This week I’m interviewing the Frugal Zietgeist.  Check out her blog Frugal Zeitgeist.  She’s a 30-something divorcee living in New York.  This past year she paid off her mortgage (Congratulations) and is building some serious wealth. I’ve enjoyed following her story.  So find out more about her here.

1. How did you get your name and what made you start blogging?

The full name is supposed to be something of an oxymoron. I chose zeitgeist to be part of my blog name mostly tongue in cheek, because I felt like the things I was writing about – fiscal prudence, responsibility, choosing to spend according to one’s personal values instead of trying to copy the new, hot thing of the moment – were fundamentally against the prevailing go-go-go drive to consume that I saw in the media and in so much of my surroundings. The frugal part was meant to create the oxymoron. In retrospect, that was a mistake. Every other PF blog out there seems to have the the word “frugal” in it, so it looks like I was trying to be clever but tripped over my own damn feet. Which I pretty much did.

I started blogging in early 2007 because at that time, I had just under two years left to pay off my mortgage of $199,200, which I originally took out in 2001 as a thirty year fixed rate loan. Most people in real life who knew I was aggressively paying down my mortgage thought it was a little bit looney tunes given the stratospheric rise of the stock market and real estate. When your assets are constantly shooting up in value, what’s the point in paying off debt? Why not just use the money to buy more and watch them rise faster?

I won’t say that I knew the crash was coming, but I had a very strong gut feeling that the situation was unsustainable. That wasn’t a popular view at the time, especially given that it was linked very tightly with a strong aversion to debt, so blogging became an outlet for me.

2. What do you do in real life and how’d you get started?

I’m a senior manager in charge of developing and implementing strategy in a core internal division of a large corporate entity. I fell ass-backwards into working for this organization in graduate school, where I interviewed for an internship solely because the organization was a good name to have on my resume. I wasn’t terribly interested in the internship work per se but the internship paid more than the other one I was about to take, and I was a starving grad student. I gave them every reason not to hire me, including announcing point-blank in the interview that I didn’t have the hard skills they were looking for. The very senior executive interviewing me leaned over and said in his European accent, Miss Zeitgeist, anyone can learn hard skills. I am looking to fill this organization with people who have the skills we can’t teach. I never forgot those words.

As it turned out, one set of grandparents came from the same country and same general region as my interviewer, and I had learned quite a lot about this country in hopes of getting in touch with my roots. For most of the interview, we talked about that country and then meandered over to discussing other places I’ve been to in the world and things I did while I was there. I thought I had blown the interview entirely, but it turned out that my being first-generation American, having lived abroad and learned another language, and pursuit of an international affairs degree were exactly the kinds of things they were looking for. I ended up joining in as a student intern and later as a junior hire at the ground floor of a new division that is today a critical area within the organization. I’ve job-hopped around the organization a bit, but a few years ago I came back to where I started. I am very happy to be where I am today.

3. What is the reason you blog about personal finance?

So I don’t bore my friends and family.

4. What were your 3 biggest personal finance mistakes?

• Getting married to my ex-husband
• Not setting up a flexible health care spending account early enough
• Doing my own taxes

5. What is your biggest 3 personal finance tips?

• Don’t give up what you want most for what you want right now
• Take the time to understand your values and direct your spending accordingly
• Always have a backup plan

6. What is your 3 best posts?

This is a tough one because of the objectivity factor. I like these three, though, mostly because they were fun to write:

• Why I hate shopping
• Career Tips for 20-something Women
• Low Crap Threshold

7. How are you dealing with our current economic situation?

Things haven’t really changed for me thus far. I never succumbed to much in the way of lifestyle inflation, so there isn’t really much to cut. My job is stable for now, and the mortgage is paid off so my cost of living is really low. I’m still maxing out my 401(k), but all other savings are going into a money market fund so that when we finally hit capitulation in the stock market, I’m ready to resume after-tax investing. In the meantime, I have a pretty decent emergency fund. If I need to keep my current after-tax savings accessible instead of investing it, I will. In total, I’m prepared to sit out the job market for about two years without touching any other investments.

Looking ahead, I feel incredibly lucky to have a traditional pension as well as a 401(k) plan. It’s not a whole lot of money, but with double digits under my belt, if I left my job today the amount I’m vested for at age 65 will certainly be a help. If I hang in there for thirty years in total, I’ll be eligible for full benefits at 60. Even with inflation, it should be enough to cover most or all of my normal expenses as long as I continue to live modestly. Hopefully, company-sponsored retiree health insurance will still be around then as well.

8. Has blogging changed you?

Maybe I’m a little more reflective. I’m certainly more secretive, since only one person in real life knows about my blog.

9. Where do you see yourself in 1, 5, and 10 years?

One year – treading water. 2009 is a write-off: the best we can do is maintain the status quo.

Five years – Ideally, I’d like to be traveling for fun more than I do today. Ongoing family obligations have resulted in my having had a grand total of two real vacations as an adult. I’m forty years old, so that’s pretty sad.

Ten years – I’d like to buy a little retreat near the coast with cash. Nothing fancy; a little cottage will be more than enough.

10. Tell me something unusual about yourself.

I think my underwear might possibly be on inside out today
Thank you FZ.  Hope readers you take a chance to read her blog!