Class: Pagan ≠ Poor

Class: Pagan ≠ Poor There's a pervasive myth in and around the pagan community that being pagan means you are constitutionally incapable of holding a well-paying job, that you hate money and capitalism, and that you need to conjure minor spirits to balance your checkbook. It's my opinion that there's nothing inherent about being pagan that causes these things to be true, but rather a lack of financial know-how and a tendency toward discomfort with wealth. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with conjuring small spirits, but it shouldn't be necessary for basic fiscal health. So why does it happen? Well, my opinion is that we're often uncomfortable with the mainstream messages of what it means to be wealthy, corporate, or “successful”. Many of us grew up in non-traditional households; others have spent years unlearning and rebelling against the fiscal advice we were brought up with. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I hope you'll add other opinions to the mix. 1. Not keeping track of bills. The pace of modern life sometimes means deadlines come and go before we know it. And when late fees for non-payment reach $50 or more, or interest rates jump because you were late once, it doesn't take long to get behind the income-expense curve. Even something as easy as paying your Gaia pledge becomes a lot more painful when you wait 8 months to make a lump sum payment because you're “behind on your other bills”, rather than paying a bit every month all year round. Solution? Automatic bill pay is probably the easiest way. Most utilities, credit card companies, and other companies allow you to sign up for automatic debits from your bank account. You can usually green up your mail a bit by signing up for electronic statements at the same time! If a particular business doesn't offer automatic bill pay, most banks will allow you to schedule repeating automated payments; some people pay their pledge this way now, and don't ever have to remember to bring their checkbook to ritual. 2. Overspending. Not living within a budget is probably the easiest way to become broke. It doesn't matter how much money you make, if your expenses are greater than your income, you won't be able to keep up (just ask Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). Solution? Track your expenses in broad categories (food, entertainment, utilities, etc) for a month (or preferably for 6-12 months to account for variations over time). You should be able to determine a pattern for what bills are going to come out of what paycheck, and if you automatically deduct those from your “available spending money” even before the bank account gets debited, you'll be less inclined to be surprised when the electric bill shows up and you have $40 left until the end of the week. If you have gas heat and electric air conditioning, don't forget to account for the difference in seasons! There are some computer programs listed at the end of this document for helping you keep track of your actual expenses; they can also help make bank account reconciliation trivial rather than trying. 3. Wasteful spending. Slightly less drastic than actual overspending, wastefulness eats up our savings reserves and surplus money, often turning a little unexpected repair into a big deal that snowballs into additional cash-flow issues. Solution? Take a look at your expenses, as above, but now look at the things that may be costing you more than they should. • Is your book/movie habit out of control? Visit the library, used book store, or use Gaia's Virtual Lending Library. Go to a matinee rather than an evening show, or wait for DVD and rent it. Likewise, a lot of ritual supplies can be found at discount/thrift stores,rather than buying new. • Are you too busy to watch your shows on cable? Many of them are available online now through the network's own website, or you could have a watch party with friends. • Do you have a landline phone and a cell phone? How much would you save to eliminate one or the other? Do you use even half of the minutes/features/texting on your plan? • Buying drinks at the bar is amazingly expensive these days. I could buy an entire bottle of Scotch for what it costs me to get 2 or 3 shots. And if you smoke, you should visit http://www.quitday.com/ • Another huge category of wasteful spending that I found was dining out. I kept telling myself that we didn't have time to cook at home, or that it wasn't that much more expensive. When we realized we could buy groceries for 3-4 nights a week for the price of one meal out, and we'd also have more time to talk or multitask while we cooked, it became a fairly easy change to make. The biggest danger with this change is buying too much food and having some of it go to waste, or forgetting a crucial ingredient for tonight's meal (but see below). Advanced spending tricks • Programmable thermostats are available for free from KCP&L and at a reasonable cost if you don't want to become tied into their system (or use a different company); being able to turn the thermostat up/down to minimize the energy spent while you're at work or on vacation is not only good for your checkbook, but also for the environment. • Road vehicles are hard to do without in Kansas City. But regular maintenance is a fairly low-cost expense that can prevent a cascade of bigger repairs later. And there's a surprising number of things that you can do yourself or barter a friend to help you with, rather than paying a mechanic the labor charges. Ask around! In addition, it not only saves gas and time to combine trips to multiple stores into one outing, but you can often walk or bike to the grocery store for that item you forgot for dinner, or to lunch from your workplace. Carpool with a co-worker, or ask them to bring you something back. • Use the miracle of compound interest to your advantage. Most credit card/mortgage payments are due on a different date than interest is calculated; if you can figure out when that date is in your payment cycle and pay even half of your bill then, you'll reduce your overall interest payment (i.e free money to the company) by a surprising amount. And always pay down the high-interest credit/store cards first! Likewise, if you have savings sitting in a 0% checking account, move it to an interest-earning savings account or a short-term Certificate of Deposit (CD). Make your money work for you; the bank certainly is. • Whether you're buying food or other goods, it's usually not best to buy either the cheapest or the most expensive version of whatever it is you need. The cheapest options tend to either be made with unethical practices, or fall apart so often that you end up replacing them for 3x as much as you originally spent – or both. Buying in bulk doesn't automatically save you money, and you have to have somewhere to put it! On the flip side, the incremental or purely name-brand “value” of high-end goods is often not worth the price premium. Store-brand organic food is held to the same certification standards as brand-name; the same holds true for generic medicines. ...but overall, you don't want to be penny-wise but pound-foolish. If you end up spending so much time, energy and yes money (driving across town to Big Lots, for example) “saving”, you'll make yourself crazy. Like a change in your eating habits, spending habits change and become easier over time. Additional resources There are a lot of programs out there for tracking your budget and expenses. If you've got a system that works for you using pen and paper or a straightforward spreadsheet, use it! But here are some other options: ● Moneydance (http://moneydance.com/) - this program isn't free, but there's a trial version available from their website for the first 100 transactions. I like this because it works on any computer with Java (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc), it can be used by multiple computers across a home network, it reminds me of ongoing payments, and it doesn't crash. $39.99 for the full thing. ● GnuCash is what I used to use in Linux, and it's recently become available for Windows. It's 100% free software, though it's not always as 'pretty' or easy to use as some other options. The software is robust, though, and should cover most household budgeting needs. If you're using Windows, make sure to get the .EXE version! ● Microsoft Office Accounting Express – I mention this because a lot of people already have Microsoft Office, and you can download the “Express” version for free from MS' website at http://office.microsoft.com/accountingexpress. I haven't used it myself, but download.com says that it is a six- month trial with $9.95/month charges afterward. Not a good deal in my book. ● http://zenhabits.net/ has some excellent tips, as does http://lifehacker.com/ (both for time and money). After-class additions (the following were not in the original handout, but came up during the class itself) ➢ http://www.angelfoodministries.com/ is a charity that provides food, particularly fresh-frozen meat and vegetables, once a month at low cost.

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