Listing Your Projects

I think it's pretty obvious from my writings that I'm a planner when it comes to life.  Everything doesn't need to be detailed out, but I like to be aware of what's coming down the road.  With that said, I often battle the same urges to procrastinate as anyone.  One of the best ways I've found to combat procrastination is to start with a list.  By seeing the projects named out before you, you will be more inclined to get started and finish your tasks.

With all that in mind, here are my projects for the year:

1.) Realign bricks around flower beds
2.) Re-paint stairs/hallway down to basement - this actually looks scary with dirty finger and hand-prints all over the place.
3.) Paint laundry room windows
4.) Paint side windows of garage
5.) Fix the outlets in the office and living room
6.) Start getting the house ready for babies - This one will be more work than I think I realize

Needless to say, I think these goals are pretty doable and will make things look rather nice around the old household.  If we apply the S.M.A.R.T. system to these goals we can make them more Specific (kind of already did this), Measurable (I can obviously know when they will be completed), Attainable (these are goals that can be done), Relevant (they make sense in my overall life goals), and Time-Bound (I want all these finished by the end of this year).

Now that I've seen these goals and have an action plan, actually completing them won't seem so hard.

What projects do you have for the year?

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Petting my cat while he rolls around in the grass.

Home Owner's Shenanigans Conclusion!

Finally, it's all over and I can continue with my life!  If you are not familiar with the slightly dramatic saga of my home owner's insurance policy, then feel free to read here and here.  Needless to say, it was quite a bit stressful and I finally got my act in gear to get everything taken care of.

If you recall from my earlier posts, I had a series of fixes that needed to occur on my property in order for my insurance company to renew me for another year.  Not wanting to have to go through with the burden of finding another insurance company again at the nice price I currently had, I decided that it would make sense to follow through with the fixes.  Besides just complying with the insurance company, the fixes seemed reasonable and were probably needed anyway.  Well, in my blunderous nature, I mistook the due date that these improvements had to be completely as the date that my insurance policy would be canceled.  I actually completed all these requests about a month ago and thought I had until July 1st to get the paperwork in.

Then I got the letter in the mail; "Your policy is being canceled for failure to comply".  Panicked, I called the insurance company, informed them of my situation, and was promptly told that I needed to mail in proof of these repairs ASAP.  At least this type of work is where I excel.  I took some pictures, copied receipts, and put together a 3 page PowerPoint detailing the repairs.  I then expedited the mailing and just received notice that the Insurance company has forgiven me and will renew my contract.

In all this hustle and bustle  I've learned two very important lessons; the first being to read a little more careful, and the second being to never underestimate the power of organization and human intervention. Believe it or not, there is usually a person behind every bill you pay, and it's worth it sometimes appealing to the human side of the company.  At least now, I can sit back and relax knowing that in case of fire, my financial life is not destroyed.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Got out of work 2 hours early!

Happy Mother's Day Plus Twins

Even though it's the day after Mother's Day, all you Mother's out there should get another greeting since you went through so much raising your children.  With that in mind, I have my own special news in that my Wife and I will be expecting our first children come December!  When I say, children, I found out a couple weeks ago that it is actually twins!  You can imagine my surprise.

As you can believe, I'm the planning type, and with this special news, it throws all my plans around like a brick in a dryer.  Needless to say, I think some of my skills will come in handy over the next 6-7 months.  Foremost, are my research skills; I've already started scoping out the best strollers, car seats, and so forth.  I feel that when the time comes, I'll know as much as possible on the subject.  Secondly, my planning will come in handy for financial means.  Two added mouths and all the stuff we will need to purchase will put a whole bunch of pressure on our wallet.  Luckily, we've got an emergency fund, and there is enough time for me to start saving for all this expense.

With all this in mind, we'll see how everything goes.

Wish me luck!

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Do I need anymore?

Traveling Where the Water Might Not Be Good

An example of a Grand Tour

If you are lucky enough to have been born in a country with clean, running water, then you already have a better life than at least half of the rest of the world.  My Wife is coming back tomorrow from a 16 day  medical mission trip in Southern Egypt.  Whereas, there are far worse places in the world, this trip has served a purpose of exposing her to how most of the people on the planet live.  Clean water is not guaranteed, so it can make life pretty hard at times.

Back when I was in college, I approached my guidance counselor about the chance to study abroad for a semester.  When she asked me where I wanted to go, I mentioned maybe England or Australia, because I lacked the foreign language skills.  She gave me one look and said "Absolutely not"!  I'll never forget how shocked I was at this statement.  I pressed the issue and she explained to me that a study abroad trip is a once in a lifetime experience, and you need to go somewhere were the water isn't clean to see how the other half live.  I'd have plenty of time in my life visit these other places, but I needed to be exposed to some harsh advice.

Well, she was not wrong, and I thank her for her stern advise.  Since one of my majors was European studies, I found a way to go to Southeast Europe.  The experience was eye-opening, and I would not trade it for anything.  I did come home with a new-found respect for all the things I had.

They used to have something like this back in the 1600-Late 1800's called the Grand Tour.  It served as a right of passage for a young man to experience the rest of Europe.  Well, in today's world, travel is easier, and there are many more places to see.  If you have the ability, I highly suggest you go somewhere were the water isn't always clean and take it all in.  You'll find that it does change you.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Only 1 more day until my Wife comes back!

Rolling With the Punches (Part 2)

On Wednesday, I posted this article which highlights one of my most recent failures with the hopes of portraying some helpful advice and wisdom in your own efforts to overcome the occasional failure.  We have all been there, and learning to deal with these when they come is an important life-skill.  There is one more financially related point I want to touch on while the topic is still fresh in my mind.

The importance of an emergency fund – By definition, an emergency fund is a liquid form of currency that is large enough to cover all of your living expenses for 6 months; the goal of this, being to help you survive a job loss or large unknown expense.  In the case of my large water bill, the shock to my finances was essentially a non-event.  Had I not have 6 months of reserves handy, I probably would have had to charge it to my credit card and suffered an extremely high interest rate. 

An emergency fund is not only important for your financial well-being, but it is essential for a better psychological being.  By having an emergency fund, you are essentially self-insuring your family against the unexpected life expenses traditional insurance doesn’t cover.  What if you need a new washer; a new roof; new car; or even worse, what if you have a large medical bill even after your insurance payment?  All these things should scare the heck out of you if you do not have an emergency fund. 

The lesson here should be pretty straight-forward, however it’s incredibly hard to have a semi-large amount of cash waiting on the sidelines while there are many potential things you could be doing with it.  Trust me though, in the long run, and the occasional financial hiccup, you will be much better off.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: After my Wife reset the thermostat, I woke up to a house at 57 degrees F.  It made me really appreciate waking up to a nice toasty home every other day.  Needless to say, I could only put up with that for one day.

Rolling With the Punches

It may surprise some of you who read this blog that I too am very fallible.  I preach about learning from your mistakes and being the best you can be, but do I really ever “walk the walk”.  Let me tell you a little story about a recent failure of mine involving my local water authority.

Last week, I opened up my mail like any other day and was shocked to find a $900 water bill.  It was a past due reminder and was made up of about $300-$400 in late fees.  You can imagine how shocked and pissed off I was that this happened.  I needed to talk to someone fast!

To give you a little background on the situation, I had moved into my house back in the fall of 2011.  This was the first house my Wife and I had ever owned.  Upon moving in, I called the water authority, had my water turned on, and asked for my name to be put on the billing.  I even paid $340 of late fees and bills from the previous owner as part of my mortgage closing agreement.  OK, everything was fine, and I was set to go.  Fast forward a year and I start getting worried about the water bill.  Now, I guess I should have known something was up 4 months after I didn’t get a bill, but I know some municipalities will bill once a year, so I just figured I was one of them.  So where did the bill go all this time.  Well, apparently, the water authority never switched the name on the account, and the post office was forwarding all the previous owner’s mail to their new home, so I never even received anything. 

Friday rolls around, and I call the authority and speak with a nice customer service rep who first says there’s nothing she can do about the bill.  I’m sure she gets people telling her that all the time, but I ask her to check where she was sending the bills in the past.  She looks, notices that it’s a different person, and says that her supervisor will call me back.  I wait until the afternoon, no supervisor yet, I call back, am reassured that I will be called that day, and then nothing.  So, I was stood up.  I call back on Monday, finally get ahold of the supervisor and am called a liar on the phone and was told “too bad, and I can assure you that we never make a mistake”.  Needless to say, it was a bad day.  Defeated and feeling pretty crappy, I caved and paid the bill: time to move on with my life.

It would be easy to look back on this whole experience and lament that something went wrong somewhere.  I should have been more proactive, the previous owner should have called after receiving all these water bills, the water authority should have determined who was now living there.  Everyone was to blame.  I’m not going to do that though, because I need to avoid subtractive reasoning.  What could I have done differently?  Even though I stubbornly argue that there was nothing for me to do, I believe this whole experience at minimum was a great exercise in patience and understanding. 

I made a mistake, got crapped on, learned from this ordeal, and am ready to put it in my rear view mirror.  I make mistakes just like everyone else, and I’m sure there are things in your own life holding you back.  It’s time to learn from those errors, and move on with your life.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Delicious, warm coffee in the morning.

T-Slim Review

I’ve mentioned it a few times on this blog in the past, but in case you don’t know, back in October of last year I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  Since then, I’ve gone through the gamut of emotions and all of it seemed very scary at first.  Luckily, with the help of my wife, family, and friends, I’ve come to accept my situation and learn to live with it the best way possible.

For the last few months, I’ve been treating my diabetes just like how each newly diagnosed person does, with multiple daily injections of insulin (sometimes 7 or more a day).  After a while this gets real old and becomes a chore and social stigma (or at least for me, it felt that way).  Fortunately for me, the last 20 years have seen great advances in diabetic medicine, and one such has been the creation of the insulin pump.  You can read more about the history of this invention here. 

I knew I wanted to go on an insulin pump since being diagnosed, but I didn’t know much about what was out there.  Like everything else I get involved in, I decided to do my research as to which one would be the “best” for my lifestyle.  Looking at all the options, I was slightly disappointed, as most of them looked like something invented in the 90’s.  And then I found Tandem and it’s Tslim….  Right off the bat, you will notice that this pump looks vastly different from its compatriots.  It’s sleek glass touchscreen and colorful digital display make the other pumps look like a Windows 95 version of insulin delivery devices.  Not wanting to buy something just for the look, I decided to do my own research.

I spoke with my medical group’s pharmacist, and she mentioned to me that I would be one of the first (I later found out I was the first) person in the area to purchase one of these pumps, so I was going into some new territory.  Reading some other reviews helped me calm my reservations, and I figured I would give the pump a shot since I had no prior experience with insulin pumps. 

A couple months went by, I received the pump in the mail (came in a nice shiny purple box), and was also trained by one of Tandem’s sales reps.  The rep flew out to my city and gave myself and the pharmacist a personal demonstration.  She also helped me learn how everything was supposed to work.  I had no problems and was immediately started on insulin.  I’ve been using the pump for over a month now, and here’s my review:

Pros:

The touchscreen is the most obvious feature of this device, and I enjoy that it looks like a modern phone.  When I’m out in public and pull it out, it looks like I’m texting someone so It’s not as obvious as some other pumps.  I learned that when they originally designed the Tslim, they had swiping technology, but were threatened with a lawsuit by Apple and thus had to stick with a simple button touchscreen. 

Insulin is mainly calculated and delivered via a digital calculator that lets you input your current blood glucose level and also helps you had up the total amount of carbs you currently are consuming.  A calculation occurs which takes into consideration these two factors along with how much insulin you have onboard (insulin currently in your body).  It then suggests a dose and you can decide if you want that amount.  Delivery can then be instant of extended based on the time period you designate.  I find this feature helpful when eating high fatty foods. 

Another nice feature is the quick bolus button at the top of the insulin pump.  You can actually have the pump in your pocket, hold down the button, hear a beep letting you know you are accessing the quick bolus options, press the button again and again which increases the amount of grams of carbs you are consuming, and then hold down the button one more time to deliver.  It’s a nice feature, but I don’t really use it since I check my sugar levels before each meal. 

The pump is also nice due to its size.  It easily fits in your pocket and finds enough room with your phone or wallet.  The pump is also able to hold 300 units of insulin so you can definitely hold what you need.  The pump also has the ability to hold multiple profiles of insulin delivery and you can set many different basal rates, so the amount of customization is unlimited.  The only thing holding you back from treating your sugar levels is you.

Finally, Tandem is a nice company to deal with and they even sent me another case of insulin cartridges when it was hypothesized that the previous batch wasn’t working too well.  They are constantly updating their technology and have a bunch of exciting developments in the pipeline.

Cons:

The first thing you’ll notice that’s a little annoying is the actual replacement of an insulin cartridge.  It’s a little different than other insulin pumps in which you have to replace the whole backing of the pump and inject insulin into the micro-delivery pouch.  If you don’t do this perfectly, you can mess things up and have to go through another cartridge.  I found that the first time I changed the cartridge, it was leaking out the injection site and I went through almost 300 units in a day. 

Secondly, the luer lock is outside of the pump and can be annoying for some.  The sales rep mentioned that the pump was designed this way to keep the size down, but it adds an additional 3 inches to your tubing length.  This could be annoying for some.

The touchscreen is only activated by you pushing a button sequence of 1, 2, 3, however the top “physical” button can be pushed in your pocket.  I found this happening to me frequently and it would start a quick bolus cycle.  I didn’t actually deliver insulin, but the pump would alarm and let me know that I did not finish my delivery and all insulin deliveries were stopped.  This became annoying, and I just turned off this feature.

Tandem recommends that you change the cartridge every 3 days, however someone like me who only uses 20-30 units of insulin per day total felt that this was a waste of insulin.  My alternatives would be to fill the cartridge partially or change my infusion set and not the cartridge.  I decided to go with the later option, and after day 4, the pump started giving me occlusion (or blockage) warnings, however some about 2 units of insulin were being delivered each time.  I know that the Tslim has some problems with Apidra insulin, but I was on Humalog, and didn’t think anything would cause occlusion warnings.  I actually did narrow it down to the pump itself by taking off the infusion set, and just letting the pump bolus.  It wouldn’t deliver more that 2-3 units.  Once I changed the cartridge, it wasn’t a problem anymore.  Even though I was using the pump outside the suggested tolerance levels, it was a little disappointing to know that this happened.

The biggest annoyance of all was the distributor Tandem uses to send me my supplies.  Better Living Now is the worst company I’ve ever dealt with and has caused me undue stress and anger.  It literally took my 1 month to receive my supplies, and they repeatedly get my information or order incorrect.  They have also lied to me multiple times on when a delivery was supposed to occur.  The only reason I am still with them is that they are dirt cheap.

Final Thoughts:

The Tslim is definitely a cool device that can even last for a while under water.   Tandem has software which should be approved by the FDA any day now called T-Connect, which allows you to download all the Tslim’s information to your computer.  You can even send this to your doctor or do whatever else you want with this data.  Some other pumps have the ability to wirelessly send delivery boluses through your blood glucose monitor, but the Tslim is not set up yet to do this.  The pump does have this ability when you use a Verio BGM, however the wireless feature is currently turned off on all pumps until they receive FDA approval for this too (I was told within the year). 

All told, Tandem is a newer company that has many things going for it.  That said, it is still working out the kinks, and things can still go wrong with your pump.  I would recommend this pump in a heartbeat, but you need to know what you are getting yourself into before you purchase one.  That said, I hope this humble review helped you out a little.  If you have further questions, please leave a comment.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Grateful for medical technology that keeps me alive and healthy.  100 years ago, I would have died.

5 Reasons I Climbed the Corporate Ladder

Wherever you are in your career, whether you are just starting out or a seasoned veteran, it’s important to examine the steps that got you to your position.  I like to think that my own career is going pretty well, and I can’t help but wonder what has made me different that some of my other colleagues who might have not fared so well.  I spent some time thinking about my own characteristics, and the many times I’ve had the chance to receive feedback from my managers (not always good by the way).  One thing I noticed is that I am not particularly smarter or more innovative then my fellow comrades, so what makes a career?  Below are my 5 characteristics which got me to where I am.

1.)    Learn as much as you can.

When I first started out in the banking field right out of college, I quickly realized that I knew practically nothing.  Sure, I could talk your head off about enlightenment philosophes, however the intricacies of a mortgage loan being funded were beyond me.  It was a humbling experience realizing that right off the bat, I didn’t have too much to offer.  I quickly determined that I need to start my working education as soon as possible.  To accomplish this, I started asking questions and volunteering on assignments that would extend my knowledge base.  I learned basic statistical coding, picked up a book on VBA coding, and tried to educate myself as much as possible.  Soon enough, I found that I could contribute in meetings and started making a name for myself.

2.)    Find ways to demonstrate your worth.

This concept links nicely with the previous one.  While you are trying to learn as much as possible, you are actually increasing your human capital and overall worth to your organization.  Once you start developing a knowledge base, you can now start volunteering on the assignments that your manager or other important figures find important.  The caveats to all this is to make sure you can actually complete the assignment, and make sure you do a good job.  Managers will not look on you favorably if you deliver a piece of crap. 

3.)    Become dependable.

Woody Allen once said “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”  It is the great white lie in American culture to take “sick days”.  It’s true that if you are really sick, you should not come to work and spread the disease, however I find it hard to believe that you are sick enough to not come into work 8 days a year.  I’m only really sick maybe once every other year or so, and it’s pretty much assumed that I will always be at work on time.  Dependability is one of the most valuable traits in the workforce.  In fact, managers will often prefer dependability over the risk of failure.  Consider a manager looking to hire in a position that would be a promotion to you.  That manager can either hire from outside the company and risk getting either someone better than you or possibly much worse, or they know for a fact you will do a good job.  They will almost always prefer you.  Make your reputation one of dependability and excellence.  If you can’t make it into work for whatever reason, figure out a way to work from home, or make it up by coming in on a weekend.

4.)    Be pro-social

People are often classified as varying shades of introvert and extrovert.  Whereas both of these characteristics have their place in the workforce, it is often beneficial to the employee if they have a “pro-social” attitude.  Talking with your coworkers about informal topics and generally being able to carry on a conversation are much more favored traits then sitting quietly at your desk.  Reach out and talk to someone!

5.)    Have a clear vision in mind.

You’re never going to get further in your career unless you have some sort of idea on where you want to go.  Easier said than done, right?  The best way to get an idea of where you want to go is to look at where other people work.  If someone has a job that sounds interesting to you, set a goal to reach that position.  By setting goals for yourself, you’ll get a better understanding on whether you are on track or not.

Like I said earlier, I was never a source of genius or some other form of brilliant ideas, but through dependability, and general good social behavior, I was able to climb the corporate ladder.  What traits make you up, and are they the ones management will look for?

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Reliving the Super Bowl commercials.

Happy 100th Blog Post and Book Review: Advancing Your Career

It’s hard to believe that I’ve already written 100 posts to this here little blog.  My first goal for this writing experiment was to reach 100, and I’m proud to say that I have not missed a date with varying degrees of writing quality.  So here’s to another 100!  It’s always important to set goals, and even more important to set goals you can actually achieve.

In honor of advancing this blog, I’ve recently read a book about advancing your career which I’d like to share with you all.  The Harvard Business Review’s: Advancing Your Career is a collage of assorted articles and writings from Harvard MBA professors and other intelligent experts.  Just to give you an idea about the types of material in this book, here is a list of the article titles:

1.)    How Will You Measure Your Life?

2.)    Turn the Job You Have into the Job You Want

3.)    How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career

4.)    Job-Hopping to the Top and Other Career Fallacies

5.)    Are You a High Potential?

6.)    Why You Didn’t Get That Promotion

7.)    Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women

8.)    Five Ways to Bungle a Job Change

9.)    The Right Way to Be Fired

10.) How to Protect Your Job in a Recession

11.) How Leaders Create and Use Networks

Right off the bat, you can see some pretty interesting and useful topics.  I’ll focus on two in particular and my own opinions.

How Will You Measure Your Life – It’s interesting that this book about advancing your career and improving your pay and job position starts out with a sobering look and reminder as to what should actually be important to you.  Author and Harvard Professor Clayton M. Christensen discuss his own personal experiences in this field and remind us that family is the most important part of life.  Secondary, it’s also important for a manager to understand that their job can be the “most noble of occupations” as only a manager can truly help someone achieve more with their career and life. 

This article was a nice sobering reminder of what management could be.  Despite the workforce confrontations, the stress of managing a team, and the overall problems a manager could face, it’s important to realize that you as a manager could have more of an impact to a subordinate then that person’s own family.  In my own experience, it’s a shame that more managers don’t know this.

Job-Hopping to the Top and Other Career Fallacies – Author Monika Hamori discusses four main fallacies in the workforce and how career-focused individuals routinely make the same errors.  Fallacy 1: Job Hoppers prosper.  Fallacy 2: A move should be a move up.  Fallacy 3: Big fish swim in big ponds.  Fallacy 4: Career and industry switchers are penalized. 

What I found most interesting in this article was Fallacy 1 and 2.  I’ve seen countless times the career-minded person switch to another job at a competitor only to sour their former relationship with their employer and hurt themselves in the long run.  This type of thinking is often hard to grasp, but keeping a long term perspective will help you in the future.  Secondly, a move doesn’t have to always be up.  If you’re thinking about making a career change, you may need to demote yourself in another industry in order to garner the experience necessary to pursue that enterprise.  While this is a humbling concept, it could be just what you need to pursue a life of fulfillment and happiness.

At 192 pages, this book was a pretty quick read, and offers some whole-hearted career advice that is pretty simple to understand.  My only caveat with reading this book is that it is more focused on the “already executive” type person.  Whereas this information is helpful wherever you are in your career, it is far more focused on those who are already in an executive type position.

Overall, this was a great read and a nice way to focus on your own career.

Wonderful Moment of the Day:  Training on my TSlim today.

Building Your Own PC

Two weekends ago, I had the chance to assemble my own PC, and boy was it an experience!  Through some stressful trials and tribulations, I was able to construct something better than I could have bought through most computer retail shops, and at a much reduced cost.  Also, while going through the process, I learned a bunch about myself and my own capabilities.

The build itself.

Over the course of about 3 weeks, I was slowly accumulating parts and pieces for my new PC.  I diligently researched the best prices, and whether the pieces would be compatible with one-another.  Throughout this process, two sites became my best friends: they were reddit.com/r/buildapc and pcpartpicker.  Both of these sites have a wealth of knowledge that will guide you through the process.

After waiting about three weeks for all my parts to come back in stock and finally ship out to my house, I was ready to build.  I made sure to watch a bunch of youtube videos on the subject and also read through my manuals which came with each piece.  Overall, the process seemed pretty straight-forward.

I easily assembled the necessary pieces and found myself at the part in which I had to connect all the wires.  I suddenly realized that nowhere in my research did I even look at how to do this and which one goes where.  Since motherboards and power supplies are so modular, they didn't even have any instructions, so I was left to figure it out for myself.  I made some key observations, and then started plugging in where I thought things might go.

After about an hour of plugging, it was time to turn on the PC and see if everything worked.  I anxiously flipped the switch and was welcomed with a screen that basically said nothing was plugged in.  Messing around with the SATA plugs for about another hour, and I was finally able to access the motherboard's BIOS which allowed me to start installing Windows and other programs.  

About 2 more hours of software installation later, and I was up and running.  

Here's a link to the actually parts I purchased.

Things I learned About Myself

Throughout this process, I learned a few things about myself that might have been vague beforehand.  

Goals are important - I spread the work out over 2 days.  Towards the end of the first day, nothing was really working, so I made a goal to at least find a way to access the BIOS.  I kept at it, and found my own resolve to successfully accomplish this task.  

Don't underestimate yourself - I was very nervous about assembling a PC in the first place.  I had never done it before, and I'm not that technically inclined (as is demonstrated by my amazing blog site).  I put my mind to it, and gave myself some credit.  Eventually, I figured my way through the process.  

Moral of the Story

This project was a great example of starting something that will extend your abilities, and then actually completing it.  It has been great for my overall morale and makes me feel like I really accomplished something.  Doing these types of projects every now and then will allow you to have a greater sense of well-being.  For your own projects, look around your house/apartment, and decide what needs to be done.  Then, figure out a game plan and don't stop until you've succeeded.  You may even learn more about yourself like I did.

Wonderful Moment of the Day - Getting to use a successfully working PC to write this post.

Save Some Money on your Cable Bill

We all have frustrations with the cable company.  In fact, back in June Yahoo Finance posted an article listing the top 15 most hated companies, and cable companies racked some of the top spots.  What make this so?  My own opinion is that consumers feel like they're trapped.  With municipalities contracting with certain cable providers, you almost experience a sudo sanctioned monopoly in your area.  What's a smart consumer like yourself supposed to do.  Well, I have one option that saved me a few bucks.

Before you even begin, you need to examine what you really need as far as cable.  Are you really watching the 500 channels you are subscribed to?  Do you just need local access?  Maybe a pair of bunny ears is a better investment?  Do you need cable TV at all?  For me, the last question is a no brainer.  My Wife and I hardly ever watch TV, and so we use bunny ears to get the local channels, and pay for a basic Internet plan.  Needless to say, my cable provider decided to pull a fast one on us a month ago by charging an arbitrary $5 fee per month for renting a modem.  We've had a modem for years, and now the company was just looking for a new source of revenue.  Well, here's what I did:

Cable Company: Good morning, how can I help you?
Me: Hi, I'd like to cancel my Internet subscription.  The price is too high?
Cable Company: OK, well let me just see if we have a promotion for you.

....a minute goes by....

Cable Company: Good news, you qualify for a $7/month discount on your subscription for the next year.
Me: Great, let's do that.  Have a great day!

There you have it.  I just saved an additional $84 in the next year.  It's not alot, but every little bit helps.  What's key in this discussion is that you say you will cancel your Internet.  If you say something like "I see one of your competitors has a lower rate", you probably won't get anywhere.  Cable companies know their competitor's rates, and can probably call your bluff.  If the cable operator starts going through the process of cancelling your subscription, just say no thank you, "I've changed my mind", and get off the phone.  Nothing will happen if you do this.

Hopefully, your experiences with your cable provider will be pleasant, and this article will bring you a little discount in the new year.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Cat loves new Cat Tower!

Build Your Own Cat Tower

Didn't realize how pudgy my cat was
getting until this picture!

My Wife and I have been throwing the idea around for awhile.  We wanted some cool cat tower, but didn't want to pay the premium prices you see at some of the big name pet stores.  Prices for a decent sized tower range anywhere from $50 for the most basic all the way up to $500 and beyond.  So, what's a good penny wise family to do but build one ourselves.

We started with a vague concept of a 3 tiered system that would be carpeted and have some scratch post abilities.  We also didn't want to spend more than $50.  So, it was off to Home Depot.  Here was how we did:

24' of Carpet = $15.21
2" wood screws = $7.98
Staples = $3.22
Junk Plywood = $1.01
Sisal rope = $27.90
Total Pretax = $55.32
Sales Tax = $4.84
Total = $60.16

Definitely spent more than we intended, but we did only use about half the wood screws, 1/10th of the staples, and also had a good 3' of carpet left over which conveniently became a new area rug in our entry-way.  Overall, it wasn't too bad of a deal, and hopefully our cat Ziggy will like the end result.  I think what messed us up the most in our budget process was the Sisal rope.  If we were able to find a cheaper bulk option for cheaper, we would have been set.  Oh well, it was a good learning experience and I'm pretty proud of the end result.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Working with the neighbors to dig us out of more snow.

Blizzard Survival

Living in the Northeast US has its advantages and disadvantages: yesterday was one of those disadvantage days.  I'm referring to the huge snowstorm that came through town and dumped about 10 inches on my house over the course of about 12 hours.  Armed with just 1 shovel, my wife and I were ready to tackle the job.  Needless to say, here's a recollection of our successes and failures through this event, and some tips for your own snow adventure.

1.) Do some prep work ahead of time.  The night before the storm, I did a real quick shovel job just to make the job a little easier in the morning.  It probably only reduced the amount of snow I had to shovel by 2 inches.  Multiplying that by hundreds of square fee of sidewalk and driveway, and you've literally saved your morning from lifting another ton of snow.

2.) Give yourself plenty of time:  I woke up at 5:30am and was out shoveling by 6:00am which was good thinking since it took me about 45 minutes just to clear out our little city path.  I still had plenty of time to get to work.

3.) City dwellers don't need a snow plow.  I grew up in the country where you had 500 foot driveways, so a snow plow makes sense if you want the job done in less then an hour.  Living in the city, I can shovel a foot of snow from every piece of concrete in less that time, so a snow plow definitely does not seem worth it.  When you also figure in the cost, how may times you actually use it per year, and the fact that I would not be able to park my car in the garage if we put it in, and you can see why I don't have one.  I'm also healthy enough to deal with the exercise, and find it to be kind of relaxing.

4.) Good neighbors.  I did say we had one failure and that was my wife was not able to get our car onto the road since the plows didn't come through yet.  She had to call in to work, but our neighbors helped us dig her car out and for that we are most grateful.  Make sure to stay friendly with the people who are going through the same experiences.

5.) The wonders of public transportation.  I did make it to work fine since we are walking distance to my local subway station.  There were no problems on my commute and far less stress.

6.) Know when to call it quits.  Don't be stubborn and think you or your car are invincible.  As in my wife's case, the car wasn't going anywhere so it was better to be safe then risk it.

Buying a snow plow is one of those decisions that people just jump to the conclusion on.  They figure that everyone needs to own one.  This is my second winter in my new house, and I haven't had any problems with just a shovel.  Just think; $500 you would have spent on a snow plow invested in a security that returns on average a 4% inflation adjusted return will net you $1,559 over the course of 30 years.  That snow just got a whole lot more expensive!

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Snow man!

Getting and MBA for Almost Nothing

I’ve written a number of times about the ever increasing cost of education (here, here, and here), and it’s getting to the point of “bubble” classification.  In light of such news, going back to school to achieve an MBA or some other form of higher education can seem downright daunting.  There is hope for you frugally minded and career driven folks.  Many employers today encourage worthy workers to go back and get their degrees and they’ll often times shell out some cash in the process.  Below is a recount of my tale and how I spent only $1,950 to achieve and MBA.

The first question you need to ask yourself is whether going back to school is even right for you?  Some issues that I weighed while making this decision were the following: would I have time to do well? Should I do a part time or full time program?  Will this degree from X school help me in my career?  What were my financial constraints?  For the purposes of this particular article, we’ll assume that you’ve already made the choice to go back to school and achieve an advanced degree.  Now, let’s discuss how you’re going to fund your new-found educational experience.

Pick a Part-Time Program over a Full-Time Program

When going back to school, you could decide to quit your job, go back to work full-time, and finish your degree in about 2 years depending on the program.  Whereas this experience might save a year of your life, the downsides in my opinion far outweigh any benefits that extra year could provide.  You will not get any potential employer subsidies, you will not be earning a salary and have to pay tuition, and these 2 years of not working don’t really count towards your employment experience.  Instead, consider a part-time program.  Mine was 3 years, 2 full courses and 1 mini course a semester (with 1 summer course), employer subsidized, and those 3 years working to get my degree count as 3 years of real work experience.  If your 30 years old at the end of your part-time schooling, you would have 8 years of real work experience (graduated undergrad at the age of 22), whereas you would only have 6 years of experience in a full-time program.

How to Go Back to School for Almost Nothing

This is ultimately what you came here to read about, and it’s not some hidden secret.  The answer…get your employer to pay for your education.  Easier said than done, right?  Well, even if going back to school and getting an advanced degree is a goal 5 years done the road, this next step needs to be in the back of your head now.  If you are currently searching for employment, make sure to inquire about your potential employer’s tuition reimbursement plan.  If you’re lucky like I was, then they already have something set up for those worthy enough to get approved.  This question can also be a good topic to discuss in your interview as it shows that you are a driven candidate and that you have goals to improve yourself.

If you are currently employed and happy with your employer, then research to see if your company has some sort of tuition reimbursement policy.  You might have to talk to your HR rep as these things are not always conveniently published.

What do you do if your company currently doesn’t have a tuition reimbursement policy?  The first thing you need to do is set up an appointment with your manager, discuss your goals, and see if something can be worked out.  Often times these types of situations occur in small companies with the owner overseeing everything.  I had a friend in my program who worked for a small custom door manufacturer.  He asked his boss if he would cover his education in exchange for working there at least another 5 years, and they agreed.  If you’re company does not offer tuition reimbursement, and they never plan on doing it, then it might be a good idea to start looking elsewhere. 

Proving to Your Employer that You are Worth it

The last tactic to achieve tuition reimbursement from your employer is to prove that you are worth it.  This comes from your everyday behavior in your place of work.  Be responsible, prove yourself valuable, and excel in what you do.  Have semi-frequent conversations with your manager about you career and self-improvement goals.  Eventually, you will need to have the conversation about how an MBA will help you in the workplace, but make sure you tell them how it will help your employer as well.  This is the final secret I have to offer.  They are essentially investing in you and you have to prove that their investment is worth the expense. 

My own reimbursement strategy was organized through me showing my grades to my HR department.  For every A or A-, I was reimbursed 100%, B was 80% and C was 50%.  The only reason I had to pay $1,950 throughout my 3 years was because my employer would only reimburse me at the 50% mark for pass/fail classes (otherwise known as mini 1 credit courses).  These cost me $650, and I had to take 6 of them.  I survived 3 job movements throughout my MBA program and had over 4 managers throughout the process, but as long as you prove your worth you should be fine.  Another arrangement to my reimbursement was that I would have to pay back a pro-rated amount of my reimbursed tuition if I were to leave the company before 2 years after my last payment disbursement.  A fair arrangement if you ask me.

An MBA can be a great advantage on your resume, and can offer a world of opportunities.  Even more beneficial is all the knowledge that came in the form of understanding the underlying issues at stake in most business decisions.  You too can go back to school for almost nothing.  You just have to ask the right questions and do your homework.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Received half of the parts in my new PC-build…a post about this to come soon.

Black Friday Alternatives

It's Black Friday folks, and that means tons of shopping insanity.  Hopefully, with many big retailers keeping their doors open longer the night before, there is not as much craziness going on today.  The name Black Friday comes from the idea that it's the first day in the year to date that retailers finally make a profit (or are in the black).  The remainder of November and December are purely for profit at that point.  Some people really find some good deals today, but let me proprose some alterntives.

1.) Cyber Monday - stay at home, shop online, and have everything delivered to your house.  Pretty laid back if you ask me.

2.) Black Friday Weekend Craigslist shopping - Many people who shop on Black Friday are purchasing replacements for something they already have.  Imagine all the great deals you'll get by searching Craigslist in the coming days.

3.) Find Deals and Donate to Charity - If you purely love the rush of the crazy shopping experience, then why not apply your shopping skills for some good.  You can donate your purchases to charity and even score some nice tax write-offs. 

4.) People Watch -  This is actually kind of what I do on Black Friday.  Go to a mall, sit on a bench, and watch the craziness unfold around you.

5.) Sleep in, and enjoy your day - Relax, sleep in while digesting left-over turkey, and read about the craziness in the paper or online.

Whatever you decide, this day marks the first day in the Christmas season, so get ready for all the singing.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Great Deals!

The Continued Benefits of Ting.com

Back in September, I wrote about our new phone plan search.  The Wife and I were longtime fans and users of Verizon, but our contract was expiring, and we just felt that we were getting charged way too much and that getting smart phones through them would cost and arm and a leg.  Since the writing of the last article, we bit the bullet, dropped Verizon and moved our numbers and plans onto the startup Ting.com which is owned by a domain provider called Tucows.

If you recall from my previous article, Ting seemed to make the most sense for what I was looking for in a phone provider; cheap bills, nationwide service, no prepaid minutes, and a reliable customer service experience.  With Verizon, my wife and I had to LG feature phones with texting disabled which cost us around $78/month.  All that is after you deduct 20% of the bill due to a corporate discount my company has with Verizon.  This seemed way too much money for what we were getting.  Sure, the phone service was great and I hardly ever had a dropped call, but we were living in the 90's and wanted to make the jump into at least 2005.

We signed up for Ting through their simple online form which basically consisted of telling them my old Verizon account numbers and our old phone numbers.  In a matter of a week, we got our first two LG Optimus' (Optimi?) and were on our way.  The setup was rather simple too, however there were a few problems along the way.  Since we were buying refurbished phones, mine didn't have any sound and my wife's broke down after about a week of use.  No worries, Ting has a year warranty on all phones, and so we promptly received two more at no cost.  They even supplied a return box which to send the old phones.  Ting does have better phones, but once a cheap guy always a cheap guy.  The initial purchase of the phones were only $68 a piece which is far from the top of the line models you see out there now.

Now the good news.  As the image at the top of the blog suggests, my new monthly payment was $46.79 netting me a savings of at least $30/month.  Ting has a graduated payment plan which means you pay for what you use on a step basis.  This first month, I used a bunch of minutes since I was downloading apps and playing around.  I expect this to go down drastically and will probably only be paying about $35-$40 per month.  Doing a little math, and I find out that in a little over 4 months, I have saved enough money to pay for the purchase of the two new smart phones, and over two years (which would have been signing onto a new contract) I will have saved $720.  Think of all the stuff you could use $720 for.  If you're not happy with your current phone plan or company, considering switching today.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Had a delicious ham, salami, and capricola ham sub for dinner!

Dollar Shave Club Update

It's been a couple months since my adoption of Dollar Shave Club, and you may have read my first article  back then.  A couple of developments have occurred in the last few weeks, and it seems that the company is getting some further media recognition, so I thought it would be a good time to update everyone on my experience thus far.  

Recently, Wired wrote an article about a recent infusion of investment dollars into Dollar Shave Club.  If you recall, their business model revolves around providing no-name cheap razors delivered to your doorstep each month without any hassle.  It appears that going forward, Dollar Shave Club has some more robust ambition in pursuing even more products in a man's personal care.  Expect to see soon shaving cream and the likes in your medicine cabinet in the near future.  

As you may have read in my first article, I started my experience with Dollar Shave Club by ordering the 4x. This was a very sturdy and nice 4 bladed razor that came into my house on a monthly basis with 4 razor blades at a total cost of $6/month.  At the time I started this purchase, the simple twin razors were not available, and so I anxiously waited.  About a month went bye, and I received a notification that they simple twins were now available, and I diligently subscribed.  I received the package, opened it up, and found the razor blade in complete shambles.  Everything had been destroyed.  Chalking this up to just bad luck, I wrote Dollar Shave Club and email, and in about a week, they sent me another handle.  Sure enough, the whole handle was completely destroyed again.  Make no mistake, the simple twin is a piece of crap.  If the handle cannot even survive the mailing, how is it going to survive multiple uses.  Plus, the simple twin costs $3/month ($1 for the blades, and $2 for shipping and handling).  Realizing that I had made a terrible mistake, I went back to the 4x, and have been satisfied ever since.  It should also be said that the company did send me 2 simple twin handles in the mail again, but at this point I had it with that product and have moved on.  

It short, I do think Dollar Shave Club has a good business model and is evident by their excitement in funding, but I would stay clear of the simple twin.  

Happy Shaving!

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Sausage and fennel stew...yum!

Meaning of Success

The first time I ever really confronted the question about success was at my high school graduation.  Our seventh grade history teacher was giving the final speech and picked the topic of what really defines success. This seemed like a fitting topic given that so many of us were sitting up on that stage with many questions floating in our minds; is going to college successful?, is going into the workforce successful?, is graduating high school successful?  Depending on who you ask, you'll probably receive a different answer, however, I want to make the point that these are all successes.  In my own definition, success is overcoming something difficult.  If high school was easy for you, then it probably wasn't a success.

In the world of personal finance, success for you might be having a balanced budget or maybe paying off your credit card.  These seemingly small instances can have profound effects on your morale and well-being.

In your own personal life, maybe success is going on a date and having it go really well?  Maybe success is finding a place to live in a new unfamiliar city, or even more fundamentally, finding a job.  On a side note, someone once told me that you will have a whole file cabinet full of all the jobs you didn't get, but all you need is the one you did get.  Success is most likely achieving that job.

Traditionally, success has been about having that mcmansion on that dead-end street, having a few kids, and a happy spouse.  This ideal, while being rather nice, is simply too naive when it comes to the notion of success.  Success is struggling to achieve something, putting in the time, and then finally reaching that goal.  It's that feeling of knowing you have finally accomplished something that seemed so distant when you started.

For me....well, earlier this week, I found that I most likely have type 1 diabetes, and success is going to just be maintaining healthy blood sugar levels.  If I can do that, I'll be successful.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Having a wonderful wife!

Glorious Gardening: Year in Review 2012

This is it, the final garden update for the year.  As fall sets in and winter approaches, I'm not starting to see weather hovering around the freezing mark.  With the temperature drop, I knew it was time to start cleaning up the garden and get it ready for next year.

For your reference, you can see the following posts on my previous updates as a gauge for how far I've come.

Garden Update 1
Garden Update 2

As you recall in my previous posts, this whole project was an experiment in maintaining a small business...really small.  If you think about it, your land is the factory, you are the workers, and you are also the final consumer.  In a way, thinking of it as a business just adds to the fun of an already fulfilling hobby.  This little lesson can be applied to many of your other projects so that you keep expenses in line, and try to achieve the project's maximum potential.  But enough of that, on to the fun stuff.

So how did we do this summer?  Well, if you recall, total expenses for the installation of the raised garden bed, soil additives, and other gardening supplies totaled $250.  Hopefully, this is mostly a one time investment.  I've since bought about $30 of additional garden related products to enhance another section of my backyard.  These enhancements mostly consist of manure, peat moss, and vermiculite.

On the revenue side, this is what I determine each plant provided:

Pole Beans: $29.50
Baby Carrots: $2.84
Cilantro: $3.58
Basil: $15.92
Sage: $13.93
Marjoram: $7.96
Oregano: $11.94
Cherry Tomatoes: $143.40 (1,797 tomatoes harvested from 5 plants!)
Heirloom Tomatoes: $77.87
Yellow Squash: $3.66
Scallions: $2.91
Grand Total: $313.51
Total Profit: $33.51

I think you get the idea on how many cherry tomatoes we picked!

Not too shabby if I don't say so myself.  I was actually surprised to have surpassed our expenses for the year since we had so many startup costs.  You can see by the picture, that while removing the rest of the cherry tomatoes, we found around 800 or so still on the vines.  These are mostly green, but will ripen nicely in the coming weeks.

As you go through life and encounter projects or develop hobbies, treating them like a small business can greatly adhere your focus hone your drive.  I hope your own gardens were prosperous this year!

Wonderful Moment of the Day: This was actually a weekend event, but I had the chance to participate in a soup and pie fund raiser for Heifer International.

The Wonders of Weather-Proofing

Just a sampling of my insulation ammo

With Fall and soon Winter just around the corner, I felt it would be prudent to write about one of my most important secrets for keeping the winter heating bill low, and your overall comfort high.  What is this profound secret?  It won't surprise you to know that I am an avid fan of winter-proofing my house.

Up in north country, winter can be particularly harsh.  It's kind of sad to be thinking about this topic, but soon enough, snow will be on its way and if you're not prepared, you could see $400/month heating bills.

My Wife and I live in a house built in 1927, so you can imagine all the old cracks and poor insulation.  We just moved into this house last year, and luckily for us, it was one of the most mild winters on record.  Being that it was such an old house, most of our first floor windows were single pain with old storm window for some semblance of insulation.  Two of our windows couldn't even shut the whole way due to years of crazy painting.  This coupled with doors that didn't seal all the way made for some drafty hallways.

To begin remedying these issues, the first step was to install some plastic window covers over all the single pain windows.  The general process is to lay down some of the packaged double-sided tape, drape the plastic, and then begin tightening.  The final procedure involves using a hair dryer to shrink wrap the window.  This will create an air gap between your house and the window which essentially acts like another pain of glass.  Since my Wife doesn't own a hair dryer, we used a little fan powered space heater to do the job.  Our neighbors probably thought it was pretty funny to see me waving around a space heater like a magic wand, but I had a job to do.  This little tick alone saved us a bunch of money, and you could just feel the house begin to retain its heat better.  Furthermore, most of the drafts were taken care of.

Next was to seal up the doors with some double-sided foam strips.  All of these products can usually be bought at a home improvement store, and they are relatively cheap.  These foam strips were only a couple dollars, and I wedged them in between all the doors we would not be using this winter.

Next, I bought some of the foam electrical socket insulators which are surprisingly effective.  I only used them on the electrical sockets that are in a wall which faces the outdoors, but the result is noticeable.  It's actually quite impressive how much energy is lost through these non-insulated sockets.

Finally, the last step we preform is to close off any rooms we don't use by shutting the doors and turning off the radiators.  They won't freeze as they still get warmth from the rest of the house, but there's no reason to heat them if nobody is living in them.  The hardest part for me is to remember to turn them back on when guests arrive.

All in all, these little steps should save you big bucks throughout your winter season.  Oh, and those windows that didn't shut...we got those replaced with argon-filled replacements.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Making a roasted chicken dinner.