DOW Down 778 Points – My Response
Posted by The Happy Rock on September 30, 2008
Nothing. Ok, nothing is a exaggeration, but it drives home the point that nothing has changed from a personal perspective. The principles remain the same after after a horrid financial day as they were on Sunday when things weren’t this bad. If anything a day like today should make you more eager to dump your debt and get on solid financial ground so that you can be in as much control as possible. Ultimately other than trying to influence your representative, you can only control what you do. Wasting energy in fear and stress will only harm you unless it provides stronger motivation to change you financial future.
- Spend Much Less Than You Earn
- Get Out Of Debt
- Have a 3-6 month emergency fund. If you feel uncomfortable in these time, 6-8 might be a better goal.
- Save For Retirement.
Since I have already accomplished 1-3, I will continue to save for a house down payment. As far as retirement, I will continue my deposits(with company) match. If you have faith that the US economy and stock market will figure things out in the long run, then keep buying like you have been. Things like selling your stock and going to cash type assets might save you some money, but adds a lot of stress and opens the window for missing out on bargain buys. I won’t be changing a thing with regard to my investments other than making a concerted effort to not check my balances to avoid stress, fear, and the motivation to do something stupid.
As far as the bailout is concerned, I was glad to see that there were representatives that were listening to constituents and doing their best to make sure that taxpayers didn’t get taken advantage of. I loved to see government in action like it was last week with everyone working together, although I could do without the political name calling and posturing.
I would love to see a solution that allows those that caused the mess to bear the burden rather than the taxpayers. Options like government loaning money rather than giving Paulson a blank check to give free money were he deems fit. It seemed like there were many good changes to the bill over the weekend like removing earmarks, allowing for non free money help, and adding more protection for the taxpayers, but ultimately the bill stayed about the government going into much more debt so that they can hand out free money to keep the housing market artificially inflated and keep the credit markets flowing. Should they have signed the bill today, possibly. Although a collapse could end up being a self fulfilling prophecy fueled by fear.
I do know that government needs to get back to the principles above, but neither candidate has come close to committing to anything of the sort.
» Filed Under About Me, Debt Elimination, Taxes
Your Health and Your Wealth – Fitness Impacts Wallet
Posted by Debt Destroyer on September 28, 2008
In the Sept 22, 2008 issue of Time magazine, there was an article which talked about how getting & staying fit could be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The three main points of the article where:
- Lose weight – The avg annual out-of-pocket cost for diabetics is $454. ($12,000 for more sever cases)
- Stop Smoking – $100,000 can be saved by not buying cigarettes and investing the difference.
- Get Moving – The avg annual cost of heart disease is $606.
All excellent advice.
This article instantly reminded me of the 100 push-up challenge that is featured right here on The Happy Rock. If you haven’t, you should check it out. I tried it, and really liked it. In fact my wife & I did it together.
We made it through week 5 before being side-tracked. I stopped due to an arm injury(I don’t think it was caused by push-ups), and my wife decided that if I was taking a break so should she. But before we quit I was doing 60 pushups at once and she did close to 40. And we felt and looked great.
Although I’m no fitness expert, I don’t think 30 min of push-ups a week makes for a compete workout. So while we enjoyed doing them, we always made sure to also do other activities as well. And when I say “we” I mean me.
As you’ll recall from some earlier posts, I am an avid tennis player. If time allows I try to play at least twice a week during the summer and whenever I can the rest of the year. I also ride my bike to school, work and daycare. So hopefully I’m doing what I can to stay fit and am setting a good example for my kids to also lead an active lifestyle.
My wife could definitely improve in this area, she’ll be the first to admit it…after some coaxing (ice cream works good for coaxing her) 
I know she’s not alone.
Back in the days before our Government was bailing-out Wall Street, it started a program called Small Step which was designed to improve the health & well being of America by getting us to eat right and be active. The Small Step program provides a lot of simple things you can do to get in shape:
- (# 54) Play with your kids 30 minutes a day.
- (# 79) Don’t skip breakfast.
- (# 89) Park farther from destination and walk.
» Filed Under Fitness, Weight Loss
Financing College by Selling the Van
Posted by Debt Destroyer on September 24, 2008
First it was Netflix, now it’s the van.
I’ve been putting off writing this post for about a month. It has been about that long since we’ve decided that selling our van would be in our best interest (financially speaking).
I first brought this idea up way back in July, but my wife wasn’t on board quite yet. Then we both read Dave Ramsey’s, “The Total Money Makeover” and we realized that we probably made a mistake when we bought our van in the first place.
If finances weren’t an issue we’d never sell this van. We love it! It’s just that with me going back to school and only working part time, we sure could use an extra $330 a month.
We didn’t sell our van right away because we had 3 long out of town trips in the works and my wife had 5 weddings to shoot this month. So we decided to wait until after Columbus Day weekend to get the ball rolling. And almost as soon as we picked that date, we started to question our decision.
Do we really have to sell the van?
If we truly want to get rid of debt, then the answer is simple…YES!
I took out a student loan ($7750) for this school year. Hopefully this will be all I have to borrow, but it will still be adding to our debt. Our theory is even if I have to borrow a little more, we’ll still have less debt when I get out of school then when I went in.
If you remember back to one of my first posts I laid out our debt situation. There I showed that we owed $11,000+ on our van. I hope to be able to get $15,000+ for it. If we do, we’d pay off the $11,000 debt and have $4000-$5000 for the new vehicle.
Looks good on paper doesn’t it? But let me tell you, it sure doesn’t feel good.
As mentioned above, we love our van. We love having a sleek, reliable vehicle that also has handy features (leather seats, DVD player, automatic doors, & butt warmers). It’ll be sad to see it go. But even when we “cook the books”, we can’t make ends meet too much longer with a $300+ monthly vehicle payment.
So…
Anyone have any advice on selling a vehicle?
I’ve either totaled or traded-in my previous vehicles, so I have no clue how to go about this. I guess we did sell my wife’s old car to her folks, but that happened so fast that I hardly had time to pay attention. Plus her Dad took care of everything…before I knew what was going on, I had a check in my hand.
Hopefully history will repeat itself.
Until next time,
-DD
» Filed Under Debt Elimination, Financial Succes, Psychology of Debt
Using Coupons Can Cost You Money!
Posted by The Happy Rock on September 23, 2008
I have a guest post up at Bible Money Matters explaining numerous ways that coupons can cost you more money than you think.
Click here to read Using Coupons Can Cost You Money!
» Filed Under Guest Posts
Free Debt/Credit Documentary – In Debt We Trust
Posted by The Happy Rock on September 21, 2008
No, not through Napster or some other torrent, but through the unique site Snag Films. The current offer over 300 independent documentaries for absolutely nothing. They have quite a few quality films on there, so be sure to check it out if documentaries interest you.
One of those free films is In Debt We Trust. Here is the description of the film :
In America’s earliest days, there were barn-raising parties in which neighbors helped each other build up their farms. Today, in some churches, there are debt liquidation revivals in which parishioners chip in to free each other from growing credit card debts that are driving American families to bankruptcy and desperation. ‘In Debt We Trust’ is the latest film from Danny Schechter, “The News Dissector,” director of the internationally distributed and award-winning WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception), an expose of the media’s role in the Iraq War. The Emmy-winning former ABC News and CNN producer’s new hard-hitting documentary investigates why so many Americans are being strangled by debt. It is a journalistic confrontation with what former Reagan advisor Kevin Phillips calls “Financialization”–the “powerful emergence of a debt-and-credit industrial complex.” While many Americans may be “maxing out” on credit cards, there is a deeper story: power is shifting into fewer hands. And with frightening consequences.
I have watched the first 20 minutes and it is quite well done and interesting, but it is hard for me to carve out 98 minutes to sit in front of the computer to watch it. For those that are getting out of debt or even for those that don’t think debt is all that bad it will provide some well meaning fuel to keep the debt destruction fires burning.
Break out the popcorn and the scissors to cut up some credit cards and enjoy the show.
» Filed Under Debt Elimination, Psychology of Debt, Psychology of Spending
State of the US Economy – Scary Stuff or Nothing to Worry About?
Posted by Debt Destroyer on September 18, 2008
Bear Sterns, Freddie & Fannie, Lehman Bros, Merrill Lynch, AIG…all big names that I normally don’t care anything about.
Until now.
Yesterday while I was mindlessly entering data (my new part time job) I was also listening to a Public Radio program called “Fresh Air”. Joining host Terri Gross was Michael Greenberger, who proceeded to explain how Wall Street’s woes could affect other markets, including money markets.
It opened my eyes (or should I say ears) to how the recent headlines could end up affecting me.
Click here to listen for yourself.
Spoiler Alert!!! Spoiler Alert!!! Even though Mr. Greenberger spent most of the interview describing rather negative scenarios, he did end by saying he doesn’t recommend putting your money under your mattress.
NPR also helped calm my fears by posting this article about history’s advice during a panic.
Which is, DON’T PANIC
Makes sense I guess.
On my way out a couple of older ladies I work with engaged me in a conversation about the current situation. One brought up that she’s too old for her investments to recoup the recent losses and that she may have to put off retirement. The other one said she was glad she was 62 and not 32, because she thinks things will be fine for her generation but not the ones after her.
Now even though I had just listened to 40 minutes of pretty gloomy stuff, I wasn’t nearly as pessimistic as these two were.
Should have I been?
What do you think about all the recent financial hullabaloo? Is it something that we should be collectively worried about? Or will things shake out so we can go back to being concerned about lipstick on farm animals?
At dinner Mrs. Debt Destroyer wondered what we’d do if the bottom fell out of America’s financial system. I told her we’d probably just keep doing what we’ve been doing since we’ve discovered The Happy Rock:
- Get rid of our debt.
- Cut down on expenses
- Do our best to stay afloat
Of course we’d probably have to act much faster than we currently are, but I think we’d pull through.
It’s not like I’m losing sleep over this yet…
Poor kid, I bet this week has been brutal.
Until next time,
-DD
Now is the Time to Winterize Your Home
Posted by Debt Destroyer on September 15, 2008
I live in an old home. It’s in the historic district of my town. In fact, when we converted it from a duplex back to a single family home, it was front-page news (tells you a lot about my town). Another establishing detail you should know is that it gets rather cold in South Dakota. How cold you ask? So cold that by February everyone here starts to wonder why we live here in the first place.
And according to several news sources the cost of heating your home this year is going to skyrocket (here is one source). So if we all take steps now before Jack Frost is nipping at our toes, maybe we can keep our cupboards from being bare come spring.
I bring all of this up, because for the first time in my life, I winterized our home while it was still warm out.
Our weekend project was to reinstall the screen door that was ripped off by a summer windstorm. Since I’m not Mr. Fix-it, this took me two days. In reality it only took 4 hours, but while I was out at the store getting four measly screws that I was missing, my wife accepted a dinner party invitation and the project took a backseat until Sunday.
When I got that done, I was so impressed with myself that I decided to tackle another project…the dreaded basement windows. Confessional time, my Step Dad came over to make fun of my workmanship on the screendoor and it was his attendance that provided the true catalyst for me insulating the windows.
But never-the-less, I now have two less drafty windows to worry about come winter.
Actually, all I did was shove some loose insulation I had laying around (don’t ask), around the frames of the windows. And then put plastic over them. These are old beaten up windows so there are gaps around them that I should have taken care of long ago. We looked into replacing them when we did the remodel, but the quote was over a grand and I think we decided to spend that dough elsewhere…like in our monthly heating bill.
As I mentioned above, I’m not handy at all and am the last person who should be doling out advice when it come to this kind of stuff. So if you want proper tips on how to winterize your home, check out your local energy provider for some some actual tips. For example, here are the tips that my energy company provides.
Those tips are fine, but I bet the wise readers of The Happy Rock can provide plenty of winterizing tips that would put those to shame. So if you live in an area where it’s not unusual to have your coat zipper freeze to your lips, please share your favorite winter tips. Allow me to start:
LONG JOHNS!!!
Until next time,
-DD
Here are two other articles for additional information :
13 Tips To Winterize Your Home(MSN Money)
Winterizing Your Home(About.com)
» Filed Under Money Savers, Real Estate
How I Found A Good Auto Mechanic
Posted by The Happy Rock on September 14, 2008
While my tires were being installed by my local Sunoco they mentioned that both front struts and the left outer tie rod needed to be replaced. I had seen some oil in the right wheel well, so the struts weren’t too far out of the question, but tie rods are a notorious rip off part to replace. The quote was almost $700 for just parts, so I told him just to install the tires. He obliged, but now I had to get the new work checked out and done.
I had been wanting to try a new mechanic for a while and this seemed like a good oppurtunity. I had been happy with my current mechanic and felt that they were honest, but I didn’t feel like they did a good enough job with preventive maitenance or finding existing problems while it was in for other stuff. Also, who knows what I could be missing if I could find a great mechanic.
With that settled, now I had to go through the scary prospect of finding a new mechanic. Here is how I found a new mechanic:
1. Ask all friends and neighbors. An excellent review from a trusted source is about the best you can hope for. Really positive and really negative recommendations are the most helpful, but things like ‘my mechanic is OK’ isn’t particularly useful. I had already tapped my network and hadn’t found anyone that made me want to switch.
2. Paid rating services. Angie’s List and Checkbook.org are at the top of the list. I have seen mixed reviews about Angie’s list and I personally don’t like the business model. Checkbook is only in limited areas, but I have read that the library often carries their magazine. I hadn’t used either and didn’t want to pay for the information, so it was on to step three.
3. Free Auto Mechanic Review Websites. Car Talk’s Mechanic’s Files was the best in terms of content, ease of use, and number of reviews. I was able to find a few great leads and was able to narrow it down to two. If you are interested in trying some of the other sites, just google for “car mechanic reviews” and search a few of the first page sites. I found a little extra information between them all, but no particular site was worth a mention.
4. Call The Mechanic. I called the first mechanic and I was impressed with the counter women and the time he took to give me an accurate quote and the honesty with which he treated me. I prefer a mechanic that is willing to take their time to talk me through the problems and my options and even show my parts when I pick up the car if I ask. No need to try the second mechanic, I set up an appointment.
He confirmed the problems and fixed both front struts, the tie rod, and completed a full digital alignment for $869.94. Big bill, but it was right in line with what I expected and was going to be much cheaper than the Sunoco which originally found the problem. The alignment also came with the before and after computer printout, which added to my opinion that he is honest and doing a complete job.
Do the readers have any other tips they have used to find a good mechanic?
» Filed Under Cars
Helping Friends Save Money Can Be Bad For Your Back
Posted by Debt Destroyer on September 11, 2008
What was I thinking?
Instead of taking it easy this Labor Day weekend, I ended up helping a friend and his family move into their new place. Normally I wouldn’t help someone move on a holiday weekend, especially when they live 200 miles away from me. But this time was different. You see, it was I who convinced them to move themselves instead of hiring movers.
Me and my big mouth.
Part of me blames you. That’s right I’m throwing the Happy Rock community under the bus. If it wasn’t for all the positive comments I’ve received about saving money, there’s no way I would’ve been stuck schlepping boxes all day long. Ask around I’m not that nice of a guy.
It started when my friend was telling me how he was going to move like they did last time. Hire movers for the big stuff ($300+) and then make several trips in their car with the rest of it. I then questioned his intelligence and suggested renting a truck and getting a bunch of guys and paying them with pizza & beer.
He loved the idea.
He rented a truck and lined up a crew (some neighbors and three 18-yr old cousins) and informed me that he was excited about all the money he was going to save. He also thanked me for bringing the idea up in the first place.
“No problem”, I told him.
And there wasn’t a problem…until his crew all ducked out at the last second. The guilt started to overtake me. So when my wife could arrange to hold a photo-shoot only 45 minutes away from their town, I sprung into action and told him the good news, I’d be there.
Luckily for us, two of neighbors were able to help (a husband & wife team). And if you think I’m a sucker, get this; they’ve only known each other for 4 weeks. Not only did they help, but the wife organized the whole operation and kept us on target so we’d be done by 4:30 (when the rental truck was due back).
She did such a good job that we got the truck back with 20 minutes to spare. Instead of pizza & beer, we were then treated to a dinner at a Mongolian Buffet.
So instead of spending $300 and making countless trips in their car like they did the last time they moved, my friend ended up spending $68 for the truck and $100 for dinner.
Not too shabby.
Now it’s the time where I ask for feedback. Please share your stories of how you were able to help friends or family save money with your suggestions. I have to admit that most of my suggestions are not taken, so I was flattered when my friend tried my idea out. I guess they’re right when they say flattery will get you everywhere.
Until Next time,
-DD
» Filed Under Friends
Tire Lessons From A Nissan Murano And A TireRack.com Review
Posted by The Happy Rock on September 9, 2008
I have learned a thing or two about tires since I had to replace the tires on our 2003 Nissan Murano last year. First, Muranos and by and large most modern cars are equipping larger tires which are more costly. I assume it is for safety and handling purposes, but it sure does hurt the wallet. Muranos have standard 18 inch tires which generally cost $200 a tire. I had some quotes in the $250 range. A year ago the best price I could find was at the Costco tire center for Michelin – Cross Terrain® SUV at $168 a tire(installation included). I wrote about buying tires from Costco a few months back if you are interested. The total job ran $600 with their $80 off coupon. Tires are very important, so I was happy to get the best price around and thought I would not have to worry about tires for 2-3 years or so.
Well, after only a year the tires were almost completely bald! The warranty was for 65,000 miles. So why did my tires wear out so quickly?
- Alignment – I never got the car aligned after the new tires were put on. Coscto doesn’t do alignment and I forgot about it. Alignments need to be done when new tires are put on. I got it done after this new set and it was way out of line.
- Missing Maintenance – I only got the tires rotated once in 23,000 miles. Inexperience and the hustle of life got the best of me, especially because Costco does it for free. The warranty required owners to rotate and rebalance every 6,000 miles. Ouch, costly mistake. Ruined tires and voided a warranty.
- Buying Performance Tires – I didn’t know it at the time, but the tires that I bought were performance SUV tires. Performance sounds great as it means better handling which comes partly because of softer rubber. Softer rubber means shorter life span and requires you to be more on top of rotation. I learned that I don’t need performance tire on my SUV, but rather a quality standard all season tire. Most people I talked to weren’t surprised that I only got about 25,000 miles out of performance tires.
Ok, stupid tax paid and lesson learned. Now I had to shell out $600 again in a little over a year. This time I was able to get a better price on Tire Rack than at Costco.
Tire Rack Review
The best part was that the most inexpensive tires the Kuhmo Solus KR21 All Seasons had a great rating(8.4 out of 10). I ordered four tires for $376 plus $42.20 in shipping. I also used a 4% TireRack rebate from Mr. Rebates to save an extra $15 dollars.
The Tire Rack website also helps you ship to a local dealer and gives you price estimates. I shipped to my local Sunoco gas station which offered an estimate of $16-20 a tire. Shipping was quick, they were there in two days and I scheduled an appointment. They actually charged me $25 a tire, but I forgot to ask why because I was in a rush. The entire process was quite simply and only cost me a total of $525. I say only not because $525 is chump change, but because it is the best price in town.
So next time you are looking for tires be sure to check out Tire Rack.
» Filed Under Cars, Frugality, Money Savers
The Happy Rock is a dual writer personal finance and personal development community dedicated to creating positive change that propels us towards success.
