But I still do.  We’ve finalized more coverage on my DH and myself.  We bough $2M for 25 years for my DH, this will hopefully be enough, if not we can add more for a shorter term. I don’t forsee us needing insurance more than 25 years from now.  We may even cancel it sooner.  For myself we bought $500k for 20 years and that I don’t see us keeping perhaps more than another decade.  But both policies are relatively reasonable, so for the peace of mind perhaps it’s worth it.  Next up…our wills.

Second change, we’ve given up cable.  It’s been slightly painful I think for my DH mostly because he’s had to give up sports.  Regular tv isn’t so bad, but sports is a killer.  We’re doing free trial of streaming netflix, hulu plus and amazon prime. I like the netflix, the hulu plus seems a little iffy, and the amazon prime isn’t that great, but it is free shipping for $79/year.  What do most people use?  Next step?  Ditching our home phone.  We’ll probably use something, but just something cheaper than our landline.

Third, we got new phones, not just new phones but smart phones.  We bit the bullet and bought ourselves data plans.  It felt like we were one of the last hold outs to get smart phones.  I have to say it’s nice luxury.  It’s hard to admit but it’ll be next to impossible to go back to regular phones.  Having everything at your finger tips while out.

We’ve had some ups and downs recently.  My DH had a couple of job interviews but nothing panned out unfortunately.  We had been hoping, he is still employed, but we’d like to relocated.  As for me I landed a job part-time, and am a bit torn about what to do for childcare.  That is another post perhaps.

As for holiday spending?  We didn’t do too bad, we only exchanged with one friend who INSISTED.  I said I didn’t want to but she said I’m buying a gift anyway.  I’m not sure what to do with people who are very generous and can financially afford everything.  At least it’s only one friend and my parents.  My DD has a few gifts like books and toys I would have bought her anyway.  My DH got a cell phone and so did I.  Everyone else?  Well they got cards.

For people who hate cards, I LOVE them! Even before I had a kid I always did Holiday Cards. I love seeing people’s families grow up and the notes are nice too. I like hearing about people’s years and seeing the time pass.  It makes me reminisce about the past and look forward to next years card.  So it’s tacky and some people have huge newsletters, but some people (like me) are terrible about sending photos out of kids, but I enjoy seeing other people’s photos.  So perhaps I’m a scrooge about gifts, but I love photos and cards.

How is your holiday going?

It’s been awhile is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius

Other quotes we have gotten are $1133/year for $1.5M for 30 years, $2M for $1098/year for 25 years, and $2M for 1478/year for 30 years.

My thoughts are that 25 years is long enough for us because our only child is almost 2, and we will finish having kids in the next 6 years so we are looking at the youngest being 19.  At that point our mortgage will be 25 years in, we’ll have 25 years of saving for retirement and taxable funds so we should be well prepared.

Term life insurance is substantially cheaper than whole life/universal life insurance or return of premiums.  To buy the return of premium insurance it would be $2355/year for coverage.  Why nearly 3x more?  Because the insurance company uses the money to invest in the market so they can afford to still pay you back at the end.  Is it worth it?  I think it probably is if you can afford it.  But right now?  No way.

Is whole life or universal worth it?  Probably not.  But I have heard from financial planners that universal or cash value life insurance can be a estate planning tool as a method of passing on wealth to your children.  We don’t have enough wealth to pass it on, so for now we are just using term life insurance as a method to protect ourselves in case of death.

As for me I am unsure how much to get.  Probably $500k for 20 years is adequate.  My DH makes a lot, and just needs minimal insurance to make his life a little easier, fund college for the kids, and maybe leave a small inheritance for the kids to buy a home/car/wedding.  $500k for 20 years $233/year, 25 years is $283/yr, 30 years for $343/year.  $1M for 20 years is $398/yr, $488/year, 30 years for $618/year.  I am leaning potentially to $1M for 20 years.

Next up?  I’ll fill in readers if we get the insurance and for how much.

Finalizing Life Insurance is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius

long-grain rice, $1.88

Corn Chex cereal, $2.99

Saltine crackers, $2.99

Skippy natural peanut butter with honey, $4.57

black beans, $1.79

fettucine microwave meal, $0.89

cheddar macaroni microwave meals, two at $0.89 each

apple juice concentrate, $1.65

frozen pizza, $1.98

carrots, $0.48

pasta, $1.89

celery, $0.98

unsalted butter, $2.63

gallon of milk, $3.29

large eggs, $2.23

yogurt, two at $0.70 each

Total = $33.42

So she wasn’t able to make it to the $31.50.  What could she cut?  I say the $2 overage would be met by not buying the individual yogurts and juice concentrate.  the woman should also not be buying pasta at $1.98, but waiting for a sale or name brand cereal.  Why not generic?  Also the fettucine and mac and cheese microwave meals at .89/each is ridiculous.

Now $31.50/week is very little, but I think it’s doable.  Definitely if you follow the hillbilly housewife you can get by feeding a family of 4-6 for $45/week.  Now I wouldn’t say that her recipes are 100% healthy, but they are better than eating junk food or starving, and I think better than what this director was buying or eating fast food.

The woman doing the challenge is working and not spending time cooking.  But if you were unemployed and on food stamps, how many of us would be more creative and cooking from scratch?  The biggest savings is cooking from scratch.

I wonder if when they hand out food stamps they shouldn’t hand out this hillbilly housewife menu for cheap eats too?  So people can get ideas on how to eat cheaply by cooking.  I think living on food stamps isn’t easy but I wonder if  people who are on food stamps are buying mostly premade foods because they never learned to cook?

Food Stamps on rise is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius

Because the truth is that the average American is finally realizing there is a large income inequality in the US.  The Tea Party movement, I’m sorry I can’t support.  They appear to be entire for the wealthiest Americans.  But perhaps people are realizing that raising the taxes on the rich, while cutting social programs mostly affect the poor and middle class.  I do realize the budget needs to get trimmed but so do tax revenues need to go up.  I still am confused how this can be accomplished by tax cuts and budget cuts only.

Paul Krugman, I love his articles, talks about this new movement.   I like the idea of investing in infrastructure.  I’ve seen more than one article talking about job creation from investment in infrastructure.  But it hasn’t happened.  I’m not sure if people are willing to try.

But I have to say that I’m not surprised by the study that the rich got richer.  It has seemed like the tax cuts have been focused on people with money to invest.  It has seemed that the tax breaks are aimed at people making enough to benefit from it. Yes people are on unemployment but wouldn’t you rather be in the top 1% than in the bottom 80% on unemployment? I’d sure rather be.

Prices of consumer staples has increased and inflation is definitely happening.  This affects the rich less than the poor or middle class.   Which is why people always argue against a consumption tax because the first $50k of anyone’s income goes to necessities, but the more you make the more you have for luxuries or saving.

Do you think the income inequality in this country is a problem?

1% got richer. is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius

Imagine instead of paying closing costs and fees associated with a normal mortgage, paying a $15/month for loan servicing or perhaps drawing up an agreement with a lawyer.  I think it might make sense.

The biggest problem is if you aren’t sure if your kid can afford to make payments or will make payments to you.  This isn’t for people who aren’t sure if they can trust their family members.  But it could be a better investment than  a bond or CD.

As I read this article, I pondered would I do this?  Would I ask my parents to finance our next house?  Could they afford to?  would it be a good investment for them?  For us?  I mean if we still got the tax deduction and my parents got a guaranteed rate wouldn’t it benefit both parties?

Would my parents be willing to finance the entire amount so we could liquidate our home equity and instead invest it in stocks? Imagine financing 100% @ 4% for 30 years?  They know us and I would definitely pay it back.  But I wonder if it would upset my siblings?  Or is it okay if it’s a written agreement? If they died during the 30 years would the note be transferred to their estate?

There are potential problems, but it looks like a pretty awesome idea. I think next time we move and buy a home, depending on the circumstances it might be worth it for me to consult with my parents and offer them investing in our home.

Parental Financed Mortgages is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius

But I’ve never actually calculated if it would be worth giving up a home phone.  Have you?  Have you actually relinquished your home phone and considered if it would save you money to keep it?  I am considering those other phone plans like Ooma or Magic Jack, but would like to have reader feedback if it’s worth it.  I know someone whose tried magic jack and the reception and use wasn’t that great.  Granted it was a few years ago so perhaps the technology has improved.

But back to cell phones, I try to make the majority of my calls from my home phone.  It costs us $10/month extra to have it bundled with the internet and tv.  No we’re not getting rid of cable, my DH loves sports and I enjoy watching sitcoms.  I could watch it on a computer but it doesn’t seem very easy to lie on a couch and watch it with others.  But definitely the sports would be hard for my DH to let go of.

So $10 extra gives us a land line, instead of $89.99 we’d be paying $79.99 for internet and cable.  I don’t know why the cable companies do this, but the make bundling packages ridiculously cheaper.

But if I didn’t have a home phone, I would definitely also have to bump up our cell phone package.  Right now we get 550 minutes on ATT for $59.99/month for 2 lines.  We use close to all our minutes, but the next package is 700 minutes for $79.99; so $20/month for an extra 150 minutes.  We’d burn through that easily.  If we upgraded to unlimited minutes for $119/month, that’s double what we pay now or an extra $60/month for unlimited talking.

So is it worth giving up the landline?  I don’t know maybe.  But to save $10/month I’d have to seriously consider every call and really watch our minutes.  I wouldn’t be able to upgrade our plan because then it would be ridiculous to cancel our landline to just pay more to the cell phone company.  So my “frugal” move would end up costing me more.

Now it would make sense if I were always out and never at home, perhaps a college student, someone always working, or out.  But I’m not so I know to use my home phone for calls to companies or getting quotes, etc.  So losing the home phone wouldn’t save me any money since I’d just use/pay more for a cell phone.

Thoughts?

Also frugal tip, if you are in a contract or waiting for a new cell phone but yours breaks, buy a go phone from Walmart for $10-20 for any of the major carriers and put in your SIM card and you are set to go.  Instant phone for cheap and you can wait to decide what to do.

Relinquishing the home phone is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius

Should we make SS/Medicare means tested?  That means that people who are responsible for saving for retirement, whether they be poor or rich will be penalized?  It sounds to me that people who actively worry about their future will get less than those who spent their whole paycheck their entire careers.

Now if we do it based on salary/reported income to the IRS, and whether or not you saved for your retirement I could live with it.  That if they say everyone making more than an average annual salary of $250k cannot claim SS or Medicare I would say that’s fair.  But to penalize savers.

But will this tax hike work?  Yes it helps with the deficit, but don’t we need more spending cuts?  Again I’m frustrated by the fact that our government lacks a comprehensive plan.  Why can’t we just agree that we need to increase revenue AND cut spending.  Sorry but we can’t afford to keep paying for other people’s wars and taking care of ourselves at home.

Why isn’t someone bailing us out?  What have we gained from the war abroad versus pouring the money into our economy?  Where is our payback? Am I being selfish for being concerned about us?  Yes, but it seems like we are spending more and more overseas than fixing our own problems at home.

I say raise taxes and cut the spending period.  As for jobs, maybe if we had more money to pour into research and government projects we’d create jobs.  I wish he’d stood his ground earlier and talked about it being a math problem.  We cannot have budget cuts be solely responsible for our economic growth and stability.  We have to consider increased revenue as part of the equation.

I want to see these extremist who refuse to raise taxes period explain why we should only cut our budget and government but not raise any taxes when we are in “trouble” which they keep harping on?  I wonder if he’ll be able to force these extremist to compromise = both sides give a little, not one side holds everyone else hostage in their extremist mentality.

Class Warfare is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius

I agree that in today’s working environment not going to college can be detrimental to a person’s career, or trade school even.  That getting into any sort of career without an education be it 2 or 4 years is not realistic.

But now it seems like people pay for everything.  People pay not only for college but apartments, cars, cell phones, cable, etc.  A lot of parents are paying for unlimited texting plans, data plans, for their kids in high school and college.  They provide a car at 16 without expectations of the child paying or working.

How much are parents expected to provided for their kids?  How much more than food, shelter, education, etc?  Do you have to pay for music lessons, math lessons, sports, language classes?  Where do you draw the line?

Is it wrong to not pay for private school because you’d rather have a family vacation?  Or is it wrong to have more children and expect them to go to public school instead of having one child and paying for private school?  Or having more children but buying used clothes instead of new clothes?

Does it make you irresponsible as a parent if you aren’t paying for every activity or buying new items for your child?  Or choosing to have one more child instead of paying for college for two kids and having three instead?  Now it’s considered strange to have kids share a room, but is it really that awful?  To afford a 3 bd home but have 3 kids?

Everyone can spend their money how they choose and there is such a wide range of parental income.  But are you expected to provide a certain level based on what you make?

Providing for your kids? is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius

First up check out this cool college 529 plan website.  And second here is a run down of different types of college savings plans.

Okay now my state does have a prepaid tuition plan, but I am not participating because I do not plan on residing her long than necessary.  I would like to move.  Now if I do end up relocating to a state with a prepaid tuition plan, I believe my DH and I will look at the school system and it’s a very strong possibility we’d do it.  We’d lock in paying for our kids at the state university.  That being said, I don’t know if it’s a good idea if  you aren’t sure your kids are college material.

Second, I fund our Coverdell ESA before the 529.  Why?  Because the investment choices are in our hands versus having to pick right now the 529.  You can pick a 529 plan of a state you aren’t in.  For example I’ve been told Utah has one of the best 529 plans for non-residents and even better for residents.

But in a Coverdell ESA you are free to pick any investments.  Whereas in a 529 you are limited to specific choices which are not terrible and often times good.  Our state offers investment into Fidelity mutual funds which are great and typically have lower fees.

Now Coverdell funds do belong to the minor in name, so perhaps it’s a bad idea.  You are going to be handing $36k to a 18 year old, whereas the 529 can be transferred within a family.  Hence why it’s better to only have one 529 account.  That way you can transfer it from child to child or relative.

Also the Coverdell is capped at $2k/year, whereas the 529 you can contribute up to $250k.  Also the Coverdell is capped at $190k-$220k married income, but the 529 no income limit.  So there are other factors to consider.

I believe that using the Coverdell is a good idea because the $2k is a good goal.  Plus it’s not so ambitious nor overreaching that a parent would jeopardize their retirement.

So tell me your plans, thoughts, ideas for college?

Coverdell versus 529 is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius

Now I speak up and say I want a separate check, why should I subsidize someone else’s drinks when I can’t drink and drive?  I have a very low alcohol tolerance so if I have to drive I can’t have a drink. I know a lot of people can, but I just can’t.  So I don’t.  So why should I split a $12 glass of wine?  Forget it.

I also say I brought a lunch because going to eat at Panera, etc is too expensive.  I drive a crappy car because we already have 1 nice car and I’m not getting a car payment for a second car.  My car runs great and it fits one kid well. I bought a $300 carseat to make up for the fact that my car doesn’t have side airbags.

All these things I may have glossed over before but not anymore.  Now I lay it out there. I say exactly what I’m thinking or why I’m doing something.  I tell the blatant truth and if people don’t like it they don’t have to hang with me or my values.  I hear from a lot of friends about their house and their new cars.  Great if they want to spend their money that way or  can afford it, they probably can.

But I can’t and I’m not going to spend money to keep up with them.  I also think that retirement savings is important, and yes you can’t take it with you and you have to enjoy the now.  It is important to embrace life and spend money now because you could get sick tomorrow.  But I don’t like the stress of worrying about the future or even the now.

Also I am going to admit that I can’t afford private school for my kid.  Sorry $28k/year tuition for school is not going to happen.  I don’t have a trust fund and I don’t make enough money to pay for it.  It might be a better education or more diverse, it’s not in my price range and so I told someone today.  She said that I could apply for scholarships for my kid since they want diversity; okay I’ll consider it.  We might apply but realize that unless it was almost fully covered private school is not going to happen because every penny is going to be saved for college instead.

I don’t get $12k/year cash gift from my parents for estate planning purposes.  I think they’d laugh if I asked them.  I don’t get a trust fund, nor do we get a gift for a house down payment.  What we save is what we have.  I think perhaps my own daughter in the future might be so fortunate to get such generous gifts from some “saver” parents.

My reality is I think more the norm than many of my friends.  Work at job = salary = what you live and save on period.  I wonder when did it become so normal for people to get help/inheritances from family?  Where are the people who don’t have any help and save from scratch?

Outing myself… is a post from: LivingAlmostLarge Secret Word - Aquarius