About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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May 7, 2015
People keep saying that renting is throwing money away and I can’t help but snort in derision when I hear it. If you were literally throwing money at a landlord and NOT living in the lodgings you paid for, sure, but I’m quite sure that no one is talking about that.
Personally, while I do like the idea of home ownership for the financial equity-building aspect under the right circumstances, I’ve always had a soft spot for renting and this weekend was a perfect example of why.
We have a neighbor who insists on scattering seed all over the mutual property, trying to attract the damn pigeons, and he succeeds. He’s now escalated to putting out trays of water and seed for them too, which means there’s seed, shells, and plastic trays littering the neighborhood along with a ridiculous amount of bird poop in a lot of places.
Some of our neighbors have CDs strung down their balconies, others have Fort Knox-like barbed things bristling up from their balcony rails. You can see why, poop streaks down the walls and their rails despite their precautions.
Aside from the poop factor, the litter attracts other vermin and the pigeon feathers are everywhere which is not awesome for allergies and the poop causes long term property damage. All in all, no matter how much I like animals, these critters are not welcomed neighbors.
PiC got into a tiff with the main (and only, I’m sure) culprit this weekend.
He politely asked the man to stop feeding directly on the shared property areas, as it encourages the flock to move closer and closer, they’ve taken to roosting right over our front step now!
The man went off on a frothy-mouthed tirade about how he intends to attract them, that the poor birds are starving with no possible food source, that humans destroy wildlife with their concrete, that we’re horrible selfish destructive people, and on and on.
I’ll note that while he has such contempt for us humans, he’s still living right here amongst us in the reviled concrete based home instead of communing with the nature that he’s advocating for.
I’ll also note that he’s all about having the animals but his plan evidently ends there. I’ve had to stop him feeding my dogs French fries because apparently any food is better than letting a dog go on a walk without five treats.
He doesn’t take good care of his own pets which are adorable but filthy and reek of urine. They urinate and defecate everywhere they go and stink up the joint. I don’t think he should get rid of them, I think he should actually take care of them! Incontinence is treatable and in some cases, leaving it untreated puts them at risk for further medical problems related to that incontinence. He lets them run loose everywhere, one of them was hit by a car because he refused to leash them walking in the dark, right into a driveway where cars pull out.
But no no, let’s lure in every creature you can think of to make up for the depredations of humans, and never mind what shape the poor animals will be in.
Also I’m not cool with the rats and roaches and whatever else that’ll move in with the abundance of extra food bits he keeps tossing out his windows and scattering on the sidewalks.
I stood up for this guy before when other bullying neighbors tried to rally the neighbors against him. I felt bad for him at the time when it was just about his dogs. But now he’s letting in anyone who comes to the locked gate without question, totally disregarding security concerns despite several break-ins made possible by his irresponsible behavior. He was a crank before all this degenerated into him flying into a rage, and he’s just getting worse. Goody.
If we were renters, this wouldn’t bother me quite so much. We could seriously consider moving when the lease was up and the long term property maintenance wouldn’t be my concern. So long as this guy’s living here, he’s going to be a pain.
May 6, 2015
We tried to be really careful about how much stuff we bought for the baby, and mostly did well, but babies still need a fair amount of maintenance related things and parents definitely need some stuff for sanity’s sake.
On review, I think we have a good idea of how well we did for this fourth-trimester phase.
We should have bought/stocked up on…
Diapers and wipes. Duh. (preferences below)
The First Years Deluxe Nail Clipper
Things we wanted more of…
Evenflo Classic Glass Nurser 8 oz
Hospital blankets and swaddle blankets
We love…
Our Chicco Car seat & stroller set
LB hated the car seat at first but came around after a few weeks. The stroller is awesome. It took months but we found the perfect lightweight, one hand collapsible, complete overhead canopy coverage stroller that we can both use. Ze loves staring at the sky when we’re out for a walk and conks out for naps in it.
aden + anais Swaddle Blankets
Amazon Elements Baby Wipes, Sensitive, Flip-Top, 80 Count (Pack of 6)
Baby bouncer kinda like this. Ours was a hand me down, and too big for LB as a newborn but ze has grown into it and figured out that kicking really hard makes it rock. We can actually put hir down to hang out while we eat sometimes. Ze is still insistent on being held a lot more than we’d like but this gives us the occasional break.
Boppy pillows. We used this ourselves as pillows when cuddling, to prop hir up when nursing or bottle feeding, as an arm rest when bottle feeding.
We hated…
Huggies One and Done Refreshing Baby Wipes, Cucumber and Green Tea
Too wet. Soggy, even.
Pampers wipes, Sensitive
Too dry! And too thin. These are two of the three Bears of baby wipes, for us.
Not worth it…
We got an adorable cradle hand-me-down and it was in great shape. Sadly, LB wasn’t having any of that putting hir down business when ze was small enough to use it, and when ze finally was ok with laying around to play or maaaaaybe nap, hir wingspan was just too wide. And what child sleeps with hir arms flung wide to either side? MINE. Of course.
I still have a box of 100 Lansinoh disposable nursing pads. They were highly recommended and I’m sure they’re great but I can never remember to use them, and generally I’m pumping or nursing frequently enough not to need them. *shrug* There is a point to ordering things online with free returns, I don’t have to leave the house to get my money back.
May 4, 2015
People tend to make assumptions the second they hear that you own rental property and, for those who aren’t knowledgeable, many of those are wrong.
1. You’re rich. (Correlated: You will be rich tomorrow if you just got started today.)
2. You’re always making money, usually hand over fist.
3. It’s easy money, and profitable as hell.
4. Landlords can charge anything they want.
Obviously we’re not rich. Far from it. I certainly intend to be but this is one part of a long term plan to get there, this isn’t the end all be all.
The point is to make money but it’s not easy and not an overnight get rich quick scheme.
There is a risk and a truckload of expenses involved: I took on a mortgage, with all the associated home buying costs like closing costs, realtor fees, inspection and appraisal fees, and a higher interest rate because it’s not an owner occupied property.
And whether or not we have renters (aka income), I’m still responsible for all taxes, damages, repairs, and association or other fees every month. My profit is AFTER I pay all those bills, if anything is left.
Profit margin is dependent on two main factors: fixed expenses and rent. I’d love it if I could engineer a 50% profit margin but the only “control” I have is on the expense side. It’s down to what decisions I make when buying. The price point has to be low enough with a high enough property value so that when the mortgage and all the other costs are added up, they are less than the amount of rent I can charge. And I can only charge what the market will bear. If rents in the neighborhood or region are $1200/month for a 4 bedroom, 2 bath single family home, and I’m trying to charge $1500/month for a comparable property with no distinctive features worth $300 more per month, all because my expenses are $1400/month, guess who’s got 2 thumbs and is SOL?
Or say your expenses are lower and you can still make a small profit charging market rates – if you get hit with multiple repairs, month after month, even small ones, you’re still looking into an ever deepening hole.
You’d better have some slush fund saved to keep covering your expenses during times of vacancy, and any rental income budgeting sheet worth the paper it’s printed on includes a minimum assumed vacancy percentage, because just try crying to your bank about how you can’t pay this month because the rent was paid late or your property stood vacant.
Believe me, they’re just fine and dandy taking the house along with whatever money you’ve already sunk into it if you were fool enough to believe that you didn’t need to pony up more cash out of pocket from time to time.
I didn’t get into this intending to lose money but as an investor you have to know the basic risks you’re running, and yes, losing money is absolutely a real risk.
April 30, 2015
Change from Jan 2015: 8% increase
On Money
I’m working away at Swagbucks to earn Amazon money for household, Little Bean, and dog things we need. Feel free to join using my referral link if you like!
***
Retirement: I’ve been doing lump sum contributions to my IRA at the end of each tax year, but I should really do it monthly instead. Mostly for superficial reasons: seeing $5500 come out of the savings at once is more painful than ~ $500/month. Plus I can probably cash flow that $500/month if I’m creative, rather than taking it out of savings at all! Or am I getting greedy?
***
Update: screw it, I’m cashflowing that sucker. 2014 contribution, done.
2015 contributions, set up as recurring withdrawals.
2016 contributions, will automatically go forth and withdraw.
It’s like a monthly gift to myself!
*** (more…)
April 29, 2015
Who do you trust to make health care decisions for you?
We’re making out our advanced care directives and while we have a basic idea of how we’d take care of each other, we need to designate decision makers if both of us are out of commission.
Our criteria
Who has enough basic knowledge of medicine and the medical establishment to be an advocate?
Who would understand our wishes AND comply with them regardless of their personal feelings, philosophy or religious beliefs?
In sum: who could we trust to intelligently make health care decisions that are in our best interests as we see them?
Our candidates
It might seem like “family” is the automatic answer, but as with other issues, that’s not necessarily the case.
I have a couple relatives who work in the medical field directly or indirectly and I would trust one of them to take the time to exercise good judgment, and seek the expertise or resources necessary to make the best possible decision for us.
PiC has a couple of friends in the same position. We would trust one of them to do the same or serve as a resource to the primary decision-maker if medical complications had to be addressed.
The other considerations are location and availability.
The person/ people we designate would have to be willing to drop everything to come to us to make those decisions in the event. While we’d certainly pay for those travel expenses, there’s no doubt that would be highly disruptive to their family lives.
Aside from the actual legalities, we need to have a clear conversation with the nominees to be sure this was something they were ready and willing to do, and make sure they have all our pertinent information as well as what we want done in case of incapacitation in writing.
At the moment, I’m fairly certain I know who I’d designate as mine. We still need PiC’s decision.
:: Have you got either a designated decision-maker or do you know who you’d trust to do the honors?
April 27, 2015
How about I just don’t spend $150+ and save $150+?
Walking to the counter, arms loaded down with pump bottles, I turned and stopped in front of PiC. “We’re buying nearly $80 worth of hand soap. HAND SOAP.”
It was 50-70% off, but still. Hand soap.
A Bath and Body Works holiday sale nearly sucker-punched our wallets. After 30 minutes of sniffing and picking bottles we were walking over to the counter when reality sunk in. The soap smelled great, of course, that’s how they got us in the first place but thankfully my brain turned on. I can pay $5 for a gallon of soap that smells just fine! It’s a testament to the pull of the new scents that I was actually sad putting the bottles back on the shelf.
I’m a sucker for products that smell good, and I’m not the only one. There’s a whole science behind manipulating your senses between scent and organization to get you to stay longer and spend more.
Some scents transport me to very specific moments in time:
Softsoap: high school, childhood best friends, horseback riding, the red-brown dirt of the riding stables where I learned to “be a rider, not a passenger”, hand scrubbing my one pair of riding pants and line drying them every week.
Garnier Fructis: high school and college, couponing, youth
Incense: temple, death, grieving, parent loss, tradition, childhood Lunar New Year celebrations, grouchy old grandma, ancestors I only know through faded black and whites and stories passed down from generation to generation
Bath and Body Works brown vanilla sugar: college best friend during college, picking apples at the grocery store, Southern California sun, driving my new car to work/school/work
BBW plumeria (long discontinued but there are a few scents reminiscent of this): junior high school phys.ed., black shorts and white tees, an old friend I haven’t seen since New York, braces, REALLY terrible looking long hair, weighing less than 70 lbs and being mocked about it.
Pears/apples (artificially): being carefree, young, and silly. Life before kid, jobs, degrees, or college majors.
Coffee: five years old, learning responsibility, trusting my parents implicitly and completely, discovery
Gingerbread and fresh baked cookies: Christmas, family, holidays
“New car” smell: Age 19, negotiating my first major purchase, driving a new car in torrential rain, paying off a loan early
Scents are such a powerful trigger for memory, no wonder it’s a tool to manipulate our emotions and buying habits! I’m safer shopping online from home.
What’s your shopping weakness?
April 23, 2015
Once in a while, I send out postcards. I might have heard you were having a hard time, or you mentioned something that made me think YOU WOULD LIKE MAIL.
I love getting real mail. I also love sending it. I hear some of you feel the same.
I’d like your opinion on how you’d like to participate. And if you’re ok with it, I’d like to feature at least the front of some of your postcards here. If this goes well, maybe we’ll make this a recurring thing!
So let’s kick this off and say, submit your answers by May 8th.
Quick edits (April 24th): I am willing to send to at least one international address, and I’d like to kick off this round sooner, so I moved the response deadline to May 8th.
