Money Beagle

You Can Do It

Money Beagle — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:59:58 +0000

Little Boy Beagle will be three in just over three months. He learns new things all the time and tries something new every day.

A lot of the things he tries don’t always work, or even if they do work, they aren’t consistent.

As he works on conquering new things, he would take pride in an accomplishment, but if something didn’t go right, he would often get exasperated and say:

“I can’t do it.”

After hearing this more than a few times, I tried to turn it around. If he would have a problem with something that I knew was within his realm of possibility, and he’d say he couldn’t do it, I’d go over and say

“You CAN do it”

and would then try to help him with whatever he was doing, showing him how to do it, working with him to get it, and encouraging him to try again on his own.

by stevendepolo, on Flickr

While not everything worked the next time he tried, after I started telling him that he CAN do it, I noticed that:

Many times, he would try more than once before giving up.
He said “I can’t do it” a lot less, even when he couldn’t.
He actually started telling others “You can do it” if he heard someone give up.

All of these things are pretty cool, and if a two and a half year old can get it, I think we can all learn that lesson.

If you fail at setting a budget, don’t just give up and say you can do it. Tell yourself that you can do it and start over again. And, as my son learned, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Work at it hard enough, and soon you’ll not only be doing it where you once thought you couldn’t, but you’ll be the one providing encouragement and advice moving forward.

So, find something you think you can’t do. Tell yourself “I can’t do it”.

Then stop and say: “I CAN do it”

Then, go give it a try. You might just surprise yourself…

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page. This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2012 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive!

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Don’t Yell At Telemarketers

Money Beagle — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:59:49 +0000

I love telemarketing calls. Few things make me happier than picking up the phone, hearing a few seconds of silence, only to get pitched some product or service that I don’t want. It just makes my day. It all makes me so happy that instead of the ‘DO NOT CALL’ list, I wish they would invent the ‘PLEASE CALL’ list. I’d be the first one to sign up.

OK, absolutely none of that is true.

Truth be told, I hate telemarketing calls just as much as well…everybody else.

But I won’t yell at them. Or be mean to them.

Why is that?

Because a job experience many years ago taught me a few things about telemarketers.

I worked for a small IT company, and one day I was sent out to a new client that had come from a referral. They needed us to help set up their network, a couple servers, about 25 desktops, and a few printers printers, stuff that was pretty routine. I got the name of the company and the location, made an appointment, and headed out the day of the appointment.

The name of the company didn’t clue me in at all to what they did. It’s not like they were named ‘TELEMARKETING CENTRAL’. It’s been so long that the name escapes me, but it could have been any type of business. So, when I got there and started finding out the details about the job, and that telemarketing was key, I was surprised and didn’t know what to expect.

From a systems perspective, it was a pretty routine install. There were a few extra cards that got plugged into the server to handle the phone lines, and there was an extra card in each desktop machine that allowed the person to talk and type all from the PC. Besides that, it was pretty straightforward.

After things went live, we went back now and then for general support issues or changes that came up. By that time, the call center was in full effect. And, as I watched them work, I learned even more:

The people making the calls did not make the decisions. They did not sign the contracts on what products or services to represent.
The people who made those decisions were nowhere to be found. The call centers are kept separate from the corporate offices, so while there are floor managers, you don’t find the people that made the deals mixing with the people that had to do the deals.
There’s a reason for the pause. There’s a background system that auto-dials numbers and it will only transfer to a live agent if it hears a voice. That explains why you will often pick up, say hello, and have a few seconds of silence before someone comes in to make their pitch.
The script was right there. People had to follow the script. This included following up and making a second attempt even after the customer initially declines.
If they don’t follow the script, they could get fired. Part of the job of the floor manager was to spend a portion of his or her day listening into calls and ensuring that the script was being followed.
The people making the calls got no pleasure out of it. They knew what they were doing. They knew that the people they were calling most likely didn’t want to hear from them. But, they needed the work and were happy for the paycheck. In talking with them, most were barely scraping by and needed the check. Many had kids that the paycheck was providing food and clothing to.
They got paid minimum wage.
Turnover was high. Nobody went into that field as a career goal. The people in the corporate offices? Maybe. But, the people making the calls got out the second that they could.
They let it roll off. Mostly. They get hung up on and yelled at a lot so much that they pretty much just let it slide off and move to the next call. But, I can’t imagine that it doesn’t still get to them.

Essentially what I learned is that the people that made the calls are real people, and in all honesty, they hate making the calls just as much as you hate receiving them. If you get mad at them or threaten them or belittle them, you’re accomplishing absolutely nothing.

The best strategy is to be polite but firm. You might have to say “No thank you” (and you should say thank you at least once) more than once, but if you think you’re going to make a point by yelling at them, I can pretty much assure you that you’re barking up the wrong tree.

Have you ever lost it with a telemarketer? I’m sure there are some horror stories out there.

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page.This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2012 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive!

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Don’t Get Tunnel Vision When It Comes To Your Finances

Money Beagle — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:36:26 +0000

When I was in high school, I worked for my aunt and uncle, who owned a collectibles shop. At the time, figurines such as Precious Moments and Hummel were very popular, and their store became one of the more popular area destination for collectible enthusiasts.

Since most of the stuff was breakable and there was stock in the back room of many items, we would get the item from the back and unwrap it for the customer to look at while they were ringing up. Occasionally, a customer would find something that they didn’t like about what they were buying. Often paint was incorrect or maybe they would discover a small chip. They would point out the defect and they’d ask for a different one. Assuming we had more, we were happy to oblige.

Over the years of working there, I noticed an interesting behavior that, I would estimate 90% of customers were guilty of. When we unwrapped the replacement piece, they would look only at the spot where they had previously discovered the defect. If the first one had a chip on the back, they’d take the new one, look at the back, and finding no chip, give it back with the OK.

This puzzled me because, with that course of action, they neglected to look at the new piece in its entirety. If there happened to be a chip in another location on the new piece, chances are they would have missed it, simply because their mind had zeroed in on the spot where the defect was in the original piece.

Many of us can get similarly focused on a problem with our finances. If something goes wrong with our finances, it’s absolutely correct to focus on that and fix the problem, but don’t make the mistake of assuming everything else is OK. Even if it was before.

The lesson here is to focus on your finances as a whole. Sure, you want to focus on the problem spots, but if you look only at the problem spots from the past, you might miss warning signs of potential problems in other spots.

Here are some areas where this could potentially apply:

Just because your 401(k) had a great return last year, don’t assume you shouldn’t look at the allocations.
Just because your credit card payments deducted every month without fail for two years, don’t assume they came out on the date they have every month. Make sure to check.
Just because your cable company has never made a billing error before, don’t just toss the bill in the trash. Make sure everything looks correct.

I’m sure there are others and I’d love to hear your input.

Bottom line: Don’t get tunnel vision when it comes to your finances. There are potential cracks or chips all over the place, so make sure to give a good look to all areas.

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The Maddening Part About Christmas Finances

Weekend Roundup: February 17, 2012

Money Beagle — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:15:55 +0000

What are your plans for the weekend? For the first time in many weekends, I don’t think we have any. But I’m sure we’ll find something to do.

If you have a few minutes, check out these great blog posts as well as blog carnivals in which I’ve recently been included:

The Single Saver – When Should I Plant Seeds?
Money Green Life – Change Your Oil Every 3,000 Miles (If You’re Dumb)
Daily Money Shot – The Day The Kitchen Floor Melted
The Financial Blogger – What Are Your Life Changing Moments?
Money Talks – Tales From The Call Center
20s Finance – Totally Money Carnival
Steadfast Finances – Yakezie Carnival
The Skilled Investor – Carnival of Financial Planning
One Cent At A Time – Carnival of Personal Finance
101 Centavos – Yakezie Carnival
Don’t Mess With Taxes – Carnival of Taxes
Money Qanda – Carnival of Personal Finances

Have a fantastic weekend!

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Budgeting Our Tax Refund

Money Beagle — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:32:52 +0000

We haven’t received our tax refund yet, but I’ve already budgeted what we’re going to do with it.

Before any readers get up in arms, know this:

I have a ballpark idea of what our refund will be
I usually estimate conservatively, meaning that we usually get at least what I estimate
Most of it is going into savings

Using a couple of online estimators, I was able to forecast roughly what our tax refund will be from the feds. I have a separate fund within our money market accounts where I allocate a portion of any blogging income aside to offset the increased income which does not get taxed throughout the year. Add this to our state refund and this comprises the entire amount we’ll get back.

Without knowing the amounts, I can already tell you where it will likely go. Things might change a little bit here and there, but overall, here’s the percentage allocation we’re likely looking at:

Savings replenishment – 25% – When we bought our camper last year, we went a tad bit over budget. We have a comfortable savings and we went ‘over budget’ with the understanding that we’d essentially pay ourselves back with the refund and a percentage of other income
New car fund – 20% – Eventually we’ll need to replace our cars, currently 5 and 6 years old and ideally we would not take on a new car payment when that happens.
Home repair – 20% – We have a really big oak tree in our backyard that is dying and needs to be removed this year as it is annoying (it drops what leaves it grows around the 4th of July) and is close to the corner of the house so it presents a future danger. It’s very tall and will have to come down in pieces so it’s probably going to be pretty costly. We’re also continuing to save for a new roof in the next couple of years.
Kids fund – 15% – Little Boy Beagle will be starting pre-school in the fall, so we would like to have that paid for up front.
Travel fund – 10% – This fall will be our 5-year wedding anniversary, so we’d like to do something fun for that, as well as pay for the camping trips we plan on taking throughout the summer in our new camper.
Auto / Camper repair – 5% – Fix any routine or unexpected costs arising from the cars or camper
Gift funds – 5% – To pay for Christmas gifts and other gifts that we purchase throughout the year.

All that adds up to 100%.

If the refund comes in significantly higher than we estimated, we’ll often give ourselves $50-100 each in extra spending money but if we don’t get that, it’s not that great a deal.

In other words, most of it goes directly into savings with allocations to specific earmarks. The travel fund is the only thing that my wife would consider ‘not boring’ *lol*

What are you planning on doing with your tax refund this year?

Image: Calculator and tax return by Images_of_Money, on Flickr

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Budgeting For Basement Renovations

How To Clean Tile Grout

Money Beagle — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:24:59 +0000

Last month, I outlined my list of 500 tasks to do throughout the year, essentially keeping track of recurring tasks that will keep things around the house functional, clean, and clutter free. One of the things I added was a regular ‘deep cleaning’ of the bathroom tile and grout.

Both of the bathrooms upstairs are white on white: White tile with white grout. It’s simple and can be a very clean look, well, if it’s clean.

Which it really hasn’t been.

We use a steam mop every time we clean the house, which actually works great on the tile itself, but it does nothing for the tile.

From everyday use, the grout has gotten progressively darker in both of the bathrooms, and started to look pretty dingy. It was even worse in the shower stall of our bathroom.

I’ve always been a pretty big fan of eHow, so I was happy to find a solution that involved using Oxi Clean as a solution. Oxi Clean has always worked well as an addition for laundry, but I always knew it probably had more uses.

The article essentially suggested that you make a paste out of it, combining two and a half scoops of Oxi Clean with two cups of water. I ended up adding more Oxi Clean as I found that it wasn’t really a paste, but just thickened water. In the future, I might have to experiment with the ratios.

Following the instructions, I applied it to the grout. You don’t really scrub it in, you just apply it and leave it sit for awhile to let it work itself in. I used a rag to apply it to the tile, and went off to do some other stuff, returning about 45 minutes later. By that point, some of it had dried, but that was OK. I came with hot water and a cleaning brush and set to work scrubbing. I could instantly tell that it was working.

The Grout Wall by Afroswede, on Flickr

I scrubbed all the areas that I had done, then I emptied the bucket, re-filled it, and got a fresh rag. I wiped it off a few times, because the article stresses that you really don’t want to leave Oxi Clean residue around, so make sure it’s completely off.

Once that was done, I went back over the whole floor with the steam mop.

I only did about 1/3 of the floor and one of the three walls in the shower, simply for the reason that you have to leave yourself an area to work (and I could have done all three walls in the shower, but I was getting tired plus I wanted to see if it actually would work). Right now, it looks a little strange in our bathroom because you can definitely tell the difference between where I did it and where I haven’t, but seeing it will give me extra motivation to finish up the remaining areas.

As I said before, I’m excited to see what other uses we can find from Oxi Clean. It’s been a staple in our house for years, but I have a feeling that cleaning the tile grout is just one of the many uses that we will hopefully discover.

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Things Do Happen In Threes, Just Ask The Water Froggies

Money Beagle — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:40:32 +0000

Last month I wrote about how we need a new dishwasher soon as our current 13-year old machine has sprung a small leak.

We were alerted to the leak by a small water froggie device that I had placed under the machine. A while back, I got six of them from Woot. They’re as you might think, a small device that looks like a frog that beeps when the sensors on the bottom come in contact with water.

I put the six devices around the house. Under the dishwasher, under the washer, next to the hot water tank (two), under the kitchen sink, and under the bathroom sink that gets used most often.

For now, the dishwasher is still running. I have a lid from a plastic bin that I put under the dishwasher that catches the small amount of water that comes out. It actually evaporates pretty quickly, so although I check it every now and then, the leak hasn’t gotten any worse. I’m hoping for another three months as I know there are usually pretty good sales on appliances around Memorial Day.

But, as it turns out, the water froggies have been busy!

A couple of weeks ago, my wife called letting me know that there was a leak in front of the washing machine, and that the froggie under the machine was beeping. We have a front loading machine and we both assumed that this was because a piece of clothing got stuck in the door, something that happens now and then.

Turns out, it wasn’t, as the next load caused another puddle. Upon further examination, a small piece of the rubber seal had broken off, so there was no longer a firm seal around the door.

Luckily for us, we have an appliance repair plan through our gas company that services broken down appliances. We didn’t use it for the dishwasher because the thing is noisy as all heck, the insulation is broken down, and the motor sounds like it’s about ready to go so they probably wouldn’t fix it anyways as they won’t fix end-of-life appliances. But, they did fix the washing machine. So, we got a brand new rubber seal which took care of that problem.

I commented to my wife that things always seemed to happen in threes, so we were due for another froggie going off. Since the water heater is also an original, I said that would probably be the next thing.

Turns out, I was right about the ‘threes’ but it wasn’t the water heater.

Before by nateOne, on Flickr

On Sunday, my wife was cutting up a bunch of vegetables for the week, including jumbalya that day and soup later in the week. I was downstairs in the basement in the play room and heard the disposal stop and start a few times. I registered that something didn’t sound right, but it didn’t really hit me that anything was wrong. Suddenly, she called me upstairs.

She said that the disposal wasn’t draining. She had put a bunch of carrot peels down, and it was running, but it wasn’t draining.

I know my wife knows how to run a garbage disposal (flip a switch) but I still figured I’d make sure she had covered the basics, so I walked over and hit the switch. The mess started to go down. I kind of smirked when suddenly, I felt water at my feet. And, then the water froggie started beeping.

Turned everything off and opened the cabinet doors to find carrot-geddon had occurred.

Apparently, the disposal did its work and crunched up the carrots but it wasn’t able to send them down the drain fast enough, so it clogged the u-pipe drain. I figure that stopping and starting the disposal created a vacuum effect similar to if we’d used a plunger. The pressure built and built until something had to give. Turns out, what gave was the clamp holding the various pieces of pipe together. It popped loose sending carrot peels and water everywhere.

The fix was simple enough. Unscrew the other side of the pipe, take out all the carrot peels, rinse out the pipe, and run a shop vac to the rest of the line, trying to pull out any peels that had made it downstream. Put the pipe back, and re-fasten.

That was the easy part.

The hard part was cleaning the finely minced carrot peels that had exploded everywhere under the sink.

The shop vac took care of most of it but still, going back and cleaning every nook and cranny as well as wiping down every item that we stored under the sink, as well as clean up the floor that had seen the overflow….well all that took about two hours in total. And I’m sure we’ll still be finding carrot flakes until we rip out the cabinets despite my best effort.

It wasn’t as catastrophic as having melted a hole in the floor, a story shared on Jana’s blog last week, but it definitely tried.

So, when I commented that we were due for a third froggie beeping, turns out I was right, though just not on the one that would beep. Now that I got that right, let’s hope that these things go a good long time with silence. I’m tired of all these leaks!

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The Wrong Thing To Focus On When Re-Financing

Money Beagle — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:21:26 +0000

We re-financed last year as have many homeowners who are taking advantage of historically low rates.

One thing that I’ve seen in some of the discussions about re-financing is a focus on the wrong thing. See if you can spot what’s wrong with the following hypothetical statement:

“Our current 30 year rate is 6% but we’re able to get our re-financed 30-year loan at 4.25%. This will save us $350 per month!”

On the surface, this looks like great news all around. Lower interest rate, saving more money, what could possibly be wrong?

Simple: The focus on the monthly payment is misguided.

In this scenario, you’re going from an existing 30 year mortgage to a new 30 year mortgage. This means it’s thirty years from the re-finance date, meaning that your total time of paying the bank is thirty years plus however long you already spent on the original thirty year note. If you’ve been paying for five years, that means you’ll be working on this loan for thirty five years.

On top of that, part of the ‘monthly savings’ that the hypothetical homeowner is so happy about comes, not from the lower rate, but from the fact that they’re spreading the remaining balance over additional years (in the example above, thirty years versus twenty five years).

When you’re re-financing, it’s my advice to look at how much time you have remaining on the existing mortgage, and strive to shorten it, or at worst, keep it the same.

In the example above where the homeowner has already paid five years on the original note, their new mortgage should be no greater than twenty five years. Ideally, they should go for a fifteen year note.

This could mean that the homeowner might have to pay more than they did every month. If you’re looking at only the bottom line, many will rule this out, even if they have the income to do so. But the benefits are tremendous: You’ll apply a ton more toward principle and you’ll get done paying the mortgage that much earlier. And your interest rate will be lower.

In the example above, going to a fifteen year mortgage might end up costing the homeowner an extra $150 over what they’re paying today. If they can afford that, though, they shave a total of ten years off of the time that they pay on the house, and they pay a fraction of the total interest cost.

Now, if your payments are already stretched to the limit, fine. Go ahead and get the thirty year re-finance, but instead of banking that extra money from the lower payment, keep your payment the same as what you were paying. One hundred percent of that extra payment goes toward principle, so you’ll end up paying the mortgage off way faster, keeping with my goal not to exceed the term of your original loan.

In the example above, sticking with a 30 year note but plowing that ‘saved $450′ right back into the mortgage could have them paying the new loan off in, say, twenty years. Add the five years from the original note, and they’re paying for a total of twenty five years, still way ahead of the original thirty year loan.

That’s five years less of stress!

If you’re in the market for a re-finance, great. Just make sure to focus on the right numbers!

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Figuring Out the “Where” Of Retirement

Money Beagle — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:30:48 +0000

Planning for retirement involves asking – and answering – a number of important questions. When are you going to retire? How are you going to save money for your post-career life? What investment vehicles (IRAs, 401Ks, Aurora Bank money markets) will you use to insure the optimal amount of savings? Certainly, there are plenty of questions to ask and factors to consider whenever retirement comes to mind.

But while you’re busy answering the whens, hows, and whats of retirement planning, make sure not to forget an important but oft-overlooked question: the “where.” Specifically, where do you envision retiring when the time comes? You don’t need to have concrete and detailed plans, but it’s important to have a good conception of your retirement location when planning savings and spending during your work life.

The first step in addressing the “where” is to determine whether you plan to stay in your current home, move elsewhere (i.e. to a condo or smaller residence) in your local area, or move to another region of the country or the world altogether. Most people choose to stay in their local area out of contentment, familiarity, and family ties. If this sounds like a situation that you may find yourself in, you then want to determine whether you stay in your home or try to downsize your residence. My wife and I could never imagine leaving our home once our mortgage is finally paid off. Others, however, want to seek out a smaller living space or a more vibrant neighborhood once their careers are over and their children are grown. And still others, of course, will choose to move across the country in search of warmer weather and a more retiree-friendly lifestyle.

So what’s the value of figuring this all out now? While it’s always good to plan ahead from a logistical perspective, the real benefit of location planning is much more real: it allows you to answer the “how” question and determine exactly how much money you’ll need for retirement. The general consensus is that a retiree will need 70 to 80 percent of their annual income in order to retire comfortably. Use this number as your starting point. Then, factor in the “where.” If you plan to stay in your current home, expenses will generally be lower and you can bump down your estimate to as low as 60 percent. You may also be able to save less if you plan to move to a college town or to a rural area where the cost of living is lower. On the other hand, a move to a condo downtown or to a highrise in San Diego will likely push you to the 80 percent level and beyond. This isn’t simply the result of housing costs; it also reflects higher entertainment and meal expenses, two areas where retiree spending falls on all parts of the spectrum.

All this is to say that location matters when retirement is concerned, and that you can best plan and prepare by considering location sooner rather than later. You may find that your location allows you to save less than you originally thought. Or you may need to save more or retire later in order to live comfortably in your desired location. Either way, it’s good to ask the “where” of saving now so that you can enjoy the “where” of retirement later.

This is a guest post.

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Does The Savings Rate Include Retirement Savings?

Should College Students Be Forced To Have Health Insurance?

Money Beagle — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:30:53 +0000

I wasn’t aware of this, but apparently more and more colleges are requiring that students have health insurance.

One of our local papers reported that Michigan State is the latest school to put this type of program in place, and say that it’s currently in place or rolling out at 25% of colleges across the country, a number that is growing.

The cost ($1,500 per year) is nothing to sneeze at, but when it comes to health insurance, is actually pretty cheap, though I’m guessing it’s a pretty bare bones plan, and that since most college kids stay reasonably healthy, is a pretty low cost plan to the provider as well.

Still, it raises a few questions:

What if you forget to provide proof? Could you get billed for coverage you already have? If so, will some simply overlook this or have an administrative battle on their hands to back out of it?
Is this any of the schools business? The article I posted the link to never really indicated the rationale behind this, except to say that colleges want to ensure that students don’t have to choose between education and paying for a health care bill. I can see this but it seems a little flimsy.
Is this tied into Obamacare somehow? I thought this bill required that everybody have health insurance by a certain date. Is this a way to get in front of this for the student population?

Back in my college days, I was covered under my parents insurance plan, so this wouldn’t have applied to me. But, I expect more and more students are uninsured, and I wonder how this affects them.

If you were attending college, would this type of requirement make you more or less likely to attend that particular college? Do you see this as an infringement on a students right or as a way to take a potential bad decision out of the students hands?

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