I’m not sure how I feel about the whole financial crisis right now.  On one end of the spectrum, this whole thing was fueled by greed.  Pure and simple.  Financial institutions were looking to sell something that was worth a lot more than they truly were.  That sounds like swindling to me.  Everyone cashed in though and here we are.  On the other side, I hate to see neighbors and neighborhoods fall apart because of predatory lenders but they really should have known that they couldn’t afford their homes.  A little financial education would surely have gone a long way.

Also, I’m a New Yorker and a lot of these companies getting bailed out or failing are based here in NYC.  If all those jobs are eliminated and companies are downsized, the tax burden on me increases tremendously.  Services will be cut, taxes will be raised and here I am footing the bill.  I know a few people who are directly affected by this.  The whole situation is a mess.

Again, it’s really hard for me to determine how I should feel.  I’m mostly angry but it’s complex.  I don’t envy the next President or any of the current elected officials to find a way out of this mess.  Even though my first instinct is let these companies burn.

Our overall wealth increased a whopping 9%. We saw increases in our cash position as we received many cash gifts for Baby Moonimus’ first birthday. We were expecting a decent inflow but we definitely did not expect as much as we received. The gifts more than covered the costs related to the party. I charged the party to a 0% credit card and will keep the cash to earn a little interest before the card starts charging interest. Our investments continued to increase a substantial amount this month but I’m sure we’ve given some of those gains back. The debt number has increased substantially but it’s due to the arbitrage on Baby Moonimus’ birthday party costs. Otherwise, the debt would have decreased.

I’m skipping the weight update this month but will make sure to get it in the June Update.

I also saw that I was deservedly kicked off Clever Dude’s blogroll.  Boo to me.  I’ll have to work my way back into the mix.

Our overall wealth increased 4%.  We did see an increase in our investment accounts which was a nice change in direction from the past few months and our debts also decreased.  We used some of our tax refund to pay off debts and we consciously kept the credit cards down to a minimum.

Even though my weight increased, my body fat % decreased which is a good trend.  Everyone in my family is trying to lose weight so we are having contest that will last until July.  My goal is to lose 30 lbs which is extremely aggressive.  This will require a lot of planning and execution.  Stay tuned.

A couple of weeks ago, Morningstar rated the Best and Worst 529 College Savings Plan.  Unfortunately, the NY 529 plan was rated as one of the worst.  New York does not offer many investment options which was one of the reasons for its poor rating.  When I signed up, I was frustrated that there wasn’t an international investment option.  I will be writing a letter to ask the administrators of the plan to add more investment options.  If New York did not offer the tax break for resident investors, I would have chosen another state’s plan.

We also enrolled in Upromise which is a service that helps you earn rewards by shopping at Upromise vendors.  If you shop online through the Upromise portal, then you usually receive 1% of what you paid in your Upromise account.  If you register all your credit cards online you can earn 1% - 8% of what you spend at participating restaurants.  Once you’ve accumulated $25, Upromise will make a contribution to your 529 plan quarterly.  We’ve earned about $70 in our first year.  Not big money but every little bit helps.

I received an email from Upromise asking us to switch our energy supplier and receive 3% of our electricity charges and a $25 bonus.  I need to research this but it seems like an interesting idea.  We would earn an additional $36/year through this offer.

Annual inflation for college costs is about 4%.  If a 4 year public school costs $60,000 and 4 year private school costs $120,000 today, then a public school 18 years from now would be about $117,000 and a private school would be about $234,000! Hopefully, we’ll have smart, accomplished kids who win some big time scholarships.

How do the readers save for college?

I’ve been thinking about how the refund will be treated on our 2008 returns.  So I did some snooping and ran into this.

Essentially, the rebate will have no effect on your Federal taxes but you may have to report income on your state return.  Since we live in New York, we will not have to pay any taxes on our rebate for our 2008 returns.  Hopefully, you won’t have to pay any taxes on your rebate either.

While on hiatus, I finally discovered the power of del.icio.us and all I can say is, “Where have you been all my life?” The power to bookmark web pages online never really dawned on me. I would usually save links in gmail, email myself the articles and save them under a label or just keep the bookmarks on my browser. Those are all completely inefficient compared to del.icio.us. The only problem is that the content that I bookmark gets old quick so I will have to keep the posting machine humming.

For now, I’ll just post some recent links that I found interesting:
http://www.catalogchoice.org/
Great link to get rid of those bulky catalogs in your mailbox.

http://sentientsenior.blogspot.com/2008/03/but-that-car-belonged-to-my-dad.html
A great post about the psychological baggage we carry when we keep “stuff” piled around.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/getting-green-done.html
Excellent post about going green.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/5-ways-to-get-out-of-faffing-mode.html
I often faff way too much. And as they say, “Time is money.”

http://www.decluttered.com/
One of the best home desk decluttering solutions I have ever seen. I will definitely be trying to do this for my desk and our tv stand.

So our wealth increased .91% mostly due to the receipt of our federal tax refund.  We’re still waiting for our state tax refund.  I’ll set a goal of a .4% increase for next month though with Baby Moonimus’ first birthday approaching, I don’t think we’ll get there.

Our credit card balance increased again this month and a big reason is due to timing.  Since I’m collecting information on the first of the month, there will always be a balance for the credit cards.  I’m going to make a big push to see if we can decrease the use of the card just to see if I’m not kidding myself.

As far as my weight and body fat % is concerned, I’m back to where I started.  I don’t know what’s happening to me this year but I got hurt last week because of a cough.  It wasn’t a particularly violent cough but it was strong enough to tweak my back left shoulder.  I went to the doctor and he prescribed me steroids to take for a week.  So I’ll be blasting some home runs at a ballpark near you.

Once I’m off the medication and everything feels tip top, I will yet again slowly establish an exercise routine.  Also, I’m going to weigh myself every month.  I won’t step on a scale until May 1.  I’m thinking that I’m putting too much stress on myself during the weekly weigh ins and the informal daily weigh ins.  We’ll see if this works out better.

The setbacks are getting frustrating.

Because of that late 1099 we received, our refund was reduced by about $500.  I don’t think I’m quite over my frustration.

If you haven’t started your taxes yet, Clever Dude is giving away a TaxCut Premium keycode.  I have mixed reviews on TaxCut that you can read about here but all the bugs should be fixed by now.  Not much time left to file!

He was supposed to meet Mrs. Moonimus and Baby Moonimus during that dinner but we were being cautious parents as Baby Moonimus was getting over a virus.  I can’ t help but feel foolish as to why Baby Moonimus will never meet my sponsor.

So go hug and kiss your loved ones.  Call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while.  Make dinner plans with that person that you were supposed to have dinner with weeks (months more like years ago) because you never know when you will see them again.