Oh My Dollar!

Saving up that first emergency fund can be hard - especially if you don't make a lot of money, if murphy keeps knocking on your door and stealing from your savings, or if you have variable income. So we asked listeners to share their stories of how they saved their first emergency funds.

Here are different methods:

-The automatic sneaky savings method - including using an app

- The shoebox under the bed method

- The side hustle method

- The tax refund method

- Ramping down debt repayment while saving method

We'll continue this discussion on the Oh My Dollar! forums! We don't bite, come join!

Ask us a question!

We love hearing from you! Email us your bike photos or other financial thoughts at [email protected] or tweet us at  @anomalily or @ohmydollar

Check out our transcript and full show notes

The full transcript and show notes are provided by our patrons in the Purrsonal Finance Society. This episode was underwritten by patron Tamsen G Association, Warrior Queen, and Chris Giddings. Find the transcript and show notes at ohmydollar.com 

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WTF is a 529? Should you use one for saving for education or is it easier to just have a savings account. Abby Chao from CollegeBacker walks us through what one is, how to set it up, and why it makes sense to use one for college savings.

About Abby Chao

Abby is a Co-Founder & COO ofCollegeBacker, an online service that makes saving for college simple, smart, social and most importantly accessible to everyone! CollegeBacker, has designed a service to help parents open a tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan with no minimum! Parents can then invite family and friends to contribute.Abby has helped thousands of families save and pay for college. Her modern, tech-forward approach helps the new generation of millennial parents use the right financial and social tools to save for college better, together.

You can grab a $10 match at this link if you open a 529 account! http://www.collegebacker.com/OMD/ (not an affiliate link)

Check out our transcript

The full transcript and show notes are provided by our patrons in the Purrsonal Finance Society. Find it at ohmydollar.com 

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It's pride month! And here at Oh My Dollar!, we're queer af, so we're here to talk all things under the rainbow. I thought in the midst of this historical pride month - the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riot - we share the things that we still have to work on in the world of finance and money for GLBTQI+ folks.

Reminder you have 3 days left to support Oh My Dollar!'s kickstarter. We're in our 2nd stretch goal and every dollar now goes to expanding our financial literacy programming with GLBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness - plus you get cool goodies like special stickers and planners, and a book! Find out more at ohmydollar.com/cats/

The full transcript for this show is provided by our patrons in the Purrsonal Finance Society. Find it at ohmydollar.com 

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You "should" do this [unpleasant money thing.] Sound familiar? I know many of you admit to financial procrastination, but often perfectionism is a the root of procrastination. Sometimes it's things like overgeneralizing, all-or-nothing thinking, mental filter (harder on yourself than others), should statements.

We're Crowdfunding a Book and Need Your Help

You can find out about our campaign for the reprint of my cat-filled purrsonal finance book "A Cat's Guide to Money" at - ohmydollar.com/cats And if it doesn’t make sense for you, that is 100% fine.  But if you're able to share it on social media, that goes a LONG way towards helping us out. Shares mean a lot in these campaigns! We have 10 days left to hit our stretch goal of $10,000, and we're less than $400 away!

Notes

Remember that money is a process, not just a thing you win once and put on your shelf. You can do things incrementally with money. It’s okay to not be perfect. It’s okay to have an off budget week or month or even year. It’s okay to backslide on your debt payoff or savings goals because you had a breakup, got sick, or just stopped focusing on it for a little bit. It’s more important to sit, reassess, and come up with a new plan.

Inspired by this episode about Perfectionism on the Hannahlyze This podcast.

Ask us a question!

We love hearing from you! Email us your financial worries or your own procrastination or cat pictures at [email protected] or tweet us at @anomalily or @ohmydollar

All the numbers and stories on this show came from the Oh My Dollar! forums, a friendly, nonjudgemental online community about money. Don't be afraid, come join us on the forums!

This show is made paw-sible by listeners like you

We absolutely love our Purrsonal Finance Society Members, the folks that generously support Oh My Dollar with $1 or more a month on Patreon – and have made is so we have free, full transcripts for every show. View this transcript here at ohmydollar.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Some hobbies are pricey, some hobbies actually save you money. The OMD community tunes in to share how much their hobbies cost them. Plus, Lillian shares the costs from her new figure skating hobby.

We talk about these things:The costs of brewing beer and if it saves you moneyThe marginal cost of hobbies ($3 per use or not)Limiting the cost of "Trying new hobbies" as a hobby - and how to avoid spending all the money on itWhat Will considers a "hobby" vs "not a hobby" Having kids in expensive hobbiesPlaying Tennis and Golf (I always wondered what these "rich" hobbies cost")The cost of martial artsHow much figure skating costs

We're Crowdfunding a Book and Need Your Help

You can find out about our campaign for the reprint of my cat-filled purrsonal finance book "A Cat's Guide to Money" at - ohmydollar.com/cats And if it doesn’t make sense for you, that is 100% fine.  But if you're able to share it on social media, that goes a LONG way towards helping us out. Shares mean a lot in these campaigns!

Ask us a question!

We love hearing from you! Email us your financial worries or how you've tackled risk or cat pictures at [email protected] or tweet us at @anomalily or @ohmydollar

All the numbers and stories on this show came from the Oh My Dollar! forums, a friendly, nonjudgemental online community about money. Don't be afraid, come join us on the forums!

This show is made paw-sible by listeners like you

We absolutely love our Purrsonal Finance Society Members, the folks that generously support Oh My Dollar with $1 or more a month on Patreon – and have made is so we have free, full transcripts for every show. View this transcript here at ohmydollar.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Big announcement! Oh My Dollar’s cat-filled purrsonal finance book, A Cat's Guide to Money, is going into the second printing, and we need your help to make that possible. But don’t worry, this episode isn’t just going to be about the book - it’s also about why I chose to go the crowdfunding route again, and what that has to do with risk and money.

We talk about these things:

The definition of risk and how our risk tolerance variesThe Myth of effortless success: "We believe people shouldn’t see the effort you put into success"The definition of entrepreneurial risk (and how the founders of airbnb funded their business off a flip book of credit cards and cereal with Obama's face)Believing if we ask for help, it discounts the workWholesaler financing and "factoring" and how that worksIf you should take investors as a small businessWhy I chose to go back to Kickstarter again

Please Share the Campaign If You Can

You can find out more about it the campaign at ohmydollar.com/cats And if it doesn’t make sense for you, that is 100% fine.  But if you're able to share it on social media, that goes a LONG way towards helping us out. Shares mean a lot in these campaigns!

Ask us a question!

We love hearing from you! Email us your financial worries or how you've tackled risk or cat pictures at [email protected] or tweet us at @anomalily or @ohmydollar

This show is made paw-sible by listeners like you

We absolutely love our Purrsonal Finance Society Members, the folks that generously support Oh My Dollar with $1 or more a month on Patreon – and have made is so we have free, full transcripts for every show. View this transcript here at ohmydollar.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Figuring out car insurance can be an absolute hair-pulling nightmare. What is comp & collision? What does 50/100/50 mean? Do red cars really pay more? Guest Andrew Rose of Compare.com helps us make sense of it.

We answer these questions:

Collision vs. comprehensive: what’s the difference? How do you know which one you need?How can you tell if a car insurance company is "too good to be true"I know men generally pay more - and I know that economists generally pay less.  What are some sneaky factors that affect your rates when it comes to car insurance?What are the 5 key things that car insurance base your rates on?Do red cars really pay more?

A big Announcement is Coming Next week!

Be in the know, and sign up for our very-rare mailing list  to find out the BIG NEWS when we announce next week. Sign up here: http://www.ohmydollar.com/announcements

Ask us a question!

We love hearing from you! Email us your financial worries or receipt victories at [email protected] or tweet us at @anomalily or @ohmydollar

This show is made paw-sible by listeners like you

We absolutely love our Purrsonal Finance Society Members, the folks that generously support Oh My Dollar with $1 or more a month on Patreon – and have made is so we have free, full transcripts for every show. View this transcript here at ohmydollar.com

Other Episodes You Might Find interesting

Is $3,000 on an e-bike worth it? - in case you're paying too much for your car ;)

Planning for Known Unknowns - save up for that deductible

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For our 100th Episode, we turned the mic on our listeners and asked: If I handed you $100 and you had to use it in the next 24 hours in a way it would have the biggest impact on your life, what would you do with it?

Thank you so much to everyone who listens, everyone who has *ever* submitted a question to the show, our amazing forum community, our 75 wonderful monthly supporters on Patreon that make so much of this possible, and all 8 stations, especially our mothership XRAY.FM, that carry the Oh My Dollar! show. Here's to 100 more episodes.

Much of this conversation came from the rad folks at our forum! Join us at forum.ohmydollar.com is a great non-judgemental place to ask questions or participate in our daily check-ins, personal financial journals, and challenges. Check out the thread with even more ideas of what to do with $100 over on the forum.

Ask us a question!

We love hearing from you! Email us your splurges or other financial thoughts at [email protected] or tweet us at  @anomalily or @ohmydollar

This show is made paw-sible by listeners like you

We absolutely love our Purrsonal Finance Society Members, the folks that generously support Oh My Dollar with $1 or more a month on Patreon – and have made is so we have free, full transcripts for every show, including this one, on ohmydollar.com.

This episode was underwritten by patron Tamsen G Association and Chris Giddings. To learn more about being part of the Purrsonal Finance Society and get cool perks like exclusive livestreams and cat stickers, you can visit ohmydollar.com/support

Other Episodes You Might Find interestingCurbing Impulse Purchases + Regrettable Spending Money When Depressed How much should you budget for clothing?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you thinking about taking the plunge into the world of e-bikes or cargo bikes? At $1,000 – $5,000, it can be hard to justify the expense. We hear from people about their own choice to get an ebike and why the expense made sense for them, and share some tips on figuring out if it’s right for you.

Thank you SO MUCH to the over 100  people who submitted their stories about getting an e-bike on the Oh My Dollar! forums and the PDX Cargo Bike Gang page. I couldn't use all the amazing stories and keep this show a reasonable length!

Links Mentioned in the Show:

- My longtail bike, Persephone, an xtracycle conversion, carrying a folding bicycle

- What a Longtail bicycle looks like carrying a kayak!

- AAA's "Cost to Own and Operate a Car"

Below is a non-comprehensive list of the many, many bike models mentioned in the show.

Non-Cargo E-bikes:

- Blix Vika+  - a folding ebike

- AM1 Ebike

- Genze.com

- Bilenky Viewpoint (semi-recumbent with e-assist added)

- Faraday

Box Bikes (aka Bakfiets):

- E-Bullitt

- Packster 80

Longtail Bikes:

- Surly Big Dummy

- Xtracycle

- Madsen Cycles

- Bike Friday Haul-a-Day (folding)

- Radwagon

We'll continue this discussion on the Oh My Dollar! forums! We'd love to help you decide which bike to get (or not get) on this thread. We don't bite, come join!

Ask us a question!

We love hearing from you! Email us your bike photos or other financial thoughts at [email protected] or tweet us at  @anomalily or @ohmydollar

This show is made paw-sible by listeners like you

We absolutely love our Purrsonal Finance Society Members, the folks that generously support Oh My Dollar with $1 or more a month on Patreon – and have made is so we have free, full transcripts for every show, including this one, on ohmydollar.com.

This episode was underwritten by patron Tamsen G Association, To learn more about being part of the Purrsonal Finance Society and get cool perks like exclusive livestreams and cat stickers, you can visit ohmydollar.com/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How do you choose which things to spend more more money on - and what things can you cheap out on? Listeners write in with their best consumer investments and how these splurges improve their lives. People splurge on cooking equipment, knives, shoes, bras, and gym memberships.

Please come join us

Much of this conversation came from the rad folks at our forum! Join us at forum.ohmydollar.com is a great non-judgemental place to ask questions or participate in our daily check-ins, personal financial journals, and challenges.

Ask us a question!

We love hearing from you! Email us your splurges or other financial thoughts at [email protected] or tweet us at  @anomalily or @ohmydollar

This show is made paw-sible by listeners like you

We absolutely love our Purrsonal Finance Society Members, the folks that generously support Oh My Dollar with $1 or more a month on Patreon – and have made is so we have free, full transcripts for every show, including this one, on ohmydollar.com.

This episode was underwritten by patron Tamsen G Association and Chris Giddings. To learn more about being part of the Purrsonal Finance Society and get cool perks like exclusive livestreams and cat stickers, you can visit ohmydollar.com/support

Other Episodes You Might Find interestingCurbing Impulse Purchases + Regrettable Spending Money When Depressed How much should you budget for clothing?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices