- RT @Dave_Champion Obama asks DOJ to look at whether AZ immigration law is constitutional. Odd that he never did that with #Healthcare #tcot #
- RT @wilw: You know, kids, when I was your age, the internet was 80 columns wide and built entirely out of text. #
- RT @BudgetsAreSexy: RT @FinanciallyPoor "The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money." ~ Unknown #
- Official review of the double-down: Unimpressive. Not enough bacon and soggy breading on the chicken. #
- @FARNOOSH Try Ubertwitter. I haven't found a reason to complain. in reply to FARNOOSH #
- Personal inbox zero! #
- Work email inbox zero! #
- StepUp3D: Lame dancing flick using VomitCam instead or choreography. #
- I approve of the Nightmare remake. #Krueger #
ING Rocks
I just got an email from INGDirect. To celebrate Independence Day, they are having a sweet, sweet sale.
You can:
- Open a checking account and get between $50 and $126 for doing so.
- Open a Sharebuilder account and get $76 to start buying stocks.
- Get $1776 knocked off the closing costs of a mortgage.
- Get $76 in a new IRA, to give you a little boost for retirement.
Take advantage of all of that and you’ll get $2054 in cash or discounts.
Seriously, this deal rocks. If you don’t have an INGDirect account, get one. There are no overdraft fees and no monthly fees.
The sale ends tomorrow at midnight, so hurry.
Effen Carpets, Effen Pets
We’ve got pets. Lots of pets.
- 4 cats
- 3 kids
- 2 pythons
- 1 dog
- 1 hamster
And yours truly.
I count, I make a good mess.
Pets have hair. Well, except for the python and the horrible abominations of mis-evolved Chinese food known as bald cats.
Pet hair gets every-damn-where.
A few weeks ago, we watched our friend’s dogs for a few days.
Those things pee. Not in the backyard like good dogs, but on the girls’ bedroom carpet.
I hate pee.
Not my own, of course.
I really, really hate animal pee in my house.
So we got the carpets cleaned. Linda told me it would be a bit more than normal, since we were going to get the air ducts cleaned at the same time. I was fine with that. Animal hair gets everywhere, and in the ducts, it makes the furnace and air conditioner work poorly.
Then, I got an email alert from Capital One.
Seven hundred freaking dollars!
That’s about $400 more than I was expecting.
Not flipping thrilled! <—-Understatement.
Thankfully, we have money tucked aside for crap like this, but if stuff keeps coming up, we’re going to be hosed.
You’re Gonna Die, Part 2
You know that, at some point, you’re going to shuffle off of this mortal coil.
You will die.
Hopefully, you’ll have lived your life is such a way that the even won’t be easy for your heirs, but you can do a bit to make the process less painful for them. Do you want them gutting your house trying to find out if you have a will, or does the idea of a treasure hunt for a life insurance policy make you smile?
Assuming you don’t intend to sit in the afterlife giggling about how difficult you’ve made life for your offspring, the first thing you need to do is find a spot to put your important paperwork. This should, ideally, be a fireproof safe, which you can get for under $50. You’re looking for something big enough to hold the things that matter, while being able to withstand a bit of fire, in case the part of “Grim Reaper” is being played by an arsonist.
The next thing you need to do is put your important papers in the safe. Seriously, this beats both filing your insurance papers in a telephone book stacked in the corner and wrapping an envelope full of cash in a 10 year old newspaper and storing it with your recycling. It’s also superior to tucking an insurance policy in a coupon mailer and losing it the cracks of a chair.*
Important papers include:
- Your will
- Life insurance policies, including accidental death policies
- Bank account information, but don’t forget to remove these if you close an account
- Safe deposit box information
- Car titles and lien releases, if applicable
- The deed to your house
- Investment accounts
- Retirement accounts
Things that are not important papers for your heirs:
- The last 30 years of your monthly gas bill
- The last 30 years of your electric bill
- Home Shopping Network receipts
- Child support filings for your 33 year old daughter who has 3 kids of her own
- Coupon mailers
- Credit card offers
- 10 year old angry letters to the police department about that guy in the silver car who ran a stop sign in the grocery store parking lot
The final thing you need to do to make this all work is tell someone about it. Don’t hope somebody will find a book that has “In case of death, my will is here” scrawled inside the cover, buried in your kitchen. Really. And if that is your plan, don’t move the will later, without updating the book.
Your homework over the weekend is to gather up your important papers and put them in a box. Then tell someone about the box.
*I wish I was making this up.
Transparency
A friend–let’s call him me–recently had a bit of a hangup with a business relationship.
On a long-term project, there were some unavoidable setbacks. My friend decided to work through them, hoping to get everything back up to speed…before the customer noticed.
It’s a funny thing, but customers like to look at status reports on long-term projects. A couple of months after the biggest problem, the customer called my friend wanting an in-person status update. They told him to be prepared for an uncomfortable conversation.
Crap.
Now, the setbacks were truly unavoidable. Things came up that were entirely outside the realm of my friend’s control, but he had to deal with them anyway. When the problems were laid out in front of the customer, it went from uncomfortable to a discussion on how to expand the business relationship.
Transparency for the win.
Bad things happen. Anybody who doubts this is clearly not equipped to deal in the adult (that’s adult in the “grown-up” sense, not adult in the “porn” sense) world. Companies know that bad things can happen to derail a project. They are going to be more interested in how you get the project back on track than anything else.
When things go wrong, be open about it. Your customers/family/friends/one-night-stands will appreciate not having to wonder what’s going on.
Car Dilemma
I’ve got most of my bills set up on auto-pilot, so I don’t have to worry about getting the payments in on time. It’s a huge time saver, but it occasionally comes with a downside.
A couple of weeks ago, I was reviewing our bills and saw this on our insurance statement:
| 2002 FORD | $51.07 |
| 2005 CHRYSLER | $47.40 |
| 1994 MERCURY | $1.64 |
| 2008 DODGE | $39.96 |
| 1986 HONDA — ANNUAL | $17.76 |
There are two problems with this.
1. We sold the 1994 Mercury a few months ago. Then, we forgot to tell the auto insurance company. We probably only wasted $6 on storage insurance, but it could have been worse.
2. We have 2 drivers in the house and 3 vehicles to drive, and the highest premium is on the vehicle getting driven the least.
We haven’t decided what we are going to do, yet.
Here are our needs:
- We have 5 people in our family. My 13-year-old son is bordering on 6 feet tall and shows no sign of not growing.
- Every weekend, we have at least 1 extra kid, sometimes 2.
- We still have a giant(24 foot) boat that we won’t be selling until spring.
- My wife wants to lease a couple of ponies next summer, which will mean a horse trailer to haul them in.
The Dodge is a Caliber, which is small. I don’t fit comfortably in the front seat for a long period of time, and I’ve got no idea how my son manages to fit in the backseat behind me, next to two car seats without complaining. It gets great gas mileage.
The Chrysler is a Pacifica, which fits out family perfectly, as long as there are no extras. It gets crowded with a dog and luggage for a trip, but it’s doable. We get gas mileage higher than the car is rated, but it doesn’t have a towing package. Even if it did, the car can’t handle a trailer full of horse.
The Ford is an F150 we bought new. It’s less roomy in the backseat than the Caliber, but better in the front seat and it can tow anything we need. Also the worst gas mileage of the lot.
The Honda is a motorcycle. I could haul both of the girls if I bungie-strap them to the backrest. Sucks in the winter.
Our choices seem to be:
A. Sell the Caliber. Drive the truck. Not perfect for hauling lots of kids, but it can work.
B. Sell the truck. Drive the Caliber. Screw the horses. (Not literally. Jeez, you have a dirty mind!) This still isn’t great for family outings, but works for a commuter.
C. Sell the truck. Sell the Caliber. Buy a mini-van. We’re looking at the GMC Acadia or the Chevy Traverse. Both are built on the same body, have third row seating that can fit an adult comfortably, and are rated high enough to tow a trailer full of horse. If we sold the car and the truck, and cash out an inherited IRA that has to be cashed out over the next few years anyway, we can come up with $22,000. That will buy a 1-year-old Traverse outright or get us within a few thousand of a similar Acadia.
I think C is the best long-term solution for our family. What do you think?
