Red, white, and blue. Those were the colors of my dog Shinobi’s Halloween costume this year (no, I am not going to talk about politics, there is enough of that on other blogs). He was a pirate and did a good job of stealing any loot (candy) that we accidentally dropped on the ground.
The pirate outfit, it turns out, foreshadowed a surgery appointment which he is at right now as I write this. In the last several months, his kneecap would occasionally slide out of place while he was playing or walking around, forcing him to carry that leg off the ground and hobble around like a little tripod until we could pop it back into place (tons of fun btw). I am sure he would look pretty cool with a hook or pegleg, and even though it was highly unlikely that something as drastic as losing a leg would happen, we were naturally a little fearful about what was wrong (plus we don’t have the money to get him a parrot).
Turns out it is a pretty common problem for dogs, called “Luxating Patella”. The recommended surgery costs around 2k. I would recommend asking vet schools to perform surgery for your pets, thinking it would be cheaper since students are performing it, but after calling a handful of schools it turns out it is the same price or more in some cases. Stick with a good vet. Earlier this year I wrote about pet insurance and the conclusion of the post and the comments that followed was that it can be a great thing to get for new puppies and for older dogs. This post is an amendment to the earlier one…apparently dogs don’t always wait to get old before something happens. In Shinobi’s case, he is only a year and a half. Another thing I found out about pet insurance is that it doesn’t cover genetic conditions, which his problem is. My conclusion? There is no expense-proof way of purchasing a pet, so make sure and follow the tips in some of these other posts and build up an emergency account for precisely this type of thing. Ouch.
The other night I forfeited 2 hrs of my life by watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Awfulness. It was over acted, over plotted, and over effected (IMO). Even though I regret watching it, fortunately I don’t have a guilty conscience about how much I spent on it. I went to Blockbuster to see what they had in stock and noticed that Indiana Jones was available. However, Blockbuster was recently kind enough to jack up their new release prices to 5 bucks. So I pulled out the new G1 phone (shameless plug, see below post) and quickly did a search of Redbox.com to see if they had the movie in stock, which they did. For those of you that don’t know, Redbox is a relatively new way of getting dvds. It has been around for a year or two now but a lot of people still haven’t heard of it. Essentially, it is like a vending machine full of dvds. Most of them sit outside of a McDonalds, Safeway, Albertsons, etc. The best way to describe what it looks like is…a red box. Fancy that.
Here’s how it works: All the dvds in the machine are new or recent releases. They are all 1 night rentals. And best of all, they are all only 1 dollar. If you procrastinate returning your dvd, it will charge you 1 dollar a day until you return it or until it has been 25 days, at which point it stops charging you and you get to keep the dvd. So if you manage to return it the next day, you will be saving 4 bucks on every rental compared to Blockbuster (that’s 80% off!). No membership required, no paperwork, no nothin’. Just a new way to rent movies and save some money while you are at it. Enjoy!
Remember that high school crush that would send butterflies to your stomach? Not being able to sleep at night? Or the impossibility of focusing on anything else? Well, at 27, I am going through it all over again. Except this time, it is over a phone. Enter the G1, a new smartphone collaboration between T-Mobile, HTC, and of course, the all-powerful Google. Finally, a genuine iPhone competitor has arrived. Is it better than the iPhone? Yes and no. Setting biases aside, I would say they are on par with one another, each one has a feature or two that the other doesn’t have. However, they both have huge, glorious touchscreens, 3g networking, and an application store where you can download incredible applications to your phone (these are the only 2 phones with access to a custom store that I know of).
How are they different? Well I won’t bore you with technical details; you can find a million of those online. But keeping in mind that this blog is finance related, there is one major difference I wanted to bring up: the price. The purchase price is actually pretty comparable with the G1 being set at $179 and the iPhone at $199 (that is the new customer price with a 2 year subscription). The difference comes in the monthly plan.
For my family plan with T-mobile, we have 700 shared minutes, 400 texts each, unlimited nights, weekends, and in-network calls, and on my line I have unlimited data. All for $90 a month. For a similar plan on AT&T, that would be $130, without any text messages (although both lines would have data instead of one). So by using T-mobile, I am saving $40 x 24months = $960 over the course of the 2 yr contract. Almost a thousand bucks for the same service! (AT&T won’t let you just add 400 texts on a family plan, you need to add unlimited which would be an extra $30 per month…an additional $720 over the 2 years).
Did I mention the G1 will scan a barcode on a product you want to buy and find you the cheapest price online or locally? Or you can hold the phone to a speaker and it will identify the song being played and offer you the chance to buy it on the spot? Those are a couple of my favorite applications… I could go on forever, but you can go here if you want to learn more. I just wanted to take a moment and share the love.
I try to always be on the lookout for ways to save big amounts of money. For instance, if you take the time to shop around, you can usually save money on things like car insurance, clothes, or furniture. However, there is one eye-gouging expense that I have yet to find a cheap alternative to: the haircut.
For girls, it can cost as much as an extra car payment 4 times a year! Guys are another story. Guys on the other hand, only cost about 20 bucks a year. How does that work? 20 bucks is how much a baseball cap costs. In case you don’t want to want to go the hat route and you are wondering what it might cost, I used to pay 15 dollars per cut (that is the bottom end). I have since forsaken the barber shop, gathered my courage like a man, and (gulp) let my wife start cutting my hair. Guys, for less than 40 dollars you can pick up a pair of clippers and do it yourself or have your wife or friend do it. If you botch it like the kid in the picture, revert back to plan A (the hat).
Ladies, I understand longer hair is harder to manage and you want to look nice. But is there a cheaper way to do it? I heard in college that Cool Aid can dye hair, will that work? If anyone out there has a money saving secret in regards to hair cutting, I am all ears (pardon the pun).
A quick story regarding haircuts…one of my friends has his wife cut his hair as well. Except that one time she forgot to put the blade guard on and ended up buzzing a strip down to the scalp like the kid in the picture. Rather than shave his whole head, he simply buzzed a symmetrical strip to match on the other side. The moral of the story is that if you decide to do it yourself, you might need a good sense of humor…
A couple of months ago I received a comment from a member that I wanted to respond to because I think her statement applies to a lot of us, or at least it will someday. This member wrote:
“You know how they say that “40 is the new 30.” Well, maybe we can say that if we are diligently working to improve our health, improve our thinking and living. However, when it comes to investing, saving, retirement the 40 something’s aren’t where they should be and I sometimes have the feeling that I am going to work until I’m way past 50 to take care of basic needs for food, clothing and shelter. I think lots of Americans are in the same situation. I’m a saver, an investor, but I still feel that life is passing by so quickly and I may not be in a good place to retire and enjoy life. There is a feeling of insecurity although we may be doing all the right things. . .”
There are two types of people (how many times have we heard that, ha); those we save/invest in their future and those who don’t. Warning: If you are the type of person who doesn’t save or plan, watch out. Someday you will realize the mistake you made and at that point it will most likely be too late. I know one person who always spent every dime he made, bought new cars, etc…He is now 70, still working (even though his body will barely let him) and he is buried in debt. Nobody wants to claim bankruptcy at 70. Another good example is a close friend of mine. She recently called me excited because she finally paid off years of credit card debt. While that is great news, the down side is that she has nothing to show for the last 10 years of work.
However, the above quote affirms the reality that even when we do save, often times we still don’t feel that secure. Houses burn down, people get cancer, and dogs get sick (read previous posts for more on that one). Life is not easy. Contrary to what Hollywood tells us and promises of the American dream, the majority of us struggle on some level, at some point in time. Not to mention that the older we get, the harder it is to overcome obstacles and the shorter amount of time we have to save. I feel odd bringing this up now, since at 27 I still have that deceptive “invincible” feeling, but I am certainly not getting younger (are your joints supposed to ache at 27 when you get up in the morning??). I wanted to list 3 important things you can do to help offset worries about the future:
- Have an emergency fund. You’ve probably heard that before, but we never know what will happen to us. Will you have your job tomorrow? Lose your house? Get sick? Experts recommend saving 3-6 months of living expenses in case of emergency. This seems like common sense, but sadly most Americans don’t even have 500 bucks saved.
- Get supplemental insurance. Companies like Aflac (I have heard amazing stories from their customers) let you choose what you want to insure yourself against. Cancer, pregnancy, accidents, hospital stays, etc. It is relatively inexpensive and can save TONS of money in the long run. I must confess I don’t currently have any supplemental insurance but it is something I should look into.
- See a financial advisor. To a lot of people that sounds daunting. Like only people who own yachts and have personal lawyers and CPAs could have a financial advisor. Nothing is further from the truth. This is one of the most critical things you can do to help ensure a sound financial future for yourself. I started seeing one at 22 when I made 8 bucks an hour and could barely save anything. Most advisors give you a no-cost consultation as well (I only pay 40 bucks a year for the one I use, and I make a lot more than that on my investments, at least until recently!). Just tell them how much you want to have and what age you want to have it at and they will run all the numbers and help you put a plan in place. We are privileged to have in-house advisors at Addison Avenue who are available by branch or phone. If you have never talked to an advisor before, there is no better time to start than today. (877-Addison or request a consultation online here)
Prepare for your future now. You never know what tomorrow holds.
“The sky is falling.” That was the line that made Chicken Little famous. After an acorn fell and hit him on the head (in the original story), he thought the world was coming to an end. That is the same thing that a lot of people are crying right now. With the stock market down, banks (note: I said banks) going under, and the government fighting over what to do, it is understandable that there is concern in the public eye.
However, there are some things that should give us peace of mind. For instance, the government seems to have learned from past recessions and depressions and have created certain safeguards to help prevent against a major market crash. An example of this would be what they call “circuit breakers”. If everyone starts to panic and sell and the market drops too drastically (below a pre-determined amount), the system will simply shut down for a period of time to guard against a collapse.
There is another important key to having peace of mind during this period of economic hardship: credit unions. Most credit unions have had the common sense to not underwrite bad loans out of greed. We have continued to put people first, instead of our own pockets. Without getting into the accounting and financial jargon, I will dumb it down by saying that Addison Avenue is doing VERY good. If you belong to Addison Avenue, you can sleep well at night.
The sky might be falling in some neighborhoods, but not in ours.
While there are plenty of four letter words I could blog about, I thought I would go after one that isn’t normally considered “bad”. In fact, it is almost always considered “good”. We love to talk about it, brag to our friends about it, and as a matter of fact, we even crave it. No, it’s not “Coke” (I’m a Pepsi guy myself). The four letter word I am talking about is “Sale” (shudder). That simple word has been know to rob people blind, cause conflict in relationships, and create mass hysteria (remember the day after Thanksgiving Sale??).
We all know that sometimes sales can be a great thing, and often times we really do save a lot of money. But like Pavlov’s dog, we are conditioned to drool every time we hear or read the word “sale”. One of my close friends graciously gives a large percentage of his paycheck every year to so called “great deals”. We don’t stop to think that we still might be paying too much, or that the sale price is barely less than the original price and still includes an outrageous markup.
Make sure to examine whether or not you really are saving money next time you see that four letter word. Just something to think about as we head into the holiday season.
Charity. Most everyone I know would agree it’s a good thing (hopefully). It is definitely a nice theory, people helping people, sharing the things we have been blessed with. But when do you say “no”? The fact of the matter is that there is no shortage of people asking for money. But saying no to a charitable organization can make you feel like a jerk (and I am convinced some of them play on this).
For instance, last night while eating dinner (of course during dinner…when else?) there was a knock on my door. Naturally I had just taken a big bite of an enchilada (from Trader Joe’s). I opened the door and before I could blink some young guy started talking a mile a minute with a sales pitch. I made an obvious act of my chewing hoping he would take the hint. He didn’t.
Turns out he was a self-labeled “underprivileged” student (wearing very nice clothes) with a high GPA hoping to sell me a newspaper subscription so he can get “points” for college. And if I don’t like the paper during the trial period, he suggested I “lie” to get my money back. I tried to explain that it is hard for me to justify paying for someone else’s college education while I still owe 20k towards my own, not to mention the fact that I don’t read the paper (I am gen Y…c’mon, I get everything online). He didn’t like that. He also didn’t seem to realize that Stanford (only 10 miles away) recently decided to allow Californian residents whose parents earn under 100k a year free admission to the school (someone correct me if I am wrong…I know they offer something close to that). He shook his head like I was some sort of jerk and walked off. Sorry, I give to several charities, but not to potential scams where people are disrespectful of me, my time, and my money. Where do you draw the line on charitable giving?
If you want a great reputable place to find a charity that matches your heart or passions, check out http://www.charitynavigator.org.
They are some of the most skilled salesmen and women you will ever run into, able to psychologically and emotionally woo even the toughest of skeptics. “Ah!” you scoff, “nobody could break my iron will!” But I am not talking about mere cellphones, cars, or jewelry. Oh no. I am talking about selling dreams. The ultimate experience. Unreal relaxation. Paradise. Heaven on earth. What are these people selling? Timeshares.
“All” you have to do is go listen to a 45 min presentation and you “get” a free breakfast! (By free breakfast they mean like the kind a cheesy motel sets out for you in the morning. Like green eggs and ham?) “What a great deal!” you think, as you walk into the dimly lit room repeating in your head the phrase that Nancy Reagan made famous: “Just say no. Just say no.” Leaving the room 6 hours later you dance towards the bathroom from the excitement over the sweet deal you just got. How did they do it?
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes timeshares are a great deal (like when your friend’s rich grandma has one she isn’t using and you get to go instead). Like everything for sale in this world, some things are of value and some aren’t. Vacations are certainly no exception. Right now my wife and I are trying to figure out what to do next year and the more we think about it, the more overwhelming it becomes. Luckily we have the internet so I can sit surfing at my computer eating a Poptart instead of listening to a rhetoric-packed lecture over fake eggs.
We are still figuring things out, but it made me wonder what everyone else does. Can timeshares be a gold mind? Travel agents? A lot of people have a favorite spot they go back to year after year. Do you have one? Have a favorite website to get deals off of? Any money saving travel tips? Word of mouth is tried and true for passing around hot vacation spots and good deals. Anyone willing to share?
It’s beautiful. Steadfast. Never changing. Always there for you when you need it, providing comfort on a bad day. It will wait for you as long as it takes. No, I am not talking about a significant other or a pet. I am talking about Trader Joe’s Turkey Chili. I am talking about the best canned chili you have ever had (dare I say it might even be better than your moms?).
Why do I bring this up? Because I used to not care where I grocery shopped. I would pick the closest place to my house and go there because it was convenient. Then when I got married, my wife wanted to start shopping at Trader Joe’s. The “weird” store I thought. Had I even been in there before? No. I just judged it because it wasn’t some generic Safeway-type store. It wasn’t long before I swallowed not only my pride but also things like mini-mint mouthfuls, Spiced chips, and bowl after bowl of steamy hot deliciousness a.k.a. Trader Joe’s Turkey Chili. However, the great food was only one reason my wife shopped there. The second was the pricing. At least where we live, it is around 2/3 of what we would spend at the local Safeway. And to offset the “convenience factor” of the closer grocery stores, we only go once a week.
Do you care where you get your goods and services? Are you currently offended by paying a buck for a can of sorry-excuse-for-chili at your local grocer? Take a minute to shop around. You never know how much you will save or what great new things you might find.