Yes, the title of this entry should actually be “Money and I“, if you’re going to get all grammatically correct on my ass. I…I liked the alliteration OK? IT’S MY BLOG AND I’LL TAKE POETIC LICENSE IF I WANT TO!
Ahem. Anyway, since I’m eagerly awaiting a few hundred dollars of tax refund to be deposited into my bank account, I thought I’d write about money. Money is awesome, am I right? I like to hoard it, and have two bank account for this very purpose:
- Primary bank account
This is where all my money from work is deposited, and where I withdraw funds from when I need them. I don’t keep much money here, instead transferring it often into my second account. Whereas some people get pleasure from spending, I feel guilty for doing so, and prefer watching all the pretty numbers rise! - Savings account
Basically, a “high” (currently 4.90% p.a.) interest savings account where I keep most of my money, and never touch. A lot of people have a coffee habit and/or a shopping habit. As for me, I don’t drink coffee, and I avoid shopping trips at all costs. This is (partly) why I have $14,000 in here, which I’m certain is more than most students my age have, but of course in grand scheme of things, it’s nothing at all. That said, I’m quite satisfied with the hundreds of dollars of interest I earn on it yearly! I don’t really know how much Stuff costs, but I think I have nearly enough money for some sort of car? Not that I need one at the moment, but when I do…I’ll be all up in that.
Also! If I somehow manage to stay employed1, I think I can double that balance over the next year. I’ve really hit stride recently, in that I’m getting a lot of hours, and my wage has also increased due to an increase in the national minimum wage. Also, since I’m classified as a “Level 3″ employee2, I’m actually ever-so-slightly above minimum wage for my age (which only equates to a few extra dollars per week, but it’s still nice to have!)
Check back next month for another instalment of “Adam Tells the Internet Stuff He Should Probably Not Tell the Internet”.
- Working at a video store = very low job security. It’s hard to feel settled when all the other rental stores around you are closing down. I’m expecting to be out of a job in the foreseeable future. Obviously I have a second job, but only a minority of my earnings come from there.
- Which means I can open (i.e., am entrusted with the security alarm code and safe combination), close (i.e., do the figures at the end of the day and lock up), and work solo.
I’m fairly certain that “money and me” is grammatically correct in this instance, and that “money and I” is wrong. I actually looked it up once, but my memory might be a little jumbled!
And…I love my savings account — I get an inordinate amount of pleasure watching how much interest I get every time I log in. Surely, I can’t be the only one!
@Jen: But since I am a subject of the sentence (both “money” and “I” are subjects in the title), in this instance I think it is supposed to be “I”. If I was the object, then yeah it would be grammatically correct to use “me”. It depends on context!
I’m also pretty sure that ‘me’ works in this context – the rule I learnt is that you take away the extra bits (i.e ‘money and’) and if what you’ve got left stands on its own, then it’s correct – thus ‘me’ works but ‘I’ would not.
In any case, you should be very proud of yourself for saving so rigidly – I’m one of those people who spends often, as is reflected in my savings (which aren’t AWFUL, but significantly less than yours).
@Carmen: Valid point, but what happens if I add something to the end of the sentence, e.g, “money and me are in love” — “me” sounds very incorrect! Maybe the issue lies in the fact that it is a sentence fragment, so either rule could apply depending on what the full sentence is?
Looking at movie titles, e.g., “Marley & Me”, “Me and Orson Welles”, it definitely does seem acceptable to use “me”, but I guess I’ve just always remembered that “I” = subject pronoun, and “me” = object pronoun. I mean, if you change the second title to “Orson Welles and Me”, it seems like it should be “Orson Welles and I”, but the first example seems nice for the alliteration, like the title of this entry.
English grammar: I don’t even…
I’m also pretty sure “Money and Me” works in this instance — you could look at it as if you’re saying “Let’s talk about money and me!”
4.90% is SO GOOD. If my bank paid that much in interest…well, it doesn’t, and I don’t know of a bank in the U.S. that does for personal savings accounts (even if you have $1,000,000+), so I’m not even going to waste any effort thinking about that hypothetical situation. :P
Careful with the car…living where you are, you probably don’t need one as you have trams and trains at your doorstep. I had to buy one at your age cause I live in the sticks and needed to get to work (and had no other method), but you won’t need to.
Over the past five years, owning a car has easily sucked me of $20K for car alone (old car minus trade-in plus new car), $5K in insurance, and assuming approximately $30 in petrol a week, about $9K in petrol! Your savings will very quickly disappear. :P
Ah, money is awesome, and I don’t care how materialistic that sounds.
My bank accounts work similarly to yours as well. One for everyday usage and the other for “savings”. You’ve saved up a LOT compared to me. I don’t drink coffee either, but unfortunately I drink hot chocolate and do go on shopping trips, hahaha.
Who needs a car when Metro is SO awesome these days! LOL.
@Amanda: Yep, I definitely won’t need one for a long while, but it’s nice to know that one day when I’m no longer a uni student, I’ll be able to pay for one with ease. Right now, I’m happy spending ~$15 a week on public transport! Also, I didn’t realise extra fees associated with cars were that expensive! Man…
@Tran: LOL at your Metro comment.
Watching the numbers go up is awesome! And your savings account is awesome – it’s hard to find a high interest rate like that these days. And when the day comes that you need to make a down-payment on a house or a car, you’ll be really really happy you saved that money up.
I believe that you have much more money than most university students, even those who don’t have a habit of spending it on things. Hopefully, you’ll keep your job and then won’t go through the “barely have enough money phase” that every young couple seems to have when they first start trying to make their way through.
My life savings plan is to win the lottery, and then all will be well. However, for that to work I need to actually buy a ticket…
I only have one account… chequing. Hehe. You’d think that I spend all my earned money… but I just use my parents because they still pay for everything of mine. So, “chequing” is slightly misleading.
Holy moses you have a lot of money saved up for a student, yeah…
You know what you should do – seeing as you never touch it – is put it in a term deposit. Cos you sure have enough to do that, and you can get a biiiit more interest on those :)
I am very jealous of your super saving skills. I always try to end up saving, but there’s always art and photography equipment to buy. I don’t touch my savings account either, but I also don’t transfer as much money from my checking to my savings. Bleh… life would be easier if we still traded beads and food for products.
This post inspired me to break out iTunes and play “Money (That’s What I Want)” by The Beatles.
Anyway, that’s so good that you have savings! I have to say, I’m jealous. I have nothing in my savings account, which is just my fault. Good luck with your future stuff, definitely. Good game, good game.