Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
I usually do pretty well on tests, but I just took the Bills IQ quiz, and I got a 77%. It’s broken down into sections, and each one just got progressively worse.
- Credit: 88 - Okay, I’m doing alright!
- Debt: 87 - Cool, still doing well…
- Budget: 70 - Well, I knew I needed a little help in that department, and it’s really not all my fault…
- Wealth: 72 - Well, no kidding, I know I have nothing right now…
- Life Plan: 68 - Now, that’s a little unfair. I’m still in school for another year! I don’t have to have my whole future planned out, right?
When you’re done with the quiz, there is some advice about how to improve your score. Credit counseling is one option suggested, but there’s other stuff about budgeting, saving, investing, and generally planning for the future. Then there’s a little graph to compare your score with others that fit your demographic profile. In most areas, my score was below average. 
Honestly, I don’t think it’s all that bad though. I’m really concerned about paying off my student loans. But I don’t have to start making payments on those until after I graduate, at which point I will hopefully be making enough money that it won’t be a big deal. I don’t have any credit cards, I don’t have a car payment, the only debt I have is my student loans. And one thing that I have read over and over is that the expense of a college education is well worth it because you’re making an investment.
This haiku pretty much sums up my situation:
so broke I must be
until my college degree
then I’ll have money
I’ve been trying to lose a little weight and get into better shape lately. I’ve been doing yoga and exercising on the treadmill and elliptical, cooking healthier meals, and I’m already feeling better and lost a few pounds (I’ve only been at this a few weeks!) I’m really stoked because I have hypothyroidism which makes it more difficult to lose weight than it used to be for me.
Anyway, I got bored of my DVDs and decided to get a couple new ones. One of them was Fat Free Yoga. Looking past the silly title, I felt like it was a good choice due to having 126 reviews with a 5 star rating. I received the DVD and attempted to watch it today. This is the one of the funniest, stupidest things I have ever seen! She pants like a dog with her tongue stuck out, chants, and is basically smirking the entire time looking like she is trying not to laugh because even she knows how stupid it is!
I went back to the product page to see if there were really some negative reviews that I overlooked, and discovered on the forum that the negative reviews are promptly removed! Not just for this DVD, but for all the Ana Brett & Ravi Singh DVDs. What a scam. I feel like I’ve been duped.
About 4 years ago, my dad had to have angioplasty. We were lucky that his heart condition was discovered before he actually had a heart attack. I worry about him, and now I know I have a family history of heart disease. So heart health is an issue very close to me. If someone close to you has heat problems, you will want to learn how to recognize the symptoms of a heart attack. Even if you just want to learn more about heart health in general, HeartLibrary.com is a great resource.
Ok, I officially have the coolest parents ever. They just gave me that GPS unit, and then last night they gave me a new digital camera! It’s red (one of my favorite colors), and it’s 7 megapixels whereas my old camera was only 2 megapixels. I mean, truly, the camera in my phone is better than my old digital camera. The new one is much smaller, too! Pretty, takes great pictures, portable…what’s not to love?!
Now I just need to find some cool things to take pictures of!
I’ve always wanted to travel the world. I wish that I had studied abroad earlier in my college career (and I really have made a career of it…yikes!) Maybe if I had taken school more seriously much earlier on, it’s something I could have done. But the fact that I won’t be taking a semester abroad doesn’t really mean that I can’t still travel the globe, presuming I can find the time and money to do so.
I know I definitely want to go to the UK; Wales and London in particular. I have a friend that took a semester in England, and she loved it. I’m not sure where she stayed though, I think the school set up something so it’s not like she spent months in London Hotels, though I suppose that’s where I would be staying for my much shorter visit. If I go there, then I might as well take a trip to Wales as well. I’d probably go to Cardiff, because it’s the capital and has some pretty cool sounding tourist attractions (I’ve always wanted to see a castle, too, so I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone there!) I could probably even find some reasonably priced Cardiff Hotels to cut down on the cost of my trip. Even so, I’ll probably be saving up for a while to take a trip to Europe, so this is all just wishful thinking right now. 
I truly want to travel the globe though, so I’ll have to expand my horizons a bit. I think I want to go to Australia as well, and maybe even Spain. I’ve mentioned I love doing touristy things (I even made Zack go to some of the tourist attractions in his hometown when we went to Montana last year!) Well, in Malaga, Spain, there is a really nice Picasso museum that I’d love to check out. I’d just have to check into airfare and Malaga Hotels before I go on my globe-trotting adventure.
This could be a lot of fun, but it’s probably years down the line. It’s nice to dream though.
I absolutely love chocolate, and I’ve been craving it lately. I never really treat myself to chocolate, though; I usually wait and hope to get it as a gift for Valentine’s or whatnot. My favorites are the caramels, by far. I’ve never been a huge fan of dark chocolate candy, but I love the variety you get with the boxes of assorted chocolates.
Unfortunately for me, Valentine’s has already come and gone, and I find myself pondering whether I should just go for it and treat myself. I mean, I’ve never bought myself a box of chocolates before, so the thought of it is a little foreign to me. Plus, it is a little scary because I always have to cut them in half to make sure I don’t get one with nuts in it. I’m lucky though because I’m not as terribly allergic to nuts as some people are: with me, if it’s something that’s manufactured someplace that also processes nuts, I’m ok, but if it actually has nuts in it, I need to steer clear.
I’ve actually found the perfect solution to this though! I ran across the website for Fannie May Candies, where you get the option to make your own assortment! That is great for someone who is picky or allergic or both, like me. So now the question is, do I order a box for myself, or drop some hints to Zack?
I never really gave gold much thought until Zack started metal detecting and collecting coins, and I started to get into coin collecting myself. I never thought about gold as an investment before. But not that we’ve been getting more into this hobby, I’ve been keeping track of the price of gold and the value of coins and such. We’ve been buying coins here and there, but I guess if we really wanted to take it to the next level we could start really investing in gold bullion or coins.
Wow, it seems like it’s been forever since I actually updated! I blame college. School started last week, and I’ve just been insanely busy. I’m writing this outside on campus, I’ve got class in about 10 minutes.
The trip to San Jose was awesome! We had so much fun; I just wish we had the money to go up there as often as I’d like to. We drank, ate (I got to check out this vegan restaurant up there called Good Karma - highly recommended if anyone is ever in that area), and played (Dave & Buster’s is like Chucky Cheese for grown-ups - you can get drunk and play games.)
Well, I think I have to head over to my class now, I’ll try to make sure it’s not two weeks before I update again.
