January 26, 2007
(the Steve Winwood version)
I wandered into a conversation that a train friend was having with another rider about retirement accounts and ways to make up time for late starters in the retirement game. IRAs, real estate deals, and pensions were being bandied about as though they would be funded just by talking about them. But I felt distinctly uncomfortable about the fact that a budget and the necessity of learning how to control your money instead of letting it control you were never discussed. Granted, the advisor didn’t necessarily know his advisee well enough to discuss her budget, so maybe that’s why he didn’t touch on that subject [yes, I note the irony of a PF blogger saying that budgets are too personal to discuss with strangers ….] but I feel that creating wealth and income is only half of the strategy. No retirement planning can ever be complete without addressing the other half of the money equation: how, how much, and when is the money spent?
How: Who’s the spender, and why? Are the purchases necessities with the occasional splurge? Are they “wants” with the occasional bill thrown in? You need to know why you’re spending, before you can modify the behavior that makes the spending ok. Maybe it’s just as simple as “I want.” If that’s all it is, how do you replace “I want” with “I want this, but I don’t need it right now”?
How much: Are you spending beyond your means right now? Are you spending at your means now? Are you spending below your means? This determines how much you need to retire AND how much you can have by then.
When: When do you want to retire? Do you know how much you can save before then? Have you considered your life events between now and then?
It may sound pretty complicated, but it can also become a very simple conversation to have with yourself. I have it every so often to remind myself that I have bigger things to worry about than how the new girls are so stylish it makes my teeth hurt.
It especially helps to repeat the mantra “You don’t NEED another purse. You just WANT one!!!!” when I get emails from one of them, touting her friend the handbag designer in New York and her faaaaaabulous purses. And how her purses are pricey because they’re made in the US, but she has defective, or imperfect purses that she’ll sell at a discount [I’m not sure how much “for cheap” is]. *sigh* I never thought of myself as an accessories girl, but there’s something so deliciously satisfying about the perfectly sized purse that holds my wallet, keys, book, planner and a water bottle and every so often the 17 year-old dog who refuses to walk anywhere he can be carried. It just panders to my need to have everything at my side at ALL times.
January 23, 2007
I wish I could link to the full articles but I haven’t ever tried to access the WSJ online, it’s usually my train read. I’ll try to link to them later but meanwhile, these items caught my eye today:
Drugs in Testing Show Promise for Lupus
The last time a new drug was approved to treat lupus, a serious autoimmune disorder that afflicts an estimated 1.5 million Americans, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. But after a 50-year stretch without a major advance, there are finally some promising treatments on the horizon.
Several drug makers are in advanced-stage trials for lupus drugs. Human Genome Sciences Inc. will begin enrolling patients in the next two weeks in the largest ever late-stage lupus trial, following positive results in earlier testing; Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is conducting lupus trials on Orencia, its rheumatoid arthritis drug; and Genentech Inc. and ….
I happen to have a particular interest in this right now, but regardless of personal interest, the fact that it’s been FIFTY years since the last major drug was developed is fairly incredible. I hope these late stage trials go well!
Rapid Flu Tests Found to Reduce Antibiotic Use in Adult Patients
The use of tests that can quickly determine whether people have influenza moderately cut down on antibiotic use in hospitalized adults, according to researchers at Rochester General Hospital in New York.
Many hospitals and doctors are trying to reduce the widespread use of antibiotics to curtail the development of bacteria that is resistant to the drugs.
While many doctors still prescribe antibiotics to patients diagnosed with the flu to guard against developing a secondary bacterial infection such as bronchitis or pneumonia …
Reduced usage of unnecessary antibiotics is always a good thing!
Bush’s Focus on Health Care Draws Criticism, New Hope
President Bush’s new focus on shrinking the ranks of the uninsured is appealing to Democrats and others who have long hoped for a renewed debate over how to extend health insurance – but Mr. Bush’s specific plans still face criticism.
“While the administration’s current proposal is deeply flawed, the attention that the president is devoting to the issue could signal real progress in addressing the health-care crisis,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass), who has worked many years on health …
I’m still a little confused about how these proposals are supposed to reform the system, I’m looking forward to seeing more, clearer, information than what I’ve read so far!
Has anyone NOT seen this video? It’s SO CUTE!
January 22, 2007
Gosh, I was alternately amused, taken aback, and immensely proud of a friend who mentioned to me [knowing nothing about this blog, or the depth of my deep dark love for all things financial] that she wanted to learn about investing and planning for her future because she’s got a real job and her papa is making her do her own taxes this year. ~ I preface by saying that I love my friends dearly. That doesn’t mean I don’t know how very different we are! I still love them, despite any blood pressure spikes on certain topics. ~
She’s the youngest of our group and has always worked to some extent, in fact she and I worked together at a temp job in high school, but her papa is a doctah and her parents have always been well able to support her through school and afterwards. All in all, her primary relationship with money has been to set it free. You know, REALLY free. When she wasn’t working, she ran up debt, and her parents would pay it off. And that’s always been a point of concern to me because I worried that she’d suffer a major shock when it was time for her to truly be financially independent. I have every confidence that she’s capable of learning how to manage money, I just didn’t know what would motivate her to do so.
It turns out that she’s reading Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad and this has sparked an interest in learning how to invest. I guess as a gateway drug it’s alright, but I hope she understood the concepts more than jumped to the conclusion that she should throw her money at a risky investment and expect huge returns.
Ironically, she failed to remember that I was the one who had initially wanted to start financial discussion gatherings among our friends to help each other learn how to do investment research and generally support one another. Even more ironically, their complete disinterest was what led me to blogging instead and now I find myself in the awkward position of wanting to show her all sorts of blogging resources but not wanting to be “outed” because I obviously comment on a lot of my favorite blogs. As Wanda had contemplated, I wonder who and if this blog would be safe to share with since it can be much more personal and revealing than I am in real life, and this conversation with her nearly prompted me to reveal it. Luckily, I caught myself in time, I’m not ready to be outta the closet just yet!
In any case, this odd mix of worry and pride must be how mama ducks feel when their ducklings start venturing into the world?
January 21, 2007
Cost: $27
I woke up last week in the middle of the night thinking it was Thursday when it was really Tuesday, and royally screwed up. Like a idjit, I rolled over and paid a bill that I thought was due. Paying the bill wasn’t the problem. The problem was *disclaimer* I don’t know what possessed me *end disclaimer* instead of paying from the account I’d specifically deposited that money into for this purpose, I used the other checking account. Without the money.
This is what I usually do:
Step One: Transfer necessary funds from Citi savings to Citi checking. [within Citi, this is an instant transfer.]
Step Two: Transfer funds from Citi checking to credit card. [again, instant transfer.]
Five days later, I was completely confused as to why on earth Wamu would charge me a non-sufficient funds fee. “What the heck were they talking about??” I wondered. I had the biggest cash cushion in there, so it couldn’t be a random check that I somehow forgot about. [This happens when someone doesn’t cash a check for SIX MONTHS. Only a little annoying.]
Instead I had:
Step One: Check.
Step Two: **digression from norm** Left the Citibank site. Proceeded to the Citicards site. Set up a payment.
Step Three: Failed to notice that the checking account number in the dropdown box was for the Wamu account. Processed payment.
Step Four: Fell back asleep.
A phone call to Wamu cleared it up for me. Well, the call cleared up the technical details, I still don’t know why on earth I thought it was a good idea to pay a bill mostly asleep, in the dark, at 3 am. Be that as it may … I found that lo and behold, I was paying off my BT card to the tune of >$5000 and paid it from the WRONG checking account.
Good job, Ms. Mini. I can’t even argue that fee. I have no grounds for argument. Tschahhh! Oh well, live and learn.
January 20, 2007
I usually respect a good portion of Ben Stein’s advice, though perhaps not necessarily his expounding of annuities, but this particular article felt just a leetle too doomsday for my taste. He does have a point, though, as a rule, society doesn’t really trend towards higher quality AND expansion.
what am I doing with all this mess? Eh, I got fussy and wanted to have something with a bit of my personality. BoyDucky was nice enough to put up with HOURS of my laboring over the code trying to learn color codes and html to customize this so that it wasn’t too dark to read and my incessant “ok, NOW what do you think? wait wait wait, it’s publishing. ok, now go!” That can get old, fast, but he stuck it out! What a trooper.