Foreigner's Finances

One of my original goals for Foreigner’s Finances was to personally learn more about how different nations view money.

I’m fascinated by the topic of money in general. The fact that everyone uses money everyday, but relates to it differently, fascinates me. Throw in international differences and customs and there are some interesting facts and opinions to be found.

Today we’re going to narrow down the international money topic and take a look at how different Asian nations handle credit cards. I’ve managed to accumulate some interesting facts about six of the Asian countries to give you an idea about how they react to credit and plastic.

To give my American audience some perspective, I started off with American credit card facts so you can compare to the Asian countries.

Enjoy!

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On Tuesday I posted part 1 of my interview with Ramit Sethi, author of the personal finance blog and book I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

Today, part 2 dives further into the topic of college students and money education. Why are young people struggling with money? Who can fix this? And what do college students need to step up and do for themselves?

Click More to listen to the interview!

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Ramit Sethi of the personal finance blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich was the major player in my personal finance turnaround. I discovered his blog a little over a year ago and quickly realized I had no idea where my money was going. His blog persuaded me to pick up some books on money and get my finances in order. I would suggest his blog and book to anyone who isn’t 100% satisfied with their money situation.

Last fall I was in a Radio Production class at my college. We had to put together a fifteen minute radio documentary on a subject of our choice that would run on the campus radio station – WONC.

Naturally, I turned to personal finance. I decided to dive into the topic of college students and the need for money management courses in college.

During the documentary process, I shot an email to Ramit to see if he would be up for an interview. I lucked out that he was in the middle of his mega marketing campaign for his book and he said yes to an interview.

What follows is the first part of that interview. Topics range from Ramit’s personal finance background to why colleges are failing their students by not creating mandatory money management courses.

I’ve also included notes so you can follow along and skip around to different topics if you choose.

Part 2 of the interview with Ramit will be posted on Thursday.

Enjoy!

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Bad money situations do not appear out of mid air. Poor education, bad luck, or lazy habits are just a few of the many problems that can lead to a difficult money situation. But one thing is for certain: complicated and dire money situations are tough to navigate.

Massive debt can be incredibly constricting and cause a lot of stress in one’s life. It’s difficult to escape a poor money situation and, unfortunately, too often the bad habits continue because the individual avoids taking action due to the size of the problem.

What an individual who is suffering from debt needs is clarity.

With bills piling up and not enough money coming in, the situation can seem complex. It may seem like there is always someone who is demanding more money, yet, there is no money available. The credit cards help for a while, but even they have their limits. Deep down inside, the person may want to fix the problem, but they just can’t seem to get themselves in a place where they are able to tackle the situation.

This is where meditation comes in. Yes, Foreigner’s Finances is going to get new-agey for a minute.

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Corinne and I are officially the proud owners of this 1998 Nissan Cube! Purchasing our first car – and in Japan, of all places – was quite the learning experience, but we came out better consumers because of it.

The Why

The need for a car was created because Corinne was having troubles getting to work. With no car, she had been taking the train into the city and walking forty-five minutes to work four or five times a week. We’re located in a more rural area, but we have a local train line that goes into the major city that is a nine minute walk from our house.The problem is the train only comes once an hour and the last train is usually around 11 p.m. With the train only coming once an hour, she was commuting almost two hours everyday, when a drive to work would only take fifteen minutes.

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As some of you may know, the Federal Reserve recently banned overdraft fees for ATMs and debt card purchases. Starting in July 1, 2010, customers will have to choose to opt-in to overdraft protection or else they will be denied at the register if they attempt to purchase an item without enough money in their account. Banks will also be required to make the details of the overdraft fee protection available and clear to the consumer.

At first, this appears to be a big hooray for the consumer. But the more I thought about the move, the more I disagreed with its intended motives.

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Welcome to the November 9th, 2009 edition of the Carnival of Twenty Something Finances!

I’m especially excited for this carnival because it’s the innaugural blog carnival hosted at Foreigner’s Finances. I’m glad you decided to check out some great posts this week from a bunch of incredibly talented bloggers. On with the carnival!

My girlfriend has been cat crazy lately, insisting that we look into getting a cat for our apartment. I’m fending her off, but in the meantime here are some pictures of cats with money, intertwined with this week’s Twenty Something Finances posts. I’ve also posted links to the author’s Twitters, when available, so feel free to follow them over there as well.

Enjoy!

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After a month of sharing a phone, my girlfriend and I decided to be grown-ups and buy her a phone.

A lot of other ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) in the area have the iPhone because of its low price in Japan where it’s not very popular. I originally passed on it in July, but we decided to go with it this time for the internet access, GPS for the car, and, let’s admit – cool factor

We brought along my seventy-five year Japanese friend who runs my English club for translation help. After two hours of negotiation and a weeks wait, she had the phone.

One of the most difficult things about finances in Japan is letting little details go. I wasn’t 100% sure on the exact pricing for the phone, but we went with it anyway. This is something that wouldn’t have flown in America, but working with a translator who speaks broken English tests your patience after a while.

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Here are some interesting posts I’ve enjoyed over the last week. Also, make sure to read about my upcoming interview series, the ESL Virtual Job Fair.

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This post originally ran as a guest post at Green Panda Treehouse.

Finding a cheap plane ticket for a vacation or trip abroad is always cause for celebration. However, excessive celebration can blind you from the fact that the plane ticket is just a sliver of the entire travel expense.

The actual travel portion of a trip – plane, bus, gas for the car, subway, etc. – is usually the most expensive aspect of traveling and the most deceiving for budgeting. It is the hidden costs of travel that can cause an exciting adventure to quickly turn into a financial nightmare.

I’ll show you a real life example of this and demonstrate how adding an extra 70% to your travel budget can cause those hidden travel expenses to be handled properly. Leaving home and seeing the world is a  great time in anyone’s life so plan ahead so you can stop worrying about money, and start enjoying your trip.

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