Caddickisms

10 Simple Changes That Save Gas | The Wisdom Journal

All 10 of these tips are good, and relatively easy to accomplish. Here are first five, with my own thoughts. For the rest, and the original commentary, click through the link above:

1. Make as many right turns as possible. UPS and FedEx both think it’s important. Look into it. (Hint: less time sitting idle.)
2. Smooth rides. Don’t floor it ’till you brake it. Smoothly accelerate and decelerate.
3. Drive under 60, even on the interstate. This one hurts, but the facts blow me away. In fact, I’m just going to quote the Wisdom Journal directly…

According to the EPA, you can assume that each 5 m.p.h. you drive over 60 m.p.h. is like paying an additional 20 to 25 cents per gallon of gas. Wow!

4. Watch your tire pressure. I knew this already, but it’s easy to get lazy about it. 4-10% decrease in gas mileage is substantial, though!
5. Stop for yellow lights. This goes along with #2, really.

So, check out the original article for some helpful tips (and thanks, Ron).

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Lots of movies are coming out this year that I would love to see in a theater, rather than waiting for DVD.

Here’s the list, in order of release, with release date. Boldface indicates movies I will not miss in the theaters - the others I will be disappointed if I have to miss for one reason or another:

1. Iron Man - May 2
   
2. Speed Racer - May 9
3. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - May 16
   
4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - May 22
   
5. The Incredible Hulk - June 13
6. Get Smart - June 20
7. Wall-E - June 27
8. Hancock - July 2
9. The Dark Knight - July 18
   
10. The X-Files: I want to believe - July 25
11. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer - August 1
12. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - August 15
    
13. Quantum of Solace (James Bond) - November 7

Hmmm… 13 nights of babysitting to line up, plus approximately $234 in movie tickets (assuming $9 per ticket, and that my wife will accompany me). That’s gonna screw up my budget a bit. If I keep it to the essentials, that’s still $90. At least it’s double digits.

Okay, let’s say I get discount tickets for $6 through work and go after the restrictions are lifted (which may be too difficult a wait for some of these, but let’s just assume I can hack it): cost for all = $156; cost for the essentials = $60.

Of course, that doesn’t include the concession stand….

Sometimes I hate loving movies.

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How should I spend my economic stimulus rebate?

Over at Gather Little by Little (link above), Glblguy reviews his decision with his wife about what to do with his economic stimulus rebate. All of us (in the US, anyway) have the same decision to make. There are, as he points out, about 4 options:

1. Pay off debt
2. Buy stuff
3. Save/invest it
4. Go on a trip/vacation

What do I want to do with it? Buy stuff. Between lawn care/landscaping and computer stuff, we “need” some things for this house that I either can’t afford at the moment, or don’t have a place to store (which leads into wanting to purchase a shed, which ain’t cheap).

What I really want to do with it is take a vacation, but that’s not even close to a realistic priority.

What are we actually going to do with it? We’re going to split it up a bit. We just bought a new vacuum cleaner (a rather expensive, but excellent, multi-purpose one) after our old one broke, so a big chunk of it will go to paying that off. The rest will go to paying off debt, unless my upcoming car inspection sucks the money first.

What about you? Any vacations in your future? Freeing yourselves from the tyranny of the credit card companies? Loading up on Wii purchases? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Uncommon Lifestyles and the Truth About the 4-Hour Workweek: An Interview with Tim Ferriss ∞ Get Rich Slowly

This article spurred a long night of reading about virtual personal assistants and other ways of “lightening the load” of some of the tasks we all have to do in our lives. I like the concepts. There are some things I can probably do that would help me make the most of my time. In fact, I can think of a couple of tasks I’ve performed in the last 2-3 months that I specifically thought “I really should hire someone to do this so I can get on with my life.” Comparison shopping for my new computer comes to mind. Maybe even some Christmas shopping. I’m also interested in looking more seriously at having someone prepare and deliver a few meals to the house on a semi-regular basis.

In the end, though, most of what I found convinced me that at this point in my life I can’t really justify a personal assistant, virtual or otherwise. It’s not worth the money to me for most of the things I’d be willing to have them do. Now, if I had a side-business that I was running in addition to my job, I’d have plenty of things for an assistant to do for me, and I’d probably easily justify the relatively minimal expenses involved.

For now, I’ll try to reduce the frequency with which I read emails and get better about organizing my day. That should get a little easier once we hire someone to take the tasks I acquired when my former co-worker left the company last year (and the process is finally moving on that!!!!).

Technorati Tags: productivity, tim ferriss, vpa

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H&R Block - Top 10 Overlooked Credits & Deductions

Here’s a good list to keep in mind as we get ready to pony up for Uncle Sam’s benificence.

Technorati Tags: US taxes, april 15th, tax credits, tax deductions, tax preparation

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Why Religion is an Important Part of Personal Finance ∞ Get Rich Slowly

The topic of the linked post has (almost) nothing to do with my post here. It’s the comments that I want to point out. Here’s a synopsis of the situation:

Get Rich Slowly is a personal finance blog (and a pretty good one… I’d encourage you to subscribe). Some months ago, JD, the author, went on vacation and had some guest posters fill in for him. One of those authors (from the FreeMoneyFinance site… another decent personal finance blog) stated his views on the way your religious beliefs (focusing on Christianity, since he is a Christian) can inform and guide your approach to personal finance. The article itself makes it clear that JD not only didn’t write the post, but believes that religion has no bearing on personal finance. To my knowledge, it’s the only post on the site that even mentions religion.

All well and good… JD made his position known and allowed a counterpoint article to appear on his site.

We all know religion is a hot-button issue. I expected to see some mocking comments below the post, and some mocking replies. What surprised me were the people who got truly upset - including people who immediately jumped out and unsubscribed from the feed, citing this post as the sole reason in an otherwise perfect blog. Wow… that’s pretty sensitive. If you’re jumping ship because a guest poster writes one post that you disagree with, however vehemently, and you’re cool with every other item on the site, you have got an incredibly thin skin. As one commenter noted, that rounds off to 0.0% of the posts that you find offensive.

Seems a bit disingenuous of those same people to proclaim themselves to be the ones basing their life decisions on rational thought.

Technorati Tags: religion, personal finance, controversy

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The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Book Contest ∞ Get Rich Slowly

Get Rich Slowly is running a contest for a free copy of the Ultimate Cheapskate book. You have to enter a true story of “cheapskatery” and the best three get a copy of the book.

For my money, this entry should be one of the top three:

SG Says:
January 4th, 2008 at 8:49 am

In the checkout queue at the supermarket (your normal supermarket, not Wal-Mart or Costco or any of the bulk-buying places) one day, I was standing behind a man who had the most bizarre collection of items in his shopping cart. I’m talking eight or ten boxes of cake mix, twelve boxes of cereal, and other huge quantities of assorted foods that really bore no resemblance to any sane person’s shopping list, even for a large family. No milk, no eggs or produce, just the packaged foods. The clerk dutifully checked out all the items, and the total came out to somewhere in the realm of $300.

And then the man pulled out a wad — almost a double handful — of coupons.

Several minutes later, after the increasingly baffled clerk had finished scanning all of the coupons and double rebate discounts, the man’s final total was something like $35. He had collected all of those coupons and waited until everything on those coupons went on sale before going on a single massive shopping spree and knocking more than two-thirds of the cost off his total bill. I have never seen anyone coupon-clip on that scale before, and I doubt I ever will again.

That is extreme coupon clipping.

It’s worth a perusal of the other entries as well. Most are pretty funny.

Technorati Tags: personal finance, frugality, coupon clipping

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The Simple Dollar » Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance on the Back of Five Business Cards

Lately I’ve felt like Trent was recycling the same advice over and over again, and I was starting to lose interest, but this post pulled it all together nicely.

 During the lunch, out of the blue, he asked me to give a five minute nutshell version of what I would present to the group. I thought for a minute, pulled a pen out of my pocket, and asked him for five business cards. In those next five minutes, I summarized everything I know about personal finance in a pocket-friendly presentation.

Trent, if you’re interested, I think the graphics help a lot. They’re a big help when you’re trying to influence or teach someone.

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Free business cards! That’s pretty cool. Via the excellent Parent Hacks site (see below) I’ve now found two online printing companies that will print business cards for free. You have to pay shipping/handling charges, which probably amount to about $5, but that’s not bad.

The two sites are VistaPrint and ooprint. VistaPrint.com provides 42 design options and 250 cards, while ooprint.com provides 32 options and 100 cards.

Obviously this is a benefit for small (very small) businesses, and they’re hoping to get you to print more with them. However, as Parent Hacks points out, there are other reasons to use business cards beyond the obvious:

Free(ish) family business cards simplify playdates and more: Parent Hacks

We use them to facilitate playdate set-up, as a quick reference for babysitters (in addition to our list of emergency info), as luggage tags and I put one in the back pocket of each kid when we go to crowded venues.

That’s a pretty smart idea. Good thinking. Here’s another idea: use them when you move into a new neighborhood to give to your new neighbors. I know I am terrible with names and it would benefit me to see names written down, plus the process of exchanging phone numbers would be much easier. The same would apply for attending a new church, or social gathering, even if you’re single.

Heh… if you’re single, you could give them out to potential dates; or if you’re desperate, just leave them lying around in malls or bars…

Technorati Tags: business cards, free items, parenting, personal finance, personal marketing, small business tips

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In the last month or so, it seems like Murphy is camped on my front step.

• Computer - dead. Motherboard, presumably, is fried, based on research.
• Car inspection - over $500 more than expected in repairs.
• VCR - dead.  Yes, I still had one. No I don’t have a DVR. I don’t have digital cable either.
• Wife’s TV - extremely unreliable, verging on death. Picture fades to black for long stretches.
• Three extra trips to the lab for wife’s newly diagnosed chronic condition (in addition to the chronic condition we both already have).
• Medicine for that condition.
• $600 in further repairs for same car in one month.
• Shocks are shot in the other car.

So what am I doing about this stuff?

• Car repairs - Paying for it, of course. No choice in the matter. The only thing I’m doing is putting off repairing the shocks, since I only use that car to get back and forth to work. One more repair and I’ll have no choice but to buy a new car, which is way outside of reality at the moment. These cars each have to last me another 5 years if I can help it.
• VCR - nothing. Wife has a VCR we can use in the meantime (though it’s virtually featureless, it has the benefit of working.)
• Medical stuff - again, paying for it. No choice. At least I can work out payment plans for much of it, though that mostly just extends the pain.
• Computer - trying desparately to save enough to buy a new(er) one that won’t be obsolete in a month and a half. Best price so far is $600 that I don’t have. Last time I saved that much discretionary cash it took me well over a year. The above problems aren’t helping.

What have I learned from this?

• It’s easy to blow through your emergency fund. Make it as large as possible.
• Preventative maintenance should always be considered (a tune-up a while ago might have saved me some of this latest car cost).
• The health care system is way too expensive.
• I can get away with not having my own computer for a couple months, but it takes a lot more organization, and access to the internet through some work computers (for online banking, email, and this blog mostly). If I couldn’t do that, I’d be sunk. I seriously miss Quicken, though. What I can’t do is empty the memory stick in my camera (which is also broken, btw - the camera, not the stick), or get the existing pictures off my old computer, or work on my musical hobbies.

I had an unexpected influx of cash recently, which is extremely helpful. Instead of helping to get me out of debt, though, as it was intended, it’s just keeping me from going farther into debt. Still good, though. Excellent timing in that regard.

(Btw, this post isn’t meant to be looking for pity; I understand I’m still in a way better situation that many folks. This is just a venting and reflection post.)

What curveballs has life thrown at you lately? What have you learned from it? If you’re comfortable doing so, please leave a comment.

Technorati Tags: personal finance, murphy’s law, life lessons

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