Green Minded Wallet

So, I had an interesting shall we call it discussion with my mother the other night. During this ‘conversation’, I am quite sure that she accused me of trying to plan out my life. This is frankly ludicrous. I dare say that I have one of the most unplanned lives in the family (however, I dared not say this to my mother). I think that my mother’s challenge and the challenge of many is that they don’t realize there is a difference between planning and being prepared.

Here’s an example. I have an emergency fund which can be used to repair my car in an emergency situation. It’s not that I’m planning on having a vehicular malfunction, it’s just that I am cognizant of the fact that car parts can wear down and need to be fixed or replaced, especially as a car gets older. Hence I am prepared. Personally, I think that trying to plan your life is silly: there are so many factors that you can’t control that this seems to be a big waste of time. However I do see the advantage of financially and emotionally preparing oneself for life’s little surprises. Through my adult life I have made a number of big (and small) decisions that were unplanned, but which I was prepared for. It’s not that I make these decisions flippantly, but I do make them all the same.

 Here’s an example: I had considered going back to the east coast for Christmas, but I hadn’t really planned on it and let it fall aside. After Thanksgiving however I decided to reconsider going back east, and looked at some plane fares. Given then I had a travel voucher from the summer and a travel fund, I was able to find some tickets that would work and purchased them. Now I had by no means planned to go back for Christmas, but I got to thinking that it might be nice. Since I had funds in place to provide for the trip, it wasn’t a big deal for me to alter my original plan. However, if I didn’t have the funds in place that would have been unwise. I don’t think that we can (or should try to) plan everything as there is just so much that isn’t up to us and intense planning can lead to feelings of resentment if things don’t go our way. But personally I see nothing wrong with being prepared to cope with life’s unforeseen opportunities and challenges. Do you think there’s a difference? Do you feel that one is a more worthwhile approach than the other?

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It occurred to me the other day that I often give the gifts that I least like to receive. It’s not so much the gifts themselves, but more the categories. I tend to think that ‘oh, so-and-so would love this’ and have only just begun to realize that it is probably what they say right before they give me something that really doesn’t suit my tastes. It’s probably too late for this Christmas, but perhaps next year I will consider this more. In case you’re wondering, these are the gift categories.

Clothes: Taste and sizes in clothing are very subjective. Trendy clothes might not last more than a year style-wise and then there’s getting the size right. I know that there are gift receipts and all, but sometimes it’s best not to give something that would cause such a hassle. I will make the exception for pajamas and socks since these normally last a long time, aren’t generally based on trends, and elastic makes it hard to be too far off with sizes. This year the only clothes that I purchased for others were pajamas.

Movies & Books: Unless you know someone really well, I find it best to avoid this category. I only really like books and movies that can be read or viewed over and over again. I have in fact gotten a few of these that I’ve loved, but I have received others that would have been better as library reads. I managed to avoid this category completely.

Jewelry: There are people who only buy me jewelry that I love, while there are others that have a much lower success rate. I would recommend that if you only have a few dollars to spend on someone or not quite sure what they like, that jewelry is probably not your best bet. This is true not only of style, but also of pieces: if you never see them wear earrings, it might not be because they don’t have any, it could be that they don’t like earrings. I considered a few pieces, but like books and movies, jewelry is a persistent gift and I changed my mind since I wasn’t positive of the outcome.

Puzzles & Games: Unless you know adults or families like puzzles, this is a good one to avoid. I mean you could keep buying them puzzles but you might visit one day to find a large stack of puzzles in the back of their closet when you go to look for extra batteries (hypothetically speaking of course). Games can be good if you know the person or they are common games. I have some games that I’ve never heard of and don’t know how to play and so they sit, unused on my shelf. However, if I were more of a game player, that might not be the case. I did buy one game this year, but it was for a kid that I’m not all that close to and it seem to be a fairly appropriate gift.

Well I’m sure that there are other things that I’m afraid to see under the tree, but these are the big ones.

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Would you ever considering switching a prescription to save money. If so what would be the deciding amount? Depending on the health care plan that you have you can pay a wide range for prescription drugs especially if you’re on a plan that uses a formulary. I know that not all drugs are the same but would you ever consider trying out a different drug if you knew that unlike the one that you’re on, the alternative drug is available in a generic form. Personally I’ve considered it a time or two but haven’t really followed through with it because I currently don’t pay a lot for my medicines. Right now I’m on three daily medicines, none of which have a generic alternative, and so I pay $14/month for each one. Alternatively generic drugs on our student plan cost $7/month.

Two of the prescriptions are for common medications that I know have generics in other product lines, however for prescription one the medicine I have works and so I’m afraid that if I switch it might not work as well and in the time it takes me to switch back I will feel quite ill. The second drug is an allergy medicine that I was upgraded to this past spring because even on other allergy medications I wasn’t getting a lot of relief. However I also started allergy shots this spring and so I am hoping that by next spring when I am done with the build-up phase I might be able to go back to the old drug since my symptoms should be less severe. Also, my third medication is also allergy related (I also have a few other seasonal medications that I take as well), so I have the potential for dropping it completely, at least during the off-season, if my shots work well. Even if I kept the third medication and switched to generics for the first two I would have a potential savings of $168/year. I’m just not really sure if it’s worth it. Also since my fellowship provides free health insurance through the student health center, these are basically my only medical costs with the exception of once or twice a year visits to my allergy specialist (new serum) and a $10 copay for a flu shot (which used to be free). I will say though that when I worked for the government I switched insurance companies because the first company had a hideous tiered formulary – they were charging me $45/mo for a generic allergy medication (versus the standard $15/mo) because they felt that over-the-counter Claritin was equivalent (which it was not). The difference for that prescription alone was enough to make it worth going to a different insurance company that had a higher premium but only charged $5/mo for the generic version of my allergy medication, saving me $40/mo on one prescription alone.

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I was thinking about this the other day and I got to wondering, why is it that you have to qualify for other types of loans like car loans and home loans, but you can go on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars with little guarantee of ability to pay. So I starting thinking, what would happen if people had to qualify for student loans? In the system that I envision in my mind, qualification would be based in part on the ability to succeed in college and beyond (based on grades, etc.) and the ability to find suitable employment which can pay off the loans afterwards without causing undue hardship. I know that there was some talk around the web this summer because some schools wanted to charge more for certain degrees like engineering because the earning potential was higher. I can’t help but wonder if part of the solution is not charging certain groups more (isn’t college expensive enough), but not letting other groups go on the hook for as much. For example, if a civil engineer has a higher earning potential than an environmental philosophy major, then why not allow the engineering student more latitude in loan amounts since he/she can pay it back more easily. If a student didn’t do all that well in high school but they are guaranteed entrance to their local state school, does it really make sense to let them take out a bunch of loans only to have them cave under the pressure and leave after three semesters on the hook for 15 grand. I’m not trying to say that we shouldn’t allow certain people to go to school, but college like other financial decisions needs to be considered carefully. Just as there are situations when buying a house or financing a car don’t make sense (though they might in the future), the same is true for college.

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