Amazon Sucks!

Okay I ordered a used book from Amazon Marketplace. Unfortunately I bought the book from a seller and it was an older edition. The editioned I received was placed probably "mistakenly" in the 6th edition area.

I called Amazon, and they said to report the mistake by email. Then give the seller another 3-4 business days to respond. Then I could potentially get my money back. I am super unhappy with Amazon.

Their customer service sucks, their return policy is stupid, and they basically are useless. Why do I buy books from them? I really need to get the book but I'm now going to be stuck paying full price.

Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it? These online purchases seem perfect and too cheap to be true, and sometimes they are.

Happy Fourth of July

My one day break from blogging! Happy Fourth of July!

Picking an MBA school?

Is it worth picking a top program for an MBA? I think it is. But I'm biased. DH didn't go to the best school possible because he wanted to work. For him (us), our situation made it necessary financially for him to work, and he felt it necessary to get more work experience rather than school experience.

He already has a phd from a top 5 school, so this degree while terminal is not his only graduate degree. That may have also influenced him to not go to Harvard/MIT business school. The fact his field is not business may also influence us to think it's not as necessary to go to the best school.

But our two neighbors both have MBAs from a respectable but not top school. They are also in the financial field and believe that the best school possible is the best option. Thus they feel that it's better to not work, and go to school full-time.

What do you think?

Carnival of Personal Finance #107

The 107th Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Blogging Away Debt. My article Cutting Expenses was submitted to the carnival.

Other fun articles to check out is "Senior Money Pit - grandchildren" at GRACEFUL retirement, awesomely brilliant article for seniors. I don't recall what I did at 15 with my grandma, but I suppose it's close to what I do now. Except now I have money to outrageously spoil her rotten. And yes I do, same with my mom because without them I would not be here. My grams is the BEST! And I always send her stuff. But unlike that grandma I saw mine daily.

And near and dear to my heart is "picking an MBA program." About whether to pick a top MBA program. Worth it or not?

June Net Worth

Our June Net Worth went down, mostly because I counted a new $8500 student loans. We overall increased our saving and used cash to pay for summer school, but we still need more loans. We also will come into more ESPP money next month because DH left his company.

I think these next few years we should have a slightly tough time of it with the student debt, but overall we'll be putting awy $25k/year to retirement, paying off $10k/year mortgage, and trying to build our cash savings.

Booze Budget

What do most people spend on drinking? I realized I think we spend a pretty nice chunk of money drinking every month. For entertainment/pleasure. But I decided to post the question to people on a message board. What I found was interesting.

Single people spend the most eating out and drinking. Their budgets for bars/clubs usually was equivalent to grocery budgets of married couples or families. Though it seems high it makes sense, because they are basically going out to find a significant other. Thus though it can be categorized "entertainment," I'd personally catergorize it as personal health. After all these people are maintaining their frienships and good mental health.

Then there is the category of DINKS. I've found that these people spend money, but a little more frugally. Usually they spend money less frequently but at nicer bars/clubs. They are going for quality over quantity.

Finally there are those with families. These people rarely get to go out, rarely buy liquor to even drink at home. They are too busy and usually have better things to spend their money on.

So after reviewing groups, I decided I don't spend a ridiculous amount on booze. I was encouraged to go out and enjoy life before I have kids.

But why don't people who have families have time or money to go out? Or enjoy a drink at home? I recall my parents having daily nightcaps before and during dinner. I didn't realize that it was so unusual. I guess we take after our parents who had daily liquor intake.

Want to weigh in? Do you consume alcohol at home? Daily? Is it expensive? Did you stop when you had kids?

Toronto Weekend Costs

We went over our $1k goal for our weekend getaway. We spent $1133.58. Not terribly over and I know exactly how it happened.

We spent $307 for the hotels, $120 dog boarding, $113 for gas, and $30 for tolls = $570. All about right, but then we ended up spending $199 on experiences like Maid of the Mist, Journey behind the falls, CN tower, Blue Jays game, Second City Comedy Show, and Hockey Hall of Fame. A bit more than predicted. We didn't plan on going to a comedy show but it was cool.

Finally we spent $225 for eating out over the weekend. And we also spent $100 on drinks too. What can I say? We had a great weekend and probably overindulged a bit more than we should have but it was fun. I guess I should feel bad but we had a great time.

Tip - don't drink and you'll save a ton. However, I was told by people who have kids, go out and enjoy DINKS activities. So maybe it's not so bad.

Guests Costs

Sigh, my FIL is coming this weekend. Fortunately it's only one week. Problem? I so have to clean the house!!! What am I doing sitting here writing on my blog? I'm stupid.

Then I find out about 5 minutes ago DH's best friend (FK) is coming to live with us July 12th. Right-o. Guess I really gotta clean our house again. Couple of things, he doesn't like dogs, but he has no choice in the matter since our dogs are family. Second at best I'm a poor housekeeper, at worse I'm an utter slob.

What does having guests costs? Well for one thing more utilities. I usually don't turn on the heat or A/C very easily. With guests I suppose we have to. Also more food to feed these presumed guests.

DH has decided to make me the "Bad" guy. Meaning he's going to tell his buddy you can't live with us forever rent free because of ME, the spouse. Yep I'm about to get the bad cop label.

But seriously how long can guests stay before you charge them rent? I've already cleared space in the guest room and closet for FK. I've put out towels, he's going to use our washing machine, A/C, TV, etc.

To best honest, sure it could be nice financially to split our bills 3 ways instead of DH and I shelling out everything, but we've never really enjoyed having people stay with us extended periods of time. Of course we're also not great about telling people to pay up. My BIL has lived with us extended amounts of time, and to summarize DH "Next time he want to 'stay' I'm locking up all the cupboards, charging him $15 a meal."

DH's bro sort of was lazy when he first moved out on his own. He didn't like to grocery shop, he didn't like to spend money, he hated cooking. So he'd come over eat our food, look through our cabinets, and literally "shop". He'd fill up his condiments at our house, ask me for spare, bring his laundry over so he could wash it at our house because he didn't like trucking it to his facilities. Sigh (you can't kick out siblings easily, nor parents).

But we made it. I have am in for a rough summer. Either we'll have greatly increased expenses or greatly decreased expenses.

Buffet bets $1 Million against US tax system

I always get into tussles on message boards with people who claim that rich people pay the most taxes. Yes they pay DOLLAR wise the most taxes, but Percentage wise the middle class pays the most taxes. How is that possible???? Warren Buffet has bet $1 million dollars that you couldn't find a rich person in America who pays more taxes than their subordinates! Yes I've been supported in my statement finally.

Yes! He gets what I've said for years. Rich people shelter money, get paid the "right" way and know how to pay the least % of taxes for income. However a DINK couple who make $100k pay more than average than the rich person. Buffet personally only pays 17% federal income taxes on $46M last year. How much did you pay? On our income we paid more than that!

Yep, the middle class people pay the most taxes. Why? How? They don't get deductions like rich people. They don't donate millions either. But there is a big difference between making $100k/year and $1M/year.

One major sore point with me is the Social Security Tax. The taxes on SS is capped at $97k. So someone like Buffet who made $46M would have had to have paid 6.5% on 46M if there was no cap. Well maybe if that happened SS would be solvent!

Another issue is they tax capital gains/dividends at 15%. So if you are rich (millionaire status) and you live only on your interest, dividends you are only paying 15% at most. Wowsa! Imagine that! You can draw $100k from a portfolio and only pay 15% instead of say 25-28%! What an awesome deal.

I guess for everyone out there who hates paying taxes think well maybe there is something to feeling overtaxed. Because the lower classes pay a bigger percentage of their incomes in taxes. Although someone making $50k with 2 kids doesn't, but someone making $120k with 2 kids often has phased out tax breaks. So that person's real tax rate is very high.

Cutting Expenses Poll extrapolated

I think I may have allowed my post to be a bit misleading. I should have written when in debt payoff mode what is the first thing you cut? Not for one month but more like 18-24 months...

So this is a long term cut, not a one month $25 here or $100.

Cutting Expenses?

People always come to financial messages boards and ask for help with their budget. They then proceed to say they should spend less on groceries. They are spending say $50-100/week for their families. But they hope to save $25/week.

I think that's nice, but to be honest it's a drop in the bucket and does not solve the problem. What? Well think about it. The real budget breakers are things like mortgages/rent, car loans, cable, internet, cell phones, etc.

That's where the fat is and should be trimmed first because those items usually take up larger portions of the budget than you can imagine. Why would you bother saving $25/week in groceries when you have a $500/month car loan? Or $120/month in cable? You don't even have to change your eating habits, in fact you can eat out more if you dumped the car.

Or if you over bought on a mortgage and pay 40% instead of 30%? What would happen if you had that extra 10% in your pocket? Could you afford cable, internet, groceries with that extra 10%?

If so, then why are people looking at pinching pennies for groceries when there are bigger budget busters that should be examined first?

Reimbursement Results!

I am very surprised that so many of my readers would be amenable to submitting reciepts to their spouse for reimbursement. Must be my independent nature that would never allow that.

To me money is money. Sure we can each get cash and spend it as we see fit, but to submit expenses to be reimbursed? That would drive my DH insane and would be the end of livingalmostlarge!

But the results of the poll are as follows

Yes 63%
No 33%
Maybe 4%

Carnival of Personal Finance #106

The Carnival of Personal Finance #106 is up at the Digerati Life. I submitted my article "Condos burn in hell." Unfortunately I just had to rant a little about my condo.

Interesting articles too look over are "Things are fine" by Boomie and "breaking financial illiteracy" by KRG.

Looks like a huge carnival with 91 submissions.

Are pet expenses also travel expenses?

Well someone posted that $1k is a lot to spend a couple of days away. I tend to agree, I won't know for a few more days exactly what we spent because we charged a lot and I'm not sure what the exchange rate on the CC will turn out to be.

But one expense I'm not sure other people count but I do is dog boarding. I don't know if this is common or uncommon, to others they don't include it as a travel expense. But to us every time we travel something has to happen to our two Bichons. So I always use it when figuring out what we're doing for our travel plans. This time we got off cheap and only spent $120. That's not a bad deal for 4 days. We usually spend more but our normal person was booked solid.

Is pet care considered an expense of travelling? I guess we'd get off cheaper if we didn't have to figure it in. Is getting a house sitter or pet sitter considered an expense of traveling?

Should I calculate it into any weekend away? I am just mulling it over tonight.

Lifestyle for kids...

Interesting on the LLNOE board I read, a woman asked the question should she wait to have kids (she's only 27), or should she just move forward while still in debt? I wonder about this too? We're not hugely in debt, and it's student loans and a mortgage. BUT I worry about money and time.

She got many differing responses about her situation. Most were suggesting she go ahead and not worry about money. Because children are only as expensive as you allow them to be. However a few did suggest waiting because she had over $100k in non-mortgage debt. The woman said it would take over 5 year to pay off this debt, so she was wondering if they should wait to have children. But they were able to pay their bills and "snowball" still debt now so they were not on that tight a budget. And they have childcare lined up with her mother-in-law.

However one opinion, which I really liked said, there is no wrong or right decision about kids. However picture yourself 5 years from now raising kids. How would you like to be raising your children? With a tight financial situation or less constrained? Would you like to have a choice to stay at home or be forced to work? Would you like new clothes or used clothes for your kid? Do you want a bigger or smaller home? Will it affect the number of children you have?

The woman who wrote this said that there is no right or wrong answer. Each person's decision is personal. And you and your spouse need to sit and decide HOW you want to raise your children. What it is you want to be able to provide, and if there will be financial stresses in life? She said she never thought she'd ever advocate not having children, but as a parent now, she believes that people should think before they leap. They should consider what they want.

The woman said if she could go back she would have waited just because she has a lot of financial stress impacting her marriage and children. It's hard for her because she finds it difficult. How she's raising her kids is not how she pictured raising them. And that is what is most important. How you want to raise your children.

This is something I wrestle with. I think if we just did the deed now, we'd manage for sure. We'd become extra frugal and really live to the bone. But we'd make it for sure. BUT if we waited we'd need to be less frugal and definitely not worry about money. Right now the decision for DH, not me, is to wait. He can't deal very well with financial uncertainty and says if we had a kid he couldn't sleep. He'd be worried about our bills, our student loans, our future. And though I think we'd swing it, I think though he's a risk taker in some areas of our lives, otherwise he has very set ideas about what we'd provide for our children and have as a financial base. And that image can't be accomplished if we had kids now. So I guess though it's possible, the ideas of family DH should be meet first.

Condos burn in hell!

Well I guess you can see I need to do a small rant about my condo. So our retaining wall issue is still unresolved. One of the other owner's is trying to argue that the MONEY, DH and I collected through our ATTORNEY from the developer is 20% his! Though he didn't even own the condo when she gave us the money. Also she was trying to say it was for both Unit 1 and 2. We never agreed to that! In fact we sent a letter stating exactly opposite.

The reason we took the money is there were three different engineers, with HER engineer stating the retaining wall could be done for $5700. Two other engineers said $18k and $20k. We also have statements from the two engineers explaining why her engineering quote would not solve the problem.

The developer is a shady, horrible woman. If you don't believe me she's had multiple lawsuits from contractors. Including a neighbor who was a contractor who worked for her. He showed me his lawsuit against her for $40k of work she didn't want to pay for, but he sued her and she was forced to pay. By the way she's a millionaire who doesn't even need the money, a radiologist that lives in a million dollar home. Arrgh. And she tries to not pay ANYONE. Including her engineer that drew up her plans, he came to us and tried to get paid, we said "NO! We did not sign a contract with you, the association did not sign a contract with you. PERIOD." So he went after her in court for his fees. And again she had to pay.

Right now it's not worth suing her because the amount is not much. She owes about $1k more for us, which we are willing to let slide. HOWEVER, with the other unit owner wanting another $1k we're not willing to budge.

We went after the jugular and tore him a new one. This unit owner DOES NOT pay his monthly dues on time, only once every 6 months. HE tore down the gutter drain pipes, but refuses to pay to replace them. He SAYS he put them up, BUT he didn't. He couldn't have put it up properly because he didn't put up the house siding until this summer! 1 year later. So the gutters even when he put them up were improperly put up! That jerk refuses to acknowledge that he's the one who caused the damage and should pay for it. So my wonderful DH got tired of the arguing and said he he would agree to allow the condo to pay 50% of the damages this piece of work caused.

You wonder why I curse and degenerate CONDOS! Well come and live in my hell-hole and tell me it's easy to deal with neighbors. Tell me it's easy to get anything done when you constantly can't make a decision. Please tell me that living in a house is harder? Really? Try getting 3 different couples to agree to a ONE project. Try getting 3 different couples to agree that ONE couple caused damage and the others shouldn't pay. Try getting one couple to pay up Home Owner's fees?

Last time I wrote, someone said that homes were expensive. Well condos are more so when you have to constantly go to a lawyer. When you constantly have to pay for DAMAGES done by a jerk who won't admit it. And if the repair isn't done well the house will rot. And you need to sue him otherwise. Try to constantly be chasing someone for money for insurance. Or would you just fork over the money like living in a house? But wait, you can't even just fork over the money and pay a repair person because still EVERYONE has to agree before work can be done!

That's the kicker of living in a condo. Why it's pure hell, and why only idiots like myself do it. I wish I had never bought this condo. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I pray everyday that we quickly finish our degrees, get a relocation package and move away from this hell-hole. I'm renting next time if we can't afford a single family home. I do not care what it costs, I'm never going to buy another condo. I'm printing this article up and I'm going to paste it to my wall as a reminder "Single Family Home, Single Family Home".

Belated Birthday Present!

Yes I got my birthday present finally. We decided with our upcoming trip we would purchase a GPS. I was tempted to instead ask for a bedroom set, but that's on permenant disability long story.

So instead I get a GPS system. I got a Garmin Nuvi 350 for $360. DH "paid" $180 of it for my present, the rest I decided to use my birthday money from. Yes I still get birthday money, I don't expect it at all, my aunt, grandma, and mom sent me money. I guess they just like to give gifts. I did mention to my mom about the GPS, which is probably why she sent the money. Now I'm going to have order her one too, usually when we buy something like this our parents want the same deals. Hence they same computers, same digital camera, etc. And not just one set but both sets of parents.

The GPS should be awesome. I wonder if I should feel guilty over the price of such an expensive gift. But then again last year I got a $300 b-day present that keeps sucking money every month so this is a steal. In case you missed it last year I got a second Bichon Frise for my birthday. He costs about $75/month for everything so it's a continual drain of money. Good thing I like him a lot! Though he was my most expensive present ever, and still is. I think he brings relaxation and pleasure to us both though. And we got him for a good price because he is a rescue dog but purebred. We aren't keen on buying purebred dogs when there are tons out there for adoption. For reference we used smallpaws.org for our first bichon, and petfinder.com for our second bichon.

What is the most expensive present you ever got? DH got an ipod a couple of years ago and hockey ticket this year. I'm not sure what we're going to do this year for him. I'm thinking maybe another hockey ticket or something. His toys have always been more expensive in general, but when I want something (like a dog) my one "gift" blows his out of the water.

But I'll let everyone know how it goes this weekend. I am dying to rip open the package but I'll wait until DH gets home to set it up before he yells at me for breaking it or something.

Carnival of Personal Finance #105

The second anniversary of the Carnival of Personal Finance #105 is up at JD's Get Rich Slowly. He asked that people post their best blog article.

I submitted my article "Jealousy/Envy" for submission. Something I think everyone feels at some point in time. The psychology of wanting what others have is normal, natural. The problem is being envious and only seeing the pros, none of the cons or sacrifices they have made to accomplish their goals.

Two articles in the same theme of what I wrote that I liked are "Can money buy you happiness?" at the financial jungle and "Money isn't everything" at blueprint for financial prosperity.

Money can't buy happiness but it can give you the opportunity to become happy. It matters to someone who is broke to get a million bucks, but to someone like Arnold going from $48 to $50M isn't a big deal. But that first million matters.

And money isn't everything like Jim wrote. Money means nothing if you have no one to share it with and aren't happy. You have to use your money to become happy, maybe spending time with friends and family. Being a scrooge isn't all that great. And like I wrote, a salary doesn't define you. At least it better not or I'd be worth 1/4 of what my DH is!

weekend getaway goals

Woohoo! We're going away for the weekend. I can't believe it. DH is finally going to take a day off not to study or work on the house. Instead this Thursday we take off for Toronto. Though it's just a weekend away we'll be spending I guessimate about $1k for the entire weekend.

Our hotels already booked through priceline cost $307.30 including all taxes for the weekend. Not terrible, not great, but we are staying in downtown Toronto walking distance to everything and next to a T stop. So I think we're getting a decent deal.

Next for gas it's 542 miles, so 550 miles one way. 1100 miles round trip makes me think it will take about 4 tanks of gas, 1 tank = 300 miles. That will cost about $120. I'm not sure how to calculate the wear and tear on my car, but I'll need an oil change when I get back. Then the dog boarding is another $120 for the 4 days. Right now we're running at $550.


Can we spend $350 on eating out for 4 days? I don't think so but we were planning on going to niagara falls and riding the maid of the mist ($12.50 per person), the CN tower ($25 per person), hockey hall of fame ($13 per person), and cathing a baseball game at the skydome ($10 per person). So in activities I guess we'll be spending about $120 for the weekend, leaving us $230 to eat out for 2 people.

Can we do it? I guess we'll see, I'm posting it here, because I plan on pricing our trip and seeing how we do. I think we can do it, but it really depends on whether we feel like indulging in our trip or not.

I'm guessing that we'll easily spend $230 which makes me sort of feel guilty, yet not at the same time. We've had a lot of extravagent trips these past two years and now we're back in student mode, no money and no time. Sigh. Maybe we can make the best of it.

Charging Rent?

Today DH's best friend is defending his thesis. Then he's moving up near us and is planning on staying with us. I'm not sure how long. I've cleaned out the guest bedroom, had the cable turned on, and on Friday a friend of his driving up dropped off about 15 boxes of stuff. We moved that into the guest room and it's starting to look really full.

But I was thinking, should we charge him rent after like 3-4 weeks? Is it appropriate? Or do we just let him pay for food? Do we charge him for food after 3-4 weeks? He's stayed with us at most 2 weeks at a time, which has never been a big deal. But previously those were visits, not actually living here.

I think he'd be amenable if he can't find a place to live, but is it rude? And should we even bother? And how much do you even charge in this case?

Also it's possible he'll find a place soon after moving in. He's not really the type to be on top of things, so I worry he'll move in with the intention of moving out, but gets lazy and doesn't. And I like him, so I can't just kick him out (no way DH's kicking him out). But I think I can deal with a month.