Posts Tagged Emergency fund
Frugal Cesspool Maintenance
Posted by enrique s in Money, Self-Reliance on September 4th, 2009
Photo by AnyaLogic
Those of you with a weak stomach might want to skip this post. Every three years, we have our cesspool serviced. I know, thanks for sharing, Enrique. We have a few thousand gallons of “stuff” pumped out, and about 25 gallons of sulfuric acid added to both cesspools, the main and the overflow. This keeps us going for another three years through endless showers, laundry, etc. It’s a hefty bill, between $500 and $600, for which I budget accordingly.
I usually “supervise” any work being done on my property, and this was no exception. There’s some prep work on my part, such as finding the access pipes that are buried. I also remove about a four foot square of grass around each access pipe, so that any acid that might splash won’t burn the grass. Trust me, the acid WILL splash. It’s not like they use a funnel for a precise pour. After the work is done, I can easily piece the missing grass back together, and the lawn looks no worse for wear.
I was picking the cesspool guy’s brain, and he told me that I was on borrowed time. The cesspools that I have are stacked concrete block, and are over 40 years old. The correct replacement would include a septic tank and two precast overflows. This sizing would allow me to add a second floor onto my house without having to rip up the lawn again. I asked him what the price tag would be, and he figured between $7,000 to $9,000. Yikes. That doesn’t include the replacement of my lawn and sprinkler system.
My next question was “how long do they have, doc?” He couldn’t give me any guarantees, but thought I’d last at least one more cycle. So that gives me a three year stay of execution. One kid will be finished with college, but the second one will be starting. How much is in my emergency fund? He also recommended that I use Rid-X. He said that it would keep the solids to a minimum (I told you this was a gross subject).
So, I’m off to the store to get some Rid-X. Add that to a three-year maintenance schedule, and your cesspool should be in tip-top shape. And make sure you remove the grass around the pipes BEFORE the cesspool guy pours the acid, or you’ll definitely be removing it AFTER it gets burned.
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Corporate Barbarian: The Pool is Open Edition
We opened up the swimming pool this past weekend, so summer should be right around the corner. All we need now is for the weather to cooperate. It feels more like April than June. I spent a couple days scrubbing the winter cover and water bags, and yesterday I was walking like Quasimodo. I know, wah-wah-wah. I must be feeling my age! Here’s some good reading from the past week:
Brett at The Art of Manliness shows us how to make our lawn look like Wrigley Field. He talks about how the way the grass is bent determines the striped or checkerboard pattern that you see at major league stadiums.
Trent at The Simple Dollar tells us to prepare our important information for a disaster. This is just an excellent post on how not to be caught flat-footed in an emergency.
Peter at Bible Money Matters doesn’t want us to let our emotions to cloud our judgment. You can get yourself in quite a predicament by letting feelings get in the way.
Scott H. Young thinks that consistency is an overrated virtue. I agree. Being consistently bad is never a good thing, so try something different.
Flexo at Consumerism Commentary informs us that our house is not a good investment. He talks about the benefits of renting, and that buying a house doesn’t make sense for everyone.
Ali at Dumb Little Man wants us to mono-task to work more effectively. I’ve always thought multitasking allowed me to do a bunch of things in a mediocre fashion. I’ll leave multitasking to my computer.
Nickel at Five Cent Nickel wants to know how large our emergency funds are. I keep about 10 months worth of expenses in laddered CDs. If you don’t have an emergency fund, please read Nickel’s post.
In a guest post at My Two Dollars, Cameron tells us to create a gold-laying goose. He tells us to create passive income from the “goose” (assets), and then “live on the eggs.”
Tough Money Love wants us to feel wealthy on a middle-class income by paying our bills at the beginning of the month. He makes the case that peace of mind is worth the cost of paying bills before they are due. It’s a strong case.
Kevin at No Debt Plan says anything worth doing requires sacrifice. He lists his goals, and reminds himself why he’s sacrificing now for future rewards.
Jonathan at Awake at the Wheel wonders if gifted and talented is a life sentence. He talks about the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, how the fixed “gifted and talented” mindset is more limiting than a growth mindset that rewards effort.
David at Simple.Organized.Life gives us 10 ways to simplify your life starting today. There are some great lifehacks in there.
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Barbaric Book Review: Die Broke by Stephen M. Pollan, Part 3
Posted by enrique s in Book & Product Reviews on April 22nd, 2009
This is Part 3 of my review of Die Broke. You can read parts 1 and 2 by clicking on the following links:
Die Broke, Part 1 - Quit Today
Step 3: Don’t Retire
Don’t retire? I thought we should be planning for retirement from the time we start working. In Die Broke, retirement as we know it is portrayed as a fairly new concept, which has worked properly for one generation only.
Social Engineering?
The authors argue that retirement is a form of social engineering that was a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution. At the end of the 19th century, the demand for jobs shifted from rural to industrial, and older workers were encouraged to “make room” for their younger replacements. Pensions were bestowed upon workers aged 60 or better in an effort to increase efficiency. The New Deal created Social Security, where the benefits would be paid for by taxing the younger replacements. This tax wasn’t as great a burden as it is today, as the average life span was 63, and the retirement age was 65. This led to:
Enabling
Parents of Baby Boomers benefited from a real estate boom, as their children drove up home prices in a scarce market. Their living expenses were covered by pensions and Social Security, and their health care was covered by Medicare and Medigap policies. Everything fell into place, as evidenced by:
The Impossible Dream (for Baby Boomers at least)
The parents of Baby Boomers had retirement income from the following sources:
- Government assistance: 42%
- Personal wealth: 20%
- Pensions: 20%
- Current wages: 15%
- Other sources: 3%
What Boomers Can Expect
- Government Assistance - Boomers will get a lot less money, and receive it later
- Personal Wealth - Boomers will see a 34% income increase over their career, while their parents experience 524% growth
- Pension Income - The shift from pensions to 401K plans, where less than half of those eligible participate
- Wages - Boomers will have to work longer, and live on less
- Other Sources - Inheritance? Don’t count on it, as longevity increased health care costs may decimate any expected inheritance
A Fiction Built on Four Lies
- Age 65 is old - People are living longer, more healthy lives
- Leisure is more fulfilling than work - It’s nice to have a reason to get up each day
- Older people need to make room - With the workforce decreasing, the need for productive workers increases
- Younger worker = better worker - Older white-collar workers make fewer mistakes, have fewer absences, and an eye for efficiency
My Take
I’m years away from retirement, and I enjoy going to work. This may change as I get older, but I find that I need somewhere to go each Monday. Given the economic future that the authors have laid out for me, I may take a non-traditional retirement, and work part-time or even full-time. The advice is to move the finish line from age 65 to death, which allows for a greater period of investment in equities. The authors also advise us to keep an emergency fund, and have adequate health and disability insurance.
Part 4 of this review will cover the fourth and final step, called Die Broke.
Follow me on Twitter: CorpBarbarian
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A Simple Mortgage Amortization Table
Kevin over at the No Debt Plan blog recently advised his readers to avoid mortgage accelerator programs like the plague. He reasoned that you could set up your own mortgage accelerator program by adding 1/12 of a payment as additional principal to each month’s payment. I agree with Kevin. You can save a boatload of interest by making extra principal payments.
Sending in extra principal payments sounds good, but I think you need to see the impact - namely, how much interest you can save. So, I set up an Excel file to calculate the interest savings. You can access the file by clicking on the following link to my mortgage amortization spreadsheet:
Mortgage Amortization Spreadsheet
To use the spreadsheet, just do the following:
- Enter your mortgage amount into cell B2
- Enter your interest rate into cell B4
- Enter the length of the mortgage in years in cell B6
This will populate the rest of the spreadsheet. It will also calculate your monthly payment (cell B9), and the interest you can expect to pay over the life of the mortgage (cell B11). If you want to see how much interest you’ll save by adding extra to your monthly payment, just enter the amount into column H in the appropriate month, and the answer will be calculated for you in cell B16. You’ll also see the number of months that you’ve shaved off the length of the loan in cell B18.
I would definitely recommend sending in additional principal payments if you have the means to do so. Obviously, this only makes sense after you’ve retired all of your high-interest credit card debt beforehand, and have a healthy emergency fund established. But if your mortgage is your last outstanding debt, you can count on a return equal to your interest rate.
Now, open the spreadsheet and have fun crunching numbers!
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