The 100 by 30 project

Not personal finance related, but...

... does anyone else find it strange that Hillary's total domination of the FL race is barely registering as a story? Yes, I realize that no delegates are awarded, but given that intense speculation about who will reign on Super Tuesday is basically the cable networks' stock in trade these days, isn't her thrashing of Obama pretty darn newsworthy? Do we really have to settle for more pundits pontificating about whether she's electable (despite, you know, the continual evidence to the contrary)?

I mean, CNN.com doesn't have it anywhere on their front page!

Update: CNN.com now has it registered as a "developing story" bullet point under the "McCain wins Florida" headline. That's something, I guess!

Unsponsored company recommendations

I doubt many speed swimmers stumble across this blog, but just in case someone is Googling them, I'd really like to recommend Swim Outlet (http://www.swimoutlet.com/).

• First of all, they carry long competitive swim suits, for which I am very grateful because, in contrast to the general trend of improved tall clothing selections, those seem to be much harder to find than they were 10 years ago when I was a year-round competitive swimmer. So great selection.
• Secondly, they really earned the name outlet: the suit was $52, versus speedo.com's $62.
• Lastly, delivery was quick. They shipped the day after I placed the order, and it arrived two days later. Now I'm really glad I didn't settle for the juuust-a-bit-too-short suit I tried on at Dick's Sporting Goods because it wouldn't need to be shipped.

As they say on ebay, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!! A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'd also like to recommend 1800contacts.com, which I've been buying contacts from for years. Recently they really came through: it had been far too long since my last eye appointment, so when I placed a refill order and they called to confirm my prescription with the doctor, the doctor -- quite reasonably -- said the script was too old to approve.

1800contacts.com called me immediately to let me know that the doctor had rejected the order, and told me that they'd hold the order for a week (meaning I wouldn't have to fill out everything online again, just tell them to check again with the doctor once I'd had my appointment). Also, if I didn't reactivate the order within a week but did replace the order within 30 days, they'd give me a $10 gift certificate.

In the end, I just ordered the contacts from the doctor, as I always do when my prescription changes because I feel guilty not doing so. But given that I was really low on contacts (I wear disposables), I really appreciated 1800contacts.com calling me quickly instead of waiting for me to call in a panic a week later, after my last pair had ripped, to see where the heck my order was. Yes, it's in their best interest to call, but I'm always surprised when companies seem happy to let troubled orders fall into a black hole anyway!

OK, at least I'm no more of an a-hole than '60 Minutes'

Unsurprisingly, there was a piece on the real estate crisis on '60 Minutes' tonight. But I was interested to see an angle that I've always felt but rarely articulate because it makes me feel like I sound like a complete jerk. But here it is:

Why is it so tragic that so many people are losing their homes?

Certainly, it used to be tragic when someone lost a home. But why was that? The tragedy was that the family had been there for quite some time, and that they were losing their down-payment and the equity they'd built.

But if the people losing their homes are primarily recipients of no-downpayment mortgages on which they were never paying enough to actually pay off the loan (e.g. either interest only or ARMs they couldn't possibly afford once they reset): is losing their home tragic? While it's certainly a pain to have to move, they've likely spent a couple of years in a home paying far less than they would have had to pay rent on a comparable home. And if they pulled "equity" out of the home, they might have even made money on the whole experience.

And, you know, I'm not angry at these people. I'm really not. I think the banks are as much to blame. McMansions an hour's commute from work aren't really my bag, anyway.

But I certainly don't think it's tragic.

Getting serious about debt repayment

Our recent close out of one of my student loans really gave us a taste for paying down debt. We make our monthly payments on the car, the mortgage, and my student loans (well, not the federal one because it's not currently accruing interest!), but we've generally funneled our extra money into savings, not debt repayment.

I think that's going to change.

Our new plan is so long as our emergency fund is above a certain threshold, we'll put all extra money towards paying off debt. If our fund falls below the threshold because, say, we have to pay to repave the sidewalk in front of our house, then we prioritize replenishing it. (The threshold is above 6 months of living expenses, so that it always stays a true emergency fund.)

Depending on how many unexpected expenses we come up against, our car could be paid off in 1.5 more years instead of 4.

One student loan is paid off!

Last night my husband and I were having a financial summit to clarify what recurring bills I'm still paying -- we wanted to transfer all these to A. so that, but for a few hundred in my monthly cash spending, all of my stipend goes into savings. Just for simplicity's sake.

Looking online at one of my three loans (all with different companies), we noticed that the balance was only $1800, and this was with the terrible loan company -- awful website, BS fees, etc. (It also had the highest interest rate.) "Let's just pay that sucker off!" A. said, so we did.

Original principal of $8,000, now completely done with!

We're going out to dinner with a stash of forgotten gift cards we found yesterday. Not quite a mortgage-burning party, but I'll certainly enjoy it.

Strong finances, strong marriage

I really like this post by Brooke of dollarfrugal.com on how to build your net worth and your marriage simultaneously. Some of her points that I strongly agree with are:

1. Open Lines of Communication. My husband and I talk often about our money. This started formally as "financial summits" (because my first two years of grad school were so insane we had to schedule time to comb over Visa statements) but has morphed into more of an understanding that we can always talk comfortably about our finances. I'm sure this open communication style will translate to other areas of our lives.
2. Even Thinking About the “D” Word Is Bad for Finances. A's maternal grandmother has a tendency to strange things, among them "I hope you and S. aren't going to get a divorce!" A's favorite reply is, "Nah -- divorce is too expensive." (In her defense, three of her four children are divorced, so I can understand why it occupies her thoughts and we just laugh off the rude questions.)
3. Find Cheap Hobbies. We love taking nightly walks together and while at my parents' house this past Christmas we rediscovered the joy of Racko, which played a big role in family togetherness time when I was a kid. (We already love board games, but they tend to be long, German-style games that only work with 3+ people; Racko is a nice change of pace.)

I'd forgotten how awesome libraries are

(Note: I wrote this post over the summer during my summer internship and never published it for some reason.)

I'm living in a city -- downtown -- without a lot of residential amenities. No grocery store, no book store (I'm rudely discounting the Catholic bookstore and the nudie bookstore). I have no car. Also working a strict 40-hour week means I have a lot of free time, so in between visits from my husband where he brings backlogs of my magazines (I read an Economist truly cover to cover for the first time ever last month), I was desperate for reading material.

So I was spending a lot of money on books. It had to stop. Yes, I want to support authors (and, erm, publishers... Hi, English Major!), but my budget cannot absorb $100/month on books.

And then I realized that Summer City library might give me a library card even though I'm not a permanent resident -- and it turns out they did! All I needed to show them was my paystub with my temporary local address.

Personally, I think the librarians there have excellent taste, because sitting right there on the new releases shelve -- all I had time to browse with the remainder of my lunch break -- were three books on the top of my Amazon wishlist: the new Jane Smiley novel; "Everything Conceivable", which is about the swift rise of the now massive artificial reproduction technology industry; and "One Perfect Day", about the wedding industry.

The Parents Are Alright

For the past year or so, my father has been talking about retirement. This was surprising at first because he's relatively young (55) and has always enjoyed his job for the most part (my mom always claimed that he'd never retire!). However, he's always been significantly overworked, and the breaking point was a high-profile case he worked for a year on a task force essentially on top of his already demanding full-time job. So this is good news.

But I was a little curious about their finances -- I know roughly what my dad makes, but no idea what they expected to retire on. When my husband and I were home over Christmas my dad let slip how much he'll get from his state pension alone, and WOW: $70,000/year (starting; there are COLAs, of course). That's big money in their Midwestern state.  In addition to the state pension:

1. they get a cash payout when he retires, although I have no idea what that would be
2. he also has a deferred compensation account, although again I have no idea how much is in it
3. here's the biggie: after he "retires", he plans to start double-dipping, which despite the name is the perfectly legitimate practice of returning to his old job part-time. I guess he'll make around $45k for 30 hours' worth of work per week and my parents will get to keep their state employee's health plan for a bit longer
4. eventually they'll get Social Security
5. my mom has a modest pension, too ($400/month buys a lot of groceries)
6. they haven't been financially supporting any kids for the past six years, and for the four years before that it was only one kid, and over that time my dad was making over six figures, so I'm hoping the mortgage is either paid off or very close to being paid off

I'm thrilled that my dad gets to retire so young, and I'm thrilled that I don't have to obsess too much about how they're doing financially.

You'd never know that she didn't go on for a PhD:

From Megan McArdle:

"Academics are terrible, terrible snobs about certain forms of consumption, and painfully few of them are aware that these tastes are class markers, not ordinal virtue rankings written into the fabric of the universe at the beginning of time."