You’ve heard it pretty much everywhere: money can’t buy happiness.

Bullshit.

Money isn’t the sole factor contributing to happiness, but it generally allows you to be less stressed. I know, people are different, but I personally believe that nearly every tangible problem can be fixed with money, therefore contributing to relieving stress, and finally bringing the cycle back full circle to happiness. Let’s think some things over.

Living the Frugal Life
I do not want to have a frugal life, but it is pretty much a basic requirement for someone at my stage in life. I hate looking at price tags and subtracting the total cost from my current bank balance, or adding it to my credit card debt. Although I don’t need the latest fashion accessory, or the newest technology, I have grown up with an expensive taste. The majority of my life even until right now has been surrounded by wealth. I don’t come from a particularly wealthy family, but I have been raised in a generally wealthy neighborhood and provided with everything I needed and nearly anything I wanted. I refuse to say I’m spoiled because I am better with my money than a huge majority of the people I’ve met throughout all phases of life.

Stephanie from Poorer Than You talked about how her frugal lifestyle hasn’t made her less happy, but in fact allowed her to realize where true happiness is. I agree to it to a certain extent, but I can’t say that I will be happy without having a television, buying used clothes, or compacting (not buying any “thing”). I sure as hell can be content (my lesser version of happy), complacent, appeased, or comfortable, but I will not be happy. I’m a big sports fan. I love watching my Lakers or my Bucs play - televised on at least a 37″ LCD. This will make me happy for things that are tangible, which is nearly everything in life besides love, family, and other fruity stuff like that.

True Happiness
But guess what? Love, family, and friends can’t be bought with money, bartered, traded, stolen or given (well, not at least genuine love or friends). So they don’t even count as things that can be acquired with money. That puts true happiness on a whole different type of happiness, something even greater. So… money can’t buy true happiness because it’s not actually physically possible, not because having expensive things doesn’t equate to happiness. That means money can buy other types of happiness, things that are in a monetary category. Unfortunately, in this material world, I have found living life to be exponentially easier and more fulfilling when I have more, a lot more, money than I do now. Want to have a fun, memorable weekend? Sure, but it’ll cost ya. My trip to San Diego with my girlfriend last weekend cost us at around $400.

I have big dreams and great ambitions. I want to take my girlfriend out for vacations, do a lot of traveling, and buy her cool things she’s never had when she was growing up. At 23 years old, I think about being able to pay for my kids’ college tuition without them taking out loans. When I’m hitting mid-life crisis, I want to come home to a nice, big house after a long day of work. I want to be wealthy - being content just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Edit: After posting, I was doing my daily check up on other money blogs and came across Broke-Ass Student’s article about “The Correlation Between Money and Happiness“. Interesting.

I read other money blogs daily. I have a bunch of them on RSS feed and I’m now I browse CNN and MSNBC’s personal finance sections as well. Strangely enough, I tend to think that most of the information is useless to me because retirement plans like a 401(k), or investing in the new rising Chinese stocks has no relevance to my financial situation in life. My hourly wage job doesn’t give me a retirement plan and I don’t even make enough spare money to invest!

Blogs that post their income, net worth, debt, and other financial aspects, like rolleyes, are more enjoyable - all of those figures are great eye candy to look at. Looking at statistics is almost always more interesting than reading a few paragraphs. But, look at these blogs:

Boston Gal’s Open Wallet
My Open Wallet
Lazy Man and Money

These people’s worth, their NET worth, is over hundreds of thousands of dollars - well ahead of my point in my journey to becoming wealthy. I’m not even a thousandaire. In fact, I’m a negative hundredaire. How do reading these blogs really help us now? I mean no disrespect to any of these bloggers and their information is real and useful to a certain group of people, but most people aren’t at their stage, nor will ever be. A lot of the information provided on these blogs are for people on their financial level. But people who regularly read up on these money blogs are probably just as non-wealthy as I am. In most cases, applying Boston Gal’s knowledge doesn’t help us yet. Hers and others’ assets and goals are unrealistic to the rest of us, who barely make over the poverty line.

How does any of that apply to me? It really doesn’t, but here are a couple of blogs that are more in my range.

Blogging Away Debt
Clever Dude

Now, these people, they are in debt hell and making barely any money. Their experiences with saving money is more appropriate for us. They fit our lifestyle because our definition of living frugally is different than theirs (those hundred thousandaires!). Man, I don’t care about how much these rich bloggers are trying to add on to their giant nest egg, or how little debt they have. Clever Dude and Blogging Away Debt are websites by real people. They might have ordinary lives like us, so their personal finance experiences and developments are more valuable. We are like them, when they make a mistake and make a post to warn others, or when they discover a great way to save or invest, we need to take notice.

For now, at least. When we’re making a megaton of money and got even more saved up earning 8% interest, then we’ll move on up to the big boys. But for now, I’ll stick to the little league

Citi’s Diamond Preferred is going to royally screw me over after 10/31 when my introductory APR is finally over: 15.33% APR. What?!? I had specifically applied for this card because it had a lower purchase APR at the time. Look at this!

It’s finally time to shop around for a new credit card. You can visit any of the many money blogs to get an idea of what the best rewarding credit card is but the ones I’ve chosen to compare are specifically for my driving and other spending habits. Here are the cards:

On an initial glance, I personally think Open Road is better if you’re able to get the lower purchase APR. However, let’s take a look at the fine print for both cards regarding their rebate % restrictions and limitations :

Discover Open Road

Earn unlimited cash rewards on all purchases. Earn a full 5% Cashback Bonus on your first $100 in combined gas and auto maintenance purchases each billing period, up $1,200 annually. In addition, earn a full 1% on all other purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3,000; other purchases that are part of your first $1,500 earn .25% and other purchases that are part of your second $1,500 earn .50%. Combined gas and auto maintenance purchases in excess of $100 each billing period earn Cashback Bonus at the same rate as other purchases. Gas and auto maintenance purchases are those made at merchants we classify as gas stations and at stores that primarily sell automotive parts and services, such as auto dealerships, auto repair shops, tire stores and car washes. Warehouse purchases (those made at select warehouse clubs, discount stores and their affiliates) earn .25%. We do not include warehouse purchases or your first $100 in combined gas and auto maintenance purchases each month in calculating your total annual purchases to determine your tier level.

Citi Driver’s Edge

Get rewarded for the purchases you make:
•6% rebates on everyday purchases—at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations—for the first 12 months.
• 3% rebates at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations after your introductory 12-month period.
• 1% rebates on all other types of purchases.

Supermarkets are defined as stand-alone merchants that primarily sell a complete line of food merchandise for home consumption. Drugstores are stand-alone merchants that primarily sell prescription and proprietary drugs and nonprescription (over-the-counter) medicines. Gas stations are merchants that primarily sell vehicle fuel for consumer use. Purchases not eligible to receive the 3% rebates (6% rebates for 12 months) include, but are not limited to, purchases made at warehouse clubs, discount stores, department stores and convenience stores. In addition, online, catalog, mail order and telephone purchases are not eligible to receive 3% rebates (6% rebates for 12 months) unless the merchants identify the transactions as being made at a supermarket, drugstore or gas station. We do not determine whether merchants correctly identify and bill transactions as being made at a supermarket, drugstore or gas station. However, we do reserve the right to determine which purchases qualify for the 3% rebates (6% rebates for 12 months). The 3% rebates (6% rebates for 12 months) offer applies only to new Driver’s Edge accounts.

You may earn a maximum of $1,000 in rebates each year under the Driver’s Edge Rebate Program based upon the date you become a Citi Driver’s Edge cardmember.

All of this reading can be confusing. Basically Open Road let’s you keep the 5% cashback bonus throughout the entire time you own the card. However, Driver’s Edge’s 6% rebate is only for 12 months, then it goes down to a 3% - which is definitely not comparable to Open Road’s 5%. So, I guess I’m going with Discover, right?

Not quite. Credit Card Flyers has a neat tool where you can compare different credit cards as well as calculate their rewards earnings. Take a look at both cards’ with only some food, gas, and travel purchases made: Open Road and Driver’s Edge. Total earnings anually for Open Road is $66.00, while Driver’s Edge’s is $232.80.

Within the first 12 months of using Driver’s Edge, I can earn $166.80 more than using Open Road. Even if I use the 3% rebate instead of introductory 6%, I will earn $137.40, which is still earn $71.40 more. The credit card company I want to get away from offers the best frequent drivers’ card. Go figure.

A key point in potentially becoming wealthy is starting early. Unfortunately, I haven’t started that early. But luckily, I’m only in my early 20s and I can still do pretty well for myself. But I did realize one thing after jumping on the money blog bandwagon - I don’t have 6 months of expenses saved up. Let alone, 3 months!

I’ve come to the conclusion that my expenses for each month, this includes the budgeting of my paycheck plus groceries and entertainment for one month, is roughly $1,350. And I have less than $3,000 saved up so far and a 6 months of expenses total up to $8,100. Although 2008 will probably be a rough transition period for me because I will be moving (goodbye small rent) and hopefully getting a new job, I have to stay positive and focus on my goal of saving. Although in January when I would have to adjust my figures because of the new changes, I would still need to save up a good chunk of change.

At my current rate of putting in $368/month to my savings, I’d need nearly 14 months to make up for the rest - $5,100. Hopefully in the near future, the time required will be at least cut by 1/4th. Let’s make this clear:

End of December 2008
Emergency savings: $8,100

Why do I have a feeling that this number would have exponentially increased by the time I’m 24, less than one year from now? When I move out and find a new place, the rent for myself should be around $750. Now let’s readjust the figures and such: Adding an addition $627 to rent will put my 6 months of expenses at $11,862. Christ, looking at my projected 6 months of expenses is depressing.

I’ve made a post about this service previously and the only reasons why I even gave it a shot is because it was heavily recommended by the current users and I found it to be a worthwhile deal. Although rolleyes has been active since October of 2005, PayPerPost (PPP) will probably reject me because of one eligibility requirement:

Minimum Blog Age. Blogs must be live for a minimum of 90 days, counted from the date of the Blog’s first post, with at least 20 pre-existing posts prior to registration with the PayPerPost Marketplace. The majority of these posts may not be in a single month and there must not be a gap of more than 30 days between any posts during the 90 day period immediately preceding sign up for registration in the Marketplace.

Pretty lame. Even though I’ve been posting various sort of things here and there over the years, I don’t think this service will approve due to its eligibility rules. Sigh, it does suck, but I understand it and I should have read the finer print before I submitted rolleyes. Maybe in another month or so I’ll resubmit. Dammit.