Please also check out and comment on my guest post, No Debt if I Was a Doctor, at Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance today! Thanks!
Punch Debt in the Face did something I thought would be fun at the end of June called Ask a Ninja. Since I have also received a few questions about myself in emails, I’m dubbing today, “Ask BFS Whatever You Want Day”. 
I’m also throwing in a twist. I’m asking all of you a few questions too since I’m always curious about my readers.
Ninja started off his Q&A session with some of the questions he received the most, so here I go:
Q: What prompted you to start blogging?
A: The big motivating factor was a post on another blog. It was touting the money saving benefit of making your own laundry detergent and some of the commenters were acting like only a mentally deficient person wouldn’t take advantage of the 17 cent savings per load. I’m all for cost cutting, but judgmental people tick me off. I was already thinking of starting a blog, but that pushed me to start one specifically on finding a balance between savings and fun.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: Mainly Texas. I was born in West Virginia, but we moved to Texas when I was still a baby. We moved around to different cities in Texas for 5 years, then settled for 10 years, then moved to Holland for 6 months, then to Argentina for 2 1/2 years, and finally back to Texas. That’s when I went to college and met Mr. BFS.
Q: Why don’t you have kids?
A: No real quick answer for this one, but I guess it boils down to the fact we don’t feel ready yet…maybe never, but that’s an unknown.
Q: What’s your day job?
A: It’s half cubicle-monkey work and half customer service. Think of the movie Office Space and you pretty much have it.
So, do you have any burning questions for me? How about any tiny little thing that’s popped into your head from past posts?
And here are my questions for you:
Q: What’s the biggest financial mistake you ever made?
Q: What’s the best financial decision you ever made?
Q: Do you have any topics in mind that you’d like me to post on?
1) Probably a tie between getting scammed in college and just spending too much in college. Graduated college with no student loans, but probably $10,000 – $15,000 of consumer debt.
2) I think that would have to be the decision in the past couple years to be completely out of debt. It’s going to take me some time to do it, but I like the idea of getting there some day.
3) Nothing I can think of, you do a pretty good job now of varying your topics. Keep up the good work.
1) I posted ( http://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/retirement-saving-what-not-to-do/ ) about how I’ve been paying 1.45% fees on my 403(b) when I could be paying 0.10% for the exact same indexes.
2) I’ve gotten lucky a few times when deciding to put money in a CD or to sell stocks. Of course, I’ve gotten unlucky a few times too, but I don’t like to think about those.
3) Professional plans for the future? It sounds like you’re not thrilled with your 35K cubicle position… but it does allow you free-time to explore your other interests and has decent benefits. What does the future hold?
1) Worst Financial Mistake: Going to a dentist in Africa. It took about $4K to fix. UGH!
Biggest financial mistake – putting some of my grad school tuition on credit cards. There may have been better options out there, but I was too young to realize it.
Best Financial Decision – To refinance my current mortgage, and changing it from a 30 year to a 15 year loan along with reducing the interest rate
@MikeS, I’m so sorry you got scammed! That sucks. I am totally enjoying your net worth updates every month…congrats on making so much progress eevry month!
@Nicole, glad you switched with the 403(b)! Stupid fees. Hahaha, yeah I think we all like to think of the investment wins instead of the losses…I know I do.
Huh, my future…it probably isn’t with my day job, but I’ll stay as long as it still allows me to blog during the day or until I find something better. I do see this blog as a huge part of my future. As of right now, I can’t live on what it bring in, but maybe in 3 or 4 years. I can’t think of a better job than writing about money and chatting with all of y’all. Yes, that is corny, but it is also true.
@AJ, note to self, no dental work in Africa. Got it. I am so sorry you learned the hard way. So, were you in Africa for work or pleasure?
@Everyday Tips, ouch…I could see where that could still sting a bit. Congrats on the dream refinance! Woot!!!
1) It’s tie between having too much of a single stock in my retirement fund (the company i worked for which was 50% bank) and hiring a financial advisor to diversify my 401K. He kept 50% of my retirement in said bank stock through the crash and even bought more banks stocks as they were crashing. 3/4 of my savings went down the tubes. I would have been better off saving nothing those 11 years and at least I’d have more mortgage debt gone.
2) Marrying someone with similar spending habits, who’s handy and a hard worker. Those weren’t the reasons we started dating, but they were some of the reasons we stayed together.
3) What are you plans after you become 100% debt free including mortgage.
@Sandy L, okay, you win the award for crappiest money experience I’ve heard today. Ouch. What an a$$. Have you made most of it back yet? Or is it not just a paper loss? Now I understand why so many advisors were threatened with death after the crash…this was just awful…
Yes, marrying someone with similar money values is pretty awesome. We have our ups and downs like all couples, but at least one aspect of our lives is pretty stable. I’m glad you found your other half!
The saddest part about our budgeting system is that absolutely nothing will change when our debt is paid off except my accounts will get the money instead of someone else’s. We still make two car payments a month – just to ourselves. So when we pay off the house, we’ll still be making home payments into our future home account. I had dreams of rolling around in about an extra $1000 a month and then realized that very little would change, lol.
1. I wouldn’t say I have a “biggest” mistake but here is a list I wrote a bout a while back: http://www.dailyfinancialsolutions.com/blog/2010/7/8/my-financial-mistakes.html
2. Best financial decision: starting to use a budget from day one after we got married (well, when we got back from the honeymoon)
3. Investing! J/K
Biggest Financial Mistake – Probably buying a brand new car right out of undergrad..it made living expenses a little tough through grad school.
Best Financial Decision (maybe) – Deciding to break out and consult on my own. It’s not great yet -maybe borderline good at this point- but it has the potential to be great financially. Being a prof and blogging at Financially Digital are a close second because even though there’s no real financial breakthroughs – I have the opportunity to get in front of people and talk about what I love.
My Question – I’d like to read about what your plans are for BFS in the future.
BFS Weightloss group FTW!!
@Rob, ouch, and 80/20 loan…sorry. Glad you had a budget though so you have a plan! Hahaha, if you want to see more about investing on BFS, you’ll have to submit more guest posts.
@Nunzio Bruno, even though the budget was tight, I’m glad it didn’t cause more problems. I agree that pf blogging is just awesome. Where else culd I talk about money and budgeting and not be met with glazed over looks?
Thanks for the suggestion…maybe I’ll write a post about long-term BFS goals when I have some more solid ones. Right now, I’m all about getting as many commenters as I can since I love our community feeling.
I’m also monetizing BFS on the side and have a few goals there, although that is secondary to me (in case anybody wanted to know, I’m shooting for $2500 this year and $5000 next year…I’m about a third of the way to this year’s goal. Paypal fees suck just in case anybody didn’t know that…)
Woot for Weight Loss!
The ads look fine for me, though you’re trying to sell me doughnuts.
@Nicole, doughnuts sound appropriate for Friday and for a carb craver like me, lol.
Okay, so doughnut ad stays and I have no idea what he was talking about, oh well…
I’m down to 148.8. No doughnuts for me!!!
I think most of my financial decisions up until a few years would be categorized under “worst ever”: 50K+ in student loan debt, 10K+ in credit card debt (and for things like a downpayment on a car and wedding rentals…and movies…and fast food…groan) and no savings as I was single and working. Hard to pick one from that list.
The best financial decision we made was, like Mike said, the decision to stop the madness and get rid of this debt. I think the most crucial beginning step was the decision not to charge any more to our cards – that was scary but oh so worth it!
I’d be interested in hearing ways you protect your credit, since that’s what I’m working on now.
@Nicole, yay for weight loss! You’re right, no doughnuts for you.
@Anne, okay, maybe asking people to name crappy stuff is a downer. Sorry. Yay for debt payoff!!!
I don’t think about my credit too often, but no prob. I will definitely look into more posts on recovering credit health and maintaining good credit scores. Thanks for the suggestion!
Worst decision – no dental insurance when I had to get a root canal and crown
Best decision – probably going to the school I got a full scholarship and stipend from instead of an ivy league school. After your first job it doesn’t really matter what school you went to in my field.
topics – I want Mr. BFS to post on investing! I need a lot of help with asset allocation and everything else in that arena.
@Julie, dental work blows even with insurance, so I feel for you. I agree, going to the state school that paid half my way ended up working out for me too. Another investing request…I’m nagging Mr. BFS for a guest post as I type. He says “maybe”. I’ll make sure to get someone to guest post if Mr. BFS doesn’t work out.
1) Biggest financial mistake…I can think of a few of things where I meant well but things didn’t go as I expected. Maybe I’ll go with the something different, and go with a different example which was the dumbest thing I did:
At one job I had win my career, it was “suggested” that we obtain a specific financial certification. I bought about $800 in review text books, but ended up leaving the job later, and not pursuing that certification I had an MBA, so it worked out fine in the end, but the dumb part was not skipping the other certification, but rather I didn’t try to expense those books. I thought it would make me seem like a more “expensive” employee, and that I would be better off being under the radar and paying for the books myself.
Stupidity. Youthful inexperience. I don’t know what I was afraid of.
2)Best Decision I made was to start tracking expenses. Once I did this, it opened my eyes to how I could save money regularly. When I connected the dots between savings, rates of return on investment, and compounding, it all came together for me.
3) As a blogger, I would be interested in a story or two on your experiences with blogging. Always great to get another’s perspective, particularly that of one who’s high up on my reading list:)
Good Questions and I think I’ll give it a stab….
Q: What’s the biggest financial mistake you ever made?
The biggest(?) financial mistake I’ve ever made was going into business without a plan. One that was more than just “let’s make money.” There’s more to business than just playing “Ready, Fire, Aim.” (yes, in that order) Sometimes the best laid plans do not always go correctly either. And sometimes your gut is your best friend. (if that made any sense)
Q: What’s the best financial decision you ever made?
This one is a little tougher to pinpoint.
1) Besides getting and being out of (any real kind of) debt for many years? Probably not buying a home at the peak.
2) Not investing in real estate at the peak as we almost did. Almost! (but which we are going to do in the next year or so, as opportunities arrise, and they always do after such economic times – the waiting is the hard part).
3) NOT buying a new car and being as frugal as possible while keeping the savings where it belongs.
4) Heck, just brown bagging lunch for all these years has literally paid off all our debt. Figure out how much one spends frivolously in a weeks time, and that adds up. Nice to splurge once in a while but I love leftovers the next day. (writing topic?)
Q: Do you have any topics in mind that you’d like me to post on?
1) Maybe an interesting topic is what do you (Ms. BFS or anyone) do on a weekend that is easy, relatively simple, cheap (cost savings) and anyone can do? (aka: potluck parties w/Gaming themes .. or is it the other way around? Or Bingo, etc…) I remember playing card games (re: Spades/Hearts) when I was younger with friends. Just getting together at someones place, not out on the town, was always safe, fun. Plus the comfort of sitting on a sofa or other non-retail establishment type of furniture.
2) I’m also very interested in blogging (now!) and would love to hear more about it.
3) If you weren’t doing what you are doing now, going down the carrer path you are in, what else would you have done … or be doing? Or would rather be doing? (the last one may not be something you would post on a blog due to “Big brother, or Big Employer, listening in, but would be interesting to know).
4) ………
I enjoy reading your blog and the comments. Nice to hear others thoughts on the different topics. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the comments … it doesn’t matter. It all makes one think about their own spot in the world, and sometimes even question their own truths.
ODWO.
(now, if I just had a “preview” button …)
@Squirrelers, youthful inexperience has gotten us all once or twice, I’m sure. Budgeting for the first time in college was eye-opening for me too…I became an addict to my numbers though…before starting BFS, I was easily spending about an hour a day just evaluating our budget and where everything was. It was a a problem.
Awww, I’m glad I’m high on your list! You are at the top of my reading list too. I’ll be sure to share some blogging stuff…I was really thinking of posting the pros and cons of Blogger and WordPress since I had to be the slowest WordPress learner ever. I literally cried twice in the first week of migrating over since I felt mentally deficient…
@ODWO, yep, we too went into business without a real plan. That sucked. Yes, bringing luch is probably one of my great financial accomplishments too. I was spending about $30 a week at restaurants and now I spend less than $10 a week on ingredients.
I will definitely continue posting about fun activities – check out my archives about Fit in a Fun Friday (potlucks were one of my first posts and that was followed closely by poker nights, lol). I will be writing one up about Bingo soon since I’m re-addicted, hahaha. I’ll try to include more about blogging as well.
If I had more personal motivation, I may have gone one of two ways. I either wanted to be a stand-up comedian (seriously) or a psychologist. Yep, those two may have gone together okay as well.
I love making people laugh and I love hearing about people’s lives and trying to help. I thought that those qualities may make a fun career path, but I dislike college too much to pursue the psychology path and stand-up comics don’t make enough money to make me happy (I could never really imagine myself as being a starving artist…).
Thanks for being part of the BFS family!
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