November 10, 2006
The New Blogger
Has anyone had a lot of trouble with Blogger lately? Has anyone tried the new version of Blogger yet?
November 9, 2006
Experimentation
I’m giving Yodlee a whirl! I’ve been using pen and paper for as long as I’ve had a credit card. While I like it and it works for me, I’m always half convinced that I should be using some sort of technological doodad to keep my finances in order; I do just about everything else online, why not this? More importantly, the sheer number of accounts I have are becoming overwhelming and I’m absolutely certain that I’m going to get so busy one day that I won’t have time to neurotically check every account six times a day, and I’ll miss a payment or something. It happens.
After all, the whole software thing sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Upload all your finances into a single site or program that organizes everything for you and it makes your life easier! Yeah, I can get behind that. But, in past years, I’ve tried MSN Money and a really old version of Quicken and I just couldn’t stand them. I’m not sure if it was interminably waiting for an update or trying to separate out these cards from that account or having the software judgmentally sorting through my spending. Whatever it was I didn’t like about the other programs, I’m pretty sure the clincher was that none of the programs had a calendar with the payments written on the due dates like I do manually. This is a problem because I’m very visual when it comes to the calendar and need to see whole months in advance whenever I plan anything. But Yodlee does! If nothing else, their financial calendar has seduced me.
I’m not enjoying the process of adding accounts right now because I have to remember every username and password I’ve set up, but I do like the ability to nickname my accounts. I didn’t like how Citibank didn’t let me name any of my e-savings accounts. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take me as long to learn my way around and reconfigure the Yodlee account as it’s taken with Blogger!
November 8, 2006
Pre-marital ponderings
Daniel’s posting on his [and his fiance’s] journey to a $100k net worth has been simmering with my thoughts on financially preparing for a wedding and marriage and provoked some other questions.
Prevailing wisdom cautions that it’s best not to combine finances before marriage.
I’ve got no problem with that. I consider that period before the official engagement an opportunity to get your financial house straightened up, the debts carted out to the curb and dust chivied out of the fallow accounts. As best you can, anyway. It could also be a great training period for FOSs (fresh-out-of-school) to learn how to make and live on a budget if you’ve not done that yet.
In my case, since I’m paying for my own wedding, waiting until the engagement to start saving or setting savings goals does not jibe with my uber-preplanning mentality nor does it give me enough time to save enough money. The thought just makes me antsy! Ideally, I’d like to start setting a savings goal with BoyDucky fairly early on, but isn’t pre-engagement really too early? But then again, is waiting until engagement too late? I’m not talking about joint accounts, which would qualify as combining finances. I’m just talking about deciding that we’re each going to save X amount of money in X amount of time. You know, savings goals and accountability and all that.
Yes, there’s always the option of the long engagement during which we save up. I haven’t got anything against a long engagement. But it seems like once you’re engaged, once you’re actually out-in-the-open, fully-fessed-up engaged, you no longer have the lead time to save because the spending starts! You’re meant to set out on that path of planning the wedding, shopping crook in hand, searching out the bargains and necessary accoutrements for the shindig. Saving up during the engagement just doesn’t sound nearly as effective as being a super-saver beforehand. I have this odd self image of trotting up the lane, waving my “Goals met” slip saying ok! I’m ready to be proposed to now! Silly, huh?
But, Daniel’s accomplishment of increasing his net worth has given me some perspective on the possibility that, perhaps, I don’t have to have every duck in line before my tax status changes. 😉
Oh no! Stardust (the film) has been pushed back. Again.
The movie I was looking forward to seeing, originally scheduled for a March 2007 release, has been pushed back to July 2007 because: “the head honchos at Paramount saw a rough cut two weeks ago, and decided that it was strong enough to be a “summer tentpole” movie. So it’s been moved from March 2007 to July 2007. Which I think is mostly a good thing, as it means they have confidence in it and will get their mighty marketing machine behind it, but is a bit worrying as there’s an awful lot of competition in the Summer, whereas around Easter we would have been the only thing like that around.” (www.neilgaiman.com)
The film is based on Neil Gaiman’s book by the same name, and promises MUCH hilarity. I’m sure it’ll do just fine up against any of the other Hollywood tripe being released next year. I saw a rough cut or three of it in San Diego in July and was suitably impressed by the comic talents of all the actors involved, famous or not. Be sure to see it when it comes out, it’ll be worth it!!
What’s it about, you ask? Why …. : In the tranquil fields and meadows of long-ago England, there is a small hamlet that has stood on a jut of granite for 600 years. Just to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here, in the hamlet of Wall, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. And here, one crisp October eve, Tristran makes his love a promise — an impetuous vow that will send him through the only breach in the wall, across the pasture… and into the most exhilarating adventure of his life.
November 7, 2006
Wow! The finger game rocks!!
I always lose rock-paper-scissors. Always. And raffles? Forget it! But my coworkers and I just played the finger game: like rock-paper-scissors game, except you put out one or two fingers. Odd finger(s) out wins. And I won two tickets to the USC-Cal game for next weekend from my boss!
Free tickets to my first college football game, how cool!
Is anyone a fan of those swipe’n’signature-free credit cards?
I know I’m not.
I’d forgotten about the contactless smart card rollout until I read Liz Pulliam West’s article about them. Obviously they advocate an even higher convenience level of card usage, and she points out some security concerns that I thought were pretty obvious, but glosses over the concern that I thought was far more relevant: how many of us need help spending money faster?
She says that jokingly, but seriously, forget for a moment about the possibilities of identity theft and think about the true culprit in many of our financial lives: *hey, stop looking over your shoulder, I’m talkin’ to you!* I’m not one to blame technology for the actions of its users, but it seems like the probability of overspending with this handy dandy new form of payment is just not worth the novelty.
How many people really need a credit card transaction made so easy that they don’t even have to look at a receipt OR sign it?
November 6, 2006
It’s the small stuff
As I shake out my swollen fingers yet again, I have to wonder: what earthly use will I be, if I physically fall apart from doing nothing more than a desk job? If all I’m doing is a lot of administrative and managerial work that’s hardly physically taxing at the beginning of my career and my hands can’t take the abuse of clicking on the mouse all day, what does that mean for my future? I know that BoyDucky could support me through grad school, if I let him, but what’s the point if I am incapable of holding up that diploma with my own hands?
I’m spending all this time worrying about and planning my financial future and my parents’ retirement and security and I don’t even know if I’ll be able to work or function normally ten years from now. It could be argued that no one can KNOW that, but in my case I know that it’s just about a given that I’ll be gradually deteriorating if I simply lived a “normal” life without any sudden truck appearances or suchlike.
And how could I want to have children? I don’t even know if I can fully take care of myself by that time! What kind of mother would I be, who couldn’t even hold her child in her arms, much less provide for all his or her needs? How could I make that choice fully knowing my deficiencies are only going to get worse?
And how fair is it to ask someone to face that bleak prospect with me?
And to support me when I’m basically useless?