So, life happened and time went . . . → Read More: Saving money thru the power of cluelessness]]> Earlier this year I had the windows in my house replaced. This cost more money than I had on hand, so I took the loan offered through the company who sold me the windows. Aside from an 11% interest rate, there were terms that would give me time to get a better loan at a lower rate, at which point I was going to pay off the original loan.

So, life happened and time went on. I was delayed in getting the new loan slightly, but managed to get it within a short time of the original loan beginning to accrue interest.

I called this morning to get the payoff amount for the original loan. They quoted an amount including $370 of interest. I said thank you, and hung up, ready to write a check.

Then I thought about it for a minute and realized that was way more interest than I expected, so I did some math. I computed it assuming either daily or monthly compounding, but no matter how I did it, I only came up with $160 of interest due.

$210 is a bit large of a discrepancy for me to swallow. I accept that I’m not a financial wizard, but that’s a rather big difference.

So I called back. I told them how I computed the interest and the difference I found, and asked them to explain what I was doing wrong. I knew it had to be something I was doing wrong, but I wanted to know what it was. She told me that the contract I signed was for an actuarial loan vs. a simple loan. I said, “ok. What does that mean?”

After being put on hold, the woman came back and said she’d have a loan officer call me to discuss. I said, “Great. I just want to know how the quoted payoff was calculated. Thanks.”

A few minutes later, the phone rang. It wasn’t the loan officer, it was the same lady again. This time she sounded tired… a little defeated. She reiterated that the contract I signed was for an Actuarial loan, but the loan officer decided to treat it as a simple loan, so my payoff would include just $160 of interest!

I was actually speechless for a second. A bank just ate $200 in revenue simply because I didn’t understand how an Actuarial loan worked, and they didn’t want to explain it to me. I’m positive that in reality they made no mistake in their calculations. They were legitimately owed the full $370. But simply because I asked how they got that number, I saved $210. That’s just awesome!

The lesson for today: if you don’t understand something, ask a question. Worst case scenario is that you’ll learn something. Or maybe you’ll save some dough!

I was doing my taxes this weekend, so I figured now was as good a time as any for a tax related post. So here you go… a song about taxes. Enjoy.

And ’cause I’m generous, here’s a bonus song! (I know, I know… I’m a giver, what can I say?)

Coincidentally, I purchased bulk steak from a competitor of Omaha, US Beef, a little more than a week earlier. This was a door-to-door sale—something I usually am able to turn away. . . . → Read More: Does steak cost less delivered in bulk?]]> Earlier this week, Gather Little by Little ran an article about Omaha Steaks, and how expensive it was in comparison to the grocery store. His calculations had the meat coming in at anywhere from $38-44 per pound. Even for good steak, that’s pretty expensive.

Coincidentally, I purchased bulk steak from a competitor of Omaha, US Beef, a little more than a week earlier. This was a door-to-door sale—something I usually am able to turn away. But I’ve always wanted to try these delivered services anyway, and he was knocking huge amounts off the full price (the story was that he had leftovers from another delivery… I don’t really buy that, but it’s irrelevant) so I gave him a shot.

He was going to give us two packs for the price of one: $369. That was an easy “no.” The price kept dropping, though. $325… $300… eventually down to $250 for two packs. Even at that price, I still would have said “no” and gone on with my day, but it so happened that a friend was over at the house and offered to split it with me. That turned out to be $125 for a case of 61 pieces of meat (which isn’t quite as impressive as it sounds, as most are burgers, but stay with me). At that price, it was certainly worth considering.

Here’s what was included:

• 5 – 12oz NY Strips
• 8 – 6oz Filet Mignons wrapped in bacon
• 8 – 7oz NY Strips
• 8 – 4oz center cut sirloins
• 8 – 4oz pepper steaks
• 24 – 4oz sirloin burger patties

Doing the math, that’s 20.25 lbs of meat, for a cost per pound of $6.17. For steak, that’s not bad at all.

Comparing against a local grocery store, the NY Strips ($5.56/lb for the 12oz US Beef) came out over $3 cheaper per pound than the sale price at the store. Even the burgers (at $3.47/lb from US Beef) were $0.40 cheaper per pound in my order.

Spreadsheet for calculating costs

Now, of course, that’s with the discounted price I and my friend got. If I paid full price, would it have worked out as well?

Not so much.

At the full $369 per pack, the cost per pound works out to $18.22 – definitely more expensive than I would pay (but interestingly, way less than GLBL reports for Omaha, though there may be a quality difference). The maximum I’d be willing to pay for the pack I got is probably $175, which would work out to $8.64/lb overall.

Does it look like I got the math right? Do you have any experience with bulk food delivery to your house? Does it seem like a good deal to you? Leave a comment.

Friday, December 9th, 2005

Looks like I am officially blogging. I am too cool for words. (Ironic, isn’t it.)

Thusly did this, my first blogging experience, begin. Pretty sad, really, but there you have it. Now here we are, three years and over 400 posts later, and I figure it’s about time I looked back to see if I’ve ever . . . → Read More: Three years of yammering on…]]> Three years ago today, at 11:48pm, I wrote these amazingly insightful words:

Check it out…

Friday, December 9th, 2005

Looks like I am officially blogging. I am too cool for words. (Ironic, isn’t it.)

Thusly did this, my first blogging experience, begin. Pretty sad, really, but there you have it. Now here we are, three years and over 400 posts later, and I figure it’s about time I looked back to see if I’ve ever written anything worth reading. (I figure I must have said something worthwhile at some point. It can’t be complete inanity, can it?)

To that end, here is a list of the posts I’ve written over the last three years that I think are worth a second look, roughly broken by category.

Comics (not much to choose from here, really)

• An attache case, an underground government, and a Spider-Man on the edge

Corporate World/Learning (there’s too much overlap between these to justify separating them for this purpose)

• Technical writers, pay attention
• A series reviewing Oprah’s “A New World” online training with Eckhart Tolle: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
• Alice: Through the Monitor (or Creating new worlds for Novices)
• How to leave a lasting legacy
• Corporate Gaming: Recruiting and Training – this is a subject I should actually get back to at some point.
• Media and Technology issues for Learning and Persuasion
• Re-igniting Passion – This is a personal favorite
• Fight trolls with math!
• e-Learning Glitz: Misunderstanding video games
• Instructional Design reminders – This one actually shows up in a resource list on The Learned Man

Movies & TV (includes Reviews & Sci-Fi)

• Doctor Who reviews: 2005 & 2006, 2007, and 2008
• The best cancelled shows
• Review: The Second Chance – A movie by Steve Taylor with Michael W. Smith in the lead? Could this possibly be good?
• 11 minutes ago – I still want to see this full movie.
• Review: The Spider-Man Trilogy
• Top 10 most quotable geek films
• Review: The Prince of Egypt (and a quick review of the trailer)
• Review: Crash
• Review: Superman Returns
• Review: Justice League
• Crusade: What would have happened

Music

Hmm… honestly this category is pretty new and I like almost all the posts. If I had to choose just three though:

• MTV Yearbook – where does it take you?
• Five songs that altered my perceptions
• I’m a prejudiced idiot

Other

• What futility doesn’t feel like
• C.S. Lewis on living by hope
• Some people have REALLY short fuses
• Stuck in the office (or your in-laws’ house) during Christmas week? – Christmas Specials!
• Look out for the edge!? What edge?
• Swiping a sirloin is certainly stupid
• What I’ve been thinking
• Pennsylvania Gas Prices – Find Cheap Gas Prices in Pennsylvania – I actually use this all the time
• Does a sex offender live near you?
• Impairment while driving on phone > drunk driving and the related Cell phones + driving = drunk Driving
• Bryce Zabel: Those who can, teach
• Traffic jams
• Humility
• Stop everything

Parenting

• Kids in the movie theater
• Facebook points to the past, and I consider the future
• Grilled cheese and the science of successive approximation
• Little Mommy moments
• Heroes?
• Little Mommy drops the… um… ball
• Bad parenting confessions
• The Silence of the Lamb – actually my wife wrote this one.

Personal Finance

• Why I don’t have a dog
• I want to end my life, but I’m too lazy
• Saving 12% in interest in 10 minutes and its off-site follow-up: Don’t make the Dr. Evil error of assuming
• Unexpected costs, things that have broken lately, and lessons learned
• Why I hate unions
• Is a meal preparation service a good deal?
• The Simple Dollar – and other personal finance links

Technology

• Fixing published audio problems in Captivate 2
• I’m a casualty of war
• Free music and sound effects for podcasts
• Video: Photosynth demo – awakening to the true power of the web
• Dynamic Image Resizing
• Web 2.0 applications / free conferencing
• Making MP3s playable on a website, the easy way
• A slow day in the world of computer usability reporting
• The disfiguration of beauty
• Podcasting for corporate training example – how I did it
• Wiki’s in a corporate environment

Well, what do you know… that list turned out longer than I thought. I probably wasn’t as judicious as I should have been in a couple categories, but I really think most of those posts don’t get the traffic they deserve – especially the Corporate World/Learning set, though I know the audience for that is limited.

Anyway… I hope you click through to at least a couple of them. It’s been a fun experience to write this stuff for the last three years, and I hope it hasn’t been too boring for you (but then, no one’s forcing you to read this… unless you’re my wife).

Also, if you have any suggestions for things you’d like to see here in the future, please let me know in the comments. I really do like feedback.

This list from Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, is about 2 years old, but I just saw it for the first time, and I think it’s an excellent distillation of the basics of personal finance. It really focuses in on exactly what I’ve been reading about in the couple of years that I’ve been getting more serious about personal finance.

Everything you need to know about . . . → Read More: Personal Finance advice from “Dilbert”]]> Vanguard − The “Dilbert” guide to personal finance

This list from Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, is about 2 years old, but I just saw it for the first time, and I think it’s an excellent distillation of the basics of personal finance. It really focuses in on exactly what I’ve been reading about in the couple of years that I’ve been getting more serious about personal finance.

Everything you need to know about financial planning*

1. Make a will.
2. Pay off your credit cards.
3. Get term life insurance if you have a family to support.
4. Fund your 401(k) to the maximum.
5. Fund your IRA to the maximum.
6. Buy a house if you want to live in a house and you can afford it.
7. Put six months’ expenses in a money market fund.
8. Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker, and never touch it until retirement.

If any of this confuses you or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues) hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio.

* Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel, Collins, New York, 2002, p. 172.

On the Vanguard page, a bunch of experts weigh in with their opinions on the advice, all of which is positive.

I’ve got #1 and #2 in progress right now. #3 would be next in line. Numbers 4-7 are in various states of completion/planning, though funding the IRA and 401(k) to the maximum is currently a bit of a stretch goal. Number 8? Yeah, well I suppose I’d have to have money left over for that to happen.

These are all long-term goals, but any progress toward them is good. I’m happy that I’m making some headway.

Speaking of goals, and Dilbert:

I’ve been working in earnest to get myself out of credit card debt for a few years now. Back when the economy was doing a bit better, I found a great deal with CitiCard to pay 3.99% on my balance transfer per month for the life of the balance. Naturally, I put as much of my existing debt on that card as . . . → Read More: Saving 12% in interest in 10 minutes]]> I just saved myself 12% in interest fees in a 10 minute conversation.

I’ve been working in earnest to get myself out of credit card debt for a few years now. Back when the economy was doing a bit better, I found a great deal with CitiCard to pay 3.99% on my balance transfer per month for the life of the balance. Naturally, I put as much of my existing debt on that card as I could. Since then, I’ve paid just a little above the minimum on that card while I concentrate on the higher interest balances. So far, this has worked out pretty well, and I’ve made a significant dent on my overall debt.

This month, I screwed up.

Despite the alerts and warnings I set up for myself, I missed one due date by 12 hours. It was stupid, and my fault. Today, I got a message that my APR for that card jumped from 3.99% to 15.99%, and I received a $40 late fee.

That would put a serious crimp in my payoff plans. I called CitiCard and told them I was sorry for missing the due date by 1 day, and emphasized that I had not ever been late in paying them before. Then I asked them to reinstate the original APR – and offered to pay the late fee. After a few minutes on hold, and with no argument, they agreed.

I could probably have talked them out of the $40, but I accept that I missed the date, and that’s a valid punishment (even if I do think it’s exorbitant). I’m willing to take that hit. But the more important thing is that I avoided a 12% increase long-term. That’s going to save me some serious money.

Calling the credit card companies can work!

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:

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:

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:

What do I want to do with it? Buy stuff. . . . → Read More: My economic stimulus rebate is going to…]]> 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.

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 . . . → Read More: Outsourcing your life, and the 4 hour work week]]> 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!!!!).

[tags]productivity, tim ferriss, vpa[/tags]