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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November 11, 2008
My online “high interest” savings accounts are anything but by now, and it’s past time to do something about it.
The odd thing is that I remembered seeing a 4.0% APY offer at Citi a couple days ago, and it’s still there when you use the navigational rate selector to check rates based on term length, or amount deposited. In other places, though, like the advert box or when you actually click through to apply, it’s 3.5% APY. What gives?
I should roll over some of my emergency money (it’s spread across three different accounts because I didn’t want to be stuck without any e-money if one of the banks were to encounter problems) in the Citi and ING Direct accounts to CDs since they’re short term and I don’t anticipate needing all of that money upfront. (Oh great, way to tempt fate, self!) Looks like both of them offer a 6-month 3.5% APY right now, so I don’t even have to feel torn between one or the other product.
Then again, I could create a CD ladder with ING:
The only question is, is that really feasible considering CDs are just a bit less than liquid vehicles? I’m crap at math sometimes, bear with me. If my e-fund is at 6 months’ worth of expenses, and I don’t need to touch it for another two months (approximately), I would be safe putting up to 2 months’ worth in a 6-month CD. If I were to need access to the money starting in two months, I would need four months’ of cash (12,000) before the remaining money (8,000) was available at maturation.
That puts paid to the idea of creating a ladder with this money for now. Oh well, just a thought.
November 10, 2008
Not when it comes to electronics.
A friend purchased a cheap laptop for a few hundred dollars over a year ago and is now struggling with it because it can’t load or run Vista properly on the amount of memory that came with the laptop. Since mine is over five years old and still runs Windows 2000, I had no helpful personal experience or advice.
I canvassed computer savvy friends on what to do about “shoddy Vista” which resulted in admonitions that Vista isn’t the problem, it simply requires at least 2 GB to run well. And sure enough, Q has less than 1 GB of RAM. Even better, Q called tech support and found out that the computer can only be upgraded to 1 GB, total. Uhhh…
She definitely cannot afford to simply replace the laptop because her personal finances, and that of her partner’s, are not especially stable. Bad enough that the economy’s so shaky, their household situation is such that she’s carrying most of the financial burden.
It’s a grim reminder not to lowball electronics. I’m not advocating buying first generation hardware, but if she’d spent a little more for a machine that could accept a few more GBs of RAM, it wouldn’t cost as much to upgrade memory as it would to replace the entire computer. Also, I’d much prefer upgrade existing equipment than replacing it entirely as you get more life out of the original machine and keep more junk out of the landfill. It’s not much, but preventing a habit of treating our electronics like they’re disposables can make a significant difference over the years.
My only really useful suggestion to date has been to replace Vista with an older OS with lower memory requirements. That way, she can actually use the machine. And that’s all you really need.
November 9, 2008
it’s just that … I’m hungry now. And my dad has this sixth, seventh or even eighth sense where I + kitchen are concerned and always seems to head me off RIGHT before I can start cooking something up. If he manages that, he kicks me out of the kitchen because he has to prepare the food. It’s like I have to turn on super-stealth mode just so I can cook for m’own darned self and stuff something simple and easy into my system before I pass out.
I usually understand why he’s crippling my once burgeoning, nearly fantastic cookery skills because he has to provide for me in at least one way. But I’m staaaaarving and ramen or a quick curry will only take two minutes!! Not twenty!
I have got to be quieter next time I’m really hungry.
Having spent the better part of morning reading a series of rather depressing NY Times articles, I finally found one that was heartening: Barbara Raab’s “Need to Take a Breather? Have a Game Plan” breaks down the important steps to take in order to secure a sabbatical that won’t sink your career and leave you twitching with regrets, and not so incidentally, unemployed.
Balancing on the precipice of a major change for the past several months, or at least preparing to take the plunge while keeping mum about it, has produced much the same jangling nerves she experienced:
Every little thing was on my nerves: every buzz of a BlackBerry, every too-loud ring of a phone. I was going home exhausted for all the wrong reasons. I have never been easy to manage, but I was becoming downright hard to take.
Yep! I keep it bottled up for the most part, but the tensions physically manifest themselves in knotted shoulders, an aching neck, a brilliantly spectacular headache at 9:30 every morning. As my dentist pronounced after a thorough exam: You need a vacation!
Or a sabbatical. I like the idea of taking time off, but I love the idea of taking a significant break that’s not just R&R, but is also a time of refreshing, learning and improving. If only I could keep my health insurance like she did …..
What about you? Would you embrace a sabbatical if the circumstances were right? What would those circumstances be?
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The other articles I read:
On Healthcare, Deported in a Coma, Saved Back in U.S.
On the World Economy, Stunned Icelanders Struggle After Economy’s Fall
On the US Economy, Working Poor and Young Hit Hard in Downturn
On the Business Plan of a new Country Performer, My Music, MySpace, My Life (Actually, not depressing)
On a Different Perspective into PayDay Loans, Check Cashers, Redeemed
November 6, 2008
The weather has finally turned (what I consider) cold, hovering in the 60 degree range all week…. and I’ve been bundled up in scarf, sweater, and trenchcoat every day. I’m sure that people on the train think I’m utterly dramatic as they relax sans sweaters or coats, but I get really cold quite easily. [And the CPW has to be about $1, now! 🙂 ] The nights are even nippier and I’m thankful for my super thick Asian blankets rolled at the foot of my bed all year for the sudden change in climate. All this weather talk means is that, instinctively, I’m bracing for Christmas, and for once, I don’t have the first clue what gifts to get for anyone. Heck, Thanksgiving is practically upon us, and I haven’t even written out a gift list!
For those who need a slew of generic gifts, Plonkee’s got a great list posted, and I loved Grey’s Cake in a Mug. Generally, though, I dislike giving gifts that aren’t personalized in some way, and I don’t mean in that in the engraved-with-initials sense. As practicality-minded as I am, I much prefer to give things that the person would love and use, but not purchase for themselves. Obviously, this is much easier to do when the recipient is on a budget, and doesn’t buy everything they want. 😛
Off the top of my head, I’ll need to get a gift for:
BF
Best friends, two (we usually do a group exchange within our crowd)
Cousin
I’ve already got comics for the one friend I always exchange with, and I’m not really inclined to do anything for my coworkers. Well, maybe I’ll make them cake in mugs. My immediate family doesn’t exchange gifts, so I’m free to get gifts for anyone in the extended family if I wish.
Have you begun your lists of what to get and for whom yet?
I’m finally victorious after months and half a dozen hour-long calls.
No joke, I’ve probably spent more time on the phone with Verizon and their DSL branch of the billing, customer service, technical support, and cancellation departments in the last several months than I’ve spent talking to my own relatives.
Sheesh.
Long story short: We had problems with our Verizon DSL service several months ago, and after fighting with technical support (“We have a problem.” “No, you don’t, it’s fine.” “Yes, we do have a problem, we have no internet.” “No, you’re fine.” “NO, it’s not fine!” etc.) my family decided to jump ship by cancelling the service, and switch to another one without telling me.
Since I had originally reduced the price of our service ($15/month) just by asking, and had been told there was no contract and no Early Termination Fee, I was just peeved that they switched to a more expensive service without checking with me first.
Then I was royally ticked when I found out that Verizon was charging me an ETF.
Fast forward several months, and several painfully long, fruitless calls later, I had my final bill with the ETF ($79!) in hand, and got through to the cancellation department. After another 45 minutes of very patiently explaining the situation, a supervisor finally finally finally waived the fee.
It’s a good thing I’ve had all this time to simmer down before talking to the person who could help me out because I was mightily grumpy on all the previous calls. It might have been the holding for 25-30 minutes at a time, or being transferred no less than 4 times per call only to find that what I’d been told by the previous CSR was completely untrue, or you know, any number of things. Whatever the case, it became a crusade not to pay those liars their $79 when I’d been explicitly assured there wouldn’t be any such charge. And I’ve finally completed my quest: ETF has been waived.
November 5, 2008
Reading the New York Times about the state of New York is making me seriously rethink this notion of relocating to the City.
There are several considerations, not least of which are: who is still hiring, how much are they willing to pay, and will most (or more) employers adhere to the LIFO (last in, first out) rule?
The state’s economy faces some stark times with budget cuts, job cuts, and more to balance a deficit of $1.5 billion. Calling it a “budget challenge” seems a little bit of an understatement. Or perhaps I’m simply pessimistic.
The mayor has already announced several billions of dollars in belt-tightening measures for the 2007 to 2010 fiscal years, and he made it clear on Wednesday that more austerity was still in order. Even with the measures announced on Wednesday, the city still faces a deficit of $1.3 billion in the 2010 fiscal year, which starts on July 1.
“We do take these measures with a heavy heart,” the mayor said, adding, “We’re committed to keeping New Yorkers working, but we also have to keep the city’s finances in order.”
The mayor said he was not calling for the kinds of deep cuts in police, fire, education and health-care spending that characterized the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, when the city teetered on bankruptcy.
“We’re just not going to return to the dark old days of the ’70s when service cuts all but destroyed our quality of life,” Mr. Bloomberg declared. “We are faced now with the reality from the financial crisis: We must cut spending and generate more revenue. Each path is unpleasant and painful.”
The mayor recited a grim litany of statistics: $500 billion in losses on Wall Street, a loss of 147,000 jobs in the financial sector, and a projected $2.6 billion drop in city revenues between the last fiscal year and the current one. (The fiscal year ends on June 30.)
