I could sleep when I lived alone

This move is draining my purse. Life is draining my purse.

Life is change. I know it. I've accepted it, and maybe I even embrace it a little [begrudgingly]. But this is kind of unacceptable that all these huge expenses are coalescing into a trinity of awful:

• We just bought a mattress for about $750.
• My weight-loss program will cost almost $700 for just 8 weeks, which, as you now know, is almost the price of a mattress.*
• My rent is about to increase $300 per month.

Seriously, I've got to seriously think about getting a part-time job...seriously.

On a completely unrelated note, how does everyone feel about bridge (the card game)? I know it's screams "grandma" in a huge way, but don't you think it's about time for a come-back?

*I lost 4.5 lbs this week.

Prosper and ShareBuilder

It's been a busy weekend, finance-wise.

I signed up for Prosper yesterday (if you're not familiar with it, here's a recent article from CNNmoney.com -- it's pretty exciting.). They're running a promotion through June 30th where, if you sign up as a new lender through a referral link, both referer and refered will receive a $25.00 credit to their accounts. You'll notice I've added my own Prosper referral link in the side-bar to the right for anyone interested in signing up. I'll update with a detailed progress report as soon as I see some action.

As for ShareBuilder, I actually ran into a promotional code for a $50.00 credit (!) with any new ShareBuilder account. On the first screen after you click "Get started today," check the box that says "I'm responding to a promotion," and a blank will appear where you can type either of the following codes:

50GO28
50CITIZENS

After that, all you have to do is either set up an automatic investment of at least $50.00, and your account will be credited in 4-5 weeks.

I'll keep you posted with any updates!

ING referrals

If you somehow managed to make it this long without opening an account with ING Direct, I have no idea how you did it, but I'm here to tell you that you should get off your duff and open one.

Before I opened my account last year, I had one large mass of money in my brick-and-mortar money market account. I really didn't have any goals for it except to see it grow, which it did at a sluggish pace of about 1% APY.

When one of my friends referred me to ING, I was kind of uncomfortable with the thought of opening an online account... but then I realized that I wasn't a dinosaur and I should stop being such an old person. I opened a savings account, and the rest is history.

Currently the interest rate is at 3%, which is infinitely better than you'll find at most banks. So here's the deal: if you use one of the links below to open a savings account at ING and make an initial deposit of at least $250.00, ING will immediately credit your account with $25.00, I'll get $10.00 for referring you, and you'll have your own referral links to hand out. These links are single-use only and expire on August 2nd, so please leave a comment letting me know which link you've used, and I'll replace it with a fresh one. Thanks!

Referral Link #1
Referral Link #2
Referral Link #3
Referral Link #4

As I've said before, I recently set up some "sub-accounts" with ING, and it's been a wonderful way to track my savings while planning for the future. ING is the most user-friendly online bank that I've ever used (I also tried Capital One), it's secure, and I trust them, which is probably the most important factor when money's involved.

[Almost] June Net Worth

I've been paid all the money that I expect to receive until June 6th, so I thought I'd do a little check-in. What you're seeing is the result of the up-front new apartment expenses, combined with the fact that I am starting a "medically supervised weight loss program," which is just fancy talk for a money pit. It's so expensive, the weight I'm losing should be gold-plated.

Emergency Fund: $5,200.78
Checking: $61.00
ING Funds (total): $1,946.00
Roth IRA: $3,300.00
401k: $415.00
____________
Total Positive: $10,922.78


Rent: Pre-paid
Credit card: $427.55
Student Loan I: $13,751.58
Student Loan II: $901.00
____________
Total Negative: $15,080.13


Net Worth: -$4,157.35

The whole thing's tumbling down

On a bit of a tangent, my boyfriend now has an assistant. Since I work in that capacity in the same field right now (not for him, though), it makes me feel weird (read: "less than") when he mentions the fact that he's got one.

We're the same age, and we've known each other since high school, so we've always been on the same plane, but now it feels like he's got a direct, first-class ticket, while I'm sitting with the screaming babies on a connecting flight to hell. Not to mention the contentious gender issues. I know I shouldn't bring work into the bedroom, but until now, our relationship has always been equal.

Forget salary inequalities...what do you do when your partner is more important than you are?

Marriage and investments?

I'm currently angsting about the fact that I decided to wait until 2008 to open a Roth IRA. At the time, I was panicking about my high student loan balance, so I took a few thousand and threw it at that. The more I think about it, the more I know I should've used it to fund a Roth IRA for 2007.

My boyfriend will start his last year of law school in the fall. Right now he's got a summer associate position at one of the top firms in this city, and in all probability, they'll hire him after graduation. The starting salary is huge -- it alone is too large to qualify for a Roth IRA. Add my salary to that, and it's hopeless. Knock wood, but if we get married in the next few years, that only leaves 2 or 3 years of Roth IRA funding I can do. Not the worst problem to have, I know, but I just opened it.

Sleep Accessories

I went mattress shopping this past weekend and felt overwhelmed by my ignorance. I realize that I have no idea what a good price looks like for a mattress. I found one that was comfortable enough, but it was $600.00 (just for the mattress!).

Could anyone fling any mattress-pricing-related advice in my direction?