- Dora the Explorer is singing about cocaine. Is that why my kids have so much energy? #
- RT @prosperousfool: Be the Friendly Financial “Stop” Sign http://bit.ly/67NZFH #
- RT @tferriss: Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ in a one-page cartoon: http://su.pr/2PAuup #
- RT @BSimple: Shallow men believe in Luck, Strong men believe in cause and effect. Ralph Waldo Emerson #
- 5am finally pays off. 800 word post finished. Reading to the kids has been more consistent,too. Not req’ing bedtime, just reading daily. #
- Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse: morbid story from my childhood. Still enthralling. #
- RT @MoneyCrashers: Money Crashers 2010 New Year Giveaway Bash – $7,400 in Cash and Amazing Prizes http://bt.io/DDPy #
- [Read more…] about Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-16
Christmas Magic
When I was little, the world was amazing. The first snowfall was among the best days of the year. Everything was worth exploring, in hopes of discovering something new and fascinating, and everything was fascinating.
Stepping on a crack had serious implications. The wishbone in a turkey earned its name. Blowing out all of the candles on a birthday cake could change your life. The idea of some dude half a world away, watching you, then sneaking into your house to dish our rewards and punishments wasn’t pervy and sick, it was wonderful.
Then, one day, it all changes.
Somebody–a classmate, a older brother, a neighbor–let’s it slip that Santa isn’t real, and the implications snowball. That day, the magic dies.
Wishing on a star? Over.
The Easter Bunny? Hasenpfeffer.
Growing up to be Superman? Welcome to the rat race.
It’s a sad day when kids stop believing in magic.
I don’t believe in lying to my children, but I also don’t believe in destroying their magic. It’s a balancing act.
When my son was 6, an older boy at daycare tried to kill Santa for him. He was upset.
“Dad, is Santa real?”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t believe in Santa.”
“Okay, I’ll let him know.”
“Nonononononono! Don’t tell him!”
Was it lying? Probably, but he obviously wasn’t ready to stop believing, so I let him continue. A year later, we had the same conversation, but the results were quite different.
“Dad, you’ve always said that you hate lying, so why did you let me believe in Santa?”
So I told him the truth. Magic is a frail thing that’s nearly impossible to reclaim and I wanted him to have that treasure for as long as possible. And, “Now that you know, you are in on the conspiracy. You’ve been drafted. Don’t kill the magic for anyone else.”
It was weird having him help me stuff stockings.
If you’ve got kids(and celebrate Christmas), how do you handle the Santa problem?
Giving Up The Magic
It’s a sad day when kids stop believing in Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy, and fairies.
Not because I enjoy lying to my kids, but because–on the day they stop believing–a piece of their innocence is lost. An unforgettable, valuable part of childhood dies.
Believing in magic is a beautiful thing.
Do you remember the last time you looked around the world with a sense of wonder? When seeing a puppy form in the clouds was a miracle? When the idea of an ant carrying 1000 times its own weight was something worth watching? When the impossible goodness of a fat man squeezing down your chimney fills you with hope instead of making you call 911?
Do I believe in Santa?
Of course not, but I believe the concept of Santa is worthy of my children’s belief. I don’t want them to lose that innocence and wonder.
When my teenager was young, he asked if Santa was real. I responded by asking what he thought. When he told me he didn’t believe, I offered to let Santa know. His panic told me he wasn’t ready to give up the magic.
The day that conversation didn’t cause a panic, he looked hurt, like he’d lost something precious. He had.
His world of magic was gone.
The he asked why I had spent his lifetime lying to him. I told him the truth. I said I couldn’t bear to be the one to shatter his belief in magic before he was ready.
Then, I informed him that he was in on the conspiracy. He was not allowed to ruin it for anyone else. Not his sisters, not his friends.
That Christmas, my little boy helped me stuff stockings, which was an odd feeling.
The magic was over, but we still got to share the magic of his cousins and sisters.
Mortgaging a Rental Property
Now that we’re down to the last ten grand on our mortgage, we’re starting to look into getting another rental property. The one we’ve got has worked out pretty well over the last two years, giving us about $800 extra each month. We broke even on all of the repairs we had to sometime in the spring. That’s almost $5000 in pure, almost-passive income.
With numbers like that, if we can get a similar property and keep the mortgage under $800, we should be golden for getting another property and avoiding having it as a new drain on the budget.
However…
There’s always a however.
Our current tenants are moving out at the end of the month, which means the passive part of the income is over while we either find a renter or hire a property manager to do that for us. Since that came at the same time I got the opportunity to be unemployed, there was a bit of panic at my house.
The idea of having a mortgage, no job, and no renter scared us into waiting to buy another property.
It’s not stopping us from getting ready for the next property, though.
We live in a fairly high-cost area. Our house is on an eighth of an acre and is valued at around $250,000. Our rental is on a slightly larger lot, but is a smaller house valued at around $200,000. We don’t have a quarter of a million dollars laying around waiting to hatch into a new house, so we’ll be getting a mortgage. A mortgage for a business property is a bit different than one for a home you’re planning to live in.
First major difference? You need a 20% down payment, with a 25% down payment getting you a much better rate. We don’t quite have that, but if we pushed, we could have it in 6 months, I think. And then we’d have no cushion if anything bad happened in our lives.
The next thing is that we’ll need a reserve that covers all of our expenses–personal and investment–for 6 months. That can be home equity, savings, cash, or retirement accounts. We’ve got this one covered.
We don’t qualify for a standard mortgage plan right now, but there are options:
- Live poor and save hard for a year. We could make it happen in 6 months, but I will still want an emergency cushion just in case a job or tenant go away.
- Buy as an owner occupant. This would mean we buy a new house, then move into it and rent out our current house. We’d have to stay there a year before we’d be allowed to rent out the new property.
- Compare mortgages online. The internet is a wonderful thing, full of the complete knowledge of the human race. There is no better way to try to find an affordable mortgage than hopping on the net. Just make sure you’re looking at a reputable site and dealing with a legit mortgage company.
- Live comfortably and save slower, then buy the property in 2 or 3 years.
Honestly, of all of the options, we’re probably going to do a combination of 3 and 5, but 2 is a serious consideration, since we’ve talked about moving out of the suburbs a bit anyway.
Did I miss anything? How would you fund a rental property?
Link Roundup
Wrestling season is wrapping, leaving me more time to do the other things I care about. One more week, and we cease being over-scheduled for a while.
The situps aren’t going nearly as well as the pushups did last month. I hit 50 this week, but two days later was down to 35. Every time I’m about to get into the groove, I over-do it and hurt my back. I don’t like situps, much.
Finance links:
Couple Money is giving away a netbook for their 6 month blog anniversary. Subscribe and follow them on Twitter. Head over for the details.
CNN’s 20 best money websites. I didn’t make the cut, so I’m sad.
Trent talks about Litterless Juice Boxes. The dollar store near my house sells them for one third the price of Amazon.
We’ve got another example of governments failure to run a cost/benefit analysis.
Other links:
Here’s a photo essay of the 2010 Paralympics. Stop saying “I can’t.”
If you go out in the woods, wishful thinking doesn’t keep you at the top of the food chain.
Cut your onions cold to avoid tears.
Automatic Oopsie
When I found myself doing an abrupt unemployment tour this month, the first thing I did was dig into my budget. I did it so I could see how long it would be before our finances got scary and to see what could be eliminated.
Gah! So much could be eliminated.
There were things that I’d set up on automatic payments, added to my budget, then ignored.
There were things that I’d signed up for and used, but didn’t get as much enjoyment out of any more.
Example Number 1: Netflix
We love Netflix. It gets used every single day. But the DVDs often sit on the kitchen counter for a month before we get around to watching them. We clearly don’t need the DVD plan any more.
Example Number 2: Software Subscription
I use some software to track the Google rank of several of my websites. There is an addon that makes the software work much better. The addon costs $20 per quarter. The problem is that I’m not looking at the rankings of these sites any more. Some of the sites have been shut down, or I’m no longer involved with the clients. That makes the paid addon a total waste. I canceled it and told the tracking software to run slower so it would give Google a fit.
Example Number 3: Extra Domains
Hello, my name is Jason and I’m a domain addict. Seriously, for a while, I was buying domains every time I had a good idea for a website. Some of them were developed, and some were sketched out and put on hold. I also bought domains to help with the search engine rankings of the developed websites. I topped out at about 120 domains. All of them were on auto-renew. I’ve been letting them expire, but some didn’t have the auto-renew settings changed, so they (surprise!) renewed automatically.
These are just three examples of several years of development, exploration, and automation of my complicated financial life, and they add up to more than $100 a month essentially wasted.
Here’s what I want you to do.
Right now.
Not “tomorrow”, not “when you get around to it”.
Now.
Pull up your bank statement, your Paypal account and your credit card statements.
Is there anything in there that’s happening every month that you forgot about, don’t need, or don’t even want?
Ax that crap. Kill it with fire. Nuke it from orbit. Stop wasting your money.
I’d be willing to bet 99% of everyone has something they are paying for every month that they don’t even want, but either forgot was happening or have just let inertia keep paying the bills.
Be the 1%.
