Shoe Misadventures

Cole Haan Air Monica flats: not the most exciting shoe, but that's just how I roll.

I'm not really a shoe person. I like having a pair of comfortable and pretty shoes as much as the next person, but I don't really go out of way to find them and prefer fairly pedestrian (ha!) styles. When I find a pair that is comfortable, wearable, and versatile, I tend to default to that pair over and over for as long as I possibly can. From spring to fall, my go-to shoes are normally ballet flats, and it generally takes me a little less than three months to wear them to death. At least one shoe has a worn-down hole by that point in time, always in the leather upper on the outer edge, down near the sole. While its often not immediately visible to others, the shoe in question generally doesn't have much of a life span after that. 

I don't blame quality issues either. I have wide feet and underpronate when I walk. I've tried a range of styles, brands, and price points, and there's no significant advantage to wearing, say, the pictured Cole Haan flats rather than a pair from Payless, Zara, or Gap. Between my feet, the way I walk, and the way I wear my preferred shoes almost every day until they are no longer up to the task, it is no surprise that I generally stick to a $50 or less, usually at Nordstrom Rack, budget for my flats. I made an exception for the Cole Haan flats as a work shoe last summer, and the experiment with paying more was not exactly a success.

 

I suppose the next experiment is likely to try out more structured, sturdier shoes, likely with a bit of a heel. The T Tahari Ranma flats were a possibility, though the pair I tried on from 6pm.com ran strangely large and the slightly protruding heel felt like too strange a detail, making me a little less inclined to try that particular style again. Other slightly heeled ballet flats might be a possibility. I've also read some good reviews of Dieppa Restrepo shoes on other blogs, which is another possible direction. All their styles, such as the Dandy loafer, are a bit more androgynous than the shoe styles I normally favor. I am intrigued by more menswear-inspired shoe styles these days, though I'm not one hundred-percent sure about whether I'm ready to invest. 

For now, the Keds slip-ons I bought are a good choice for everything except heading to work at my internship this semester. They're a bit more casual than ballet flats, and that takes some getting used to, but the Keds fit well with most of what I've been wearing recently. For work, I've been pairing my standard business casual wear with ankle booties more often than not, which I enjoy, but it might project a slightly too casual vibe. 

Do any of you have similar problems with the longevity of shoes? I am certainly happy to hear any recommendations for shoe styles or brands that I could try! 

Big Moves

via Pinterest

I have about seven weeks until my graduation, shortly after which I will have to vacate the student housing apartment that I've occupied for the last three years. I won't make my permanent move to the city until September, and I've spent the last few days researching both storage options and movers. I must admit, I found the average prices for both things in NYC to be slightly shocking. It gets to the point where one person's collection of Ikea and Walmart price-point furniture is barely worth the cost of either, and certainly not worth the total cost of both combined. I wouldn't generally advocate purchasing anything, much less furniture, with the intention of discarding it during the next move, but I'm also not exaggerating the slightly jaw-dropping cost of storage in particular. (Some storage places come with one free move, but not a second, so that's another cost to account for.) 

It is actually the first time in my life I'm truly dealing with the potential need for movers. I went to college across the country from where I grew up, and there was no question that I couldn't take anything back with me except what would fit in my checked luggage. I used to enjoy accumulating bargain books, and of course, those couldn't all travel with me. I was in the same situation with my big moves to and from Hong Kong when I was working before graduate school, and then again with my eventual move to start school. This process certainly makes me want to swear off buying decorative knick knacks or any furniture nicer than those from the lower-end Ikea lines, at least until I'm fairly certain that I'm settling down in one place for good. 

The whole thing leads me to reflect on how much in the way of physical objects a person actually needs. It also emphasizes how, sometimes, accumulating excess stuff has real costs, both in terms of stress and the actual costs or trouble of moving and storing things. One easily gets to the point where it is easier or even necessary to let go rather than to keep things. I also think back to the moving-out period at the end of every school year in college. There would always be an immense pile of discarded items, some of them fairly nice or expensive, piled at the door of every residence hall. I believe the school donated the items, but can't be sure of how they handled or sorted it all.

I'm actually quite lucky in that it will be fairly painless for me to downsize (I will get a mover, but not rent storage space). I will be moving in with K in September, which renders a lot of my furniture redundant, so I'm opting to sell or discard most items. All I'll be left with is a dresser, a nightstand, and my clothes, which will fit in his apartment while I'm away from NYC. I greatly appreciate his willingness to provide a space for my things, of course, because it will be cramped, though not absurdly so. (I will take a decent quantity of my clothes home in checked luggage and bring it back in the fall.) 

How have you approached big moves in the past? I imagine that the rather laissez-faire attitude towards discarding furniture is a bit of a big-city affliction, but I have done enough research to know why students and young professionals might be forced into that position. 

My Current "Spring" Uniform

Uniqlo tops and jeans; Keds shoes; Calvin Klein coat

I use the air quotes because it barely feels like spring. My current coat, a Calvin Klein cashmere-blend dress coat is fairly heavy, but even with that and a scarf, I feel cold more often than not these days. (As an aside, though I doubt anyone is in the market for a wool coat at this point in the year, but the coat on me is less boxy and, in my opinion, better-looking than it is on the model. It is tapered at the natural waist on me.) It's too warm for the "Zara" style blanket scarves I was wearing most of the winter, and I have put my down coat away, but otherwise, my outfits have not changed extremely much since winter.

I've been getting a lot of wear out of some of my February and March purchases, namely the Uniqlo sweater, the Uniqlo striped tunic (February), and the Keds slip-ons (March). I have plenty of other clothes, but very few sweaters and other non-winter tops with the slouchier, more casual silhouette that I've been favoring in recent months, which means that I've been defaulting to these two tops fairly often. I love the slip-ons so far, they're quite comfortable. 

What are your favorite items so far this season? 

The Things I Wish I Knew (Graduate Student Personal Finance)

As you might have noticed, I've been thinking a lot about student debt, money, and financial responsibility in recent weeks. In particular, I've been thinking about those US News top graduate programs by student debt lists (medicine, business, etc.), and speculating that the numbers are likely misleading. I am moderately certain that the numbers do not include interest, which normally accrues on graduate student loans while the students are in school.* (With the exception of Perkins Loans, which are doled out in small amounts, US federal loans for graduate students are unsubsidized, which means that the borrower is responsible for the interest that accrues during their enrollment. For loans issued in recent years, the interest rates vary from about 6% to 8% depending on type of loan.) 

The question of what responsible financial choices look like for graduate students is a difficult one. I have many regrets, mostly minor, about how I have handled my finances since graduating college. I suspect, however, that true financial responsibility is largely impossible when someone must take on significant debt to complete a graduate program they are sure about. At the end of the day, no matter how much I saved from my job before graduate school, or how much I scrimped during school, my overall net worth was going to be six figures in the negative. In circumstances like mine, there is, of course, a major question of whether one should go to graduate school at all, and it merits serious thought.** 

Now that I've been getting more serious about my finances for a few months, here are some things that I personally could and should have been doing as a young adult while I was working and when I first started graduate school. These things that I wish I had done largely overlap with the "first steps" that any personal finance book for beginners would recommend to someone who is just getting started: