Scratch that Spending Plan…

Well that was quick!

Yep, just over a week into the new year and I’ve already spent a fortune — unexpectedly.

I suppose that when the month is over, I’ll classify these most recent purchases as “business expenses” but that doesn’t hide the fact that I spent real money on them…

I hate when people are under the assumption that “business expenses” are freebies. They’re not.

And if you work at a company and freely spend money that isn’t your own, well, you should think about that some time.

Anyway, remember that awful day that I had back in October of 2007?

Don’t worry — it’s okay if you don’t. You can refresh your memory here.

The short of it is that I had a hard drive fail. I went out and bought a short term replacement and, while it hasn’t “failed” yet, it’s running at roughly 98% capacity.

It’s crawling…

Lasting for nearly two and a half years is pretty good but I’ve always feared another drive failure and I’ve also always known that I *need* to plunk down the cash to get a real viable long term and expandable storage system in place.

I finally did that earlier this week — but only after making a bonehead move and attempting to do it the “cheap” way.

I surfed on over to CDW and purchased another Buffalo Technologies DriveStation just like I did back in 2007.

It arrived earlier this week…dead.

I’ve never been a big fan of CDW but with Circuit City and CompUSA no longer in existance, purchasing the unit in person is all but impossible these days and then CDW went out and bought out my favorite online retailer so it seemed as if the only place to turn — and they had the best price too. That’s rarely the case — which is why I’m not a big fan…

Thankfully their returns policy is pretty friendly though they still haven’t processed my return yet — I’m hoping I don’t get hit with a 15% restocking fee for a unit that was dead right out of the box.

Eitherway, in desperate need of drive space, this turn of events put me in the hot seat. I decided that enough was enough — no more nickel and diming my way through this.

I bought a file server.

No more of this USB connection crap. I settled on a model from the NetGear ReadyNAS line of products.

Basically, it’s a computer case filled with hard drives.

Back in the 1990′s, I built a few of fileservers from old computers at zero cost and I considered doing that sort of thing again this time but that was back before RAID and, honestly, I don’t have time for that sort of project anymore.

I paid for it this time instead. So far, between the two purchases, I’ve surpassed the $1000 mark.

Tons of space and loads of redundancy are worth it though — especially having delayed this expense for years on end.

That’s what I decided. Or, at least, that’s what I’m telling myself right now.

It’s still not here and, sadly, it’s scheduled delivery is next Monday (MLK day, ugh…) so I probably won’t have it until that Tuesday.

Here’s to hoping that I can make it through another week with just over that 1GB to work with…

Now the only big ticket item (that I’ve been eyeing for years) left on my list is a good high-quality file cabinet.

Ever priced one of those out? Yikes — they’re expensive…

Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 7:48 pm by Brainy Smurf
Computers, Finance, Mistakes | 3 Comments »

Confident Consumer with Low Risk Tolerance?

I’ve come to the conclusion that I have a low risk tolerance…

Not so much that I’m afraid to invest in moderately risky markets because I’ve done and continue to do that.

My results have been, as you’d expect, fifty-fifty.

Investing in Pets.com was a mistake.

Cashing out just before the dot-com bust was not.

Using that “found” money to buy a BMW Z3 was, yes, a mistake.

Anyway, I say this because there’s been a lot of talk in my social circle about purchasing homes.

I’m certainly not in the market, but living vicariously through these acquaintances (all of which earn an income comparable to mine) while they search for a home, I can’t help but wonder why they’re looking in the price range that they are.

Without actually saying anything outloud (I’m a terrible friend), I think that they’re all nuts. I’d never be willing to take out a mortgage *that* large.

Three grand per month? Yeah, I don’t think so…

But sometimes I sit and think, hey, wait a minute… I can apparently afford to live in a house that commands a $3k mortgage payment so why am I living like this?

I dunno, maybe this is where the often referenced ‘consumer confidence’ comes into play — you know, “Consumer confidence fell 6 percent during the month of July…”

You here stuff like that on the news all the time…

How do they measure that, anyway? Seriously.

So, I suppose my low risk tolerance is due to the fact that I have low consumer confidence.

Is that how it works?

I’m not sure…

I generally like to think my consumer confidence is pretty high.

Perhaps I’m fooling myself?

Either way, I’m definitely not confident that I could pay a $3k per month mortgage payment for 30 years.

No freakin’ way.

Thankfully, I don’t have to.

Posted on August 19th, 2009 at 7:22 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Life, Mistakes, Mortgage | 3 Comments »

Pull Out the Wallet… Just do it already…

Out of no where this morning I purchased three things that, if you’d asked me yesterday, I’d have said I don’t need.

The first purchase was a Canon NB-4L battery for my wife’s PowerShot SD200 camera. She’s had that little camera for a few years now and the battery just won’t hold a charge anymore.

While our household is overflowing with camera equipment, this is the only camera than can conveniently fit in a pocket so it probably gets the most use — you know, the day-to-day family stuff and the silly videos we’ve featured here on PIAC.

Problem is, we always seemed to run out of battery power just as Duncan starts reciting the entire script of the movie Space Balls. Okay, I exaggerate, but the dying battery routine has become very frustrating.

Total cost to remedy the battery issue? Just $14.95 (plus $7.74 for shipping) for a knock-off version.

Next, and still with cameras on the brain, I RSVP’d to a family reunion coming up in September.

Thinking that I’ve got all of this camera equipment collecting dust, I should probably volunteer to take a professional group photo with a wide angle lens, you know, like they did 100 years ago.

Problem is, I want to be in the photo too…

Hmmmmm…

There is a simple solution — it’s called a remote trigger.

I have one of those.

Somewhere.

I just can’t find it.

And I’ve looked for it, well, at least a dozen times.

I’ve turned entire closets upside down and inside out without any success.

My most recent attempt was just a few weeks ago for when I made that cool time-lapse tree cutting video.

For those that might have been wondering, no, I wasn’t behind the camera all day taking a photo every 20 seconds.

Ideally, if I could have found it, I would have been using a remote trigger programmed to take a photo every 20 seconds.

Instead, I used a bunch of extension cords and an old laptop to act as the trigger.

Took me forever to setup.

Took me just as long to break down.

And, don’t forget, I also spent a few hours hopelessly searching for that darn remote trigger. For the twelfth time.

I should have just bought a new remote the first day that I realized I’d lost the original. So much wasted time. So much frustration.

So, after a little online research, I purchased a knock-off version of what I needed from a company in China.

It cost me $23.99 (plus $8.00 for shipping).

(That’s a SUPER bargain considering the original trigger set me back a couple of hundred dollars. I just hope it works.)

The third purchase of the morning also relates to photography…

I’ve got studio lights and strobes and all that sort of thing in my arsenal. If you know a little about photography, you know that it’s all about lighting and controlling it.

While setting up to take some shots of Duncan, I ran into a problem that I’ve run into, well, dozens of times since I stopped working as a professional photographer.

All of those lights and strobes need power.

Somewhere along the way, I lost all of my power cords. I have no idea where they are.

The good news is that the strobes take the same kind of power cord that a standard computer monitor takes so I was able to work around the issue by “borrowing” from my computers and using a bunch of extension cords to make them long enough to reach an outlet.

I’ve done a few portraits using this method and it’s annoyed me each time.

Deep down, I know those 25-foot power cords are neatly coiled somewhere right next to my remote trigger. I just know it.

So $23.90 (plus $8.96 for shipping) later, I’ll have the proper cords again.

Putting it all together, I solved three issues that I’ve been dealing with for almost 2 years for $62.84 (plus $24.70 for shipping).

Had I known that I could have avoided all of the headaches and frantic attic searches over that time for under $100, well, I would never have put these purchases off at all.

Now the only thing left that I’ve been telling myself to do, but still haven’t, is upgrade my version of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Flash to CS4…

At $199.99 each, well, I’m going to put my wallet back in my pocket…

For now.

Posted on July 18th, 2009 at 7:26 pm by Brainy Smurf
Mistakes, Photo | 5 Comments »

Break from the Routine

Just a few weeks ago, I took a break from my weekly savings transfers that were wearing me down and it was just a matter of days before I realized that that’s all I needed to re-energize myself to continue moving forward.

So, today a guy at work walked in after lunch with one of the biggest grinders anyone had ever seen in hand.

As my coworkers ooohd and ahhhed the sandwich, I asked where he’d picked it up, he answered, and I said I’d never eaten there before.

He was surprised — he even said as much.

I felt kind of pathetic. Seriously.

Truth is, though I’ve lived in the same town that I work in for nearly 7 years, when it comes to food, I’ve rarely ventured beyond the Burger Kings, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Subways.

In fact, aside from the three or four restaurants that I frequent (and just mentioned), I’d estimate that I’ve only actually tried ten local restaurants total.

The phonebook lists hundreds of them — many of which I drive by every single day without even giving them a single thought.

That fact that they’ve remained in business all of these years should be an indication that their food and service is adequate (enough) so starting this week, whenever we have the inclination to eat out (you know, when we don’t want to make something at home), we’re going to try something new.

Maybe start at one end of town and work our way west. Or vice versa.

When my wife reads this, she’ll probably be gleefully excited. I think she’s grown tired of the old routine and would love a little but more variety.

For me, just thinking about it, well, I’m a little afraid…

I mean, I already know that I’ll struggle to find anything on the menu at that place Sammy Garlic’s. Yuck.

And some of those luncheonette places look like the type of joint that only welcome “regulars”. Or perhaps they ask to see our AARP cards at the door and then turn us away.

But all of that aside, it will definitely be a much needed change of pace and soon, when I drive through town I’ll be able to say, “Yep, ate there once… It was pretty good…” instead of blindly driving by…

I can’t tell you how many times going back and forth from university during the late 1990′s that I drove by numerous Jreck Subs in upstate New York and wondered, I mean, genuinely wondered if they were any good (and how exactly to pronounce their name)…

I never stopped.

One time, I even ate a McDonalds next door to a Jreck.

I’ve gotta break from that routine…

By the way, for any readers from upstate New York — how does Jreck compare to Subway, Blimpie, or Quizno’s?

And how do you pronounce Jreck?

Posted on March 4th, 2009 at 8:21 pm by Brainy Smurf
Life, Mistakes | 1 Comment »

Black Friday Derailment…

Well, I told myself that I wasn’t going to go shopping yesterday morning…

I managed that.

I rolled over to look at the clock and 4:15 am and told myself, “Nope, not getting up…”

I did the same thing at 5:34 am.

And again at 6:40 am.

See, at our house, we never even received a Walmart Black Friday flyer… I’m not sure why, maybe our mailman ate it or something, but my guess is that it was a blessing that it never arrived.

I’m not saying that I would have bought anything, I never have, but I have made it a bit of a tradition to hang out in the parking lot of BestBuy, Circuit City, and/or Walmart at unmentionable hours on the day after Thanksgiving.

This year, I slept in.

By “slept in”, I mean that I didn’t get out of bed until 7:09 am.

From there, I went through my usual weekday routine and headed to work.

The office was closed on Friday, but not really. Black Friday has always been one of those grey areas.

I sat down at my desk, checked my email, tied up a few loose ends left over from Wednesday afternoon, and soon realized that I really had nothing left to do.

It was 8:10 am.

To justify the time it took to drive in to work, I wasn’t about to leave so soon, so I fired up the internet and headed to one of my favorite game worn hockey jersey message boards.

There, right at the top, just listed moments earlier, were three jerseys for sale from the team we have season tickets for…

You’re kidding me?

I’ve been looking for something from this team for nearly a year without any luck, but today, of all days, there are THREE of them for sale?! Ugh…

A few emails were exchanged, some pictures sent, and by 9:53 am, a PayPal transaction had been completed. I am now the proud owner of two of those jerseys.

So much for a frugal Black Friday, huh?

But wait, it gets even more ridiculous…

One of the companies that markets these jerseys for the various leagues decided to have a Black Friday sale of their own — which they announced in a broadcast email…

In a creative way of doing things, their gimmick was for any player’s jersey in stock who played in a game on Black Friday, the price would be discounted by 50%…

Tell me this isn’t happening.

Needless to say, at noon, as the Boston Bruins were hosting the New York Islanders, I was looking up and down the line-ups to see if anyone peaked my interest.

To my dismay, Thomas Pöck (one of the few truly nice professional athletes out there) was a healthy scratch. Probably a good thing… I mean, that alone saved me a few hundred dollars…

Of course, there were a number a games to be played later in the day, but that would give me more time to rethink the decision that I’d already made to spend, spend, spend…

In the end though, I couldn’t pass it up. A fifty percent savings was too much to shrug off.

When the puck dropped at 7:07 pm and I could confirm that “my” players were playing, I added two more jerseys to the collection — one from the Columbus Blue Jackets and one from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That’s in addition to the two college jerseys I picked up this morning…

Wow, I’m gonna be holding my head in my hands when the bill comes in just like all those people who bough 50-inch televisions at four in the morning…

Crazy how quickly a sound financial plan can be derailed…

What’d that last, 4 days?

In the end, though, while I unexpectedly spent a lot of money on Black Friday, I feel that I got some great value…

I know, I know, where’s the value in shredded polyester…

But, hey, at least this year I could afford it!

Posted on November 29th, 2008 at 11:41 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Hockey Jersey, Mistakes | 4 Comments »

Time to Try Timing the Market?

I’m no expert, but a few months ago when Jim Cramer predicted that the DJIA would fall to 8000, I told myself that I’d buy in if it ever closed under that number.

Of course, back then, the Dow was cruising along nicely at the 12000 mark and I thought that he was either high or just an idiot — an entertaining one.

Well, going out on a limb (a tiny one), I’m expecting his prediction to finally happen this week…

So am I buying in?

Reconsidering that Roth IRA idea I was throwing around?

I’ve got the funds available to max out a Roth for the year, and then throw some extra towards some ridiculously diverse mutual fund or something…

But, no… I’m not going to do it.

See, I want to buy in, I really do. I have no doubt that, years down the road, I’d see this as a really wise investment — one of my few really bright financial manoeuvres.

But right now, my primary goals are short term and, right this minute, I’m not willing to sacrifice them in favor of a long term goal.

Dumb move? Maybe…

But have you seen my entry room?

Sheesh…

That place is *still* a wreck…

Posted on November 16th, 2008 at 9:25 am by Brainy Smurf
Current Events, Finance, Mistakes, Roth IRA | 1 Comment »

And the Checks Come Rolling In…

I often complain about how the invoices that I send out for my side business each month never seem to get paid on time, in full, or, at all…

Yesterday’s mail had two checks in it — one was for $150 from a client that has always paid promptly and the other was for $40 for some photo prints that I’d had done up last week.

I deposited them this morning into my checking account like they were nothing.

Sure, in the past I was dropping in checks totaling $3000, so an extra $190 might not feel like very much anymore, but I can’t tell you what I would have done to get checks for $190 ten years ago.

Do you know how much crap you can buy on eBay for $190?

I’ve been jonesing for a lava lamp for nearly 20 years, and I know they suck because my sister had one, but still, I could probably get like 6 or 7 of them for $190…

Man, I’m almost salivating at the thought…

(Mom — do NOT get me a lava lamp for Christmas.)

At the onset, right out of university, I started my side business to bring in disposable income. Plain and simple — it was supposed to be for crap on eBay, video games, hockey tickets, hockey jerseys.

Somewhere along the line, though, it turned into income that I counted on. It wasn’t disposable income anymore (probably a good thing as the checks began to get larger and larger) and before I knew it, I felt trapped — not by my *real* job, but by my side job!?

I wouldn’t be able to pay all of my bills if I didn’t work each morning before work, again after work, and every weekend too.

That wears you down… and for the most part, that type of lifestyle has passed.

I wish I could say that this latest $190 could be classified as disposable income, you know, like it used to be.

Not there yet…

I’m already transferring it from checking to savings…

Posted on November 14th, 2008 at 10:30 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Life, Mistakes, Savings | 1 Comment »

Closing the Book on the PMI Fight

So, after all of this time of avoiding the subject entirely, I suppose it’s time to wrap up this whole PMI topic.

In last month’s net worth update, I briefly hinted at the fact that I was throwing in the towel for now…

I cast out one last line earlier this month to Countrywide when they completed my annual escrow analysis for my attached escrow account (which, in part, pays the PMI premium each month) and was greeted with the same response I’ve been receiving since July.

“Send us a check for $130, take a day off from work, and maybe we’ll drop it, but probably not. The current market conditions aren’t favorable, you know…”

So, for the time being, and likely the entire year of 2009, I’m just going to swallow my pride and continue to be ripped off because I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a battle I can’t win — there are just too many loopholes and specific conditions available in the law for them to fall back on to justify taking this money from me.

Yep, I’ve met all of the commonly mentioned benchmarks; the 22% equity being the most often referenced as a mark resulting in automatic termination.

But there are little sneaky things in there like termination, automatic or not, never happening until reaching the mid-point of the original amortization schedule.

Yeah — like 9 years from now…

In my instance, that’s another $9200 in PMI payments.

And, even then, there are ways for Countrywide to continue to hit me up for an extra monthly fee.

Aggravating is the only word I can think of to describe it.

Seems my only hope is to re-finance and, right now, I’m not ready to make a move like that.

I’m not really sure why I say that, it could just be laziness — it probably is, but for whatever reason, I’m just not comfortable making that move right now…

You know, with “market conditions” being what they are…         ;0)

Posted on October 27th, 2008 at 9:08 pm by Brainy
Mistakes, PMI - Mortgage Insurance | 8 Comments »

The Streak is Over

In the past I’ve talked about one of my hobbies — collecting game worn hockey jerseys.

I know, I know, totally weird to some — c’mon, dirty polyester?

Why?

But seriously, there’s a pretty sizable following and if you can believe it, the economy within the hobby is strong.

My best jersey commanded nearly 5-figures at the height of the boom (October 2007) and today, well, it still commands that same amount.

Almost makes it a wise investment, right?

I kid, I kid…

But the one downside to this hobby of mine is that for years it sucked me dry. Much of my former credit card debt can probably be attributed to my collection — I was easily dropping in excess of $500 per month, on average, adding to the collection. That’s a lot of money.

Some may even say it was wasted money. They might be right.

In 2008, I scaled it back. A lot.

Then, in June, I noticed that I hadn’t made a purchase in over a month — and I wasn’t really missing it.

Same thing in July. August, and then September!

Had I kicked the addiction?

Nope.

I relapsed this month.

Last week I bought a jersey on the secondary market (yeah, this bizarre hobby is big enough to have a very busy secondary market) for $115.

Anything under $300 is peanuts in this hobby so, for a sum that small, it’s not likely to increase in value anytime soon, or ever. Probably not a wise investment.

But, at the same time, for such a small price, I just couldn’t resist.

And that’s the bad part. This jersey’s arrival in the mailbox has me re-energized.

Just today, I was already pricing out $600-$1000 jerseys… Crazyness.

Step away from the keyboard…

Posted on October 22nd, 2008 at 7:43 pm by Brainy Smurf
Hockey Jersey, Mistakes | No Comments »

Debt in America

For most of last week, the talking heads had been gawking over the rising amount of debt American’s are carrying. The number thrown about was $8565 per household, apparently up almost 15 percent since 2000. And that’s just credit card debt.

I’m not really surprised. I’ve carried a lot more credit card debt than that with regularity.

Can you imagine if they roped in auto loan debt? I’d guesstimate that the average 2-car household owes more than $20k to someone just on their auto loans.

Student loans? Well, I think that those are more limited to people under 35. Tuition didn’t get stupid until the late 1980′s.

I don’t have student loans, but some of my friends do. My sister has ‘em. Roll those into the equation, double it to make it a household number and, well, yeah, Americans are definitely carrying a lot of debt.

That’s pretty sad.

As a result, I’m all but certain that most people are only a paycheck or two away from living on the street — to a degree, myself included. And my non-mortgage debt is under $4k!?

How can this be?

The real story isn’t actually the debt people are carrying — it’s really a case of our expenses.

In my case, my monthly expenses routinely exceed $2500.

It doesn’t take a skilled mathematician to tell you that if my income were suddenly non-existent, I could only continue on for a few weeks, at best.

What the general population needs to come to grips with is that it doesn’t matter if you make a $100,000 a year when you then go out spend $101,000… You’re not not getting anywhere.

You’re actually going backwards. Again, simple math indicates that.

I’m semi-guilty of that sort of mindset. I got a raise and bought a BMW.

Wanna talk about stupid?

Yeah, that was stupid.

Posted on July 28th, 2008 at 7:37 am by Brainy Smurf
Current Events, Finance, Mistakes | No Comments »

My Mistaken Interpretation of the FDIC’s Coverage

With the collapse of IndyMac and the news that it was the second largest bank failure ever (I’d never heard of them), the role of the FDIC is getting some press. So far, so good… In comparison to FEMA, the FDIC looks to have their act together.

Now I’ve always known about the whole $100,000 per account rule. Every bank teller window has a little sign. Every bank commercial mentions it with some super fast-talking at the end. It has something to do with the max that the FDIC would insure. Makes sense to me.

I don’t have any accounts that large, but when daydreaming about winning the lottery, I have put some thought into it.

Like, let’s say you win a million dollars. It’s no wonder that it’s suggested that you seek come money help before you even collect your winnings.

At first glance, it seems simple. Just open up 10 accounts and drop $100k in each one. Just to get you all set up before you start sending money this way and that way.

Simple enough, right?

But what about the interest? It’s going to put you well over the $100k mark in each account in no time…

Oh crap.

Alright, make it 12 accounts with $83k in each one. You know, room for growth. That would work, no?

I had it all planned out in my head. Probably not wisely, but I had it all planned out.

But now, having heard a few of the horror stories from account holders at IndyMac (as well as an hour or so or research on the FDIC website), I now realize that my plan wouldn’t work at all…

See, the FDIC really does insure $100000 worth. But it’s not per account like every single bank commercial I’ve ever seen seems to imply.

They only cover $100000 per depositor (in my case, per person) per bank.

There’s the catch. Per bank.

So my plan just got a lot more complex… Can you imagine having 12 different bank cards in your wallet?

(Oh wait, I can… I used to carry that many credit cards?!)

So now, upon winning the lottery, and before I start spending my new found fortune, I’d have to go out and find at least 12 different banks and open a new account at each one of them?

(I’m not sure I can even name more than 8 banks with local branches.)

Then, I’d have to keep track of where the balances fell in each account to make sure I don’t go over $100k or overdraw one of them. Wow… That’s a lot of work. And I’d still be too cheap to hire someone to do it for me…

Kind of makes the Scrooge McDuck method of banking look a lot more attractive…

Posted on July 20th, 2008 at 6:54 am by Brainy Smurf
Current Events, Finance, Mistakes, Savings | 2 Comments »

Seems I Spoke Too Soon about my Property Taxes…

Yeah, sure, the personal property tax on my two cars went way down (un-expectedly far down) this year, but upon logging in to my Countrywide account this morning, I see that they’ve just paid the city $1912.09 on my behalf for the property taxes on my home.

That’s up nearly $269 from the last property tax payment back in January 2008. Ouch.

Now I can’t say that an increase was completely unexpected — back in April I posted an article from our local paper with this quote:

“Most homeowners will see a property tax hike of at least $150 this year if the proposed budget eyed by the city’s Board of Finance is approved.”

With my personal property taxes (on the cars) dropping so much, I assumed that this tax increase (the budget was approved) would take effect in 2009. Evidently, I was mistaken. I hope, anyway…

So now I’m not sure whether to pat myself on the back because this proves that my house is more awesome than everyone else’s in town or if I should be irate that my taxes went up so much more than $150…

(In reality, my house is smack dab in the middle when it comes to awesomeness in the city.)

Sadly, though, this large of an increase will effectively wipe out half of the savings I’d receive if I ever manage to settle my PMI issue with Countrywide…

Too bad I didn’t realize how great I had it back in 2003…

Posted on July 19th, 2008 at 6:12 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Mistakes, Taxes | 1 Comment »