Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all men out there. Hope it's a good one. Dad, thanks for everything.

Cost to entertain?

What does it cost you to entertain friends/family at your house? These past two weekends we've had bbqs at our house. Which was awesome and fun. I love entertaining, but my pocketbook says not.

We had about 6-10 people both times. Not a huge party, but not tiny either. We also did provide everything and did not do a potluck. I grew up with my parents entertaining a lot and going over to my families houses a lot. So I just like having people over because I enjoy it.

But I calculated and each time I think we spent about $75-100. Doesn't sound like a lot but it adds up really fast. Buying extra meat/food not on sale, but what I feel like providing. Also buying extra beer/wine for people coming over.

Is this outrageous? What is the average cost of entertaining at your house? Of course it's cheaper than going out unless you only pay for yourself. But I enjoy also relaxing at home. It's fun. Also this past weekend we went over to a friends house as well where I was observing their hosting and figured they too spent $50-100 easily on everything even with a potluck.

Because I have fun doing it, I don't mind. But I do feel a bit guilty for blowing our grocery budget. Do others feel this way?

Festival of Under 30 Summer Heat

This week the Festival of under 30 Summer Heat Edition is hosted by Matthew Paulson at financeispersonal.com.


Following the guidelines I submitted my article "where to put savings...". Lots of great articles this festival check out Uncle Leo's "How to find health insurance", an absolute must for many twenty-somethings. While not under 30, Uncle Leo provides valuable insight for people just starting out. Looks like a great new blog, check it out.

Also check English Major's "Living on a stipend". We've lived so long on a stipend it's second nature. Can't buy anything. Anyway we're living almost large now.

Dental Work Followup

I had to cheap out on my dental work. Turns out I only paid $45 for two fillings. What? Well unfortunately I sought a second and third opinion today, and both dentists agreed that I did not need three crowns. I did need one crown, but neither had time to do it. And I was having an incessant toothache so one of the dentist instead just did a filling as a stop-gap mesure. Sure it won't last forever, but at least I'm out of pain until I can get an appointment and approval from the insurance to do the crown.

So both dentists agree that I should replace my original crown, although it might be the fault of my 1st dentist. Last year when my crown fell out, a different dentist at the practice in an emergency glued it back in. She did not tell me that it was not fitting well, nor did it appear in my dental records before as needing to be replaced. I got my records (grudgingly) and showed them to the second and third opinion dentists. Both agreed that it was probably due to her incompetance that I need to replace my crown.

Also both dentists said that the 3rd crown was utter lie, because neither could even see a need for a filling. Thus I paid $45 for two fillings (one of which was absolutely necessary), and $25/piece for a second opinion.

Money well spent I think to preserve my teeth and my pocketbook. Initially I was going to pay over $3-4k for the dental work suggested by the 1st dentist.

What I've learned? Get a second opinion even if your original dental office is pissed at you. Screw them, they are in it for the money. Don't just open your wallet and pay. Be careful, you only get one set of teeth. Having them drill it down is not cool! Instead consider not only the costs but the reality of not having your teeth.

So now with DH switching dental insurance, I have to figure out which dentist I really trust. I don't feel as though I've found anyone I really like. I think I'll ask for more references. The two second opinions were okay, but I hated the office staff at both places. They were super rude and the wait was horrible.

Carnival of Credit Card #16

The 16th Carnival of the Credit Card is up at Credit Card Lowdown. I submitted my article "Best Buy 0% CC" to the carnival.

Another small and starting out carnival. The best article of the submissions might be from 3debtconsolidation "when is your CC debt too high?" The author has a few guidelines including no more than 20% of take home pay, can't afford to make the minimums, etc.

Enjoy the carnival.

Supersized cars?

DH and I laugh all the time about our cars. Sigh one of my doors on my corolla is broken, luckily it's the back door behind the driver. While the front bumper of his car was smashed in. And my rear bumper was scraped by someone else. I feel good about our cars because we're super unlucky with them for some reason. During our time out on the East Coast, in 2 years we've had 3 hit and run accidents where you can see quite a lot of damage on our cars, but NO note. My rear bumper, DH's front bumper, and his rear bumper. I just don't get how people can hit someone else's car in a parking lot and LEAVE! I couldn't just leave, I would never be able to sleep again without nightmares. I would probably be comatose from the anxiety that the cops were coming, bad karma, etc.

But we were debating again, do you really need a large car for kids? When we first meet DH thought we'd never need anything larger than his focus. He did admit with 2 kids it "might" be better to have 4 doors, but he didn't think anything bigger than a compact necessary. Both of us were raised in tiny cars, VW rabbit and bug. But I argue it's because we didn't have car seats but bassinets our moms put in the front seat floor. Yeah nuts, but back then people appparently didn't put much stock into car seats.

So I'm wondering do people really need large SUVs or minivans? I can understand a sedan because well our cars are tight, but anything larger?

I argue it's necessary depending on age of kids and carseats. DH says no way can you ever have kids fast enough to not fit 3 car seats in a sedan. I don't know if that's true, except if you happened to have like twins or triplets.

I wonder are we supersizing our cars because we're buying to the larger space issues? Or is it necessary. FWIW, I would love a larger car, but my DH is a no-go person. So it's not happening.

But I posted on two different message boards WIR and Savingsadvice threads and the opinions were very differing and interesting. I haven't settled on whether we'll jump directly into a minivan or try a midsized sedan.

Carnival of Home Improvement #6

The 6th Carnival of Home Improvement is up at Mortgage Lowdown. I submitted my article "Condo Hell Update 2". I think it just shows how much a hassle home ownership can be sometimes.

Another great article by silicon valley blogger is "Proof buying a house is impossible..." that is totally how I feel sometimes living in one of the most expensive areas. But I can't let it get me down.

Anyway this is a small festival hopefully growing.

Where to put savings?

The festival of under 30's question for the next carnival is "Where do you put your savings?" Well to be honest mostly in my bank savings account. Why? I do put some in a vanguard money market, but to keep things simple I keep a large chunk of change in my savings account.

I find it easier to have a lot of cash on hand because we have a lot of bills to be paid monthly. To leave my account always close to zero would drive me insane because I'd have to transfer money back and forth all the time. I guess I'm not disciplined enough to make ever bill the same.

I guess I'm just lazy.

Best place to put savings?

Where is the best place to put your savings is the question for the next Festival of Under 30. I am sitting here thinking about it, and decided, wherever makes you happy.

It makes me happy to leave a nice chunk of money in my piddly bank savings account earning 1% because I like the freedom of being able to pay my bills without transferring money. The rest of my money is left in Vanguard. Why? Because I find it just easier to leave it all in one place. I don't like having so many accounts, I don't like tracking so many statement, and I don't like stressing over whether I'll have a bounced check because I have to wait for the cash to hit my account before I can pay a bill.

Carnival of Personal Finance #104

The Carnival of Personal Finance #104 is hosted this week at Going Green. Looks like a fantastic carnival with tons of great articles.

I submitted my article "Children working". But other great articles include "could you live off one income" at my two dollars, answer is yes.

The other article I liked was "Buying a profitable rental property" By Journey to Financial Freedom. I think that investing in RE is overhyped and the demands are really understated. Most people think jump in, instant money maker. But it's not as easy as it seems nor as lucrative as people make it out to be. We'll see in another 2-3 years if people say being a landlord is great.

Doctors are crooks!

Yesterday I took the day off from work to go to the eye doctor and dentist. I needed a second opinion on my teeth, which I am still unsure about and new prescription for contacts.

So I went to a vision service provider, which I got from the insurance website. I booked an eye exam and went in. Once there, I got examined and then was told they don't allow insurance to cover contact lens fitting. I said well how much? They replied $300. WTF? Last year when insurance paid it only cost $40 out of pocket and that was because I wear toric lenses. Well apparently this opthamologist is a SCAM artist. He decided that contact lenses are cosmetic thus he need only accept to write glasses prescriptions. And thus he can charge people for contact lens fittings.

I said "no thank you," took my glasses prescription and walked out. I was pissed. I called the insurance company the moment I left and was told yes I could have gotten a contacts fitting, but since he did the glasses I couldn't complain because he had meet the MINIMUM standard and it was his choice to not accept insurance for contacts. WTF? Apparently it's bait and switch tactic at the doctor's office where they think you'll be to hassled to make a fuss and just pay! The guy is a jerk. I was really pissed and more pissed at the insurance company for allowing someone to behave like this.

Frustrating. Doctor's think they are God. They think that they are able to behave however they see fit. But what they are not understanding is that the medical system I think is due for a huge change and it's going to happen faster than they expect. What? Well for one thing it only cost $99 at Costco for an eye exam and contacts fitting. Next time since it's so cheap I'll just go there. Plus I annually order my contacts from costco.

But I can't believe the sleeziness of this doctor. Trying to rip people off who don't want to come back by saying that he'll only write glasses prescriptions. I guess I'll show my true blue colors and say I'm a die-hard socialized medicine supporter. arrgh.

$300 for just contact lens fitting! Pshaw! I can buy all my contacts for that much.

Condo Hell Update #2

Last night DH meet with other "trustees" regarding issues for our condo association. First up, since we flooded the downstairs unit and it was found that the master condo insurance would pay for it, we were off the hook for the deductible. So that was a nice starting bonus.

However that lead to the first point of contention. The owner whose house we flooded wanted to pocket the insurance settlement and pay for the repairs. But DH, I, and "the couple" are against this. Thus it was negotiated that he could submit reciepts for repairs or directly bill the association. Well see how that works out.

Second major point of contention is our retaining wall. When we purchased the seller/developer lied to us and said the money was set aside prior to our closing. Our attorney dropped the ball by not checking, however it was written into our purchase and sale agreement. Then she tried to not pay up and also tried to pay a lower amount than the agreed upon 40% of $20k.

Now the "brother owners" bought their condo with cash, thus they DID not do any due diligence, and failed to get a 6d certificate. This would have certified that no outstanding debts were due to the association, but the developer sold it cash so she didn't have to get a 6d certificate. She had asked for one, but we had refused to sign it because she had not paid our 40% and the 20% for the condo she was selling. However after we negotiated more through our lawyer whom we paid, she forked over 60% of her $6k estimate. This we felt was unacceptable because there were two other quotes for $18k and $20k to repair the retaining wall.

However, because we got some money from her through OUR lawyer we called the money ours. However she attempted to say it was for the other unit as well. That is where we are stuck right now. First she won't put up money for the higher quote. Which if it should come in less, we will return the money to her. Second, the unit she sold in cash, should pay the 20% of higher amount because they did not fully investigate the debts associated with theunit before purchasing. When we bought we were shown only the $20k quote and assured it was set aside.

Thus right now we're fighting over whose money it is. We're not backing it down because we paid a lawyer to obtain the money. So why should "the brother owners" get a portion of it?

What is the next step? I don't know, but this is why living in a condo sucks. I hate it, I hate all this negotiating and trying to make decisions as a team. I'd prefer just living alone and being solely responsible for our actions/decisions.

One day I shall own a single family home and be able to do what I want, when I want, and make all the noise I want. I hate condo living...

Company update

So a couple of things about DH's job situation. He took the new job, but it may be for the best. Today he got a very strange email at work asking that if anyone was taking time off next week please contact HR. Very strange indeed. He thinks and others have hinted that potentially layoffs are coming. And if they are coming, sure he could have stayed and collected severance, but this way he beats the rush in looking for a new job. When a ton of resumes are hitting the market, it's better to beat them and not look desperate. This way the company hiring DH was under the impression that he did not have to leave his company if he didn't want to. This makes the deal he got even sweeter.

I guess I should also mention the whole compensation and why it's a paycut but it's not at the same time. First he got a nice $10k raise in salary. But he is giving up a bunch of company stock. We're going to leave about $40k on the table, plus potentially another 10k in bonus next year. But the company he's going to hopefully will give him a generous bonus as well next year. But a huge selling point is the company will be reimbursing him tuition for his MBA program. Right now we've paid about $15k this year, and another $15k for the rest of the year. So that's $15k we'll be getting back potentially, which we will have to pay taxes on, but it will be really sweet if it happens. So DH figures what he's losing in income is being made up by his tuition benefit.

Another point which is pissing me off, his current company is terrible at reimbursements. It's been about 1 month and still no reimbursement for his conference last month. It really bugs me because we floated them the money on our CC, which I can pay but I'm just pissed that they haven't given it to us yet. I don't like this business of reimbursement but that's how it works for us.

Anyway DH has about 2 weeks left at the company he's giving notice today. I wonder if he'll be told to just leave? Or if he'll be asked to be "let go." One can only wonder what this evening holds.

Also up tonight a meeting with our neighbors regarding issues with our condo association. Can I mention again how much I hate living in a townhouse? I wish we could have afforded a single family home. Right now I realize I sound like a spoiled child, but it's tough waiting to be able afford a single family house when there are are so many people out there complaining about buying a $300k SFH.

Best Buy 0% CC

So we don't really do too much CC arbitage, but we've always done the 0% CC offers. I've actually considered doing it for furniture, but haven't been able to find the right furniture. Anyway though this month I just finished paying our 0% CC bill to Best Buy. It feels really nice to be able to not have the payment hanging over our heads.

The very first time we did a 0% CC we had the cash on hand to pay for, but it seemed a better cash flow purpose to use the Best Buy CC. We didn't make a lot of money and were purchasing our first condo together. We had pretty much scraped every penny to afford the 10% DP, closing costs, etc such that it was tough for us to part with our last $1k to pay for our washer/dryer/fridge. We preferred at the time to keep the little money we had as an emergency fund and charge instead those three items.

Turns out it was a good idea. Three days after we closed and the washer hose broke flooded the downstairs unit. We fortunately had home owner's insurance though we were not living there yet. But we did have to pay the $1k deductible. So our little cash money went to that instead of our CC. That's what got us hooked on paying for things with a 0% CC.

Borrowing money from a CC at 0% still seems risky to us. But buying stuff seems acceptable. I don't know what the difference is. DH financed his first car as well $5k, but as a foreigner it was a good way to build credit, and keep cash on hand in case of emergencies. We still have the car 7 years later, though the loan was retired after 3 years.

I've asked DH whether we're done playing with 0% CC deals. He says he's not sure he'll ever pass up a deal to finance something at 0%. Me, I'd like to be at the point one day of affording everything cash up front easily. It may or may not happen. I am not going into debt, but I'm not sure if we could ever part with our money when the opportunity to make more were presented.

But I'm not a CC abuser, so I cannot speak as someone whose experienced CC debt. Our debts have been a mortgage, 1 car loan (no plans of more unless it's 0%), and student loans. So for us personally our debts have been tied to our educations. Thus we've never lived beyond our means, it's just that affording the tuition 100% in cash, while working we haven't been able to accomplish. We don't take out any school loans for living, just purely tuition purposes. And we've paid for part of the tuition in cash as well when I was an undergrad and DH now.

So while we'd like to live debt free, I don't know if we ever will. Yes, sounds crazy, but DH is a major leverage fanatic. I wrote months ago how aggressive he is with investing and has no qualms about losing our investments. And the same risk tolerance is applied to our debt/leverage. I don't think he'd leverage us broke, but he would be willing to gamble.

Our next 0% purchase, I forsee maybe furniture, maybe a car but who knows.

May 2007 Networth Update

We increased our networth by almost $17k in May or 8.63%. But most of that money was from cashing out the ESPP we have at DH's company, since we do 15%, it's a lot. Anyway that money is already earmarked to pay cash for DH's summer school, so next month it'll be gone! poof! We'll be out about $10k of it like that. Ha, I notice this a trend in our life, we make a nice sum, and could use it for a great vacation or something. Instead we just spend it tuition!

Children Working?

If your children work and earn money would you take it to support your family? Would you expect them to pay for household bills?

I read that and couldn't believe that parents would do it. I would like my children to work a few hours and earn spending money, but I would not be charging my children for food, shelter, and transporation unless it was a dire emergency. I would have to be broke and pretty much out on the streets before I would take my children's money for things I consider basic necessities. Above and beyond yes they need to pay for, but basic needs?

I was appalled on a message board that a parent would send their teenage children out to work to help support the family while not working herself. First, I do understand her not working because they have 10 children. I have to add right now all of the 10 children are under 18. None are adults according to the legal limit. But shouldn't her husband get a second job, or she work nights somewhere before sending out their teenage children to get jobs because they cannot meet their bills? That to me is ridiculous to expect your children to bail you out of your mess, while sitting on your tush.

How can any parent allow their child to work say fast food at nights while they sit at home? How can any parent not be delivering newspapers at 3 am to try and make ends meet while allowing their teenager to instead deliver newspaper and then taking the money to pay bills? I know life throws you for loops, but don't parents have a responsibility? Shouldn't they be trying to pay for basics? Otherwise, this might be harsh, why are you having those children?

I guess I'm not very sympathetic, but I would never take my children's money without desperately needing it and working already to the bone. If I expected my children to work and contribute to the household, I would only do so after I had worked as many hours as physically possible. Otherwise I would consider it selfish and irresponsible.

I might be wrong because I'm not a parent. So other parents out there will probably correct me and tell me that kid should at age 14 or 16 pay for a portion of food, gas, groceries. But to me they are still children. They are still my responsibility. And I should be the one working, not them to put food on the table, shelter over their heads, etc.

So yes I am being judgemental but we are not talking about kids who live at home while in college. We are not talking about kids paying for cell phones, fancy clothes, cars, etc. We are talking about basic necessities, ends meet. The problem is that these people cannot afford to feed, clothe, shelter, transport their kids without extra help.

Spousal Reimbursement?

I guess I'll leave this up for at least a week and then check out the stats. This is my first attempt at a poll, I think it looks okay. I need to work a bit more on my website design skills.

Anyway I think it should be interesting to see these results. I am guessing that the majority of people who answer will be biased mainly because they are PF bloggers.

But my question is would you allow your spouse to reimburse you for your expenses?

Marital Financial Bliss #6

I read a message board LLNOE, where people are paying off debt. No biggie right? But some of the spouses are not on board. But I read a thread where one spouse "reimburses" the other spouse for their spending and was complaining about the spouse not being on "board" to pay off debt. WHAT?

That's just nuts. I would rebell if my DH tried to put me on a reimbursement system and I think he'd feel the same. I guess that is probably the reason for the debt, lack of communication about money between spouses.

I wonder what would happen if more people before marriage had to go to premarital counseling which included a huge section on money? Since money is the number factor for divorce, what would happen if people had to talk about their relationship with money before marriage?

Would it help or hurt? Would we be more open? People share about past relationships, family life, etc, and yet they never discuss their debts, views on retirement, etc before marriage. Why is there so many issues with money? I wonder do most people discuss finances before marriage?

DH and I didn't really discuss finances before marriage, but then again we shared pretty much our entire adult lives together so there wasn't much before marriage. We graduated college and meet. So now sometimes we have issues over spending money, but usually it's DH's problem. I am not a spendthrift, but he's such a cheapskate that it raises issues. But we're dealing with them, he can wear clothes that are new and can have more than 1 pair of shoes!

But back to the case, why would someone require their spouse to put in receipts for reimbursment? It sounds like a control issue to me.

How do you split bills and finances with the spouse? Does anyone else have a spouse who doesn't feel like they deserve anything? Or castigates themselves for purchasing anything? Or feels that a penny spent on anything not absolutely necessary is wrong? That they are a bad person for spending money?

Flipping Houses..Fraud?

A news article presented that the star of "flip this house" is a fraud. The star Sam Leccina did not own the homes he "fixed, flipped, and sold" and he did not actually repair the homes as it appeared on the show. A&E has already pulled the show/reruns and wiped any mention of the show from their website.

Also the star did not really makes the profits he was supposedly reporting. In fact Leccina does not even posses a real estate license anymore. All the "so-called" profits were fake.

I know most personal finance bloggers will laugh at the show. But many normal people actually watched the show and believed it was so easy to make money. They actually bought into flipping houses for a profit.

I know this because my mom is one of those people. She watches shows like this and thinks "wow, real estate is a sure thing." Sigh. I hate these shows because they give people foolish hope. They only show the positive aspects and none of the negative ones. Also now they aren't real to boot!

My parents were thinking of buying a third home. They believed a $400k 1 bd condo, which would generate $1600/month rent (this is what they are paying), with a $300/month condo fee is a good deal. What is the return on the investment? Well I think it's around 3%. Great, but my mom only see "I'll make $1k/month to bring home, off a $400k investment." Arrgh.

I'm so glad this show is being shown for a fraud. These shows prey on the uneducated and greedy. People thinking it's so easy to make money, rather than just save and building a nest egg slowly. But that wouldn't be a fun show. That would be average joes, living average lives.

Cable Decision

So now that we're switching our cable/internet/phone to Verizon, RCN has discovered this because we're porting our phone number. So we got 3 desperate phone calls from RCN attempting to retain our business. RCN is not willing to give us a new deal. Apparently when I mentioned leaving I didn't sound serious enough last week. Why do companies do such things? Why not just put your best deal forward? I read somewhere that it costs 5x more to signup new clients than just retain your current clients.

So on Friday I decided to play Verizon against RCN. I asked for their best deals, and got better than expected offers from both. I was offered by RCN 2 HD-DVR receivers, free premium movie packages, free long distance, and one month free for $110/month. Not bad. But then I called Verizon and they offered me FIOS internet, cable, and phone with free long distance, multi-room HD-DVR, second box, free premium movie channel, free first month, and a 2 year guarantee price. What price? $99/month for all of that, what a nice deal. Thus I decided to stick with Verizon.

So turns out that cancelling my directv isn't as big a deal as it would seem since I get a free first month. I only wish I could do this with car insurance. But living in MA, because drivers are so bad the state has to regulate car insurance otherwise it would be too unaffordable. But that's another post.