The Last and First Days

In the Philippines, where I was born and usually spend the holidays, my immediate and extended families often get together. We celebrate several Christmas and New Years traditions that many other Filipinos follow as well. I didn’t go home this year but I thought I’d still share with you my family traditions.

Snowy days in Portland — my new ‘other’ home.

For Christmas Eve, at the strike of midnight, we open our presents and have noche buena (Spanish: “Good Night”). Noche buena is a traditional Christmas Eve feast where we have a variety of Filipino, Spanish, and Chinese dishes. My family usually has queso de bola (Spanish: “ball of cheese”), hamón (Christmas ham), pancit (Filipino noodles), and rice cakes to name a few. For Christmas day, we go to a morning mass — usually in red clothing because to the Chinese it symbolizes luck and prosperity — and then we all have lunch together either at someone’s home or a restaurant.

For New Year’ Eve, we still have a traditional midnight feast – media noche — but instead of opening presents we make a lot of noise to cast out the bad spirits. Usually, the men set off the firecrackers (there is a difference between fireworks and firecrackers, and the latter is more bad-ass) while the women and children are watching either in the cars honking the horns or inside blowing on paper trumpets. We also have a centerpiece display of 12 circular fruits and wear clothes with dots or circular designs to symbolize wealth. I know growing up I always had an absurd amount of coins in my pockets so I can have a wealthy year and jumped off the highest point in the house so I can grow taller (which did not work).

This year, since I didn’t go home, I celebrated New Year’s the “American” way: I partied my way into 2010. It was so much fun but it was a bit of a blur and I spent most of yesterday recovering.

A photo from the first club we went to.

When I find a way to write about what I did on New Year’s Eve while still sounding prim and proper, I’ll blog about it. For now, I leave you knowing that I managed to lose a contact lens, break my camera, and break a shoe.

Real Snowflakes This Time!

This quaint town of mine is beyond precious when it snows. The whole town is thrown into chaos when a few inches of snow stick.

My office actually closed down early. With that, I went home, dragged my visiting sister out of the house, and we took photos in the three (or two) inches of snow. It was a lot of, ‘Ooh, take a photo of me here!‘, ‘Oh, oh, my turn, my turn!‘, ‘Ooh, take a photo of that tree!‘, ‘Ooh, jump in the snow!‘, ‘Ooh, make snow angels. Wait, ew, I know there’s dried fallen cherries beneath the snow.‘, and what not.

Case and point:

Above – I may have gotten impatient while waiting for my sister to take my photo.
Left – Probably the only close up photo where I didn’t have a snowflake or two in my eye.
Below – Snow in my shoe!

My sister and I pranced about in the snow; we were glad that it finally snowed and that it was pretty out. As our fingers and toes turned numb, however, I noticed that cars were still barely making it up the road and several cars had been abandoned.

It comes as no surprise I felt guilty about staying warm while people were stuck in their cars just right outside my house. I guilt-trip really easily. So, I marched off to the road and helped where I could. It was an interesting experience… I helped someone put chains on their tires (neither of us had ever done it before), I offered to let people into my house if they needed some place warm while they tried to figure out what to do next, I pushed a car…

I think my favorite part was walking alongside a woman driving and I was shouting (it was noisy out for some reason I can’t remember) at her, “Just keep driving! Don’t stop! If you think you’re stuck, just turn your steering wheel slightly and drive! Don’t stop! That’s it! Wait, no, no brakes! Gas, gas, gas!” Well, she decided to stop despite what I was telling her and a few seconds later she just slid back to where she had gotten stuck in the first place.

Oh, Portland.

The Poetics of Whim and Fancy

I need a bit of whim and fancy back in my life.

 

When the right one comes along,
you’re going to stick with it.

 

Happy Monday!

Let Me Break It Down For You

There’s no manual for personal finance in the real world. I have, however, read and received advice on it, and it probably also helps that I do have a degree in economics. I must warn you before you continue reading: I’m going to be “nerding out.”

My paycheck is automatically deposited into several accounts and most bills are paid for automatically. I say most because I’m also trying to switch from card/check-transactions to cash-transactions (but that deserves its own entry).

Below is a general diagram of how my paycheck is used but please notice the disclaimer that I am by not a finance expert nor am I claiming this is the right method for you.

*Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner or advisor, nor do I claim that this is the right method for you. Ask your HR Director if your company offers free sessions with a financial advisor–mine does!

My paycheck is deposited directly into three accounts:

Roth IRA (10%)

• Since this paycheck is after my taxes, my contribution to my retirement savings is 10%. This is a rather small contribution because I also contribute to my company tax-deferred 401(k).
• With my company 401(k), I’m maxing out on my contribution to get the greatest match by my company. For now, with my 401(k) and Roth IRA, I have a humble beginning to my retirement savings.

Savings (40%).

• I keep my short-term savings in my ING Direct account, which automatically takes about 40% of my paycheck. I have several subaccounts that include my emergency fund, and savings for graduate school, a car, a house/apartment, and travel.
• ING Direct is great because they have an APY of 1.3%.
• Note: This is the first of two times ‘housing’ appears. I am saving up for an apartment and the continued savings thereafter and “leftovers” will go towards buying my own home.

Checking (50%).

• Major bills are paid for automatically so I need not think about it or worry if I have enough money in my account.
• My rent and utilities aren’t paid for automatically because, well, I can’t but I don’t mind.
• For my minor discretionary spending (e.g., shopping), I’m trying to use cash rather than my card. I think it gives me a better control of my finances. As a result, it’s not automated.

There you have it: a very general overview of how my paycheck is currently spent and automated. It’s a pretty simple breakdown but simple budgets are sexy!

Several major changes will be happening in a few months time so I expect this to change somewhat. (The main being my checking amount decreasing and my retirement savings increasing).

I hope that this will be the first of many entries on personal development and money management. It’s sort of a part of my New Year’s resolution.

P.S. Props to Ramit at I Will Teach You to be Rich and Jenny at Life After College for finally putting words and graphics to what’s been circulating in my mind.

Glitter Snowflakes and Concrete Jungle

A week passes by, then a second, then a third, and then here I am. It’s been a while, yes? The last time I wrote, we were a few days shy of Thanksgiving and, this time ‘round, we’re so close to Christmas. I didn’t intend to neglect my blog but I’ve been up to a million and one things.

For the past two weekends I’ve been busy making and sending holiday cards. It was (sort of) fun being covered in glue, paint, tape, glitter, and scraps of paper. And I’ve even got battle wounds!

Pop-up snowflake cards! This was after I decided glitter snowflakes were way too messy.

Some of the end results. And I even made envelopes!

Last weekend, I went on overload and sent some twenty cards. (These were a mixture of homemade and store-bought cards.) This weekend, I made a smaller batch that will get dropped off in the mail tomorrow. Cutting it close but better late than never, right?

Unfortunately, I won’t be going home for the holidays. I won’t be coming home to my concrete jungle—Manila, but, no matter. Having just started my new job a few weeks ago (around the same time I started “neglecting” my blog), I don’t want to use up my vacation days yet. I’ve already got plans for those vacation days and they involve Washington D.C. in February, Las Vegas in May (my 23rd!!!), and maybe another place or two in between.

Work’s going well. It’s allowing me to pay for these trips but that’s insignificant to the fact that I’m enjoying my work. I’m invigorated by it. The responsibilities that are being given to me are a little overwhelming (if only I could tell you what I do) but it’s what I want to be doing and it’s challenging me in all the right ways. It doesn’t hurt that I love getting dressed up for work either.