And that is the way I feel. Health insurance is not just expensive, health insurance is a big rip off. The writer seems to justify the high cost of insurance but the reality is that insurance companies are basically rip off organizations. I have paid a good chuck of money to my insurance company and with the super high deductible (otherwise I could not afford it) and never have seen any benefit. Now you would say if I were to get sick, that is when I would appreciate my insurance company. Well, I have no doubt as some of my friends found out when they got seriously sick, that I would still have to pay a good chunk of money and possibly even consider bankruptcy, even though I am insured. Insurance will not cover everything even after the deductible and I will still be left to pay quite a lot of money. The issue is not just the cost but the quality of our health insurance. Pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, medical services, is a huge rip off to all of us. Nothing like this happens in all other industrialized countries. The stories you hear that universal health insurance does not work is all false. We are left at the mercy of the big rip off insurance business lobby. Because of their greediness, our insurance costs will escalate even more and the services we receive will be less and less. There are so many exclusions in our insurance plans ... the whole thing is a big scam orchestrated by big business who do not give a damn except making profits. It is the quality, stupid! not just the cost!
It is organizations like the MSPA that ruin this industry. Did you know that they make you pay for certification?? Truth is that the recruiting companies for this industry don't require, nor care about this so called certification. This is probably the largest scam going in the industry.
At the end of the day, all the recruiters really care about is finding good shoppers to get the job done.
Watch out for the MSPA, all they want is to charge you money for a common sense 'exam', then tell you are certified. The more you pay, the higher your certification.
CapitalOne is sending out letters, raising the interest rate 10% after the 3 billion dollar bail out they got from us. Cut up your Capital One Card!! Lets hit them where it hurts the most, there wallet. Obama did bring change, a 10% interest rate increase sure is change. Write your elected leader!!
I'm an investing book junkie and read this book at Philip's recommendation over in the forums. It is indeed well written. Bogle makes a thorough, rational case for investing solely in broad, total-market index funds. I appreciated the matter-of-fact, confident, practical tone.
I hesitate to recommend it as a one-book investing education. Bogle discusses asset allocation only briefly, and never directly addresses the money management topics that ought to be a prerequisite to investing -- mindful spending, a cash reserve, adequate insurance, and so on. Those things aren't "investing" per se, but they are essential topics and there are other books that cover them in addition to sensible investing advice.
I do quibble with Bogle's advice to split stocks 80/20 between the US and ex-US. He presents slam-dunk arguments for the advantages of indexing "everything," and the disadvantages of weighting any one category of stocks over another. To me the natural conclusion is to weight the US/ex-US according to their respective market capitalizations, possibly using a "total world stock" index fund. For some reason Bogle persists with his position that overweighting is inefficient and wasteful, except in the one case of country of origin.
It's a great book, though, for someone who already has their finances in order and needs to be convinced or reassured of the virtues of Bogle's simple approach. I think I'd still recommend Tobias' "The Only Investing Guide You'll Ever Need" as a first and (possibly only) personal finance book. "The Little Book..." is a wonderful second (and possibly last) investing book.
It's helpful to think about what you'd do if you knew you were going to die, but the next day when you wake up with a hangover you'll still have dependents, a job, a need to eat, and the knowledge that you'll have to pay for yourself in your old age.
That's not to denigrate thinking about how you'll die, but I think it's a good thing you'll immediately realize you're more immediately going to have to consider how you'll live! :)
Even though letting the whole economy crash and burn by putting an immediate stop to bailouts and mortgage refi plans seems like an unfeeling thing to do, I think this would be the better option. It's like pulling off a bandage--better to do it quickly and painfully and get over it than to do it slowly in order to minimize the pain. Usually the pain is the same, it is just prolonged when you don't do it quickly. If someone can afford a house, they can pay the bill, if they can't, they are only prolonging their agony. Better to lose the house, save up some money, and try again with a house that is more affordable.
Thinking about it. I realise that I couldn't go around 'asking' people if they lost any money because they would just say 'yes'...
So what I did was take the money and left a note in the book saying that I found it. If it's yours to contact me and I'll give it back. If no one claims it, well then it's my good luck :)
Of course I would have to verify it with them to check 'how much it was'... and if what they say matches what was in the book then I'd be more than happy to give it back.
Finding money is good luck/karma. However, if the person who it belongs to asks for it... then you must return it. Otherwise it's bad karma.
I'm wondering about the morality of taking the loan modification when we don't really "need" it, too. I think we will qualify - I lost my job, and while husband is still employed, he's at a 10% salary cut. When we bought the house 6 years ago, we were at 26% debt ratio. Now, it's at 52%. And yet...we have savings, from the good years. We live frugally, have no other debt. I probably could get another job if I tried. We still have equity in our home, and could sell if we had to, and move to a lower cost of living area.
So, do I "deserve" the help of a lower interest rate? Not sure. But, at the same time your comment "I don't want my problems to become the problems of our society at large, nor put a debt load on my grandchildren" - made me wonder if you are intending on collecting social security, medicare, etc. Certainly these entitlements are putting a huge strain on our children, too, but I don't see too many people sending them back to the government with a "no thanks".
The "starving artist" is a romantic stereotype. We all love the rags-to-riches overnight success stories, but while we're working for that day, it makes sense to be fiscally prudent and savvy.
Digital signals are better but not as powerful less
wattage than antalogue signals. Your antenna like mine is in a fringe area need an antenna that receives signals at a greater distance. The antenna needs to be pointed in the
direction of the station you may need a rotor.Weather
sometimes affects digital TV. If my antenna is not pointed
preciously at the station the wind may cause the signal to fade in and out. Plan to get a long distance UHF omni-direcional antenna then all the stations go to digital
It completely, completely, completely depends on the location. Sry. That's just how economies function. I live in Arkansas. 6 figures is still pretty much all you can need here. In Malibu, California, it's gonna be different.
I have been reading the post and find it interesting that security in the public schools were not mentioned. I have a 5 year old that is in private K and will be going to private school in Sept. I live in NJ and the public school i am zoned to is about 100 years old and has below state test scores. I was willing to at least give the school a try and go in and look around since the private school we are sending our daughter to is very expensive 21k. When i walked into the public school at 9:00 a young girl about 10 was at the door and told me where the main office was. There were kids sitting on the stairs and walking around the hallways. The main office was cluttered with piles of papers and very disorganized. I walked out and decided right there i was not sending my daughter there. She is very bright and has been reading since 18 months. She needed a school that would challenge her. I am not Catholic,but my husband and I registered her in the local Catholic school just in case she didn't get into P school. We felt secure leaving her there since the doors are kept locked and the staff is on top of the students. I don't know if she would have gotten a better education in public or Catholic school but we just learned she was excepted in the private school we wanted. For 21k a year she will get a 7:1 teacher ratio, teachers with masters and special certifications in their fields. The school is set up like a college.i had my doubts sending her to such an expensive school, but my peace of mind that she will be in a safe place with kids who are academically on or close to her level is what i needed. Children who are gifted have no resources in the public schools because they usually are only gifted in a few areas and may lag behind in others. They are special needs children too with no place to go, but private school. I don't know how this will work out,but i feel good that i am giving my daughter the best environment for her learning potential that i can. My husband and i were planning to move, but with the housing market the way it is we will be here for awhile and will have to pay for private school. We will do our homework when moving and try to move to an area with better public schools to meet our daughter's needs. I do feel it is important to have children mix wtih others who may not be as advanced as they are because they learn from each other, but it has to be with a good teacher who knows how to handle a class like that. I went to public school in the south bronx and had a terrible education and as a result had a hard time with simple things like spelling and grammar in my adult years. The early years of education are the foundation in which children learn how to process information and ideas. Without it they are lost later. If i have to pay for a solid elementary school education now, i know it will benefit her later on even if she goes to public school.
OK, this will sound bizarre, but it's a tried and true method of dealing with chiggers.
An effective way to kill chiggers is to paint their "trails" (where they've burrowed under the skin) with nail polish, from just below the beginning to just beyond the end. In fact, I actually paint about a dime-sized spot on each end. It cuts off their oxygen and they die. Pretty simple.
An effective way to keep chiggers from getting to you is to wear pantyhose. Really. For guys, it's a little weird, but the alternative is pretty miserable. If it's really warm, just wear knee-highs. They work just as well, since chiggers generally will bite around your ankles and work their way up.
The dry ice tricks works, but its really never perfect and only works for the perfect type of dent. If your dent has a 'crease' a sharp edge on any of its outside lines; it will need pdr tools. You can buy these pdr tools from makers like Dentcraft Tools (www.dentcrafttools.com) but it takes about 10 months to become good enough to sell your services.
If the cost of a year's membership is too high, go in with a friend to buy a single membership (or piggyback on your parents', like I do). It means you have to shop when they do, but there's nothing wrong with that, it gives us some bonding time.
Worth noting, however, Costco has gotten very difficult to shop from. As of 11/08 they will only accept payment in the form of cash and Discover cards (or maybe it's American Express, I can't recall, but I don't have one, whatever it is).
My parents just got membership at BJ's. It cost less for a year, the prices and merchandise are comparable to Costco. My brother, on the otherhand, got a Sam's Club membership, same deal, cheaper and comparable in cost/merchandise. The advantage of both of these is that I can join in their memberships for free or for a very low fee and shop independently of them.
Having dealt with my dad's death and now my mom's passive irresponsibility, I think my goals would be more like Martha's. Methodically practical. It was/is insane getting my parent's stuff in order. I would never deliberately dump that on my kids and husband.
To me this question has always seemed backwards. You never know how long you're going to live. What you should know, however -- and never forget -- is that your life could end at a moment's notice. One thing I really liked about the book Journey to Ixtlan was the idea of always seeing your death out of the corner of your eye, stalking you, and using your death as an advisor. The question should not be "what will I do with the rest of my life", but rather "what do you want to be doing when you die" -- because that might be what is going to happen to you next. I have found that most helpful for me in terms of analyzing what I'm doing: would I feel good knowing that what I'm doing now is the last thing I did in life? If you can feel good about that, I think a lot of the rest takes care of itself.
I have owned my home for almost 10 years now. My mortgage has gone up while my pay has gone down. How dare you people try and say that just because I have a hard time paying my bills now, that I'm "living beyond my means!" I was ALWAYS on time with my payments. And now slowly I'm falling behind. I think the second part of the plan sounds great as long as the baks don't collect the bonuses and foreclose anyways. Hats off to those who HAVE been able to pay their bills on time. I have 2 growing children and the price of food isn't pretty. There are more reasons that It costs more to live now than I must be "living beyond my means!" I work as many jobs as I can so that I don't loose my house. I don't call that being irresponsible! Times are hard for everyone right now and I think everyone deserves a piece of the american dream.
I don't know from personal experience, but I expect that in practice my answers would be like Martha's. A couple of times I've been crossing the road and a car has nearly hit me - one of my first thoughts on reaching the other side of the road is that I can't let anything happen to me because my house is a mess and how would anyone find anything.
Questions like "what would you wish you had done?" are probably more helpful in giving you ideas about what you should actually do. Still, you've got to balance those against what you can practically afford to do right now. I mean I'd wish I had learned the oboe better, travelled more and got drunk with friends more often. I can't do all those things at once though, and if I did them a lot more I might not be able to afford a retirement I'd like.
@Meh:
I think that Philip is actually making the same point that you are. Looking at end of life situations is not as helpful as just thinking about values and goals.
And that is the way I feel. Health insurance is not just expensive, health insurance is a big rip off. The writer seems to justify the high cost of insurance but the reality is that insurance companies are basically rip off organizations. I have paid a good chuck of money to my insurance company and with the super high deductible (otherwise I could not afford it) and never have seen any benefit. Now you would say if I were to get sick, that is when I would appreciate my insurance company. Well, I have no doubt as some of my friends found out when they got seriously sick, that I would still have to pay a good chunk of money and possibly even consider bankruptcy, even though I am insured. Insurance will not cover everything even after the deductible and I will still be left to pay quite a lot of money. The issue is not just the cost but the quality of our health insurance. Pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, medical services, is a huge rip off to all of us. Nothing like this happens in all other industrialized countries. The stories you hear that universal health insurance does not work is all false. We are left at the mercy of the big rip off insurance business lobby. Because of their greediness, our insurance costs will escalate even more and the services we receive will be less and less. There are so many exclusions in our insurance plans ... the whole thing is a big scam orchestrated by big business who do not give a damn except making profits. It is the quality, stupid! not just the cost!
It is organizations like the MSPA that ruin this industry. Did you know that they make you pay for certification?? Truth is that the recruiting companies for this industry don't require, nor care about this so called certification. This is probably the largest scam going in the industry.
At the end of the day, all the recruiters really care about is finding good shoppers to get the job done.
Watch out for the MSPA, all they want is to charge you money for a common sense 'exam', then tell you are certified. The more you pay, the higher your certification.
CapitalOne is sending out letters, raising the interest rate 10% after the 3 billion dollar bail out they got from us. Cut up your Capital One Card!! Lets hit them where it hurts the most, there wallet. Obama did bring change, a 10% interest rate increase sure is change. Write your elected leader!!
I'm an investing book junkie and read this book at Philip's recommendation over in the forums. It is indeed well written. Bogle makes a thorough, rational case for investing solely in broad, total-market index funds. I appreciated the matter-of-fact, confident, practical tone.
I hesitate to recommend it as a one-book investing education. Bogle discusses asset allocation only briefly, and never directly addresses the money management topics that ought to be a prerequisite to investing -- mindful spending, a cash reserve, adequate insurance, and so on. Those things aren't "investing" per se, but they are essential topics and there are other books that cover them in addition to sensible investing advice.
I do quibble with Bogle's advice to split stocks 80/20 between the US and ex-US. He presents slam-dunk arguments for the advantages of indexing "everything," and the disadvantages of weighting any one category of stocks over another. To me the natural conclusion is to weight the US/ex-US according to their respective market capitalizations, possibly using a "total world stock" index fund. For some reason Bogle persists with his position that overweighting is inefficient and wasteful, except in the one case of country of origin.
It's a great book, though, for someone who already has their finances in order and needs to be convinced or reassured of the virtues of Bogle's simple approach. I think I'd still recommend Tobias' "The Only Investing Guide You'll Ever Need" as a first and (possibly only) personal finance book. "The Little Book..." is a wonderful second (and possibly last) investing book.
...but the answer is useless.
It's helpful to think about what you'd do if you knew you were going to die, but the next day when you wake up with a hangover you'll still have dependents, a job, a need to eat, and the knowledge that you'll have to pay for yourself in your old age.
That's not to denigrate thinking about how you'll die, but I think it's a good thing you'll immediately realize you're more immediately going to have to consider how you'll live! :)
Even though letting the whole economy crash and burn by putting an immediate stop to bailouts and mortgage refi plans seems like an unfeeling thing to do, I think this would be the better option. It's like pulling off a bandage--better to do it quickly and painfully and get over it than to do it slowly in order to minimize the pain. Usually the pain is the same, it is just prolonged when you don't do it quickly. If someone can afford a house, they can pay the bill, if they can't, they are only prolonging their agony. Better to lose the house, save up some money, and try again with a house that is more affordable.
Today I found $160 in a book.
Thinking about it. I realise that I couldn't go around 'asking' people if they lost any money because they would just say 'yes'...
So what I did was take the money and left a note in the book saying that I found it. If it's yours to contact me and I'll give it back. If no one claims it, well then it's my good luck :)
Of course I would have to verify it with them to check 'how much it was'... and if what they say matches what was in the book then I'd be more than happy to give it back.
Finding money is good luck/karma. However, if the person who it belongs to asks for it... then you must return it. Otherwise it's bad karma.
Ummmm...no 13?
I'm wondering about the morality of taking the loan modification when we don't really "need" it, too. I think we will qualify - I lost my job, and while husband is still employed, he's at a 10% salary cut. When we bought the house 6 years ago, we were at 26% debt ratio. Now, it's at 52%. And yet...we have savings, from the good years. We live frugally, have no other debt. I probably could get another job if I tried. We still have equity in our home, and could sell if we had to, and move to a lower cost of living area.
So, do I "deserve" the help of a lower interest rate? Not sure. But, at the same time your comment "I don't want my problems to become the problems of our society at large, nor put a debt load on my grandchildren" - made me wonder if you are intending on collecting social security, medicare, etc. Certainly these entitlements are putting a huge strain on our children, too, but I don't see too many people sending them back to the government with a "no thanks".
Don't forget the membership dues and fees (for networking events) related to professional organizations.
The "starving artist" is a romantic stereotype. We all love the rags-to-riches overnight success stories, but while we're working for that day, it makes sense to be fiscally prudent and savvy.
Digital signals are better but not as powerful less
wattage than antalogue signals. Your antenna like mine is in a fringe area need an antenna that receives signals at a greater distance. The antenna needs to be pointed in the
direction of the station you may need a rotor.Weather
sometimes affects digital TV. If my antenna is not pointed
preciously at the station the wind may cause the signal to fade in and out. Plan to get a long distance UHF omni-direcional antenna then all the stations go to digital
It completely, completely, completely depends on the location. Sry. That's just how economies function. I live in Arkansas. 6 figures is still pretty much all you can need here. In Malibu, California, it's gonna be different.
I have been reading the post and find it interesting that security in the public schools were not mentioned. I have a 5 year old that is in private K and will be going to private school in Sept. I live in NJ and the public school i am zoned to is about 100 years old and has below state test scores. I was willing to at least give the school a try and go in and look around since the private school we are sending our daughter to is very expensive 21k. When i walked into the public school at 9:00 a young girl about 10 was at the door and told me where the main office was. There were kids sitting on the stairs and walking around the hallways. The main office was cluttered with piles of papers and very disorganized. I walked out and decided right there i was not sending my daughter there. She is very bright and has been reading since 18 months. She needed a school that would challenge her. I am not Catholic,but my husband and I registered her in the local Catholic school just in case she didn't get into P school. We felt secure leaving her there since the doors are kept locked and the staff is on top of the students. I don't know if she would have gotten a better education in public or Catholic school but we just learned she was excepted in the private school we wanted. For 21k a year she will get a 7:1 teacher ratio, teachers with masters and special certifications in their fields. The school is set up like a college.i had my doubts sending her to such an expensive school, but my peace of mind that she will be in a safe place with kids who are academically on or close to her level is what i needed. Children who are gifted have no resources in the public schools because they usually are only gifted in a few areas and may lag behind in others. They are special needs children too with no place to go, but private school. I don't know how this will work out,but i feel good that i am giving my daughter the best environment for her learning potential that i can. My husband and i were planning to move, but with the housing market the way it is we will be here for awhile and will have to pay for private school. We will do our homework when moving and try to move to an area with better public schools to meet our daughter's needs. I do feel it is important to have children mix wtih others who may not be as advanced as they are because they learn from each other, but it has to be with a good teacher who knows how to handle a class like that. I went to public school in the south bronx and had a terrible education and as a result had a hard time with simple things like spelling and grammar in my adult years. The early years of education are the foundation in which children learn how to process information and ideas. Without it they are lost later. If i have to pay for a solid elementary school education now, i know it will benefit her later on even if she goes to public school.
OK, this will sound bizarre, but it's a tried and true method of dealing with chiggers.
An effective way to kill chiggers is to paint their "trails" (where they've burrowed under the skin) with nail polish, from just below the beginning to just beyond the end. In fact, I actually paint about a dime-sized spot on each end. It cuts off their oxygen and they die. Pretty simple.
An effective way to keep chiggers from getting to you is to wear pantyhose. Really. For guys, it's a little weird, but the alternative is pretty miserable. If it's really warm, just wear knee-highs. They work just as well, since chiggers generally will bite around your ankles and work their way up.
I don't mean to over simplify this but we all know we are going to die, we just don't know when.
The dry ice tricks works, but its really never perfect and only works for the perfect type of dent. If your dent has a 'crease' a sharp edge on any of its outside lines; it will need pdr tools. You can buy these pdr tools from makers like Dentcraft Tools (www.dentcrafttools.com) but it takes about 10 months to become good enough to sell your services.
If the cost of a year's membership is too high, go in with a friend to buy a single membership (or piggyback on your parents', like I do). It means you have to shop when they do, but there's nothing wrong with that, it gives us some bonding time.
Worth noting, however, Costco has gotten very difficult to shop from. As of 11/08 they will only accept payment in the form of cash and Discover cards (or maybe it's American Express, I can't recall, but I don't have one, whatever it is).
My parents just got membership at BJ's. It cost less for a year, the prices and merchandise are comparable to Costco. My brother, on the otherhand, got a Sam's Club membership, same deal, cheaper and comparable in cost/merchandise. The advantage of both of these is that I can join in their memberships for free or for a very low fee and shop independently of them.
So, my $.02.
love this review and peeks my interest!
I love books and this sounds right up my alley
going to see if I can get it free on "the swap"
XOXOXO
anjie
Having dealt with my dad's death and now my mom's passive irresponsibility, I think my goals would be more like Martha's. Methodically practical. It was/is insane getting my parent's stuff in order. I would never deliberately dump that on my kids and husband.
i thought some of the pictures were cool
To me this question has always seemed backwards. You never know how long you're going to live. What you should know, however -- and never forget -- is that your life could end at a moment's notice. One thing I really liked about the book Journey to Ixtlan was the idea of always seeing your death out of the corner of your eye, stalking you, and using your death as an advisor. The question should not be "what will I do with the rest of my life", but rather "what do you want to be doing when you die" -- because that might be what is going to happen to you next. I have found that most helpful for me in terms of analyzing what I'm doing: would I feel good knowing that what I'm doing now is the last thing I did in life? If you can feel good about that, I think a lot of the rest takes care of itself.
I have owned my home for almost 10 years now. My mortgage has gone up while my pay has gone down. How dare you people try and say that just because I have a hard time paying my bills now, that I'm "living beyond my means!" I was ALWAYS on time with my payments. And now slowly I'm falling behind. I think the second part of the plan sounds great as long as the baks don't collect the bonuses and foreclose anyways. Hats off to those who HAVE been able to pay their bills on time. I have 2 growing children and the price of food isn't pretty. There are more reasons that It costs more to live now than I must be "living beyond my means!" I work as many jobs as I can so that I don't loose my house. I don't call that being irresponsible! Times are hard for everyone right now and I think everyone deserves a piece of the american dream.
I don't know from personal experience, but I expect that in practice my answers would be like Martha's. A couple of times I've been crossing the road and a car has nearly hit me - one of my first thoughts on reaching the other side of the road is that I can't let anything happen to me because my house is a mess and how would anyone find anything.
Questions like "what would you wish you had done?" are probably more helpful in giving you ideas about what you should actually do. Still, you've got to balance those against what you can practically afford to do right now. I mean I'd wish I had learned the oboe better, travelled more and got drunk with friends more often. I can't do all those things at once though, and if I did them a lot more I might not be able to afford a retirement I'd like.
@Meh:
I think that Philip is actually making the same point that you are. Looking at end of life situations is not as helpful as just thinking about values and goals.
I think about my "bucket list" all the time . . .
Bottomline: Don't take life for granted . . .