Monthly Archives: October 2008

Saving Time Raking Leaves

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Fall offers many things for a good part of the country: beautiful colors, falling leaves, days at the cider mill, hay rides. But, along with all of these things comes the falling leaves, which of course must be raked. A quick tip that I’ve learned very quickly is to cut your grass short once fall comes and the leaves start falling. Why?
Because when it’s windy, as it often is during the fall months, a shorter lawn means that the leaves will simply blow away! That means less leaves to rake, and more time enjoying hot cider and football. Plus, since this is a personal finance blog, I have to point out that you’ll end up using less yard bags to collect the leaves!
In the summer, I let my lawn grow high. A higher lawn will trap more moisture and protect the ground from the hot sun, both important things to maintain a healthy lawn during the hot months. But, around Labor Day, I start lowering the lawn mower each time I cut the grass and work my way down to one of the lowest settings by the time the ground starts getting covered with leaves. This is important, because you don’t want to cut off too much of your grass at once as it can ’shock’ the grass in a bad way.
So, cut your grass a little shorter in the fall and enjoy a little less raking!

Big News In The Beagle Household

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My wife and I have been sharing some big news with our family and friends, and now that the word is out, I wanted to share the news here:
My wife is expecting our first baby!!!!!!
We actually found out a few weeks ago, on our anniversary trip last month. We wanted to make sure to where it was far enough along and past our first doctor’s appointment before we spread the news. Our parents and grandmothers were extremely happy, and our family and friends are extremely happy for us as well. We are of course thrilled!!!!!
I’ll obviously be dedicating some posts on this as having a baby changes everything and turns everything upside down, including the world of personal finance.
Some of the things that I’d like to talk about are:

  • Whether or not my wife will work after having our baby
  • Budgeting for medical costs during pregnancy and after
  • Adjusting our budget and spending habits after the baby

I’m sure I’ll cover those plus many others!
My wife and I are extremely happy and excited. I know we have a lot going for us. My wife has a degree in Child Development and works in the field, so although I’m not familiar with very much about babies and have only a small idea of what to expect, I know that my wife will be a great teacher. From a personal finance perspective, we’ve been slowly preparing for this since we got married, knowing that this day would eventually come.
In other words, my wife and I have made a great team and I know that we will continue to do so as we approach and reach parenthood!
On a slightly sadder note, the circle of life made itself evident today, as an aunt passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. She lived out of state and had been in town for a few days to visit. She was preparing her bags for her return trip home this morning when she was stricken with what appears to be a stroke, and it was too much to overcome. She will be greatly missed by our family.
If postings are a little sporadic for the next few days, please be patient as there is a lot of things consuming time and thought. Prayers are always welcome!

Not Understanding Withholding Rates

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Something has been sort of bugging me, and today I ran some numbers to verify that I should be concerned. I noticed after I changed my marriage status from SINGLE to MARRIED after getting married last year, that my take home pay increased.
I didn’t add any allowances from what I’d filed with when I was single. Nothing else changed, so I’m confused as to why the withholding rates suddenly change. I verified today that in years past, they took out about 18-20% in federal withholding. I’m making the same as last year, yet it’s only around 14%. Yet, somehow I have a hard time believing that I’m going to pay less taxes.
My wife’s withholding is even worse. She makes less, and for last year, they took out about 15%. Now, they’re barely taking out 5%. What the heck???????
This shouldn’t affect us too much, because when I noticed the increase, I started simply taking the ‘extra’ amount in my paycheck and putting it into savings. I figured I’d just combine that with whatever return we got to get our ‘total ‘return, and it wouldn’t end up too much differently than what we got as a total refund last year.
Still, this seems rather dangerous to me, because it seems to me that a couple that didn’t save that ‘extra’ money might spend it and end up owing money to the government come next April 15th.
Am I missing something totally obvious here?

Wall Street Meltdown: What The Government Should Do Next

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After another brutal day on Wall Street, the question will surely be raised as to what the U.S. government should do next to try to stop the bleeding and the meltdown that is occurring day after day.
I think I have the answer. Are you ready for it? Here it is:
Absolutely nothing.
That’s right. Nothing. No more interest rate cuts. No more providing additional loans or credit to banks. No more bailing out insurance companies. No more promising to buy risky debt. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch.
Why?
Because nothing they have done so far has worked. The government has tried tactic after tactic to try to calm the markets, but it isn’t working.
These investors that are hitting the panic button have it in their heads that they need to drive the market down day after day. No rate cut, bailout, insurance company rescue, or anything else seems to stop them from panicking. They’ve made that clear.
So, I say let’s just stop trying.
My opinion is that these ‘traders’ who are choosing to let hundreds of billions of dollars disappear from our economy every day are the equivalent of crying babies.
When a baby cries, you can do many things to try to make it stop crying. You can feed it. You can change its diaper. You can rock it. You can give it a pacifier or a rattle. Most times, these things or others will make the baby settle down and stop crying. But, not always. Sometimes a baby is just going to cry no matter what. In those cases, you have to make the decision at some point to just let the baby cry itself out until it’s done.
Basically, these traders driving the market down are the babies of our economy right now. The government has fed these babies (bailout), changed their poopy diapers (interest rate cut), given them their rattles (extended additional credit), and everything else that you provide to a crying baby.
But, these babies have made it clear that they just need their time right now to cry. And cry they will.
So, I say let them cry. Let these sellers bawl their little eyes out. Let them sell and think that they’re accomplishing something. Let them wail at the top of their lungs until they can’t wail anymore. Eventually, just like a baby, these sellers will tire themselves out. And they’ll quit crying.
Then, and only then, the government can get back involved. At that point, maybe the investors will appreciate the steps being taken to try to calm the waters. But for now, there’s no appreciation.
Only the sound of babies crying.

Net Worth Review: October 2008

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Well, it was a brutal month if you look at the bottom line for net worth. We witnessed the largest percentage drop since I’ve ever seen since I started tracking.
Let’s start off with the bad:

  • Where to I start? Well, anything with investments was brutalized. Our retirement funds went down in double digits, as did all of our other non-retirement investment holdings
  • Our bottom line net worth was reduced down to levels not seen since 2004. I guess that sort of goes in line with the stock market since I think we’re around lows not seen since around that same time.

The positives:

  • We continued to make good progress on our debt. We paid of 0.39% of our total debt, which is good. It wasn’t as good as last month (which was over half a percent) but it still beat what was normal for us in the first half the year, which was around 0.39% 0.25% (corrected). Our debt consists solely of our mortgage and my wife’s student loans.
  • We began the move of some of our cash savings from a non-FDIC insured account to an FDIC insured account. Even though the return is lower, I think the peace of mind we get makes it worth it. As I outlined in an earlier post, we will most likely create a CD ladder in our ING Direct account to improve our return.
  • Our home value decreased only slightly. Normally this would be a negative, but according to Zillow and CyberHomes, the value only decreased by a few hundred dollars. With the way the value has been shedding off lately, this is actually the ‘best’ month we’ve had in quite a while. I guess you have to look for the silver lining in all clouds.
  • We continue to have no credit card debt, as we pay everything off every month.
  • I have $187 to allocate after winning my Fantasy Baseball league this year. I unseated the previous champion who had won for five straight years, so that was an accomplishment. I will probably dedicate a future post to what I might do with this, but for now it’s sitting in the bank.

All in all, a bad month if you look at the bottom line. But, since I made a conscious decision a few months ago to gauge our progress more on how we pay off debt, I feel we did as good as we could.

My Former Residence Is On The Market….Sort Of

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I found out that the condo that I used to own is up for lease. I purchased a condo at the age of 24, and lived there for over eight years before selling it last year so that my wife and I could move into our wonderful home. It was a great place, and held a lot of wonderful memories and fun times, and became a hangout for many of my friends and I. But as I was giving up bachelor life, I also decided it was time to give up the bachelor pad.
I found out by pure accident over the weekend that it is up for lease. I missed a call on my cell phone, and when I checked the message, there was somebody inquiring about the ‘condo for rent’. I would have thought it a wrong number, but they asked, by name, for the new owner that purchased the condo from me. I recognized her name from the closing and some brief conversations that we had afterwards about the condo.
After hearing the message, I immediately entered my old address into Google, and found that it is indeed listed through a real estate agent for rent. I figure that the call may have come from someone else in the condo complex. They might have seen the sign from the realtor, but decided to try to go direct to the owner, perhaps to get a better deal. I’m guessing that the lady that bought the condo didn’t give the association her updated phone number, so although they have her name, they still kept my number.
Seeing the condo for rent made me hope that everything is OK, and that there’s no financial trouble for the new owner. She was a single lady with a college-age son, and it was her first time owning. I know that she ended up financing almost all of it, and probably got one of the very last ‘virtually no money down’ deals out there, as the whispers of big problems in the real estate market started not more than a month after we closed.
I also know that since she didn’t put a lot down that she’s probably underwater (owes more than it’s currently worth) because even though I sold it on the downswing, the market has still gone down over the past year. Still, she was very excited, had a good job, and seemed very responsible, and seemed to be in it for the long haul regardless. I hope that everything is OK and that there’s a good reason that she’s got the condo for lease, and not because it’s no longer affordable. After I told my wife, she told me the next day that she’d dreamt that the lady had found a significant other and no longer needed the condo as she was moving in with her new beau. I hope that it’s good news like that!
I wish her and her son the best, and also hope the best for the great place that I called home for quite a few years.