Fear debt and more

None of these money principles are really new with me, and you have likely heard them before, but these are the ones that I have personally found to be very good advice, and practical for the average bear. Your mileage may vary.

1) Fear debt. It is a vicious killer, and can become your master in less time than you would believe. It's a mathematical thing.

There are only two things that you can justify buying on credit: your house or your car. You can justify buying the house on credit because everybody has to have one, you'd be paying rent if you didn't, and in truth, it's sort of a savings account / retirement plan anyway. At the end of 30 years (or 15 if you're good and can manage it), you have a house that will make it possible to retire.

You can justify the car because you really need it to be able to hold a job, which also is necessary. If you live in a place that offers mass transit, this doesn't apply. But if you live in Albuquerque, which requires a car for survival, you're going to either buy a car or walk.
Most people are math challenged, and don't realize the actual effect of paying interest, or the wonder that is compounding. If you make the entries on a spreadsheet, though, you can see it as it happens. But let's oversimplify just to make it easy. When you buy a $1,000 item on credit for a year, at 18%, you're paying 1180.00 for that item, and you're paying an extra 180 bucks for the privilege of not having to wait for it. But if you save up for it, and earn only 4% on the money while you save, you only pay $960 for it, as if it were on sale. The difference between buying now and buying later is $230! (It's actually much much more, because the interest compounds, but that takes a spreadsheet to demonstrate.)

And it gets worse. When you do it with a credit card (notice that you can't buy a car or house with a credit card), the terms encourage you to not pay off the balance. The debt grows and grows until you are only able to pay the interest. Now you're screwed, because you have to pay money to the bank, and you get nothing for it. Zilch. To get out of this mess, you have to pay back that debt with large portions of your income. And it isn't easy.

Most people learn this the hard way, and if they're lucky they get to start over with an even balance by the time they reach 40 years of age.

So the folks who save their money get a mathematical advantage over those who buy on credit, without even having to work any harder or earn more money.

Once you master the principle of staying out of debt, there are some neat things you can do with a credit card - but if you can't pay off the balance every single time, with room to spare, don't even try them. I won't list them here. I will only tell you that they involve taking advantage of the enticements that the banks offer you, hoping to get you into their lair, but you fool them by paying off the balance each month - wicked, false, trickly hobbitses!


2) Learn the difference between cheap and thrifty.

You can actually lose money by being cheap. OK, sometimes you can't help it; you have to have a car, and so you buy a junker, because it's the best you can do. But if you can afford to buy a car that is dependable, you should do it.

Here's thrifty: you can go to Kroger's and buy the store brand of many items for a third less than the famous, advertised brand. Why not do it? Now, if you get home, and it really isn't as good (sometimes the case), then go back to the famous brand. Here are some things I no longer buy with the official label anymore, because the Kroger's brand is just as good: Miracle Whip, sandwich sliced ham, sour cream, butter (whipped or otherwise), most canned goods including corn, beets, vinegar, Campbell's soups... the list goes on. Some things, though are best done by the experts, such as canned spinach, Wolf brand chili, and Dr Pepper.

Let's assume you have some money available, and you're going to buy... say, a new TV. How much do you watch TV? If you watch it every evening, and it's your main entertainment, then prorate it. The TV will likely last ten years, but at least five. That's a lot of TV watching, so you should be willing to spend a little more and get a good one in the first place. The same goes for that washer and dryer, the refrigerator, your shoes - you should plan on using them for many hours, and so you shouldn't go cheap. Obviously, you don't need to pay for status symbols - buy quality, buy what you will use. Find the best value.

Incidentally, don't be afraid to bargain, especially when buying an expensive item. When we bought our washer and dryer, we got them to knock off a couple hundred bucks on the deal. If you're embarrassed, try this technique. You go in and ask to see the very cheapest thing they have. Look at it, consider it. Ask about it. Go look at the more expensive things, too, and ask about them. Then go back and look at the cheap stuff again. The salesman and his manager will want you to buy the more expensive one, of course, so as soon as he starts explaining the advantages of the better item, ask him if he would consider sweetening the deal if you were to buy the better item. Often, he will go talk to the manager and come back with an incentive. Honest, it can happen.

3) When you buy a house, seriously consider a 15 year mortgage rather than a 30 year mortgage. Not only will you save 15 years worth of interest, the bank will usually offer a much lower rate, perhaps as much as 2 percentage points. If you can't afford the payments on a 15 year mortgage, you are likely buying too much house.

4) Marry somebody who understands this. If you are considering marriage, discuss the principles of debt and thrift. If he or she doesn't immediately and enthusiastically agree with you that debt is of the devil, slow down the romance. Otherwise, you will have to follow the path to near bankruptcy, then climb slowly and painfully out of the pit of financial darkness, all so that your new spouse will learn the hard way what I just explained in this short little blog.

Yelllow roses and gardens

You may remember the two rose bushes from my hurricane video.


Photo by wm. Hurricane by Ma Nature.

Yesterday, both bushes had grown new leaves and were producing some roses. The yellow roses, however, were numerous and beautiful. GA decided that there were enough that we could take a couple indoors for the kitchen table:


photo by wm, roses by God

I think these are virtually perfect. And what better symbol of Texas than the yellow rose?

We had a tiny yellow rose bush back in Midland, which the new owners have probably killed by now, converting everything to the popular"plain yard" motif. But it was tiny by comparison, and I suppose may have been a miniature variety. I don't know about such things. All I know about roses I learned from Aunt Wynona, namely to cut the roses at a point just above a junction with five leaves. For whatever reason, that practice will result in more blooms. See, she's a flower gardener, while I specialize in veggies.

Monday, I'm going to put in a new garden. I bought some new border bricks at Home Depot, because when I do a garden, it has to double as landscaping, and looks have to take precedence over the practical. Still, I will not have a rectangular plotted, straight rowed conventional garden. It has to be a work of... art.

The current garden still has tomatoes, garlic, cilantro and black eyed peas, all crowded together like a bunch of New Yorkers. The cilantro is just about ready to pick and toss into a salad.

I hate rebate programs

I hate rebate programs. I hate them for three reasons.

The first reason: when you buy the product, you pay taxes on the entire price, including what you're going to get on the rebate. For example, if you get a rebate of $20 on a $100 product, you pay sales tax on the entire $100, even though you're really only paying $80 for the product.

The second reason: you have to fill out a stupid form, mail it to somebody, and hope it doesn't get lost in the mail. Or get lost in the mail room after it's delivered. Then you have to wait to get your check, hoping it doesn't get lost in the mail, and then you have to go cash it.

The third reason: it's possible to lose the receipt, or lose the rebate form, or even to simply forget to apply for the rebate. (That's likely what the company is hoping for).

It would be simpler for everybody to just take the rebate form at the store, like a coupon, and reduce the price you pay - so you don't forget to apply for it, so you don't pay sales tax on the rebated amount, and so you don't even have to use a stamp and an envelope to ask for the money they promised you.

But do they go for the simpler method? No, of course not. And AT&T found a way to make it even more complicated, more expensive, and even more likely that you'll lose the money in the process. Notice that AT&T has an actual contract with you when you have your rebate coming. They know they're going to be billing you every month, using a numbered account. That means they could simply apply your rebate to your account, and save everybody (including themselves) a lot of time and work. But do they do that? No.

They sell you your phone, charge you the full sales tax, promise you a rebate, and then instead of sending you a simple, easy to cash check in the mail, they send you a debit card. A debit card!

So they go to the trouble and expense of establishing and manufacturing a debit card, with a unique number, tied to an accounting system, which you get in the mail just like the check, and then you have to call a toll free number (probably using your cell phone and costing you minutes) and waste five or ten minutes navigating through a sea of menus, so you can activate it. And your trouble is just beginning.

Say it's for $100. Now you have to keep a log of how much you've spent on it, unless you can find a place where you can spend exactly $100. The instructions say to calculate the difference between your purchase and the amount on the card, pay the balance first, then run the card through, while the clerk is frowning at you, along with the twenty people in line behind you, waiting. I tried it at the grocery store. Neither of us could figure out how to make it work. Neither could the next five people in line, as they frowned impatiently.

You can't use it at the gas pump, at least not pay at the pump. You have to give it to the clerk. But even though it says it's a debit card, you have to instruct the guy in the gas station to run it as a credit purchase, again with a line of people waiting behind you.

So I try the card again, at the grocery store. It says Not Authorized. I go home and call AT&T. They tell me that according to their records, that day I tried to use it at the grocery store? And we couldn't make it work? Well, the next day the grocery store took the money somehow. My card is empty. Now I have to take it up with them.

Remember, all this instead of simply applying $100 to my cell phone bill, as a credit - saving the cost of the card and all this hassle.

I hate rebate programs. And I especially hate rebate programs that involve a stupid, orange debit card instead of a nice, paper check.

Nature's 5.1 surround sound

It's raining today.
The bad news is that I don't get to go for my walk. So I can't eat candy, or at least I can't eat as much candy.

Not that I just stuff myself with such things, but if you don't burn the calories, you have to limit the intake more. Besides, I eat the sugar free Reese's cups, and low-carb Dove dark chocolate and raspberry things. The Dove things, by the way, are sweetened with sugar alcohols, which means you can't go nuts with them either, unless you need a laxative effect. If you do need a laxative some day , forget the drug store - buy a bag of these babies and go to town.

But I digress. It is raining today, and we're getting thunder with it. Down here in Houston you usually get just rain, with no thunder. Back in Wichita Falls or in Midland, you could usually count on some nice loud thunder for a soundtrack with your rain storm. In Wichita Falls, you could also count on some nice loud tornadoes too, but that's another story.



The 1979 tornado in Wichita Falls, TX

I remember a time when GA and I were hiking in the Smoky Mountains National Park, and when we were lying in our little tent, there was a thunderstorm crossing overhead. It was a wonderful experience - the sound would echo across the sky and reverberate. We just lay there enjoying the sounds for a while before we fell asleep.

I heard from the insurance company about our damage claim on the fence in our backyard. Our deductible is about $2000 so I'm supposed to find a fence company and get an estimate. If they can fix it for less, I won't file a claim, but if it's more I can file the claim. I have no idea what it will cost. If I were the hulk, I could just push it back into place and tamp the dirt down.


The Hulk, about to push my fence back where it belongs

But I'm not the Hulk, I'm more of a Captain Sloth.

And the sun just came out. If the sky turns blue, I will need to go run an errand or two.
Instead of blogging with no real point to make.

The bailout, comrades, welcome the bailout

Here's the way I see this bailout mess.
Years ago, the government passed legislation encouraging the banks to lend to the poor (rather than "discriminate" against them). The message was that just because somebody is a poor credit risk is no reason to deny them a loan. The lenders jumped right on that, because there is huge money to be made, provided that the government is willing to cover your losses. So they whipped out these balloon mortgages, knowing full well that these buyers were never going to be able to pay those higher payments when the balloon arrives. (A balloon mortgage offers lower interest rates now, but higher ones later on in the payback). The bankers told the buyers that the value of their property would increase by the time the balloon arrives, and so they could easily refinance with a better interest rate. Only that didn't happen, which means that the default rate went through the roof, and the bankers started losing big time. Now remember, they were making it big time before the balloons landed.
It's as if you or I went to Las Vegas to gamble, and if we win, we keep the money, but when we lose, the government covers our losses.
In fact, this has been referred to many times as "privatizing the profit while socializing the debt." This is about as succinct and accurate as you can get.
Those fat bankers are keeping the profits they made when they loaned all that money for balloon mortgages, and making us cover their 'losses' now that the tide has turned. In a free economy, they would be allowed to fail, and more capable, responsible lenders would arise to take their place. There is nothing "free market" about this deal at all. Yet, economics professors are now announcing that this proves that the free market won't work, that the economy must be controlled. What a fraud. An honest analysis would show that government intervention has failed.

Electric plug for an old vacuum cleaner

We have this old antique vacuum cleaner - a Kirby from the 50's, made of some kind of metal, maybe aluminum, maybe cast iron. No, it's not rusting, and it doesn't weigh much, so it must be aluminum. Or steel. Or gray plastic cleverly made to look like aluminum.

This immortal workhorse of a machine has been efficiently vacuuming our floors for the 25 years we've been married, and for another 25 or 30 or more years before that.

It finally began having problems. It has those old fashioned two prong plugs that you shove into the electric socket, and when plugged in, it would only work if you jiggled the plug just right. My son-in-law showed me that each of the prongs is not really a single blade, but a sort of loop that allows it to make contact and yet compress if the slot is too tight. So he expanded the loop with a screwdriver, and it worked again - for a while.

But apparently, the metal - I guess it's copper or brass or gold - has grown soft in its old age, as have I, and the loops collapse almost instantly. It was time to replace the plug.

I didn't really want to do that. This old vacuum is an antique, and I hated to spoil its authenticity by replacing original equipment with a modern add-on. But if it was going to suck again, it had to be done. So I was off to Home Depot.

There I saw a range of replacement plugs, but none of them were the kind I remembered from my younger days. You remember, you just slipped off the little cardboard cover and loosened the screws and attached the wires, or "conductors" as the English say. I picked out one that had two screws you took out and you just shoved in the wires, or conductors.

I hated the moment, but I had to do the surgery: I severed the old plug from the 15 mile cord extending from the vacuum's handle. I had done the research - I knew that the white wire is neutral, and attaches to the wider of the two blades. I even confirmed this with my son-in-law via my cell phone. I was... ready.

I put the wire - excuse me, conductor - into the slot and turned the screw. The manufacturer's website assured me that that's all you have to do for a tight and easy installation. But as I screwed it in, I screwed it up. The parts inside the plastic twisted into a mess, and the plastic was pushed out of its place, and the wire fell out like promises at election time.

I unscrewed the screws, and tried again. Same thing. I thought maybe I had the wrong holes. There were several, after all, and I searched the website for maybe some little graphic of the wires going into this device. No luck. It was apparently so easy and so self-evident that I could not possibly mess this up. Yet I had.

This is the sort of thing that happens to me every time I try to do plumbing, or electric repair, or car repair. This is why I depend on friends who can do any of those three things. I am pretty good at finding the problem with a computer, and back in the day I could trouble shoot database programs with the best of them. But pipes, cars and electric plugs hate me, and live for the moment they can entice me into a repair job. They are essentially evil. I should have been a Luddite.

Today I will go back to Home Depot or Walmart or whatever is out there, and I will find one of those old fashioned plugs that you just loosen the screw, wrap a half loop of wire around it, and tighten. Anything more complicated is a communist plot.

And that's the shocking truth.

Death has been outsourced

"Hello, Death dept.? I just died. Where is my escort?"
"Thank you for calling Death tech support. We're currently experiencing some technical difficulties. Please wait for our next available technician."

[bad choir music plays during 59 minute wait]

"Tank choo sur for wetting. How meh aye hep joo?"
"I just died about an hour ago. I thought this sort of thing was supposed to be efficiently handled. I thought I was supposed to be escorted into the afterlife - who's handling this, some government agency in Mexico?"
"Oh no sur, we doo dis hir in India now."
"Oh, fine. Is this going to be worse than Sprint's tech support?"
"ob curse nott. Notting iss dot bat. Now... witch apterlipe plan did you suscripe too?
"We were supposed to choose one? I thought that just... you know... sort of happened. One size fits all."
"Ah. Nondenominachunal."
"Whatever. So what happens now?"
"I im afrait thir will be som technical difficults. We hat sum proplims with marketing lettly."
"Proplims? What kind of proplims?"
"Well - sum itiot hass bin promissink 72 virgins to sooside bompers. Virgins??? In Hell? Virchins are hart to come buy, I im tellink yoo, espetchally in hell."
"I can believe that."
"But the real proplim is that the reincarnachum sopware in India keeps claching with the Apterlife modules. Krichna... Buddha... some Arabian desert moon god... wee gott pipples expecting to bee reporn as cows and we have them poppink out in hell."
"Wow."
"It smells goot, tho. I im not allowed to like steak sizzling, but it duss smell goot."
"Cows in hell. I guess that would smell good."
"Don't tell my soopervisor."
"I won't. So what do I do now?"
"Um... take out da battry and lett joo fone sit por minnit. Den, put it back in."
"But I can't talk to you if I do that! What if it doesn't work?"
"Oh, it won't wurk at all. But by the time you call beck, mebbe we haf promlim fix."
"Oh, my god. Sprint is in charge of Death."
"No, no no. But we doo haff a hole wing in hell named for them. Beddy spetchul place, jess."

[line goes dead]

"Hello? Hello?"

America's Got Talent this year

I was sort of a newbie with America's Got Talent this year - I only watched it for moments last season because GA made me, so I could see Terry Fator, and I had to admit the guy is the best at what he does, ever.

But this year I watched almost all of it, though I missed the first episode. I mostly watched because I realized that they were featuring some really bad "talent," which I noticed all had one thing in common: when asked why they thought they could win, they said that their friends had told them they were great. The ones who were actually good would say something else, and always had some doubts about their own abilities. (Maybe they also had honest friends). I'm thinking that it could be those doubts that motivate them to try harder and get better at what they do.

After the first elimination rounds, we were left with only the good ones. Not the great ones, mind you - "great' would not include acts like the Zooperstars, a ridiculous group of people in giant animal costumes, stumbling around like morons on the stage. It would not include the female impersonator whose talent was that he looked sort of like Britney Spears and lip-synced her music. These people would at the very least draw a crowd at a supermarket, though whether people would pay admission to see them is another question.

Later in the season I began to see people eliminated whom I really liked. I'm talking about Jessica Price, Paul Salos, the Wright Kids.

Paul Salos is a Frank Sinatra impersonator, and he is incredible. if you close your eyes, you could really believe it's old Blue Eyes himself, right down to the voice, the attitude, the inflection. This guy has a career if he wants one - if not in Vegas, somewhere else. The Wright Kids belong in Branson - they can do wonders with anything from 60's pop music to blue grass.

And I was actually considering Jessica Price (above) as my third favorite - but as GA pointed out, while she is talented she is not unique, and not really even different than another fifty female country singers, though she is better looking than most of them. Still I like her, and I sort of wish I could adopt her so she could have a decent father - apparently, the scumbag abandoned the family, though Jessica still adores him. That's love for you.

So the top five are on tonight, and the voting is over, and we should get to see the winner tonight.
That means I get to express my opinions about them for all the world to see, because this is America, and because I have a blogger account. Here they are, in no particular order.

First up, Eli Mattson:



Eli is a talented pianist and songwriter, who idolizes Elton John, and by sheer coincidence, imitates his style. He only did one song of his own writing during the competition, so far anyway, and that turned out well. He sings almost as well as Elton, but the amazing thing about him is his piano-playing skill. The man is awesome. He could win, but that could be said of anyone in the top five. If he doesn't win, he will almost certainly have a well-deserved recording contract.


Nuttin But Stringz


Here is GA's favorite, and her pick to win. She could be right - if you judge by uniqueness, if that's a word, these guys are almost the definition of the word. Nuttin But Stringz fuses hip hop, classical and rock, and does it so well that it's almost a new genre in itself. These gentlemen play those instruments with skill, flair, and energy. They could easily sustain a two hour Vegas show, and fill the seats every night.



Donald Braswell almost wasn't even in the finals.

The judges tossed him out earlier in the rounds, but another act had an untimely accident, and her spot had to be filled, so they let America vote on who to reinstate. This is the man who had a vocal cord accident years ago, and overcame it to sing again. Personally, I think he is the weakest of the five finalists, but he nevertheless ought to be on Broadway, or wherever they put people with this kind of voice, because being the weakest of these five is not weak at all.



Queen Emily



This beautiful woman is my 2nd choice for winner. She stands there so quietly, with poise and aplomb and humility, but when they cue her, she turns into the most dynamic singer you can imagine. I'll probably get in trouble for this, but she's my new Queen of Soul, with all due respect to Aretha Franklin - assuming you remember her.

Some day she will do a tribute album, with all Aretha covers. I will buy it. Queen Emily could easily fill a Vegas theater, whether she wins or not.


Neal E. Boyd

And here is my personal favorite.


This guy can sing opera as well as anyone. OK, I have to issue the disclaimer: I don't actually even like opera. But that's what makes this guy special - if he isn't phenomenal, then why do I, an opera ignorer, absolutely love him? I could watch this guy sing for hours. They made him do some non-opera too, just to prove he could, and he was great there too - but it's opera that lets him shine, where you see his passion come through. He may not win, in fact I will be surprised if he does - and I don't know if he can fill a Vegas theatre night after night. But if he isn't touring the world with two other tenors I could name by this time next year, there is no justice.

Who do I think will win the competition? If I had to bet, I would sneak out of the casino. I don't think Donald Braswell will win, but of the other four, only the producers can really say at this point.