Kristina Tahnyak, Author at Dinks Finance

About Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.

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Are You Willing To Do Whatever it Takes?

Posted on March 20, 2012 - 6:02 am by Kristina Tahnyak 7

entrepreneur, start-up business, business advice

Good Morning DINKS. Over the past week I came to the realization that people will do almost anything to make money. I am not sure if the need for wealth is pure human greed or it is a natural human survival instinct; but either way people will do whatever it takes to make money.

I recently watched a movie called The Client List which stars Jennifer Love Hewitt. It tells the story of a mother and wife (Hewitt) who loses her job in a bad economy. She and her husband are about to lose their house, they can’t provide food for their children, and their bills are not getting paid. They have asked for a mortgage loan extension from the bank, but unfortunately the bank was unwilling to help them out.

Hewitt is a licensed massage therapist who takes a job as a prostitute in a massage parlor as a last resort. She earns excellent money working as a prostitute. She enjoys her new lifestyle where she can afford to keep her home, provide for her family, and buy her husband and kids nice things. Unfortunately Hewitt’s new dream life becomes a nightmare when she becomes addicted to drugs in order to balance her work life with her home life. After she is arrested her attorney asks her why she did it and her answer was “It’s better than waitressing.”

I also recently watched an episode of Anderson Cooper that featured people who make money off of selling Murder Memorabilia online. Murder Memorabilia consists of personal belongings from serial killers throughout history such as Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy. I appreciate that Anderson Cooper’s new daytime talk show (Anderson) tries to explore controversial topics, but I actually couldn’t believe what I was watching.

After watching these entrepreneurs discuss their business, their websites, and their online auctions I asked myself, can people really make money off of anything? The rule of good business is that if there is the demand for a product then the supplier will make money, but is there really a demand for murder memorabilia? I am not sure that I want to buy a lock of Charles Manson’s hair, or a toenail from John Wayne Gacy; but I guess that some people do. Otherwise these online websites would not be making money. I personally feel that having a personal belonging from a serial killer in my home may be extreme bad karma.

Towards the end of the show the entrepreneurs were confronted by family members of the serial killers victims. The astonishing thing about the confrontation between the victim’s family members and the entrepreneurs who are profiting from their loss was that the entrepreneurs never once offered their condolences. If we are taking pleasure in the loss of life does it make us just as guilty as the serial killers who were convicted of horrible crimes?

If you were experiencing financial hardship,
would you do whatever it takes to support your family?

Let’s take a poll, feel free to answer the following 3 questions anonymously or as yourself, but let’s all be honest. If you lost your job and you needed money not only to live, but also in order to afford the basics for survival would you:

Do something illegal?
Do something that you considered to be immoral?
Sell sex for money?

I’ll go first:

I don’t think that I would do something illegal like rob a bank or steal from people because I am extremely afraid to go to prison.
I would probably do something that I considered immoral if my family’s survival depended on it.
I would consult with my boyfriend first, but I would also probably sell sex for money if it was in a controlled environment and if I was always safe. I personally don’t think that selling sex for money is wrong, but I don’t agree with the associated danger. I wish that the government would step in and regulate the profession so that they could charge taxes and the workers would be safe (not on the streets).

Photo by amagill

Consider This Before You Buy Your Next Car

Posted on March 18, 2012 - 7:18 am by Kristina Tahnyak 4

purchasing a new car, buying a new car, car purchase

Good Morning DINKS. Let me ask you a question, what details did you consider before you purchased your last car? When I bought my car I knew that I wanted a Honda because I come from a family of Honda owners, drivers, and employees. However I did also consider a couple of other options before purchasing my new Honda such as gas mileage versus a Toyota and the overall cost versus a Mazda.

As you may remember from previous posts I absolutely regret purchasing my car. It was an impulse purchase that I didn’t really think through. My brand new Honda Civic cost approximately $800 per month including the car payment, parking in my apartment building, monthly insurance premiums, and gas. I didn’t use the car very much except for trips home to see my family and weekly grocery shopping. The monthly cost was definitely not worth the benefit of having a car. Almost 3 years after purchasing my car I sold it with approximately 35,000 miles on it. There are some days that I definitely miss having a car, but I also enjoy having the extra monthly income.

MSN recently published an article that provides tips for shoppers who are considering buying a new car. Check out these tips before you purchase your next car:

1. Can you afford it? Having a car can be a financial burden. We should revisit our monthly budget to determine if we can really afford a car payment and all of the additional expenses that come with owning a car.

2. What do you want? Prioritize your needs before you start shopping around. If we know what benefits we want from a car such as highway mileage, safety or model and style then we can narrow down our car search.

3. Do you really need it? Owning a car is convenient. But we have to ask ourselves if we really need a car to live, or do we just want it to make our life easier.

4. How much will you pay for insurance? Shopping around for car insurance is very important because insurance premiums can be a major monthly or annual expense. We may choose very basic insurance coverage in order to save on the monthly premiums, but if we ever damage our car or if our car is ever stolen we could end up with a major unexpected expense.

5. Will you be approved for financing? If we don’t have the cash to pay for our car then we will have to apply for financing with the car dealership or with our bank. We should consider our current income as well as our current personal debts before applying for a car loan or financing.

6. Should you buy or lease a car? Everyone’s personal situation is different and the decision whether to lease or purchase a car is something that we have to consider when we are shopping for a car. I purchased my car because I didn’t want to live in constant terror of being overcharged if I damaged the car. I liked the freedom to use the car however I wanted to, but some people like the idea of having a new model every 3 to 4 years when they lease a car.

Photo by http2007

Friday Roundup: Jobs, Debt, and Tax Refunds

Posted on March 16, 2012 - 6:42 am by Kristina Tahnyak 4

Good Morning DINKS and Happy Friday. I am not sure if I mentioned this or not, but as of Wednesday February 29^th I gave up eating chocolate for the 40 days of sacrifice during the period known as Lent.

It has been well over two weeks since I ate anything chocolate including chocolate ice cream, chocolate milk, chocolate bars, and anything else chocolate flavoured. The first 7 days were really difficult and I am definitely looking forward to the day when I can eat chocolate again, but my chocolate cravings are getting smaller as the days go by.

I usually don’t give up something during the 40 days of Lent, I usually try to improve on something in my life such as using less foul language, cooking at home more, or trying to do a daily good deed; but this year I decided to give up chocolate. I usually eat something chocolate or chocolate flavoured on a daily basis so 40 days without one of my favourite foods is definitely going to be a personal success. I am going to look back on this experience during future times of defeat and tell myself that if I can live without eating chocolate for 40 days then I can do anything.

Here are our favourite posts from around the web this week.
Enjoy DINKS and Have a Great Weekend!

– Modest Money shares his life changing decision in the post “The Decision To Get A New Job”

– Adaptu helps us become debt free in the post “What to Do When Your Significant Other Is Deeply in Debt”

– Budgets Are Sexy confirms that money can’t buy happiness in the post “The Story of Heiress Huguette Clark”

– Passive Income Now helps us save money in the post “Fees You Shouldn’t Be Paying”

– Give Me Back My Five Bucks gives us some good financial advice in the post “How to spend your tax refund responsibly”

– Careful Cents featured a guest post by Dinks Finance last week titled “Financial Decisions to Make as a Couple”

Photo by Euro Magic

Credit For a Cup of Coffee?

Posted on March 14, 2012 - 6:35 am by Kristina Tahnyak 12

coffee fix, purchasing coffee, financial mistakes

Good Morning DINKS. We recently received an email from one of our long time readers named Mike from Silicon Valley. His story was so intriguing that I just felt the need to share. Mike works in Silicon Valley California and he recently experienced something that made him wonder if his spending habits are old school or just out of touch. Think about yesterday when you bought your morning cup of coffee. How did you pay for it?

Did you use cash or credit to purchase your morning cup of coffee?

One morning Mike was in line ordering his daily cup of coffee on the Stanford University campus when he noticed a girl in line pay for her coffee with her American Express Blue Card. Mike stood there for a minute looking for his $2 in change to pay for his cup of coffee, and he noticed that another client paid for his $2 coffee with a Visa Black Card.

Mike’s first and only thought was “Really?” Mike wondered if he is so out of touch with society today that the norm has become to charge a cup of coffee on our credit cards. Mike wondered if he is the only person left in the world who is still paying for his morning cup of coffee with cash.

Mike was not sure if paying for a cup of coffee had become the norm everywhere or if it was just a Stanford University trend. He also wondered why people choose to pay for a $2 cup of coffee with a credit card. Maybe men think that if they pay for a cup of coffee with a credit card that requires a minimum credit limit of at least $100.000 women are going to come running towards them. Maybe paying for our daily cup of coffee with a credit card is an easy way to track our daily spending while earning rewards points at the same time. Maybe some people just like the convenience of swiping their credit card on the go, or maybe paying for a $2 cup of coffee with a credit card is a big red flag that we need some serious financial help.

Mike admits that even though he gets a regular pay check every week from Stanford University he will never use a credit card to purchase a measly cup of coffee. I absolutely understand Mike’s point of view, and deciding whether to live on cash or credit budget has been a long standing debate among financial professionals.

I definitely feel that the “budget question” is a personal decision. Living on a cash budget helps control our spending, but we cannot keep track of where or how we spend our money. Living on a credit budget helps us track our spending and earn some rewards points at the same time. However it can also lead to excessive spending and expensive interest charges if we can’t afford to pay off our monthly credit card balance.

I personally don’t spend $100,000 a year on all of my personal spending combined, even if I included my rent and groceries. Therefore I guess that if I had to maintain a required minimum spending limit I would also charge everything on my credit card, including a cup of coffee. Or maybe an easier solution would be to just get rid of the credit card that has a required minimum spending limit.

Photo by Nina Matthews

We Should Do Everything Every 14 Days

Posted on March 13, 2012 - 6:36 am by Kristina Tahnyak 8

financial management, financial advice, financial tips

Good Morning DINKS. The easiest way to achieve financial success, or success in anything for that matter, is to track our progress. The more often we check in on our goal progress and the more often we take on an active part in our goal setting, the more likely we are to succeed.

Throughout paying off my debt, accumulating savings, and completely changing my financial (and personal) life I noticed that the more often I focused on a goal the more interest I took in achieving it. Personally the more interested I am in my goals the more motivated I am to achieve it. Of course checking in regularly makes our goal seem a long way away since we only see a little bit of progress at a time, but a little bit of progress is better than no progress at all.

My advice for anyone who has set a financial or personal goal is to check in every 14 days. Get into a routine and make your check in date a day that you will always remember. Maybe your check in date is our pay day if you are paid on a biweekly basis. If you want to manage your goal on a more regular basis you could set a weekly check in date and check in on your finances every Saturday.

Whether we are paying bills, making mortgage payments, or saving money here are some reasons why more often is more beneficial. These are some helpful financial tips as to why we should do everything ever 14 days.

Pay Our Bills. It is a lot easier to pay a little bit more often than it is to try and find the money to make a lump sum payment once a month. If we have an emergency one month and we cannot afford to make a large lump sum payment our monthly bills will be late. It’s definitely easier to make smaller payments more often throughout the month. If we pay our bills only once a month we could forget the due date which is also not good.

Make Payments on our Credit Cards. Our monthly interest charges are calculated on our average daily credit cards balance throughout the month. Therefore if we make regular payments to our credit cards on a weekly or biweekly basis then our average daily balance will be less than it would be if we make a payment just once a month. If our average daily balance is less then our total monthly interest charges will also be less.

Invest and Save our Money. Saving is not investing, but regardless of our goals we should do each of them every 14 days. Saving is usually referred to as our cash stash and investing is for a longer time horizon. If we earn interest on a monthly basis it can be more profitable to regularly add money throughout the month as oppose to just one time. If we are purchasing stocks or mutual funds we can take advantage of an investment strategy called dollar cost averaging if we buy units regularly throughout the month.

Photo by Joe Lanman

Could You Survive Another Recession?

Posted on March 12, 2012 - 6:02 am by Kristina Tahnyak 2

recession, stock market crash, stock market

I am almost certain that many of us have felt the effects and aftermath of the recent economic recession. Whether we lost our income due to job cuts or we lost our home due to foreclosure, we have all felt the financial pressure to survive during these tough times. All we can do is try to make it out of the recession with some personal dignity, some personal savings, and hopefully some precautions that we need to take in case another crisis comes into our lives.

It can be a huge personal defeat to lose our job. Maybe some of us lost our jobs and were forced to re-enter the workforce by accepting a position that offers a lower salary and does not necessarily utilize our skills and experience. I always tell people that some income is better than no income. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter where our money comes from because it can all be spent in the same places.

As this is an election year in the United States the stability of the economy is still a little bit unsure, especially from an outsider’s point of view. Every time that opposing presidential parties appear together on television and argue like children in a sandbox the market becomes more volatile.

I am not sure if the emotional aspect of a recession is as important as the financial aspect but both are definitely important. Some of us not only lost our money, but we also lost our lifestyle and maybe our circle of friends.

I am not sure if people ever fully recover from a financial (or personal) crisis. Our money mentality for some will forever be changed as we live in constant fear that another crisis is just on the horizon. This mentality is very similar to people who survived the Great Depression of the Dirty Thirties. I have clients who to this day tell stories of their financial lives during a time when they couldn’t even afford to buy a loaf of bread each week. Hopefully most of us will never have to live through those types of financial circumstances.

Here are some tips to help you prepare for market uncertainty, job loss, and/or another financial crisis:

Have a Back Up Source of Income. Having a secondary income helps us save money while working two jobs. It also helps lighten the financial load if we ever lose our primary source of income. If we ever do lose our primary income at least we can use our secondary income to stay financially afloat until we find another full time primary source of income.

Save a Little Bit More Now. Saving an additional amount each pay check or each month is a great idea because it helps our savings accumulate over time. Saving a little bit of extra money every month is a lot easier than trying to come up with all of our monthly expenses in one lump sum payment if ever we do lose our income.

Learn to Live on Less. Go over your personal budget and see where you can make cuts in your monthly spending. Most of us may be living with something that we don’t necessarily need to survive. Just because we can afford to have something doesn’t necessarily mean that we should buy it. The transition to living with less during the loss of our income will be easier if we are only living off of the essentials.

Secure Your Investments. If we are an aggressive investor with a high risk investment portfolio then maybe we should reconsider our current investment strategy and add some secure investments into our portfolio. This will help protect our assets in case of a financial crisis.

Photo by epsos

Friday Roundup: Facts, Lists, Sluts & Colleges

Posted on March 9, 2012 - 7:22 am by Kristina Tahnyak 6

Good Morning DINKS. I hope that you all had a first great week of March. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been too great but you know what they say, March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a Lamb.

There were so many great posts around the web this week. I tried to include as many as I could in our weekly roundup, I hope you like them. If you ever have a post that you would like us to share please send us an email or connect with us on Twitter @dinks_finance.

Enjoy These Posts and Have a Great Weekend Everyone!

– The Simple Dollar clarifies some financial norms in the post “Rules Versus Facts”

– Enemy of Debt helps us make our lives more efficient in the post “Lists Save Time, Money, and Stress”

– Adaptu helps couples cope with change in the post “What to Do About Money When One of You Loses a Job in a Relationship:

– Financial Uproar gets political with personal finance in the post “Can Sluts Teach Us A Lesson On Personal Finance?”

– Budgets are Sexy helps us make changes and achieve goals in the post “Do One Small Thing, Then Do Another”

– Dough Roller tells us how to get a degree without sitting in a classroom in the post “The 35 Best Online Colleges and Universities”

– Money Crashers wants to help us become debt free in the post “Savvy Money Review – Plans to Pay Off Debt Fast”

– Blonde and Balanced just bought her first home and she shares her story in the post “Homeowners”

Photo by drvglvd1

What is Adaptu?

Posted on March 8, 2012 - 7:28 am by Kristina Tahnyak 3

adaptu, financial management, personal finance

Adaptu is a Money Management and Budgeting website that helps people learn about their Personal Finances.

Adaptu knows that finance is personal for everyone and no one’s personal financial situation is the same as anyone else’s. Your finances are not the same as your neighbour, your friend, or your co-worker. One of the many great things about this site is that it’s completely free. It’s free to sign up, it’s free to get advice, and it’s free to manage your money. All we have to do is add our accounts to our personal profile on Adaptu and we will be on the path to getting our finances in order, managing our budgets, and achieving our financial goals.

Adaptu Helps You Learn About Money

The Adaptu website is very user friendly and very easy to get started. Their Helpful Hints page provides step by step guidelines on how to add our accounts, how to create a budget, how to set up alerts, and how to project our monthly cash flow.

Adaptu provides users with several money tools to help us learn firsthand about our money. Many other budgeting sites simply ask users to download our account information and then they provide us with alerts and weekly account updates. Adaptu also provides this service but the quality that sets Adaptu apart from other budget and money management websites is that they help users learn about money, budgeting, and investing with hands on tools. If we are forced to manage our own money (with a little bit of help from Adaptu) then we are also forced to adapt helpful money habits.

Adaptu’s helpful tools provide us with a complete overall picture of our finances. We can set and track our budget online , we can view and keep track of our investment account performance, track our debt repayment progress, and we can also set up a monthly calendar which helps us manage due dates and important dates.

Adaptu Provides Well Rounded Advice

Adaptu offers advice from industry professionals on several different topics such as Budget for Life, Love and Money (featuring yours truly), College Savings, 401K How To, as well as Debt Relief.

David Ning is the Adaptu Budget for Life coach; he brings his expertise from Money Ning to Adaptu to help us manage our income and expenses on a daily basis.
Dorethia Conner is the College Savings coach and expert for Adaptu. She is the President of Conner Coaching where she helps people save for their goals.
Jeremy Vohwinkle is the 4001k How To coach at Adaptu. He helps us manage our retirement savings and 401K plans. You may know Jeremy from his work on Generation X Finance.
Glen Craig helps us get out of debt as the Debt Relief coach for Adaptu. Glen also helps people with their finances, their debt, and their budgets at Free From Broke.

Adaptu is Interactive

The Adaptu Community is a place where users can interact with each other, share their stories, ask the Adaptu experts their ask questions and get some answers. Adaptu also has a Mobile App available on iTunes so we can manage our money from anywhere at any time of the day.

Check it out :)

Are You Rich or Poor?

Posted on March 6, 2012 - 6:22 am by Kristina Tahnyak 6

Good Morning DINKS. Many people feel that money means happiness. I do not personally agree with this statement but unfortunately some people do believe that they would be happier if they had more money.

Today we are going to take a look at the deciding factors that differentiate rich people from poor people and the wealthy from those in poverty. Should we even care if we are considered to be poor? It’s just another status imposed on us by society. In my opinion being rich or poor is relative to each person’s own interpretation and therefore they cannot be compared; but then again, that is just my opinion.

In your opinion what makes someone rich or poor?

Maybe our annual salary defines if we are rich or poor. In some people’s opinion someone who earns $150,000 is rich and someone who earns $30,000 a year is poor. This is probably not the best assessment, but nevertheless it may be the norm that separates the wealthy from the poor.

It is not good to have a big salary if we have even more monthly expenses. If our expenses outweigh our monthly income we are probably living in debt and therefore we are definitely not rich and we may be poor. Maybe it is not the actual salary that we earn but the amount of money that we have after every pay check which defines whether we are rich or poor.

The value of our accumulated assets aka our net worth may be what makes us rich or poor. If we are a great saver we could have more savings than someone who is earning a lot more money on an annual basis than we are. But maybe they are poor and we are rich because we save more money than they do.

If we have money we also have the freedom to buy anything that we want. Maybe our status of being rich or poor is determined by our ability to buy physical materials. Maybe we are rich if we can afford to go on vacation several times a year and if we can buy anything we want without having to save for it. If this is true then being poor just means that we can’t physically afford to have all of the materialistic things that we want. But who is to say that buying nice things and going on vacation will make us happy?

Some people determine their status of being rich or poor by their life experiences and all of the good things that we have in our lives. If we do what we love, if we live our lives with no regrets, and if we never take a single moment for granted then maybe we are richer than those people who have big houses, large salaries, and expensive tastes. Very often people say that they wouldn’t trade their personal happiness for all of the money in the world and I definitely agree with them.

Unfortunately I cannot say that I am 100% happy with my life and I would definitely give up my annual salary, my financial responsibilities, and my daily routine life in order to find true personal happiness. Hopefully by this time next year I will be writing about how I am truly happy without having any financial restraints.

What would make you truly 100% happy in your life?

Photo by Lovin a Daisy

Working on Moving To New York City

Posted on March 5, 2012 - 6:38 am by Kristina Tahnyak 9

moving to NYC, big apple, moving to New York

Good Morning DINKS. I think that many of us would agree that the main factor of achieving success towards any goal is to make a plan. If you have ever worked towards achieving a personal or financial goal then you definitely know what I’m talking about. Once we have a clear path on how we are going to achieve our goal it doesn’t seem so out of our reach.

I am definitely a list person. I make lists for everything from groceries to expenses; and I am old school so I make my lists with a pad of paper and a pen. I like to see my to-do items get crossed off as I complete each step. With each item crossed off of my list I know that I am one step closer to achieving my personal or financial goal.

Currently I am working towards moving to New York City. Over the next year I will slowly start to cut all ties with my life in Canada as I get one step closer to my personal goal of living in New York City. I am trying to hoard as much cash as possible and book as many steady income freelance jobs as I can currently handle. This will ensure that I maintain a stable monthly income even if I don’t find full time employment as soon as I arrive in New York City.

I actually don’t even want to work in personal finance when I arrive in New York. To be totally honest I don’t even want to work full time for a company unless the job involves being creative or unless it is related to writing. I am going to shop my novel ideas around to agents and hopefully I will find a literary agent who will represent me as a new author. Just as I am over living in Canada I am also over working 9-5 in the corporate world of personal finance. I absolutely love my job, but I am definitely ready to move on to different opportunities. I don’t want to live the life that I have now in New York City, I want to live a brand new life in New York City.

What is Your #1 Personal or Financial Goal Right Now?

Here are 3 Steps to Help You Achieve Your Personal and Financial Goals

Set Realistic Goals. Think about the big picture and then break your main goal down into little individual steps that will help you achieve your goal. Think about what steps you need to take in order to achieve your main goal, it’s more realistic (and easier) to achieve smaller goals that will lead up to achieving our main goal. There is no point in setting personal goals if they are unrealistic and completely out of our reach. Setting unrealistic goals just leads to disappointment when we don’t achieve them.

Find Out What You Need. Before we set a goal we should research to find out what resources we need to help us achieve our goal. If our goal is to buy a home in three years we should know how much savings we will need for the down payment as well as how much of a mortgage loan we afford to repay on a monthly basis.

Make a Commitment. We should revisit our plan on a regular basis to make sure that we are still on the right path to achieving our personal goals. If we hit a bump in the road we should re-evaluate and reset our goals if necessary. Otherwise we can rework our goals to make sure that we still achieve our personal or financial goals by the target date. When we make the commitment to do something we have to take all variables into consideration such as the length of time it will take us to achieve our goal, as well as how much time we can spend on working towards our goal, and how much of our monthly budget we can allocate to achieving our goal.

What personal or financial goals are you working towards right now?

Photo by Bidrohi