Money Beagle

Spending A Little More On Coffee

Money Beagle — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:12:06 +0000

In March, I got assigned to a temporary assignment at work. Instead of working at my office, which is only two and a half miles from my home, I was doing site assessments all over the Metro Detroit area. It was good work, it was on a high visibility project, and it let me see up front what we actually do, versus the back-end support we provide in the office, so it was a pretty positive experience.

One of the things I had to adjust was my morning coffee. My standard routine at the office was that I would drink from the ‘free coffee’ provided, but would add in my own half-and-half. When I started the assignment, I started making my own coffee at home to take with me every morning. Typically I would only make coffee at home on the weekends or on days when I’m off. I buy pre-ground Columbian Coffee from Costco. It’s $15 for a really big can. It would typically last about four months, meaning I would spend about $45 per year on coffee.

After finishing up my assignment, I went back to work and the first day, went back to my old routine, and realized something.

The coffee is horrible.

It’s not the worst I’ve ever had for work coffee, but even so, it’s just not…good.

Six weeks away from the ‘free stuff’ turned me into a bit of a coffee snob. I realized I could have re-adjusted and probably gotten used to the free stuff, but I realized something.

I didn’t want to.

So, I have started bringing some coffee from home. When I pack my lunch, I scoop out enough for the next day, and I make some coffee from home once I get to work. I only make enough for me to drink my two mugs per day. Work has filters (or I have some left over from an old coffee machine) and they have the coffee maker, so all that’s different is that I’m providing the coffee. Since I get to work really early, I don’t have to worry about anybody stealing my coffee while it’s being made.

I estimate that this will require me to buy two additional cans per year. That’s $30, working out to an extra $2.50 per month.

Some people spend that every day on a cup of coffee from Starbucks, so adding that to my budget for the sake of having coffee I truly enjoy is worth it to me. I still think I’m being frugal in that I’m only making a partial pot per day to make only what I need, and I’m still using the company supplies and electricity.

Have you ever justified spending a little more on a small indulgence?

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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Why Wall Street Secretly Loves The European Crisis

Money Beagle — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:51:46 +0000

One of my predictions for 2012 was that Wall Street and the financial markets would begin to ignore the European financial crisis, where Greece and possibly others essentially are having a hard time paying all the money that they’ve borrowed throughout the years. Last year the market would get hammered on days where anybody expressed a smidgen of fear of something bad happening.

I thought that the dust would settle and that Wall Street would move on.

I was wrong.

For a while in the beginning part of the year, the news about Europe was pretty quiet. Wall Street did actually shrug off a lot of news, but would still have the occasional freak out about Europe. In the last couple of weeks, the news is suddenly back out and Wall Street has been freaking out in earnest once again.

I believe they actually love it.

Here’s why.

I believe in conspiracy when it comes to the stock market. I don’t trust people that do trading, and I think that there is dishonesty, manipulation,and insider trading that goes on all the time. I believe in the efficient market theory on paper, but in practice, there’s no way.

And, I think traders use Europe as a way to cover up the dishonesty that prevails in Wall Street.

Simply put, Wall Street can use Europe as a scapegoat to do anything that they want and blame ‘Europe fears’.

I’ve watched earnings reports pretty regularly. One theme that I’ve seen happen lately is that a company will blow out earnings. I mean beyond what was likely priced in, as I know pricing stuff like this in does take place. I’m talking 40 cents a share where ‘the Street’ might have predicted 12 cents a share.

The stock will even rise for a little bit in pre-market trading and then at the bell.

Look what just happened. Investors, many whom are likely individual investors (as opposed to institutional investors) just saw great news and they saw the stock start to rise. They buy in, hoping to ride the wave, not knowing that the sharks on the other side of their high speed trading computers, are snickering and reeling them in.

Suddenly the bottom drops off. That stock that just tripled expected earnings suddenly gives back the money it made at the open and actually goes down, often by a few percent.

Individual investors just got taken for a ride. Who do you think took that money and put it in their own pockets?

The crooks on Wall Street.

And when they’re asked about it, they say ‘Well, yeah, they beat earnings, but uh…we’re worried about their growth. You know, because of the whole Europe situation at all.’

They might not snicker out loud or on the e-mail that they use to publish this, but trust me, they are.

And, that, is why I was wrong about Europe and the effect it would have on Wall Street. Because while the news might be bad and there might be trouble, Wall Street has latched on as a way to skim (scam) some additional profits off the backs of investors just trying to do the right thing.

Do you think Wall Street operates on the up-and-up?

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The Old Desktop Computer May Have Bit The Dust

Money Beagle — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:32:37 +0000

I’ve always been a pretty savvy tech guy. My career has been IT. One thing I learned, though, is that no technology, especially in the PC world, ever stays current. Thus, I pretty much have gotten in the pattern of keeping computers until they die or are basically unusable.

Around 2004 was the last time I purchased a desktop computer. At the time, it was a pretty state of the art machine. It was a Dell Precision 370 workstation, and it had a really cool graphics card, additional memory, and SATA hard drives, which were pretty fast back then.

It was a great computer and very fast, but as computers do, it started to slow down over time. I think that happens because the computer does actually slow down as you use it and install more stuff on it, as well as appearing slower simply because the new computers coming out are faster.

I re-installed everything once a few years later, and a couple of years later I added more memory, an upgraded hard drive, and a few other improvements to basically max it out.

We have since inherited a couple of laptops from my parents, the latest of which we use as our primary computer. Still, the desktop computer was one I used for browsing, random game playing, and as a hookup to all of our external hard drives where we keep multiple copies of any picture, music, document, spreadsheet or other files, and it also acted as a central print server so we could print from other computers we had.

Recently, I was using it and suddenly it freaked out. The video got crazy. That’s the only word I can use to describe it. It got into a weird test pattern. Powering down and back up got it into a state where it would start up but not really boot up. It actually did boot up one time and I used it for a couple of hours, but since then, it hasn’t booted up once. I’ve reseated all the power connections, memory modules, and external cards, but so far that hasn’t worked. One time it did boot up and the fan started running so fast I thought it was going to blow a hole in the wall behind the computer.

The diagnostic lights on the back of the computer aren’t giving me any really good information. I may try another video card but I’m not too hopeful.

I think it may be lost. But eight years for a computer has to be like 120 years old, right? If it is gone, it definitely had a good life.

It really wouldn’t change anything if we lost it. I’m pretty sure the hard drives are fine, and I don’t think that we have anything on them anyways of importance.

I guess time will tell what we do. Right now, we’ll do nothing, but down the line do I:

Get another desktop computer, which could probably be had for a couple hundred bucks?
Get a laptop computer? We already have two of those plus I can use the one from work for stuff as well
Get a tablet
Just scrap it and do nothing.

I guess time will tell if we actually miss the computer in any way that would warrant us having a new one. For now, we have an older laptop that I’ve started using. If that were to die as well, we would definitely need to do something, but since that was probably from 2005 or 2006, we hopefully have another year or two where we could scrape by with what we have.

What are your computer habits? Do you get new computers regularly? Do you use your computers mainly for browsing?

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15 Reasons I Love The Month Of May

Money Beagle — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:31:19 +0000

There’s a lot to be appreciative in the month of May.

Grilling outside – I sometimes gripe about it, but let’s face it, a burger or hot dog just tastes better when it comes off the grill, doesn’t it?
Cleaning the garage – The garage is the one space that I have complete control over. The desire to keep it spic and span in the sub-zero temperatures of winters doesn’t exist, so there’s sweeping and straightening that lets my re-claim “my space” in May.
Bikes down – We just pulled the bikes down over the weekend and are looking forward to taking some bike rides, a great way to spend any nice day or evening!
Cutting the grass – I just love that smell of freshly mowed grass
Eating outside – You make those great burgers and dogs, it’s better to eat them outside
Getting ready for family fun – We just bought our camper last fall and are anxiously working to get it stocked and ready for some fun trips starting next month!
Planting flowers – We have a few planting beds and pots around that we enjoy filling up with flowers. Last summer was the first one we finally had success pretty much across the board. Here’s hoping!
Lighter laundry baskets – My wife does most of the laundry around the house, but my one job is to take the baskets downstairs to the laundry room. Lighter clothing means baskets that don’t weigh as much!
Trips to the zoo – Even though the animals are in the same place, the zoo is always a fun time.
Trips to the beach – Once it warms up, there’s nothing like jumping in the lake on a hot day, and the kids are sure to love it.
Walks through the neighborhood – We love taking walks through the subdivision, either before or after dinner. Now that we set up the kids wagon, they really enjoy it too!
Kids play outside – The kids get to spend time outside, which keeps them in better spirit after being cooped up during the winter.
Windows open – Whether it be in the car or at home, there’s nothing like throwing open the windows and getting that warm breeze.
Celebration time starts – May kicks off a six week period where we have Mother’s Day, birthdays for my wife, my son, and my daughter, and Father’s Day. It’s great to celebrate with so many important people!
Low utility bills – May weather typically means that it’s warm enough to not have to run the furnace too much, cool enough where the A/C isn’t required all that much, and wet enough to where you don’t need the sprinklers on that much. Low bills for the month are sure nice!

What’s your favorite month? What are some other reasons to love the month of May?

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Do You Adjust Your Home Insurance Structure Cost?

Money Beagle — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:16:56 +0000

For the first few years after we moved into our house in 2007, the value of the home declined on pretty much every level. Comparable houses went for less. Average square foot went less. Zillow told us it was worth less. Even our property tax assessments told us it was worth less every year. We didn’t trick ourselves into thinking it was worth more. We knew darn well, just like everybody else, that it was worth less.

Well, almost everybody.

Allstate apparently has not gotten on board with the lower value theory.

Our homeowners policy is probably just like every other one in that it defines the maximum replacement cost if the structure had to be rebuilt. This makes sense, but what doesn’t is that it has risen each and every single year, and not by a small amount.

This year, the maximum value of the house plus other structures (garage, deck, what is this, I’ll have to ask) is totaled over $120,000 higher than the value that I would expect we could sell the house for.

And that selling price includes the lot as well.

Our house is nice but it’s nothing fancy. I know darn well that Allstate wouldn’t put granite countertops in the event that the house or kitchen needed to be re-built. They would pay for the same formica counters we have now. Sure, they’d ‘allow’ us to pay the difference, but my point is, I see no way where re-building our house would cost anywhere near the maximum value that they are reporting.

The two variables I wonder about are demolition and landscaping. Assuming the worst, that our house suffered a catastrophic fire, I’m assuming that part of the cost would be the removal of what would be left standing to the point that they could start from scratch. I would also assume that since the current house has grass, bushes, and such, that these would be replaced since they’d be lost during either the hypothetical fire or the demolition process.

Even with these two factors, plus maybe other stuff (re-connecting all the utilities), I can’t see any scenario where re-building our home would approach the maximum value that we’re insured up to.

So, I ask, dear readers:

Have you ever had your insurance provider adjust the maximum value of the house?
What type of savings have you achieved if so?
Are there other costs that I’m forgetting?
Am I missing something glaringly obvious?
What other questions or scenarios should I ask my agent when I give a call to discuss this?

We do have content coverage, which I’m fine with, and we have guest medical costs and all that, I’m strictly looking at the line items that refer to a potential structure replacement.

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Making It In Diapers Without Amazon

Money Beagle — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:06:07 +0000

We were big fans of the Amazon Mom program when it first came out. When it first debuted, you got 30% off diapers and free shipping, plus a year of Prime benefits.

It was pure awesome.

I kind of figured that it might be too good to be true, and sure enough, it was. They cut the discount from 30% to 20%, then they rolled out the kicker: To get that, you had to pay $79 in Amazon Prime membership. If you didn’t subscribe to Prime, you got a measly 5%.

We went back and forth on whether to subscribe or not. It was really nice getting anything we ordered in two days, and the diaper discounts were nice.

In the end, we decided against the membership. At first, there was a withdrawal period. Instead of just having diapers show up at our door, we had to go get them. Instead of having anything we need in two days, we had to either wait for it (and sometimes scramble to hit the $25 minimum on Free Super Saver shipping) or go get it ourselves.

In the end, though, we’ve managed just fine.

My wife always seems to find diaper deals at either Target or Meijer, where they’ll have an in-store coupon that they will allow you to combine with a manufacturers coupon, plus sometimes they’ll do a deal where if you buy a couple of packs, you get a gift card that you can use on your next order. We might be paying slightly more for diapers than we would have with Amazon, but when you factor the additional $79 that Amazon would have wanted, I think we’re at least breaking even.

It also helps that our little boy is potty trained which as cut his diaper consumption down quite a bit (he still gets a diaper during nap and overnight).

And, if buying stuff got a little less convenient, well that’s OK too. It probably saves us money on buying stuff that we might not otherwise buy.

It was a nervous couple of weeks when Amazon first announced that they were effectively curbing the Amazon Mom program for us, but after we settled in, we realized that we are doing just fine.

At some point, Prime might be worth it if we look for the streaming movies and TV shows it gets you, but with summer coming up, camping trips planned, and a 10-month old that looks ready to walk within the next few weeks, well let’s just say that we have plenty to keep us entertained!

Any parents out there affected by the Amazon Mom changes earlier this year? How did you handle it and what changes has it meant for you?

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Getting Used To A New Credit Card

Money Beagle — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:07:45 +0000

We recently signed up for the American Express Costco credit card. The main reason is that you get 3% cash back on gasoline purchases. With the camper coming out of storage recently and planning a few trips, we know that we’ll be spending quite a bit on gas this summer, and looked for a card that would do the best to offset some of those costs.

The Costco card was definitely the right choice. I’m all about getting cash (even though Costco makes you get the cash at their service desk, that’s fine with me) and not any sort of points or mileage or anything like that. I know that some rewards might pay more at first but they tend to lower the rate after a few months or move you to rotating categories. For gas, I wanted something that didn’t do much changing, and so far as I could tell, the Costco card has been offering the 3% back for a number of years now.

Still, this is our first true American Express card, so there were a number of things that were different when it came time to paying our credit card.

Billing Cycle – The billing cycle was slightly off from our Citi Dividends cards. This is no big deal,as I pay off all the credit cards at the same time, but because the cycle closed a few days later, our gas costs for the month were slightly higher since there were a few extra days. No big deal.

Reward Wait Time- The Citi card gives you the cash back in your ‘account’ right away, where the American Express delays the reward by a month. So, our reward for the first month didn’t show up until a full month later. This was important to me because I wanted to make sure that the gas stations we typically use were classified correctly (they were) but it took a full month from our first statement to get this verification.

No Early Payments – Most of the stuff we purchase with our credit card fall into distinct categories: Groceries, Gas, Cell Phone Bill and a couple of others. If we have a ‘large’ purchase, we’ll put it on the card and I will often just pay that portion right way. This keeps the budget categories in line and gives us the cash rewards. American Express won’t let you pay early, as they will only let you pay based on your last statement date. Everything else is pending.

None of this is a big deal, but it’s interesting to see the slight differences. They’re not at all overwhelming, but it makes me realize how quickly things could get out of control if you kept adding different cards. We only have a couple of credit cards that we deal with, but I can imagine that there are plenty of people out there who have so many cards that it gets very easy to miss billing cycle dates or limits or other things. That’s why we took a lot of time to make sure that getting another card was the right decision for us, and I would encourage anybody using more than a couple of cards to consider simplifying.

Have you found yourself with credit card overload?

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Fuel Prices Rise, Driving Habits Changing

Money Beagle — Sat, 05 May 2012 11:15:36 +0000

Petrol prices may have fallen slightly but they remain high for motorists around the country, and due to inflation even further rises in the price of fuel look likely in the future. According to the latest AA Fuel Price Report, average petrol prices stood at 134.51p a litre in mid-October, compared with 135.61p in September, meaning motorists saw a slight reprieve month-to-month. Throughout the summer, the cost of petrol averaged 135.5p a litre, with a peak in May record of 137.43p a litre.

Over the summer, a family running two cars typically spent £241.54 more this year than they did a year ago. However, the higher prices may have had some benefits in terms of road safety, with people generally taking it a bit easier behind the wheel to get the most out of their hard-earned fuel. Slower driving not only leads to safer roads and savings on petrol costs, it could also mean lower car insurance premiums if it leads to fewer accidents for a sustained period of time – something that benefits everybody. With this in mind, more motorists are trying to find out how they can alter their driving habits and contribute to better motoring while saving some cash. What will it take to get more people to change their habits?

Recently, British Car Auctions published research showing that the rising cost of fuel is now the biggest factor affecting drivers behaviour and choice of cars. In a survey of 4,000 motorists, 27 per cent said they were looking for a vehicle with better fuel consumption, compared with 17 per cent who said they were looking for lower road tax. One quarter of those surveyed said fuel prices of up to £1.40 a litre would force them to change how they drive, while a further ten per cent would hold out until prices hit £1.50. With a drop in two-car families, this means the remaining car will have to work that much harder, said Tony Gannon, communications director at British Car Auctions. We are likely to see households keeping cars for longer and not changing them until mileages are much higher. He added: Our research shows that motorists have several measures in mind to curtail their frontline motoring costs. Unsurprisingly, 39 per cent said they would like to see a reduction in fuel duty if they were in power, while more than one in five said they would tackle the national fuel price. How can I reduce my fuel consumption when driving?

One of the simplest and most obvious ways to reduce your fuel consumption is something everybody should be doing anyway: observe the speed limit at all times. Petrol mileage decreases rapidly at speeds of over 60mph, so the steadier you go, the more you save – not to mention reducing the risk of having an accident or being picked up by the police for speeding, both of which can have dire consequences for your car insurance premiums. Driving more gently, by avoiding harsh acceleration and heavy braking, and changing gear at a more modest engine speed will also contribute to more fuel in your tank over time. Other ways to get more petrol for your money are to reduce excess weight in the car. By avoiding carrying unnecessary heavy items around, you can improve your miles per gallon significantly, although this will be more noticeable in smaller cars than larger ones. Leaving the engine idling when parked is another way to waste fuel, as is using air conditioning when it’s not needed. There are a number of training courses available that will teach these skills and many more to make you a safer driver, which could also mean you qualify for lower car insurance premiums.

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Things To Think About Before Making The Big Move

Money Beagle — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:01:30 +0000

Today’s post is a guest post from Kyle Taylor, who is the editor of ThePennyHoarder.com, a daily blog with weird & wacky tips on how to make extra money.

Coming up with a reason is the easy part. Looking for an adventure, running from a bad job market, getting away from a relationship gone south, heading to college, avoiding nagging parents and even just simple boredom, there are millions of reasons make people want to pull up familiar roots and start fresh in a new place.

Don’t jump out of your seat and pack the car quite yet: consider career options, geography and many other deciding factors before you take the out-of-state (or country) plunge.

Job Market and Cost of Living

Many different dynamics contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, and the ensuing economic slump that persists to this day. Likewise, many states weathered the Great Recession better than others, and still are weathering it better today.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists both Dakotas, Nebraska, Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa, Wyoming, Minnesota, Utah and Virginia as having 2012 unemployment rates at or below 5%. The cost of living varies from these top-ten states; for example, Vermont is considerably more expensive than North Dakota.

Plus, the list is dominated by agricultural-based economies (hence the lack of exposure to the real estate bubble that caused the economic crisis). Start out at an individual state’s .gov site (example: type in www.nd.gov for North Dakota) to see if you think it might be a good fit for you. From there, research unemployment statistics (also available at the BLS site), available industries, infrastructure, and get a general feel for what the state is all about.

Granola to Cowboy (and Cowgirl)

Life is more than career and money: don’t forget that different states are a better fit for different personality types.

Nuts and granola and outdoorsy? Colorado likely is a good middle-of-the-road cost of living fit that offers a plethora of outdoor adventures. Comfy in a cowboy hat and stirrups, and looking for a low cost-of-living alternative? The cowboy king of low-cost-of-living states, the Lone Star state, beckons you, weary traveler. But remember, Texas summers are stickier than grandma’s crusty-old fly paper (lots of bugs too, so keep the fly paper and bug spray handy). Shorts and sandals? Hawaii offers year-round balmy 80-degree sun but the cost of living and career opportunities (outside of the tourism industry) are onerous. Alaska is beautiful (especially in the summer) but is a foreboding and frigid Arctic region once Old Man Winter settles in. Is the world your doorstep?

Some Places Will Pay You to Move There

Amazingly, several cities across America actually pay you to move there. Seriously. Michigan’s Motor City entices would-be bohemians with generous college allowances or even a potential fixer-upper residence (cash from the city of Detroit to remodel it). Conditions apply (such as employment with certain companies within Detroit) but the fact still remains: you could be paid to make Motown your town. Want adventure? Alaska’s oil is black gold for state wanderlusters: The state of Alaska pays residents a nifty dividend each year, all you have to do is claim Alaska residence and U.S. citizenship and your yearly Permanent Fund Reserve oil dividend will arrive in the mail. The average dividend check is around $1200.

Camden, Maine and Curtis, Nebraska also offer out-of-staters promos and goodies. NASA is even paying people 5k per month to lie in bed (as part of a research experiment at the Houston, Texas Johnson Space Center).

So, have you made any big moves lately? How many months/years of homework did you do before you moved?

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A Bittersweet Net Worth Milestone

Money Beagle — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:47:28 +0000

For the first time in over three years, I estimate that we have full positive equity in our home.

This is a good thing, but it’s bittersweet considering that we put 20% down on our home in 2007. Part of the downside was automatic and would have been in any market (see below) but that’s still a lot of equity lost otherwise.

The calculation

I estimate the top-line value (what a contract would say) of our home using four inputs:

Tax estimates – The city tax bill gives the value of our home, and it’s generally been pretty accurate compared to market estimates
The bank estimate – Our lender has always allowed us to pseduo-begin a re-finance application, at one point where it would give you a ballpark estimate of your home.
Zillow – Even though this changes regularly, we use this as a fraction of the calculation.
The ‘sniff test’ – I look at comparable sells in the neighborhood and will give a manual adjustment based on what I think is realistic based on what’s going around us.

The 7.75% catch

Now, I mentioned above that some of the drop in value is expected. That’s simply a circumstance based on how I do the accounting.

My net worth is what I would expect to get if we cashed everything out. Since there are selling costs associated with the sell of a house, on day one I automatically wrote down 7.75% of the expected sell value of the house, as I would expect a realtor fee of 6%, miscellaneous filing and other ‘fees’ that come about, as well as a cushion for any improvements or such that might need to be done to get the place sell ready. Many people don’t do this, but I feel this is a more true cost based on how we calculate our net worth.

If you removed the 7.75% cushion, we were never technically underwater based on any estimates I had made. But, we did fall into what I considered ‘treading water’ where writing off the 7.75% brought us to a negative value, meaning simply, that had we sold our house, we would have owed money after paying the mortgage, the realtor, and other fees that would have been necessary.

This has been the case in my net worth spreadsheet for the last 37 months. But, this month we actually show that we would walk away with money. If home values stay stable, we will continue to build this number simply by the equity we add with our mortgage payment each month. Hopefully, the value would rise on top of that and we will eventually return to having a decent cushion.

This is worrisome but it doesn’t eat me alive, simply because I never viewed our house as an investment. We don’t plan on selling our house anytime soon, and we can afford the payments. It might take a couple of years, but we’ll return the equity back that we put in originally, and as we continue to make payments and the principle amount increases each month, and if the market continues to strengthen (which I believe it will), equity will flow back quickly.

Either way, even though it’s small, it’s nice to see a positive number in the ‘house’ part of our net worth statement.

Really, it’s about time.

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