to not be so obsessive about it, to be able to give my unborn children everything they need education wise and so forth, and I want to travel. The world has some amazing places out there and I'd like to visit them. In ten years I hope to have a kid and a job where I can see him/her whenever I want. A house here in Chicago would be nice too.
In 20 years...whew that's tough! In 20 years hopefully I'll have a book out and writing will be a central part of my life/job. I'll probably have a kid or two also, which is going to be fun/exhausting.
MCC: What financial advice would you give your younger self (5-10 years ago)?WC: This is easy: start investing now. I would show myself all the numbers and the proof that the longer you're “in the game” for, the better you'll do. Every time I see one of those charts showing how compound interest works I start daydreaming about how much I would have now if I would've started when I was younger. Hopefully I'll be able to get my kids started early.
MCC: What's your motivation for blogging? What's daily life like for a blogger who has a "real" full time job? Admittedly, blogging doesn't provide much income, so what motivates you to continue?
WC: To become famous! Not really, I started blogging just to have what I wrote read by as many people as possible. That's still the case today. My life is just like anyone else's that has a job except I get up around two hours before I "have to" to get to work. That's when I either blog or write fiction. At this point the motivation is kind of strange. I feel that if I miss posting one day I'm falling behind or not doing what I'm supposed to. Like when you sit around the house all day on Sunday and as you're going to bed it hits you, "I never took a shower today, gross." I'm so caught up in it right now that it's more an aversion to "missing a day" than anything else. But seeing emails and comments from readers always gives me a boost. I got a really nice one recently that made my day. And deep down I think part of me still believes I'll start making more than $3/month—so that's always a motivation factor. I talk a lot about alternative income and hopefully the blog will make more than a couple of bucks a month, but we'll see about that.
MCC: Anything else you'd like to add? Writing or saving tips?
WC: I write a lot about writing too and I really feel that blogging about writing/money has made me grow a lot. I encourage people out there to try it. Not for the sake of making money but for all the other positives that come with it. It's kind of like running a business (again, with no money) in that you pick up organizational skills you wouldn't otherwise put into practice. Since I am not a “boss” at work, I can practice being one with this blog. I am the CEO, the editor, etc. I can be as creative as I want. It's an outlet for my creativity.And there are other benefits too. My blog got me my current job and it has honed my writing skills. Long story short, what I'm saying is that having a platform to talk about what you love is a great idea. You'll network with other people who also share that same passion (I've also gotten some freelance writing leads this way).In short, there is tons of help out there on starting a blog. Go out there and do it! It will only make you a more interesting job candidate at your next interview and after a few months you'll have A LOT of samples to show if you ever want to work in a writing-related career. And trust me, people with writing/communication skills are in short supply out there so it will make you stand out.
