I had chance to interview Christina over e-mail about her new C-Note series. Here’s what she had to say:

Tell me your basic stats and what you’re doing with your life?

I just turned 26 year old female living in Los Angeles. I’m currently a fashion design student at LATTC.

I hear “design student” and the first question that pops into my mind is: How are you supporting yourself?

I used to work two jobs until the end of last year: Sales associate at high-end fabric store and as a web production assistant for a public radio show. My monthly income fluctuated, due to changing school and work schedules, but on average I made about $1,300 a month. I knew eventually I would have to give up one job to finish school within two years, so I saved a lot. Since the new year, I’ve been drawing on those savings.

So retail and media production, not two areas known for high-paying work. How would you describe your financial personality?

Good question. I can say that I’m a good saver but a middling spender. I’ll go into more depth about what I mean by that in my series.

When we initially started talking about writing for 2MF, you mentioned your desire to be pretty open with your finances publicly. Why would you want to tell the world about your bank balance?

The Internet is all about overshare — you can learn how to have sex in any number of ways, what the latest Valley Girl hauled in her latest shopping trip — and yet very few people share how they spend their money. I’m not putting myself out there to show people what they should be doing with their money, but rather to get a conversation going about personal finance. Maybe by taking a look at how I save and spend (and all the mistakes I’ll make), it’ll get readers thinking about their money and how they want to manage it.

Would you mind talking about what your finances look like right now?

Right now, 70 percent of every paycheck goes into savings account at what I’ll call Bank A. I allow myself to withdraw $650.00 a month for rent and utilities and school fees from this account. I am pretty strict about this — if I “loan” this money to myself, I usually pay it back, save for some exceptions.

I also maintain a separate checking and savings account at Bank B. The money in the checking account is for my daily spending, whether it be groceries, that book I’ve always wanted or birthday gifts — you get the idea. I put $12.50 of every paycheck into the Bank B savings account for a future business I’d like to own. And I also put another $5 in too, for my “fun fund,” that is any tickets to ballets or music events I want to go to. I really enjoy going to the theater, so I set this fund up so I can enjoy myself even if I am broke.

I also invested about $3,500 in a South Korean index fund (EWY) in my brokerage account. Honestly, investing is still a bit of a mystery to my; I bought those shares based on my father’s suggestions (he’s an accounting professor, so he’s not totally pulling stuff out of his ass). My personal logic is that unless the South Korean economy ceases to exist completely, I’ll probably come out on top — if only by a little bit — by the time I’m of retirement age.

Finally, I have another $5,000 in a Roth IRA account. I invested $2,500 of it in EWY when the market was lower, so I’m up a little bit with this account. I’m still deciding how to invest the rest of these Roth funds. And yeah, I’m not quite sure how a Roth works, but according to the show I work for, a Roth seems to be the best first step towards retirement savings.

What are some financial concerns you have?

-Retirement – Having worked at a money radio show since the recession started, I have been properly scared s**t-less that I will never get a job that’ll provide me health insurance or retirement — or you know, a wage that doesn’t make me feel on edge all the time.

-Health insurance – Obamacare let me be under the wing of my dad’s insurance until I was 26. Now I’m without insurance and not sure what to do.

-Emergency fund – I’m digging into this right now. Aside from $650 for rent and utilities, I’m allowing myself $50 a week. Again, I knew this day would come. I know in order for me to get a job in the fashion industry, I’ll have to take on at least one unpaid internship (…yeah, I’m playing the unfortunate game). It won’t be possible to juggle two jobs, school and an internship. So the idea is that I’ll make myself my own job, which will let me set my own hours.

Finally, what should we expect from the C-note series?

Every so often (hopefully weekly), I’ll be posting the ins and outs of my checking accounts and tallies of the other accounts with a self-assessment of how I did. Eventually, I will compile this information into a budget. I’ll also be posting about other financial or money challenges I have.

Learn about a few great web resources to guide you on your personal budgeting journey. (Part 4 of 4 in our budgeting series).

When it comes to budgeting, falling off the bandwagon is common. Here are some tips for sticking to your budget to ensure this doesn’t happen to you. (Part 3 of 4 in our budgeting series).

Creating your first budget can be a daunting task. Learn how to do it easily by watching the second of our four-part video series on budgeting your money.

Welcome to the first video in a four-part series about budgeting. In this episode, we’ll discuss the four main methods of budgeting to consider when setting up your personal monthly budget.

(Image courtesy of TheApprovedCard.com)

MEMORANDUM

To: Personal Finance Bloggers
From: Bobby Lee – Host, 2 Minute Finance
Date: January 12, 2012
Re: #OrmanGate2012 & Disclosing Profits (Call to Action)

What a week it’s been so far in the Personal Finance (PF) blogsophere! Suze Orman vs. our #FinFam…what an interesting series of tweets. (If you missed all the action, check out a recap by from Briana from ‘20 and Engaged’)

I wanted to chime in with my two cents. Frankly, it doesn’t serve anyone’s best interests to bash personal financial bloggers or on-air personal finance experts alike. Most of us have the best of intentions; to serve our readers’ financial needs. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for constructive criticism.

Suze’s product may be lighter in fees than most, but there are still fees. On the other hand, Suze has made strides in trying to affect change for consumers by asking TransUnion to track spending data in order to potentially include it in consumer’s credit reports two or more years down the road (whether or not it actually happens is a different story).

However, #OrmanGate2012 proves that there is a bigger issue at hand that has yet to be addressed: the transparency of how those who dispense personal finance advice make their money. I would agree with the common sentiment that Suze is probably making money hand-over-fist with “The Approved Card.” To put it bluntly, it’s not wrong to make money from our blog or other projects we’re working on, but it’s wrong to do so in a not-so-upfront manner off the backs of our readers. #OrmanGate2012 is a great example.

This should serve as a wake up call to our industry to become more transparent about the way we make our money. Although I have not yet personally faced an issue where I needed to disclose a conflict or relationship, I have decided that I will create a disclosure policy on my blog. Furthermore, in compliance with FTC truth-in-blogging rules, I will more explicitly disclose any relationships/editorial influences on blog posts, if needed. The details of which are still being worked out.

I would challenge you to be transparent about your moneymaking projects as it relates to your blogs by posting a disclosure statement. It’s the correct action to take, morally and ethically. And it will only serve to increase the level of trust and credibility given to us by our readers.

(Courtesy Lexus on YouTube)

While buying a car may not be the best gift to give for many financial reasons, I want to instead focus on one aspect of the commercial that doesn’t get a lot of attention, the gift bow. I always thought it was a rented prop, but did you know you can actually buy the bow outright?

(Courtesy Lexus on YouTube)

I spoke to a representative from King Sized Bows, the company that makes the gift bow from Lexus. They declined to disclose the exact cost of the bow, citing their desire to keep the information secret. But they said it’s in the “hundreds of dollars” and is custom made for Lexus. However, they do offer a substitute bow in the next closest size, a 33” ‘Noble’ bow, for $125.

Bottom line, if you’re gifting an automobile this holiday season, be sure to factor in the cost of the bow to make your gift really pop. We’ll leave the rational financial lesson for another day.

Happy holidays from 2MF.

Trying to figure out if diesel or hybrid cars could actually save you money has been a source of argument for years. We use the VW Jetta TDI (diesel) as an example to see how long it would take you to breakeven on that car and also show you how to calculate a green car’s breakeven point on your own.

(Closed captioning is available on this video)

(Courtesy rinkjustice on Flickr)

On a cold October morning at a suburban hotel ballroom in Chicago, a representative from payday lender ACE Cash Express took to the stage to give a carefully worded presentation about payday loans and how they could be used responsibly as part of a customer’s financial toolkit.

As a sponsor of the 2011 Financial Blogger Conference (#FinCon11), the company’s spokesperson spent the better part of 20 minutes describing how their absurdly-high-interest but easily obtainable loans provided a way for “chronically underbanked” (read: poor) Americans to borrow money between paydays for expenses and emergencies. Banks oftentimes refuse to lend money to their customers because of poor credit or small borrowing needs, so companies like ACE were an integral part of the community, he argued.

During the audience discussion afterwards, an unidentified female personal finance blogger stood up and asked the speaker, (paraphrased) “Why would we ever want to pitch your predatory lending products to our readers?”

Her question was met with thunderous applause and widespread approval from the audience. Needless to say, with such a contentious audience, the company and its representatives left the conference in short order.

It seems like these payday lenders are the elephants in the room. Lenders argue that their short-term loan products shouldn’t be used as a long-term financial solution. But, in fact, their loans are design to be abused. Due to their high interest rates, many customers have to take out a second or third loan in order to pay off the first loan. It starts a vicious borrowing cycle that puts its users on an express train to financial hurtsville.

Thanks to revolving door customers and a lack of alternative sources to borrow money from in this down economy, the payday lending industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds. And according a new investigation by the SF Public Press, payday lenders are also flush with cash to grow their operations with thanks to an infusion of funds from big banks.

It seems that banks like Wells Fargo and Credit Suisse are loaning money to these payday lenders, hand over fist, in the form of a line of credit. Think of it as a gigantic credit card that companies can spend any way they like. Not surprisingly, big profit margins seem to be the main motivator behind the credit line.

(Courtesy of danisabella on Flickr)

The SF Public Press writes about one of Wells Fargo’s customers, DFC Global. The company owns a large number of payday loan centers in San Francisco, under the name “MoneyMart.”

“DFC’s credit line, which can be raised to $250 million, carries an adjustable interest rate set 4 percent above the London Interbank Offered Rate. In the current market, that means DFC pays about 5 percent interest to borrow some of the money it then lends to customers at nearly 400 percent,” said the SF Public Press.

Rephrased, Wells Fargo could earn up to $12.5 million annually in interest charges paid by DFC on up to $250 million borrowed. In turn, DFC makes up to a 181% net return annually off of the backs of its customers. Broken down another way, for every $1 that DFC borrows, Wells Fargo makes five cents each year. For every $1 that DFC lends out to its payday customers, it makes back $1.81 annually.

But it doesn’t stop there. Wells Fargo also holds shares in DFC. Using data from the SF Public Press and readily available stock data, we were able to calculate that Wells Fargo owns a possible 2.5% stake in DFC. In addition, “Credit Suisse, an investment bank based in Zurich, acted as the lead underwriter for a public offering of shares in DFC. The payday lender raised $117.7 million in that transaction, according to securities filings. Credit Suisse pocketed $6.8 million,” said the SF Public Press.

When you boil it down, Wells Fargo is able to be in the business of predatory/payday lending indirectly, without dirtying their name, brand or image. They’re making money as both a lender to and shareholder of DFC. In turn, DFC is making an exorbitant amount of money by sticking its customers with hard to pay off payday loans. And with these kinds of profit margins, you have to wonder when Occupy Wall Street protestors will start crying foul over these seemingly unethical bank practices.

Starting January 1, 2012, San Francisco will have the highest minimum wage in the nation, increasing to $10.24. It’s all thanks to a 2003 voter approved initiative that ties the city’s minimum wage to the rate of inflation. Although crossing the $10 threshold has been headline grabbing, it’s actually still not enough for some residents of San Francisco to put a roof over their head.

2 Minute Finance runs the numbers and shows you why. You won’t want to miss the eye-popping results.

(Closed captioning is available on this video)