My Mint Mobile review

I'm looking at all of my expenses to see where I can cut the fat. I really dislike paying $50 a month for cell phone service. I'm not a huge data user, I work from home so am connected to my wifi most of the time so it was really annoying to pay so much.

I heard Brad and Jonathan on the ChooseFI podcast talking about other phone services that use the same towers as Tmobile but charge much less. After some research I decided to give Mint Mobile a try. 

To set up the service initially you pay $45 for three months of service. I signed up and they sent me a SIM card and I was ready to go.

Changing out the SIM was super easy and in just a few minutes I was set up and ready to go. I've had the service for only two weeks but have not seen any difference in my calls or connection. The only issue I had was that when pictures were attached to text messages I received, they weren't downloading.

I tried messing with the settings but couldn't figure it out so I logged on to mintmobile.com and started a chat. They have a chat bot that is available 24 hours a day but for more complex questions you need a live person. 

I posted my question and the chat bot sent me to a live agent, the wait time was less than five minutes. I was chatting with Luis and in less than five minutes he had walked me through fixing the problem and all of my pictures downloaded.

So, in my opinion, if you are not a heavy data user, Mint Mobile may be perfect for you. When you renew you can pay for 3 months or a year at a time and pricing is dependent on the length you choose.

I'll update my review at the end of my initial three months but if you want to try it yourself, you can use my link and save $15 off your first plan. 

Let me know what you think, and I'll keep you updated as well.

Savings Goals

It's easy to get overwhelmed when I look at other people who are striving for financial independence. Most of those people are saving anywhere from 50-80% of their income.Gulp.

At my current income if I saved that much I would not be able to pay my living expenses. I've cut down as much as I can but just my rent is 50% of my income. I know that will change when I start earning commissions, but now, it just seems unreachable.

I love being able to look at other peoples successes and hopefully learn from them. Unfortunately, as often as it inspires me and I get excited about the possibilities, it just as often feels defeating. How am I ever going to reach FI when I am unable to save the way other people can?

One thing that makes it both harder and easier, is being single. It's much easier because I don't have to work with anyone else's money issues or beliefs. It's also much harder because there is only one income to try to stretch.

Today is one of those days when the mountain seems high. I'm making a list of "the bright side" so I can look at that when I feel discouraged. The bright side for today is that I have nine hours of overtime on my paycheck so that will all go to my credit card. It's a small win, but I'll take any win  I can get.

Signing up for my 401K

I am finally eligible for the 401K at my new job. I worried about it for weeks before finally deciding that I can afford to put 10% in the account every pay period.

Last pay period was the first time it came out. I was relieved to find that I must have ran the numbers correctly because I can live on whats left after taxes, insurance and 401K come out. One thing that is disheartening is that there really isn't anything left over after that. Well, not nothing, but about $200 a month. 

So that amount will go into my savings. I know I need to pay off my credit card, and I am paying a little extra each month, but I'm afraid if I don't put the extra money in savings I'll wind up running up the credit card again for little things..

And there are always little things. This month for example, it's time to renew my plates. In Utah you have to pay property tax on your vehicle every year when you renew your registration so between that and the cost of the emission text, that will eat up the $200 extra this month. 

It's discouraging because it's hard to see how I can get ready for retirement when I'm money is so tight, but I do know that once I start getting commission I will have more flexibility.

In the past, I would not have put money in my 401K  until I "had" money. That day would have never come. So I'm glad that I went ahead and started with 10%, which isn't a lot, but it's a start. My company matches 50% up to 4%, which is crazy math but basically they are adding about $60 a month to my retirement account. It's not a lot but every year it will add $720 to my retirement that I didn't have to earn.

It's a start. Now I just need to figure out how to look at my 401K account and see how things are doing. That's a job for another day!

A little too optimistic

So, my last post I was overly optimistic. It doesn't look like this virus is going away anytime soon, and as usual, life is constantly changing.

The last few months have been so confining, as in, we are not leaving the house, not seeing friends, all of the stuff everyone else is doing. However, it has also been a time of expanding change.

I was living with my daughter, son in law and the grandkids. It was wonderful. I was able to pay off one of my credit cards, build a little bit of an emergency fund and start on my way to FI.

Then the reality of three adults, working from home, with two elementary aged kids home all the time, made the house seem very small. We were talking about how to make it work if this was still the reality in the fall, and my daughter found out she was pregnant. Very quickly we realized that they needed the space I was occupying for their expanding family.

So I found an apartment and within two weeks was moved. This caused me to dip into my emergency fund a bit because I had downsized so much. Not only was I living in a smaller space, but I was planning to move across the country.

Now I had to replace all the things I had sold in preparation for the big move. It was a little stressful. For the first time in my life, I didn't want to spend any money!

I'm in the new apartment and it has come together very well. My expenses, of course, have gone up a lot, so I'm working on a new budget and trying to figure out how to still pay off my remaining debt, build a retirement fund, and rebuild my emergency savings.

It's stressful, but I feel like I have a better foundation since finding the Choose FI podcast. We'll see how the budget goes!

Best Laid Plans

Wow. Things are changing quickly. In an earlier last post I talked about my new job, then the bottom kind of fell out of everything. My current employer sent us home to work due to Covid-19. I contacted my new employer and they said training was still on, they did not yet have an alternate plan.

I am worried! I have managed to save $2000- most of which came from my tax return- I'm really glad I didn't put that towards my credit card!

Everything started shutting down due to the virus. I was really worried. I had already given notice at my current job and was worried that I would not be able to start my new job due to the virus. I finally got an email that said we would do orientation on site, then the rest of our training would be from home.

Such a relief! I also felt a tiny bit of pride that I had ANY savings at all! In the past, my savings account would have had zero dollars in it and any blip in my employment would have been immediately devastating.

Just by starting to focus on FI principles I was in a better place than I had ever been in the past. Don't get me wrong, $2000 would not support me for long, but it felt nice to have even a little cushion.

Hope this virus goes away quickly.

Birthdays and Quarantines

Everything is rapidly changing and coming to a stop. My grandkids are out of school and my daughter and son in law are out of work. My daughter has been laid off so she can collect unemployment. My son in law is at risk of the virus due to some health issues so his time off work is seen as voluntary so he does not qualify for unemployment.

Since he is in one of the highest risk categories I don't know how his time off can be seen as voluntary, but I don't make the rules.

On the bright side, I'm renting the basement from my daughter and son in law so they have some help with their bills. Another positive note, I'm quarantined with my grandbabies so I still get to see them every day.

Both of my grandkids birthdays are in April. In February and March we were talking about where they wanted to have their birthday parties and who they wanted to invite. Now, we are just trying to figure out how to make their day special when they can't leave the house.

My granddaughter's birthday is first, her parents got her a bike and I had bought her a scooter. I've been feeling bad that she won't get to celebrate with the rest of her family- she won't even get to see her mom on her birthday- so I wanted to help make it more special.

So what did I do? Spent money of course! As I've talked about in the past, my spending habits are awful. I will happily spend my money to make someone else happy. I went to Walmart and bought her several craft kids and then Easter stuff for both kids. Not very frugal of me. I spent $200 and still have one April birthday to go.

I did not need to do this. She would have been perfectly happy with her bike and scooter. My daughter always decorates the doorway so that when the kids open their door in the morning balloons rain down on them. The birthday kid gets to pick meals for the day and the house is decorated. My granddaughter would have been happy with that.

But I wasn't happy. I felt she needed more! My daughter just got married in November so this is my (step) granddaughter's first birthday with us, I really wanted it to be special.

The reality of this is, I didn't make her any happier, if anything, I caused additional stress. I bought three craft kits, kits that she wanted to do immediately and her parents told her she had to wait, which lead to tears and pouting. The poor kid is bored and her parents are overwhelmed. I couldn't help at all because I'm in the basement doing training over Zoom.

Hopefully, I've learned something from this. I will do the same for my grandson because you can't do something like that for one child and not the other. Going forward I'm going to set a budget and stick to it!

Famous last words..........

Sticking my head in the sand

Probably the biggest roadblock to getting my finances in order, is my tendency to stick my head in the sand. Much like Scarlett O'hara, I'll worry about it tomorrow.

Last year I went to the emergency room for chest pains. At the time I did not want to go but my daughter was freaking out, so I went.

My insurance had a $2700 deductible, so nothing was covered. I started getting bills and was outraged. I was in the emergency room for exactly 26 minutes and the bills totaled almost $2000. The only thing they did was hook me up to a portable EKG machine for three minutes, say it wasn't a heart attack and then I left.

They wanted to run additional tests but I refused, I knew I could get those tests through my doctor if I needed them. It still cost so much money!

I paid a few of the smaller bills, but in typical fashion, ignored the largest one. Instead of calling and making payment arrangements I ignored it.

Then I got a letter in the mail that the bill has gone to collections. Shit. For a few days, I did what I do best, I ignored it. I finally put some money in an emergency account and with all the weird stuff going on with Covid-19, I didn't want to part with it.

If only I got the letter before I sent my stimulus check to pay off Kohls. Then I realized that if I hadn't paid that bill I would still be paying on it for who knows how long.

So, I took a deep breath and paid the collection account off with my savings. It hurt and shook my stability a bit, but I did it.

I guess that's another habit I need to improve, stop ignoring bills and thinking they will go away. As frustrating as it was to have to part with some of my savings, I know it's my own fault. I will stop sticking my head in the sand.

It does feel good not to have that hanging over my head anymore. Also, I still have a job, so I can build my savings back up.