When I have my hair professionally done, I feel on top of the world.  I can go out in sweatpants and a tshirt and feel like a million bucks.  What is the price value of self confidence? Because whatever it is, when my hair is done, I have it in spades.

Sometimes, it is worth it to spend extra money on things that really give you pleasure.  I can't get down with those people who just preach " Save Save Save, Frugal Frugal Frugal" all day every day.  Why???? Life is meant to be lived- lived well and lived sensibly.  I enjoy having my hair done- and by god while I still have a head full of it without too many gray hairs, I'm going to indulge. Now, this philosophy shouldn't expand to every area of life ( unless you like being broke all the time), but you have to prioritize and indulge sometimes, if only for your sanity.

Charles Schwab Brokerage

Usually they have pretty decent advice. So as I was waiting for my Dunkin Donut coffee, I started thumbing through the email when I caught this little tidbit of advice for fixing your finances:

" Make sure your W-4 form has the proper allowances. The more allowances that you select, the more money the government deducts from your paycheck. YOU DON'T WANT TO GIVE THE GOVERNMENT AN INTEREST FREE LOAN! You want that money today so it can earn interest for you in your savings account rather than in the goverment's account."

OK. Here is the problem I have with this advice and others like it. It gives advice based on the ASSUMPTION that I'm always going to do the responsible thing with my money. I don't know for sure about the rest of you, but I generally tend the find that my behavior toward money naturally tends to the irresponsible and the only way I'm not flat broke is that I set up barriers to my irresponsible behavior.

ERGO, this advices assumes that I'd take whatever extra money the government isn't deducting from my paycheck for taxes and put it in my savings account and never-ever-touch it- again-so-help-me-God.

What's MORE LIKELY is that I'll see the extra 10 or 20 bucks in my paycheck and think "Sweet! New boots come to Mama!" 

Therefore, instead of getting a fat refund in the spring, I'd likely have to pay the govt a little extra and I probably wouldn't have much more in the way of savings to show for it.

This all goes back to being honest with yourself. Do you really have the discipline to put that extra change into savings? If so, hooray and be on your merry way. If not- whatever. Let the government hold your money for you until spring. With even high interest savings account yielding less than 2%, you aren't losing out on that much interest and research shows that people are far less likely to spend a large sum of money than a small denomination.

In my first month of usage, I did have some self control issues. I have tried to conquer
them however, and I did, momentarily, pay my card off. Right now, I do have a balance on
my card, but only because I recently enrolled in online classes, and paid for the entire
amount ($2500) on the card. I currently am working on a plan to repay the balance, either $500 a month over 5 months, or $1000 a month over 3 months- haven't decided yet ( this all
depends on whether I have to pay for my mortgage refinance out of pocket or not).

Now, I mentioned the rewards. This weekend I was shopping ( yes I shop too much- get over it)
and fell in absolute, head over heels in love with this Calvin Klein jacket. It is soclassic, so beautiful, and SO ON SALE!!!! Only $100 dollars separated me and my one true
love. It was tragic when I realized that, not only had I already spent my monthly shopping
budget, but I'd also just spent the weekend splurging on clothes for my little brother (spoiled
little rat/darling). Sigh- I thought, the jacket was not to be.

And then today, I was checking my brokerage account. I realized that the cash back I'd
accumulated was only getting .02% interest in my brokerage. Now, I realize I could have used the cash to pay more down on my credit card, or buy stocks. But I really really wanted that jacket, and I also really really didn't want to go into debt to buy it. Solution: I bought the jacket with my rewards cash bonus. I got what I wanted without resorting to my credit card. A win-win situation. Now- should I indulge myself all the time? No. But in this instance, I think I what I did was pretty reasonable and responsible.

"My mama always told me, never marry someone unless you know their FICO score" HA.HA.HA

This struck me for two reasons. One- I'd be willing to be that before this recession, this
would never have been workplace fodder. Who in the boom boom pow era ( Shout out to the
Black Eyed Peas) even cared what a FICO score was, much less what someone else's was. Now,
everyone is talking about personal finance, Certificates of Deposit, and FICO scores.

The second reason I was struck was because IT'S SO TRUE. A bad FICO score is like an STD.
You may not have symptoms at first, but eventually you will start to itch.

My boyfriend and I probably talk about finances more than normal ( mainly because I'm kind
of obsessed with them- dispite my shopping prolectivity). But I think its healthy. FICO
scores and childhood stories should be mandatory first date fodder. I mean, come on, what's sexier that a 800 FICO score ( besides a BMW z4?) That means the guy is punctual ( pays his bills on time), considerate ( doesn't have an excessive amount of debt), and financially
prepared to buy your perfect picket fence house in the suburbs. C'est fabulous!

Bottom Line: To know thy FICO is to know thyself. To know thy boyfriends FICO probably means you'll save yourself a lot of crying and trouble later on when you find out, no, he can't afford your Tiffany ring.