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My wife and I just returned from our baby girl's 2nd water babies class. I don't know who invented swim classes for 8 months old. I do know that they were GENIUS. Since she cannot swim by herself, my wife and I got to spend wonderful time playing with a little girl. Last week, I enjoyed it so much that I nearly cried.
Sometimes, spending money is worth it.
It took 3 years and many phone calls, but I have finally convinced Comcast that I don't actually owe them any money. Had they been able to manage the bill correctly, I would never have moved to ATT Uverse.
My baby girl is growing and her days in the infant carrier are coming to a close. With that in mind, my wife and I decided to buy two convertible car seats for her. Although I am frugal, I am not going to skimp on something as important as my child's safety and the inconvenience a poorly designed seat would cause me. For a that reason, we bought a Britax Marathon for our family vehicle and a Britax Roundabout (smaller and cheaper) for my truck.
Using Amazon: We saved about $75 from what Baby's R Us wanted plus we probably save another $25 in sales taxes.
My new Nikon D7000 arrived today from Adorama. While it was certainly a splurge, I plan on using it to create priceless (to me) photos of my daughter and family. Sometimes, spending more is OK when you get the quality you want and cannot get a discount.
My photographic Equipment:
In the aftermath of the tragedy in Arizona, I think we should all say a prayer for everyone impacted by it.
Although my current Nikon DLSR is perfectly functional, I have found great joy from taking better and better photos of my baby girl. To accomplish that, I have invested relatively small sums in a dedicated flash (which improves flash photos noticeably) and a 35mm f/1.8 lens (which allows me to take photos indoors without a flash). Both upgrades have allowed me to get photos of my baby that are priceless – to me.
Although I am often frugal, I splurged mightily on a new Nikon D7000 camera with a spectacular, pro 28-300mm lens. Did I need it? No. Will I enjoy it? Absolutely. My thoughts: Nikon cameras are well made and should last for years. My father's Nikon camera and lenses from the early 1970's still work perfectly. While DSLR's go obsolete faster than film cameras, Nikon lenses last for decades. Although expensive, I expect to be using this lens when Baby E graduates from high school. Going forward, I expect my photography kit will look like this:
Today, I started working on my taxes for 2010 using Tax Cut software from H&R Block. For the most part, I plugged in last year's numbers into this year's tax code. My preliminary conclusions:
While it is important not to count one's chickens before they hatch, it was nice to get positive returns in 2011. The 401k was up 15%. Unfortunately, the IRA, which contains most of my fixed income investments was only up 4.5%.
Even with internet banks, the rate available to savers is not great. For example, one of my banks, ING Direct, is paying about 1% on their savings accounts and CD rates top out at 1.25%. While the 1% interest rate easily demolishes the 0.20% rate paid by Bank of America on savings accounts, the after tax return is barely worth the effort.
Instead of putting money in savings vehicles like CD's and/or money market accounts, I recommend directing any excess cash to paying down debt. Instead of earning 1% on savings, you can save 15% on credit card debt, 4-7% on car loans, and 5% on mortgage loans by reducing the principal balance of those loans. The only downside is that you may give up some flexibility by paying down the principal on a loan. Think about it this way, the mortgage company is not going to let you get the $1,000 principal payment you sent them with your tax refund money.
If you are buying anything online, don't forget to google the name of the vendor and "coupon code" before you order something. We got 25% off of our photo printing order from CVS using this strategy.
Well, Christmas is over and we went a little bit overboard. My wife and I got Nooks because we like reading. I bought a Nikon D7000 Camera because I enjoy taking pictures of our new daughter. Our daughter got lots of love because 3 month old children need clothes, diapers, food, and a place to sleep. Next year, Santa is going to be really good to her.
In my prior post, I received a response that indicated that Obamacare does not go into force until 2004. While it will not be fully implemented until that time, many of its costly mandates are being phased in. Because of these mandates, we are going to give up our current plan (with my wife's employer) for a different plan (with my employer). This was necessary because the cost of health insurance went up dramatically.
More importantly, the cost went up to provide benefits of marginal value to my family. For example, her plan had a $3m lifetime limit. With Obamacare, there is no limit on the plan. While it might seem like an important benefit, the $3m limit was already so large as to be unreal. Another "benefit" under Obamacare, "free" preventive care visits. In addition to raising the price of the plan, they raised the copay and co-insurance for other services. Of course, the deductible went up as well.
Simply put, we will be paying more money in 2011 for a plan with higher copays, coinsurance, and deductibles.
Sadly, my Congressman managed to eek out his reelection.
This week, my company announced our benefit options for 2011. Simply put, the benefits went up, but the cost to employees and the company went up more. Our old plan fit our needs. Thanks Democrats! Glad you lost.
While I didn't vote for Obama, I had high hopes that he would govern from the middle and lead our economy into recovery. Unfortunately, Obama, Pelosi and Reid cannot seem to understand one simple fact: Industries create good jobs, the government does not.
For example, our banking industry took a huge hit in the financial meltdown. Many of their executives deserve to get canned. Nevertheless, imposing a $19billion tax increase on the industry is folly. The simple truth about taxation is that Taxation causes people to do less of the taxed item.
Be it lending, hiring its own employees, or offering good deals to consumers, banks won't do good things for the economy unless they can keep the money they earn.
A few days ago, I received a notice from TD Bank indicating they were changing our account number. While it would not seem like a big deal, we have a brand new box of checks that are now worthless. To compensate us for our loss, they offered $25.00. Of course, a new box of checks is $30.00.
Thanks Guys.
In July, one of our accounts is going to expire and we have chosen to non-renew it. Much to my surprise (and Ire), the sent me a notice that the account was going to "auto-renew" in July and that they were going to hit our credit card with an annual charge. In addition to raising prices on the subscription, they now charge a "music royalty fee" and have commercials on music stations. Why should I pay a royalty fee to hear commercials and music stations?
With a baby on the way, we are looking to cut expenses and this is a no-brainer. Nevertheless, I decided to keep the subscription until they expired. Of course, the idiot CSR claimed they had to cancel the service immediately. Thankfully, a supervisor fixed the problem, but I am tired of dealing with them and their idiocy.
Former Sirius Customer
Across parts of Europe, there is drama over the need to impose "austerity" plans on governments in places like Greece and Spain. Across America, states like New York and California are facing dramatic financial crises brought on by enormous deficits.
Ultimately, all of these problems involve a tension in Democracies between people who consume taxes and people who pay taxes. Between beneficiaries of social programs (ex. Retirees on Social Security) , employees and businesses who are dependant upon govt spending (contractors), and government workers, the number of people who are net tax consumers is substantial. Furthermore, they have a strong incentive to vote in blocks for people who spend more money. Even politicians who are against more spending are rarely willing or able to cut spending – unless … the Net Tax Payers are unwilling or unable to pay more in taxes.
In the case of Greece, the country does not generate enough economic activity to support the tax load the government workers insist upon. In the case of New York, higher taxes would likely reduce economic activity and ultimately reduce tax revenues. Unless they get someone with the political willpower that New Jersey got in Governor Christie, they are in for a world of pain.
