Call Me Laura

What age are you starting with the chores/allowances? And is there any way to put my husband on that chart?

Any chance of that going to perm? Regardless, I think I would take a sure thing over complete unknown. It might also take that long for some places to call you back.

big cities are scary? Just ones that require you to rely on the police for any sort of "protection". how does that differ from Barney P. Fife size cities? I don't like them either. I don't like any location that requires "Dial-A-Prayer". And a bit off topic.

big cities are scary? Just ones that require you to rely on the police for any sort of "protection".

Doesn't make you immune, of course. Immune to what? Did I say anywhere I was invincible? Or did I say we wouldn't be good targets?

Actually, too true -- if you have gone ahead and taken the dubious step of borrowing from your 401k, then you want your 401k investments to decline as long as the loan is still outstanding -- that way, you lose less money. You have fewer shares shrinking in value because the loan amount is taken out of the market. You suffer less opportunity cost from missing out on gains. Funny, I never thought of that before. [sorry, Stuben, I see you kind of anticipated that in your blog entry] But the fact that you are made better off with your investments losing value pretty much demonstrates how wrong it is to borrow from the 401k. This is something that my co-worker brings up from time to time. You have a very good point in that if the market goes down (and consequently your investments go down) not only are you paying yourself interest, but you are not losing on the money that has been pulled out of your account! but are you really losing money if you are not retiring for 10 or 20 years? I worse part about these loans is paying back the accounts with money that has been TAXED and then when you withdraw during retirement the money is TAXED again...these loans and cashing out qualified money should rarely if ever be done We used it to help fund the down payment of our house. I actually wish I'd done it sooner, as the value of my holdings dropped about 20% by the time we decided it was the best move. I'm funding at 15%, with 6% employer matching and most calculators have me on target for >100% of my 'needs' during retirement. I've very heavily invested in Stock and Growth, so I see this down period as a chance to stock up, as it were, on discount funds. Still hard to watch, though... I agree that it's not for everybody, but we felt it was right in our situation.

That's an easy one. Since the OP is posting about planning for the cattle-towing shopping nonsense that centers around December, she is most certainly referring to Xmas, which is of course the mundane and generic newspeak version for the non-religious seasonal festivities (if you can really call them "festive"). Christmas OTH is a the religious holiday that has little, if anything, to do with the general goings of things in modern America. Those who actually celebrate Christmas for it's original intent are probably not interested in this post as it doesn't apply to them. Or a millennia old tradition. Whichever. Usage of X for Christ The word "Christ" and its compounds, including "Christmas", have been abbreviated for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern "Xmas" was commonly used. "Christ" was often written as "XP" or "Xt"; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as 1021 AD. This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters χ and Ï), used in ancient abbreviations for ΧÏιστος (Greek for "Christ"), and are still widely seen in many Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Jesus Christ. The labarum, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as ☧, is a symbol often used to represent Christ in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian Churches.[2] Nevertheless, some believe that the term is part of an effort to "take Christ out of Christmas" or to literally "cross out Christ";[3] it is seen as evidence of the secularization of Christmas, as a symptom of the commercialization of the holiday (as the abbreviation has long been used by retailers). It may also be seen as a vehicle to be more inclusive. (See political correctness.) The labarum, often called the Chi-Rho, is a Christian symbol representing Christ. The occasionally held belief that the "X" represents the cross on which Christ was crucified also has no basis in fact. St Andrew's Cross is X-shaped, but Christ's cross was probably shaped like a T or a †. Indeed, X-as-chi was associated with Christ long before X-as-cross could be, since the cross as a Christian symbol developed later. (The Greek letter Chi Χ stood for "Christ" in the ancient Greek acrostic ΙΧΘΥΣ ichthys.) While some see the spelling of Christmas as Xmas a threat, others see it as a way to honor the martyrs. The use of X as an abbreviation for "cross" in modern abbreviated writing (e.g. "King's X" for "King's Cross") may have reinforced this assumption. In ancient Christian art, χ and Ï‡Ï are abbreviations for Christ's name.[4] In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, X is an abbreviation for Christos, as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate sigma); compare IC for Jesus in Greek. The Oxford English Dictionary documents the use of this abbreviation back to 1551, 50 years before the first English colonists arrived in North America and 60 years before the King James Version of the Bible was completed. At the same time, Xian and Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of "Christian" and "Christianity"; and nowadays still are sometimes so used, but much less than "Xmas". The proper names containing the name "Christ" other than aforementioned are rarely abbreviated in this way (e.g. Hayden Xensen for the actor name "Hayden Christensen"). This apparent usage of "X" to spell the syllable "kris" (rather than the sounds "ks") has extended to "xtal" for "crystal", and on florists' signs "xant" for "chrysanthemum"[5] (though these words are not etymologically related to "Christ"; "crystal" comes from a Greek word meaning "ice"; "chrysanthemum" comes from Greek words meaning "golden flower"; "Christ" comes from a Greek word meaning "anointed"). In the 17th and 18th Centuries, "Xene" and "Exene" were common spellings of the given name Christene.

I usually stock up on non-perishable items during after Christmas sales and then clearance sales throughout the year, but didn't really get around to it this year. I'm due on 12/25, so I think people will understand if they don't get much (anything) this year.

It would seem to me that b/c you carry cash you would be a good target. Cash isn't insured by anything or anyone, when its gone its gone. A CC you can call and tell them it was stolen and you get those charges credited back to your account. Agreed. A crackhead looking for a quick fix isn't going to be swiping a credit card to get it. He/she wants cash. Maybe she'll explain why neither of them would be a good target for mugging? Maybe they're lucky and live somewhere that gives out concealed carry permits more readily than my wonderful state of CA Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner Actually, it's more about mindset. Notice the people around you (and let them know you notice them). Now, I'm a good Southern girl, so it's not in my nature to be rude, but I know that anyone who wants to harm me doesn't care and those who don't, will understand. There have been plenty of people who pay attention to me because I have something they want (someone tried to carjack me in April), but they don't get near enough to do any harm because I notice and acknowledge them. That's the last thing a criminal wants - most are cowards. Plus, I don't frequent areas I wouldn't go unarmed (except Chicago ). If it's not safe without a gun, it's not safe with a gun.

There aren't any databases that can track cash purchases back to you... My fiance doesn't like others to know what he's spending his money on, so he uses cash quite a bit. I carry cash because I don't carry a checkbook and not everyone takes credit cards. Neither one of us would be a good target for mugging.

I have Quicken for the Mac and I find it useful. Some things aren't terribly intuitive, but I have managed to figure out what I want to do. I keep track of my mortgage, 401(k), savings, and checking. I used to do checking in an Excel spreadsheet, but I do like the ability to download automatically. However, I can't upload payments to my CU, so I still end up having to log in to their system, too. I don't use it to its full potential, but it definitely works for what I want.

They're not really factoring in the performance of the 401(k)s, though. I'm getting a negative return on mine right now (and have for the past few years. I think I put in $15k last year, including my loan repayments, and yet my balance only went up a grand. And I'll have the house to live in, when I retire...

It looks like Citi is your best option at this time, then. You can withdraw cash if needed and move it over to BOA in a day or two, so it's easy to get to, but not so convenient you're always dipping into it. If you can split your direct deposits, that is the easiest way to go. Your savings never makes it into the 'bill pool'. If you have to move money over, even if that's set up automatically, it's just too darn easy to look at your balance and think you have $x, when you really have $x-50. When you have 3-6 months worth of expenses saved, you can start looking at moving that into higher yield accounts. Keep in mind, though, that you're going to pay taxes on interest earned, so your small amount will be even smaller. It's kinda depressing. I like to look at my savings account as a mattress I can't sleep on, not an extra source of income. The upside being I don't lose my savings if the house burns down.

My opinion is that if you have nothing saved, you should start with your emergency fund and you need that to be accessible. The interest on small amounts isn't really going to make that much of a difference. When you say BOA is your daily bank, does that mean you go in a branch every day? Or you use it to pay bills? For me, easily accessible is anything with an ATM in a 10-15 mile radius. One of my credit unions is only in Tulsa and I can only get money by having them mail me a check or driving there in person. That's the back up, I'm in dire straights, emergency fund. Next is ING, which has a better rate, but I have to transfer money to somewhere else to touch it. The bulk of my savings is there, because of the interest rate. Lastly, I have my credit union I use for everyday transactions. The rate is mediocre, so I don't keep more than a few hundred dollars there. If it's relatively the same amount of effort to get money, I'd go with the highest interest rate. I wouldn't make it difficult to get the money unless the rate and amount were worth it.

I think you're looking at it differently. There are not necessarily problems with the marriage or with the wife if she wants a nice ring and a bit of history. Who doesn't want nice things? We were offered my soon to be mother in law's diamond for my engagement ring. We were going to completely skip the rings because I don't wear jewelry. Instead, we ended up spending over $4k to have it reset and get a matching wedding band, plus a new band for him. Was it worth it? You bet. It's an awesome ring but the real value to me is that his mother wanted me to have it. Sure, I like showing it off. Who wouldn't? Does that mean our relationship needs help? I mean, I was perfectly fine not having a ring at all (or even not getting married, for that matter). I would say that it's had a positive impact, even though it cost us money we weren't planning to spend.