Dimes to Dollars- a military wife's guide to personal finance

Six-Word Memoir Meme

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:57:00 +0000

A really long time ago, Maria at Cents and Sensibility tagged me for the Six-Word Memoir Meme. I've totally broken the meme, as she made her post on April 15 (guess where I was that day?), but I won't leave her hanging forever. My memoir is...

Whoops! Got distracted by something else.

My mind is a cluttered field of thoughts and ideas, and my life and household are no different. My parents and husband think I have Attention-Deficit Disorder, and maybe they're right. I'm just a little undisciplined in my thinking, and I have better things to do than to stay on top of everything all the time. I ultimately accomplish all my goals, I just don't always finish them in the order they were started. :-)

House, Senate panels back a 3.9% pay raise for 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:05:00 +0000

The House and Senate budget panels are backing a 3.9% increase in military base pay for 2009, while the President is backing a 3.5% increase for next year. The goal of these increases is to provide for a cost of living adjustment as well as make military pay commensurate with civilian pay for similar jobs. While the increase sounds nice, it hasn't been signed into law yet, because the Congressional Budget is far from being finalized, and if you recall how the process went this past year, don't count on seeing it until February. Hopefully though, a lame-duck Congress and a lame-duck President can get their work accomplished quickly and prevent unnecessary inconvenience to military families.

Of course, we all realize that with the increasing costs of fuel, food, energy, and housing this 3.9% increase will really be a small pay cut, but that's a topic for another day.

Stimulus

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Sat, 31 May 2008 06:01:00 +0000

Well, I've just about let this blog go to pasture. We've been pretty busy around the Dimes household, but I shouldn't forget my readers. Since we last spoke, Mr. Dimes and I received our economic stimulus check. We originally planned to invest it, but then we decided, for once, to be frivolous. So we bought an iPod. Yes, six and a half years after the iPod made its debut, we finally decided to buy one. We certainly paid a lot less than the early adopters did (the original iPod cost $400!) and we have a lot more storage space. We also bought a speaker dock for it, so that it can be heard without ear buds. The whole setup cost us less than $300. Definitely a good way to stimulate the economy, respect our budget and purchase something we've been waiting on for years.

2008 NMFA Fellowship Program available

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:52:00 +0000

Hey everyone, I'm writing to let you know that the Military Spouse Fellowship for the Accredited Financial Counselor Program for 2008 is now accepting applications. From now through the end of April, the application will be available online through the National Military Family Association website. It's a great program and at the end of it, the selected applicants will have attained the certification of Accredited Financial Counselor under the guidance of AFCPE and FINRA. Please see the linked website if you're interested in learning more or applying to this program. It is definitely worth the effort.

And on a more personal note, tax season will be over in less than two weeks, and I look forward to blogging again!

Work environments can make jobs miserable

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:01:00 +0000

Like I mentioned in my last post, I am doing seasonal tax work again this year. As much as I love the work itself, I am actively seeking other forms of employment, because the job environment is simply unbearable. The reason I failed to update this site from January 22 to February 22 is because I was spending most of my waking hours in the tax office. I completed a hundred or so returns, and I also had to schedule dozens of appointments, file a mountain of paperwork, distribute a bunch of checks, and handle the problems of disgruntled and angry clients for hours on end. I worked 197 hours in a month of what is supposed to be a part-time job.
Things have tapered off quite a bit in the past ten days or so, but the incredible stress of the weeks before that won't be soon forgotten. And a lot of my stress could have been mitigated by effective management and proper training of our staff, as well as the thoughtful use of a temp during our busiest times. Here are some of the biggest problems:

Our manager never bothered to give us any sort of office orientation. In previous years, the office managers have required an hour or two of paid office orientation, wherein they explain the filing system, the office policies and procedures, where to find things and what to do in the event of certain problems. Here this was never done and evidently hasn't ever been done. As a result, both old and new preparers are clueless about how the office runs, which leads to a lot of wasted time and dissatisfied clients.
Where I work, payroll is king. The #1 goal of all office managers is to keep the personnel budget as low as humanly possible. It's a noble goal but it results in some stupid decision-making. My manager tries to save money by not hiring a secretary, and instead relying on tax preparers to answer the phones and schedule appointments. During our peak season this is a terribly short-sighted move, as this causes most preparers to quickly reach overtime, when we become more expensive than a minimum-wage temp. With the overtime my office has paid me alone, they could have hired a secretary for 28 hours. Even having someone around to answer the phones, help with the filing, and scheduling appointments during the busiest three hours of the day would have helped maintain a lot of sanity. Saving them a few bucks on payroll seriously backfired this year.
I have a dreaded micromanager boss. Have you ever worked with someone who hyper-scrutinizes everything you do in an attempt to hide their own incompetence? This is the exact type of person my boss is. He knows very little about much at all, but more than makes up for it by driving me (and everyone else in our office) crazy. His philosophy seems to be that of a headmaster, where he looks and looks for the tiniest mistake, which was probably made due to a lack of proper training in the first place, and then rails on you for it. I'm pretty good humored and turn a deaf ear to it, because I know he's crazy, but he's driven a lot of my co-workers to tears. It will be interesting to see what the retention rate is going to be for next year. I really enjoy the work and am good at it, but even I am hitting my limits with the abuse.
Despite being a micromanager, my boss does not delegate tasks well. Generally, delegation seems to be, "Make Dimes do it because she knows how." A lot of things don't get done because people either don't know how to do them or that they are supposed to do them. One preparer steadfastly refuses to answer the telephone, label and file tax returns, call clients, or do anything besides write returns. While not very team-oriented, that behavior was acceptable for peak, but now that business has slowed down, he needs to contend with a lot of other tasks aside from writing returns. Instead, he tries to leave during slow periods instead of checking to see what non-return-writing activities need to be done. I suppose at this point it's appropriate to add that this particular preparer has completed the most returns in the whole office.
Climate control in our office is horrible. Our customers are constantly complaining about the temperature in the office, and a lot of preparers have a difficult time working because it is so cold. Fingers get numb, leading to typing mistakes, and the cold is actually a major distraction to workers and clients alike. If we turn off the AC, the temperature soars 15 degrees in an hour, and the office gets terribly stuffy. There doesn't seem to be a workable compromise.

There are other problems, but they're a little more abstract. The point though is that I love the work I'm doing, and I'd like to keep doing it, but the garbage I have to deal with in my working environment is making it not be worthwhile. I don't imagine every company is this bad, and I am willing to try my hand elsewhere to see if I can't find a more enjoyable environment with an equally or more enjoyable job.

Some don't like lack of RAL option

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:09:00 +0000

Greetings, faithful readers! I didn't realize I haven't updated in over a month. I've been very busy with a new but seasonal job. And I have discovered something interesting. Military personnel are not fond of the Military Lending Act as it pertains to Refund Anticipation Loans. While not as expensive as recurrent payday loans, Refund Anticipation Loans are short-term, high interest loans given in advance of an income tax refund. The loan is normally paid off with the proceeds of the tax refund and the lender pockets the difference. The loans are considered by many to be predatory and are illegal to give to members of the Armed Forces or their dependents.

However, a lot of military personnel don't know that the law has been changed to prevent them from getting these loans, and I have seen many disgruntled service members who don't want to wait for their refunds. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like they have much choice in the matter, thanks to the new legislation.

NMCRS to release $300 Quick Assist Loan society-wide

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:16:00 +0000

To mark their 104th birthday, the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society is going to begin a $300 emergency loan program effective January 23. The program, which had been piloted in three geographical areas during 2007, will now be available at full-service offices society-wide. The idea behind the program is to provide rapid assistance for sailors who need a small amount of money for an emergency need without subjecting them to the Society's normal interview and budget process, which can take several hours. 70% of sailors and marines who use the Society only need to visit once during a career, and this product is designed to help them.

In order to be eligible for the Quick Assist Loan, an applicant must fit the following criteria:

Must be an Active Duty sailor or marine. Retirees, reservists, widows and spouses are not eligible, even with a signed POA.
Not have any outstanding loans with the Society and not have been a recipient of any grant aid from the Society within the past year.
If the applicant has prepared a budget with the Society in the past year, it needs to have been a surplus budget indicating repayability.
Must not have received more than one other Quick Assist Loan within the past 12 months.
Applicant cannot be subject to disciplinary action from the command, either currently or within the past six months.
Applicants under Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy protection are not eligible.
Applicants must bring their most recent LES, military ID, and a QAL application in order to apply.

The loans are designed for emergency needs of specific types (basic living expenses, medical, dental, transportation, and family emergency). Repay on the loan begins the month after it has been disbursed, and the repayment period will range from 3-10 months. Each servicemember is allowed no more than two QALs in a one-year period. The QALs are not eligible for conversion to grant and must be repaid before the EAS date. If a servicemember is not eligible for a QAL, they are certainly eligible for regular Society assistance. The Quick Assist Loan is just designed to expedite the process for minor emergencies. Like other Society loans, the interest rate on the QAL is 0%.

2008 CONUS COLA rates

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:14:00 +0000

A few months ago, I posted about CONUS COLA, as it was a new entitlement for Mr. Dimes. For the uninitiated, CONUS COLA is a taxable income supplement for living expenses in an area (as opposed to housing expenses, which are covered by BAH). It increases or decreases every year, and can appear or disappear altogether for certain areas. For 2008, a handy calculator is available at this site. An official list of sites receiving COLA as well as the percentage rate can be found on this Pentagon site, where the list is a PDF file. If your location is not listed, you are not eligible to receive CONUS COLA. A handful of locations that were previously receiving it lost it for 2008, though they may get it again in future years.

Start planning for your final expenses now

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:38:00 +0000

I know this post topic is kind of morbid, but this issue is very important. Recently, Mr. Dimes and his family had to bury his grandmother, who died suddenly but not unexpectedly right around Christmas. She had a modest funeral and burial, and her final expenses clocked in around $8,000. My mother-in-law fronted the money and will eventually be reimbursed when the estate has been settled, as the grandmother did have some real estate and other assets which could be sold to cover the expenses. Not everyone is so lucky, though.
I recently had a client whose mother died unexpectedly who was requesting over $16,000 in funeral assistance. Her mother owned no property, had no life insurance, and had done nothing to prepare for her final expenses in advance. While the client has siblings, neither individually nor collectively can they afford the costs of the burial. Their mother desired to be buried in the family plot in an area where real estate is very pricey and the burial costs are over half the cost of the funeral. I had to help a grieving client find an alternative to the burial she wanted in order to have something she could afford. This was not a particularly fun experience. Please, for the love of your survivors, do not do this to them. Plan for your final expenses now and let your family members know where they can find any information about plots, policies, final wishes, etc. Deaths are difficult enough without creating financial stress and trauma for a grieving family.

Here are a few ways to ease the financial burden on your survivors:

Consider prepayment of funeral expenses: If you know where you want to be placed upon your death, consider buying a plot in advance, and make sure your survivors know where it is. You can also prepay for the funeral, casket, and other mortuary services rather than requiring your relatives to front the expenses at the time of your death.
Have a life insurance policy specifically for funeral expenses: Both my client's mother and my husband's grandmother had small ($10K-$25K) whole life insurance policies to pay for their funeral expenses, but for one reason or another had let them lapse and when they died, there was no money. If, however, you make sure that you (or someone else) is paying on them and don't let the policies lapse, they can be sufficient to cover burial and funeral costs.
Consider less expensive methods of body disposal: Burials are getting to be insanely expensive, and so are funeral plots. Cremation, on the other hand, is a more frugal alternative to standard burial, and is less harmful to the environment. Some people don't like the idea of cremation for religious or other reasons, but it definitely costs less. It also has the added benefit of allowing for portability of remains; for example, if you want to be buried a great distance away from where you died, ashes are much easier to transport than an intact corpse.
Have a specific set of assets designated for funeral expenses: This would definitely require either a will or a joint account with a person most likely to survive you, but it could solve the problem of a family member having to front expenses and then wait for reimbursement. If you create an account specifically for funeral expenses, then a family member or the executor of your estate should be able to access those funds in order to pay for your funeral. If you're going to do this, you might as well make your wishes known as well as what should be done with any money that remains, in order to keep your relatives from donating your body to science and then flying off to Cancun with your funeral money.

While not fun, death is an inevitable (and expensive) part of life, and you can help your family tremendously by making provisions for what to do when it happens.

How often do you replace pillows?

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:08:00 +0000

Our bedpillows hadn't been washed in some time, so I cleaned them on Friday. After taking them out of the dryer, I was amazed to see what awful shape they were in. The shells were clean and pretty, but the filling was all wadded up and sideways (and I'd even dried them with tennis balls, like everyone recommends). A lot of punching and jumping on them has made them look a lot prettier but they're far from new, and when I fold them in half they don't spring back to their original shape. So should they be tossed or not? I'm sure a pillow salesman would tell me to replace them every two years or something, but what is the lifespan of a pillow?
I'm probably going to replace them in the summer, after they've gotten four years of use. Seems like a reasonable timeframe.

Hope you weren't counting on that extra half-percent raise

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:54:00 +0000

... cuz you aren't going to get it, at least not for awhile.
Remember the National Defense Authorization Act, which President Bush vetoed a couple of months ago, with the 3.5% military pay raise? Well, our pandering and inept congresspeople were unable to revise the bill such that it would be passed before the start of the new year, so military personnel will have to settle for a 3.0% raise across the board. However, plans are "in the works" to assure that "the half-percent raise will be applied to military pay retroactive to January first, 2008," but I wouldn't count on seeing it for a couple of months, at least. Luckily, for most families, this amounts to a difference of $20 or less per month; however, it's hard to plan a budget when something as basic as base pay hasn't even been established. Keep this in mind next time you go to the polls.

Making a killing on travel containers

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:31:00 +0000

As Mr. Dimes and I are going out of town in a few days, I went to Target and purchased our airplane toiletries. We're only going to be away for about a week so there's not much point in bringing a full-sized shampoo, conditioner, body/face washes, lotion, contact lens solution, and toothpaste. Target has a little aisle full of "trial and travel-sized" toiletries, which is convenient, most of which are priced right at $.97 apiece. Doesn't seem like too much, does it?
Well, as luck would have it I also needed to buy a regular bottle of conditioner and a family size tube of toothpaste, both of which were considerably larger than one ounce, and each of which cost about $3.00. For my money, the bigger bottles provided a much greater value. I spent around $12 on our toiletry needs for a single week in travel-sized containers in order to be compliant with FAA requirements.
A lot of people advocate buying once and reusing your containers, which is not a bad idea when they are something that can actually be reused. Toothpaste tubes, for example, aren't refillable, and even though our current tube has less than three ounces in it, because it was originally a six-ounce tube, it would be confiscated by TSA officials. Same thing with contact lens bottles and lotion tubes.
It seems to be a necessary evil of modern travel that you either have to drop a small fortune on toiletries or pack them in your checked luggage, adding heft and increasing the risk of an in-flight bottle explosion. I'm sure the manufacturers of these small containers and their contents love these new regulations, as they are able to sell more product. But I am unimpressed.

Developing my legitimacy bit by bit

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:31:00 +0000

It pleases me to report that I have passed the first of two exams necessary for me to attain the certification of Accredited Financial Counselor, a designation awarded by the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education. Once I have completed a second exam (probably sometime in the spring), finished several hundred hours of practicum experience, subscribed to the Code of Ethics and paid the membership fee, I will be a blogger with a legitimate, real-life accreditation, and not merely an "internet professional"! How many other personal finance bloggers can say the same?

It was quite a test. Nothing at all compared to the CPA exams or the CFP nightmare, but it definitely required a lot of preparation to fully understand all concepts covered.

If you are eligible and interested, this program is a great opportunity for military spouses and survivors to get free education and certification in an important field. The certification would cost about $900 out of pocket otherwise. Applications are accepted in the spring sometime, usually in March. For more information on the program, click here.

Military personnel probably not eligible for RALs this tax season

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:00:00 +0000

The Military Lending Act came into law on October 1, 2007, with the intent to stop predatory lending to military personnel, their spouses, and their dependents. The primary target of this law was to protect military families from payday lenders and to protect the nation from the risks of servicemembers with high levels of debt and out-of-control financial situations. The law caps interest rates on all short-term loans (defined as loans of less than 91 days in duration) at 36% APR. One provision of this law deals specifically with Refund Anticipation Loans, or RALs, which are short-term income tax refund advances. With RALs, customers of tax preparation companies forfeit a portion of their refund in order to get it in one or two days instead of the 8-15 days normally required with an IRS direct deposit. The interest terms on these loans are usually right at 36% APR, since the major tax preparation companies have known about this impending legislation for awhile. That should make the fit within the parameters of the law, right?

Not necessarily, and if you live in California, the answer is definitely no.

Aside from the APR, these loans have an origination fee which cannot be waived for anyone.* The origination fee (or account creation fee, or check fee, depending on where you go) added to the interest charges on the loan bump the loan's interest charges well above the federal limit of 36% APR. This means the loans are considered too predatory to military families under the Military Lending Act and are therefore unavailable. Therefore, as a servicemember, you need to plan ahead and realize it will be a couple weeks before your refund is available.

Are there any loopholes? Not as far as I know, short of committing perjury. A wife filing separately from her servicemember husband is not eligible for a RAL. A child who has received more than half of his support from a servicemember for the 180 days preceding the loan request is likewise ineligible for a RAL. Major tax preparation chains will have their software programmed to recognize certain EINs as belonging to military divisions and will invalidate the RAL option on that basis alone.

This will probably prove to be one of the more frustrating aspects of the new legislation, as many people who don't bother with payday lenders still request income tax refund anticipation loans. Many may not be pleased with the longer wait time, even if it does save them some money.

*Specifics here might vary by state. If you're interested in one of these loans, contact your tax preparation company of choice to inquire. They will know, and more likely than not, they will not be able to offer this product to any member of the military, their spouse, or their dependents.

I lied... 2008 BAH available now!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:40:00 +0000

Maybe it is Wednesday already in Japan, but anothernavywife has informed me that 2008 BAH rates are now available!
We got a pretty good bump around here; the Hampton Roads area seems to have had an increase of approximately $100-125/mo., fluctuating slightly based on paygrade, of course.

Hooray!

2008 BAH rates available Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:27:00 +0000

At long last, we have an apparent publication date! The 2008 Basic Allowance for Housing rates will finally be posted on Wednesday, December 12, according to the pentagon site. Don't know for certain at what time they will be posted, but check often, and when the site crashes, that's a pretty good sign they're available. :-)

Did you know that most military personnel, their spouses and their dependents will not be eligible for Refund Anticipation Loans this tax season? Details to follow tomorrow.

2008 BAH rates will be available next week

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 05:42:00 +0000

I never quite understand why it takes so long for the Basic Allowance for Housing rates to be published. Base pay figures are usually available by October of the preceding year, but BAH tables aren't available until mid-December. It can make it very difficult for incoming families to decide where to live, as they don't know if the BAH will adjust downwards before they arrive or not. It can also complicate the decision whether or not to move into base housing in the face of higher rents. Plus, it's just plain annoying for people who are trying to create a budget for 2008. Why all the suspense? I'm ready to know!

Anyway, a week from now or so, you'll want to head over to the official pentagon site to see if your new housing rates have been published. The site will undoubtedly crash due to high visitor volume (as it happened in 2005 AND 2006), but eventually it will work pretty well. Other sites like about.com also publish tables, but I'm more trusting of the actual Pentagon page.

My husband had to explain installment loans to me.

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:06:00 +0000

Yes, folks, while I humbly submit to you that I am brilliant, I am not infallible. I understand a lot of the standard financial wisdom, a good bit of the less-common but still useful wisdom, and even some of the more abstract concepts. However, there is one thing I simply cannot wrap my mind around, and it is how installment payments work. So, when you take out a mortgage or a student loan or a car loan, provided it is on a fixed interest rate, you have a set repayment schedule where you make a certain payment every month which pays off all the accrued interest and part of the remaining principal. As the loan runs its course, the interest and principal both gradually decrease. The rate at which they do this is called an amortization schedule. A really helpful amortization calculator can be found here. The concepts behind this are baffling to me, though my husband can write out the mathematical formulas for periodic payments without breaking a sweat (he's awesome, did I tell you that?).

Anyway, what keeps tripping me up is that I forget that the advertised interest rate for loans is an ANNUAL rate, not a monthly rate. So, for example, with a 6% annual loan, the monthly interest rate is really .5% of the principal balance. Usually your interest rate doesn't neatly divide into 12, which makes it harder to figure out in your head. So I was wondering if the interest must be paid in full every month or if you can pay the principal instead. He said that the payments are usually applied to the interest first and then the remainder goes to the principal, which makes sense. It also makes sense that you must pay some portion of the principal every month otherwise you will be in a negative amortization situation, where the total balance of the loan is increasing on a monthly basis. This is what a lot of creative home buyers are currently facing.

So this raises the question of a financial tidbit you hear so often: Make an extra payment to your mortgage broker every year, and label it as saying "apply this to the principal balance only." Doing this in the early years of your mortgage can take years off of the life of the loan, since early on most of your payments go towards paying the interest. For example, with a $200K loan at 6% for 30 years, it takes almost four full years of $1200 monthly payments before more than $250 is going towards the principal on the loan. It sounds like a good idea, but will it ultimately make a difference in the amount you pay altogether as opposed to just a straight-up extra payment? The answer depends on how frequently your mortgage interest is compounded. If the mortgage is compounded monthly, it won't make a difference provided you make the two payments within the same month (which would happen in some fashion or other, right?). If the mortgage is compounded daily, it will make a difference, but depending on how close together the payments are received, it may not be as dramatic as you think. My advice in this situation would be to make a timely payment for double the normal amount (say $2400 instead of $1200), allowing for the entire balance of the second payment to go towards the principal. This is the approach I have taken with my student loans and it has worked well. By paying them down aggressively when the rates on savings accounts were lower than the loan's rate, I have managed to knock seven years off the life of the 20-year loan. If rates fall farther, we might consider adopting this approach again, but it won't save us as much in interest as it has in the past, even though it will retire the loan sooner. This study does go to show that making extra payments early on in a loan (most likely when you can least afford to do so) will potentially save you a great deal of money in the long run.

Also, if you're capable of more abstract thought, you can see that it's a better deal to borrow as little money as possible. Here's one last example to illustrate that point, figures derived using this tool. Suppose you are purchasing a $200K house with a 30 year mortgage at 7%. If you have saved a 20% down payment, you'll only need to borrow $160K, which you will ultimately repay in full along with $223,214,24 in interest. In borrowing the full $200K, you will ultimately pay back the full principal along with $279,017.80 in interest. Providing your $40K down payment saves you $55803.56 in interest, not to mention PMI or potentially higher rates because of a greater likelihood for default, etc. This is too significant to ignore.

What Mark Everson can teach us about Ethics

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:51:00 +0000

Thanks to the taxwise Kay Bell at Don't Mess With Taxes, I've become aware of the firing of the CEO of the American Red Cross, Mark Everson. In case you didn't know, since the deaths of Washington Redskins Safety Sean Taylor and Gatorade inventor Dr. J. Robert Cade seemed to hog yesterday's spotlight, Mark Everson was forced to step down after having an affair with a subordinate. Everson, former commissioner of the IRS, had only taken his position with the Red Cross back in May, and lasted a mere six months as the CEO of the best-known not-for-profit organization in the country.

I found this article by Stephanie Strom, which seems to put more of a negative spin on the organization that fired him rather than Everson himself. Perhaps it is my military background, or my recent and ongoing ethics training, but I am quite in disagreement with this article. For those of you too busy to read it (or in case the link expires or becomes password-protected), the gist is that Everson shouldn't have been fired because it took the American Red Cross so long to hire him in the first place, and despite his actions, he should have only suffered a temporary suspension or a loss in pay. While I am not privy to the details in Everson's contract, I assume the author of this article is not either. I would safely assume there is a Code of Ethics that all paid employees are to follow and before accepting employment they must sign a contract agreeing to abide by this code. The CEO would, for sure, as he is the public face of the organization. People who work for any large company usually have to sign some conduct agreement, and members of the military have to abide by the UCMJ. That said, I don't exactly think the issue was unaddressed for Mr. Everson.

The reason for Everson's termination is that he had an affair with a subordinate, a woman who is the president of a Red Cross chapter on the gulf coast. Both Everson and his subordinate are married, and the latter is pregnant. Personal relationships with people with whom you hold a position of power are generally never allowed and certainly not between two married people. The American Red Cross may have acted quickly in firing Everson, though I don't believe they acted rashly. With great power comes great responsibility. All across the military you see commanders being relieved of their commands due to "a loss of confidence in their ability to govern." Off the top of my head the commanders of the Arleigh Burke, the Helena, the Higgins, the Hampton, the Halsey, VAQ-140, VFA-122, the Newport News, and the Minneapolis-St Paul have all been fired in 2007. I'm sure there are others I've forgotten, to say nothing of the rest of the military. My point is, while you'd certainly hope that the person you hand-picked to lead an organization possesses the skills, common sense, and good judgment necessary to get the job done, this is not always the case, and when someone shows their incompetence, they should be relieved of their command as quickly and quietly as possible. Simply having good business skills or leadership experience is not enough to head an organization as well-known as the American Red Cross. The Red Cross is funded by voluntary contributions from taxpayers. If they feel the organization is going to turn a blind eye to someone acting unethically or irresponsibly by abusing his power and betraying his wife, most people would donate their money elsewhere. Lord knows there are enough other charities begging for it.

Problems at the top have a funny way of filtering down through the entirety of an organization and can negatively affect its culture. While some people feel that ousting the head of a group is a harsh move, I believe it is the right one. Despite his "impeccable credentials," Everson proved he lacks the integrity and personal responsibility necessary to lead an organization that is more respected than the IRS.

Will we really be able to retire?

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:46:00 +0000

This morning I logged onto Vanguard to look at my husband's Roth IRA as well as my own, and was in for a surprise. Since October 31, my Roth account has lost $1100 in value. My husband's Roth, invested in an entirely different fund, has lost $2300 in the same four weeks! OMG! We should withdraw all the funds and put them into cash or something more secure, shouldn't we, rather than risk losing any more?

Are you kidding me?

My husband and I are 25 years old, and by law, with a couple of exceptions, cannot enjoy the fruits of our retirement accounts for another 34 years. Surely the markets will have rebounded by then. Heck, they may rebound by Christmas, which would keep us from regaining our losses if we pulled out. Another important tidbit I failed to add is that despite my $1100 dive, I'm still up about 13% for the year. So my gain wasn't 28% or whatever. Big deal. I'm still not going to sniff at anything over 6%. My husband's funds have gained as well, though not as much as mine have (his are a lot more volatile and have been dippier this year). We haven't lost any of our initial investment, but isn't that a risk you take when lending money?

There are two lessons to be learned here. First one is don't panic. The market fluctuates, your investments can go up or down, and if you realize that you won't act irrationally and sell off before a big rally. The second lesson is not to follow your retirement accounts too closely (provided you're at least several years away from retirement). Vanguard, for example, sends a quarterly statement. When you're more than 20 years away from retirement, glancing over your funds every three months is about all the monitoring they need.

Gratuitous publicity, or something

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 05:40:00 +0000

My blog was recently reviewed on debtconsolidationcare.com, a site which claims to be "the internet's first get-out-of-debt community" and boasts ninety thousand or so members. While this may be the case, not a single hit on my sitemeter has come from this community since this review was published. :-) I cannot vouch for the Debt Consolidation Care's expertise or competence, and my browser settings really don't work well with their page, but maybe you'll have better luck than I did. I use Mozilla Firefox with ad-block on Windows XP, and have blocked most video sites by default. Nonetheless, some of the scripts affiliated with the site kept hanging my browser. Just be cautious.
I *can* tell you the Debt Consolidation Care community is based out of Calcutta, India, based on the time of the emails received (usually after 10PM Pacific) and my site stats, so take that as you will.

I'm obviously not getting paid to write this review, but am doing at the request of one of their staff members, one Liza Jolie, who has been, shall we say, very relentless in her emailing. So here it is. I'm sure my link to their site will make a huge difference in their traffic. ;-)

A store-free shopping season?

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:54:00 +0000

Due to geographical constraints, Mr. Dimes and I are planning on avoiding brick-and-mortar stores as much as humanly possible this holiday season. Instead, we're going to be purchasing all gifts online and shipping them to the intended recipients. The lone exception to this rule will be going to stores to shop for one another. Hopefully we'll have success with this plan. There are several reasons for doing this:

We live in a geographic black hole with few well-respected retail outlets. The nearest good bookstore is 20 miles away, and it's an hour drive to a decent mall. Anything of higher quality than Sears or Target can offer will have to be purchased at an online retailer anyway, so why not shop for everything with one?
We simply can't afford to go and visit the family this year. We live too far away, and round trip holiday airfare will set us back at least $1500. It would be twice as much if we went to visit both sides of the family.
Even if we did travel to see them, do you know what a tremendous pain it is to try and get gifts through security? You can't travel with wrapped packages, and while checked bags are routinely pilfered, it gets worse right around the holidays. I would think it would be highly likely that any gift in its original packaging would be more likely to find its way onto eBay than under my in-laws Christmas tree.
Who likes to go shopping anyway? Too many obnoxious shoppers, picked-over merchandise, and endless loops of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra are enough to drive me into a frenzy. Toss in some obnoxious perfume or an indecisive husband and I'd happily rather take the whole thing online. Besides, it's a LOT easier to track spending when you don't have to schlep receipts and merchandise all over the mall.

I used to be a big fan of gift cards until it occurred to me that their purchase just passes the task of shopping from the giver to the recipient. That's not very nice! I'm going out of my way to try and avoid them this year, and I hope not to receive too many unless they can be used online, since they won't be easy to redeem.

2008 Basic Allowance for Housing Rates Forthcoming

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:52:00 +0000

It's that time of year again! No, not the holiday season, but the month or so where military personnel and their families are anxiously tapping their toes waiting for the release of the next year's housing allowance figures. According to the Pentagon site, the 2008 BAH figures will be available in "mid-December." Historical data suggests this will probably be December 14 or December 17.
I suspect in many areas of the country, BAH rates will either level off or drop. There seems to have been a huge increase in BAH rates nationwide in 2005, and in many areas that appears to have been too much, such that rates have either flattened or fallen in the past two years. The trend will probably continue.
BAH rates are determined by an annual survey of properties in a given military housing area, and by determining the median housing costs (rent, utilities, and renters insurance) for servicemembers based on the type of housing they *should* have based on their paygrade and family size. Basically that means more modest housing for junior enlisted and more substantial housing for senior enlisted and officers, as well as more substantial housing for servicemembers with dependents. A single E3 has more modest housing needs than an E7 with a wife and three children.
What happens if you live in an area where the BAH rates will drop from 2007 to 2008? You will be covered by "rate protection." Rate protection means you will receive the higher of the BAH you are entitled to on January 1, 2008, or the BAH you were entitled to on December 31, 2007. In other words, if you see that your BAH is expected to drop $200 per month between 2007 and 2008, provided you don't lose BAH eligibility for some reason, you will keep seeing the 2007 rate. However, if you move into the area from another duty station, you will receive the new (and lower) BAH rate. If the BAH annual survey has done its job properly, though, you shouldn't be paying too much out of pocket for housing expenses.

The best $20 I spent this week

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:51:00 +0000

The days here are still relatively warm, but the nights have gotten downright COLD! My husband and I often wake up at night pretty chilly, even though we set the thermostat to 68 degrees (yeah, not too frugal, but I almost NEVER turn on the AC, so there) and have both a flat sheet and a comforter. While I was in Target, the other day, I sought to find a remedy to this problem, and I believe I have. I purchased a cheap cotton blanket to tuck between our sheet and our comforter. It's not too well-made, which means the weave is loose and there's a lot of space for air to get trapped, upping the warmth potential. It's perfectly sized, so it fits between the other blankets without showing, because it doesn't quite match them, color-wise.
I don't know how well it will hold up to repeated washing, as a few of the reviewers mention it kind of falls apart after washing and the hems look a little flimsy, but for our purposes, it's doing very well. After just a couple of nights under it, we're both sleeping much better and aren't freezing while in bed. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Should I get a paying job or not?

noreply@blogger.com (Dimes) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:33:00 +0000

We've been living here for about two months now, and I've had a couple of job interviews but haven't heard back from them, and at this point I am wondering if I should even bother with trying to get paid employment. It may not be worth the hassle. It might. If I get hired with either the company I interviewed with two weeks ago or the tax preparation firm I worked with in Virginia (surprisingly, employment is NOT as portable as they'd have you believe), I'll take the position, but I'm trying to decide if I should even try for more.

Reasons I should get a job:

Boredom! I have quite a bit of free time on my hands, and while I am engaged in volunteer activities, I could easily handle a part-time job and not sacrifice any family time or fail to accomplish any of my regular errands.
The gap in my working resume is only getting longer with every day I fail to work. Same thing with my salary history.
A supplemental source of income would provide Mr. Dimes and me with greater ability to fatten up our short-term and long-term savings (and a matched 401k would be totally awesome if I could get it). We've got the three-month emergency fund taken care of, but a car-replacement fund or home down-payment fund would be great to get started on.
My student loans, which I have earnestly been paying off with my income, are now starting to become my husband's responsibility with no earnings coming into the household from my efforts. Even earning $200/month would enable me to fully cover the loan payments.

Reasons not to get a job:

Potential lack of flexibility. I am doing hundreds of practicum hours for my AFC certification, and a full-time job would cut off my ability to do those at the pace needed to complete them on time. A part-time job is ideal, and what I'm looking for, but even some part-time schedules are unworkable with my volunteer commitment.
Interference with family planning: Mr. Dimes and I are thinking about starting a family within the next year or two. It would be difficult if I were to start a job and then immediately get pregnant, as I have no plans to work after giving birth.
Possible relocation. As I mentioned a few posts ago, we might be relocating onto base housing. Currently we live about 20 miles away from the base. If I had a job close to where we currently live, it would be just as far from our new residence as his workplace is from our current one. In that case, we'd just be trading commutes. My car gets better gas mileage than his does, but do I want to drive so far every day for supplemental income?
Allegedly, there is a lot of nepotism in this area for jobs. I've heard that a lot of people get passed over due to internal hiring decisions or choosing friends or acquaintances instead of the most qualified applicants. While this wouldn't keep me from applying for jobs in general, it would probably cause me to throw in the towel sooner than if I weren't thinking the process was rigged.

So I'm not sure. I guess another thing to keep in mind is that Christmas is coming, and a new job might keep me from being able to go and visit family in December, though I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing. ;-) We'll see what happens.