brip blap

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Yeah, I’m bringing it! Back again! Woo! Yeah! I missed the linklings last weekend but I’m back at this weekend. Things are slowly settling into place at Casa del Blap. Due to Bubelah’s iron will soldiering forward despite two whiny babies - and a newborn - things are still going well. I’m almost back to 100%. I will make two brief observations about having eerie flu-like illnesses: (1) you lose a lot of weight in a hurry. I lost three notches on my belt by basically failing to eat for five days. Not a nice feeling, and I’m not sure my appetite is completely back yet. (2) When you are ill, you realize that nothing matters more than your health. Nothing. You can say you need financial freedom, an end to the war in Iraq, a fulfilling career, whatever - but the absence of your full physical capacity can consume your entire life in a hurry. And trust me, I understand that sounds melodramatic. I had a weenie illness - I was probably at 1.1 on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being all-out dreadful illness. But you do realize that you must maintain your health in order to pursue ANY other goals in life - being a good parent, spouse, a productive person in your avocation, etc. So if you’re eating fast food to save a few minutes because you’re in a rush, or failing to stay fit because you’re just too busy …

Money Writers! Bring it!

Personal Finance Across Borders I - Retirement Accounts

I read a lot of Canadian personal finance blogs. The Canadian language has some broad similiarities to American so they aren’t too hard to read. They also have some cultural similarities to America - they play football (albeit with 3 downs and 110 yard fields, I think). Their retirement systems are similar but not exactly the same as ours - and if you’ve ever wondered about the diifferences, this is a VERY good gap analysis (that’s consultantese for “stuff that’s different”). Only one question remains - what do they call Canadian bacon in Canada? Bacon?

Plan Ahead: 6 Steps to Secure Your Financial Future

I completely agree with five of these steps. Saving for college for the kids? Oh boy. I’ve staked out my contrarian position on that one before. I’ve told Little Buddy that playtime’s almost over, anyway - this summer he’s manning the lemonade stand and I’m looking for an ROIC of 10%, at least.

Get a Jump on Summer With These Warm Weather Money Saving Tips

I highlighted these tips on warm weather money saving tips earlier in the week when we were having amazing, summer-like days in the Northeast. Today, it’s 50-something, rainy and gusting wind like it’s November. Whee. Well, here are the tips for those of you who don’t live in New Drearia like I do.

The Power of The Dream

Lazy Man has a dream - he has a business idea that can’t fail. Want to know what it is? Well, read the article and you still won’t know, because he’s not sharing yet, but it’s a great example of someone just getting thwapped (yes, I said “thwapped”) with that ‘big idea’ out of nowhere.

Plan Ahead to Maintain Your Health and Avoid Medical Debt

I’m sure everyone has their own morbid terrors. You have a lot of these as a parent, for example. I am a shivering wreck when it comes to choking, for example - I dread it in myself and others. Nothing freezes me up like choking. Little Buddy is nervous around ladybugs, because he saw one once as he was bitten by another bug, so he thinks they bite. My brother was wearing a Superman cape as a kid that was grabbed and shaken by a dog so he’s nervous around even the littlest dogs. All of these fears pale in comparison to what is - in my opinion - the great American nightmare - a medical debt catastrophe. It’s the only Western country - the only one - where you can lose your home for the crime of getting cancer. Yay capitalism.

Don’t Want To Work Forever? Retire On Time With These 10 Tips!

Who does want to work forever? Do we WANT people to work forever? Has the federal government been improved by having a bunch of 75 year olds represent us in the legislative and judicial branches? Isn’t it time for Larry King to settle down and enjoy his 80s and his toddlers? Seriously - these are all simple tips, but many of them, like not letting life ‘take over’ (a big one for me) - are critical.

Time to Stock up on Rice?

I hate these articles. Not because you shouldn’t pay attention, but just because once in a while I have to shake my head and say “is this surprising to anyone?” My brother’s stockpiling rice already. Rice. Think about it. After wheat/bread and water, that’s about as much of a staple food as there is. The US is the heart of overconsumptionworld, too, so imagine what kind of shortages are occuring out there. This is just a cyclical drought-induced shortage, I think, but get ready for climate change, people. Food is not limitless. This little blob of water and rock hurtling through the void is a closed system - at some point we won’t be able to find new arable soil. Just saying…

Other good articles around the Internet! You bring it, too!

Why You Should Stay Invested in the Market

I agree that you should stay invested in the market, with a caveat.  If you’re an index fund investor, you have to consider this:  if you look at the market from 2000 to 2005, you’d see that it’s gone from 10,650.92 to 10,717.50.  Even today it’s just over 12,000; that’s a 20% return in 8 years.   Not per year - total.  If you’re going to stay in, and you are a mutual fund index investor, you’d better have nerves of steel and be ready to have year after year of 0% returns.  That means returns worse than your 0.5% interest checking account.  So if you’re comfortable that your investment horizon is distant enough to weather those kind of returns (and they very well may be) stay in!

Work? I Don’t Need No Stinking Work!

As a fellow new-parent-non-worker, I found this amusing. I could have written this post - it mirrors my past week (except that I had the flu, too). It is a weird feeling to have no work - you find that your days stay full, full, full. Your personal chores expand to fill the gap. I agree that I don’t need no stinkin’ work. If someone will pay me a mere six figures per year to play dinosaurs, go grocery shopping and wash bottles I’ll stay home for good, too. Anyone? Anyone?

The Financial Realities Of Having A New Baby

…and more on new babydom. Sorry, people, I’m in new baby brain mode. A good point is that you tend to spend more in some areas and less than in others, but in our case the kicker - so far - is the difference between foods. Little Buddy had to go on a hypoallergenic diet (Alimentum) and that stuff is expensive and then some. Pumpkin (yes, I think I’m going with that nickname) is still breastfeeding and shows no signs of the allergies Little Buddy had - meaning her total food cost so far is practically $0. We have also benefited hugely from my two nieces, who have provided a gargantuan amount of hand-me-down clothes and a crib.

You Made Yourself Into Who You Are

Yes. You did. It’s not your teachers’ fault, or your parents, or the US governments’ fault. Only you can change you. Too many people are looking for something to help them change. It took a lot of fat years for me to suddenly start losing weight, and trust me, people tried to help - but I decided to do it, I did it, and nobody else did it for me. If you have bad habits, only YOU can change them. Great, straightforward post. Didn’t hurt to have a link to The Bourne Ultimatum movie, either (spoiler, though)!

Why I No Longer Support The Sierra Club

Once in a while you read an article and think “awww, dammit, wish I didn’t know that, I was happier ignorant.” This was one such article. Scratch another group that I formerly held in high regards - and it just goes to show that the only person you can count on to fight climate change is YOU.

43 Amazing Resources For Writers

This is a cool list if you’re a writer. And you probably are, you just haven’t tried to be one yet.

Retirement sucks!

And after I mentioned not wanting to work forever above, here’s an article about why retirement isn’t all it is cracked up to be. Looking for perfection is foolish, but settling for mediocrity is even more foolish…

photo credit: littlerottenrobin

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I realize this is a bit late for a roundup on the April stats, but I’m just finally getting my sea legs back after a hectic (and for me, quite sickly) week and a half. I still want to make sure I thank everyone who deserves to be thanked for their contributions to this site - even though I write the articles, without all of you (readers, commentators, bloggers who link to me or include me in their blogrolls) I would just be keeping a very fancy online journal!

You’ll also notice that I’ve added a few little doodads in the third column towards the bottom - StumbleUpon, twitter and del.icio.us “friend” buttons, as well as a poll. I’m trying to concentrate on those three social media sites, since I like them the most, so if you use them, add me as a friend or network or whatever and I will return the favor 99.99% of the time (the other .01% I might not - a good example is that if you twitter and 99 out of 100 twitters are “read my latest blog post” I might not). And complete the poll, if you like polls; they help me know where my writing should be headed.

Top Referring Sites

(the people who sent the most visitors over to brip blap)

• Million Dollar Journey
• The Digerati Life
• The Simple Dollar
• MSN Smart Spending
• Free Money Finance
• Lazy Man and Money
• Generation X Finance
• I’ve Paid For That Twice Already
• Moolanomy
• Millionaire Mommy Next Door

Top Commentators

(the people who make the comments even more fun to read than my posts!)

• Curmudgeon
• Mrs. Micah
• Solar Yard Lights
• Dividend Growth Investor
• Bubelah
• deepali
• Ron@TheWisdomJournal
• FFB
• SavingDiva
• Four Pillars

Most Visited Posts for March

• are American kids stupid about personal finance?
• the charity customer
• a quick and easy way to control spending
• 15 reasons why you might want to be a consultant
• brip blap getting zen things done

A quick note on the last post - on Leo’s site a commentator asked Leo if he felt that I was ripping him off, and Leo very graciously said he didn’t think so (since I did mention his site and e-book {affiliate link} - and I’m doing so again) and even if I was he didn’t mind.

Since he could have let the comment go without response, it was a nice move on his part. I’ll say again that there was no intention to ‘rip him off’, and I sure hope it didn’t come off that way to most people. Let’s face it, there aren’t many ‘new’ ideas in productivity (or personal finance). For my own personal productivity, I take some things from Zen Habits, some from GTD, some from my dad, some from my wife and even some from observing how kids do things. It’s all a process of reflection. But thanks again, Leo.

As always, I deeply appreciate everyone who reads, comments, subscribes, stumbles and even lurks! Especially over the last month, while I was busy preparing for the birth of my daughter, I really appreciated all the comments during times when I wasn’t able to respond. There are some great comments - I don’t publicize the comments feed as much as I ought but you can subscribe here. Honestly, the comments could often be a whole separate blog in and of themselves!

photo credit: a DELL

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This won’t be much of a roundup, since I don’t have any links. I’ll try to get back to them next week. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I did have a new tax deduction come to fruition this week; our baby daughter was delivered healthy and happy (if you can be happy being ripped from the comfort of the womb) Thursday morning. She made the heavyweight division, coming in at 9 pounds, 9 ounces, only a pound shy of Little Buddy. Mother and big brother are doing fine, too.

So again, forgive me for a lack of response to comments/emails/etc., but I’ll get back to it soon. The posts will keep coming!

And thanks so much to everyone who has sent good wishes!

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Today when I woke up before dawn, I realized it was my first day of being a full-time problogger. I’m still in the corporate mentality of thinking of Saturday as a “day off,” though. I realized that might be one of the first things that has to disappear to make that corporate mindset disappear and the entrepreneurial (or whatever) mindset appear. There is no need to wake at 6, work from 9 to 5 Monday to Friday. I need to work when I feel like it and (considering I have a stomach-achey two year old and a 9-months pregnant wife at home) when I can! But just as I can take Monday morning off now to go to an appointment with the pediatrician, I also need to work on a Saturday afternoon when it’s time to get a link post together. And I also need to start thinking of this blog as my work and my inspiration, since it’s my only income source now! Even if I’m planning on going back to consulting in a few months, it’s still exciting to lock myself into this mindset: I am an entrepreneur, a problogger, a writer! What a cool feeling.

From The Money Writers:

• Looking for Cheaper Gas?

  One of the bizarro-world aspects of life in New Jersey - everything else costs a fortune, taxes are sky-high but our gas is dirt cheap and every single last station is completely full-service; self-service isn’t even allowed. Took me a while to get used to it but now I’m spoiled.

• Create Your Own Dollar Plan: Step 1

  If you spend any time reading this blog, you’ll know I love creating and measuring and talking about goals. This is the kickoff to a series I know I’ll like, and I’ll be looking for tips to work on my own dollar plan.

• Giving Money as a Gift, How Much?

  This is a question that’s bugged me a lot being married into an ethnic group where money is far and away the most common gift given - my take is around $100 per (adult) head attending the event, I guess.

• 4 Ways You Can Profit from the Falling US Dollar

  So it’s come to this: hedge against the loss in the value of the local currency by getting currency from a stable, healthy economy. Last time I did this it was Russians hedging against the ruble by hoarding dollars. Now it’s Americans hedging against the dollar by hoarding euros. Sigh.

• Coupon Tips and Tricks That Can Cut Your Grocery Bill By 80%

  I hate coupons and basically just try to grab the cheapest natural food available, but after reading this comprehensive how-to I may give one more stab at the mystical art of coupon cutting.

• Maybe Higher Food Prices Are Actually Good For Us as a Society

  “Because of higher grocery bills, people are resorting to such ghastly tasks as cooking at home, growing some of their own food, and using leftovers!” The end times are near, indeed. Sheesh.

• Finovate Start-up: What Would You Ask Vestopia, SmartHippo and other companies?

  The founder of start-up SmarterBoar is offering to fire off questions at Finovate on your behalf.

Elsewhere about ye olde Webbe:

• Leave Your Shoes at the Door: Three Ways To Be a Friendly Visitor to Your Environment

  This was an awful, but very powerful image for me: “imagine that next to your gravesite (or what have you) when you die lies a pile of things that you have consumed and discarded over your lifetime - especially the non-recyclables.” Ugh. I don’t want to, but I did, and it made me want to change some habits.

• Rules To Follow In Times Of Inflation.

  These are three great points, but one of them is critical: in times of (hidden) inflation, saving money can be counterproductive. That “high yield” savings account? You may be better off using it to do repairs you’ve been putting off on the car or house (or other necessary expenditures). Spend the money before it loses value. I’ve seen it happen before, in Russia - it can get to the point where buying a TV is a better investment than putting money in the bank. Scary, but true.

• 10 Ways New Parents Overspend On Their Newborns

  I had to laugh at this article. Oh, those poor first-time parents, buying this and that item that they will never need! I am now preparing to be a grizzled veteran parent with baby #2 and there is no way I could ever possibly spoil our baby girl with cute little outfits and toys. And those, my friends, are famous last words. We are doomed to repeat history

• So You Want To Be In Management

  This article probably deserves a little more thorough analysis on my part, but two quick comments:

  • 1. “Please respect my time by not coming at 5:30 PM with a critical issue we could have discussed at any time during that day.” Amen. When I was a senior manager I hated hearing about “blow-ups” at the end of the day. I wasn’t a heart transplant surgeon, I was a finance manager. It could wait.

  • 2. “I don’t believe it’s my job to motivate you. You should motivate yourself. My job is to provide you the resources to do good work, set goals and expectations, and follow up.” Maybe I messed up here. The single greatest thing I loved about managing people was motivating them. My staff loved it too, and I doubt you could find a single person who ever worked for me who wouldn’t say that I tried to motivate them. Maybe it didn’t always work, but I tried, because I like it. It’s why I think I would be a decent life coach or career coach - would I? Hm.

• We Feel Like Fools for Saving Our Money

  “Don’t assume that dropping 15% into a 401K, having $1000 in an emergency fund and having a “steady job” are enough to protect you and your family.” I don’t know who this guy Steve is who’s writing at Prosper but he sure is pessimistic about the economy.

• Sharing Salary Figures on Facebook

  “If we can talk about how many orgasms we have with our mate, why can’t we discuss how much we make?” If that quote doesn’t get you to read this article from the Times, I don’t know what would.

• 21 resources for budget travel

  Here’s a great “list of lists” for budget travel resources. I present it for your reading pleasure, not mine, since with a toddler and an infant baby the only travel we’re going to be doing is going back and forth to the local supermarket for diapers. I’ll just wait until the kids are old enough to go hang out in a yurt in the Gobi.

• Learning to Love Water, the Frugal and Healthy Beverage

A very, very simple statement that’s almost impossible to follow: there is no need to ever drink any liquid whatsoever other than water, other than pleasure. Water serves all of the “liquid intake” needs humans have. I guess theoretically I should drink nothing but water, but I sure would miss that Shiraz and morning roast (not together people, I’m not a degenerate).

photo credits: Jaypeg21 and Marcus Vegas

Popularity: 2% [?]

Since we may be faced with the end of the world this summer ( photo credit: Ethan Hein), we might as well enjoy the spring weather. A few thoughts:

• The Knicks fired Isaiah (finally) at the same time the Pope arrived in New York. Coincidence? Hmm.
• I got nostalgic for one of the greatest cities I’ve ever visited, including once as half of my honeymoon reading about bella Roma…
• Nothing more amusing yet sadly indicative of human psyches than watching two two-year olds engage in Mortal Kombat over a soccer ball they both want. Little Buddy and his best friend, our neighbors’ son roughly the same age, went at it while my neighbor and I cringed a little. I don’t think there’s a need to break it up unless someone starts getting hurt - we actually agree it’s good to start understanding how the world works - but man, you’d think they were fighting over the map to D.B. Cooper’s stash or the Democratic presidential nomination.

On to the links. From The Money Writers:

• Thank You, Yahoo!, for Perpetuating the Use of Home Equity as Cash

  If there’s nothing else that gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling it’s seeing irresponsible advertisers push idiotic schemes. Way to go, Yahoo.

• Morningstar’s Best and Worst 529 College Savings Plans

  Even though I’m not a huge fan of saving for my children’s college educations - I’m not sure it’s worth it for them or me - I still keep on top of what’s going on with the 529s.

• Tax Strategy: Using Recharacterizations to Qualify for Tax Credits

  Ugh. Taxes. Ah well, time to absorb the damage and prepare for next year - time to start thinking about tips for improvement.

• Spend Less Than You Earn Or Earn More Than You Spend?

  I think I’ve come down pretty hard on one side of this argument - I don’t really believe that spending less than you earn will ever get you ahead by itself - and SVB expands a bit on that idea.

• The KISS Principle

  When it comes to finance, this is one of the single best pieces of advice you can get - keep it simple.

• Money Does Buy Happiness… Imagine that!

  I guess despite people wanting to think you can be poor and happy, it’s really much easier to be rich and happy in the end.

• The Costs of Being Overweight - How Much Money Can a Healthy Diet Save You?

  I have thought this for years - being overweight isn’t just bad for your health (and social life), but it can be tough on your wallet, too.

And from around the web:

• Consider College Debt Carefully

  I think if you are going to a private college you had better be gearing up for a high-paying career. If you want to study an esoteric, philosophical subject you’re much better going off to a public university. Having a much lower level of student loan debt will free you to take lower paying jobs in obscure fields.

• Why I Believe the Efficient Market Theory Is Bunk

  Amen to Ron’s point here - the efficient market theory supposes that we are all perfect thinking machines. I vote for political candidates all the time whose policies might not be in the best possible interest for me, personally, because I think they are better for the country - that means that the idea that I act in an efficient manner when making choices is hooey. Very interesting read.

• Language of the Perpetual Poor

  Great post on a very fundamental subject for wealthbuilding - your choice of words helps steer you to wealth or poverty. Use positive, powerful words and you’ll do better than someone who complains, curses or worries.

• Unintended Consequences and Money

  You have to feel terrible when you realize that best intentions have gone astray. It does happen, as Flexo points out, and when it does it’s really unpleasant to see.

• Organising my paperwork

  More simple organization tips - this one is as simple as you can get, I think!

I also participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance this past week over at Gather Little By Little (a great blog, by the way - I’m a subscriber and it’s well worth checking out). Lynnae from beingfrugal.net had an exhaustive list of frugal tips worth checking out. Even though I’m usually more concerned with making money than saving money, I still live a fairly frugal lifestyle and this was a HUGE list of ideas.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I finished up my taxes but I’m waiting to pull the trigger to file since it’s going to be a rough year in the Blap household for taxes. I know it doesn’t make any difference if I pay today or pay in a few days, but somehow psychologically I’d rather hold onto it for a few more days. Plus, I am being distracted by The Empire Strikes Back on Spike TV this evening. Yes, I’ve seen it before, yes, I am wasting my time with TV but once in a while you have to watch the classics. I love the scene in Cloud City when Lando opens the door and Solo sees Vader sitting at the table - Solo doesn’t flinch, doesn’t say a word, doesn’t pause. He rips out his blaster and starts shooting and shooting and shooting, even though 2 seconds before he was chatting with his buddy Lando in the hallway. Focus, discipline - and almost instantaneous decision-making. Impressive.

Next, the big contest at Free Money Finance is over. Snowflaking from I’ve Paid for That Twice Already was the big winner, so at least I lost to the eventual champion! I know a lot of people are excited about the concept and I’m glad that a topic that could prove helpful to so many people is being further popularized. On top of that, FMF is doling out some big money to charities we all designated:

• $500 to the Make a Wish Foundation for Snowflaking.
• $250 to the runnerup, Being Frugal for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
• $100 to the American Cancer Society for The Digerati Life
• And $100 to the Russian Children’s Welfare Society, my choice.

On to the links! First, The Money Writers:

• Why You Won’t Read a SmartyPig Review Today

  Lazy Man rips into SmartyPig, which has been blanketing the personal finance blogs with giveaway cash. One or two bad reviews like this can really hurt a young company, but his descriptions of the headaches he faced in signing up were BAD. Why do they need drivers’ license information?

• College Sells Alumni Information to Credit Card Companies

  Ben is irritated that his college sold his contact information to credit card companies. Mine did this a while back, too, and it didn’t make me happy either.

• How To Invest Defensively In Down Markets

  What? We’re in a down market? When was someone going to tell me?!? SVB has some tips on how to get defensive in your investments. Just don’t get overly defensive - remain balanced!

• Stock Splits 101

  Often I assume that everyone has a fairly detailed knowledge of the operations of the market and finance and so on, but that’s not the case. Madison has a good introduction to stock splits if you are unsure about how they work and how they affect your investments.

• Stop All Junk Mail

  Sun has a post highlighting a number of services you can use to cut down on your junk mail. What’s not to love about cutting down junk mail? Better for the environment, fewer catalogs tempting you to spend money, and less paper clutter to ruin your productivity.

• The Best Time to Start is Now

  “How do I start” or “I can’t start my financial journey because I’m in debt”. FT says the best time to start improving your financial life is now. He’s mostly talking about people who are in trouble but it really applies to everyone - unless you are Warren Buffet there’s always room to grow!

• Woman Refuses to Roll Over 401k Saying She Would Lose Half of Her Money

  This is just weird. I just can’t understand the mindsets of many of my fellow humans.

And from elsewhere around the Internet:

• How We Managed To Survive Financially After I Left My Corporate Job.

  David tells us how he managed to…well, you can guess the rest. It’s a nice story, and certainly makes it clear that losing a corporate job does not have to mean an instant scramble for a new one.

• Do What You Love and The Money Will Follow - Counterpoint

  You hear a lot of career advice about following your passion - “if you follow your passion, the money will follow.” Not if your passion is teaching schoolkids in poor communities in the Mid-South, it won’t. It doesn’t mean you won’t be happy following your passion, but it’s tough to stay passionate if the money is really, really bad.

• What’s Wrong With Being in the Middle Class?

  Mrs. Micah has a post inspired by a comment on The Simple Dollar asking if there’s something wrong with being middle class. The answer? Of course there is! Only the agrarian and proletariat can properly seize control of the means of production in order to form a socialist state! The middle class is a vassal to the bourgeoisie and complicit in the enrichment of the capitalist imperialists. Everyone knows that! Sheesh.

• What is the Biggest Star in the Universe?

  Completely off topic from everything else I cover here, but I figure I’ll slip in tidbits from my other passion, space, from time to time. I thought this question, posed by the author’s 6 year old daughter, had a fascinating answer.

photo credit: karanj

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