Looking for Morrison?

For those who don't read the comments to my blog, but who have been missing Morrison from All Doors Considered, she's now at a slightly new webaddress. This link works as does the one in my blogroll. Talk about life slapping one upside the head! But Morrison is working through it.

Up But Not as Up as I Thought

'Tis the time for my end of the month review.

As expected, even though I threw every extra dollar at my debt, that $2700 I put toward the new roof for my rental home caused my indebtedness to rise by $431.88. It will get worse, because there's another $2000 to pay when the house is finally re-roofed.

But I was proud of myself for keeping the damage down to a manageable amount. It's not like the roof could wait. (Well, I guess it could have, but then I would have had cold, wet tenants on my hand--NOT a good plan!)

Life Keeps Getting in the Way of Plans

I want to welcome Louise from My Journey to Eliminate Debt back to my blogroll. As she sets out in her most recent post, a lot has happened since she ended her blog eleven months ago and none of it has been helpful in her quest to eliminate debt.

Quite the opposite--illness, job loss, and kids in college have all conspired to increase her debt.

Welcome to real life.

It's very easy to plan for debt reduction when all it takes is reining in one's impulse to buy the new car, big screen TV, eat out every night, etc.

But it's a whole 'nother deal when life intervenes in ways one can't predict.

Take Louise--who on earth worries about whooping cough these days? Who even knows anyone who ever got it? Well, take Louise!

I can blame lack of excerise and unhealthy eating habits as well as lousy genetics for my heart surgery a year and a half ago. But who does one blame for whooping cough?

Actually, my heart surgery barely impacted my finances. But ask me about the rental that needs a new roof.

And what about the fact that two of my daughters, ages 28 and 20, have FINALLY decided that they should rethink their decisions to forego college? And that my granddaughter, notwithstanding the birth of her first child two weeks ago, is enrolling back in her college?

Jimmy Carter had it right when he said "Life isn't fair," but I still think it ought to be.

There ought to be some justice for folks like myself and Louise who really have been trying hard and living frugally to get our debt under control.

Overdrafts! Again!

GAK!

I haven't had an overdraft on my checking account in years.

And I'm still not sure how I got one this week-end. I have a check register. I use the check register. I list all of my automatic payments. I keep a running tally.

So how did this happen?

Umm--can you say basic math?

I made a $200 subtraction error when I deducted my mortgage and PITI payment.

Why is it that such errors are never in MY favor?

I blithely used my debit card, and in the process, overdrew my account by $34.00.

Fortunately, I won't incur one of those $35 fees. BUT, a cash advance from my credit card was made automatically, which incurs a fee, not to mention interest from the date the charge is made.

This week is not starting out well.

Miscellany

This is for all the stuff too small for its own post.

1. "All Financial Matters" didn't deliberately disappear, but was hacked. JLP is back and my links now work to the blog. Thanks to my readers for helping me get this straightened out.

2. Guilt-trips rock! Julie (formerly Immer) at "Mein Taglich Brot" is back both in blogland and on my blogroll. Dawn? Bluebird? KemKem? Tell me the guilt isn't getting to you!

3. The roof is caving in. Both literally and financially. The bill for re-roofing my rental is $4800. I took the second-lowest bid because it's the same outfit that redid the windows three years ago, and I liked their work. But to come up with it, I now have a THIRD mortgage on my residence. Just the term 'third mortgage' gives me goosebumps. But my credit union wouldn't or couldn't extend the terms of my second mortgage. Instead, they will give me a third mortgage at .5% higher than my second (which means 7.25%, fixed) with a credit line of $10,000 for 15 years. My plan is to finish out the line of my second mortgage (about $2600) and put the rest of the roof onto the third mortgage. What makes this a tad less scary is that I only owe $38,000 on my home so there is plenty of equity. It does strike me as odd to carry mortgages on my residence when the funds have largely been used to fix up my rental home. But because the credit union is local and the rental is not, the credit union is only interested in my current residence.

Defining Retirement

J.D. at Get Rich Slowly has a very interesting post regarding how one defines retirement. It came up when someone suggested to him that, having given up being a box salesman to become a blogger and writer, he has, in effect, already retired.

As often is the case, the comments are every bit as interesting as the initial post.

I was struck by the condescending tone permeating the comments, that if one chooses to do nothing productive during retirement beyond watching TV, then retirement is somehow "unsuccessful."

The whole point of retirement, it seems to me, is the freedom to do whatever one wants (within the confines of one's finances and common civility). That includes the freedom to become intimately familiar with "The Price is Right" and "Dr. Phil."

But what really fascinated me were all the younger folks commenting on when and how they wanted to retire.

I don't know that I thought much about retirement until I hit my fifties. Part of this is because I had children at home well into my fifties. I had all I could do to simply survive their adolescences.

It's only been in the last five years that I've seriously considered at what age I wanted to retire, and only during the last three that I've made a concerted effort to get my retirement finances in order.

I don't think a change of career is the same as retirement. But neither do I think that retirement means I'll completely stop working in my field. I do plan to volunteer, and perhaps even work for pay on a very part-time schedule.

One commenter on J.D.'s blog says retirement is when one stops saving and starts spending. That makes sense to me, though saving is becoming so ingrained for me that it is hard to imagine not doing it.

At any rate, it makes for a good discussion.

Come Back, Come Back, Wherever You Are

This is not a new rant.

It is a continuation of a very old rant.

Why, oh why, do bloggers think they can simply disappear off the face of the earth, with no notice to Grace (or anyone else that I know of)?

The latest is "All Financial Matters," which I started reading even before I started blogging. The author was (is) much too conservative for my tastes, but the information he provided was always timely and provocative. Not to mention that he gave my blog a boost in one of his posts which sent a whole lot of readers my way early on.

So one day he's there, and now he's not? What gives? Death? Coma? Boredom? Fear of exposure?

Obviously, I consider the first two to be the only viable excuses.

At least when "Mrs. Micah" decided to depart the blogging world, she left a final post. (If you click on her link now, you'll find yourself at "Finance For a Freelance Life.") Which brings up another question. What's up with 'selling' one's site? It makes sense to me if one just has a general informational site. But if it's personal, if we're learning about the blogger's husband, kids, grad school life, etc., then how is that transferable to someone else who buys the blog?

I do get that it's about money, and readers. Buying a blog comes with a built-in readership. But if most of those readers were tuned in to the personal stories, do they stick around?

I dunno. I no longer read "Mrs. Micah" regularly. On the other hand, I stayed with Trish's transition to Beks over at "Blogging Away Debt," so maybe I'm being too critical.

What I really hate about disappearing blogs is being left in the middle of the story. Did Immer at Mein Taglich Brot find another job? Is Dawn going to save her house at "Fighting Foreclosure. Getting Nine Hundred?"

I don't know about inquiring minds, but Grace definitely wants to know!

I've been posting for exactly three years. About every six months, I go on one of these rants.

Expect more!

July 2010 Update

July was a good month for me. In spite of some extra expenses for my annual Zoo pass renewal and the impending birth of my first great-grandchild (wherein great-grandma was seduced by the multitude of cute outfits for baby girls, not to mention the combination baby carrier/stroller/bassinette that apparently every newborn must have--whatever happened to putting the kid in a dresser drawer?), I ended the month $21 under budget.

Better yet, I lowered my debt by $1072.17.

Of course, the roofing bill for my rental house hasn't come in yet.

But so far, so good.

It's a Matter of Perspective.

Morrison at All Doors Considered has a particularly poignant post today wherein her financials are discouraging, and she doesn't see it getting a lot better, either for her family or for the country.

She especially does not want to be told that there is upside to managing in the current economy.

But while I understand her position, I also disagree with her. Sometimes there IS an upside to deprivation.

For example:

One family Thanksgiving decades ago when my family got together, my sister and I reminisced about the good times we'd had as children. We both agreed as to the best summer of our lives--we were preteens and our parents took us to a local lake nearly every day. We stayed all day, picnicked for lunch and dinner, hung out with other families, learned to water ski (or fall off the skis in my case!) from a neighbor who had a boat, found out all the words to "Louie, Louie" and why they were considered dirty, and, after a month or so, saw our mother venture into the water for the first time. It was the one and only summer I actually got a tan.

Our parents were stunned.

They, too, remembered that summer but their memories were a lot less rosy.

My father was a longshoreman and that summer, he was on strike for three months. There was no Unemployment Compensation and they had little savings. They had to ask my mother's parents for mortgage money. They literally fed us oatmeal, deviled meat (from Abundant Foods, the predecessor to Food Stamps) and hot dogs all summer because it was what they could afford. Their car was paid for, and the lake was nearby, so their one small extravagance was the gas to get there.

My sister and I didn't recall that we had eaten the same cheap foods for lunch and dinner. We just remember going on the picnics and how much fun it was at the lake with our friends and our parents.

My point is that my parents were financially stressed to the max but still they managed to put their free time, if not money, to good use. Growing up in the fifties and sixties, it always appeared to me that my sister and I had a closer relationship to our father than most of our friends had with theirs. I trace it to that magical summer when he was available to us and willing to talk with us on any subject.

Did my parents ever want to repeat that summer? Not in a million years.

Would my sister and I go there again under the same circumstances? In a split second!

Dancing the Credit Card Shuffle. Again!

If you were reading me a year ago, you know that I jumped at a credit card offer to transfer one of my $8200 credit card balances to a 0%-for-nine-months new card. The cost of the balance transfer was $50.

Well, I've done it again!

I got an offer from HBSC (where I have my emergency account stashed) for a 0%-for-12-months-balance-transfer.

There are some downsides to this: (1) the transfer fee is $246 (3% of the amount transferred); and (2) the new card has a credit limit of $10,500 so my "credit used to credit available" ratio may impact my credit rating.

BUT the reason I went forward is that my net savings over 12 months will be $813. The card from which I'm tranferring the balance charges 15.99% interest, by far the highest interest credit card I have.

These kind of financial transactions always strike me as tricky and generally make me nervous. But the card, when it arrives, is going in the freezer with the rest of my credit cards.

Retirement Blues

Sydney Lagier has written a thought-provoking article over at US News & World Report on 10 Retirement Let-downs. (You may know the author better as "Retired Syd" who blogs at Retirement: A Fulltime Job.)

I freely admit that several of the items on her list are my main non-financial worries about my own retirement--never mind that retirement for me is 8 years off.

I recognize my personal capacity to become a hermit. And I also realize that I have a restless nature that is not likely to be happy about that. I do believe that maintaining relationships is important but I also know that death and job loss contribute to the loss of relationships as we become older. Where are the articles on how to make new friends when one is past age 60?

Not all of the concerns Syd listed are ones I share. Take it from me, Grace will NOT be moving to the country when she retires. I love my urban environment, access to good public transportation and the plain excitement of city living. Right now I live ten minutes from the downtown core--but one of the things I'm going to seriously consider when I retire, is moving to the center of my city.

Nor do I have a Mr. Grace to consider. Sounds like Syd thinks that's all to the good.

At any rate, as her article shows, there are a lot more than just financial considerations to be given to thoughts of one's retirement.

Cheapskate on Vacation

I've been on vacation the past week, and if I do say so myself (which I DO!), I very successfully cheapskated my way through it.

It started with airfare. The roundtrip flight was $179 but I used a $100 credit from Travelocity to get the cost down to a reasonable $79.

Then I met up with friends who had a timeshare at Lake Tahoe. I know what a bad investment timeshares are, but I'm not at all adverse to using those owned by my less financially savvy friends. (To be fair, this particular friend's family has owned the timeshare for over 15 years and use it a lot, so maybe it wasn't a bad investment for them.) The timeshare was at a resort that provided unlimited use of various spas, hot tubs, pools, and tennis courts. It also provided two free movies per day and "get acquainted" Margarita nights.

Since there were six of us, and we had a kitchen, my share of the food bill (which included copius amounts of Ben & Jerry's, and Mike's Hard Lemonade) came to $37.00. Plus the guys got into a grilling competition so we primarily ate dinners in. (Feed me good food, and I'll willingly do the dishes!)

For the most part, I hung around the hot tubs and pools, read books I'd brought from the library, and once, for $20 and 45 minutes, went to a casino. I apparently don't have what it takes to become a gambler--I thought the slot machines were silly (i.e. took no skill beyond pushing a button and watching the pictures roll), and Blackjack, boring.

But having a week away from home and office was, indeed, priceless.

Okay, not exactly priceless, but spending less than $300 for 8 days constitutes a true cheapskate vacation in my book!

Vindication--Thanks to Someone Else

Over the years, I have purchased several computers from Best Buy. While I don't appreciate their hardsell when it comes to warranties I don't need or set-ups I can do by myself, I have found their sales to be the best, at least for lower-end laptops and desktops.

A few years ago, I got really ticked off when the credit card I used to purchase a desktop, was charged $21.95 for MSN Online. Apparently I was given a free trial period with MSN when I purchased the computer. I never used it because I had AOL. But when I didn't cancel it after the free trial period, my credit card was charged the monthly user fees. I called Best Buy and I called MSN. While the membership was cancelled, I never got anyone to remove that one-month charge.

I was not happy, but, for me, it ended there. I paid the money and life went on.

Someone Else who got similarly scammed was less sanguine. Someone Else got a lawyer. Someone Else sued. As a benefit for Grace, they sued for class action certification.

And guess what?

Best Buy settled.

Shafting Grace cost me $21.95.

But shafting Someone Else cost Best Buy over a million dollars.

I will get my $21.95 back. Someone Else will get his or her money back plus an additional $2500. The real winners, of course, are the attorneys who will get a quarter of a million dollars.

I am glad that someone pursued Best Buy over this issue. I am a bit ashamed that it never occurred to me to check with an attorney. I just accepted that I should have read the small print more carefully when I bought my computer.

Let's hear it for Someone Else. From the bottom of my pocketbook, thank you!

Quarterly Networth & June 2010 Update

The financial news from Grace's house is so-so, both for the month of June, and for the quarter ending June 30th.

I reduced my total indebtedness by $819.55 (YAY!!) but a new roof for my rental home awaits (BOO! HISS!). That expense should hit sometime in July or August.

For the quarter, my net worth is down $4,464.75, but I'm still over the half-million mark at $557,635. The loss is a result of lower amounts as of this A.M. in my 401(k) and the static housing market in my Pacific Northwest city. I'm not so sure about the latter, however. I use values from Zillow which show my home to be worth $324,000. But that same website shows the house across the street to be worth $355,000 when, in fact, it sold this past week for $374,000. So my net worth may be higher than I think.

Financial Failure Can Happen to Anyone

AOL highlighted author Jacqueline Mitchard's financial plight in today's news. But I had read about it last December when the highly regarded author wrote of it in Parade magazine.

There are so many parts of Mitchard's life that I admire, even envy--the wonderful books she has written, the fact that she and her husband have adopted children, the movies that have been made from her novels. She's only a few years younger than myself, and I would trade places in a heartbeat.

But being warm, personable, bright and educated does NOT protect one from financial scams. Some time ago, I wrote about a doctor friend who got caught up in Bernie Madoff's money games.

Mitchard points up two aspects of being a victim--one is the shame of it. Where, she wonders, are the books and newspaper articles highlighting the victims? Instead they remain in the shadows cast by the spotlight shone on the scammers. Others write about them in passing but the victims seldom seem to tell their own stories. Who wants to admit they could be in that position.

Mitchard talks about the well-meaning friends who say they feel sorry for her, but also feel like it could never happen to them. Really? What makes them so smart and so special that a con artist could never get past them?

The only reason I feel safe is that I've never had enough to invest that would interest a Madoff or his clones. I certainly don't think it is innate intelligence. That might protect me from the widows of Nigerian Generals and Lottery officials from Ireland (really? I didn't even have to buy a lottery ticket?) but the best scammers are a lot closer to home.

Saddest of all is the label of GREED that is attached to many victims which allows those of us who were not taken to somehow feel superior. Yet, as Mitchard's situation makes clear, greed had nothing to do with it. A steady rate of return and a decent retirement was all she and her family were looking for.

They are still looking.

Bad Financial Planning and Good Financial Advice

Fran Tunno Mills has (probably) $176,000 coming to her from the sale of her California home, which makes her feel financially okay. Her financial advisor, provided by the LA Times as part of their money make-over series is less sanguine--she thinks Fran is in a financial pit and will have serious problems climbing out. As this article makes clear, the financial advisor is almost certainly correct.

Fran is 54 years old, newly divorced (the house was sold and the proceeds divided as a result of divorce), and does voice-over work on contract, which garners her approximately $40,000 a year. [Another thing I can't tell from the article is if she gets child support for her two children or if that is included in the $40,000.]

She has saved only $29,000 toward her retirement, and has $39,500 in debt.

To her credit, Fran knew she needed help figuring out where to go next. But Fran was wondering whether to buy a house or a condo. Her financial advisor was thinking Fran can't afford Domino's pizza, much less a home.

Clearly, living in Southern California is part of the problem. It appears that Fran is considering a move to a small town in Pennsylvania to be near her father, though the article doesn't say whether she can continue her recording contracts from that distance.

On one hand, Fran contributes $300 a month toward her children's college funds, but on the other hand, she uses credit cards to maintain her standard of living. Neither of those can continue.

I have a lot of empathy for Fran's position. I was roughly her age before I saw the necessity of putting money away for retirement. And, like her, I still had teenagers at home during my fifties. I know that if anyone had dropped $176,000 into my lap, I would have felt like I was home free. And I probably would have looked around for new housing.

I think she was fortunate to have a savvy financial advisor to set her straight. The housing proceeds will come in very handy, but just to get her back to zero. She still has to make a lot of plans for her financial future that will entail a number of cutbacks in her family's current lifestyle.

New Blogroll Stuff

Anonymous asked me to add The Boxcar Kids to my blogroll, which seemed fair since I not only read that blog, I often reference it in my own blog.

While I was doing that, I decided to check out the rest of the links. Big mistake! I wound up fixing a bunch of previous link errors, adding some new-to-me blogs, and removing those bloggers who haven't posted in the last six months. (But I'd be happy to put those bloggers back if they'd start up again. Bluebird, KemKem, and Immer--that would be YOU! And "Fighting Foreclosure--Getting Nine Hundred," you're getting perilously close to my six month mark!)

Check out "$647,000 in Debt and Unemployed," which is the no-longer-accurately-titled blog of a young Iraq vet who got caught up disastrously in the world of real estate speculation and is slowly working his way out. Dealing with life, school and bi-polar disorder isn't making it any easier, but this raw blog is actually quite inspiring.

Also, stop by the Donna Freedman (who famously wrote an article about living on $12,000 a year) blog at "Surviving and Thriving." She relays tips on frugality and gives away Godiva Chocolate--what better combination?

I've also added a couple of blogs I've been reading for awhile now--I don't know why they weren't on my blogroll already: "M is for Money" and "Always the Planner."

Finally, I added "Tough Money Love" and "The Po File" to my list since both of these gentlemen often comment here. Both have posts that are generally contrary to mine, but are still provocative and thoughtful.

Unemployment for the Unenlightened

Wow! Some days I read a post that really says it all.

That's how I felt when I checked out this post on Unemployment at The Boxcar Kids blog.

I work with those living below the federal poverty line--some of whom are, just as the critics fear, not all that interested in working.

But they are the exception.

These days, in this economy, I am getting more and more clients who never expected to be in my office. The simple act of getting food stamps and Medicaid embarrasses them. Unemployment, less so, because at least there's a sense that those benefits were earned and that getting Unemployment Compensation proves that there was a time when they were gainfully employed.

I share the blog author's dismay at those who carp about extensions of unemployment compensation, as though it's an unwarranted suck at the public trough.

Are the critics really so set financially that they cannot conceive of being laid off? Of experiencing age discrimination? Of not getting back into the work arena easily?

Or is it a certain smugness brought on by class?

I dunno. But as someone who is just one job away from financial disaster, you won't find Grace complaining about extensions to Unemployment Compensation.

Just don't ask me about all the forms of corporate welfare!

Blogging the Bad Along With the Good

So Shevy, at Shevy's Miscellaneous Life has been hiding out rather than blog about the downturn in her financial progress. I want to tell her to let it all out rather than stop posting.

Responding as a reader, I very much want to hear about the downs as well as the ups in one's finances.

So in my blog, I don't have a problem talking about the car that stopped precipitously and had to be replaced, the clothes dryer that bit the dust and the various times Murphy seems camped out in my living room.

But I'm a bit more circumspect as to other financial issues--you know, the ones where it is MY mismanagement, MY inability to delay gratification, MY poor financial decisions that are causing setbacks.

Who wants to trumpet their failures in public?

Yet how else are we to measure our progress against that of others? How else are we to know that we're not alone slogging through the financial mud?

One of the more interesting blogs that I read is Our Debt Blog.

It should come with a warning label that reads "Do NOT Try This at Home!"

Name a mistake, and the writer of this blog has made it and is continuing to make it.

BUT, he's at least aware of the issues, and, sporadically, making an effort to control his debt. Most importantly, he blogs it all--the foolish mistakes, the debts paid off, the new debt taken on.

There are times I want to reach through the blogosphere and strangle the guy on the spot. Well, that or shake him till his teeth rattle!

But in some odd way, it does make me feel better to read his real-life examples.

Wouldn't it be nice if debt reduction happened in a straight line? If we all made financially responsible moves all the time?

Welcoming a Childless Summer

I almost have my house to myself for the summer. My two live-in grandkids are back with their mother (my daughter) where they will stay for at least the summer. We'll see how she does before making decisions about next year so the children's absence may or may not be temporary.

In the meantime, there should be a major impact on my finances.

Since both of the kids are bedwetters, my washer and dryer were in constant use. In the week since they've been gone, I've done exactly one load of laundry.

When I turn lights off and close doors, the lights stay off and the doors stay closed. More utility savings.

No more running the kids to activities all over town. I've got a bus pass which I use for commuting, but it was such a hassle to take two youngsters on the bus that I would wind up using the car when running errands.

This is not to say that I don't miss having the little kids around.

But my wallet is happier now that they're gone.