There are some simple ways to save energy, without too much extra effort.
Powering off power strips, seldom used appliances, and turning off computers when not in use are all easy savings. When I was a teenager, I liked to leave my computer on at night while it was downloading stuff. I justified this by turning off the monitor, which was a CRT (old big one) and used a bunch of power! I no longer leave my computer on at night, and I have gotten in the habit of using the shut down function that entirely powers down the computer. I did a little research, and the sleep function (the one that lets your computer boot up quickly from where you left off) continues to drain power the entire time it is in that mode.
I have our entertainment center stuff wired into power strips. This makes it very easy to take an extra second when we are done using it to flip the power button to off. This prevents the constant drain that many electronic devices exert on your electricity. This was a painless change to make, and now is very easy to remember to do. It saves money, and is good for the environment too!
The wife and I picked up two packs of CFLs (compact flourescent lightbulbs) for two dollars and replaced some of the bulbs with those. They really do draw quite a bit less power than regular light bulbs.
We try to limit the use of air conditioning on those days when you could just open windows and be comfortable. We don't hesitate to use it when we want either. In San Diego's mild winter, we try to refrain from using the heater when we could put on more clothes and be just as comfortable, which is easy in this climate compared to others.
We have some gadgets around the house that use batteries, and decided to purchase rechargables. We now have a small collection of Eneloop batteries by Sanyo and we have had great success with them so far. The start up cost is definitely more than buying non rechargeables, but we no longer buy batteries. We bought our initial package at Costco, which comes with a charger, and have added to the collection as we see the need. I no longer pile my way through a pack of batteries when playing Xbox, and our remotes no longer eat batteries for three meals a day!
The wife enjoys candles around the house, and she mentioned she we save energy from using candles instead of Febreze/Renuzit/Etc. plug ins that would constantly drain power.
Through the use of these power saving/money saving ideas, we have reduced our monthly energy bill by almost thirty three percent! Try some of these, and see how much you save.
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
My asset allocation
Here is my asset allocation for both my Roth IRA, and for my 401k.
401k
Total Return Bond 7.98%
Treasury Inflat Protected 13.24%
S&P 500 Index 34.30%Small & Mid Cap Index 30.76%
Intl Index 13.72%
Roth
Individual Stocks 40.7%
Mutual Funds (non index) 21%
Money Market 38.3%
Today I am rebalancing (which means sticking to your set investment goals in percentages of what you invest in) and adding to my bond holdings in my Roth.
I intend to use the money market cash to invest in a bond index fund.
I plan on reducing my individual stock exposure incrementally, as many of those are stocks I experimented with when I started my first Roth a few years back. As I shift out of the individual stocks, I intend to add to my Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, which are intended to return more if inflation increases.
I also intend to rebalance some of the small and mid cap index, as that has grown to be a larger part of my allocation than originally intended.
My goals for allocation are:
Individual stocks <5%
Bonds/TIPS 35%
S&P Index 40%
Intl Index 10%
Small/Mid Index 10%
Ultimately, my goals is to be entirely invested in low cost index funds.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Time of savings is important!
When thinking about investing, many people think that returns are the most important number involved. The thought process goes that if you save a little, but get a huge return on that money, you will be set. Unfortunately, while it is popular to expect a huge return, this unfounded optimism can lead you down a road with a less favorable result. The solution to this, while a simple one, may not be the most popular.
If you dedicate more of your income to savings, over a long period of time you will have a good outcome even with a lower return. This should be apparent with any compound interest calculator, as the amount put in as time goes on usually goes up. Many individuals are of the mindset that "I will start saving in ten years, when I have a family." "Ten years won't even make a difference, I've got more important things to do with my money." Obviously these statements vary from person to person, as does the time period, but the point of this is clear. If you start saving earlier, you will come out ahead. I have illustrated this in previous posts, but the concept of "lost opportunity cost" is a good one to mention again.
If you started a Roth IRA when you got your first job at sixteen (I wish!) and contributed $5,000 per year until you retired at age 65, you would end up with around 1.5 million dollars, at a rate of return of 6%. This example is meant to highlight the importance of starting early, but would hard to start at that amount, especially at sixteen. Here's an idea if you ever have the chance to pass this on, I offered to match my wife's little brother's Roth contributions when he gets his first job. He's not old enough yet, but his eyes still lit up!
Now if we bump the start age up to 26 and use the same numbers, minus the extra 10 years of compounding, we get a much different number. The power is in the extra years to compound, as you end up with $817,000 or so without the extra 10 years.
If you started earlier, even though it would have been difficult to do, you would have ended up with almost double the money.
This is obviously not what most people want to hear, and also where many people (including myself before I started learning more) go wrong! It is far easier to save a bit more money and get the market return through index funds instead of chasing returns in individual stocks or actively managed mutual funds. In fact, if you stop chasing returns and just stick to a basic plan for your investments, you will be much less stressed out too!
If you dedicate more of your income to savings, over a long period of time you will have a good outcome even with a lower return. This should be apparent with any compound interest calculator, as the amount put in as time goes on usually goes up. Many individuals are of the mindset that "I will start saving in ten years, when I have a family." "Ten years won't even make a difference, I've got more important things to do with my money." Obviously these statements vary from person to person, as does the time period, but the point of this is clear. If you start saving earlier, you will come out ahead. I have illustrated this in previous posts, but the concept of "lost opportunity cost" is a good one to mention again.
If you started a Roth IRA when you got your first job at sixteen (I wish!) and contributed $5,000 per year until you retired at age 65, you would end up with around 1.5 million dollars, at a rate of return of 6%. This example is meant to highlight the importance of starting early, but would hard to start at that amount, especially at sixteen. Here's an idea if you ever have the chance to pass this on, I offered to match my wife's little brother's Roth contributions when he gets his first job. He's not old enough yet, but his eyes still lit up!
Now if we bump the start age up to 26 and use the same numbers, minus the extra 10 years of compounding, we get a much different number. The power is in the extra years to compound, as you end up with $817,000 or so without the extra 10 years.
If you started earlier, even though it would have been difficult to do, you would have ended up with almost double the money.
This is obviously not what most people want to hear, and also where many people (including myself before I started learning more) go wrong! It is far easier to save a bit more money and get the market return through index funds instead of chasing returns in individual stocks or actively managed mutual funds. In fact, if you stop chasing returns and just stick to a basic plan for your investments, you will be much less stressed out too!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Disposable Razors
Like many people in America, I use a disposable razor of some sort. I used to buy packs of cartridges for my Mach 3 Gillette razor at Costco without even a thought. Then I added up how much those were costing me per year. I used to change my blade more or less once a week, which was when the blade starting feeling dull. At Costco, I remember the 16 pack of blades being around $30, which works out to around $1.88/blade. Like everything, I'm sure these have gone up in price, but I have not purchased any in some time. Let's say I could not make it to Costco, so I decided to grab some at the drug store/grocery store while I was there. At CVS.com the price for an eight pack of refill cartridges is $19.29 which is a little more than 50 cents per blade. No big deal with everything else going on in life, but I figured it was worth another look.
I started reading some anecdotal posts on answers.yahoo.com about a way to make your blades last longer. I also learned a bit more about how much shaving cost have increased since the introduction of cartridge based razors like Mach 3, Fusion, Quattro, etc. I started realizing I could save some cash, and also not have to go to the store as much. I figured this was worth a shot, as some individuals were reporting using one blade for 6 months!
I was very, very skeptical, but figured I could save some money if it actually did work.
The basic idea is changing a few habits when you shave. When I used to shave, I would finish shaving and then put the razor pack in the swanky little Mach 3 tray without a second thought. This new idea involved tapping the razor a few times to get excess water off, and then taking another second to dry it off with a towel.
Many of you probably already do this, but I never got the memo.
There was one more part of this "new" method to try, and that was to put a drop of mineral oil (plain ol' baby oil) on the blade, and gently spread it over the blade surfaces. The thought behind both of these seems like common sense now that I have been doing it for a while. Another method is taking a tube of lip balm and using it only for this purpose (put it somewhere you won't try to use it, and/or label it or something) and this works pretty well, and is a quicker way. The baby oil, and the oils in the lip balm protect the blade from corrosion. The oils rinse off under hot or warm water, and are no different than the moisturizers in the indicator strip/shaving cream in that respect. It sounds funky, and does take a bit to get used to, but you may find you don't mind the extra ten seconds of effort.
Companies that sell razors make more money the more you change your blade. They even put indicator strips on them to remind you that your blade is "going bad". Well after using the methods above, I have not had to change my blade nearly as much. The indicator strip practically screams "change me!" but the razor still works like a charm! It turns out that a razor blades enemy is corrosion, the type of corrosion caused by leaving it wet. A razor blade does not become dull after a week of shaving human hair, as the razor companies would probably like you to believe by their marketing.
Armed with this new method, I did some quick math and realized I'm saving right around $100 this year just from taking an extra ten seconds to take care of my razor blades. I did the math, and ten seconds/day for an entire year is around sixty minutes, or an hour. With this method, you could make yourself $100 for an hour of "work". That's a pretty sweet rate of pay, even if it's not a huge amount, but I'd pick $100 up off the ground if I saw it in front of me!
More information on the evolution and commercialization of shaving from wikipedia.
I started reading some anecdotal posts on answers.yahoo.com about a way to make your blades last longer. I also learned a bit more about how much shaving cost have increased since the introduction of cartridge based razors like Mach 3, Fusion, Quattro, etc. I started realizing I could save some cash, and also not have to go to the store as much. I figured this was worth a shot, as some individuals were reporting using one blade for 6 months!
I was very, very skeptical, but figured I could save some money if it actually did work.
The basic idea is changing a few habits when you shave. When I used to shave, I would finish shaving and then put the razor pack in the swanky little Mach 3 tray without a second thought. This new idea involved tapping the razor a few times to get excess water off, and then taking another second to dry it off with a towel.
Many of you probably already do this, but I never got the memo.
There was one more part of this "new" method to try, and that was to put a drop of mineral oil (plain ol' baby oil) on the blade, and gently spread it over the blade surfaces. The thought behind both of these seems like common sense now that I have been doing it for a while. Another method is taking a tube of lip balm and using it only for this purpose (put it somewhere you won't try to use it, and/or label it or something) and this works pretty well, and is a quicker way. The baby oil, and the oils in the lip balm protect the blade from corrosion. The oils rinse off under hot or warm water, and are no different than the moisturizers in the indicator strip/shaving cream in that respect. It sounds funky, and does take a bit to get used to, but you may find you don't mind the extra ten seconds of effort.
Companies that sell razors make more money the more you change your blade. They even put indicator strips on them to remind you that your blade is "going bad". Well after using the methods above, I have not had to change my blade nearly as much. The indicator strip practically screams "change me!" but the razor still works like a charm! It turns out that a razor blades enemy is corrosion, the type of corrosion caused by leaving it wet. A razor blade does not become dull after a week of shaving human hair, as the razor companies would probably like you to believe by their marketing.
Armed with this new method, I did some quick math and realized I'm saving right around $100 this year just from taking an extra ten seconds to take care of my razor blades. I did the math, and ten seconds/day for an entire year is around sixty minutes, or an hour. With this method, you could make yourself $100 for an hour of "work". That's a pretty sweet rate of pay, even if it's not a huge amount, but I'd pick $100 up off the ground if I saw it in front of me!
More information on the evolution and commercialization of shaving from wikipedia.
Futurethinkdollars.com!
At the advice of a friend of mine, I purchased the internet address for Futurethinkdollars.com
You can now access the site in either fashion, by http://futurethinkdollars.blogspot.com/ or the shorter address.
Hopefully this will be easier to remember, and that way more people will check out the blog!
You can now access the site in either fashion, by http://futurethinkdollars.blogspot.com/ or the shorter address.
Hopefully this will be easier to remember, and that way more people will check out the blog!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Save big $$$ on Audio/Visual/Computer cables
If you walk into any retail electronics store to buy any type of cable, I can almost guarantee you are paying too much.
If you go to bestbuy.com, and search for any cable needs, and then compare the price to monoprice.com or eforcity.com, Best Buy loses the overwhelming percentage of the time.
I have personally used monoprice.com many times, and even recommend it by word of mouth to everyone I know when they mention needing any cable type item.
I have saved quite a bit of money by using these sites since 2006 for my personal use, and for friends and family. The difference has been quite dramatic in my experience $80 vs $5 even w/ shipping has been a common comparison.
I'm sure some of you are already aware of the huge retail markup on many cables, chargers, and adaptors. For those of you who habitually walked into Best Buy and bought your items, maybe you will like the other options.
Spending an extra $75 dollars on a brand name cable for a digital signal (like HDMI) is a big waste of money.
Put that in your Roth IRA instead!
If you go to bestbuy.com, and search for any cable needs, and then compare the price to monoprice.com or eforcity.com, Best Buy loses the overwhelming percentage of the time.
I have personally used monoprice.com many times, and even recommend it by word of mouth to everyone I know when they mention needing any cable type item.
I have saved quite a bit of money by using these sites since 2006 for my personal use, and for friends and family. The difference has been quite dramatic in my experience $80 vs $5 even w/ shipping has been a common comparison.
I'm sure some of you are already aware of the huge retail markup on many cables, chargers, and adaptors. For those of you who habitually walked into Best Buy and bought your items, maybe you will like the other options.
Spending an extra $75 dollars on a brand name cable for a digital signal (like HDMI) is a big waste of money.
Put that in your Roth IRA instead!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Risk profile.
A term you may or may not be familiar with is risk profile. This is based on a term called risk tolerance, which is a "more specific measure of the degree of uncertainty that an investor is willing to accept in respect of negative changes to its business or assets".
In short, this term means "how much money am I willing to lose before it really freaking bothers me!", and it should be considered before embarking on any investment.
Amassing any sort of "war chest" or savings is a very difficult goal, but one that is incredibly necessary for your financial health. If you are already saving, how much are you willing to lose? The answer I usually respond with is, "I don't want to lose anything! Duh!"
Oh, if it were that easy, then this blog post would not need to exist.
But it's not that easy, and people lose gobs of money everyday in the stock market. If you abhor/hate the idea of losing money on your investments, which by common wisdom are supposed to make you money, then stay with me for another minute.
Perhaps you are taking too much risk in your investments. If you had anything in stocks last year that was not "short", or betting against the market, then you probably had a relatively horrible year compared with some recent years of investing. If this bothered you in the least, I have an easy solution.
Take less risk. These three powerful words are unpopular ones to people who are chasing returns, but there is an easier way than chasing returns. It is easy to tout your respective stocks/mutual fund returns when the times are good, but it takes a lot to admit when you did not do so swell on your investments. I have no qualms about others learning from my mistakes, and I "lost" quite a percentage last year on my investments. This is in large part due to my love for stocks, and general disdain for bonds.
Let's just say this has changed. I was neglecting bonds previously, as I figured I had been doing pretty well with stocks the last five years.
What about you? Do you have any holdings besides stocks/mutual funds? If you do not, why? It may be worth it to you to check out this free "risk profile" from Finametrica. The only required information is an email address, I just used my initials for my first and last name.
My score was 70, what is yours?
In short, this term means "how much money am I willing to lose before it really freaking bothers me!", and it should be considered before embarking on any investment.
Amassing any sort of "war chest" or savings is a very difficult goal, but one that is incredibly necessary for your financial health. If you are already saving, how much are you willing to lose? The answer I usually respond with is, "I don't want to lose anything! Duh!"
Oh, if it were that easy, then this blog post would not need to exist.
But it's not that easy, and people lose gobs of money everyday in the stock market. If you abhor/hate the idea of losing money on your investments, which by common wisdom are supposed to make you money, then stay with me for another minute.
Perhaps you are taking too much risk in your investments. If you had anything in stocks last year that was not "short", or betting against the market, then you probably had a relatively horrible year compared with some recent years of investing. If this bothered you in the least, I have an easy solution.
Take less risk. These three powerful words are unpopular ones to people who are chasing returns, but there is an easier way than chasing returns. It is easy to tout your respective stocks/mutual fund returns when the times are good, but it takes a lot to admit when you did not do so swell on your investments. I have no qualms about others learning from my mistakes, and I "lost" quite a percentage last year on my investments. This is in large part due to my love for stocks, and general disdain for bonds.
Let's just say this has changed. I was neglecting bonds previously, as I figured I had been doing pretty well with stocks the last five years.
What about you? Do you have any holdings besides stocks/mutual funds? If you do not, why? It may be worth it to you to check out this free "risk profile" from Finametrica. The only required information is an email address, I just used my initials for my first and last name.
My score was 70, what is yours?
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