Brother Can You Spare A Minute?

In the late 80s, the nightly news featured story after story about the homeless crisis in America. The growing homeless problem was a nightly story…. until it stopped driving viewers to the news and then they moved on to the next crisis. The same was true of the obesity crisis, the war on drugs, the war on terror, stranger danger and anything else the idiot box decided was the next big thing for America to worry about.

In 2008/2009 the story has been the financial crisis facing America. While it’s true that the stock market has performed poorly, banks have had their bad loans catch up to them and some companies have had layoffs, I have to wonder how much of this is something the average American really needs to worry about.

Did anyone really expect that loans without income verification were not going to have a high default rate?  It’s not really news, yet it makes headlines. Why? Because it’s a trainwreck and people like to gawk. But the news agencies can’t stop there, they have to keep making the news… and so doom and despair are the headlines of the day.

The leading story on tonight’s news won’t be about the millions of Americans who are now refinancing their home loans at amazingly low interest rates or of the positive things that are happening in the country today.

10,000 jobs cut at a major employer?  Check out this graph from a study by John Haltiwanger of the University of Maryland and Ron Jarmin and Javier Miranda of the Census Bureau job creation and decide just how newsworthy it really is.

Television is a for profit enterprise funded by advertisers. To make money networks need to get eyes on the screen. So when you watch the news you should be asking yourself ‘just what are they trying to sell me?’

I wonder how 2008 has impacted believers in the Prosperity Gospel? With large losses in the stock market, church giving being down and unemployment rising, do they see it as a sign? Are they being punished for being greedy and or valuing money above their god? Do they see that their pursuit of wealth at any price allowed for evil and immoral people to destroy the wealth and safety of others? Do these Christians feel any culpability whatsoever?

Or is God is testing them? I bet many believe this financial crisis is a test of /their/ faith. But what if the accumulation of wealth was the test? What then?

James 2:24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 

1. You have pile of cell phones in a drawer.
2. You open a closet and find a piece of electronic gear still shrink wrapped.
3. You stay up until midnight to check out the next day’s Woot.
4. The only way you can keep all of your USB Cables/Chargers/Docks straight is by using a label maker.
5. You find a cool gadget on sale and buy it only to find out you already own one once you get home and look.

So far I’m 5 for 5.

What else should go on this list?

A pack a day smoker spends $1825 annually on cigarettes (according to this calculator @ $5 per pack). I’ve got plenty of friends who like to make fun of smokers for wasting their money on cigarettes yet they’re putting nothing away for their retirement. Clearly the smoker has made a choice to waste their money on cigarettes, but my non-smoking friends are simply making less obvious decisions to spend their money in other ways instead of putting the money into savings.

Whether it’s the Marlboro factor or the latte factor (or heaven forbid, both) it’s easy to fall into bad financial habits which do nothing to advance our long term goals. And it’s not enough to just break those habits (as hard as it might be)  you have to start a new habit of actually saving and investing the savings.

Creating a new habit is hard, but you can help yourself by setting up an automatic transfer to savings. If you were to transfer $150 per month to savings each month you remove the money you would have spent on <insert vice here> from your available pool.

Some recent events have started me thinking about the need for me to flesh out my personal safety net. Conventional wisdom holds that you should have the equivalent of 3 months of your net salary in savings for emergencies. I’ve been more focused on long term retirement savings over short term, but I’m beginning to think that might have been a mistake. So I’ve decided to dedicate the first half of 2008 to the following goals:

• Increase my safety net to 3 months take home pay
• Identify recurring expenses which can be eliminated
• Add to my professional certifications
• Reconnect with 10 professional contacts a month
• Update my resume

I think the lesson for me anyway is that I need more balance in my investing. Ideally I’d probably make this transition a more balanced one rather than making a 180 degree change, but my concerns are somewhat time sensitive. By June I should be in a position to reevaluate my overall strategy and I think the next iteration will do a better job of determining and funding my investment priorities in the proper proportions.

Here’s a great way to piss your kid off!

Step 1. Offer to hold onto their money for them.

Step 2. Write down exactly how much they’ve given you to hold for them.

Step 3. Every time they ask for some of their money, charge them $1.50 for the convenience of having a portable bank.

Fun right? I mean how dare they get upset because you are charging them $1.50 for the convenience of having a portable bank. I mean you have to update their balance every time they make a withdrawal; don’t you deserve to be compensated for all of your hard work? How can they be so ungrateful?

Oh wait… most banks charge the same thing to their customers and they make billions doing it. So clearly the average American is just fine with these fees in the name of convenience. But what happens when banks start jacking up those fees? Will customers just sit idly by and take it? The sad thing is most of them probably will. I’m leaving my banks because of “stupid” fees and poor returns.

Step 4. Stop torturing your kid, waive the fees.

Step 5. Stop torturing yourself, do the same.

But I need to write a will. Writing a will has been on my “short” list of things to do for the last 2 years, but I’ve never taken the time to do it. Every time I think, I need to do this, a projector is flipped on in my head and the “Bring Out Your Dead” scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail starts playing:

CART MASTER:
Bring out your dead!
[clang]
CUSTOMER:
Here’s one
CART MASTER:
Ninepence.
DEAD PERSON:
I’m not dead!

Great movie; stupid excuse. So this weekend I’m going to bite the bullet and write up my will. I have to right? I blogged about it.  Ah social pressure.

Right now I’m reading through a number of great resources at NoLo to prepare.  I have a pretty simple estate, so I’m not planning to have a lawyer review it. So total cost to me for drawing up my will? $0. No excuse for not having done this sooner.

Do you have a will yet?

4 years ago I needed a new pair of glasses. I was pretty close to broke and looking for the best deal possible. I went to a couple of optical shops close to my work and nearly choked at the prices. Frames alone were $200+ for every pair that I liked. My prescription isn’t cheap either, so I was anticipating another $200 or so for the lenses. $400 or more for glasses was going to have me eating ramen for a month.

So I decided to see what I could find on the internet. And what I found was Optical4Less.  At the time, I could only find 2 reviews* of this company (admittedly both were positive) and the company was based on Hong Kong.  Normally,  I probably wouldn’t have taken a chance. But their  price for a pair of glasses was $29 (+$10) shipping. $39 vs. $400 was a huge delta and so I decided to take a chance.

3 weeks after I ordered, a brightly colored package arrived at my doorstep. Upon opening the package and inspecting my glasses I couldn’t have been more pleased. I got more compliments from people on that pair of glasses than on any pair I had owned previously. I told all of my glasses wearing friends about Optical4Less and  several of them ordered from them as well. All of them have been pleased with their purchase.

2 years ago I went hog wild and ordered 3 pairs of glasses. One pair of rimless glasses, one pair similar to the pair I had ordered previously and a pair of semi-rimless tinted pair for sunglasses. Total cost: $96. If I had purchased the same glasses from a local shop my total cost would have been in excess of $1500.  And all 3 pairs again exceeded my expectations.

Optical4Less has an affiliate program… but I won’t sign up for it. I’m such an evangelist for this company that I don’t want to cloud my enthusiasm with the perception I am somehow being compensated for my endorsement.

If you wear glasses I encourage you to check them out. The biggest objection I’ve heard from people about ordering glasses online is that they aren’t sure how they will look. I recommend finding a pair of glasses you like on the website and then visiting your local optical store to try on similar pairs. While you’re there, compare the price and I think you’ll find that the risk is minimal if you find a style that you like.

The added bonus to purchasing from Opical4Less is the look of amazement on the faces of your friends when they find out how much they cost. Or, if you’re like my Seattle friend the inner chuckle when you keep that little tidbit to yourself.

* These days you’ll find a lot more reviews for this company. I encourage you to check them out.

At that rate, my 976 calls seem like a bargain! The cost of an ad for this Sunday’s Super Bowl clocks in at $2.38 million for a 30 second spot. With a price tag like that, advertisers will be expecting a lot of buzz for their buck. In case you miss any ads this Sunday, go here to help those poor advertisers get their $ worth.

There are many countries where negotiating the price of something, anything is the normal course of affairs. Buying a bag of rice, a t-shirt or a CD is an elaborate dance between the seller and the purchaser.

Typically in the United States we consider the price to be the price unless we’re dealing with big ticket items like a car or a house. The reality is that many things are negotiable.

Clearly we understand this as it relates to the internet. If I see something online I’m interested in purchasing I’ll do a quick search to see if I can find it somewhere else cheaper, or with free shipping or free pickup. But when it comes to shopping in a store most people assume that the price of an item is the only price the seller is willing to accept. And while that may be true at some retailers, it isn’t a universal truth.

Think only mom and pop stores will negotiate on price? I’ve found many national retailers are willing to negotiate as well.
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