It's possible to sell a t-bill out of a TreasuryDirect account, if you have to. You get the market rate (so you're no longer guaranteed to get face value) and there's a fee. (Although it's cheap compared to getting a broker to do it, it can be a large percentage of the money you're getting, especially if your emergency fund is small.)
Still, you're generally right, and that's why I only keep half my emergency fund in the t-bills. For a large class of emergencies (such as losing a job), you don't really need the money right now, you just need to be really, really sure the money will be there when you do need it. You need to make a judgement call about the kinds of emergencies you might face.
There are two problems with using a mutual fund. First, even a low-cost fund can eat up a good bit of the total return, because the interest rates on cash are often low. Second, you lose some of the biggest advantage--the safety of the investment--because you no longer own a direct obligation of the US government. Instead, the mutual fund owns a direct obligation of the US government and you own a share in the mutual fund. I doubt if that makes much difference in practice, but if you don't care about that tiny increment in safety, you'd probably get about the same return in an on-line bank.
I've moved several times, and with each move I have to restock any kitchen supplies. For awhile, I have been reduced to cooking ramen in my rice cooker. Time to buy new pots/pans. But being a broke student, I shuddered at the price of complete, stainless steel cookware. Even single pieces cost at least $25, which I still thought was too much. And then, I found the Dollar Store, and I thought I was in heaven, because it was full of cheap cookware! For under $10 I restocked my kitchen with pots, pans and some utensils. I thought I was so smart for saving so much money. Well, the very first time I boiled a pot of water for pasta, the lid of the pot cracked and splintered into millions of pieces of glass (I bet it was really plastic). Later, when I let the pot cool I noticed the bottom had turned black and after a few scrubs, I punched some holes through the cheap, thin "metal." The utensils were cheap plastic and the spatula started melting when I made stir fry. All said, those Dollar Store kitchen supplies didn't even last one week without falling apart. Needless to say, I went out to buy a decent set of cookware- one that doesn't fall apart with regular use! No more Dollar Store!
I have to say that if you like the security of a treasury bill, I'd suggest a T-bill based mutual fund like at Vanguard. There is a small expense fee but you get complete liquidity of your money. So if you actually need the money for a big emergency, you can get to all of it. Worse case scenario for above, you'd have to wait 12 and 25 weeks to get the second half of your money.
I wrote about being frugal backfiring on me a while ago. I tried brushing my teeth with baking soda. While my teeth felt squeaky clean, my wife said my breath smelt like poo.
Having emailed Mom a copy of this earlier today, it was the subject of tonight's dinnertime conversation. (One word: EWWWWWWWW!) Interestingly enough, one of the ladies in her office who has been taking Alli for several weeks actually had the "leakage" problem. Apparently, she and her husband went to Long John Silvers for dinner recently, and the next day, she had an "incident" in a local store. ("Oil slick" was the term used.) Since then, much of the office, including Mom, have decided not to take it.
Not that one article is going to prove anything.. but the links to cancer will be closely studied over the next few years according to this article from Fox news. I know that lots of things cause cancer, so I'm not going to bite yet. Just found it interesting that this also discusses the history of the original drug and concerns it had raised with some health groups.
Generally, I believe in the idea of generic disposable diapers. They work great with my almost 9 month old daughter.
But, for my now 3 year old son -- when he was born I tried many MANY different brands of generic disposable diapers with him. And seriously? They ALL leaked. I cleaned up so much poop off him and his clothes and myself.... it just was not even funny.
I don't know if he has a weird shaped bum or what, but only one, every expensive, name brand ever worked to contain anything at all with him. I gave away bags and bags of generic diapers to friends who could use them.
I do. So I'm not laughing at anyone. But an appetite suppressant would be one thing, because peeople would be eating less - people using this drug are probably going to eat as much food (or more) as they used to. They're still going to absorb sugar. I wouldn't be surprised if this drug actually caused insulin resistance.
I am with you on this. My intent was not to laugh it off. Afterall, it was a fairly heavily prescribed drug for a while. I just know of a lot of people seeing it on the counters of the Walgreens pharmacy thinking, "cool! A prescription weight-loss drug without a prescription." What really sets this one apart is that it is not an appetite suppressant, and someone less educated might think that it actually will help them proactively curb their appetite. The alli website actually mentions the bathroom side-effects as potentially having a behavior modification effect (think Pavlov's dog). Those who are not willing toaccept diarrhea as a reminder that they did a bad thing by eating a donut, may not want to participate in this drug's use.
But I will never, ever discourage someone who wants to be healthier from trying something new. Just wanting people to know that it isn't a quick or easy fix.
And while I wouldn't personally use a weight-loss drug for just 15 pounds, the alli website homepage gives the example of losing 15 with the drug (as compared to 10), therefore setting the expectation that it is reasonable for someone to use the drug for even small weight-loss goals.
It is easy to laugh at the drug because of it's oh so fun side effects, but for those who have a whole lot more than 15 lbs to lose, those extra lbs can mean a whole lot. In fact if you have only 15 lbs to lose, you probably should not be taking it anyway.
No pun intended, but I don't think we should all be so quick to poo-pooh the drug. For every person who is pooping themselves, there is someone taking itas directed and having success. I do think it would be smarter if folks did check with their doctors prior to taking it.
You said, "In my high risk school district EVERYONE knows at least one innocent child who was killed in cross fire."
In my school district everyone knows someone who has been killed or seriously injured in a car accident.
For many people, the deaths and injuries from car accidents seem somehow less tragic--or, at any rate, less scary--than those from violent crime. Speaking as someone who has been a victim of both (and known victims of both), to me they're just the same.
My mother (will I ever stop talking about her?) and her coworkers have all started taking this stuff, en masse...I don't think I'm going to drop by to visit anymore. Maybe a bouquet of Plug-ins would be in order, though...
I was a little worried about diabetics taking this drug. See, fat can be a problem if you eat a block of cheese every day, but fat is also important in regulating how quickly sugars are absorbed into your blood stream. Carbs that are absorbed fast (like refined sugars) cause a quick upsurge in blood sugar levels, making you feel awful.
Fat slows down carb absorbtion (although not nearly enough if you eat really refined carbs). As a diabetic, if I want a piece of toast, I can slow down the sugar absorbtion by eating it with peanut butter. But if I take Alli, then the fat will not be absorbed at all, and the sugars will, and I'll have to take more insulin all at once in order to compensate for the sudden sugar surge.
Taking a grungy boat (24 hour trip) instead of flying (2 hour trip). Got seasick, ran over my vacation time from school, had very little 'vacation' that wasn't spent moaning over a bucket.
Generally, I find my frugal tips to be quite satisfying and rewarding. However, there have been exceptions:
1. I recently ran into trouble with my 02 Honda Civic, a car which I had been previously delighted with. One day my power locks weren't working, the brake dash indicator light was on and the AC was blowing out cold air. I was hoping it was just a fuse issue, but given my luck, it needed a new multiplex unit/fuse assembly box...which would cost about $250, with labor. I had it installed at the local Honda dealer (I know I should probably avoid the dealer) and after installing this part, the AC still blew out hot air. The Honda tech took quite a while trying to figure out why this was the case, and reached the conclusion that the "thermal protector set" was to blame. It's a cheap part, but I was quoted FOUR hours of labor (approx. $400) to install it.
Since the dealership was kind of a drive from my house, I purchased the part online myself and found a local shop to install it.
I was told, “yes, we can install your part (1.5 hours labor vs. the 4 the dealer quoted) but we're not sure that will fix your AC, since we didn't diagnose it.” They recommended that it be re-diagnosed for $85. I declined, as I was so sure that the thermal protector set was the answer. Of course, it wasn't...which means I lost about $200 between the part and the labor, and of course, ended up paying for the new diag. At this point in time, I am told that I need a new computer (ECU) which is going to cost me $499 plus an hour of labor! This ECU is refurbished, so it's actually less than a new one, but comes with a lifetime warranty. Don't ask me why it costs as much as a real computer.
If this doesn't fix my AC I am going to lose it!
Moral: Make sure you know what is actually wrong with your car before you go about making expensive repairs.
P.S. Does anyone know about consumer's rights in regards to car repair. For example, if I had let the Honda dealership install the part (which they diagnosed as being the problem) and that didn't do a thing, would I be responsible for the costs?
I'm going to try to keep this short (but not sweet) because it is clear that the author has never worked with children or schools in these areas.
I grew up with my grandparents in a beautiful old home in a neighborhood that had gone "down" after the Watts riots in Los Angeles. It was a perfectly safe neighborhood when my mother grew up there, but by the time I was a girl in middle school there were racially provoked fights on and off campus before, during and after school hours that were no respecters of "how nice a person you were". If you happened to be in the wrong place on your walk home, you would be hurt. (One startled mother experienced the reverse of "Guess who's Coming for Dinner" when her children insisted I stay at their home because they knew a particurly bad fight was planned on my usual route home from school. I overheard her say to her husband "I never thought I'd live to see the day a white child would be sitting in MY kitchen!" My friends were a "rainbow coalition" but we all new the hazards of racial tension around us. Knife fights regularly broke out between boys and razor blades were the choice of girls. The police were on our campus weekly. Sexual harrassment, verbal and bodily were everyday occurences. No friends could protect anybody from that and rapes often went unreported because of the social stigma and the fear of reprisal from the boy's family and friends. Fast forward to today and it still hasn't changed except there are now more guns.
How do I know? Because I am a music teacher that chooses to go back there and work with "high risk" kids as well as my regular students in a "safe" part of Orange County. Yes, I know that there are some drugs used in the "safe" school district, but the kids there aren't taking them to get the adrenaline rush they need to pull out their gun to rob someone. These kids aren't worrying about being caught in the routine cross fire of a drug deal gone bad.
In my high risk school district EVERYONE knows at least one innocent child who was killed in cross fire. Everyone knows girls who have been raped. Most parents are afraid to have their kids go outside for fear of being bullied, having there nice jackets stolen. I could go on and on.
Oh yes, the affluent children go to a public school which is on par with the private school my grandparents finally had to pay to send me to for me to get a decent education. The school district where we lived was so bad that eventually it was the first that the state of California had to take over.
I go back and teach "high risk" kids daily because music is one of the few things that lifts them from this misery. They don't have the money to afford private lessons and music has been dropped in their public school. It's still not far from my home but I would not walk, cycle or take a bus because my students and I know it is still too dangerous. I do all of the above to my schools in nearby Orange County. In the short distance I drive in the unsafe neighborhood I have been a victim of "hit and run" twice and uninsured driver is the norm.
These neighborhoods are not that far apart. The prices of homes are worlds apart. Which neighborhood would I choose to live with children? You guess.
It's possible to sell a t-bill out of a TreasuryDirect account, if you have to. You get the market rate (so you're no longer guaranteed to get face value) and there's a fee. (Although it's cheap compared to getting a broker to do it, it can be a large percentage of the money you're getting, especially if your emergency fund is small.)
Still, you're generally right, and that's why I only keep half my emergency fund in the t-bills. For a large class of emergencies (such as losing a job), you don't really need the money right now, you just need to be really, really sure the money will be there when you do need it. You need to make a judgement call about the kinds of emergencies you might face.
There are two problems with using a mutual fund. First, even a low-cost fund can eat up a good bit of the total return, because the interest rates on cash are often low. Second, you lose some of the biggest advantage--the safety of the investment--because you no longer own a direct obligation of the US government. Instead, the mutual fund owns a direct obligation of the US government and you own a share in the mutual fund. I doubt if that makes much difference in practice, but if you don't care about that tiny increment in safety, you'd probably get about the same return in an on-line bank.
I've moved several times, and with each move I have to restock any kitchen supplies. For awhile, I have been reduced to cooking ramen in my rice cooker. Time to buy new pots/pans. But being a broke student, I shuddered at the price of complete, stainless steel cookware. Even single pieces cost at least $25, which I still thought was too much. And then, I found the Dollar Store, and I thought I was in heaven, because it was full of cheap cookware! For under $10 I restocked my kitchen with pots, pans and some utensils. I thought I was so smart for saving so much money. Well, the very first time I boiled a pot of water for pasta, the lid of the pot cracked and splintered into millions of pieces of glass (I bet it was really plastic). Later, when I let the pot cool I noticed the bottom had turned black and after a few scrubs, I punched some holes through the cheap, thin "metal." The utensils were cheap plastic and the spatula started melting when I made stir fry. All said, those Dollar Store kitchen supplies didn't even last one week without falling apart. Needless to say, I went out to buy a decent set of cookware- one that doesn't fall apart with regular use! No more Dollar Store!
I have to say that if you like the security of a treasury bill, I'd suggest a T-bill based mutual fund like at Vanguard. There is a small expense fee but you get complete liquidity of your money. So if you actually need the money for a big emergency, you can get to all of it. Worse case scenario for above, you'd have to wait 12 and 25 weeks to get the second half of your money.
I wrote about being frugal backfiring on me a while ago. I tried brushing my teeth with baking soda. While my teeth felt squeaky clean, my wife said my breath smelt like poo.
You can read my whole experience here: Frugal Experiment: Brushing Teeth With Baking Soda
Oil on top of pizza, eh? That wins the funniest-disclaimer-of-the-week, hands down.
There are homeless people in America.
Nice work, Jessica. I hearby promise not to make pronouncements that I know nothing about.
Having emailed Mom a copy of this earlier today, it was the subject of tonight's dinnertime conversation. (One word: EWWWWWWWW!) Interestingly enough, one of the ladies in her office who has been taking Alli for several weeks actually had the "leakage" problem. Apparently, she and her husband went to Long John Silvers for dinner recently, and the next day, she had an "incident" in a local store. ("Oil slick" was the term used.) Since then, much of the office, including Mom, have decided not to take it.
If I hear any more, I'll be sure to add it here.
And thanks for writing the article :)
Not that one article is going to prove anything.. but the links to cancer will be closely studied over the next few years according to this article from Fox news. I know that lots of things cause cancer, so I'm not going to bite yet. Just found it interesting that this also discusses the history of the original drug and concerns it had raised with some health groups.
Generally, I believe in the idea of generic disposable diapers. They work great with my almost 9 month old daughter.
But, for my now 3 year old son -- when he was born I tried many MANY different brands of generic disposable diapers with him. And seriously? They ALL leaked. I cleaned up so much poop off him and his clothes and myself.... it just was not even funny.
I don't know if he has a weird shaped bum or what, but only one, every expensive, name brand ever worked to contain anything at all with him. I gave away bags and bags of generic diapers to friends who could use them.
So the generics cost me a fortune. lol
Ah well. I should have tried cloth diapering.
of course this is just one study. and yeah, i agree there are going to be a lot of bozos taking it as lightly as Trim-Spa.
I do. So I'm not laughing at anyone. But an appetite suppressant would be one thing, because peeople would be eating less - people using this drug are probably going to eat as much food (or more) as they used to. They're still going to absorb sugar. I wouldn't be surprised if this drug actually caused insulin resistance.
uuummm...yuck. I see this drug everytime I walk into walgreens. I'm glad I never wasted money on it. I don't need to be poo pooing everywhere :P
Jessica,
I am with you on this. My intent was not to laugh it off. Afterall, it was a fairly heavily prescribed drug for a while. I just know of a lot of people seeing it on the counters of the Walgreens pharmacy thinking, "cool! A prescription weight-loss drug without a prescription." What really sets this one apart is that it is not an appetite suppressant, and someone less educated might think that it actually will help them proactively curb their appetite. The alli website actually mentions the bathroom side-effects as potentially having a behavior modification effect (think Pavlov's dog). Those who are not willing toaccept diarrhea as a reminder that they did a bad thing by eating a donut, may not want to participate in this drug's use.
But I will never, ever discourage someone who wants to be healthier from trying something new. Just wanting people to know that it isn't a quick or easy fix.
And while I wouldn't personally use a weight-loss drug for just 15 pounds, the alli website homepage gives the example of losing 15 with the drug (as compared to 10), therefore setting the expectation that it is reasonable for someone to use the drug for even small weight-loss goals.
Thanks for your comment!
It is easy to laugh at the drug because of it's oh so fun side effects, but for those who have a whole lot more than 15 lbs to lose, those extra lbs can mean a whole lot. In fact if you have only 15 lbs to lose, you probably should not be taking it anyway.
No pun intended, but I don't think we should all be so quick to poo-pooh the drug. For every person who is pooping themselves, there is someone taking itas directed and having success. I do think it would be smarter if folks did check with their doctors prior to taking it.
Justin, please update us on your mom's progress.
You said, "In my high risk school district EVERYONE knows at least one innocent child who was killed in cross fire."
In my school district everyone knows someone who has been killed or seriously injured in a car accident.
For many people, the deaths and injuries from car accidents seem somehow less tragic--or, at any rate, less scary--than those from violent crime. Speaking as someone who has been a victim of both (and known victims of both), to me they're just the same.
My mother (will I ever stop talking about her?) and her coworkers have all started taking this stuff, en masse...I don't think I'm going to drop by to visit anymore. Maybe a bouquet of Plug-ins would be in order, though...
I'm with you. I do a large fraction of my reading in books from the library.
Thanks for looking at this, Linsey.
I was a little worried about diabetics taking this drug. See, fat can be a problem if you eat a block of cheese every day, but fat is also important in regulating how quickly sugars are absorbed into your blood stream. Carbs that are absorbed fast (like refined sugars) cause a quick upsurge in blood sugar levels, making you feel awful.
Fat slows down carb absorbtion (although not nearly enough if you eat really refined carbs). As a diabetic, if I want a piece of toast, I can slow down the sugar absorbtion by eating it with peanut butter. But if I take Alli, then the fat will not be absorbed at all, and the sugars will, and I'll have to take more insulin all at once in order to compensate for the sudden sugar surge.
Also, anal leakage. Ew.
Taking a grungy boat (24 hour trip) instead of flying (2 hour trip). Got seasick, ran over my vacation time from school, had very little 'vacation' that wasn't spent moaning over a bucket.
But I saved a hundred bucks! Pleh. Not worth it.
Oh, this just completely made my day. Thanks Wisebread! You're the best.
Thanks for the autopsy on this book... I was looking at reading it when it comes to the library. :D
Generally, I find my frugal tips to be quite satisfying and rewarding. However, there have been exceptions:
1. I recently ran into trouble with my 02 Honda Civic, a car which I had been previously delighted with. One day my power locks weren't working, the brake dash indicator light was on and the AC was blowing out cold air. I was hoping it was just a fuse issue, but given my luck, it needed a new multiplex unit/fuse assembly box...which would cost about $250, with labor. I had it installed at the local Honda dealer (I know I should probably avoid the dealer) and after installing this part, the AC still blew out hot air. The Honda tech took quite a while trying to figure out why this was the case, and reached the conclusion that the "thermal protector set" was to blame. It's a cheap part, but I was quoted FOUR hours of labor (approx. $400) to install it.
Since the dealership was kind of a drive from my house, I purchased the part online myself and found a local shop to install it.
I was told, “yes, we can install your part (1.5 hours labor vs. the 4 the dealer quoted) but we're not sure that will fix your AC, since we didn't diagnose it.” They recommended that it be re-diagnosed for $85. I declined, as I was so sure that the thermal protector set was the answer. Of course, it wasn't...which means I lost about $200 between the part and the labor, and of course, ended up paying for the new diag. At this point in time, I am told that I need a new computer (ECU) which is going to cost me $499 plus an hour of labor! This ECU is refurbished, so it's actually less than a new one, but comes with a lifetime warranty. Don't ask me why it costs as much as a real computer.
If this doesn't fix my AC I am going to lose it!
Moral: Make sure you know what is actually wrong with your car before you go about making expensive repairs.
P.S. Does anyone know about consumer's rights in regards to car repair. For example, if I had let the Honda dealership install the part (which they diagnosed as being the problem) and that didn't do a thing, would I be responsible for the costs?
I'm going to try to keep this short (but not sweet) because it is clear that the author has never worked with children or schools in these areas.
I grew up with my grandparents in a beautiful old home in a neighborhood that had gone "down" after the Watts riots in Los Angeles. It was a perfectly safe neighborhood when my mother grew up there, but by the time I was a girl in middle school there were racially provoked fights on and off campus before, during and after school hours that were no respecters of "how nice a person you were". If you happened to be in the wrong place on your walk home, you would be hurt. (One startled mother experienced the reverse of "Guess who's Coming for Dinner" when her children insisted I stay at their home because they knew a particurly bad fight was planned on my usual route home from school. I overheard her say to her husband "I never thought I'd live to see the day a white child would be sitting in MY kitchen!" My friends were a "rainbow coalition" but we all new the hazards of racial tension around us. Knife fights regularly broke out between boys and razor blades were the choice of girls. The police were on our campus weekly. Sexual harrassment, verbal and bodily were everyday occurences. No friends could protect anybody from that and rapes often went unreported because of the social stigma and the fear of reprisal from the boy's family and friends. Fast forward to today and it still hasn't changed except there are now more guns.
How do I know? Because I am a music teacher that chooses to go back there and work with "high risk" kids as well as my regular students in a "safe" part of Orange County. Yes, I know that there are some drugs used in the "safe" school district, but the kids there aren't taking them to get the adrenaline rush they need to pull out their gun to rob someone. These kids aren't worrying about being caught in the routine cross fire of a drug deal gone bad.
In my high risk school district EVERYONE knows at least one innocent child who was killed in cross fire. Everyone knows girls who have been raped. Most parents are afraid to have their kids go outside for fear of being bullied, having there nice jackets stolen. I could go on and on.
Oh yes, the affluent children go to a public school which is on par with the private school my grandparents finally had to pay to send me to for me to get a decent education. The school district where we lived was so bad that eventually it was the first that the state of California had to take over.
I go back and teach "high risk" kids daily because music is one of the few things that lifts them from this misery. They don't have the money to afford private lessons and music has been dropped in their public school. It's still not far from my home but I would not walk, cycle or take a bus because my students and I know it is still too dangerous. I do all of the above to my schools in nearby Orange County. In the short distance I drive in the unsafe neighborhood I have been a victim of "hit and run" twice and uninsured driver is the norm.
These neighborhoods are not that far apart. The prices of homes are worlds apart. Which neighborhood would I choose to live with children? You guess.