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
Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum
(Borrowed from the Prime Reading membership program.) This was well written but also profoundly disturbing. The lives during the Third Reich, the impunity with which Nazis tortured, maimed, and executed living beings, men, women, children, animals based on some belief of their superiority… it’s positively chilling to realize that there are still people today who endorse those appalling beliefs.
Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer
(Borrowed from the Prime Reading membership program.) I’ve read part of this series before but it’s been over a decade and it was a bit of fun light reading.
Hellcat Vol 1, Kate Leth.
(Borrowed from the Prime Reading membership program.) Kate Leth is a fantastic writer but this is the first chance I’ve had to read her. Definitely recommend!
Any Witch Way You Can, Amanda M Lee.
(Borrowed from the Prime Reading membership program.) I objected to some minor inaccurate word use but this was light fun reading insofar as a story can be light when it involves a murder mystery. I enjoyed the mix of the supernatural, the everyday town, and the relatively simple mystery. (more…)
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, Happy nearly end of the year to everyone else!
I’m feeling pretty good about all the work I’ve put into getting our money wrapped up in 2017 and ready for 2018.
This series has been monumentally helpful to keeping me on track because my other constant feeling is being on edge with our current administration. Politics aside, the people we have in office are utterly abhorrent human beings who only believe women exist in a binary state of “would have sex with her / wouldn’t have sex with her” and it’s appalling. Then there’s all the egregiousness of Naziism and white supremacy gaining a public facing foothold, revelations of abuse of women and children over the years … it’s way too much for …
Wait. I was talking about money, wasn’t I? Sorry, got a bit off track there. Oh right, that’s because I started thinking about the tax code and all of THOSE implications. Right, back to my original train of thought here:
First glitter, now microfleece? Should we just assume that anything synthetic and manmade is going to make it’s way into the environment and our food? Seems like the safest bet. Also yuck.
Many thanks to Emily for sharing this article about Jolabokaflod. I’d love this to replace our Christmas gifting tradition, I’d even accept it in the face of my stocks-only rule.
Ew, no thank you: The principal’s words of praise were directed entirely at his adult listeners: If our children were prepared for Stuyvesant, he told us, it was because we had been “preparing them for academic excellence since they were in utero.”
We have had the best and worst month. We did lots of fun things together, and they were legitimately fun. But they were also punctuated by some of the worst tantrums I have ever seen. You know us, we’re not going to let zir get away with that. There were quite a few times ze pulled a Bratty Chihuahua and sat down in the middle of the street, so I’d toss zir over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and haul that hollering sack home.
The worst of this is knowing that kids pull the boneless act even when they’re much older. This has to stop!
Last year, I chalked these tantrums up to brain leaps, they were temporary but usually preceded some serious mental growth spurt. This year, I don’t know what it’s all about. Maybe this is preceding a parenting growth spurt because I have had to cultivate so much patience. (more…)
Last month, I had a brief conversation with our tax person to run some numbers for our 2017 taxes, but we didn’t come up with much more we could do to become more tax efficient other than more charitable giving. Then along came Nicole and Maggie with a reminder that I hadn’t considered bunching our property taxes and I’m so glad they did.
If we don’t bunch them, our 2017 property taxes will be $8,500, $10,780 in 2018, and $10,420 in 2019.
If we do bunch them, they will be $14,020 in 2017, $5,210 in 2018, and $15,630 in 2019.
Our other relevant assumptions:
1. Expected mortgage interest for 2017: $19,865.43, approx expected morgage interest for 2018: $26,506.08
2. Drop Dad from list of dependents starting 2017
3. Drop Brother from list of dependents starting 2018
4. My W-2 income will probably be static for another year since I got a raise this year, PiC’s will probably go up about 3-5%. Stupid small companies *grouse* (more…)
This made me laugh a little: Nobody Wants to See your Dick — A Guide to Handling your Newfound Wealth and Influence. “You may not have noticed during your climb to the top, but your dynamic with others in your field has undergone a significant change (you may feel like the Zack Morris of your industry, but you’re actually Mr. Belding — keep that in mind at all times). ”
Debuting at 42 reminds me of my favorite English teacher: keep writing. Keep trying. It’s never too late! Look at Amy Tan.
I love that we have other examples of writers starting out later in life. Right now, I’m around this stage: “Why even try? No one wanted stories like mine.” My life is what I know. But my life is boring. The stories of my family were interesting to me but they may yet be poison now.
We need farmers to grow our food, so why are we ignoring their well-being? Even if I didn’t have farming friends, which I do, this would be important.
This was supposed to be the October report but stuff happened. Lots of stuff, but you’ve read all about it by now, right? Time for real money talk – let’s dive in!
My current portfolio lives at Ally now, they bought out Tradeking a while back. At $4.95 per trade, and as a relatively low level investor, that suited my needs but I started wondering how much I could reduce my costs by moving to Vanguard where my retirement and 529 portfolios live. It’s not that I trade often, but when are savings bad? In case you’re thinking the same, these are their service tiers and the assets you need to qualify for each:
PERSONAL INVESTOR – Less than $50,000. VOYAGER® – Starting at $50,000. VOYAGER SELECT® – Starting at $500,000. FLAGSHIP® – Starting at $1 million.
Unfortunately, the highest tier I would qualify for is the Voyager tier with the following fees:
VANGUARD ETFs: Free STOCKS AND NON-VANGUARD ETFs Online. All trades: $7 By phone. All trades: $25 (not that I ever trade by phone)(more…)
What I read
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, Happy nearly end of the year to everyone else!
First 
Last month, I had a brief conversation with our tax person to run some numbers for our 2017 taxes, but we didn’t come up with much more we could do to become more tax efficient other than more charitable giving. Then along came 
This was supposed to be the October report but stuff happened. Lots of stuff, but you’ve read all about it by now, right? Time for real money talk – let’s dive in!