Trent Gillaspie

I’ve never felt like I’m good with money. But, since graduating from college almost a year ago now, I’ve had a handful of both peers and elders tell me that I evidently have a lot going for me in the financial management department. I think part of it is understanding where your money goes and limiting what I like to call ’silly spending’ and another part of it is using some amazing technologies as tools to manage your life.

In order to understand where your money goes, I recommend Mint.com, which is an amazing tool that provides comprehensive graphs and monthly statistics of where your money is going. You can understand exactly how much money you’ve been wasting away on cheap beer and designer shoes.  Then, you can eliminate that ’silly spending’ and start putting that into some savings, so you can eventually afford to spend your money on expensive liquor and lavish lounge furniture. Aside from online tools, find a simple MS Excel template online for you to put together a budget and see to it that you don’t live outside your boundaries. Print out that budget to make sure that you see it and are aware of your spending, and it’s not hidden in some folder on your computer next to all your illegally downloaded episodes of “Two and a Half Men.” I don’t know what’s more disturbing: you hiding your budget after you make it so you can avoid it, or owning episodes of that awful show.

The first thing I did when I got into my career was look into setting up a savings account (the best I could find on the net at the time was with ING Direct) that wasn’t something I felt like looking at every day. I setup a recurring routing of money from my checking account to the savings account following every paycheck I receive to my checking account and then forgot about it. Looking at that account 9 months later, I couldn’t be happier. I don’t spend the money, I know it’s there, and it’s growing in a way I can rely on, without having to worry about the economy’s condition too much. Make sure you pick a bank to save with that sounds like it may not be eliminated in the next 6 months. I have the option to take out my money whenever I want (to move to a better savings opportunity or spend it on something I feel worthwhile) and there are no minimums or maximums.

I also rarely use a credit card. While it is good to build your credit and great to make your expensive purchases on credit card, I make my day-to-day spending on a debit card that provides a comprehensive amount of account information online for me to actively follow transactions online. I have one debit card and one credit card. Don’t get suckered into getting 50,000 credit cards from all your favorite companies in an attempt to own all of the coffee in Starbucks or get free weekly shipments from Banana Republic, but if you do a lot of spending at one, that might be a great opportunity to gain some points to do some extra damage at your favorite store. I enjoy American Express’ points program that gives you limitless choices to spend your points on. Credit cards are a great idea though, if you have somewhere you can put your money that would earn better value before you spend some of it to pay off your credit card bill.

In terms of tips to just watch what your spending, try not to dine out more than once a week. You’d be very surprised what impact dining out and drinking can have on your checkbook. That’s a quick way to make a huge impact on the amount of money you have. In terms of savings, make sure you check up on things every few months to ensure your money is making the most value of itself in a savings account with good return.

Like I have said before though, I am most certainly not an expert on finances. These are just some of the personal techniques I have used that I have found work really well for me. Please share your ideas here, so myself and others can benefit from the forum of those that have conquered financial problems of their own and have come to learn the best way to go about dealing with them. Or, if nothing else, learned what NOT to do.

I recently received the “Bartender’s Pocket Guide” by Kathy Hamlin from my father for Christmas, and after looking through the countless recipes and informative lessons, I wanted to know how to put together a perfect bar in my house. This wouldn’t be something just to satisfy my preferences in alcohol (which are limited), but be able to accommodate a wide array of cocktails, martinis, aperitifs, and shots for any guest I may have over. I took the morning to go through and pull some data from the book to make a few tables of the most recurring liquors in each of the categories, in order to best stock my bar, or anyone looking to put together some liquor for the next time they have friends over (I know, nerdy, right?)

I separated the drinks into the four categories: cocktails, martinis, aperitifs, and shots. Then, I counted the occurrences, and took the top 10 in each category, along with the top 10 alcohols overall. Here’s the list so you can easily find out what you want to put in your bar for each occasion! While this doesn’t account for “on the rocks” types, the mixed drinks are all covered .

THE PERFECT TOTAL BAR

Total Number of Drinks = 688

Liquor – Percentage Occurrence in Drinks

1. Vodka – 25.29%

2. Gin – 14.24%

3. Amaretto – 12.21%

4. Rum – 11.19%

5. Brandy – 10.47%

6. Bailey’s Irish Cream – 10.32%

7. Kahlua – 10.17%

8. Triple Sec – 8.58%

9. Southern Comfort – 7.41%

10. Chambord – 6.98%

Since different types of drinks require different types of alcohol though, here’s the list of top 10 liquors strictly for cocktails, followed by the other types of drinks:

THE PERFECT COCKTAIL BAR

Total Number of Drinks = 339

Liquor – Percentage Occurrence in Drinks

1. Vodka – 27.43%

2. Rum – 17.11%

3. Gin – 14.16%

4. Brandy – 12.39%

5. Triple Sec – 11.50%

6. Amaretto – 10.62%

7. Southern Comfort – 10.32%

8. White Creme de Cacao – 7.37%

9. Kahlua – 6.49%

10. Malibu – 5.90%

THE PERFECT MARTINI BAR

Total Number of Drinks = 46

Liquor – Percentage Occurrence in Drinks

1. Gin – 58.70%

2. Dry Vermouth – 41.30%

3. Vodka – 34.78%

4. Sweet Vermouth – 13.04%

5. Triple Sec – 6.52%

6. Cointreau – 6.52%

7. Blue Curacao – 6.52%

8. Chambord – 6.52%

9. Champagne – 4.35%

10. Creme de Cacao – 4.35%

 

THE PERFECT APERITIF BAR

Total Number of Drinks = 34

Liquor – Percentage Occurrence in Drinks

1. Dry Vermouth – 47.06%

2. Sweet Vermouth – 41.18%

3. Gin – 35.29%

4. Brandy – 23.53%

5. Dubonnet – 11.76%

6. Whiskey – 8.82%

7. Campari – 8.82%

8. Triple Sec – 8.82%

9. Dry Sherry – 8.82%

10. Scotch – 5.88%

 

THE PERFECT SHOT BAR

Total Number of Drinks = 269

Liquor – Percentage Occurrence in Drinks

1. Vodka – 24.16%

2. Bailey’s Irish Cream – 23.79%

3. Amaretto – 17.84%

4. Kahlua – 17.84%

5. Midori – 11.15%

6. Chambord – 11.15%

7. Peppermint Schnapps – 8.55%

8. Brandy – 7.43%

9. 151 Rum – 7.06%

10. Peach Schnapps – 7.06%

 

And there’s always need for mixers, so I recorded the most recurring mixers in the total list of drinks as well. Make sure you’re stocked up on these in your house bar, or else there’s no party  at all.

THE PERFECT BAR MIXERS

Total Number of Drinks = 688

Mixer – Percentage Occurrence in Drinks

1. Orange Juice – 12.65%

2. Pineapple Juice – 11.92%

3. Half & Half – 11.48%

4. Grenadine – 9.45%

5. Sour Mix – 9.30%

6. Cranberry Juice – 7.99%

7. Club Soda – 6.69%

 

So, my nerdiness is bound to be your benefit . Now you know the exact liquors to get if you’re looking to throw a party, and there will be people there you don’t know preferences of, or you are looking to make a very wide variety of drinks. Enjoy, be safe, and may many fantastic parties be had in 2009!