Recently in Life Stories Category

No matter how much or how little money you make each year, the date you'll be able to retire depends on only one number: the percentage of your take-home pay that you save. It's obvious, but the more you save now the less you're spending. Lower lifestyle expenses means that the amount you save will last you longer in your retirement. Mr. Money Mustache has a handy chart to help you calculate how many years you'll have to work based on your savings rate.

The key insight is worth repeating: frugality now gets you double benefits. If you spend less now you will save more now, and your cost of living will be lower when you retire because you'll be used to frugal living. Here's the chart:

MMM saved 65% of his take-home pay and retired in around 10 years. I'm not doing that well, but looking at this chart sure inspires me to save more.

I want to paperless. No more filing paper, no more storing paper, no more paper cluttering my desk, no more paper anywhere! (Except the bathroom.) Just imagine.

Have any of you done this?

Ah, that was a nice break, but now we're back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

2012 was an amazing year... definitely one of the best of my life. It's hard to see how 2013 can possibly be as good, but I've got a new baby due in just a few months so things are looking good!

I hope you all had a great holiday season.

I just voted in suburban St. Charles, M (definitely a Republican stronghold). The line was longish, but I spent more time checking and re-checking my ballot than waiting. Someone needs to re-allocate the "line up by first letter of your last name" system... of the three lines, "P-Z" contained about 80% of the voters.

I just got a haircut over lunch and my brain decided to merge the experience with the stone age tools I saw while on my honeymoon in Ireland! The result: stone age haircut! I want to carve a stone knife and see what kind of hair style can be made with it.

John Tierney says that Advanced Placement classes and tests are a scam. These paragraphs stand out to me because they reflect my experience:

AP courses are not, in fact, remotely equivalent to the college-level courses they are said to approximate. Before teaching in a high school, I taught for almost 25 years at the college level, and almost every one of those years my responsibilities included some equivalent of an introductory American government course. The high-school AP course didn't begin to hold a candle to any of my college courses. My colleagues said the same was true in their subjects.

The traditional monetary argument for AP courses -- that they can enable an ambitious and hardworking student to avoid a semester or even a year of college tuition through the early accumulation of credits -- often no longer holds. Increasingly, students don't receive college credit for high scores on AP courses; they simply are allowed to opt out of the introductory sequence in a major. And more and more students say that's a bad idea, and that they're better off taking their department's courses.

I took eight AP courses in high school (if I'm remembering right) and passed all my AP tests. In 1995 I did receive credit for those courses at UCLA as well as being allowed to skip many introductory classes. Because of my AP chemistry test score I didn't have to take any chemistry classes at UCLA, even though I was an engineering student. (I was excited at the time, but now I regret missing exposure to college chemistry.)

At least two of these AP classes were harmful to me: Calculus AB and Calculus BC. Because I aced these AP tests I received credit for two introductory quarters of calculus and was skipped straight to the third calc class of the series. I struggled to make sense of the course content and was relieved to pass the class with a C-. The two AP calculus classes I had passed had left me completely unprepared for the material. I also received a C grade on my next math class before I figured out that I wasn't stupid, I was just way behind the other students. It took a lot of studying and make-up work for me to bring my grades and my comprehension up to an acceptable level.

Those were the only C grades I ever received in college, and I blame them on the Advanced Placement classes.

When I get grumpy it's this.

While my wife was having surgery my daughter and I spent the morning scouring nearby Targets for the My Little Pony Royal Ball at Canterlot Castle Set. Each successive Target swore that the one they were sending us to would have the toy in stock, and the third one finally did! After surgery I went to pick up my wife's prescriptions at... yes... a fourth Target. I'm sure this is some sort of world record.

My daughter loves the toy, but unfortunately she will probably outgrow them before she is obedient for enough days in a row to be allowed to open it.

Just got married over the weekend! Yay! What an awesome time with family and friends. I'll probably post a picture once I decide which one I like best.

And of course the blog decides to stop publishing properly just when I don't have time to fix it. Argh! Everything should be working again now. Sorry for the interruption.

Not enough blogging here for you recently? I blame SWTOR and a severe case of tonsillitis. Unfortunately the latter encouraged the former. But alas, I'm recovering now.

I'm training for the Rock 'n' Roll half-marathon and everything is going pretty well. I've been doing my weekly long runs, and 10 miles was a snap. Last week, though, my 11-mile run was hellish. Blah! What did I learn?

1. If I'm going to do a long run in the evening I shouldn't stand on my feet all day. At work I use a standing desk, but I should sit down as much as possible to prepare for my run, otherwise my feet really hurt.

2. Rest the day before. When I did 10 miles I hadn't run the day before, but when I did 11 miles I had run five miles on each of the previous two days.

I'm going a shorter long run tomorrow -- probably nine miles -- so I'm going to work from home to make sure my body is fresh.

I've driven my Barcelona Red RAV4 V6 4x4 more than 2000 miles since I received it, so it's time for a review! Here are RAV4 specs, but note that mine is the Base model and not the Limited, so it was a lot cheaper, has fewer gizmos, but has basically identical performance.

I'm not an experienced car reviewer -- these are just my impressions as a new RAV4 owner. My previous car was a 2000 Honda Civic EX, so keep that in mind.

Performance

The V6 is extremely fun to drive! Love it. When you hit the gas, the RAV4 leaps forward. There's plenty of power for passing even at high speeds, and you can get it over 90 MPH without even trying. Be careful!

The RAV4 handles well and corners tightly. Its turning radius isn't much worse than my Civic. The ride feels solid, and there are no vibrations or rattles of any kind. Even at high speed there is little road noise.

Interior

I like the interior, and it was very comfortable as both passenger and driver for a 1000-mile road trip. The controls are all intuitive. The front seats are comfortable and roomy. The back seat was huge for my two-year-old daughter in her car seat. I also had a chance to carry two adults in the back along with the car seat and they said that there was plenty of room.

The cargo area is gigantic. I recently had to buy a new dishwasher and it was easy to fit. If I had folded the back seats down I could have carried two dishwashers without any trouble. For the road trip, it was easy to carry suitcases for two adults and a child, along with a large stroller, a pack-and-play, and various other gear. It would be easy to fit luggage for five adults in the back without ever touching the roof rack.

Exterior

Barcelona Red looks awesome, in my humble opinion. It wasn't my first color choice, but now I'm very glad I got it.

After the 1000-mile road trip there aren't any noticeable dings or dents in the hood or front area. There were a zillion bugs, but they cleaned off easily.

I have noticed that the rear end of the RAV4 gets much dirtier than the rest of the vehicle, probably because the flat surface creates some sort of dust vortex. When I got home from my trip, the front of the car was covered with bugs and the back of the car was covered with dirt.

Safety and Reliability

No problems at all, which shouldn't be a surprise for a new car.

Mileage

I'm getting about 19.5 MPG during my daily commuting, which is a 50/50 mix of streets and highway. I could do better if I drove like a granny.

For the road trip, which was mostly highway driving, I got about 26 MPG and drove 80 MPH most of the time.

While experimenting, I was able to achieve a best of 33 MPG at 58 MPH, but who wants to drive that slow? You can also get similar mileage at around 40 MPH if you can keep the transmission in its top gear.

Note: The trip computer's reported mileage is consistently about 1.5 MPG higher than what I calculate with the odometer and gas station receipts.

Overall

I love my RAV4! When I drive it I feel like a superhero. I love the way it handles, I love the cargo space, and I love the comfort. I highly recommend the vehicle to anyone considering a small SUV.

Just bought a OBi100 VoIP Telephone Adapter and Voice Service Bridge for under $45, and it's supposed to work with Google Voice to give you VOIP with no monthly fees. I'll report back once I cancel Vonage.

Is the global economic system poised for collapse? Are interest rates and inflation about to annihilate your income and savings? Less dramatically, are new fuel-efficiency standards going to reshape the American vehicle fleet?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) intend to announce the new regulations by the end of September, and the four scenarios currently being discussed range from yearly increases in mandated fuel economy of between 3 and 6 percent. This past weekend, the government told automakers that it is leaning towards a 5 percent increase, which would mean 56 miles per gallon by 2025. But the feds could choose to be even more aggressive; the 6 percent increase translates to a fuel economy standard of 62 mpg.

According to a new study issued by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), adopting the most stringent fuel economy standard of 62 mpg by 2025 could increase the price of a car by $9790 and cause the loss of 1.7 million jobs. CAR says that the only way to meet such a standard would be to have 64 percent of the U.S. fleet be plug-in electric hybrids (like the Chevy Volt), the most expensive technology. According to the study, today's low-hanging fruit--less expensive high-efficiency gasoline engines and conventional hybrids--would not be sufficient to meet the standard, and the range limits of pure-electric vehicles prevented their inclusion. "There's no other distribution of vehicles that would be practical in the market," CAR president Jay Baron says.

If any of those scenarios seem plausible to you, then you should be borrowing money to buy a new-ish reliable gasoline vehicle. That's what I'm doing.

Update June 17th, 2011! The Bank returned my $375! Yay!

I need to refinance my house and began working with Southern Missouri Bank at the beginning of April. As a part of the process they had my house appraised. Over the next two weeks I sent them a ton of paperwork and acted in complete good faith, but nothing moved forward on my refi because of delays with one of their "investors".

April passed.

May passed.

At the very end of May the representative working with me said that it would take another three to four weeks to satisfy the "investor". The representative told me that if I needed to move faster I should consider going with another lender, and I agreed. A house refinance shouldn't take three months to process.

At the beginning of June I received a receipt for $375 from David Lurvey, a vice president at SoMoBank, charging my credit card for the appraisal from the beginning of April. I emailed the refi representative and David Lurvey asking about the charge and was told that since I "chose" not to refinance with them I had to pay for the appraisal.

I wrote back and included Ben Morgan, the president of SoMoBank. I told them that the reason I didn't stay with them is because they were dragging their feet and not processing my refinance in a timely manner. Their problems with their "investor" were not my fault, and it was the representative herself who suggested that I try working with someone else. I got no response, to that or any other attempts I've made to contact the decision-makers at Southern Missouri Bank.

The purpose of this blog post is to name and shame David Lurvey and Ben Morgan of Southern Missouri Bank, the two men who screwed me out of $375. I worked with them in good faith, and they not only took my money but are also so arrogant that they won't even respond to my emails.

Don't trust David Lurvey, Ben Morgan, or Southern Missouri Bank.

Update June 17th, 2011! The Bank returned my $375! Yay!

To say that 2010 hasn't been the best year of my life would be an understatement. It's hard not to get introretrospective during the holiday season, but I'm glad that Christmas comes before New Year. Every life has setbacks and the occasional soul-crushing disappointment, but these difficulties do not define me or hold me prisoner. God's grace and provision are sufficient for me.

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

Conversation at the airport this morning:

TSA Guy: Stop! You need a boarding pass to go through.

Me: I don't think we do. We fly all the time.

TSA Guy: Ok, go ahead.

So I've finally jumped on the console bandwagon and ordered an Xbox 360 from Amazon, mostly for the downloadable content and streaming video. I recently bought an HDTV, so I need some way to take advantage of it. Here's the plan.

I've got Netflix already, so I'll be able to watch lots of streaming content on the Xbox via Netflix.

I'm getting PlayOn so I can watch internet video through my computer and the Xbox with that.

I've got an HD tuner USB dongle for my computer and some DVR software, so if I hook that up to my antenna I should be able to record over-the-air HD content to my computer and then view that through the Xbox.

If all this goes as planned, I'll be able to cancel my satellite service and all this will pay for itself in a year or so. Only possible hitch: I may need to upgrade my DSL service for more bandwidth.

Any suggestions?

My wife loves dogs so we've watched a lot of Cesar Millan, and one of our favorite episodes of South Park is the episode "Tsst", in which:

When Cartman's mom realizes she can't control her son anymore, she gets help from an expert. The "Dog Whisperer" may have what it takes but Eric Cartman's not going down without a fight.

And now, three years later, life imitates South Park.

It’s little wonder, then, that some parents, and even a few child therapists, have found themselves taking mental notes from a television personality known for inspiring discipline, order and devotion: Cesar Millan, otherwise known as the Dog Whisperer.

The suggestion that the Dog Whisperer is also a Child Whisperer of sorts has popped up — sometimes couched as a joke, but, well, not really — in parents’ forums like blogs, online discussion boards, magazines, Twitter feeds and podcasts. Some parents are starting to take notice.

“When we started watching his shows, we had intended to apply his advice toward our dogs,” said Amy Twomey, a blogger on parenthood for The Dallas Morning News who is raising three children under 10 with her husband, Matt. “But we realized a lot of ideas can be used on our kids.”

Yep! Our thoughts were on that same track way before we had an almost-one-year-old. Thanks to Cesar's techniques, Violet quickly learned not to touch the television or video equipment that's right at her head level in the living room.

(HT: James Taranto.)

My family goes to the Saint Louis Zoo about once a month and really enjoy it, so we were excited to go to Boo at the Zoo last night with some friends. The park was well-decorated, but we were all very disappointed with the distinct lack of animals. Most of the zoo was closed off with barriers, and the few animals in the open areas were all put away for the night. We spent almost two hours at the zoo and saw exactly two animals: a peacock wandering around, and a bear who was climbing a tree and then put away shortly after. The rest of the exhibits were either closed or vacant.