Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week or so. I just got back from a business trip in Southern California. I spent a week down there working 11 hour days locked up in a conference room. The days were long but rewarding. As it happened, the conference room we were using all week was the executive board room. I’m far from an
These days it seems like everything costs “Just $10 a month”. You can have a subscription to just about anything these days. While $10 a month doesn’t seem like much, over time it really adds up. When you add up all the little costs each month and then multiply that times 12, it can be significant. I don’t think a lot of people realize how
A few years ago (at least 5) I set up four accounts at my credit union. One account is my main checking account, one is a debit card account and two of the accounts are savings accounts. One savings account is tied to our main checking account and one is tied to our debit account. You may be wondering why we have separate checking and
For the last couple months I’ve been dealing with indecision on whether I should buy a small chest freezer for the garage. The only freezer that we have is the small space that our main fridge in the kitchen has devoted to freezing our food. We’ve been able to get by with this amount of freezer space for the last 6 years that we’ve lived
There is an interesting article in the New York Times this morning about the recent moves to control the exorbitant fees that credit card companies charge their customers. While this is probably the right thing to do it does have some ramifications for someone like me. I’m what’s termed a Deadbeat. I use my credit card but I ALWAYS pay the balance off at the
Pfizer will be offering approximately 70 of their prescription drugs for free to people who have recently lost their jobs and have been taking Pfizer drugs for at least 3 months. The program will provide the drugs for up to 1 year or until you get new health insurance. For more information about the program you can read this article at ABC News or visit
Interesting article that highlights the risks that many of the credit card companies are facing. Their default rate is skyrocketing and they are having to retrench and stop lending additional money to try to preserve capital. People have been talking about the next wave of defaults being in credit cards. Apparently Advanta is one of the first to start drastic measures. Other companies have been
Over the last couple of years we’ve developed a friendship with an older man that owns a number of homes out near our lake house. He is retired and lives off of rental income from approximately 15-20 rental homes he owns. Fred still owns every house he’s ever purchased. The majority of these rentals are in Seattle and most are in lower income neighborhoods where
A friend of mine saw this site and sent me the link. I’m guessing he might have seen it on Lifehacker and sent me the link. TrueCar lets you see what people are actually paying for cars. You can see invoice, MSRP and then actual dealer cost. (Invoice cost is usually not the true dealer cost. In some cases the cost can be significantly lower
I received a comment from “Clear Minded” yesterday on my post about what smart phone I should consider purchasing that is well worth pointing out and discussing further. Here is the comment: “Your blog is confusing to me. You’re thinking about purchasing an extra home, getting an ATV, you’d rather take your car to the expensive dealership for service, and now you’ve decided to get