Thanks for the great review of this book... I was looking at it when I was at B&N the other day and thinking of getting it, but your posts have helped me to realize that it's not quite the right fit for me at this point. Thanks so much for your honesty!
There are better places to camp than a parking lot. I'd recommend your local state park. And if it's a really good camping spot, your iPhone won't work anyway. ;-)
I've waited in line for the wii three times, mostly for other family members. I did it because it was fun. The boy and I camped out over night, he tried to stay up the whole time, mario kart ds racing, it was just a really good time. Getting away from the computer and being outside for awhile is never a bad things, and bye the way, it's free. If your buying the phone anyways, might as well have a good time doing it. I would love to see someone camp out in like a month, just for fun.
my boyfriend is caving in and buying one today (or at least trying to, there's a DRASTIC shortage! oh the agony!) I've been encouraging him not to, because he has a perfectly good blackberry and he doesn't qualify for the cheaper phone prices since he already has a contract with AT&T. i mean, i'm a mac fan and all that, so i guess i look forward to getting to play with it, but i just wish he'd put that money somewhere else at least until he can get the cheaper prices (or until an even newer, better, and more hyped one comes out.)
A mini computer like the iPhone can save you lots of hours by increasing your productivity(just take a look at the app store + email + internet). It may worth the cost, but standing a day in line is ridiculous.
I have a cell phone. It is several years old, looks like it has been run over by a car, and is usually turned off. I carry it with me for emergencies, loan it to my kids when they go out, and use it to call relatives because it has lots of lovely free long distance minutes. When I was younger I would get all excited by new tech toys, now I just want my tech to work and be reliable. I guess I've grown up and/or gotten old.
no negative comments from me, i SO don't get it. i always use whatever the free phone is that comes with the plan, my biggest choice is the color.
now, standing in line for an event, like a concert, i can get. because then it becomes part of the event itself.
i even went to a midnight release event for the last harry potter book, because that was fun in and of itself -- people were in costumes! -- it was like going to a halloween party.
but a phone? who cares? when did phones become a lifestyle item? they used to be the thing that sat on the kitchen counter. if back then someone had told me that someday people will stand in line all night for the release of a high tech toaster, it'd have been about as believable.
Ever stop and think about how private health insurance works? Successful businesses must make a profit. That profit, for any insurance company, can only be made in a few general ways: increase your ratio of profitable to unprofitable customers, charge more money for the same services, or cut costs. Also consider that a private market economy demands not just profit, but a growing profit... otherwise a company will see dwindiling investment, less available credit/capital, and a shrinking market share.
The ratio of profitable to unprofitable customers remains fairly constant between new and existing customers as long as legal and economic regulation don't change, so that's the industry's base minimum bar for growth. That only leaves two other options: charge more, or cut costs. Charging more shrinks your customer base and hurts your ratio...not a company's first choice. Then, there's cost cutting: reduce overhead or reduce service. There's a point where overhead simply can't be reduced further and the only remaining way to increse profits is to reduce services by denying claims, reducing coverage, etc... More for less becomes the name of the game.
Consider also, anyone in the United States can walk into an emergency room and be guaranteed treatment for serious injuries. You don't have to: have insurance, prove you can pay, or even be a citizen. It is illegal to deny you treatment. For those that don't pay (any reason) the cost is absorbed by the hospital. Hospitals (even public ones) are still bound to economic pressures to break even...or better yet, to turn a profit. So, the losses sustained by providing guaranteed treatment down in the E.R. get spread amongst all the other services in an attempt to stay in the black. The most profitable services provided are those paid for by insurance companies and various governmental institutions.
So far: the under- or un- insured are a loss for hospitals due to laws guaranteeing treatment, that cost is then passed to either the insurance companies or the government by charging more for paid services, and the insurance companies pass it back by charging more for less, or the government passes it back by increasing taxes.
That means anyone that either pays taxes or has health insurance is already paying for a low-grade form of universal healthcare. The differences between this present form of universal healthcare and a social program are: the quality and availability of services, who manages the system, and the fact that profit earning is a factor. The few are still paying for the many, and getting a raw deal to boot.
There are really only two solutions to this problem: change the laws and deny medical treatment to anyone incappable of paying for it, or eliminate profit earning for the equation. Eliminating profit can come in two forms: regulating the industry into non-profit status and watch all things good about free market economics disapear, or create a governmental program providing true universal healthcare.
Wouldn't you rather get a better deal, have an immense weight taken off your shoulders, and help countless people live a happier and healthier life? Do you enjoy providing outrageous salaries to industrial healthcare executives, or would you rather see that money in the smile of your friends and neighbors? Ask yourself this: If every day you were to hear personal accounts of the tragedies this system is responsible for: people affraid to seak treatment for fear of the costs- dispite having debilitating and painful conditions, families reduced to poverty or bankruptcy because their insurance company denied coverage and they chose to save their loved one's life, those that are scarred- crippled- or dead because they avoided treatment until they had no choice and were forced into the E.R. to recieve the bare minimum of care... could you sleep at night?
Remeber that for all, frugality is not a choice but a necessity. Impoverishment is not often a choice, and is seldom able to be laid as blame at the feet of the poor. Living modestly is no sin...it is, in fact, a virtue.
I have to say a fairly common thread running through many of these discussions is how little the government does or how much more the government should do to help out individuals.
Don't people realize that when they abdicate control of their lives to others they get less satisfied and more unhappy?
@Velvet said: "Vote for policy that levels the field more." (So, essentially, you're for forced governmental income redistribution.)
What happened to personal responsibility for raising your own level?
Personally, I don't want government to help me. I want to control my own destiny, something that is becoming more difficult as government grows ever bigger and more powerful.
Interesting to note as well that many who complain about government not doing enough to help the poor and downtrodden, complain about government doing too much in other areas - such as on the international stage.
I don't know if anybody's watching, but in the past week, the government bailed out a large bank (Indy Mac) and is guaranteeing the solvency of two GSEs (Freddy & Fannie Mac). This is just the beginning of a major financial storm.
Sorry for the rant, but I can't stand whining. Don't wait for government or someone else to rescue you from your situation.
Do something yourself!
This country is off the tracks. The Constitution is looked upon as a anachronistic curiosity and too many of us have become dependent on government.
Personally, I cannot fathom living inside a big city. If I moved to the big city I'd have to spend thousands on a big security system, live with sprawl and sit on a cramped subway to go to work. No thank you! There is no reason, absolutely no reason why I should be forced back into the city by some well meaning but misinformed liberals.
My car gets 30+ mpg and I can afford gas easily. When it comes time to buy a new car they will probably be even better than that. Let them live in city squalor and be damned.
First, sometimes you can say it better with practice. Second, even if you don't say it better, you can always say it differently--and some people who would never have understood the first version will understand the second. Third, things do change--especially the details, like what's going on in the economy or how to use new investment tools that weren't available before.
Benjamin Franklin was a great writer, but I'd be sad if the only American work on frugality was Poor Richard's Almanack. Nobody says it better than Thoreau, but it turns out that I'm not always trying to say exactly the same thing he was saying. There were a number of great writers on frugality in the 1970s, but much of the details have changed since they wrote. (For example, in the wonderful classic Possum Living, Dolly Freed has nothing about IRAs or 401(k)s, which didn't even exist back then. She does have a whole chapter on buying land at a sheriff's auctions, which do still exist, but which are different now than they were then--and vary enormously from place to place.)
If you are new to investing, this book absolutely is NOT for you. It is full with acronyms and baffling terms that will most definitely require you to consult your dictionary every 2 minutes. I was privileged enough to start reading the book with a pretty good amount of experience in investing so it didn't slow me up very much. Despite the criticism I have mentioned above, I have to say that the book was an enlightening though it also contains boastful depiction of one analyst's experience of how the market really works. He does tell a lot about how the Street works and how it is geared more toward big corporations than the individual investor.
I totally relate to what your ex-coworker suffered in India. I am an Indian and I work in Mumbai, India's financial capital. I was working with a PR firm earlier and that's where my life went for a toss. I worked 12-15 hours a day including weekends.
On my own cousin's wedding day (I was the maid of honour), I went to office in the morning to attend a stupid meeting! I even put on a lot of weight due to eating out a lot.
Finally after two years I gave up! I quit and now I have a life! I took up a job as a web editor and now I have an eight hour work schedule. I have enough time to meet friends, go to the gym and study. Also I took up some freelance writing assignments because my work at the moment is very relaxed and allows me a lot of free time. This is a decision I had to take to save myself from losing it completely and I'm happy I did it!
You can usually ask the cashier if they have an extra coupon when you get to the register and most of the time, if they don't they will HONOR A COMPETITOR's coupon... They have a competitor coupon sheet where you sign and write your zip. Every time I go in, I just ask if there is a competitor coupon that week and most of the time, there is!
It is posts like this which so succinctly and wonderfully states all the relevant issues that makes me conclude there's little left to say. Maybe we should just set it in stone - like Euclidian geometry.
I was wondering if you had tripped the capital one media followers with your post slamming capital one? I once had a post about capital one near a post about a boycott, and all of the sudden I started getting multiple search engine hits and bots. They never contacted me, but I thought it was pretty funny to watch them drool over my post.
All you say is true: Cars will get more efficient. Employers will go with 4-day work weeks, telecommuting, workplaces nearer workers.
The cost differentials that you describe are just as you say they are. Despite that, some people will move to the cities (and, as mass transit expands, to points in the suburbs and exurbs that happen to get mass transit service first).
My point--the thing I'm trying to warn people about--is that the result of these shifts will be to trap people. As the expensive apartment in the city becomes even more expensive, and as the reasonably priced house at the edge of town becomes even more reasonably priced, it's going to get harder and harder to move.
Now is the time to make a plan. Maybe gasoline prices will stablize at current levels. Maybe mass transit--and the associated higher taxes--will roll out efficiently to the suburbs and exurbs. But your plan should allow for the possibility that these things won't happen. Maybe gasoline prices will keep going up. Maybe the expanded mass transit will go not to your neighborhood but to one a few miles away--but maybe you'll get stuck with the higher taxes anyway.
Make a plan. Allow for the full range of possibilities. Your family is depending on you.
Thanks for the great review of this book... I was looking at it when I was at B&N the other day and thinking of getting it, but your posts have helped me to realize that it's not quite the right fit for me at this point. Thanks so much for your honesty!
-Suz
There are better places to camp than a parking lot. I'd recommend your local state park. And if it's a really good camping spot, your iPhone won't work anyway. ;-)
I've waited in line for the wii three times, mostly for other family members. I did it because it was fun. The boy and I camped out over night, he tried to stay up the whole time, mario kart ds racing, it was just a really good time. Getting away from the computer and being outside for awhile is never a bad things, and bye the way, it's free. If your buying the phone anyways, might as well have a good time doing it. I would love to see someone camp out in like a month, just for fun.
my boyfriend is caving in and buying one today (or at least trying to, there's a DRASTIC shortage! oh the agony!) I've been encouraging him not to, because he has a perfectly good blackberry and he doesn't qualify for the cheaper phone prices since he already has a contract with AT&T. i mean, i'm a mac fan and all that, so i guess i look forward to getting to play with it, but i just wish he'd put that money somewhere else at least until he can get the cheaper prices (or until an even newer, better, and more hyped one comes out.)
A mini computer like the iPhone can save you lots of hours by increasing your productivity(just take a look at the app store + email + internet). It may worth the cost, but standing a day in line is ridiculous.
Mine is :-(
I always did want one of those groovy toasters that also cooks an egg for you. But they're hardly top of the line, Big Lots now sells them for $20.
I have a cell phone. It is several years old, looks like it has been run over by a car, and is usually turned off. I carry it with me for emergencies, loan it to my kids when they go out, and use it to call relatives because it has lots of lovely free long distance minutes. When I was younger I would get all excited by new tech toys, now I just want my tech to work and be reliable. I guess I've grown up and/or gotten old.
no negative comments from me, i SO don't get it. i always use whatever the free phone is that comes with the plan, my biggest choice is the color.
now, standing in line for an event, like a concert, i can get. because then it becomes part of the event itself.
i even went to a midnight release event for the last harry potter book, because that was fun in and of itself -- people were in costumes! -- it was like going to a halloween party.
but a phone? who cares? when did phones become a lifestyle item? they used to be the thing that sat on the kitchen counter. if back then someone had told me that someday people will stand in line all night for the release of a high tech toaster, it'd have been about as believable.
Thanks for this. I have the worst sunburn I have ever had in my life. The vinegar works wonders. :)
quite off topically, are those the canyon stairs at Reed College in your photo? If not they are a stunning replica!
Ever stop and think about how private health insurance works? Successful businesses must make a profit. That profit, for any insurance company, can only be made in a few general ways: increase your ratio of profitable to unprofitable customers, charge more money for the same services, or cut costs. Also consider that a private market economy demands not just profit, but a growing profit... otherwise a company will see dwindiling investment, less available credit/capital, and a shrinking market share.
The ratio of profitable to unprofitable customers remains fairly constant between new and existing customers as long as legal and economic regulation don't change, so that's the industry's base minimum bar for growth. That only leaves two other options: charge more, or cut costs. Charging more shrinks your customer base and hurts your ratio...not a company's first choice. Then, there's cost cutting: reduce overhead or reduce service. There's a point where overhead simply can't be reduced further and the only remaining way to increse profits is to reduce services by denying claims, reducing coverage, etc... More for less becomes the name of the game.
Consider also, anyone in the United States can walk into an emergency room and be guaranteed treatment for serious injuries. You don't have to: have insurance, prove you can pay, or even be a citizen. It is illegal to deny you treatment. For those that don't pay (any reason) the cost is absorbed by the hospital. Hospitals (even public ones) are still bound to economic pressures to break even...or better yet, to turn a profit. So, the losses sustained by providing guaranteed treatment down in the E.R. get spread amongst all the other services in an attempt to stay in the black. The most profitable services provided are those paid for by insurance companies and various governmental institutions.
So far: the under- or un- insured are a loss for hospitals due to laws guaranteeing treatment, that cost is then passed to either the insurance companies or the government by charging more for paid services, and the insurance companies pass it back by charging more for less, or the government passes it back by increasing taxes.
That means anyone that either pays taxes or has health insurance is already paying for a low-grade form of universal healthcare. The differences between this present form of universal healthcare and a social program are: the quality and availability of services, who manages the system, and the fact that profit earning is a factor. The few are still paying for the many, and getting a raw deal to boot.
There are really only two solutions to this problem: change the laws and deny medical treatment to anyone incappable of paying for it, or eliminate profit earning for the equation. Eliminating profit can come in two forms: regulating the industry into non-profit status and watch all things good about free market economics disapear, or create a governmental program providing true universal healthcare.
Wouldn't you rather get a better deal, have an immense weight taken off your shoulders, and help countless people live a happier and healthier life? Do you enjoy providing outrageous salaries to industrial healthcare executives, or would you rather see that money in the smile of your friends and neighbors? Ask yourself this: If every day you were to hear personal accounts of the tragedies this system is responsible for: people affraid to seak treatment for fear of the costs- dispite having debilitating and painful conditions, families reduced to poverty or bankruptcy because their insurance company denied coverage and they chose to save their loved one's life, those that are scarred- crippled- or dead because they avoided treatment until they had no choice and were forced into the E.R. to recieve the bare minimum of care... could you sleep at night?
Remeber that for all, frugality is not a choice but a necessity. Impoverishment is not often a choice, and is seldom able to be laid as blame at the feet of the poor. Living modestly is no sin...it is, in fact, a virtue.
I have to say a fairly common thread running through many of these discussions is how little the government does or how much more the government should do to help out individuals.
Don't people realize that when they abdicate control of their lives to others they get less satisfied and more unhappy?
@Velvet said: "Vote for policy that levels the field more." (So, essentially, you're for forced governmental income redistribution.)
What happened to personal responsibility for raising your own level?
Personally, I don't want government to help me. I want to control my own destiny, something that is becoming more difficult as government grows ever bigger and more powerful.
Interesting to note as well that many who complain about government not doing enough to help the poor and downtrodden, complain about government doing too much in other areas - such as on the international stage.
I don't know if anybody's watching, but in the past week, the government bailed out a large bank (Indy Mac) and is guaranteeing the solvency of two GSEs (Freddy & Fannie Mac). This is just the beginning of a major financial storm.
Sorry for the rant, but I can't stand whining. Don't wait for government or someone else to rescue you from your situation.
Do something yourself!
This country is off the tracks. The Constitution is looked upon as a anachronistic curiosity and too many of us have become dependent on government.
Personally, I cannot fathom living inside a big city. If I moved to the big city I'd have to spend thousands on a big security system, live with sprawl and sit on a cramped subway to go to work. No thank you! There is no reason, absolutely no reason why I should be forced back into the city by some well meaning but misinformed liberals.
My car gets 30+ mpg and I can afford gas easily. When it comes time to buy a new car they will probably be even better than that. Let them live in city squalor and be damned.
You are one of the most thoughtful bloggers around. We are very lucky to have you with us. =)
Out of all the great advice that passes through the personal finance blogosphere, I think this sentence from you is my favorite:
"A budget is not a constraint. A budget is a tool for maximizing pleasure and satisfaction."
The freedom to make the best of what you have, or the courage to change it if it's not good enough.
The freedom to make the best of what you have, or the courage to change it if it's not good enough.
First, sometimes you can say it better with practice. Second, even if you don't say it better, you can always say it differently--and some people who would never have understood the first version will understand the second. Third, things do change--especially the details, like what's going on in the economy or how to use new investment tools that weren't available before.
Benjamin Franklin was a great writer, but I'd be sad if the only American work on frugality was Poor Richard's Almanack. Nobody says it better than Thoreau, but it turns out that I'm not always trying to say exactly the same thing he was saying. There were a number of great writers on frugality in the 1970s, but much of the details have changed since they wrote. (For example, in the wonderful classic Possum Living, Dolly Freed has nothing about IRAs or 401(k)s, which didn't even exist back then. She does have a whole chapter on buying land at a sheriff's auctions, which do still exist, but which are different now than they were then--and vary enormously from place to place.)
If you are new to investing, this book absolutely is NOT for you. It is full with acronyms and baffling terms that will most definitely require you to consult your dictionary every 2 minutes. I was privileged enough to start reading the book with a pretty good amount of experience in investing so it didn't slow me up very much. Despite the criticism I have mentioned above, I have to say that the book was an enlightening though it also contains boastful depiction of one analyst's experience of how the market really works. He does tell a lot about how the Street works and how it is geared more toward big corporations than the individual investor.
I totally relate to what your ex-coworker suffered in India. I am an Indian and I work in Mumbai, India's financial capital. I was working with a PR firm earlier and that's where my life went for a toss. I worked 12-15 hours a day including weekends.
On my own cousin's wedding day (I was the maid of honour), I went to office in the morning to attend a stupid meeting! I even put on a lot of weight due to eating out a lot.
Finally after two years I gave up! I quit and now I have a life! I took up a job as a web editor and now I have an eight hour work schedule. I have enough time to meet friends, go to the gym and study. Also I took up some freelance writing assignments because my work at the moment is very relaxed and allows me a lot of free time. This is a decision I had to take to save myself from losing it completely and I'm happy I did it!
Jen and her husband should undergo some serious marriage counseling drama. It would not only save his husband lives but the family as well.
You can usually ask the cashier if they have an extra coupon when you get to the register and most of the time, if they don't they will HONOR A COMPETITOR's coupon... They have a competitor coupon sheet where you sign and write your zip. Every time I go in, I just ask if there is a competitor coupon that week and most of the time, there is!
It is posts like this which so succinctly and wonderfully states all the relevant issues that makes me conclude there's little left to say. Maybe we should just set it in stone - like Euclidian geometry.
I was wondering if you had tripped the capital one media followers with your post slamming capital one? I once had a post about capital one near a post about a boycott, and all of the sudden I started getting multiple search engine hits and bots. They never contacted me, but I thought it was pretty funny to watch them drool over my post.
All you say is true: Cars will get more efficient. Employers will go with 4-day work weeks, telecommuting, workplaces nearer workers.
The cost differentials that you describe are just as you say they are. Despite that, some people will move to the cities (and, as mass transit expands, to points in the suburbs and exurbs that happen to get mass transit service first).
My point--the thing I'm trying to warn people about--is that the result of these shifts will be to trap people. As the expensive apartment in the city becomes even more expensive, and as the reasonably priced house at the edge of town becomes even more reasonably priced, it's going to get harder and harder to move.
Now is the time to make a plan. Maybe gasoline prices will stablize at current levels. Maybe mass transit--and the associated higher taxes--will roll out efficiently to the suburbs and exurbs. But your plan should allow for the possibility that these things won't happen. Maybe gasoline prices will keep going up. Maybe the expanded mass transit will go not to your neighborhood but to one a few miles away--but maybe you'll get stuck with the higher taxes anyway.
Make a plan. Allow for the full range of possibilities. Your family is depending on you.