Low effort, high reward tips to save money ang get further towards your goals

I was living my life out there in the world and was recently asked for some lower effort tips to save money that weren't terribly intimidating for a busy person that feels bad about their spending but doesn't know where to begin. I came up with this short list as a response, and I figured it was worth expanding into a whole piece.

I am OK with buying prepped ingredients and cooked food at stores or restaurants if they are at price parity including the things I would need to prepare the food and they aren't using ingredients I dislike. If it costs me $2 a bowl for a bento of kosher chicken and pesto pasta and the store sells it with real pesto (not sunflower seed oil and mozzarella, olive oil, basil, pine nuts and parm) for $2, I'm buying.

I reshop my insurance every year. All my insurances. Home, car, life, health, every year. If I don't need it anymore then it's gone. Sometimes I save $40 a month. Sometimes everything on the market is ridiculous so I stay put. Loyalty doesn't always pay.

I look for great deals. If I can buy broadband for $25 a month and I'm paying $80, I'll call my internet guy and negotiate to see if I can get to that price or I'll call back the $25 company. That's saving money every month for you to make two phone calls while eating ice cream, and usually these are rates good for two years or more so you can save $55/month*24 months= $1320.

I'll share information with people that seem like they want to know and they share info back. Like, you can get $200 for signing up with a chase bank account and setting up direct deposit. That's straight cash.

If there's something, anything, that you pay for and nobody uses or needs, stop paying for it. I quit paying for Netflix and Hulu. I can watch Netflix for a month and then quit again for the cost of one movie ticket so why pay every month? I didn't go to Sam's Club for a while so I canceled their fee. I didn't buy anything from Amazon for 6 months so I canceled prime after signing up for free shipping on some stuff... The list goes on.

Finally, read your statements. I take about 20 minutes once or twice a month and just read my bills. All of them. Like, how much are they and did they get paid. This is pretty easy since you can do this from your phone or tablet for most bills.

Hopefully someone finds this information useful. Times are tough and money doesn't go as far as it used to in the past decade.

Is CHATGPT a better author than I am?

 I'm not really sure how long my readers have been with me but I've been publishing on and off on my blog for almost a decade, and I've posted on various sites for even longer. I got to thinking that new AI enabled tools were generating a serious bit of content, and I wondered if the most easily accessible version of Chat GPT, which is built into the Bing search engine, would give better advice than the uncertified and over credentialed author of this blog.

I queried Chat GPT about setting financial priorities for a person with savings, debt, and a six figure income, and this is what I got back :

---Beginning of quote from Chat GPT---

Here's what I generated for you

Here is a list of financial priorities for a person with some savings, some debt, and a six-figure income in a top ten format:

Pay off high-interest debt. If you have any credit card debt, personal loans, or other high-interest debt, you should focus on paying them off as soon as possible. High-interest debt can quickly eat away at your savings and limit your ability to invest for the future1.

Build an emergency fund. An emergency fund is a stash of cash that you can use to cover unexpected expenses or income loss. Ideally, you should have at least three to six months’ worth of living expenses in your emergency fund2. Having an emergency fund can help you avoid going into debt or tapping into your retirement accounts when life throws you a curveball.

Max out tax-advantaged retirement accounts. As a high-income earner, you may have the ability to save the maximum allowed within workplace retirement plans such as 401 (k)s. The limit for 2023 is $20,500; if you are age 50 or older, you can put aside $6,500 more in catch-up contributions3. You may also consider contributing to an IRA, either traditional or Roth, depending on your income and eligibility. IRAs have lower contribution limits than 401 (k)s ($6,000 for 2023, plus $1,000 catch-up), but they offer more flexibility and investment choices4.

Consider a backdoor Roth IRA. A backdoor Roth IRA is a strategy that allows you to enjoy the tax benefits of a Roth IRA, even if you earn too much to contribute directly. A Roth IRA allows for tax-free withdrawals in retirement, which can be very valuable for high-income earners who expect to be in a high tax bracket later on. A backdoor Roth IRA involves contributing to a traditional IRA and then converting it to a Roth IRA, paying taxes on the amount converted. You can do this every year, as long as you have the cash to pay the taxes5.

Invest outside of your retirement accounts. If you still have money left to invest after maxing out your tax-advantaged retirement accounts, you can open a taxable brokerage account and invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or other securities. A taxable brokerage account does not offer any tax benefits, but it gives you more flexibility and control over your investments. You can access your money at any time, without paying any penalties or taxes (except for capital gains taxes when you sell). You can also use a taxable brokerage account to save for other goals besides retirement, such as buying a home, starting a business, or funding your children’s education6.

Lower your taxable income. As a high-income earner, you may face a higher tax bill than most people. One way to reduce your taxes is to lower your taxable income by taking advantage of various deductions and credits that are available to you. For example, you may be able to deduct mortgage interest, property taxes, charitable donations, medical expenses, student loan interest, or business expenses from your income. You may also qualify for credits such as the child tax credit, the earned income credit, the American opportunity credit, or the lifetime learning credit.

Optimize your asset allocation and diversification. Asset allocation is how you divide your portfolio among different types of investments, such as stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, or commodities. Diversification is how you spread your investments within each type of asset class, such as investing in different sectors, industries, countries, or companies. Both asset allocation and diversification are important for managing risk and maximizing returns in your portfolio. As a high-income earner, you may have more money to invest and more options to choose from than the average investor. You should review your asset allocation and diversification regularly and make adjustments based on your goals, risk tolerance, time horizon, and market conditions.

Hire a financial professional. Managing your finances can be complex and time-consuming when you earn a high income. You may benefit from hiring a financial professional who can help you with various aspects of your financial life, such as creating a budget, planning for retirement, investing wisely, minimizing taxes, protecting your assets with insurance, estate planning, and more. A financial professional can also help you avoid common mistakes that high-income earners make, such as overspending, under-saving, taking too much or too little risk, neglecting tax planning, or falling prey to scams.

Give back to causes you care about. As a high-income earner, you have the opportunity and responsibility to make a positive impact on the world with your money. You can donate to charities that support causes you care about, such as education, healthcare, environment, human rights, or animal welfare. You can also volunteer your time, skills, or expertise to help others in need. Giving back can not only benefit the recipients of your generosity, but also yourself. Studies have shown that giving can improve your happiness, health, and sense of purpose.

Enjoy your money. Last but not least, you should enjoy your money and the fruits of your hard work. You have earned the right to treat yourself and your loved ones to some of the finer things in life, such as traveling, dining out, shopping, or pursuing your hobbies and passions. Of course, you should do this within reason and moderation, and not at the expense of your financial goals or security. But you should also not feel guilty or ashamed of spending money on things that bring you joy and fulfillment. After all, money is a tool to enhance your life, not a goal in itself.

Learn more:

1. ramseysolutions.com

2. smartasset.com

3. bing.com

4. cnbc.com

5. kitces.com

6. financialdynamicsrva.com

-End of quote from Chat GPT 

Overall, the advice was decent but imperfect. 

There was a heavy reliance on popular opinions, and direct quotes from outdated sites leading to factual errors on the actual amount that could be contributed to a 401k or an IRA, part of which may have been related to the limitations of the programming used to build the library for the chat engine as that dataset is pre 2020, and part of which could be simply wrone base information from a site that hasn't been updated being used as a reference.

I general there's a lot to agree with. Paying down high interest debt like credit card balances, payday loans and personal notes is usually jot a controversial piece of advice, as is setting up an emergency fund, and investing in a tax advantaged fashion.

Minimizing expenses and boosting income in order to maximize saving potential is more of my focus, but overall I think that CHATGPT wrote a pretty good article and used the viral top ten format. I would give a C for effort but, considering that the retirement account values were factually incorrect, no more than that. I usually give myself a B plus for my own writing, so I am going to take the W over the heartless, mindless engine of artificial intelligence today. 

My investment journey: The first $10,000

 I have been taking some time lately to go over my financial records, and I thought that it would be fun to look back and see how I actually got to a number of major financial milestones and what the time frames were.

Much like many people, I imagine, I spent a decent portion of young adulthood staring at the inside of very drab office walls for the duration of a relatively low paid shift. During my teens and early twenties, I held several jobs but my consumption dramatically outpaced my earnings, and I didn't save much.

Historically, my work philosophy was always that I would stay clear eyed about my relationship with an employer and the process of wage work as a whole. I am selling time and labor, but I have control over my conditions and I can and will leave if they aren't met. That often meant that I would do part time or casual work, or take a term limited full time job, depending on the overall compensation that the jobs could offer me in financial and intangible ways, like training and contacts.

I relocated several times and eventually got into a financial situation in my mid twenties where I could afford to aggressively invest, so I set up a budget to live off of and attempted to save or invest the remaining amount of my income.

I was actually able to invest my first $10,000 within 5 months of saving aggressively , even though there were some serious hiccups along the way. I had automatic payroll deductions set up for a retirement account through my employer, I set up direct deposit for my weekly wages, and I also put money into a few of the projects that I have detailed in the past, such as chasing bank account bonuses, collecting sign up rewards, and stacking discounts to minimize expenses and generate opportunity for resale profits.

With an average or slightly above average income, I was able to hit my milestone of $10,000 invested after five months of saving.

This included a generous 401k match of $2000, 401k contributions of $6000, and a cash balance of $2000 in a Roth IRA held at a now defunct investment platform that offered zero dollar maintenance fees and $7 trades.

What lessons did I take from this?

1. Sometimes you really do need to do different things to get different results. 

2. Riding a bike is nearly free, and cars cost money to buy, maintain, legally operate and insure.

3. Relocation can be a great way to reset your expenses, expectations and psyche.

4. Lower fixed expenses means higher discretionary income

5. Oftentimes the hardest things are the best for you.

6. Workplaces can assist you with your goals, but you need to set your priorities and monitor their progress or you could get sidetracked. 

A Round trip flight from California to Spain for $700? Google flights is great!

I've written at length in the past about my interest in getting the most out of my limited funds, and that often means shopping around for frugal options to accomplish my goals. 

As the Corona virus pandemic fades into the cosmic background of endemic respiratory diseases and many more people have been vaccinated against the disease, domestic and international travel has become more interesting to me and many others. 

In order to make every penny count, booking flights in advance and tracking prices can really pay off. 

As of the date of this article I was able to find a Round trip flight from Sacramento California in the United States to Seville, Spain, for only $709. I used Google Flights, a flight research, comparison, and booking tool to find this great deal. 

Not saying that I am going to, but I can lock in the price today, research any necessary visa requirements and make plans for future travel. 

If you have been looking for a way to get to your family and friends overseas for a more palatable price, I recommend exploring Google Flights. 

Here's a link to my example search, but feel free to do your own exploring with Google flights or your flight comparison site of choice. 

https://www.google.com/travel/flights/s/YmrgSeM41KSZGrdk7

Sponges, dishcloths and Safety: Dodging pathogens while trying to keep things clean in the kitchen and bathroom

I am human, and like many of us, I make messes.

Lots of them.

Spilled milk, broken eggs, wet surfaces after processing organic materials, moist areas after hygiene activities, soiled cooking utensils and crusty dishes and cups all feature prominently in my assortment of surfaces requiring cleansing on a regular basis.

I even occasionally need to dry myself off after washing my hands or getting grease/oil soluble contaminants on me.

For all of the above reasons, I have been reaching over to a combination of paper towels, cloth towels, abrasive melamine sponges and plastic bristle brushes for decades to meet my cleaning needs, and I have often wondered whether I could potentially replace the environmentally questionable melamine sponges (that constantly degrade into small particles of plastic that enter our sewer systems and, likely, land in the ocean or sediments in our lakes, rivers and streams) and single use paper towels with something that would be easier on the environment.

I long ago abandoned the use of the standard dish sponge in favor of a plastic bristle brush in order to clean dishes and kitchen surfaces due to the tendency for sponges to harbor microbes, start to smell and eventually become unusable, but I still use paper towels quite often to do things that I wouldn't want to subject my cloth kitchen towels to: soaking up milk and oil, wrapping sandwiches, cleaning the inside of the microwave or the backs of appliances, or getting into nooks and crannies that might have organic material lodged into them (cobwebs, food bits, oil/grease, etc). As disposable items, paper towels represent little to no risk of cross contamination and offer supreme convenience at minimal cost.

I primarily use my cloth kitchen towels to dry clean hands and clean dishes, or brush crumbs out of dry bowls.

My melamine sponges (I use the Mr Clean Magic Eraser brand, but you can use any type) come into play in the kitchen and bathroom when my normal plastic scrubber hasn't managed to remove every bit of the gunk in the bathtub, shower or sink. I can use a multipurpose cleaner of choice (which is usually laundry or dish detergent liberally diluted in water) to help eat into the fats, oils, grease and proteins binding the gunk together and use moderate pressure and a few passes to get a silky smooth feeling surface that is back to it's original color. It takes more time than my standard plastic scrub brush since the contact footprint of a magic eraser is smaller and I need to apply more pressure, but the results can speak for themselves.

A new trend in home cleaning is the Swedish dishcloth; apparently these tools offer a compelling alternative to paper towels in home cleaning and are useful in dish washing, hand drying and the cleaning of small messes, with people apparently using them as direct substitutes for paper towels and rinsing them out or tossing them in the dishwasher to sterilize them. My primary concern when hearing about the widespread use of such tools would be the transmission of pathogens from person to person and source to source within the home.

While not specific to Swedish dishcloths, a statement from the Center for science in the public interest describes the results of a study that found household sponges and cloths often harbor coliform bacteria (normally present in fecal matter and the intestinal tracts of humans and other large mammals) and fungi in dangerous quantities, suggesting significant potential for the preparation of contaminated food and the sickening of individuals that consume items prepared in these home environments.

In addition, paper towel manufacturers are working to improve the sustainability of sourcing wood and other vegetable fiber to prepare paper towels, as described by Bounty in the linked site below.

In my case, I already have a pretty functional system and I don't want to create a closed loop in my cleaning routine, since I am already using more durable agents for tasks that I am comfortable having a durable tool for and I don't need to reuse cloths or towels for the tasks that I am using paper towels for.

Do you use paper towels for anything that you would use a Swedish dish cloth for? Would you want to use a reusable item for cleaning up, say, spilt milk or broken eggs if there was an easy way to clean it, or would you prefer to simply discard the tool along with the organic material/bacterial load and be done with it?

Sources and Useful links:

Sustainable Paper Towels - A Promise To Sustainability | Bounty (bountytowels.com)

Amazon.com: Mr Clean Magic Eraser Variety Pack, Includes Bath, Kitchen, & Extra Durable Cleaning Pads, 12 Count: Home & Kitchen

Amazon.com: Swedish Wholesale Swedish Dish Cloths - Pack of 10, Reusable, Absorbent Hand Towels for Kitchen, Bathroom and Cleaning Counters - Cellulose Sponge Cloth - Assorted: Home & Kitchen

The Dangers of Dirty Sponges and Dish Cloths | Center for Science in the Public Interest (cspinet.org)     

I was thinking about going to a Low Car lifestyle 3 years back, but I've changed my mind

Looking back at my situation about 3 years ago I was  in a low car situation. I put around 4000 miles on my car in the previous year and a half, including 3 300 mile round trips to neighboring cities, and repair costs were creeping up on me to the tune of about 100 dollars a month on average for a car that was purchased for a bit less than two thousand dollars. That was enough for me to seriously consider whether I was going to replace my car with an equivalent low value used car, a new(er) car with lower repair costs, a partial/full electric car, or just not having a car at all and going with a scooter for my various transportation related needs.

I could have also just done nothing, which would be to continue using my car, fixing it if it broke, and making no major changes.

That is actually pretty close to what I did. I kept that car, kept on driving it, and fixed it if it broke down for the past three years. At the same time, I purchased a similarly low value car (approximately 3000 dollars) to use when and if my primary car was broken down, which was necessary several times as the various parts of my original used car wore out and broke.

I continued to stack up about 4000 road miles per year between the two cars over the past three years, and continued to pay about 100 dollars per month in repairs on the older used car, 30 dollars per month on each vehicle for insurance, ~18 dollars per month on registration fees per vehicle, and on average $25 in maintenance per month on each vehicle. This wasn't really all that much in exchange for nearly seamless transportation and very little in the way of up front payments for each car, and I was able to make significant gains in the stock market and on a real estate purchase that I was able to make in the intervening time so I can't really say I lost out by buying cheaper cars in the beginning and preserving my savings.

If you have read any of my previous car related work, you probably recall that it isn't really the initial car payment(s) that will kill a younger man when purchasing a new(er) car, but rather the car insurance payments that make it a terrible decision to purchase a brand new car with financing. If you have a car payment of a couple of hundred dollars, it might even be more than the cost of paying for the car to pay for sufficient insurance to satisfy an automotive lender. I was, and am still, against financing a car against its own title as a young person since this kind of excessive insurance cost is really untenable.

Even so, in the summer of 2020 I decided to bite the bullet and use some of my savings and profits to purchase a new(er) car, and found a 2 year old car with pretty low miles for 14,000 dollars (plus fees). If I can keep this thing going for another 10 years with minimal repairs and the same amount of maintenance, I can afford to pay higher insurance costs, but since I paid cash instead of financing, I don't need to worry about the vicissitudes of the current lending environment influencing my insurance selections, and I also don't have to budget a car payment into my cash flow protocol. I just need to arrange for a private sale of my aging older cars, and I'll be in a good position to put my automotive concerns on the back burner for the next decade or so.

The best part about selling a heavily depreciated older vehicle is that the actual value of the car doesn't change much unless it is not serviceable. A 1600 dollar vehicle, after 4 years of use and regular maintenance, is probably still close to being a 1600 dollar vehicle, and a 3000 dollar vehicle can't really drop more than 3000 dollars in value. At worst, it has also become a 1600 dollar vehicle, and since both of them still run and drive I should be able to find someone in need of basic transportation willing to purchase them.

It's funny though, comparing my current concerns about transportation with those that I had several years ago. I was bike commuting at the time 4-5 days in the summer, and driving between the first and last frost of the year. These days I commute almost exclusively by car, and my bike has been relegated to a weekend/off day vehicle, exiled to the garage instead of always ready and waiting for me to hop on and take off in my living room.

I was seriously considering going car free and taking my chances in the rain, wind, dust and danger of the streets for my daily commute, and now really outside of potentially switching to a plug in hybrid or battery electric vehicle, I'm unlikely to completely remove the car from my daily routine.

Luckily, in the past few years I have also drastically relocated my primary dwelling, and now live 3 miles from my primary worksite. This means that my basic driving for work, mail and food consists of a 6-10 mile round trip 200 days per year, so I could maintain my annual mileage between 2 and 4 thousand miles even on the new car. Reducing my transportation needs and trying to bundle purchases with my commute, I could limit my personal carbon footprint while still preserving the convenience of an in-car commute. In consideration of the average North American driver that stacks 10,000 miles on their car in a year, I think that using 20 to 40% of that amount is still pretty good.

It's not as great as a no-car lifestyle, but a low-car lifestyle is still OK with me, and I can still ride my bicycle on my off days and when I don't need to cut through a ton of traffic.

It's important for all of us to think about the way that we are using our possessions in light of the ongoing climate crisis, and it's possible for all of us to be more efficient with our lives. I think that putting my two higher mileage used cars that are still fuel efficient at 25 miles per gallon on the market will hopefully take two more fuel inefficient cars off the road. Since my new car averages a 30mpg efficiency if I drive conservatively, I'm hoping to be incrementally kinder to the environment than I have been in the past.

How to salvage a jobless degree: A recipe for Millenial Success

It's unfortunate that so many people my age are facing a difficult job market and heightening living expenses without the benefit of a job that utilizes their hard earned college education, or pays them accordingly for it.

The plight of the Millennial generation is that there are so many different degree programs and so many requirements for jobs, and they rarely marry well enough to ensure that a job awaits each college graduate or certified worker.

If I were in the position that a lot of my peers are, working a "dead end" job with little promotion potential, I would try seeing which companies have hired people that do what I was trained to do. In the past, I'd call HR departments and ask what makes a good candidate, what sorts of things they were looking to see, and how to best display my experience, so I could tailor my resume to make sure that I described the most critical elements well. After enough years of college and freelance projects, most people have done a little bit of a lot of different things, and if a 1 day or 1 week project has the skills and competencies needed for a full time job at one of the big companies in your industry, that could be what gets you the job.

You could also consider positions in state, local, or federal government. They usually pay less, but sometimes go more by credentials than experience. As long as you fulfill basic requirements for a position in terms of education, they are happy to train you to the function at hand. Best of all, fresh eyes might discover something that needs to be reworked.

Be willing to move, long distances if necessary, for the right position. I more than doubled my income when I left my state, and you might too. Sure, your expenses might rise if you move from Kentucky to Texas, but if you get to make three times the money and gain experience in your field, you might want to consider it. Best of all, once you've cut your teeth you may be able to come back home to your state and either start something so productive that your industry flourishes in your home town, or get a job that you wouldn't have qualified for previously.

Another option is to just start making things. You can do independent project work that is really awesome and get attention from Mozilla, Google, or Microsoft once you've got a product running, like Notch did with Minecraft. Minecraft was eventually licensed by console game developers, and acquired by Microsoft for 2.5 Billion dollars, but the development costs were Notch's groceries and apartment costs since he pretty much just made Minecraft for a living once he started getting sales.

If you are able, doing contract work is a great way to go as well. You get your own business, great management and professional experience, and the kind of responsibilities that managers and executives love to see 5-10 years down the line. If you're lucky, you will get to become an "Internal Consultant" after a while, and stack up salary, benefits, and a cushy traveling job while sharing expertise site to site.

My biggest piece of advice is to be open to opportunities that might not seem too attractive at first. Don't turn your nose up at work, it's good for you and it helps to put food on the table. If your grandparents and great grandparents had the opportunities we had today, they wouldn't say that things were too hard or there were too few opportunities. They would buckle down and do what they could to feed their families, clothe their children, and care for each other.

I think that my generation definitely has a lot to struggle with, between broken homes and massive debt, but there is hope for the future. We just need to find a way to get there without melting the planet first.

Choose the Colors of your Roof Wisely, and you can save a bundle on utilities

Lot's of people disregard roof colors when shopping for a new home or apartment, but it can make a real difference in your costs for heating and cooling. In most stores and areas, different colors of shingles and roofing metal are virtually the same in price, but they have remarkably different thermal and reflective properties.

Light colored roofs offer reflective capacity, which helps to send solar energy back up into the atmosphere (possibly space) instead of absorbing it and turning it into heat.

Darker colored roofs, conversely, absorb more solar radiation and convert it to heat. In cooler climates, this can be a boon, and can even be used to augment home heating systems by heating water or other materials for use in the home, but in warmer climates this is usually undesireable.

Wouldn't it be nice if your house was 10 degrees cooler in the summer, or 10 degrees warmer in the winter, for no additional cost? Just remember that your roofing has an impact on your bills, and could save you $40 dollars or more in utilities. Even better, your utility provider might offer a rebate for solar efficient roofing!

Three ways to save money when purchasing a home

There are a ton of people out there talking about whether people should buy or rent, which neighborhoods are good and which are bad, and what the best way to pay back a mortgage is.

I'm going to focus on three key tips that I keep in mind when shopping for property, and that have worked to actually save me money.

1. Use your social network

Some of the best tips on new property listings,  realtors that charge lower to no fees, and self-advertised properties are available from people in the area. Letting people around you know that you are looking for a place and what is important to you can really magnify your access to opportunities. Be sure to investigate each of your recommendations, however. Even if you really like the person that is recommending the place to you, it could be right next door to a dog-fighting kennel.

2. Hire your own inspectors

In the modern age, it's necessary to have an appraisal prior to closing, but not all appraisals are created equal. For many banks and contracting agencies, it's too much work to do an interior inspection, and many important details or deficits can be missed. Paying a couple of hundred dollars for a home inspection is peanuts compared to getting thousands of dollars off of your sales price when you find issues that need to be addressed, or having to pay thousands over market for a structure with hidden damage.

3. Don't be afraid to walk away.

I have looked into properties in many different price ranges, starting at $4000 tax sale homes and topping out in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the most important rule that I have had going into every deal is that I wanted a house, but I didn't need "that" house. While it is easy to get emotional, and attached to a particular property, it's better to remain impartial and evaluate the facts of the market and the property. A cute paint scheme, a nice neighborhood, and a convenient floorplan pales in comparison to a home in your price range and a stable city government.

Best of luck to all of you out there looking at buying a home!

Do you have any experience using these tips?

Do you have any advice for other people considering a home purchase?

Share them in the comments below!

Keep Cooking For Yourself, No Matter Where you are or what's going on in your house

Being able to cook for yourself unlocks a world of savings.

Eating away from home and paying other people to turn groceries into dishes is a fantastic way to spend more money than you really need to, and you don't necessarily need a lot of equipment to prepare food.

I've made fine dishes with only access to a microwave, refrigerator, and a set of dishes, but a camp stove or grill are great additions to makeshift kitchens.

Personally, as long as I have a way to make rice and cook meat, beans and vegetables I am happy, but I can also achieve massive savings over restaurant food by buying lunchmeats and bread at the deli counter and making sandwiches at home. I've gone the sandwich route twice in my life, and both times I thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace from my normal spoon and bowl cuisine to something that I could eat with my hands.

If you want to go the sandwich route, I recommend making a whole loaf of bread's worth of sandwiches at once and storing the individual portions in plastic wrap either under refrigeration or in the freezer.

The savings in this activity are considerable. Many people can easily spend 100 dollars per week eating cheap takeout, and if eating out for every meal are tempted to eat fast food or pre-prepared food from grocery stores and cafes. I have even observed 40 and 50  dollars per day of expenses on food alone! Making your own food is an easy way to save 1 or 2 thirds of this cost.

Cheap costs for Cheap Cars

This has been an expensive last few months for me.

Back in January, I made the call to purchase a cheap car for about 1600  dollars, a 2000 Mazda 626 sedan. It had pretty high mileage, and a possible motor mount issue resulting in a vibration at idle.

I didn't really need to do much to get the car in good condition, as it was running when I purchased the vehicle.

I paid for an oil change at a local superstore, and had the techs take a look for any unusual mechanical issues. That cost about 50 dollars for a multi-point inspection.

I also paid for a complete brake overhaul, so I had new front brake pads installed, my rotors resurfaced, and rear brake drums replaced for a grand total of 450 dollars. That was back in March.

This June I've decided to spring for a new set of tires, which were pretty reasonable at 50 dollars per tire. I bought four tires, and with installation, taxes and fees I spent 250 dollars overall.

At this point, I've spent 1600+50+450+250 on my cheap car in terms of parts and service, for a total of 2350 dollars on the car. I also paid 180 dollars for 6 months of insurance, and 200 dollars in licensing and registration fees. If I want to include the costs of gasoline, that is an extra 100 dollars monthly, for 500 dollars in gasoline. So far this year, therefore, that would be 2350+180+200+500 for 3230 dollars in transportation costs. Over six months, that works out to be 538 dollars per month, which is pretty hefty! I hope that my car will be a bit cheaper going forward, and my costs more closely approximate the costs of gasoline and insurance as opposed to brakes, tires and registration.

At the same time, I realize that the same costs that I faced on my cheap car come up on more expensive vehicles. 450 dollars of brake work on my car would easily be 1000 dollars of brake work for a luxury German vehicle, and 250 dollars would be the cost of a single tire on a luxury sedan, not a set of four on my Mazda. My insurance works out to be about 30 dollars per month, which would be unheard of if I was driving a luxury vehicle, and I'm comfortable carrying liability only coverage since I could walk away from the vehicle if necessary.

All in all, it could be much worse, and I'm still comfortably able to afford the 626, even if the costs have been higher than anticipated so far this year. I've still got 6 months left to go in the year, and if I only have to pay gas, insurance and possibly an additional oil change my average transportation expenditure should approach 150 dollars monthly.

A New Town, An Old Question: Where to live, and how to get around

I've recently relocated from my old home base to a new home base seveal thousand miles away, but I am presented yet again with the age old question of how to most efficiently and safely commute to work from where I live.

In the area I've moved to, it's quite common for people to ride bicycles everywhere, even moderate distances (which I consider to be 5 miles or more one way), or use ride sharing applications for trips that would usually require a bicycle trailer or car.

I located a place  to live within walking distance of my new office job, but I soon realized that the area that I had chosen was not very friendly to walk through at night, with many tales of crime, lots of gang activity, and a very large homeless population. It was impressed upon me that I did not want to walk much in my neighborhood, and lower rents were more attractive in other parts of town. So, I purchased a cheap, early model used car (2000 Mazda 626) for about 1600 dollars, paid some outstanding registration fees with the local state, and bought liability only car insurance.

After driving 3-5 miles per day for 3 months, I'm ready to move a little further from my workplace. I realize that this is likely to come at an additional commuting cost due to more driving, but I am at something of an impasse on this front. Even though my employer is willing to reimburse me for public transportation expenses, I would be unable to use public transit to go home from work due to my schedule, and living alone means that I would have no-one to pick me up if I took the bus or light rail to work. It is not really economically wise for me to take public transit to work, and then hire a ride share back home, not is it particularly wise for me to cycle in complete darkness to make my way back home. Thus, I will continue to car commute.

It's Tea Time

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the winter months carry many associated rituals, but among my most treasured is the preparation and consumption of warm beverages in copious amounts.

Something about the crisp chill and driven snow makes the diffuse heat of a cup of coffee, cocoa, broth, or tea a treasure. As an accompaniment into the cold or a warming welcome to the indoors, tea is particularly reminiscent of the winter months, and is built into many parts of my winter schedule.

For those of you more interested in the history of tea, there are more resources out there than I could name, but a great treatment has been prepared by a youtube China Scholar of the history of cultivation of Camellia sinensis, the tea tree.

Please enjoy the history of tea
In my opinion there is really nothing better than an on-demand water heater and a good supply of tea leaves. My personal preparation methods are a bit more mundane, involving a stove and saucepan, a liter flask, and a couple of cases of freeze dried ginseng and oolong tea.

Driving a Used Car makes me Hundreds of Dollars a year!

Driving a well-used car can sometimes be a pain. When looking over the costs of maintenance, the effort of repairs, and the inconvenience of arranging for the issues that can come with used cars, it can be tempting to think that it would possibly be cheaper just to buy a new car and not worry about maintenance or repairs.

However, driving a newer car comes with a requirement for comprehensive insurance if the car is financed, and if one chooses to drive with only liability insurance, exposes a more significant fraction of one's net worth than one might like to damage when driving around town, so even if owned outright comprehensive coverage is a good idea if the idea of replacing the car is unpalatable.

In my case, the purchase prices of used cars can be very low, but maintenance and repair expenses are higher, and the purchase price of a new car is much higher, and the cost of insurance is much greater as well.

I decided that, in the interests of personal finance, I would run the numbers with a few basic assumptions:
1. I will buy a used car and save money to repair or replace it on a monthly basis, which will be sufficient to repair or replace it.
2. If I were to buy a new car, I would get a $20,000 Honda Civic and either pay cash or finance it over 36 months
3. I am willing to invest the difference in price between the new car and the used car
4. Investments earn me 5% year over year, and I am able to invest the returns as well
5. If financed, I can pay 3,000 down and pay a rate of 3% compounded monthly
This last one isn't really an assumption, but it's important to note that I am not considering taxes or fuel efficiency

I looked at the costs to me over the course of 15 years of driving, and it was pretty clear that after 15 years or so I would have spent nearly the same amount buying, repairing, insuring and replacing used cars as I would have buying and insuring a new car, whether or not I financed it. The cumulative difference between buying used and new, regardless of financing, came out to be less than 2000 dollars after 15 years. However, the key in this case comes down to the opportunity costs of buying a new car. If invested, the difference in value of the new vs used cars would provide about 800 dollars of income (in the case of the cash purchase) or 696 dollars of income (in the case of the financed purchase) on average through all of this time. This means that the opportunity cost of buying a new car vs a used car is actually about $12,000 over the course of 15 years if one buys in cash, and $10,000 over 15 years if one financed.

Let me know if you guys are interested in seeing the actual charts and calculations, but I find that this is really compelling for me. Running the numbers really helps make things clear.

Every year that I keep on driving used cars and avoiding a new car, while sticking to my repair/replace budget, I can earn myself 690-800 dollars with the difference in price. In fact, my actual investing returns on about that much money were spot on in that range since this March, so I am really excited about this plan.

Used cars for the win!

The best part is, I can actually keep the majority of this amount in my IRA, and let the money grow tax free instead of paying taxes on the growth.

The only downside to this is that the concept doesn't work if you didn't have the ability to buy a new car in the first place. If the only money you have is enough to buy a used car, and you can't qualify for a loan for a new one, then you are going to be stuck with the higher maintenance and repair without the comfort of the income from the difference in new vs used.

Falling College Admissions is good for the economy?

I've been pretty tuned in to the news in recent days, and there are a lot of interesting headlines floating around right now July of 2016 has brought a number of troubling and controversial trends to light, from protests all across the United States, the declaration of political choices of the major parties for candidates for president, and all time highs in the US stock market to terrorist-style vehicle crashes in France. The most fascinating headline that floated over towards me in the past few days was the observation that college enrollment was declining in recent years, specifically at for-profit colleges, and specifically for programs focused on two year or shorter courses of study and tailored towards specific careers. Most of the students that had been attending these schools in pursuit of a new job had been on the whole older than the general college graduate, and had been motivated  to take additional coursework on because they were unable to progress in a rough job market without either additional training, certification, or potentially a complete re-training and a pivot into a different sector.

If the enrollments in these types of trade-focused schools is falling, this could mean that those careers are less attractive, which is a possibility, but it could also mean that there are many more opportunities available to people besides paying for two years of post high-school education to get a certificate.

I suppose that this would qualify as a curious case in macro-economics, as it is likely a net positive when people are going to school, getting extra skills, and then going out and applying those skills to help make the economy more efficient, but it is also a positive thing when there are opportunities available to people that allow them to earn a good income without the need for additional, lower efficiency educational programming right out of school, which would allow the people working at that for-profit college to go and produce work themselves.

What do you think? Should we consider falling enrollments a positive or negative sign for the economy? Is there an education bubble in the West right now?

Saving money on hot water is cool

Hot water is one of the luxuries of modern life, and it is also ridiculously expensive for a number of reasons.

Hot water requires heat, which usually comes from the combustion of fuel, and is constantly radiated away from the water into the surrounding structure, air, or ground. As a result, there is a great deal of waste involved in the process of making, and keeping water hot.

Not only that, once the water is heated it usually goes from a piping hot boiler to a series of copper or plastic pipes throughout a structure that allow the heat to dissipate once again, so it is frequently necessary to let the water run before it reaches warm enough temperatures to satisfy our demands.

Needless to say, the water waste from simply letting water run down the drain until warm enough is considerable, and the fuel waste in heating water over and over again is major as well.

A number of money and resource saving solutions to this problem exist, including point of use water heaters, insulated and high efficiency boilers, and much more, but the simplest and cheapest answer to this problem is insulation.

At a cost of less than 50 cents per foot, insulation for pipes is dirt cheap, and offers savings of approximately 50 dollars per year in utility costs for the average household in a temperate environment, and serves to reduce the likelihood of frozen pipes in the winter time.

But beyond finance, there is little better than having hot water immediately available when you turn on the tap.

Saving money is cool, but hot water is just so soothing that it's worth paying for, as my recent home depot receipts and electric bills will show.

Is the Secret to success as simple as waking up earlier?

I wake up every day at 4:00 AM sharp. Every morning, I rise, make myself food, and begin my day. However, I have recently come across a video concerning this kind of lifestyle, a TEDx Talk recorded from a presentation given by a man named Felipe Castro Matos. He decided to wake up earlier for 21 days, setting his alarm clock for 4:30 sharp, with the understanding that he would be building a new habit over the course of those three weeks.

And it took off.

Mr. Matos was featured on Business Insider, his story was publicized worldwide, and there have so far, as of March 27th 2016, been 1,884,404 views of his TEDx talk on Youtube (here is a link to his video, if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOEB1Fr0_MM ), but I think that his message has a good bit of wisdom in it.

You can set a goal of doing the things that you want or need to do, and you can actually accomplish them by making time for them. In my case, when I was a high performing student, worker, and member of society, I rose early to work on my assignments, get time to study and perform my various chores and duties before I had to commute to work, school or various meetings. Now, many years after I started waking this early, I can go exercise, work on my cooking and household tasks, write, read, keep up with my industrial education, and even indulge in leisure activities in the wee hours of the morning. The amazing thing is, waking up earlier rarely subtracts from your lifestyle, because you can always socialize in the early evening.

Whether you decide that you are going to wake up at 4:30, or at 4, or start walking every day, or pick up a hobby, you can follow up with the activities that you care about and make them part of your schedule, part of your lifestyle, and part of yourself. You can, as Mr. Matos was insightful enough to say, make all of the little things that you do each day positive, or at least make time for the positive things.

Getting Back Into Pinterest

I remember opening my Pinterest account.

It was another time, I lived in another state and had vastly different life goals. Most of what I pinned was in the form of an infographic or pulled directly from a blog or advertisement, and I was primarily interested in delicious food and high quality glassware.

All of my friends were using Pinterest to swap recipes and show off the pictures from their camera phones, and I was interested in getting involved with them, so I made my account and promptly forgot about it for several months.

In any case, I'm getting back into it with a quickness that I hadn't anticipated. So far I have reviewed a good number of my infographic pins, and a fair portion of the different kinds of tea that I like.

If you haven't looked into Pinterest lately, check it out and try to find something you like!

Cooking Up A turkey

I have a lot of little ways to save money, but one of my favorite is taking advantage of advertised deals and stretching out my savings.


I was able to purchase turkeys frozen after the winter holidays, and I am planning on roasting another one today. It has sat waiting in my freezer as I ate through frozen beef, discount chicken, and bags of frozen vegetables, and I am finally ready to cook it!


I have been keeping it in the refrigerator for several days now, and after just a few hours I will be able to carve out a great slice of turkey.

New Year, No Fear

We're into the year of 2016, and it's correspondingly time for all of us to make our New Year's Resolutions, give up on them, and reflect on our muddling around in the last 12 months.

I'm not going to do any of that here with you.

Instead, I'm just going to keep on updating my different sites with new content, and hopefully I'll be able to keep you guys and dolls reading for at least a little while.

Thanks for sticking around with me through 2015, and hopefully I'll have something interesting to show you this year.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to staring at the moon.