Home and Dollars

Life Insurance

2011-12-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Just paid for our new life insurance policy. $500,000 for me, 20 year term for $322 a year. $250,000 for Jen, 20 year term for $122 a year. How does that compare with your policy? I also have some insurance though work, so Jen would get a bit more in the case of my demise. Just checked as well it looks like death benefits are not taxed, so that is good 5 years of income should be enough,

Rotato, best kitchen gadget ever?

2011-11-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

Nick and I were making Apple Cranberry bread last night and I was again allowed to use one of the best kitchen gadgets I have had the pleasure to use. The Rotato :) It makes very quick work of pealing, and the side effect of having "apple strings" is not to be dismissed. A very health snack that Nick will run around eating! Happy snacking :)

Why companies announce layoff early

2011-11-14T10:05:00.001-08:00

I enjoyed this summary of the reasons that companies announce layoff early. The first is my particular favorite, in order to reduce severance costs, as people bail early.

Great Depression 2

2011-10-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

I believe this is what the occupy wall street protests are about. If you click on the link there are number of other charts that illustrate different perspectives on this. I think we are headed for a very large correction again. Why the current crop of plutocracy can't see this and work to prevent it, implies they are expecting to profit from it; Or in denial.

What if time was money?

2011-10-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Interesting post over at My Money Blog about a movie that is coming out apparently about a society where aging has been overcome, but after 25 your productivity becomes the determining factor for your length of life (or something like that). Johnathan then makes a good point about how much that coffee is costing you in real terms. I hadn't heard of the movie (don't watch much advertising...),

Chimney Sweep

2011-09-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

Well it has been two years (didn't burn as much the first year) since we built the house, so it is time to have the chimney cleaned and looked at. Fireside recommended Smart Sweep as a good guy to call. Jim Smart came out to the house at 11am (on time), was great with Nick, explaining things to him (and me) and very clean. He explained that it was something I could do in the future with an

MNPR Yeah

2011-09-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Received our MN Property Tax rebate. $940 on a tax bill of just under $5000. That is pretty nice, does that mean that we didn't make a lot of money for the tax that we pay on our house (I think so...). Anyways it is very nice, too bad they did away with it in the new state budget (I think I heard that).

Extended Auto Warranty rebate

2011-09-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

We purchased a new mini-van in the beginning of August, and traded my 2005 TDI Golf in. I had purchased an extended warranty on it when I bought it that was good for 10 years or 100,000 miles. The car had just over 80,000 miles when I traded it in. The dealer told me I could get a rebate for the unused portion of the extended warranty, and I just received a check yesterday for $341. :) During

ING Direct living up to high standards

2011-09-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

I received an email today, that I didn't have enough money to process a withdraw from my savings account for my auto payment. This is the first month for the auto payment, so I made a payment early to make sure everything was set up correctly for automatic withdraw. After that went through successfully, I changed the date to the due date and went on my way happily. I didn't expect ally to

PromoCode for Sharbuilder

2011-09-09T05:25:00.000-07:00

Sharebuilder (ING Direct) is offer a promo code for current subscribers! Get $50 for depositing $100 each month till 2012. A $50 return on $400, good luck finding that anywhere else. OLRCDP50

The final fill up

2011-08-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

When we bought the minivan we traded in my 2005 VW Golf TDI. So here are the final gas charts: 20 Fill-up rolling average Days between fill-ups Gas price 03/2005 to 08/2011 MPG at each fill-up Overall average MPG was: 38.55 MPG.Total gas put in was: 1978.63 gallons.Total gas cost was: $6140.50.Total miles traveled: 80051.

Our other new baby

2011-08-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

So we had been planning on purchasing a van for awhile, and with Madelyn's due date getting so close, we thought we would check out minivan's. I ended up stopping by Roseville Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep on Friday (before Madelyn was born) and had Joe quote me a price for a basic Grand Caravan Crew, and appraising my Golf TDI '05. The quote for the Crew was good, a couple hundred over Edmund's

Bringing home baby

2011-08-11T05:19:00.000-07:00

We have had a very exciting two weeks, we brought home our new baby girl last Wednesday! Jen had a super fast labor we were at the hospital at 05:30 and Madelyn was born at 06:08. Wow! Everyone is doing really well :)

Extreme Early Retirment

2011-07-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

I have a confession, I have been reading this guys blog for the past couple days. He seems like a really interesting person, with some very counter-culture ideas. It is very inspiring, and I am happy to provide him some income by ignoring the ads on his site :) He is a post that I enjoyed about how to spend very little money. It is basically how the guy (Jacob, I believe), managed to retire

Historical Tax Rates

2011-07-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

I was curious what the top marginal tax rates have been for the last century. As you can see the last time we had rates this low it preceded the Great Depression. There is a lot of interesting information on that tax policy website, unfortunately it could be organized quite a bit better. The Times has an article by Paul Krugman explaining that corporation have ample cash right now, but the

Financial Independence Sale!

2011-07-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

ING Direct is having a sale, with some pretty good deals today and tomorrow. $126 for opening a checking account and direct depositing into it. $76 for opening a Sharebuilder account. $76 for opening an IRA. $76 for referring 2 friends ;) (Call / email me if you want a referral and I will split the bonus with you) $1776 off closing costs. I decided to apply for a 5 year ARM @ 3.125%.

How about 6 tons of River Rock?

2011-06-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

We are working on placing river rock about the house. Looking at the cost of buying it bags from Menards (1/2 ft³ for around $2 on sale), Gertens, and Hot Rocks. Hot Rocks seemed to have the best price, even though I have to go back and forth with the sales person (18 emails... she confused me once with another customer). I asked for a 10% discount they listed on the website that had expired,

No Soda how about Hawaiian Punch

2011-06-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

Since I quit soda for June (wow only 2 days left :), I have been drinking a lot more water, but also I have been using single packets for flavor. My favorite has been Hawaiian Punch. Target dollar spot usually has 8 packets for a dollar, which works out to 12 cents per packet. I usually have 2 a day. Now I have to go read a study on Aspartame... If you don't have a Target near you, I have

Lending Club

2011-06-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

I joined Lending Club in January so I thought I would report. According to lending club I have made a return of 9.8% since joining. Pretty nice return, though I am not sure how they will report taxes. If they report as income then it will be taxed more then if it is reported as dividend income. In any event I put in 3k at the end of January and have $3200 now, 6 months in. $100 of that was a

Backyard Patio

2011-06-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

This is a project that we started last year and are in the process of finishing this year. The patio was finished last year, the retaining wall was finished this spring and the grass was planted a couple weeks ago. Here is the material costs: Delivery $50 Sand $175 (locking and leveling) Block $604 Retaining Wall Block $477 Compactor $121 (1 day, 4 hours Home Depot) Class 5 base $176 Misc $80

Michele Bachmann quotes

2011-06-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

I generally try to be political on this blog, but my father-in-law is always pro-Bachmann and I say she doesn't always say the most intelligent things, but can't come up with a list for him. I found a list and thought I would share. Everyone can make a gaffe now and again, but I really think that some people have more of a tendancy to say "ironic" or irresponsible things at times, and Michele is

Article on sugar and food

2011-06-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

I have been hesitant to post, but I have decided to cut out soda for a month. I have to say it isn't the easiest thing, it is all over the place, and if you go out the only alternative is typically water or lemon aid (a cheat? maybe). I have been faithful for the last 9 days (wow!?), though it hasn't been easy. Oh, did I mention that there is a free soda fountain at work? So am I giving up a

Huh, Tax refund?

2011-06-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

We received a check from the state for $179, so apparently I didn't do our taxes correctly and they were able to figure out where I went wrong and send us a check. I guess I would expect that, but it is still surprising. Once I figure out my mistake I will update.

Nick's new trampoline!

2011-06-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa G bought Nick a trampoline for his birthday. It is actually pretty nice and he was able to run into the screen walls and it didn't seem like it was going to break... It was an interesting design, but once I figured out how to use he metal tool it came with it wasn't too bad, though I do have the blisters to prove I put it together...

Employment picture

2011-05-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

Recently Lockheed decided to close the doors of the it's facility in Eagan, unfortunately that meant I was out of a job. The announcement was made in November, and the first wave of layoffs was scheduled for March 15th. I was included in the April 29th layoffs. So I started job hunting at the beckoning of my wife :). I secured a couple of interviews, and was eventually offered a job with