When Getting Ahead Means Not Falling Behind

For many years my life has been one of working, eating and sleeping long before the pandemic.  The only "going out" I'd ever do is for errands.

Today I am officially self-isolating.  The only difference between then and now is that now I work from home instead of at the workplace.  My errands are not restricted (at least not the ones I do.)

When I saw gas prices plummet a few weeks ago¹ and then learned that I'd get a 2% raise, I became hopeful that maybe I'd be able to save some money and not have to live paycheck to paycheck (albeit with a small cushion of savings).  As well it was reported that car insurance companies would be mailing checks to its customers who are driving less and getting into fewer crashes.  All that, in combination with a CARE act payment, got me thinking that I might be able to get ahead before having to pay off massive student load debt that has been deferred to November.  And speaking of student loan debt, the government set interest rates to 0% for their loans.  What a relief!

But just as quickly as the good news accumulated, it all came crashing down.  First I learned that my employer will be cutting salaries and maybe even reducing hours for some employees.  It’s not that business is bad.  Actually it’s just the opposite; customers are increasing orders.  However, the CEO believes that things will get bad very quickly.  The current uptick in sales is due to customers wanting to “pull in” and build inventory in the event of a supply chain failure.  So my employer is being proactive to sooth the fears of investors.  After all, the aristocrats must never be inconvenienced!

And then when the student loan interest rate was set to zero, I suddenly found that I had to make my first payment next week.  This payment is about 30% more than my housing expense!

And on top of that, my term life insurance policy lapsed due to late payment.  They’re so busy responding to death claims (unfortunately) that I can’t make any progress on getting it reinstated.  (True I was a dumbass for making the payment so late….)  So now I’m extremely anxious I might die of coronavirus and leave my loved ones in the poor house.  Plus I was just diagnosed with prostate cancer, so who knows if they will agree to reinstate me, or even if I can even get another insurance policy?

And of course most of my retirement savings is in equities, which have dropped sharply in value.

Well, I did manage to re-request the deferment from the student loan servicer, so I managed to plug one of the leaks in the dyke.

It’s at times like these that I start to catastrophize:

• What if an appliance fails and needs replacing?
• What if a tree falls on the house (or a neighbor’s house)?
• What if the car needs major repair work?
• What if I lose my job?

So then I need to breathe, bring myself back to the present and think of all the good fortune I have.

Hope all is well with you!

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¹The drop in the cost of gasoline was due initially to a feud between Saudi Arabia and Russia.  The policy of self-isolation came later and further lowered prices due to a decrease in demand.

Buy One, Get Six For Free

Temperatures here in the Northeast are at the freezing mark or below, so the heated indoor air is very dry.  This is a good time to use a saline spray to keep nasal passages moist.

I use a lot of saline spray every winter.  My preferred brand comes in little bottles of 50ml (1.69 ounces) and costs about $3.50.  That's $2/oz.  It doesn't last long.

The first bottle of the season already ran out.  So rather than buy another, I bought the saline solution that's marketed to users of contact lenses.  For the same price, $3.50, I got 12 ounces, a whopping seven times more, which should last all winter.

Of course, I don't squirt the stuff into my nose from that larger bottle.  Instead, I refill the little spray bottle.  I just remove the tip from the spray bottle and pour the saline solution in and then press the tip back on.

It turns out that the cheaper, contact lens saline solution is more soothing than the nasal saline.  Perhaps the nasal solution contains more anti-microbial chemicals to keep it from harboring germs.  After all, the bottle is inserted into one's nose.  With each squeeze, the user could aspirate germ-infested nasal mucous into the bottle.  So the producers of the nasal spray would want to ensure that their product won't result in re-infection with some pathogen.

If you decide to try this cost-saving idea, do your best to avoid contaminating the bottles and solutions.  Your workspace and hands should be as clean as possible.  You can place the spray bottle tip on a clean paper towel or tissue while filling the bottle.  Also, don't fill the bottle more than halfway, otherwise you won't get a fine spray when you squeeze but rather a surprisingly strong stream.

The High Cost of Vegan Cheese

My daughter has been vegan for about four years.  Vegans follow an even more limited diet than vegetarians.  The most devout ones don't eat anything produced by an animal or from an animal.  That includes eggs, all dairy, and even honey.

My daughter is devout.  But rather than give up mayonnaise, butter and cheese, she eats vegan-friendly versions instead.

My wife complains about the high cost of these vegan-friendly substitutes almost every week.  And she goes over-budget buying them.  But I tell my wife that if our daughter craves cheese and butter so much, it means her body is crying out for real, honest-to-goodness dairy.  As I wrote earlier, I don't fully endorse our daughter being vegan.

I say that we should buy absolutely no substitutes.  Instead we can buy eggs and dairy from producers that treat their livestock with care and respect, a major concern of vegans.  And I suspect that dairy produced the old-fashioned way is friendlier for the environment than the spreads made from vegetable oils or the cheeses made from cashews.  I believe that such substitutes require much more energy to produce because their raw ingredients are so thoroughly processed as to make them unrecognizable.

Some vegans will argue that there's a health issue with dairy.  They complain that it's loaded with saturated fat, which is bad.  I reject that entirely.  Saturated fat has been unfairly demonized.  The fat from pasture-raised, grass-fed cattle has a ratio of Omega3 to Omega6 that's comparable salmon, plus CLA (conjugated linoleic acids) and butyrates, both of which are important for good gut health.  The heart and brain both use saturated fat as fuel.

It's true that some people just can't tolerate dairy.  It can promote inflammation and mucus production.  Some people are lactose intolerant.  Others must avoid casein.  It's the casein in dairy that can mimic opioids in the brain in individuals with leaky gut syndrome.  So these intolerances are really the only good reasons to avoid dairy.

Well, even if our daughter agreed to eat real butter and cheese, our cost would still be fairly high.  Organic dairy from humanely-treated, grass-fed cows is not inexpensive.  But at least it's real and wholesome.

What do you think?

Staycation Planning

My employer shuts down its production line for two weeks every summer.  Ordinarily I continue to do my design work during this time, and I sell back my unused vacation time. The money I get from unused vacation helps pay semiannual bills such as home, auto and life insurance.  Besides I don't have air conditioning at home, so I prefer to work in the office during this hot and humid period. Finally, it's quiet at work during "shutdown," so I can concentrate on my most difficult work assignments without worrying about interruptions.

Unfortunately this year my boss insisted that I take my vacation during shutdown.  Taking a trip somewhere is out-of-the-question.  First, there's the cost.  Second, our daughter is signed up for a day camp during the shutdown.  Third, the animals will need pet sitters, which will cost additional money.  So I've decided on a Staycation.  I'm in the midst of thinking of activities that could bring in the lost income, or at least DIY projects that I can tackle to avoid paying someone else to do them.  The second class of activity would also include taking classes that could lead to better job opportunities.

So here's what I've come up with...

1. Get a job consulting.  This would be ideal, especially if I can charge at least as much as my gross full time salary, and perform the work in the cool comfort of the client's office.  But it's unlikely that I could find the right client(s) with a simple-enough assignment that could be completed in two weeks.
2. Home maintenance and repair.  Merely getting someone like a plumber to enter your home and tell you that you need a new washer for the faucet used to cost over $100 fifteen years ago.  By now I imagine it's much more, and the transaction might even require an attorney to act as a fiduciary.  So one can save a huge amount of money with "DIY" if one knows how.  Here are the projects I have in mind:
1. Interior painting, walls & ceilings, especially the bathroom ceiling.  (But if it's too hot and humid, it shouldn't be done.)
2. Roof repair.  I have some shingles that are starting to curl, and nails have popped up in a few spots.  I would hammer down the nails, staking them with RTV.  But how crazy do you have to be to go onto a black asphalt roof in Summer?  I think the soles of my sneakers would melt!
3. Repair / replace the car speaker.  One of the rear speakers in my car is buzzing quite loudly, and I think it's blown.  I'm hoping I can just patch it with special glue and cardboard.  If not, I might just disconnect it.  Right now, I have the fader adjusted so that only the front speakers play, and the system sounds weak.  Having just one rear speaker playing would be better than neither one playing.
4. Gardening / Landscaping.
1. We pay to have our lawn mowed each week.  If I were to buy and use a cheap push mower just for the smaller front yard, I might get the guys to  skip our place every other week, and I'd get some exercise.
2. Growing our own vegetables would save us from buying them.
3. Install a drip irrigation system for the vegetable garden.  One reason the vegetables haven't been planted yet is because I don't think I'll be able to water them.  So I don't want to spend time and effort to produce dead vegetables.  A drip irrigation system would make it easy to water the garden, so I'd be more willing to plant it.
4. The shrubs are blocking the entrance to our home, so they need pruning for good Feng Shui.
5. I'm guessing there might be a law against this: Grow and sell tobacco.  Tobacco is in high demand and would grow well here.  I don't smoke, but if I could sell it legally, it would be a most lucrative crop.  Selling stuff on which the state imposes a "sin tax" and prohibits minors from buying, probably is not legal.
6. Install rain barrels.  These are essentially 55 gallon drums that you position under the downspouts of the home's gutter system in order to collect the water for later use.  Right now we use our well water for watering the garden, and the cost is the electricity that's needed to run the well pump.
3. Buy groceries that are incorrectly priced specifically in order to take advantage of Connecticut's "Get One Free Law".  I always pay attention to the prices that appear when the cashier scans our items.  I've gotten a few things for free.  The latest was a 12oz bag of gourmet, ground Arabica coffee.  Of course I don't know beforehand whether the scanner will proffer the incorrect price, so this is more miss than hit.  Still, I once saw a one-pound package of butter that was obviously mis-marked.  The price was $3.98 but the unit price was only $1.98 per pound.  So I pounced on it like a seasoned flea market shopper on a genuine Tiffany lamp. When I was charged the $3.98, I complained that it should be only $1.98, according to the unit price, and I did get it for free.
4. Volunteer.  Well, this won't offset the loss of vacation income, but it might get me into an air conditioned environment.  And according to the Dalai Lama, the path to true happiness is through service to others, so it will bring me happiness.  A really cool idea would be a "VolunteerCation" in which you take a vacation (or sabbatical) in order to travel to some place where volunteers are needed.  I'm not sure, but I'm guessing travel expenses may be tax deductible under such an arrangement.  If you can get an organization to transport you somewhere, that would be even better.
5. Hang out at the local Maker Space.  Nothing's guaranteed with this idea.  But I imagine if I went to the Maker Space, I might meet some interesting artists, craftspersons or inventors and learn something by watching them.  I might even offer my own expertise to them or collaborate on something with them.  And I'm pretty sure the place is air conditioned. 
6. Hype my affiliates' products.  In particular, the Blood Type Diet products and the iHerb referral code bring in "coffee money."  But I don't advertise very much.
7. Hype my online storage accounts.  For example..
1. Join Dropbox for free using this link, and we'll both receive an additional 500MB of storage space.
2. Join Copy for free using this link, and we'll both receive an additional 5GB of storage space.
3. Join Box....  Well, you can join, but I don't use it, and I forgot my login credentials, so I can't promote it right now.
8. Cat Dentistry.  The plaque build-up on our first cat's teeth makes it seem as though barnacles live along his gums.  The vet quoted us a cost of over $300 to have his (the cat's) teeth cleaned.  The vet's procedure would involve putting the cat under anesthesia, a lot of stress, and possible exposure to an infectious organism.  Would I actually attempt to clean the cat's teeth myself?  Yes.  And it's not as far-fetched as it seems.  Of course, I wouldn't be fooling around with anesthesia.  But the cat sleeps so soundly that I can poke my fingers into and around his mouth without bothering him.  Nor do I plan to use any kind of abrasive or motorized tool.  I might not need to.  One day, I actually used my fingernail to pick a barnacle off his teeth.
9. Learn stuff.  How to write Android Apps, Working with Linux, Programming with Ruby are all great topics for career growth.
10. Get all my medical checkups done.  The eye doctor, dentist, primary care physician (PCP) and Naturopathic Doctor are all overdo for a visit.  Those visits would take place in an air conditioned environment, but at the expense of a few co-pays.
11. Cat Photo Exhibit.  This falls under the category of volunteering because the Cat Photo Exhibit would promote our favorite cat shelter.  If I were to sell any framed photos, I'd forward the proceeds to the shelter.  So I wouldn't made any profits, but I could recoup the expense of the frames I already bought.  The only additional expense would be to have the 8 x 10 prints made and perhaps business cards printed.
12. Write really clever blog posts, provide a PayPal Donate Button, and watch the money pour in!  (I can't belief I managed to write that with a straight face.)  No, but seriously folks, I don't want to subject you to a "Beg Button."

It will be fun to review my Staycation Activities in a subsequent post.  Stay tuned!  In the meantime, do you have any suggestions about what I should do on my staycation?

The Energy-Saving Myth of LED Holiday Lights

If you use strands of lights for holiday decorating, you may be wondering whether you should trade in your sets of traditional incandescent lights for the new LED lights that have become popular.

The answer is no if:

• Your incandescent light sets are in good condition.
• You have (or know how to get) spare bulbs for your current lights.
• You use the lights sparingly...
• Only a few hours per day.
• Only a few weeks per year.
• You use the lights indoors only during cold weather days when you heat your home.

Understand that the incandescent lights you use now convert most of the electricity into heat.  So that any energy savings you might realize by switching to LED lights will mostly be offset by an increase in the energy you'll use to heat your home.  And if your home uses electric heat, you'll never re-coup your savings.

So by all means trade in your traditional incandescent lights for the new LED lights if:

• You use the lights outdoors or in unheated areas.
• You use the lights when the weather is warm.
• You can't find replacement bulbs for your current set.
• The wiring in your current set has cracked or missing insulation.
• You use more lights than your house wiring can handle...
• When you turn them on a fuse blows (or the breaker trips).
• The outlet or extension cord feels very warm.

I continue to use two sets of incandescent lights that are rated at 75W each.  They use special C7 bulbs that are designed with an internal bimetallic strip.  When the light is on, the strip heats up and bends to interrupt the current flowing to the filament.  This enables each one to blink on and off randomly independent of the others.  It's a lovely effect, one I've not seen duplicated with LED sets.

Besides, the LED light sets that I've seen have an annoying flicker to them.  LEDs turn on only when current flows in one direction.  They remain dark for half the cycle unless a special "full-wave rectifier" has been included in the design.  Unfortunately, the packaging won't tell you anything about the design, so you have to take your chances.  Be sure to buy light sets at a store with a good return policy and save your receipt.

I hope this helps you in some way!

What Do You Want For Your Birthday?

Another birthday came and went recently.   This was the big "Five-Oh," so I thought I'd commemorate it with a blog post.  This, like all the others before it, came with another round of answering "What do you want for your birthday?"

The answer was easy to fulfill when I was a boy.  In fact, my birthday list was decided for me -- all I wanted was whatever the toy marketing folks wanted to sell.  It was just a matter of shopping and money to fulfill it.  Nevertheless, I still got underwear and the things I needed, much to my disappointment.  How ungrateful I was!

That changed after I started my own family.  Now my birthday list reads....

• A happy and healthy family, including all the pets.
• Money, just enough to live by and to donate, not so much that I become much more of an asshole than I already am.
• Green traffic lights, or none at all.
• Magical sunrises and gloriously fiery sunsets.
• The continued ability to see humor and beauty in every situation.
• A world in which people love one another for who they are and not what they can do.
• Underwear.

For the most part, I already have it all.  And underwear just requires a short trip to Walmart.

Happy birthday to you, whoever you are & whenever it is!

False Advertising from the Cyber Mall

Earlier this week, on Tuesday in fact, two online retailers sent me special offers, which they later rescinded.

The e-mail from iHerb announced a "Complimentary $20 Credit."  All I had to do was shop as usual and the $20 would be deducted at checkout.  But just three hours later, I received another e-mail from them with the subject, "Please disregard last message and save 10% on your next order."  How dare they!

The other retailer was Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS).  Their e-mail offered 15% off all full price items as a thank you for joining their rewards program.  This was puzzling to me because I already received and took advantage of an identical offer in September.  Sure enough, later that day, EMS sent a second e-mail with the subject, "Our Mistake is Your Holiday Bonus" that apologized for any confusion the first e-mail might've caused.  It offered me 15% off all full price items.  Well, at least EMS was decent enough to replace the erroneous e-mail offer with an equivalent offer.

Who knows how many more screw up offers I've been sent?  EMS and iHerb sell products that my family and I always need.  At EMS I scope out outdoor gear, hiking socks, gadgets, while iHerb stocks tea, supplements and some grocery items.  So I paid attention to those e-mail offers.  Yet I routinely ignore many other retailers' offers.

How are you faring at the Cyber Mall?  Are you getting false advertisements from your favorite retailers?

Fifty is the New Twenty

Yes, the title is "Fifty is the New Twenty," but this isn't about age.  It's about money, as in $50 is the new $20.

The ATM I use offers both $10 bills and $20 bills.  It will let you withdraw just $10 if you needed to buy just a couple of cheap greeting cards and a box of mints at the drug store.  But if you want to buy just 3/4 of a tank of gas, you'll want at least $50.

So why does this particular bank still offer tens and twenties when twenties and fifties would be more appropriate for today's cost of living?  And why is the limit on total withdrawal somewhere under $400 when you can spend $350 just at the grocery store?  And why am I asking you this?

An ATM stuffed with $20 and $50 dollar bills would impose a minimum withdrawal of $50, but it would still allow for ten-dollar increments.

Of course this would require paying programmers to update the ATM software.  What incentive would a bank have to do this?  Maybe the bank could demonstrate that it's a forward-thinking, quick-on-its-feet, innovative institution.

Legitimate Credit Monitoring Offer or ...?

Breaches in consumer account data are prevalent. Unless you're a child or live on the street and use only cash for everything, you probably received a notice from a lien holder that its data was broken into. Your notice might include a free offer of credit monitoring. All you have to do to accept this free offer is to navigate to a website and enter every last bit of personal information you have.

"Yeah right," you think to yourself, or you should.

Certainly I knew that Countrywide bank, with whom I had a mortgage, had data stolen several months ago. But how could I ascertain whether the offer of free credit monitoring was just another scam, a bit of clever social engineering? I called the phone number, which was answered by a pleasant-sounding female voice recording. She identified ConsumerInfo as an Experian company. But anyone could take out a toll-free number and find a pleasant-sounding female to record.

I decided to go directly to the Experian website instead. I was familiar with them, since I occasionally get a free credit report from them every three months or so. I searched the site and found this reassuring FAQ result¹:

Dear Experian,

I received a letter about an incident with an archive tape being lost with critical data. The letter offers a free subscription to Triple Alert. The site does ask for a Social Security number, birth date, etc. The letter provides a number to verify the issue, but how can I verify it separate from the letter?

- BAR

Dear BAR,

-snip-

Your question is a very good one. Here are a few tips for verifying the information for contacting Experian is legitimate:

* Look closely at the Web address provided in your notification letter. Experian owns and operates several different Web sites that provide consumers with credit monitoring products. The following Web addresses are legitimate Experian Web sites:
o partner.consumerinfo.com
o partner.experiandirect.com

Please note that there may be other information after the “.com” part of the address. This other information also is legitimate and is no cause for concern.

And so I signed up for the service rather than let the offer lapse as I've done two other times.

Perhaps this will help you figure out whether to accept your offers.

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¹ http://www.experian.com/ask-experian/20080709-ensuring-security-breach-notices-are-legitimate.html