Gary, if your investment firm offers the option of buying I-Bonds then you can have it in your account. I know some firms charge a ridiculous fee for purchasing bonds, though.
For people who bought reasonable houses with fixed terms and interest and have other long term fixed debt obligations are making out like bandits in high inflation periods since a large portion of their expenses are already fixed. I personally would weclome high inflation with matching compensation vs. no inflation. That would make my house payment relatively smaller as time goes on.
Some of us have have been blackbelt tightwads all along, so rising gas prices make a felt impact on our budgets. I've conciously started driving behind big rigs to lessen wind resistance and used the slower acceleration and rolling to a stop type methods Wisebreader bloggers have suggested. It's amazing so many people are still zipping around like crazy people, going way above the speed limit on highways. An older friend (who lived through the Depression), told me she thinks this is only the beginning. All we can do is the best we can do with what we've got at the time.
Inflation is just redistribution of wealth. The above article accounted for 2 scenarios. When you get an amount of raise equal to inflation and when you don't get a raise and you become poorer. However for every case of someone not getting a raise equal to inflation there is someone who gets more than that.
My wife and I got 8% raises this year respectively which I assume is above inflation rates. We also got 10% raises the year before.
Inflation is just a tool to redistribute wealth and that is all there is to it. People who start to swallow the increase in prices are the ones who get shafted on the deal and the ones who raised the prices in the first place reap the benefits. Sure you need to account for increases is price but as long as you're on the better end of the inflation stick you've got nothing to worry about other than using larger numbers in your budget.
There were several posts that were insinuating that we're avoiding the problem. I would love to pay all of my debts but I can not do so right now. I make money but with the rising cost of everything and my significant other's loss of a job, its been tough to try and keep up with rent and car and utilities. When I try to talk with the debtors they don't care. They just want money...money that would have me living on the street if I gave it to them. I'm sorry but when it comes to paying a bill or my apartment...I would have to choose the roof over my head. Unfortunately I'm trying to struggle and find a second job to try and work out a debt management plan to at least make the calls just stop. I go to work everyday with a headache because I know I can not pay the debt I owe. And with every collection call, my headache seems to ache that much more.
An old girl scout craft. Using a 2 liter bottle, cut out two 2 1/2 inch wide by 3 1/2 inch high rectangles. These are opposite each other about 1 inch from the bottom. Fill the bottom with bird seed and hang from the bottle neck as a feeder. Perfect for smaller birds. They can perch on the edge while feeding.
I come from a family, who along with the entire town, is supported by a paper mill. Everyone there is constantly living in fear that the mill will close, thus turning Ste. Anne de Beaupre into a varitable ghost town.
I now live in Seattle, where there is an impression that everyone who cares about the environment turns their nose up at the working class. I try very hard to deter that impression.
"Loggers are made out to be tough macho heroes as they rip apart forests, several trees at a time."
Ouch.
What we need to realize is that natural resources WILL be used for our benefit - its just HOW we do it that needs to change.
I salute those folks who do the jobs that allow me to live the life that I do. Not to mention, with the way I react to a splinter - wrangling trees day in and day out and providing for a family is pretty heroic to me!
The limit is 5,000 for each SS#. So even though the interest rate is great, at the end of 5 years you will have made 1,500 minus Fed and State taxes. In the overall scheme of things, if you just eliminated only one 4 dollar Star Bucks coffee a day after five years you will have saved 5,200 with no taxes and not tying up 5,000 dollars which you could invest in the stock market, or as a down payment for a house, or you could pay off your 20% credit card and save an additional 5,000 dollars in interest over the next 5 years and still have your 5,000 dollars from your Starbucks savings.
You see, when dealing with these small amounts of money, I bonds are not the greatest deal.
It's not quite that good. You have to hold an I Bond for a year, and if you cash it in after less than 5 years, you pay a penalty of three month's interest.
However, if you buy it on the last day of a month, you still earn the interest for that whole month. And, if you cash it in on the first day of a month, you earn the interest for that whole month as well. That can really cushion the 3-month interest penalty, if you have to cash it in before 5 years are up.
And, as Xin says, the current interest rate is awesome. Even after taking the interest rate penalty into account, it beats any other safe investment out there.
You might want to buy before the end of this month, though. I don't expect the fixed part of the rate to stay this good.
I'm actually a big fan of the network in question and although I understand why this might've seemed like a mixed message, really I think the 2nd show was a tribute to hard-working men doing a difficult & dangerous - and vital - job rather than meant to be glorifying the destruction of forests.
Like it or not, you do have to concede that some degree of logging is necessary and in fact, some forested areas are routinely thinned for ecological purposes.
The same channel also features shows on marine ecology (an issue near to my heart) AND men who work on dangerous deep-sea fishing boats. I've never seen two of these shows aired back to back but the fact that both are shown doesn't cause me to think less of the network.
I haven't changed my habits in the least because of rising gas prices. But then I sold my car three or four years ago because I rarely drove it except to avoid street cleaning tickets.
I have since bought a motorcycle, but between its MPG and my infrequent rides (which, frankly, is bad for the bike) I pay very little attention to the price of gas. Even at $5 a gallon I'd pay less than $25 to fill up. I think we're around $4 here already.
I do, however, live in San Francisco, which simultaneously provides me with reasonable (not great, but reasonable) public transportation and plagues me with horrible traffic, impossible parking and exorbitant, challenging to avoid parking violation fines. (Fines are going up significantly next year, too.) So it's no particular virtue for me to avoid driving.
The flip side is that the ease of avoiding driving is one of the reasons I live in San Francisco several years ago.
I love this blog and the responses I have read so far. Oh I initially wanted to comment on the PB&J oh how I love it and tuna fish, cheap and easy yet you don't feel like you are sacrificing.
In the last two years I think I have made every financial mistake known to man except for insider trading because I did not have anything to trade. But I have re-financed my house to help with kids college tuition, filed banktruptcy to buying Louis Vuitton purses I just had to have. I am learning that a savings account should have in it more than the minimum amount to keep it open. Hopefully as I continue to grow and learn my future lessons won't have to be so difficult or my head not as hard. Thank you for this forum. NY
I think that mixed messages are important in media. It allows me to form well-rounded & understanding opinions that take in sides that we normaly I may not consider.
I prefer wider view-points than narrow view points especialy when I do have an agenda. If I dont understand why the other person thinks the way they do and what evidence they are considering how can I except to either learn from them or be able to for a effective argument that they can learn from?
I think in many cases people prefer to stick to there own viewpoints in when facing oposition they argue back without consideration. I think this is dangerous if I want to form a realitic & compassionate view of things because when I invest so much energy into building up one way of thinking that is RIGHT then, if I am mistaken, it takes just as much energy to break it back down. Because of this when I face dissagreements I try to spend more energy understanding the oposition that proving my own point.
Happy Earth Day! This is the best plastic bottle reusing compilation I have ever seen. The videos are very clever! I wonder if that fish trap worked. However, I do agree with Asarai with the toxicity of reheating plastic bottles. Good work!
We have several canvas bags from Trader Joe's and wish we had got them sooner, they also hold much more than the non-reusable plastic bags. Each time you check out with reusable bags at Trader Joe's, they give you a raffle ticket to enter for a $25 gift card. A few weeks ago they gave us a free reusable bag for waiting in line while the customer ahead of us ran back to get something.
Luke, your are ignorant and apparently you don't pay much attention to anything. It explains why you resort to petty trolling, when you could be learning something instead.
#1. The US gets comparatively little of its oil from the Middle East. Most of our oil comes from the Western hemisphere. In fact our largest source of imports is Canada.
#2. Australia and Europe's high gas prices are due in large part to their crushing tax burden and lack of petroleum infrastructure.
USA should be paying more for gas. why should they get a good deal just for invading Iraq and taking theirs. here in Australia we have been paying 5.50 a gallon for ages. Suck it up USA.
It hurts knowing that there is nothing we can do. Yes we can stop consuming gas but we are not going to get a large chunk of the population to completely change their lives (work, where they live, and how they travel). We just need to adjust. Change your budget, your driving habits, and find ways to increase your gas mileage. This are the real life solutions we can use.
Gary, if your investment firm offers the option of buying I-Bonds then you can have it in your account. I know some firms charge a ridiculous fee for purchasing bonds, though.
For people who bought reasonable houses with fixed terms and interest and have other long term fixed debt obligations are making out like bandits in high inflation periods since a large portion of their expenses are already fixed. I personally would weclome high inflation with matching compensation vs. no inflation. That would make my house payment relatively smaller as time goes on.
Some of us have have been blackbelt tightwads all along, so rising gas prices make a felt impact on our budgets. I've conciously started driving behind big rigs to lessen wind resistance and used the slower acceleration and rolling to a stop type methods Wisebreader bloggers have suggested. It's amazing so many people are still zipping around like crazy people, going way above the speed limit on highways. An older friend (who lived through the Depression), told me she thinks this is only the beginning. All we can do is the best we can do with what we've got at the time.
Inflation is just redistribution of wealth. The above article accounted for 2 scenarios. When you get an amount of raise equal to inflation and when you don't get a raise and you become poorer. However for every case of someone not getting a raise equal to inflation there is someone who gets more than that.
My wife and I got 8% raises this year respectively which I assume is above inflation rates. We also got 10% raises the year before.
Inflation is just a tool to redistribute wealth and that is all there is to it. People who start to swallow the increase in prices are the ones who get shafted on the deal and the ones who raised the prices in the first place reap the benefits. Sure you need to account for increases is price but as long as you're on the better end of the inflation stick you've got nothing to worry about other than using larger numbers in your budget.
There were several posts that were insinuating that we're avoiding the problem. I would love to pay all of my debts but I can not do so right now. I make money but with the rising cost of everything and my significant other's loss of a job, its been tough to try and keep up with rent and car and utilities. When I try to talk with the debtors they don't care. They just want money...money that would have me living on the street if I gave it to them. I'm sorry but when it comes to paying a bill or my apartment...I would have to choose the roof over my head. Unfortunately I'm trying to struggle and find a second job to try and work out a debt management plan to at least make the calls just stop. I go to work everyday with a headache because I know I can not pay the debt I owe. And with every collection call, my headache seems to ache that much more.
An old girl scout craft. Using a 2 liter bottle, cut out two 2 1/2 inch wide by 3 1/2 inch high rectangles. These are opposite each other about 1 inch from the bottom. Fill the bottom with bird seed and hang from the bottle neck as a feeder. Perfect for smaller birds. They can perch on the edge while feeding.
I was a little disappointed in this post!
I come from a family, who along with the entire town, is supported by a paper mill. Everyone there is constantly living in fear that the mill will close, thus turning Ste. Anne de Beaupre into a varitable ghost town.
I now live in Seattle, where there is an impression that everyone who cares about the environment turns their nose up at the working class. I try very hard to deter that impression.
"Loggers are made out to be tough macho heroes as they rip apart forests, several trees at a time."
Ouch.
What we need to realize is that natural resources WILL be used for our benefit - its just HOW we do it that needs to change.
I salute those folks who do the jobs that allow me to live the life that I do. Not to mention, with the way I react to a splinter - wrangling trees day in and day out and providing for a family is pretty heroic to me!
I've seen two ways to reuse the standard plastic bags that you get by turning them into a sturdier bag one of two ways:
1) Turn them into a plastic yarn and then either knit or crochet them into a bag:
http://lifehacker.com/372002/crochet-a-shoulder-tote-from-grocery-bags
2) Fuse bags together to create a strong material that you can sew together as a bag:
http://etsylabs.blogspot.com/2007/05/long-overdue-fusing-plastic-bag.html
Both would be a great free (or almost free if you count thread and knitting needles) option for anyone into crafts.
If you cut off the bottom half of a clear bottle and put it over a seed/ seedling, it can act as a greenhouse so that you can start seeds outside.
Can I-Bonds be purchased as an IRA investment? I could not find this answer on the treasurydirect.gov website.
The limit is 5,000 for each SS#. So even though the interest rate is great, at the end of 5 years you will have made 1,500 minus Fed and State taxes. In the overall scheme of things, if you just eliminated only one 4 dollar Star Bucks coffee a day after five years you will have saved 5,200 with no taxes and not tying up 5,000 dollars which you could invest in the stock market, or as a down payment for a house, or you could pay off your 20% credit card and save an additional 5,000 dollars in interest over the next 5 years and still have your 5,000 dollars from your Starbucks savings.
You see, when dealing with these small amounts of money, I bonds are not the greatest deal.
It's not quite that good. You have to hold an I Bond for a year, and if you cash it in after less than 5 years, you pay a penalty of three month's interest.
However, if you buy it on the last day of a month, you still earn the interest for that whole month. And, if you cash it in on the first day of a month, you earn the interest for that whole month as well. That can really cushion the 3-month interest penalty, if you have to cash it in before 5 years are up.
And, as Xin says, the current interest rate is awesome. Even after taking the interest rate penalty into account, it beats any other safe investment out there.
You might want to buy before the end of this month, though. I don't expect the fixed part of the rate to stay this good.
I'm actually a big fan of the network in question and although I understand why this might've seemed like a mixed message, really I think the 2nd show was a tribute to hard-working men doing a difficult & dangerous - and vital - job rather than meant to be glorifying the destruction of forests.
Like it or not, you do have to concede that some degree of logging is necessary and in fact, some forested areas are routinely thinned for ecological purposes.
The same channel also features shows on marine ecology (an issue near to my heart) AND men who work on dangerous deep-sea fishing boats. I've never seen two of these shows aired back to back but the fact that both are shown doesn't cause me to think less of the network.
I haven't changed my habits in the least because of rising gas prices. But then I sold my car three or four years ago because I rarely drove it except to avoid street cleaning tickets.
I have since bought a motorcycle, but between its MPG and my infrequent rides (which, frankly, is bad for the bike) I pay very little attention to the price of gas. Even at $5 a gallon I'd pay less than $25 to fill up. I think we're around $4 here already.
I do, however, live in San Francisco, which simultaneously provides me with reasonable (not great, but reasonable) public transportation and plagues me with horrible traffic, impossible parking and exorbitant, challenging to avoid parking violation fines. (Fines are going up significantly next year, too.) So it's no particular virtue for me to avoid driving.
The flip side is that the ease of avoiding driving is one of the reasons I live in San Francisco several years ago.
So you're saying I can buy these bonds, and keep them for one day and get the interest for almost an entire year? That can't be right. Right?
Thank You.
I love this blog and the responses I have read so far. Oh I initially wanted to comment on the PB&J oh how I love it and tuna fish, cheap and easy yet you don't feel like you are sacrificing.
In the last two years I think I have made every financial mistake known to man except for insider trading because I did not have anything to trade. But I have re-financed my house to help with kids college tuition, filed banktruptcy to buying Louis Vuitton purses I just had to have. I am learning that a savings account should have in it more than the minimum amount to keep it open. Hopefully as I continue to grow and learn my future lessons won't have to be so difficult or my head not as hard. Thank you for this forum. NY
I think that mixed messages are important in media. It allows me to form well-rounded & understanding opinions that take in sides that we normaly I may not consider.
I prefer wider view-points than narrow view points especialy when I do have an agenda. If I dont understand why the other person thinks the way they do and what evidence they are considering how can I except to either learn from them or be able to for a effective argument that they can learn from?
I think in many cases people prefer to stick to there own viewpoints in when facing oposition they argue back without consideration. I think this is dangerous if I want to form a realitic & compassionate view of things because when I invest so much energy into building up one way of thinking that is RIGHT then, if I am mistaken, it takes just as much energy to break it back down. Because of this when I face dissagreements I try to spend more energy understanding the oposition that proving my own point.
And this comment may be ironic.
Super Supplements is also handing out free reusable/recyclable totes for your free-bag-collecting pleasure. :D
Happy Earth Day! This is the best plastic bottle reusing compilation I have ever seen. The videos are very clever! I wonder if that fish trap worked. However, I do agree with Asarai with the toxicity of reheating plastic bottles. Good work!
We have several canvas bags from Trader Joe's and wish we had got them sooner, they also hold much more than the non-reusable plastic bags. Each time you check out with reusable bags at Trader Joe's, they give you a raffle ticket to enter for a $25 gift card. A few weeks ago they gave us a free reusable bag for waiting in line while the customer ahead of us ran back to get something.
Luke, your are ignorant and apparently you don't pay much attention to anything. It explains why you resort to petty trolling, when you could be learning something instead.
#1. The US gets comparatively little of its oil from the Middle East. Most of our oil comes from the Western hemisphere. In fact our largest source of imports is Canada.
#2. Australia and Europe's high gas prices are due in large part to their crushing tax burden and lack of petroleum infrastructure.
I like the idea of thinking about "given an amount of time to live, not just a day, but a short amount of time, what would you do?
I don't know if the world will end in 2012. But I find it just as plausible as I do to believe that an invisible being is in charge of the universe.
USA should be paying more for gas. why should they get a good deal just for invading Iraq and taking theirs. here in Australia we have been paying 5.50 a gallon for ages. Suck it up USA.
It hurts knowing that there is nothing we can do. Yes we can stop consuming gas but we are not going to get a large chunk of the population to completely change their lives (work, where they live, and how they travel). We just need to adjust. Change your budget, your driving habits, and find ways to increase your gas mileage. This are the real life solutions we can use.