Here is the latest installment of my family’s monthly expenses. Below are the results from October:

• $840.39 - Mortgage
• $759.20 - Health Insurance
• $675.00 - Life Insurance
• $531.67 -  Groceries
• $450.00 - Preschool
• $166.51 - Halloween Party
• $160.00 - Student Loan
• $158.18 - Gas
• $120.35 - Electricity
• $113.50 - Donations
• $103.71 - Phone & Internet
• $89.00 - Books
• $75.82 - Dinning out
• $61.02 - Utilities (Water, Sewer, Garbage)
• $47.07 - Car Maintenance
• $42.38 - Cookware
• $31.26 - Clothes
• $28.60 - Shoes
• $26.60 - Kids Care
• $26.53 - Gifts
• $22.26 - Dance Class
• $20.00 - Medical
• $14.00 - Hair Cut
• $10.74 - Beauty Products
• $10.54 - Household Misc
• $8.00 - Kids Fun
• $2.00 - Tennis

For a grand total of $4594.33!

Actually considering that we paid our life insurance premium this month.  I don’t think this is all that bad.

Biggest Budget Busters:

1. $531.67 -  Groceries.   Go back a couple of posts and you’ll see me talk about how I’m using my credit card for the next three months instead of cash to pay for groceries.  I said I hoped it wouldn’t alter my average spending on groceries which had been $381.43.  HA!  I blew that right out of the water.  But here’s the deal, I can’t totally blame this increase on using plastic.  A couple days after I wrote that post my wife & I decided to give Tony Gonzalez’s “All Pro Diet” a try.  The big thing for us was the smoothie for breakfast which will hopefully give us energy.  It involves hemp milk, protein powder, and a bunch of natural/organic foods.  Needless to say this increases our grocery expense. (My preliminary estimates are $55.41)
2. $166.51 - Halloween Party - Back when Mrs DD & I lived in the Twin Cities a friend of ours threw amazing Halloween parties.  So when we moved back to South Dakota, my wife wanted to throw one herself.  I fought her off for years, but she finally wore me down.  It was pretty fun. We had great food (another reason this month’s budget is out of whack), games, and some fun costumes.  But the best thing is, my wife decided it wasn’t worth all the hassle, so we’ll stick to plain old “trick or treating” next year. When I told her this total, she was surprised on how quick everything added up.  But at least it was cheaper than my B-Day party.
3. $89.00 - Books - I know what you’re saying, “DD how can someone who professes to love the library end up spending so much money on books?”  Well I’ll tell you how. Killing time in a Barnes & Noble is how.   My wife had an engagement shoot in Sioux Falls and I thought I’d waste some time in the bookstore.  Time wasn’t the only think I wasted. Actually only one of the books was an impulse buy.  The others are super cool and I’m glad I got them.  For example one is an historical account of my home town, and there is a picture of my house in it (with a horse & buggy going by).  How could I pass that up?  Of course this total also reflects the above mentioned diet book.  Time will tell if that ends up being a waste or not.

Biggest Budget Breakthroughs:

1. $75.82 - Dinning out - It seems strange to me saying that spending $75 on eating out is a breakthrough, but with two out of town trips and a “girls night out” this total could’ve easily been much worse.  That is the breakthrough.
2. $8.00 - Kids Fun - I already mentioned our family fall weekend that set us back a whopping $6, but I also wanted to bring up the best $1 I spent all month.   My mother in law was in town for Halloween(I think there was a witch convention or something) that meant a trip to the mall.   A mini arcade has gone in right next to the food court, so I thought it would be a blast to have our kids play the car racing game.  I was right! With my 2 year old son on my lap and my 4 year old daughter on my wife’s, my kids put on a clinic on how to drive.  It was hilarious.  I haven’t laughed so hard in a long, long time.
3. $2.00 - Tennis - This is how much a can of balls cost me.  And thanks to four straight cancellations in my tennis league, that can will last a long time.  Hopefully I remember how to play.

~Let’s do the Time Warp~

Last October we spent $4211.94.

Considering that we weren’t paying for our own Health Insurance then, I think we’re right in line with our spending from last year.  I see that I complained about a high grocery bill last year too.

499.75 - Groceries - We’re getting too close to the $500 level for my comfort.  But I have good news. My daughter’s food allergies have weakened enough so we no longer have to avoid wheat & dairy.  This should help lower the cost of groceries going forward.

So clearly we like to eat high on the hog in October.

Until next time,

-DD

Late October is an exciting time for sports fans.  Football is in full swing, we get the World Series and the NBA season tips off as well.  A little something for everybody.

With that in mind a couple of stores in today’s news caught my eye.

The first is nothing new.  It is one of seemingly limitless talent being greatly rewarded with riches beyond most of our dreams.

Antoine Walker was an NBA superstar.  In his 13 year playing career he made $110 Million dollars.  The Boston Globe is now reporting that he is trouble for writing $1 million in bad checks to Vegas casinos. Not only that but it also tuns out that he owes other creditors upwards of $4 million. Even his old agent is after him for unpaid bills.

Off the court, there were the cars, the jewelry, the houses, the suits, the gambling. He liked to move in an outsized entourage; his mother estimates that, during his playing days, he was supporting 70 friends and family members in one way or another. And speaking of his mother, he built her a mansion in the Chicago suburbs, complete with an indoor pool, 10 bathrooms, and a full-size basketball court.

Maybe he can move back in with his Mom.

In the middle of stories of Walker living the high life there was a line in the article that stood out to me:

NBA agents and players contacted for this article say an annual “burn rate’’ of $2 million to $4 million isn’t unusual for the living expenses of an elite player.

Yowsers!  ”Burn” rate is right.

While I shake my head when hearing stories like this one, I also can see why this sort of thing happens.   A lot of superstars (not just athletes, take Nicolas Cage for example) are elite at what they do, but they don’t know squat about money.  They don’t spend their time perusing PF blogs.

A good example of this can be seen on the show Hard Knocks.

Hard Knocks is a show that gives you an inside look at an NFL team during training camp. This year the Cincinnati Bengals are the featured team. Chad Ocho Cinco is their star wideout. They show him talking with his coach about what to do with his money.   Check it out here. (Go to the 4:57 mark…WARNING, there is plenty of explicit language)

I don’t know about you, but after watching that clip I have a feeling that he isn’t set up for retirement (although maybe he will be fine since he doesn’t waste money on contraptions).

But something tells me that Phil Coke will be.

Phil Coke is relief pitcher for the New York Yankees and according to a Yahoo article he is also one of the lowest paid members of the Yankees.   Granted his salary of $400,000 is way out of my league, but I’m still impressed with how down to earth he is.

His first full season of big league paychecks doesn’t mean he’s moved into a penthouse suite on the Upper East Side. Coke rents a furnished apartment in New Jersey, one that runs him about $2,500 a month.

Now that is something that I can relate too.

He may never end up making HUGE money, but something tells me he’ll be just fine when he is done playing baseball.

The lesson these two stories demonstrate is simple. Live within your means. 

Until next time,

-DD

Or does it?

Baker at Man vs Debt, recently posted on why he doesn’t use credit cards. His personal morals don’t allow him to support an industry that he doesn’t agree with.  I thought he made a great case and I applaud his ideals (I can relate since I’m an occasional idealist as well).  But will it change my mind on credit cards rewards?

Hmmm…that’s a tough one.

I primarily use a Discover card. As many are aware, Discover card offers cashback on all purchases. In addition to that, they run quarterly specials that offer 5% cashback.  This quarter’s(Oct-Dec) special is for two of my favorite things:

1. Food (Grocery stores & restaurants)
2. Movies (Movie theaters and video rental stores).

You long time readers might remember that my Christmas budget is financed through my cashback amount. This system has worked out great for us. Last year we had $420 to spend thanks to this system.

The same long time readers will remember that I started paying cash for more of my purchases than I used to.  While I love the fact that my credit card bills are much lower then they used to be, this has reeked havoc on my cashback rewards.  It looks like we’ll only have a little over $200 this year.

But $200 is better than nothing right?

While I do love my rewards, I get to also see the other side of the equation.

My wife is a photographer.  Her clients sometimes pay for her services via credit card.  Even though she has a super low transaction fee (1.5%) which comes to chump change, she hates paying it.  I don’t blame her, as the silent partner, I get to see how the “chump change” can add up in a hurry and take a bite out of a small business.

With the passage of credit card reform, it was clear that plenty of people have similar feelings to Baker when it comes to the credit card industry.  I’ve seen the darker side of the industry first hand.

After my father died we went through his paperwork and found out he had recently declared bankruptcy a 2nd time. His mail was then forwarded to me.  Almost all of it was credit card offers.  I couldn’t believe it.

So will I join Baker’s cause, cut up my cards and stop supporting the credit industry, or will I stop paying cash and start charging groceries for an extra 5% off?

I signed up for the quarterly special.

I guess I fall into the camp that thinks credit cards are like tools (Which is funny because I’m not handy at all). If you use them correctly, they can make things easier. If you use them incorrectly you can really screw things up.  And as ESPN taught me, “A good craftsman doesn’t blame his tools.”

On a personal note I’ll be curious to see if I end up spending more by reverting back to credit cards at the grocery store.   Over the last three months I’ve spent an average of $381.43 on groceries.

The extra rewards will be worthless if I end up spending more than I normally would.  Which is exactly what Discover and my local grocery store want me to do.

So where do you stand in this debate?  Are you cutting up your cards, or are you swiping away?

Unitl next time,

-DD

Normally you won’t hear me say too many good things about North Dakota. As a resident of South Dakota, I’m hard pressed to name anything good coming out of North Dakota besides Hwy 281(I stole that line from Tom Brokaw (former South Dakotan)).

But I feel I must tread carefully.  After all I don’t want to upset any of the North Dakotans who can actually read, so I’ll quit poking fun of them before it’s too late.

It pains me to say this, but North Dakota has a lot going for it.

Their economy is doing great.  They have a budget surplus and an unemployment rate under 5%.

I first remember seeing this back in June on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brian:

Then in August I heard this report on the NPR show Marketplace.

And then just the other day this was on Fox News (so it must be true):

They must be up to something up there, because I see this commercial on my TV almost every night:

So there you have it, if you need a job, move to North Dakota and you’ll be “whistling while you work” in no time.

Until next time,

-DD

In what is becoming a yearly family tradition we took a hiking trip in a state park which allowed us to enjoy some beautiful fall foilage.   I understand that in some parts of the country it is no big deal to look at trees, but here in the northern plains it is.  Such a big deal in fact, that we are willing to drive 90 min (one way) to get there.

As a kid, my family also did this.  We would join up with my uncle’s family and have a fun-filled day hiking through the woods, finding snakes, collecting leaves, and trying to cross the stream without falling in (My cousin would fall in every year).

The best part of the trip was that we’d get to go to Ike’s Chicken Shack afterwoods.  It was a buffet, but it also had a zoo, an arcade, and a old-time movie theater(3 Stooges, Laurel & Hardy).

Add all of this up and it made for a super fun day full of wonderful memories!

So of course I’d like to treat my family to the same kind of fun.  Sadly Ike’s closed down a while ago, but the hiking trail is alive and well.  So for the last couple of years we’ve been packing up and hitting the road on the first weekend of October.

This year we added a picnic to the mix and the kids were SUPER EXCITED! Who would’ve thought a thermos full of tomato soup and some stale crackers could garner such feelings?

I’m glad they were extra excited.  Because the weather wasn’t ideal.  It was cool and there were off an on light rain showers all day.  But we didn’t let that stop us.  In fact the foul weather kept the crowds away (yes, we get crowds in South Dakota) so we practically had the place to ourselves.

It was great!

It was a little early to catch the full beauty of leaves changing color, but that didn’t stop our good time.   My wife took some super fun photos (something that you can never have enough of) of the kids & I pretending to explore a hidden jungle while on the lookout for dangerous creatures.

It didn’t even bother us when our picnic got rained on.  In fact we took a vote and declared that we’re going to do this every year.  Of course that means every year until the kids get too cool to hang out with their parents.

But that’s not all…

Our “fall family weekend” wasn’t over yet though.  The next day we went to a pumpkin patch that our town puts on.  We heard about it before, but never went.  Boy were we missing out!

It’s not a real pumpkin patch, but still really fun. Let me explain:

1000 pumpkins are shipped to the fairgrounds.  Then different local groups team up and set up games and events for the kids to do (story time, face painting, train rides).  Of course, the main attraction is that they get to pick out a pumpkin and decorate it.

Did I mention, that it’s FREE!

We had so much fun that we decided that we’d try to combine these two fun fall activities every year.  The best part is other than a $6 park fee and a half-tank of gas, this was a pretty cheap weekend.

Which makes sense, most traditions usually are affordable.  It’s all the other stuff that costs money.

And what do we remember? The traditions!

Last holiday season I mentioned some of my family’s Chistmas traditions or at least the ones we’d like to have.  Well, we’re always looking for some more, so imagine my gratitude when a couple of weeks ago REAL SIMPLE had an article with some fun suggestions for new family traditions.  Here are the ones that my wife and I thought that we’d try out to see if they stick:

• Happy Half-Birthday  Celebrate a half-birthday with hamburgers and hot dogs sliced in half, half-filled glasses of soda, and a half-chocolate/half-vanilla cake. In the middle of the party, belt out “Happy Birthday,” but stop singing halfway through the song.
• First Snow Festival
  The first snowfall of the year merits a warm bowl of “melting snowman soup” (potato soup with mini carrot noses and olives or peas for eyes).
• Thanksgiving Turkey Parade
  After hours of waiting (hungrily), announce your bird’s grand entrance with a parade. March the turkey through the house, with your eager young guests trailing behind. Musical pots and pans optional but encouraged.
• Santa’s Toy Swap
  Along with cookies and milk, leave old toys under the tree on Christmas Eve for Santa to take back to the North Pole, where his elves can repair them for other children.

While all of these sound fun, the one we’re really excited to try is the Santa Toy Swap.  As mention earlier, my kids have too many toys, this sounds like a great way to “thin the herd.”

How about you?  What are some of your fun family traditions?   Any off the wall ones?

Until next time,

-DD

I think we finally have a buyer lined up for our condo which went on the market about 11 months ago.   We originally listed our 2 bedroom 1 bath 950 sqft condo at $169,000 but settled  $20,000 less than that at $149,000 almost a year later.   15% under our or original asking price isn’t all that terrible considering $170,000 - $175,000 was height of the market prices.  A 15% drop in real estate values isn’t terrible compared to some markets around the US.

It was a rollercoaster year with probably close to 50 showings and even month stretches without any showings.   We are so glad to be moving on, but I first wanted to share a few lessons that we got to experience first hand.

1. Money Doesn’t Matter - You read that right, it is one of the great benefits about being out of debt and in total control of your finances.   It is still a little weird to hear myself saying that “it is only $5,000″.  For us, it is time to move on.  Our family of 4 has been cramped for years and we have put many significant life changes on hold ‘until we move’.  We are probably letting our house go for a good 5-6k under the supposed market price, but we didn’t want to loose the buyer since we have had only one serious bid in all that time.  The realization that you are free to focus on more important things rather than having to let money rule your decisions is priceless.  It makes it all the more satisfying, because were pinched pennies for years to destroy 70k in debt and get an emergency fund in place.   During that time, every penny matters.
2. Listing Price Matters - Once you have already done the major work to prep your house for sale, the only thing left in your control is your price.  Our house was already in really nice shape and not very cluttered, you can take a look for yourself.  If you drop the price enough and the house will sell, it is simple as that.  We were slow to drop our price to the tune of about 5k every 3-4 months.  In one of the worst sellers markets in a long long time, we never really got a ahead of the market.  If we had listed at $159,00 originally, there was a good chance that we would have attracted a lot of interest rather than watch prices steadily drop.  The hard part is to be able to adjust your perception.  We went around believing that our house was worth $170,000 based on little hope, a little greed, and some limited information, but the reality is that our price wasn’t all that objective.  Now we were rooted to that price in our head and had a tough time dropping until the market hit us over the head with information.  A good realtor should have been able to help us be more objective, but we didn’t have the benefit of one at the time(see below).
3. Agents Matter - I am not a big fan of for sale by owners, especially in bad markets.  The best course of action in my opinion is to get a trusted referral for a high powered excellent realtor.    Don’t try to skimp on fees and percentages, because people that are willing to settle for less are probably aren’t worth your time and might cost you more money than you save in fees.  We made the mistake of hiring an seasoned agent who was a friend of a friend at our church, rather than a true high powered agent.  Unfortunately, it cost us significant time and money. First,  I think we listed too high which the agent should have been able to help us with.  Second, the agent was very reactive rather than proactive.  Third, he wasn’t the best communicator which is a huge part of being a realtor.  You want an agent who is willing to listen to you, but they should also be bringing all their experience and knowledge.    In our case, our agent was working from home a lot and our first offer sat in is email for over 5 days.  It was a mistake, but it just shouldn’t happen.  When we did counter offer, we didn’t get anywhere.   The sad part is that the buyer bought our neighbor’s place which is the same exact model.  His agent, who I know is a well respected and talented realtor  talked the buyer up $8,000 to $153,000 and we would have sold our place for more than we got now in half the time.   The even worse part is that our place is significantly more upgraded and in better shape.  I think our neighbor might be a little upset when she sees our selling price, especially because she has since commented that she wished she bought our place. Doh!  We proceeded to let him go and hired a more active and aggressive agent(team),  who communicated better, shared their experience, took better pictures and provided significantly more value in a tough market.
4. Size Matters - We got great comments on how nice our place looked, the layout, and the neighborhood, but we couldn’t escape the fact that our place was only 950 sqft.   It is the smallest unit in the area. Over and over again we heard the same feedback.  “Shows nice, but too small.”  There really isn’t much you can do with that, since we can’t change the size.   In our price range it was only $10,000 - $20,000 more to get another bathroom, a loft, or another few hundred square foot.   People were having a tough time settling for our small place, when only $50-$100 a month more could get them a significant upgrade even if it wasn’t quite as finished.  Price was were we made up for the lack of space.

Hopefully our experiences will be of some help to those that are selling or will sell in the future.

One note is that we decided that we are going to rent, so that we could be very flexible when a buyer did come along.  We settle in about 4 weeks and are in the process of doing some apartment hunting.  It is going to be a busy month, but one that was long overdue.

I think the cool and wet summer we had screwed up my inner clock.  It is still waiting for the 4th of July.  Oh well…

As some of you know, I track my family’s monthly expenses, and what follows is the tally for September:

• $840.39 - Mortgage
• $759.20 - Health Insurance
• $614.50 - Daycare
• $400.00 - Preschool
• $399.22 - Groceries
• $169.82 - Landscaping
• $150.00 - Student Loan
• $134.01 - Tennis
• $111.76 - Electricity
• $111.47 - Vehicle Registration
• $103.72 - Phone & Internet
• $93.64 - Dinning Out
• $92.00 - Events (Film Fest, & Bazaar)
• $87.47 - Gas
• $76.00 - Medical
• $74.19 - Shoes
• $66.18 - Dog
• $60.01 - Household Misc
• $57.98 - Kids Care
• $53.32 - Utilities
• $28.62 - Beauty Products
• $22.26 - Dance Class
• $19.50 - Donations
• $4.77 -  Gift

For a grand total of $4530.03. Yikes, and I thought last month was bad.

Biggest Budget Busters:

1. $614.50 - Daycare - “Just when I thought I was out…they pulled me back in.” I know what you’re saying, “DD, I thought your daycare closed in June?”  It did, this is the final bill…that I’ve been forgetting to pay.  So this should be the last time that I pay for daycare.
2. $169.82 - Landscaping - Four years ago or so, we had some professional landscaping done.  A nice brick patio was put in.  It was really slick.  But The landscaper convinced my wife that we should put in a sandbox in this empty spot between the house & garage.   Why not right?  I’ll tell you why not, all the neighborhood cats treated it as their litter box.  We finally bricked it over ourselves.  It doesn’t look nearly as slick as the professional job, but at least that area doesn’t smell like cat poop anymore.
3. $134.01 - Tennis - I really should include the $74  I spent on shoes too, because that was for my new tennis shoes.  I was surprised at this high of a total, until I remembered what it was for: a tournament(came in 2nd) indoor league (3 months) and some new balls.  This will be a big part of my entertainment/exercise for the next 3 months, so I guess it’s not too bad.

Biggest Budget Breakthroughs:

1. $400.00 - Preschool - This total will normally be $450/month.  But since my wife is taking the school pictures we got $50 knocked off our bill this month.  I hope the pictures turn out.  :)  Actually my wife is kicking herself for not asking for $100.  Live & learn.
2. $74.19 - Shoes - This might seem odd that I include this here while I complained about tennis up above.  Let me explain.  I normally spend a lot more on my tennis shoes than I did, so part of me (the part writing this right now) thinks I did a good job showing some restraint. So there.
3. $4.77 -  Gifts - On the same day we bought the bricks to cover up the litter box, my children were invited to a B-Day party.  One of their old daycare buddies was turning the big 04.  So  we settled on three Sesame Street activity books and didn’t break the bank.   

~Let’s do the Time Warp~

Last September we only spent $3,370.68.

Those were the days.  The big difference that caught my eye was that we didn’t have to cover our own health insurance premiums back then(didn’t start until Jan 09).   The tidbit that I found amusing was that much like this year, I was complaining about how much I spent on tennis.

Tennis - Actually this is for a 3 month membership in an indoor court.  Last year it was quite a bit more than this, but I played twice a week last winter, this year I’m playing once every other week.I’d say there wouldn’t be much expense in the category the rest of the year, but I just broke a string, so look for that next month.

I guess I have a twisted sense of humor because the amusing part of that is I only spent $55 on tennis last September.

Until next time,

-DD

Better yet I got to watch my favorite team, The Washington Redskins, on TV(This is a big deal when you live in the middle of nowhere and you only have three channels).    But let ye football gods strike me down because I ended up watching more of the US Open than I did the pigskin.

The way I figured I only had one more day of tennis left on TV, but I have 20 more weeks of football.

Besides every time I turned to the football game, the Giants were kicking butt, so I decided it was best that I didn’t watch. But I made sure to check my fantasy players.

That’s right, I’m a nerd!

The Redskins may have started out poorly, but my two fantasy teams are off to a great start(probably because I don’t have any Redskins…j/k  I have Cooley).

And while I’m already a huge fantasy football fan, today I stumbled upon another football game that I think I’ll like.

Financial Football

It’s geared for teachers to use it in their classroom to help teach students financial literacy.

The game (sponsored by VISA) has four quick lesson plans which they recommend you go through before playing. They call it “training camp.”

1. The Fundamentals of Net Worth
2. Savings and Interest
3. Credit & Debit Cards
4. The Art of Budgeting

I didn’t have the patience to go through “training camp”  so I dived in right away.

Here is an example of the questions they ask:

What is the first step in settling a retail dispute?

If you answered “call the retailer with whom you have the dispute”, you wouldn’t get tackled and gain a first down.  The crowd would cheer and you’d get another question.

I opted to only play one quarter due to lack of time, and before I knew it I had The Redskins getting revenge on the Giants for their week one let down.  I marched down the field and scored at will.

Hail to the Redskins!

But getting back to the point…

I thought it was an interesting way to reach out to kids and get them thinking about their finances.  You should play it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Do you think it is appropriate material for classroom use?  Do you think kids will take to it? Does it leave a bad taste in your mouth knowing it’s sponsored by Visa?  Or do you think its crazy that the Redskins can march down the field on anyone?

Until next time,

-DD

As a kid I remember that all my favorite TV shows would end with a thrilling spring finale with a killer cliffhanger.  That way I knew summer had started. The summer would be full of reruns and in the fall all my favorite shows would come back on.

I don’t know about you, but I hate cliffhangers!  And by hate, I mean that I secretly love them.   In my recent library post, I announced my affinity for the TV show Lost.  It seems like every episode ends with a cliffhanger.

I hate it (I love it!!!)

They are so frustrating.  Just when you think everything is going to be wrapped up nicely…BAM! Someone gets shot, drowned, drugged, lost, found, kidnapped, or a million other crazy things that you didn’t see coming.

Keeping us in anticipation for the next installment.

That is the idea I’m shooting for with this round up.  The following were my favorite summer reads that had us coming back for more:

• J Money @ Budgets are Sexy had a two part series on the Confessions of an Online Poker Player.  I really liked these posts.  I’ve never been much of a card shark myself, but I really liked Rounders, and one time while traveling I watched a World Series of Poker Marathon. So these posts brought me right back to the fantasy of making it as a professional gambler.
• Smithee @ Consumerism Commentary asked whether or not Is it Ever Okay to Steal Entertainment. He then revisited the idea a week later. My wife makes her living taking pictures, so we do our best to honor copyrights, because we like it when people honor hers.  But we live in a right click world, so this can be tricky at times.
• JD @ Get Rich Slowly held a two week tryout for potential staff writers. As much as I love GRS, I really liked the 2 weeks of auditions.  That probably speaks for the part of me that loves competition.  After it was done, I kept waiting for the results, “Who was it going to be…”   Told you I hate Cliffhangers.
• The King of the two-parters is Bill Simmons, ESPN’s The Sports Guy. He ended summer with a two part column about a trip he and his friends took to Vegas.  Good times!  Here is Part One & Part Two.
• Brainy @ Pants in a Can took time out from his Mommy blog(j/k) to describe the process of getting some trees removed.  It ended up being a rather interesting five part series.  Check it out:  Part 1, Part 2, part 3, part 4, & part 5.    My favorite was the video & pics in Part 4.

To really hammer the “To be Continued…” point home, allow me to bookend my summer posts with Pearl Jam.

Back in June I gave you some investing advice.  That investment is already paying dividends! Pearl Jam’s new album will be out soon (I’ve already pre-ordered my copy.  The best $13.99 I ever spent!!!)  They currently are on a mini-tour and have released a new video:

At least this way you can’t say that the summer of 2009 didn’t rock!

Until next time,
-DD

Capitalism - An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods that are distributed chiefly by competition in a free market

I am really not here to bash capitalism, as I can only think of two other system that would work better, a completely benevolent king/dictator or communism. That’s right communism, not Marxism or the cold war kind or even the Communist China type of communism, but voluntary communism. Despite what you think about those two systems and how they might succeed or fail, free markets are wonderful and have a multitude of advantages.

Capitalism in and of itself is is fairly amoral, although one might argue the natural effects of capitalism on the human condition often leads us down immoral paths. With that said, what I really want to do is start a dialogue about some holes I am beginning to see in the American capitalism. I am not going to bore you with economic theory or politics, I would rather discuss actual stories of people that are near and dear to my heart.

Mom - The Hard Working Volunteer

First, let me set the stage for who my mom is. She is a poster-child for free market success and the American dream. As a poor single mother at the age of twenty she hustled her way from nearly homeless and living off food stamps and government cheese, to waitressing, to an associate’s degree, and finally to a $60,000+ a year job in a little over 25 years. She is the type of person that realizes that she needs to get n degree and within weeks is enrolled in classes, regardless of the numerous roadblocks like money, time, and child care.  She escaped poverty , owned a home, and had a decent sum of money in the bank. The American Dream in action, with one little problem… she hated her field with a passion and only did it to get me through my expensive private school and provide for us.   What an awesome unselfish parent! My life reaped the benefits of her love and devotion many times over.

After I left home, she decided to the sell the house, quit the job, and take up volunteering. This is where capitalism started to turn its back on her. She traveled to Zambia to help out in orphanages, educated children and adults on global poverty and hunger, rebuilt after Katrina, was a community organizer in a forgotten about city,  and much more. Through all of this, she is left without being able to afford health insurance, and barely able to afford a car and housing let alone many luxuries. Why, because there aren’t profits to be made when working with poor and needy.

Now this is one of the hardest working ladies you will probably know. She isn’t the stereotype of the lazy person who doesn’t want to help themselves that people often use as reasoning for the government to not help people and for people to justify not giving their time and money.  She is ambitious, motivated, committed, and hard working and has exceptional skills that she is bringing to society.

So where exactly does she fit in? I would think as a society we would want to support people like her. People who are willing to move travel where there are needs and give their time, energy, and love are in short demand. The ones that do exist have to barely eek out a financial existence.  They have to waste their energy worrying about meeting the basic necessities of life, when instead they want to use that energy to pour themselves into people and problems that could use their full attention.  It seems like there has to be a better way.

My Father In Law - The Devoted Farmer

Story number is two about a farmer from birth. He lives and breathes farming, and for those that don’t know any farmers they might work harder than any profession I have ever seen. Imagine working seven days from morning till night.   The alarm goes off at 5:00am and he quickly grabs a small first breakfast and heads out to greet a never ending list of tasks often before the sun even rises.  As much as he wants to take off on the seventh day or take a vacation, he can’t. Crops and animals don’t stop needing your attention just because it is Sunday. Work must go on whether it is in the blazing sun, bitter cold, or windy rain.  Weather can also ruin months of work in a matter of days or hours.  No rain for a week or two when the corn is first planted and it all shrivels up.   I have gained a new found respect for the food I eat after spending years visiting a farm, it is brutal.

As hard as my father in law works, he will most likely never get ahead. Corporate farms and foreign imports usually ravage any  semblance of profit he might of been able to ring out of the earth.  He is forced to hop from one thing to another just trying to keep his head above water.  I have seen him go from milking dairy cows, to raising beef cattle, to pigeons, to pigs, to raising animals for other farmers,  all in less than 10 years.

He also isn’t a business man; that just isn’t one of the gifts that he has to offer this world.  He’s a farmer with an awesome heart. He sells his sweet corn cheaper than most people because his customers are mostly fellow church members, friends or neighbors, and his dozen is more like 14 than 12.  I remember the first time I helped the family weigh and wrap scrapple to sell.  The capitalist in me struggled to watch him always round up and provide more product than he was ’supposed’ too at prices that were already too low.  As time moves on I have come to really appreciate the heart and love for people that goes into most everything he does.    I know it doesn’t make business sense, but he can’t ignore his heart.  It is big like that, with a focus that is always on others.  He doesn’t have expensive tastes and he isn’t wasting money either.  Even with all his frugality, he won’t ever ‘make it’.

Again this is someone I would think society would want to encourage, not discourage. A man with that type of heart and that type of work ethic deserves to be rewarded not beaten down. He would be happy if he could just pick a crop or animal to raise that would fetch a fair price and rewarded him just reasonably well.  But I am just not sure that will happen in this day and age.  It seems like the  system often discourages certain skill sets that we deem not as important rather than making sure that he has a revered and useful and compensated place. What is someone like this supposed to do?

What’s The Answer?

There you have it. Two beautiful hard working people that are outcasts in a capitalist system. There are others outcasts too(the poor, the sick, and the producers for starters), but these two people are real. I can’t help but root for them, although they won’t ever ‘win’. I know capitalism doesn’t mean them any direct harm, but it isn’t doing anything to help encourage them or even the playing field. The question is what is the answer? Do we need government to step in? Do we need to focus on a guiding morality to help govern our choices within a capitalist society? Should they just get with the program and start trying to acrue as much money as possible? Should they move to a different country?  I certainly don’t have any answers yet, but I think the questions are definitely worth asking.

[Title Edit 9/9/09]  Changed from Capitalism Is Not The Answer to better reflect the spirit of the post rather than be sensational and distract from the discussion.