Tag: The Kills

Setting Goals With an Uncertain Budget

Hi all, I know it’s been a bit since you heard from me! I was a little busy changing my entire life there for a second, but I’m back. I wanted to wait until everything settled, but that’s not really how life or money works!

I moved into a new apartment at the end of August, and I’m still not sure what my monthly expenses are going to be since I’m paying for cooking gas. Now that my gas meter is readable after the guy from Peoples Gas came by twice to join me in the treacherous, spiderwebbed, possibly rat-infested basement of my 107-year-old apartment building, and I can take baths again without water leaking into my downstairs neighbor’s bathroom, I’m looking at fixed expenses upward of $1,550 per month. On top of all that, I got a new job and now freshly qualify for their retirement account, so my income is also in flux due to those contributions. Once I know the details, you’ll know. Promise you that!

My uncertain budget isn’t going to stop me from setting goals, though. The more I allow money to live in its liquid form in my head, the more I feel like I can actually do something with it. I have also been carrying this new feeling that everything is going to work out, so I’m happy to share that energy with you.

I have two relatively short-term goals that I want to save up for. One is focused on skincare. Back in the day when I was a wee lass with terrible acne, I used to get facials consistently. I’d like to thank my mom for being so understanding and funding that venture, because it really helped my skin at the time. Now that I’m in my 30s, the evil acne hormones are back and I’m about at the end of my rope with them! One of my friends is getting facials regularly again, and I know it’s the only thing that will help my skin in the long run. I just recently changed my skincare regimen to almost entirely Korean products containing rice water—please save me and my microbiome!

My plan is to save up for six facials in 2025, accounting for $150 per facial plus a tip. Being generous with my future facialist and my savings, I’m rounding up to $200 per facial. It will also add a cushion for these savings should I want to spend this money on other skincare next year, or visit a dermatologist. This amounts to $1,200 I’ll have to save for this goal. Honestly, I’ve spent more on travel expenses in the past. I was always so worried about spending too much on skincare, it annoys me that I didn’t do this sooner!

The beautiful thing about setting goals is it changes my mindset. I’m putting this money aside for a specific purpose, so I can think about it as if the spending isn’t really cutting into my overall net worth. I would have spent this money anyway, but having a goal for it gives the spending more structure. Then, when I finally spend the money, it can instead be a gift I’m giving to myself. Here’s to clearer skin in 2025, sheesh.

My second goal is to save up for traveling to the East Coast a couple times next spring. You guessed it, the Kills are touring again! This time, they’re opening for their friends Queens of the Stone Age, a band I’ve always wanted to see live. Also, St. Vincent is opening for the man who gave her a name, Nick Cave. It should be a great year for concerts, and hopefully new music and a Chicago show from Banks! I still have some budgeting to do on this goal, but I’m going to shoot for around $2,000.

The Kills live at Webster Hall in New York City, New York, February 27, 2024

I love being able to afford to see my favorite people whenever I want. I wouldn’t be able to without all this personal finance work I’ve been doing. AAII’s teachings remain at the forefront of my investing strategy. I would like to thank president John Bajkowski, editor Charles Rotblut and managing editor Jean Henrich for their support of the blog from day one and for giving me this amazing opportunity to continue it. Stick around for more of my investing discoveries!

Read these next!
A Money and Music Memoir
The Carrie Finances: Honey, I Shrunk the Budget
My Payday Routine

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A Money and Music Memoir

Back in 2021 when I was still gathering my ideas for this blog, I started a money playlist. When I was prompted to think about my relationship with money, some of the first things that came to mind were song lyrics. My parents raised me on the blues (my dad’s favorite) and hard rock (my mom’s favorite), so now my brain acts like a very specific music encyclopedia filled with all my influences and the hybrid genres of modern music.

Each song on the playlist represents a memory for me: “Addictions” by Lucy Dacus from her album “Historian” is a song about some long-ago failed relationship, with the lyrics, “Buy-low-sell-high kind of guy / Invest your time in what’s worthwhile / Was I a risk without reward or did I make you proud?” The album came out in 2018, the year after I began working at AAII. I recall listening to it on the train into the city, feeling like I was part of an inside joke—I had just become entrenched in this investing language, and it was used in a creative way I hadn’t thought of before. I started to notice other finance phrases seeping into my own writing, like “last in, first out” (an accounting approach). I was beginning to see how this thinking could be applied to all aspects of life—everything took either time or money, everything was a risk, but would it be worth it?

Of course, I had to include the classic “Taxman” by the Beatles. “Revolver” (1966) was one of my first Beatles albums growing up. My dad had the CD, and he would play it in the car for us. Later when I became independently interested, he would let me listen to it on my beloved, consistently broken Walkman. I never took the lyrics seriously until I was an adult, “Should 5% appear too small / Be thankful I don’t take it all.” Now with a financial education, I know that 5% is quite a lot, especially when it comes to fees. In fact, 1% is still too much for you to be paying anyone to manage your money. The Beatles are using satire in this song, assuming the point of view of the greedy government, but many British musicians (including the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie and Adele) have had similar complaints about taxes when they reached fame. The more you make, the more they take!

“Suga Mama” by Beyoncé might be my favorite song she’s ever done. In it, she subverts the skewed power paradigm between a man and a woman. Not only does she have enough money to be independent, but she can also take care of a whole man, buying him whatever she wants? Go off, girl. The song practically drips with feminist confidence with the lyric, “let mama do it all.” This is Beyoncé after all! She has proven herself to be capable of more than anyone thought possible, breaking down race, gender and genre barriers to be able to express herself and reclaim her past without feeling trapped in any predetermined box. She has so many great songs about money, and I wish I could include them all, but “Suga Mama” is one I keep coming back to. When I got tickets to see Beyoncé in 2023, it was the first song I started blasting to celebrate! Recently, the friend I went to see her with jokingly asked, “Where are the sugar daddies!!!!!?????” I responded: “BROKE” 😂.

The lineage of influence in music is a fruitful topic for me, so the playlist includes some cover songs along with their originals. In addition to “Credit in the Straight World,” first written by Young Marble Giants and popularized by Hole, we have “List of Demands (Reparations)” by Saul Williams, later covered by my favorite band the Kills. Williams is also a poet and all-around creative person, much like Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince of the Kills, who have deliberately been independent musicians in a greedy industry. The song starts with the lyric, “I want my money back.” Williams says of his song about power and freedom, “I’m tired of the hustle and the make-believe hustle. I’m tired of buying into ideas that divorce me from my potential. I’m tired of having my potential explained in terms of money.” Williams expresses how easy it is for art and hard work to be exploited and lists his demands for getting free from the perpetual capitalistic churn.

I hope you enjoy the playlist! Let me know what songs come to mind when you think about money so we can grow our money music library together.

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Spending on a Goal

I reached one of my short-term savings goals back in December, and the time has come to spend that money! Though I am doing a no-buy year, my short-term personal finance goals still need to be funded for what I know I will need to purchase this year: travel and accommodations, moving and continuing to invest.

My goals are the reason I want to stick to my no-buy plan as much as possible. However variable they might be, compartmentalizing the amount I have to save in order to reach the goals has made the process easier, and it gives me less room to make excuses for not saving enough.

The Saving

This is the first time I have done a more intricate budget for a goal using the AAII PRISM Wealth-Building Process. Created by AAII Journal editor Charles Rotblut, PRISM is a five-step method for aligning my investing decisions with my goals. Whenever I need to be reminded of what I’m saving for, I return to my Prioritizing Your Goals worksheet.

I used my SmartyPig high-yield savings account to save the $2,000 I allotted for seeing my favorite band the Kills in New York. The idea is to accrue interest on my savings over time instead of moving $2,000 from my emergency savings into this goal all at once. I transferred three installments of $500 over two months into my SmartyPig account, and by the time I had enough saved to reach $2,000, I had earned about $15 in interest. At this point, I didn’t need to transfer as much money in my final installment to finish the goal. While I spend on this goal, the amount I haven’t spent continues to earn interest.

The Spending

Once I reached my goal, I started gathering up how much I had spent on concert tickets, transportation and hotels. When a group of these charges came due on my credit card, I moved money from the SmartyPig savings goal back to my emergency savings account to pay it off. I have my credit card connected to my checking and regular savings account, but I don’t want to connect any other accounts to muddy the waters. Logistically, even connecting my emergency savings account is one too many, but I have it as a backup in case of—you guessed it—emergencies!


After spreadsheeting it, I determined how much I had spent planning the trip and how much I had left over for food and anything else I feel inclined to buy while in New York. I can keep this number in my head whenever I spend $14 on a sad sandwich at the airport, or $20 on an appetizer at dinner. Even with New York prices, I don’t think I will spend the full amount that’s left over, which means there will be some money ready to go for my next short-term savings goal: moving!

The Psychological Tax

While having money saved specifically for this goal and spending it was the plan all along, there’s the psychological effect of spending on a goal to consider. Technically, I am lowering my net worth by spending money on this goal. Put into perspective, the entire amount saved is roughly 6% of my net worth. Before sitting down to write this (just kidding, I’m 100% still in bed right now), I decided it would be a good idea to beef up my savings outside of this goal. I calculated how much I could save and transferred some of it to my SmartyPig account, which is separate from the goal I have set up, and some of it to my LendingClub account for my intermediate-term goal related to property. This way, I’m continuing to save as usual so I can build more of a cushion while I spend down part of my savings.

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Reprioritizing My Goals With High-Yield Savings Accounts

About one year ago, I began my journey through the AAII PRISM Wealth-Building Process. Created by AAII Journal editor Charles Rotblut, PRISM is a five-step method for aligning my investing decisions with my goals. Though I went through the entire PRISM Process, I have recently been thinking about how I want to spend my money next year. This caused a shift in my goals, so in the words of Ron Weasley: “She needs to sort out her priorities.”

When I last performed the first step of PRISM, my short-term goals included amassing enough for ongoing lump-sum investments in my portfolio of index exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and saving up for international travel. My intermediate- and long-term goals were eventually buying property and funding my retirement.

I revisited the Prioritizing Your Goals worksheet, which makes it easy to visualize and plan for how much I’ll need for each of my goals.

In an exciting turn of events, my favorite band the Kills is releasing a new album this week, which means a tour next year! In their words, “it’s been a long time coming.” I’m planning to travel to see some shows so I can visit friends. International travel is still folded into the estimated cost, but I’m not sure if it will be as extensive as I previously planned.

At the beginning of 2024, I plan to do another portfolio assessment to see where my investments are at. If I make any changes, I will invest another $2,000 in my Charles Schwab brokerage account. However, if I don’t need to make any changes based on my strategy, I will be leaving my portfolio as is. That’s what makes this goal a lower priority than traveling, it’s more flexible. Sometimes the best thing to do with your investments is nothing!

I’m also planning to move next year. My current one-bedroom apartment has served me well for most of the pandemic, but I’m ready for a change. A new place in a new area (with a dishwasher 🤞) is in order. My estimated cost for moving includes first and last month’s rent, a security deposit/move-in fee and what I’ll need to pay the movers. I’m inflating this estimate a bit to account for the ridiculous rent prices I’ve been seeing.

Buying property in this economy has proved to be extremely difficult, so I changed my time horizon for this goal from three to five years to a range of five to 10 years from now. Who knows what the future holds, I could be living on the moon in 10 years! But I’m sure someone will still figure out how to charge me property taxes 😅.

My high-yield savings accounts are the primary investing vehicles for funding my short- and intermediate-term goals. My SmartyPig account is designated for my short-term goals: travel, investing and moving. I’m currently earning a 4.25% interest rate on my savings in this account, and SmartyPig has a goals feature that helps to gamify the saving process. I keep rounding up on what I think I’ll need just in case. So if I have money left over after paying for my highest-priority goal, it’s like a little gift I’m giving my future self, and the money will go toward my next short-term goal that needs to be funded.

The other high-yield savings account I have with LendingClub is for my solitary intermediate-term goal: buying property. With an interest rate of 4.50% on this account, I’ve saved about 25% of my goal. Though it’s designated for buying somewhere to live, I’ve been thinking of broadening the category for this account. If I choose down the line to not buy, I could use the funds saved up in this account for paying my rent. I could also use it to buy or rent a studio space for making art that’s separate from where I live.

I didn’t change anything to do with my retirement goal. For now, it will sit there looking at me like a joke until I can allocate more of my paycheck to my retirement account. Technically, my investment portfolio is also going toward funding my retirement since I’ll need all the help I can get. Even though this long-term goal feels so far away, I don’t want to lose focus on it just because I’ll always have more short-term goals. Hopefully, everything I’m doing to save while still being able to live my life and enjoy what I have will result in a retirement I don’t have to fear.

Check out AAII Retirement Investing for planning insights at every life phase.