- RT @kristinbrianne: You won't believe it… I just entered to win the #KodakSweeps on http://tweetphoto.com/contest Pls RT #
- RT @wilw The single most insulting thing you can tell a creative person is, upon viewing their creation, "you have too much free time." #
- Hmm. I share a birthday with Linus Torvalds. #
- @freefrombroke I'm following you and would love to be followed back. in reply to freefrombroke #
- RT: @SuburbanDollar: New Post: : The Art of Delayed Gratification http://bit.ly/5gsKXy #
- RT @FrugalYankee: #NEWYear's #QUOTE: All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal or fattening. ~ Alexander Woollcott #
- Crackberry is certainly accurate. I may be too connected. #
- MIL thinks a Kitchenaid stand mixer will make it easier to remove the snow in the driveway. Bad logic, but she's buying one for us, anyway. #
- What magic is in a saw-palmetto capsule and why does my prostate need the power of 1000 of them? #
- RT: @SuburbanDollar: Sounds like he's asking you to rent him a date. #
- RT @hughdeburgh: "I'd rather die fighting for freedom than live as a slave." ~ Judge Andrew Napolitano #Iran #in2010 #USA #
- Happy New Year, 3 minutes early. #
- Billy Jack vs Chuck Norris. Winner? #
- Getting my hair brushed by an 18 month old while watching Married With Children. It's a good evening. #
- RT @FrugalYankee: #NEWYEARS #QUOTE: The most important political office is that of private citizen. ~ Louis Brandeis #
- RT @ScottATaylor: 40,697 Laws Take Effect Today http://ff.im/-dFXNR #
- 5AM. It'd be so easy to go right back to sleep. #
Watching My Debt
- Image by Getty Images via @daylife
I’m so excited. Yesterday, I transferred the final payment for my personal line of credit. This LOC was originally my overdraft protection LOC that had worked it’s way up to $6000 at 21%. Today, it is non-existent.
We started to pay down debt on April 15th, 2009. Since that time, we have paid off $22, 370.70 of our debt. That isn’t $22,370.00 in payments, that is a $22k reduction in our total debt! By my calculations, we have made approximately $28,000 in payments to get that reduction. Next week, we cross the line for 25% of debt eliminated. This is a good day.
Over the last 14 months, we’ve settled into much more responsible spending and saving habits. It no longer feels like we’re sacrificing our lifestyle. We’ve built up a useful emergency fund and set aside money for some things that we know are coming, like braces for my son. In 6 weeks, we are taking our first debt-less vacation.
Now, we start on the long slog to the end. We have 3 debts left to pay: Our last car loan(ever!), one credit card which was an accumulation of pretending we were making progress on our debt by combining many debts onto one card, and finally, our mortgage. The car will be paid by the end of the year. When summer childcare expenses are over, we’ll be making triple payments until it is gone. After that, we have a long, slow couple of years paying off the credit card.
It hasn’t always been easy, but right now, it feels good to look at the progress we’ve made.
Update: This post has been included in the Carnival of Debt Reduction.
Mortgage Race
I spent last week at the Financial Blogger Conference. Saturday night was the big debauch, a 90s themed hip-hop dance party.
Yeah.
Instead, Crystal, Suba, and I hosted a super-secret pizza party to let some of the less “dance party” inclined attendees discuss things like the sanitary concerns of group body shots, sex toys, and horror movies.
During the course of the party, Crystal and I decided to race to pay off our mortgages.
Her balance is just under $25,000.
My balance is $26,266.40.
We both technically have the cash to pay off the balances right now, but we are both dealing with secondary housing issues. She’s building a new one, and I’m updating an inherited house. Neither of us is willing to use our cash reserves to pay off the balance right this moment.
Now that my credit card is paid off, I’ve moved that money to an extra interest-only payment on my mortgage, effectively doubling my mortgage payment, which puts my projected payoff date as about the end of next year. Crystal’s aiming for June, so I’ll have to hurry.
We do have tenants lined up for February, and all of the non-expense related rent will go to the mortgage.
I think I can win.
Update:
I forgot to mention the terms of the bet. The loser has to go visit the winner. When I win, Crystal’s going to fly to Minnesota to experience snow.
Top 7 Reasons To Trade Forex Over Other Financial Instruments
This is a guest post provided by ForexTraders.com
The foreign exchange market has literally exploded over the last 10 years. Before the 1990’s, the only players allowed to speculate in the forex market were banks, large hedge funds, and very wealthy individuals. The reason was simple. The minimum contract size was usually $100,000 and it ranged up to $1,000,000; therefore, most traders simply could not afford to trade in the market. The advance of technology and internet changed that. Today, traders can open an account with as little as $100 and begin trading in the spot fx market. This change has caused traders around the world to rush into the market and the Bank of International Settlements now estimates that average daily turnover in the fx market is around $4 trillion! Let’s examine a few of the top reasons why the fx market is drawing so many traders.
Leverage
In the United States, traders that engage in fx trading can leverage 50:1. Leverage was much higher in recent years, but government regulations have now capped leverage at 50:1 effective late October. This means that a forex trader can control a position of $50,000 with only $1,000 on deposit with his broker. Leverage is definitely a two-edged sword that can help a trader garner very quick and substantial profits, but it can also lead to debilitating losses and should therefore be used with caution.
Liquidity
The huge amount of volume that is present in the forex market each day makes it basically impossible for any single financial institution or even group of market participants to manipulate price movements. It also makes it much easier for large traders to enter and exit the market without trading against themselves, which is a common problem in the stock and commodity markets.
24 Hour Market
The forex market is a loosely connected network of international banks; therefore, the market never closes from Sunday evening until Friday afternoon. Liquidity simply flows from financial center to financial center as time zones open and close business operations for the day. This is a huge advantage for small, retail traders because those who still have full-time jobs can trade at night.
Small Initial Account Size
Traders can open accounts with as little as $1 at some brokers, and then trade positions where each 1 point movement is equivalent to $0.01 (in the U.S. this would be lower since the leverages are capped at 1:50). This will obviously never get a trader rich, but it does allow traders a very low risk entrance into the market. Traders generally need $20,000 in order to day trade the stock market. This very low account size at an online forex broker is a big draw for many traders.
Long Trends
The currency market tends to develop very clear, long trends. It is not uncommon for specific currencies to head in the same direction for 5+ years. Of course, there are many dramatic price swings that make real-time trading difficult and challenging, but a quick look at longer-term currency price charts makes it clear that currencies develop strong trends.
Macro Economics
The currency market is very big picture-based. This means there are not a million and one little things that a trader has to track as is common in other financial markets. Currencies react to major macroeconomic developments around the world. Seasoned fx professionals argue that this makes the job of economic analysis much different in the currency market.
Continued Growth and Volatility
The foreign exchange market is expected to continue to grow in coming years, and volatility is expected to remain quite strong as the world continues to move toward a more globalized economy. As globalization continues to change the world economy, investor interest in currencies will most likely continue to grow steadily.
Jason’s commentary: I’ve never looked into forex trading, mostly because I’m not in the “invest & grow rich” stage of my financial life. Have you invested in the forex market?
Jobs I’ve Had
I’ve always worked. From the time I was young, I knew that, if I wanted to feed my G.I. Joe addiction, I needed a way to make money.
So I got a job.
I was the only kid in first grade earning a steady paycheck.
In the years since, I’ve had a dozen or so jobs at 10 different companies. The question has been asked, so this post is my answer: these are all of the jobs I’ve ever held.
- Paper route. Starting at age 6, I split a paper route with my brother. Initially, I made about $6 per month, which was enough for 1 G.I. Joe.
- Farm hand. I spent a couple of summers in junior high and high school doing odd farm jobs outside of my home town.
- Dishwasher. Starting in 9th grade, I gave up a study hall to work in the school cafeteria, serving food and washing dishes. It paid minimum wage for 1 hour per school day.
- Construction. For a couple of summers, I worked for my dad’s construction company. He was easily the hardest boss I’ve ever had, which was great preparation for the rest of my working life. The drunk bar owner who didn’t allow his employees a lunch break and got upset if they sat down on a smoke break was nothing by comparison. Thanks, Dad. Every employer since has been astonished by my work ethic, even when I’m having an off day.
- Dishwasher, take 2. Sixteen years old, thumped by the wisdom of “If you want a car, get a job to pay for it.” So I did. It paid a bit over minimum wage and gave me my first “Who the heck is FICA and why is he robbing me?” moment. I eventually got promoted to cook, which came with better pay, worse hours, and more opportunities to flirt with waitresses. It was grand.
- Palletizer. This is a fancy way of saying I stood at the end of a conveyor belt, picked up the 50 pound bags of powder as they came down the line, and stacked them neatly on a pallet. Rinse and repeat. 1500 times per night. By the time I left this job, I had arms that would make Popeye cry.
- Cook, take 2. I held this job at the same time as the palletizer position. I’d work 8 hours stacking pallets, then head to job #2, 5 miles away. My car was broken at the time, so I rode my bike. In the winter. In Minnesota. I was working 14-16 hour days, lifting a total of 75,000 pounds, biking 10 miles per day. I was in great shape and tough. I wasn’t tough enough, though. I could only maintain this schedule for a couple of months.
- Machine operator. During my stint with this company, I’d put a little piece of metal into a great big machine, push a button, then spend 15-20 minutes listening to the great big machine carve the little piece of metal into something worth selling. This was about when I started shopping for books based primarily on thickness. One night, I read The Stand in my spare time. I’d also pass the night by burning scrap magnesium flakes in the parking lot. What can I say? Twelve hour graveyard shifts with 3 hours of actual work are boring. I left a few months after my son was born, because I was missing too much of my family time. I took a 30% pay-cut, before overtime, to be with my wife and kid.
- Debt collector. I worked my way through college by collecting on defaulted student loans. I firmly believe that we should all live up to our obligations and responsibilities, including paying your bills, so I didn’t have a moral dilemma with the work. There are some bad apples, but I don’t see collectors as pariahs.
- Systems Administrator. After I graduated college, I got promoted and spent the rest of my time there managing the collection and auto-dialer software and the hodge-podge of other applications we needed, some of which, I wrote.
- Software engineer. This is where I am now. I’ve written a medium-scale ecommerce application that handles the online sales for quite a few companies, mostly in the B2B arena. The job also includes a large chunk of training, management, and even sales. I don’t particularly enjoy sales, but a programmer geek who can manage other programmers, coordinate with sales & marketing, and talk to customers during a sales demo is a rare bird.
To recap: I’m 32 and I’ve had 1 month out of the last 26 years that didn’t come with a paycheck. I’ve worked for 10 different companies and I start the job before this one when I was 20.
How many jobs have you had? What was the most memorable, or the oddest?
Fighting Evil by Phone
A few years ago, I was under the control of the Local Worthless Telephone Company(LWTC), and forced to use their long-distance provider, Evil Telephones & Thieves (ET&T). There was never a month that didn’t involve calling LWTC to get our bill corrected. Every month, something was wrong.
One month, we got a bill for $800 more than expected. Another month, another mistake. I called LWTC to get it corrected. This wasn’t a big deal, just another screwup in long list. They refused. They had never refused before. They informed me that the charge came from ET&T, not their system, preventing them from doing anything about it. There went an hour of hold time I’ll never get back.
I called the Evil Mother of All Telcos, The Malevolent Bastard Offspring of a Government-Shattered Monopoly, the Unholy Source of All Communications-Related Errors and Communicable Social Diseases. Hold. Hold for soul-rending abuse. Do you sense a pattern? Evil abounds. The inspiration for Wolfram & Hart. Employee meetings open with ritual sacrifice and close with the desecration of the holy symbols of obscure religions from distant corners of the globe.
When the customer service rep came on the line, I asked for an explanation of the charge. I was informed that I had made a 30 minute call to Niue Island. I politely reminded them that I had long-distance blocking on my phone. They couldn’t explain how the call went through, but it had, so I was obviously responsible. They refused to consider doing anything about the charge. The next day, I called back. I explained the situation to a new rep, one who hadn’t yet been trained in the art of stealing the souls of the living. She recognized the logical impossibility of international calls through the block and reversed the charge. She was swell.
Ten minutes later, her supervisor called to explain that the good witch didn’t have the authority to reverse those charges. I was responsible for paying the bill, even though she couldn’t explain how I was responsible for making the call. I explained the situation, again. I begged. I pleaded. Nothing. I was informed that I had to pay the bill. If I didn’t, they would take me to court to make me pay. She swore their computer system was solid enough to pass as evidence in court. She was angry, rude and snotty. She told me there was nothing I could do.
That wasn’t going to work for me.
I started gathering papers. The next day, a certified letter was sent to both ET&T and the Evil Para-Monopoly Telco. The contents of this letter were golden.
I sent:
- A dispute letter crafted using every bit of my experience in one of the largest collection agencies in the world.
- A copy of the problem bill, with the impossible charge and the long-distance blocking highlighted.
- A copy of a Minnesota Attorney General complaint.
- A copy of a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission complaint.
- A copy of an FCC complaint.
That was the end of it. There was no follow-up call, no collections notice, no court notice. There was nothing. The following month, there was no mention of the unpaid balance. The bill disappeared. Victory! I had conquered evil, driven a righteous stake through its beating, dust-filled heart, and poured garlic salt in the wound. I never even had to submit the complaints to their respective agencies.
That was the month we dropped our home phone line to eliminate that headache. At the time, the cell phone with the best family plan gave us $300 shared minutes for $75. It was worth it to get away from the Abomination That was the Union of LWTC and ET&T. A year later, when a business telephone provider decided to expand into the residential market in our area, we had our home phone reinstated. In the nine years since, we’ve never had to dispute a bill with McLeod USA.
Lesson learned: When you are battling evil, go big or go home. It’s better to swat a mosquito with a sledgehammer than to poke a dragon with a safety pin.
