Disqus - Latest Comments for mapgirl

Re: Intuit Buys Mint for $170 Million: Quicken Online and Mint to Coexist

mapgirl — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:34:32 -0000

Interesting. I decided a while ago that I'd rather not use an online financial management aggregator for my information and your post pretty much solidifies using Quicken as standalone software. I'm doing that now and I don't see a reason to change. Though I agree, it's not perfect, but no software ever is. :-)

Re: Employee Stock Purchase Plan Dilemma

mapgirl — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:04:36 -0000

I sold shares in a winning position because I decided the tax hit on short term capital gains was small enough not to matter. (Less than $50) The cash flow for me was a good thing for financing renovations to my condo with cash vs on credit. So what's your alternative with this money and will it cost you more if you don't cash it out?

The opportunity to use this money is lost when tied up in securities. Can you get a better return on it elsewhere or is it ok where it is? (Personally my ESPP is paying better dividends than ING so I don't mind saving money in my ESPP.)

Re: Earn $500 By Referring Friends and Readers to ING Direct

mapgirl — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:43:17 -0000

I still have some to give out! :-)

Re: Stealing Entertainment, Revisited

mapgirl — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:31:00 -0000

I thought about this for a long time. There is a paradigm shift going on with property/use rights and ownership. It's sort of like the Native Americans and the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims thought the Native Americans were giving them the land to keep permanently (property rights), when in reality the Native Americans were only giving them rights to use the land (use rights) and thought that no one owned the land. When those ideas conflicted, well, American history ensued.

Much the same is happening now with content and intellectual property. There is a clash of the old way vs the new way or de facto way. I don't know who is right or wrong. I support artists to make a living from their creations since many of my friends are artists. I purchase their work when I can. But I know I have burned copies of CD's more than once to try and turn on a friend to music I really enjoy. Whence do we cross the line into criminality is more the question. Is stealing some content ok or tolerable under 'fair use'? Do artists devalue their content by making some of it free? Do they devalue the content of other people who cannot afford to give it away? Perhaps.

Each person has to decide their own personal ethics here. While I don't bother with file-sharing networks, I will gladly watch a movie at a friend's house without asking if they pulled it off of Pirate Bay or not. I think everyone would. But what if your host offered you cocaine? What would you do then? At the heart of this is that someone has illegal possession of something and invites you to use it. That sounds like the same thing, but I think lots of people would argue that a movie and drugs are not the same.

Nice exercise of situational ethics.

Re: Want to Make $450,000 a Year? Become a Portfolio Manager

mapgirl — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:16:41 -0000

The one PhD in Physics who was a coder, skateboarded to work in his Hawaiian shirt. He worked on mathematical modeling software for portfolio managers. He was a fun guy.

As for the money and the math, it goes together. Quant is heavy heavy math and it takes big brains to power the models.

You're right though, most of the high salaries for PhD's in math and physics are for folks that ended up coding and founding their own companies. But you can do that without a degree too.

Re: $52,050.74: A Farewell to Student Loans

mapgirl — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:45:17 -0000

Zowee. That's a lot of money. Good for you. I am sure the blog revenue helps. *winky*

So how does it feel? Like a huge weight off you? What's your next goal now that you've got cash flow freed up?

Re: I Won’t Sell Email Addresses

mapgirl — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:27:12 -0000

I just put up a privacy policy, pretty much lifted wholesale from another blogger with some edits. My feeling is that if I don't want my email address sold, I won't sell any I have either.

While I agree that in this day and age everyone should have a useful email address and a junk email address, it's still not a good idea for addresses to be sold. It only encourages bad behavior by advertisers and frankly, I'll let the junk email box go dead and start a new one if it gets clogged up. Then the address is useful to no one, not even me.

Re: Check Your ING Direct Overdraft Protection

mapgirl — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:11:50 -0000

Ryan - It sounds like most people who had it revoked, actually used it. I have it with my ING checking account and my OD balance hasn't changed, but I don't think my credit is all that great. It's at 696 last I checked.

Re: Roundup for the Week Ending October 6

mapgirl — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:10:19 -0000

Hey, Thanks for the link! Thank you for putting up the DonorsChoose.org PFBlogs.org Challenge thermometer! :-)

Re: Weekly Blog Round-Up, High Definition Edition

mapgirl — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:35:30 -0000

Thanks for the link. I was wondering whence the weekend traffic originated.

Re: $25 Bonus for Opening ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Account

mapgirl — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:07:30 -0000

And when you run out, send the overspill my way! :-D

After making subtle inquiries I found out a lot of my friends have ING savings accounts already, so I still have a lot of those too. At this point, I'm not sure finding anyone who doesn't have at least a savings account will be difficult.

I know some people have been unhappy with ING's checking service or think you can get better rates from other online banks, but I find ING to be so easy to use, that I won't switch. (The Sun's Financial Diary asked me why I wouldn't. I don't know. I must be mental not to chase online rates.)

Re: How Much Cash to Take on Vacation?

mapgirl — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:18:55 -0000

I went to NYC last weekend with about $260 and came home with about $20 or 30 in my pocket. If I had left with $500, I probably would have returned with the same, as I did end up breaking out the credit card a few times to ensure I had enough cash for the whole duration. (You can barter better deals if you carry cash.)

Re: A Parking Spot That Costs More Than Average House

mapgirl — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:34:18 -0000

$225,000 is a lot of cab rides. Speaking of which, my friends were visiting DC from NYC and had no idea that zones were the norm here. They overspent on cab rides around town. I felt so bad I drove them from Arlington back to their hotel and to the train station so they wouldn't have to catch a series of cabs. (ok really I just wanted to squeeze in some more time with them.)

Re: Reader Question: Ignoring Reconciliation in Quicken

mapgirl — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:12:08 -0000

Vishal,

Reconciling 'never being the same' refers to switching back and forth between online and paper statements. It is actually possible to have it be the same, if you practice some earnestness and delete your duplicated transactions. There are days when even online reconciliation is off for me because I forgot this-and-that-transaction-of-87-cents. Have no fear, it will work if you pay attention to what you are doing.

Re: Reader Question: Ignoring Reconciliation in Quicken

mapgirl — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:03:21 -0000

Reconciliation shouldn't be too hard, but auto matching transactions doesn't work that well, neither does manual matching. Sometimes I just have delete the downloaded transaction and go straight to the recon screen. Typical example is that I get three checks, I like to make one entry for each check vs a split transaction, but the bank gives me one total deposit item. The account will still balance.

If your accounts AREN'T balancing, it's a problem and you should track that down. Perhaps it's fraud. Perhaps you bought something you don't remember, or your joint account holder is trying to hide something from you.

Re: I’ve Surpassed My First Significant Milestone

mapgirl — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 23:26:00 -0000

Hey! Very nice! Good for you!

Re: Weekly Blog Roundup, Hot Water Heater Edition

mapgirl — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:52:20 -0000

Thanks for the link!

Re: 20 Pounds of Mints

mapgirl — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:10:30 -0000

heh heh... Sugar lasts forever with proper storage. I wonder how long it will take for you to get rid of them all with trick or treaters and a candy bowl at your desk.

Re: Cash vs. Credit Card: Gas Stations Charging Different Prices

mapgirl — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:25:01 -0000

Interesting. I have recently found out in DC the "Lowest Price" gas stations take cash only. To compete, a Citgo across the street charges two prices. Cash to match the Lowest Price store and then a charge price. This takes me back to the '70's when this was much more common.

I guess these days are coming back all over the east coast. The question is, is this a national trend?

Perhaps Valero and the Citgo have different merchant agreements which allow the price discrimination between payment types?

Re: Cash vs. Credit Card: Gas Stations Charging Different Prices

mapgirl — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:47:41 -0000

I am surprised Jersey is doing this. I have to tell my parents because our gas station is close enough to Jersey that we lose a tiny slice of customers. (The crazy full-serve people)

Fascinating. I thought advertising like this was illegal because it was deceptive. I am also surprised that gas stations are still allowed to charge two prices. My parents don't and I highly doubt they will. (Prices are back below $3 in PA, DE, MD, and VA anyway.)

Re: What Are You Talking About, Willis? High-Interest Loans.

mapgirl — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:43:08 -0000

Dy, try Prosper.com. It's not as usurious as loan sharking, but still beats a high yield savings account. :-D

Re: Ben Stein: Your Suggested Portfolio

mapgirl — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:08:35 -0000

Fascinating. I'm reading The Intelligent Investor by Graham and there's a section about long-term bonds (actually it's about all kinds of bonds). Mr. Graham is a huge proponent of bond holding, 25% minimum, which I personally think is nuts. I hold no bonds at all, just a high yield savings account.

My take is similar to Mr. Stein's. I don't understand long-term bonds very well, so I don't buy them.(My #1 maxim is don't buy something you don't understand.) Short-term bonds, i.e. T-bills, aren't paying out much better than CD's or a high yield savings account at the moment, so I'm not interested in dealing with a new process to get them. (sorry Jonathan!)

So, where does that leave me? I have some money allocated to each type of fund he recommends, except the energy fund and emerging markets. I am actually looking at energy stocks right now, but I don't know much about the sector (which is why I don't already have it, per maxim #1). The reason why I don't have an emerging markets fund is that neither of my last two 401k plans has offered one. I could branch out and buy into one through an IRA, but I don't have enough cash to do that yet. Instead, I just reallocated to buy an international growth fund that is available in my current 401k. (Not exactly an emerging markets fund, but better than naught exposure in Latin/South America and Asia (excluding Japan)).

I think you have to spread out risk and by going with international and real estate, you're doing that. A lot of people get psychologically discouraged from investing when they see the market fall. They don't view it as a buying opportunity. By diversifying holdings and spreading out risk to other markets/funds, watching your fund performance dip in one place doesn't depress you because you might have other funds that mitigate the fall.

The other thing is if you do any international economics, you know that it's good to have a toehold in other markets around the world. It's phenomenally optimistic or stupid to put all your eggs into the US basket.

Re: Wall Street Journal: Managing Money in Public

mapgirl — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:34:59 -0000

GEEZEO stinks if you ask me because you need a Facebook account. Heck, I'm over a decade out of college. I don't need or want a Facebook account at all. I was thinking of signing up to Millionaire Artist's group, but now I can't! BOO on Geezeo!

I'm not just saying that because Cap and Noah work at Mint. I really was going to sign up last night and couldn't.

Re: My Struggle: Spending on Food is Really About Motivation

mapgirl — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 11:41:00 -0000

Oh. Another thing, about socializing with co-workers... My current boss regularly says we should duck into a conference room to eat our lunch as a team, whether we've bought it at the cafeteria or packed it from home. We still get our social time away from our cubicles, but without the extra expense.

Maybe that's a way to get social time in without dining out?

Re: My Struggle: Spending on Food is Really About Motivation

mapgirl — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:25:30 -0000

I am right there with you. I eat out for lunch and dinner all the time. I have access to a really tasty cafeteria at work and it's easy to run downstairs and pay for food by the pound. (Goal is always to eat for $5.)

Slowly I am changing that by doing these things:

1) Keeping peanut butter and bread at my desk. I also have access to a fridge and keep jelly and sodas cold. This cuts down on breakfast costs.

2) I keep French press ground coffee at my desk and a tall mug. I got sick of the crappy free coffee at work. One pound of coffee costs $8+ at Starbucks, but it's been a month or more and I still haven't finished the first bag. (I don't drink it every day.) What I do is dump in the grinds, pour the hot water in, stir and let the grinds settle before I drink it. Dump and rinse when I'm done.

3) Try bringing in a few things and supplementing it with something small from the cafeteria. For instance, I brought in a whole container of salad mix with dressing in a bottle and some bread slices. Then I would buy some tuna/macaroni salad from the cafeteria for protein. So instead of paying $6 or 7 for everything in the cafeteria, I pay only $3.

4) Keep snacks at your desk. Sometimes I eat a granola bar for breakfast instead of a yummy egg and cheese sandwich from the cafeteria. That also keeps me from getting a juice or Snapple extra since it's so easy to add that on.

So far it really hasn't made a huge difference month over month in what I spend because of the grocery bill and the fact that I only really started this in April or May, but I figure eventually it will.

Honestly, I don't have a choice in the matter either. My offices are going to move later this year and the cheap and tasty cafeteria will be too far away to tempt me. The new location only has expensive restaurants so I'm trying to pack my lunch now so I get used to doing it.

Re: Net Worth of $100,000: Not Looking Good for This Month

mapgirl — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:35:57 -0000

I'm with PiggyBank Raider. I borrowed two husbands to move into my condo. Granted, I was going to a bedroom in a house to a studio and didn't have a dining set, bookcase or sofa back then, but what are friends for? Treat them to dinner and maybe give them another special gift later.

The one pro argument I'll make for movers is that movers are bonded and insured and your friends are not. The one time I hired movers, it was to move a bedroom set I was buying. I couldn't bear the thought of my friends getting hernias of my account.

Re: Fear of Throwing Money Away Keeping You From Quitting?

mapgirl — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:16:24 -0000

Hey Flexo, thanks for the shout out. I guess I should explain a little more how that number happened to me.

#1 - When possible, I tried to max out my contributions to 20% of my salary. I have had to cut that back at times. Right now, I'm contributing on 17%.

#2 - Generous company matching. It's pretty standard, 50% of the first 5% of salary, which is about what I got at my old company.

#3 - Rockin' the salary negotiations at the outset when I got hired. There's no way I'd be doing this great without that as the cornerstone.

#4 - Very aggressive investing. It's all stock funds. There's another post on the blog about ROI. I think my worst return over last year was still double digits.

#5 - My company lets me contribute part of my annual bonus to the 401k. My old company didn't do that. It's money that never hit my bank account and I never saw it. This is definitely going to help me max out to $15.5K (or very close) despite putting only 17% of each paycheck right now.

Re: Comparing a Lump Sum With an Annuity

mapgirl — Fri, 18 May 2007 12:01:02 -0000

Maryanne wrote that she needed her father to stay alive till 2010. I think that's your answer right there. His life expectancy is less than 3 years if she is hoping that he lives another 3.

Sounds like she did get hosed. She should file complaints left and right with the state agency, the BBB, and possibly banking regulators for this kind of referral stuff by tellers to an outside firm. She should look up with NASD and insurance regulators whether or not the broker/salesperson has ethics violations and possibly go to arbitration. I wrote about this kind of thing recently and I have the NASD website link to their monthly ethics violations page. However, from the past experience of a friend, I know it's REALLY HARD to win a lawsuit or arbitration against the salesperson. Plus you have to shell out a lot of money to get legal representation.

How sad her father got ripped off like this. But I'm cynical that she'll be able to get the situation ameliorated.

Re: My Next Step: Two Bedroom Condo or More Renting?

mapgirl — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:32:04 -0000

Whether it is cheaper to rent or buy is a question of time-horizon. At this time, it is cheaper for me to rent than it is to buy, but in the DC housing market, having held my condo now for 3 years, I'm at the point where buying was better. But that's a hindsight decision, rather than a decision looking forward into the future.

The main thing to ask yourself is how long are you going to live in the next place. If it's less than two years, keep on renting.

Re: I Got a Nintendo Wii

mapgirl — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:47:31 -0000

I'm not a huge fan of Nintendo games, because I'm a spaz, but someone brought a Wii to a party one night and it was lots of fun for us to make our Mii's and play tennis and golf.

The plunger shooting duck and bunny game is pretty hilarious.

Re: John Bogle and Jeremy Siegel Debate Index Funds

mapgirl — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:56:19 -0000

I'm a fan of both Bogle and Siegel, but I think I'm siding with both and leaning more towards Bogle. The reason being the close to Samerwriter's reason, you can make any index you want and pick a stock to add to it. I am sure Dr. Siegel has sound financial reasoning to choose what he chooses, but an index can be pulled out of a hat. In fact, I could make a fund out of those picks and call it the MAPGIRL HAT100 INDEX FUND(TM), market it, and do reasonably ok compared to professional CFA's.

So nobody steal my idea, ok?

Re: I Got Hit With a $4 Bank Fee From Wachovia

mapgirl — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:59:36 -0000

I'm finding the login to Wachovia download process ok, it's just annoying since it's extra steps. I'm not really sure there is any extra selling opportunity for the bank by making me log in. Are they doing this to cover a cost of transaction by doing business with Quicken?

Re: Should High Schools Require Money Management Classes?

mapgirl — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:42:21 -0000

Valerie, is it a PA thing to learn about checking accounts in junior high? Because I grew up near Philly.

Re: Should High Schools Require Money Management Classes?

mapgirl — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:27:34 -0000

I understand and agree with Flexo's point about what should and should not be required in any curriculum. I have many friends who are public school teachers and it's a bit ridiculous how much is mandated to be taught that is irrelevant to the three R's. I say, careful with the mandates, especially unfunded stuff like NCLB.

That being said, I was taught in public school, 6th grade math how balance a checkbook. It was an entire section of our coursework. I have no idea why our public school decided to do this, but teaching word problems about compounding interest or the present value of money seems to me the natural place to do some commonsense teaching about personal finances. These are essential math skills every kid should have before graduating from high school (If they choose to stick it out for a diploma, which I know many kids do not). Heck, if I have to do present value, I have to break out a spreadsheet and do it manually to ensure I get the math right. But by gum, I get it right because I know the basic math, even if I'm an idiot and have to reverse engineer the calculation every time I need it.

Could it be that hard to teach personal finance as an integral math unit to junior high students? Probably not. That's when most of this level of math is first introduced. I learned about shareholding from a stock market game/apple company our class ran in private school for 6th grade. (Yes, I repeated a grade, but that's another story.)

I think the problem is literally academic though. Kids who are not accustomed to handling money, don't take to the lesson very well because they don't actually watch its ebb and flow out of their wallets. This perhaps is why every kid ought to work for money either inside or outside the home, just to get a taste of the real world and how to handle money. Think of this, how old were you before you handled over $200.00 worth of cash? Have you ever handled $1000.00 worth of cash? What about $5000.00? $10,000.00?

I would wager for most folks, it's not till they are a cashier that they see that kind of money. I only handled sums like that because I worked for my parents. I used to make change for our customers when I was 12. I would help my dad count money at home when I was even younger than that. (Ok, maybe it was wrong sometimes and it was only wrapping pennies, but it got me used to being accurate and why it's darned important.)

This is a great discussion post. I love it. I hope everyone weighs in. There's going to be some great ideas in the comments.

Re: TurboTax Fixed a Security Leak

mapgirl — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 11:46:42 -0000

heh. That's why I'm mailing mine in. (j/k!) The one very clear case of ID theft I know about happened to one of my cousins. A friend of his in college stole his mail and opened a few credit cards in his name. Because he didn't find out about it till it was too late, his credit was ruined. This happened about 10 years go, and I think most of the after-effects are over now, but it still sucked for a while till everything got resolved.

Low-tech vulnerability is where the most risk is, but you've got to be vigilant about everything.

Re: ING Direct Threatened to Close My Account

mapgirl — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:48:00 -0000

I didn't even know about this. Thanks for the warning, though I'm sorry it comes at your potential expense.

I'll have to give myself the heads up. Luckily, I'm trying to make my transfers one-way IN rather than OUT. :-)

Re: Why Do I Share My Finances Every Month?

mapgirl — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:53:01 -0000

Very interesting. Thanks for the history. I suppose my reasons are very similar. I'm not writing to brag too since I have very little to brag about.

Re: Weekly Blog Roundup, Flight to California Edition

mapgirl — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 19:09:38 -0000

Thanks for the link! Happy and safe travels!

Re: Weekly Blog Roundup, Birthday Edition

mapgirl — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:22:45 -0000

Happy birthday! :-)

I'm glad you liked the alternative Carnival last week.

Re: Soylent Synvisc: It’s Birds!

mapgirl — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 18:06:17 -0000

I'm with Easy E. Not quite so sinister, but not vegan either.

Re: By This Time, You are a Seasoned Executive

mapgirl — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:50:33 -0000

5 years? wow. Never done that. But at least you were moving around. That's great.

Re: Is This a Buying Opportunity?

mapgirl — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 14:40:39 -0000

I wish I could go nuts and buy like crazy. But I'm sticking with my mutual funds for now. It's interesting. I took nary a hit in my rollover IRA from one company, and took the same 4% dip as the market in my current 401k plan. Makes me wonder if I should model my portfolio to the rollover IRA. (which has had admirable performance over the last three years, averaging over 15% for 4 funds.)

Re: Wachovia to Start Charging for Direct Access to Quicken

mapgirl — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:14:34 -0000

Well, this is really annoying. But I suppose I'm not in love with Wachovia anyway. It sounds like you can go and fetch your download without a fee, but I think this will drive me to pull out more cash from the ATM instead of using my debit card for everything. I used to love the debit card/Quicken download, but I'm finding as time passes, Quicken wants me to use their service and I'm less and less thrilled with them. Their forecasting feature was great in the basic version back in 1996. Now it's offered in the Deluxe package but it doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. (Maybe partly because I have weird stuff going on with a mortgage now with transfers from one account to the other, etc.)

Re: Tips for Purchasing a Musical Instrument for the Non-Professional

mapgirl — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:47:27 -0000

hm hm hm.. Dunno what I think of this as I look at a piano my sibling and I have not played seriously since we were 8. (over 20 years ago) It's a nice second mantelpiece on which my mom places figurines.

Oh yeah, and that flute I played for 5 years with school ensemble orchestra and marching band. Hm. Well I guess those were good years and worth the money, but again, I haven't really touched it for 20 years. (DANG FLEXO! WHEN DID I GET SO OLD?)

I ended up bartering the flute for some massage therapy treatments from a friend of mine who just finished her CMT. She plays it more than I ever would and that makes me, her and the instrument happy.

String instruments are ok to buy used I think since nearly all my violinist friends play instruments older than we are. One girl's bow is actually worth more than her violin, which reminds me to say that your instrument should be insured if it's of value. Her bow and violin were valued at around $10K. Losing it in a fire would have sucked.

It's best to inherit an instrument from a family member or friend. (I say this as I think of my deceased grandfather's cherished violin and the endearing, but annoying way he would play it at 8am on a Saturday to wake us all up.) There are certain older construction methods used by luthiers which make better sound than buying new stuff. Learned this about Gibson mandolins from a friend, and I think that holds true for say... Stradivarius vs Yamaha.

As far as mouthpieces on woodwinds, I'm not sure what you mean. Technically flutes are classed as woodwinds, and you could theoretically sterilize a flute with an alcohol swab. You must mean something like clarinets and saxaphones. Or do I have that wrong?

Re: One Way to Get Rid of Telemarketers

mapgirl — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:32:00 -0000

I have an unlisted number and due to the crappy weather, I got a call from the local FOP for a donation. I wonder how the hell he knew my name?!?!

Telemarketer/charitable donation solicitor/survey taker. It's all the same to me. WASTE OF TIME.

I do keep a landline around for broadband and 911 access. I don't trust VoIP for emergency calls.

Re: Renting is Expensive in These Cities

mapgirl — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:56:49 -0000

I'm relieved to see that DC area isn't on the list, but I am sad that some of my family lives in Oakland and will probably never be able to make the switch to owning, without some IPO action headed their way.

Re: Question from Reader: Swiss Bank Accounts

mapgirl — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:37:02 -0000

WAIT A SECOND HERE.

That Millennium Bank is not the same Millennium Bank listed last year in the Wall Street Journal as having good CD rates. There is a Millennium Bank in Virginia which offers really good rates on 180-day CD's. I invested in one of those last year and was quite happy with them. And because it was a US institution, it was FDIC insured.

Could that possibly be a domestic alternative for this reader?

Re: The Carnival is Up, and Thoughts On Finance Writing

mapgirl — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:20:29 -0000

Thanks for the link Flexo!

Everytime I think I'm too informal or not polished enough, I read something like your post that encourages me to remain myself when I write. Thanks!

Re: Americans Aren’t Saving, Little Splurges Add Up

mapgirl — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:56:31 -0000

Broadband. My car. (Due to a job in the suburbs while 10 years ago I lived in the city and the car I used belonged to my roommates.) But I also make nearly triple what I made back then.

Re: Weekly Blog Roundup

mapgirl — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:47:31 -0000

Thanks for the link!

Re: Do I Need to Report This Income? Part 2

mapgirl — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 16:03:45 -0000

Hilarious post.

Re: Rule for Building Wealth: Make Saving Automatic

mapgirl — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 21:44:26 -0000

I consider my 401k contribution my automatic savings, but I also automatically save a little out of each paycheck for my emergency fund too. I'd love to save 20% in the 401k and and other 10% in the emergency fund, but saving 30% of my income just doesn't work into my budget. YET.

Re: Costco vs. Tiffany, Who Has the Bargain on Diamonds?

mapgirl — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:39:21 -0000

Try Carat.cc for laboratory diamonds. Much cheaper than the natural diamonds, but still carbon compressed at high pressure, or whatever it is that makes a diamond. (I keep thinking Ferris Bueller's Day Off. You know what I'm talking about.) My friends are getting their engagement ring from Carat when it's time to buy. They don't go for the conflict diamonds and they are high-technology types, so they're going with lab diamonds instead.

Re: The Blog Week in Review

mapgirl — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:50:46 -0000

Looks like I turned out alright? Are you sure? ;-)

Private school on scholarship is a great place to screw up your kids about money... But that's a whole 'nother post!

Re: Top 10 Blogs on pfblogs.org by Clicks per Post

mapgirl — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:50:12 -0000

Oh hey. Me? Really?

Re: Extreme Savers Greg and Tara: We Have Some Things in Common

mapgirl — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 13:48:00 -0000

Fascinating. They have no kids and it looks like they have no plans to have any.

I'm surprised that Tara doesn't work. Marketing studies? Sounds like she fills out surveys all day. Even a morning shift as a barista would add a lot to their annual income.

Buying a new car is just fine. Honestly, after all my car expenses this year, I'd be happier just selling the thing and getting a new one that's headache free.

Re: 7 Ways to Save Money While Maintaining Your Extravagant Lifestyle

mapgirl — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 10:50:50 -0000

File under 'sarcasm'.

Re: Mapgirl Moves Her Fiscal Challenge and Makes the Switch

mapgirl — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 02:22:06 -0000

It's been quite an evening. I moved off Blogger. I configured the iPod Nano I won from the IndexCreditCards.com blog traffic contest. And I gave myself a manicure! (A girl's gotta do something while she does software installs!)

Anyone reading this on Blogger who wants to get off their unreliable servers should take up Flexo on his offer to transfer over. I've got some good tips for making an OPML file for your blogroll import. :-)

Re: Solved an Algebra Equation at Work

mapgirl — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 12:27:27 -0000

It's funny, but they say word problems, i.e. real world sitations/applications, don't actually lead to an understanding of math.

Now the question is, can you still name the quadratic function? I can't. But I can do the Pythagorean Theorem and Fibonacci Series.

Your post is really sad. I mean, honestly, this is why I tell people the killer app on their cell phones is actually the calculator and not being able to call people.

Re: 10 Examples of How You Can Be Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

mapgirl — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 12:46:13 -0000

Let me sum it up. "Haste makes waste." ;-)

Re: Review and Giveaway: The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing: Asset Allocation

mapgirl — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 23:19:48 -0000

I can't remember when I first learned about asset allocation and portfolio rebalancing. I probably learned it first at Wharton while I was an intern making photocopies of presentations on these topics. Then I read my 403b materials when I first was offered a plan.

From all of those risk tolerance quizzes in 401k retirement materials, I settled into 80+% stocks in my portfolio, if not 90%, because I have a high tolerance for risk since I'm still under 35. I'm happy to take the risks now but I know I'll start moving to a 65-70% mix in a few short years.

I don't think about it too much since it could easily turn into something I fret about all the time. Instead, I look at it every few weeks, mostly just to make sure I get my numbers right in Quicken to prepare my net worth graph.

Re: The IT Job Market Must Be Picking Up

mapgirl — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:58:47 -0000

The flood of calls is annoying. Don't pick up numbers you don't recognize. I've learned to demand they send me a listing in writing and that I'm not willing to relocate. Half of the jobs they are calling about are short term contract in awful places. Oh, and they're probably not even for jobs you actually want.

Yes, I've done helpdesk before. No way I'd go back. Why would a programmer want to go back to helpdesk? These people have no comprehension at all of what they are doing.

Re: Kiplinger’s Article: Must-Read Bloggers

mapgirl — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:26:35 -0000

Well done! Well done!

I actually don't read most of the others, but I'm not into investing really. I think that's why I like your site so much. It's got a nice balance of articles on a wide variety of PF topics and not just investing and uncontained avarice.

Re: Capital One Credit Cards Hurt Your Credit Score

mapgirl — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:34:27 -0000

I hated Capital One in college. They didn't like me checking my balance all the time. As soon as I got that letter, I transferred the balance and closed the card. I absolutely will not do business with them anymore.

Re: Welcome, Kiplinger’s Readers

mapgirl — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:13:05 -0000

Congratulations! That's wonderful!

Re: Kiyosaki is a Liar?

mapgirl — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:25:58 -0000

http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

That is a great link to site that denounces the man. I have an ad up for the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad on my site, but ever since I read John Reed's website, I've thought of taking it down. I always felt slightly uneasy about Mr. Kiyosaki's claims, and Mr. Reed points out what I could not quite articulate.

The book did make me think about money in a different way (buying an asset vs a liability) and I'm glad I read it, but in the pantheon of books out there, he doesn't even begin to rate with other writings.

Re: Why Can Ben Stein Retire at 61?

mapgirl — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:43:15 -0000

I love Ben Stein. I really do. He's smart, witty and entertaining. What more could a girl want?

Re: Verizon’s Ridiculous Fee, Update #2

mapgirl — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:47:21 -0000

YAY! $3-4 back for me! I can go have a latte every month! ;-)

Re: Verizon Charging DSL Customers Unnecessary Fee

mapgirl — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:44:30 -0000

This is very peculiar. Verizon already contracts for its data circuits to carry DSL service, so they don't really have to charge an extra supplier fee. That should be built into your monthly charge. To get rid of the FUSF Recovery fee ($1.55 on my monthly bill) and then charge a fake charge is silly. I wonder if I can file a dispute and notify the FCC with a complaint?

Re: Gardening in New Jersey: Invasion of the Bunnies

mapgirl — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:50:12 -0000

I saw a record 5 bunnies on an evening walk with my dad up in suburban Philly about a month ago. They were big brown hares too. I thought it was cool to see so many since my mom no longer keeps a full garden of tomatoes anymore. They used to eat them all up when I was a kid!

Yay! Bunnies! (Go to CuteOverload.com to see more. So cute!)

Re: Regularly Scheduled Auto Maintenance, Part 2: 50,000 Miles

mapgirl — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 10:43:30 -0000

I've had my car for 98K miles. I took it to the dealer once for an oil change and to check why the gas mileage had plummeted mysteriously. (I had moved out of state and my driving habits were really different, though I didn't notice it.)

I didn't take my car to the dealer again until the check engine light came on intermittently last month. I got the 90K mi service check up and spent quite a lot. Turns out I need a new clutch soon and will probably take it back to the dealer for the replacement.

Jiffy Lube stinks, but it works for me when it comes to regular oil changes. I've been learning how to do small things myself, like change the wiper blades and headlight bulbs.

I think the dealer has its place and purpose. My car is getting older and needs the TLC of the dealer for major repairs like the transmission. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me are the other little small consumable things.

Re: Cell Phone Upgrade Fees

mapgirl — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 11:33:08 -0000

Blah. My phone died this weekend. Let's see what Verizon charges me today.

Nice template change. I like the lighter colors, but you can tell I'm already partial to pastels.

Re: The Last 401(k) Guide You’ll Ever Need, Five Tips, Part 4

mapgirl — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 08:56:03 -0000

I rebalance about once a year or less. It really depends on where I think I need to be in terms of managing risk. Sometimes it's ad hoc to take advantage of things like rising interest rates, etc. But overall I don't think about it too much and try to save regularly above anything else.

Re: Flexo’s “Get Away From BlogSpot” Project

mapgirl — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:43:14 -0000

Ok. I'll say yes! Pick me! Pick me!

I've had a blog intermittently since 1997! But this personal finance blogging has really taken off for me and will probably stick with me for life since we all could use some money.

I did some researching into WordPress already, but decided not to do it because of the additional costs. Let's chat more offline. Buying a domain is easy. It's the hosting, etc that I think will cost me...

Re: Update: Moving Savings From ING Direct to HSBC Direct

mapgirl — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 17:24:27 -0000

Yeah. I am irritated and impatient with the HSBC process so I am going to skip it for now. I think I can get myself close to the same rate by doing ING short-term CD's. I couldn't really figure out the HSBC rate card (it looked like it was for all CD's at the bank and not from the online savings stuff), and they all require $1K minimums, so I've talked myself out of HSBC.

Re: Thinking About Moving Savings From ING Direct to HSBC Direct?

mapgirl — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:54:43 -0000

Creepy on the ING IP address post.

I wish HSBC had a referral bonus to sweeten the deal, but I'm going to start an account there anyway. I probably will shift a large chunk of my savings there, but I will continue to keep ING as well since I have CD's opened there already.

It's not that I hate ING or anything like that, I'm really glad I have been with them. It's purely about interest. If they were within a half percent, I probably wouldn't switch, but now that they are at 0.7%, I feel it's time to make a move. It's not a huge amount of interest, but why should I keep my money at ING when I could make more at HSBC?

Re: Three Years Ago This Month

mapgirl — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 23:13:55 -0000

Hooray for turning 3 this month!

Re: Answering Mail: Free Annual Credit Reports, Online Savings Accounts

mapgirl — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:32:27 -0000

Jimmy - In DC it is very common to have a credit check done as part of a basic SF-85 application for a public trust clearance. That's for nearly anyone who works for the government as an employee or contractor. People with financial troubles are poor security risks.
****************************
Flexo,
In my experience, the TransUnion credit report forces you to sign up for their mailing list, so when I am volunteer credit counseling, we usually obtain Equifax and Experian reports to review with clients and tell them they can get the TransUnion one on their own. So if people don't have a burning desire to check all three, they may wish to skip TransUnion altogether.

There are lots of screens in the process, so people should be *extremely* attentive to what they are clicking. I have to keep up the chatter and educational information while helping clients and it is VERY EASY to misclick. (I haven't misclicked yet, but I will totally stop talking and stare at the screen to make sure I am clicking the right boxes for my clients.)

While I was undergoing the renting process, some of the landlords wanted you to print out your own credit reports for them to review. That avoids them having to pay a fee for it, and still take your $25 application fee.

Re: The Watergate Hotel is in Foreclosure

mapgirl — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:30:19 -0000

You might want to point out that the Watergate is the set of buildings on the left side of that photo. It looks like you're trying to say the white marble Kennedy Center is the Watergate. lol It's the scene of other crimes of passion and greed, but mostly from operatic political plots vs real ones.

Re: 10 Purchases That Can Harm Your Credit

mapgirl — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:20:44 -0000

People need to understand that credit card companies are some of the best at analyzing behavior through purchase history. There is a reason why you are rewarded for long histories with credit card companies on your FICO score. It's a behavioral indicator. They have built up a phenomenal amount of data on you and can guess a lot of your preferences. For instance, I used to buy only Mobil brand gas in my area code because my parents sold Mobil. I also only flew with USAirways out of three of their hub cities where I or my family lived. All of it is used to target their marketing efforts to stuff you might like to buy. I buy Callaway Golf stuff for my dad for Christmas, next thing you know, I'm getting brochures for vacations in Myrtle Beach. Yes, they are spying on you to sell you things you might want too. Is that ok with you? I think phrased like that, most people are ok with it. (I am not, but that's because I'm weirdly private that way.)

So more than anything, the credit card companies are looking at *changes in behavior* and to understand them. So what if I start buying a lot of Chevron after buying 99% of my gas at Mobil? That probably doesn't say a lot about my changes in fortunes since gas is fungible, but shopping at Wal-Mart after years of shopping at Nieman-Marcus does.

I think it's absolutely ok for companies to analyze your purchase this way to assess credit risk. They expect to be paid back and we all agree buy using cards to be periodically reassessed for our risk level. People are just sensitive to it now because it can represent a catastrophic cut in their limits.

What I do not think is ok, is for the government to ask for this information to go on a fishing expedition for terrorists and criminal behavior. I didn't sign up for that at all. But there are probably other ways of doing data analysis and mining to get those results.

In direct reply to Charles Gervasi's comment "If you don’t carry a balance, what do you need a very high credit rating for?" You need it in ways that have nothing to do with money. My insurance agent recently had to quote me renter's insurance and she flat out told me because I had a very good credit rating she could offer me the best rate available. So yes, having a high credit rating goes beyond your relationship with traditional banking products. This was despite two homeowner insurance claims in 5 years on my condo. Thank my lucky stars that I had a great credit rating or else I might have had to pay a lot more for the insurance.

Re: Study: iPhone Users Are Younger, Richer and More Productive

mapgirl — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:36:38 -0000

Dang! The Jesusphone reverses time? Sign me up!

FWIW, Correlation does mean Causation. Signing up for a $300 phone with an $80 monthly plan is a self-selecting group so it's already going to skew towards people who can afford that on a monthly basis.

Now what the study may tell you is that many of these folks have their plans paid for by work and it would be interesting to see the compensation adjusted for that fact and then chew on the results.

Re: Your House Is Not a Good Investment

mapgirl — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:17:21 -0000

Most people have a hard time quantifying the intangibles of living in a home vs rent. Personally, I don't think a condo is a good investment, but a home is better, but still not best. This is one of those times where Kiyosaki might be right. It is buying a liability if you decide to hold it long term.

Sure, if you're a bad saver, buying a place is a good savings vehicle, but like any investment, there is no guaranteed rate of return. In 30 years you'd like to hope you have recovered the cost of the place, but really, all you got out of it was the utility of living there.

Currently I struggle with a condo that is underwater and down 20% from its purchase price and 40% from its peak value. Since I cannot sell it for a profit, I am turning it into a rental, but even that has a cost associated with it and I will have to sell my condo later for at least 10% above its original purchase price to feel that I recouped any cost, despite having lived there for 5 years as my primary residence.

Re: Reader Question: Find Better Loan to Pay Off Student Loan?

mapgirl — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:17:19 -0000

At the heart of his question is 'I was wondering if any bank might ever offer a 6 month or 12 month loan at a lower interest rate.'

I don't believe that he could get a 6-12 month unsecured loan anywhere at a lower rate than his current student loans. If he does, please give him my email address because I'd totally jump on that.

The closest thing is the balance transfer suggestion by Rassah, but I have a hard time making those numbers work out if there's a transaction fee involved for any of the APR specials being offered. (0% for 6 mos, 2.99% for 18 mos, etc.)

Re: The Best American Cars of 2009

mapgirl — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:13:31 -0000

BTW, if you want more insight into modern auto manufacturing practices, read up on Toyota Production System (TPS). It will teach you about Just In Time and kaizen (constant improvement) practices. Also read up on critiques of TPS and how it pressures second and third-tier suppliers/manufacturing. You'll notice Wal-Mart has similar practices.

Remember, somewhere, someone is suffering because you wanted to buy something cheaply.

Re: The Best American Cars of 2009

mapgirl — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:10:09 -0000

Correction. NUMMI is in NorCal, not SoCal. I forgot I took a plant tour there right after college. (And a plant tour of Sparrows Point for college.)

Re: The Best American Cars of 2009

mapgirl — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:08:09 -0000

I agree with GJS. B/c of NAFTA, many Japanese branded cars are built in the US, and by 'built' I mean final assembly. Toyota has greenfield factories in the US. Consider NUMMI in Southern California: Toyota Corolla, Toyota Tacoma and Pontiac Vibe are all made there.

GM used to have a factory in Sparrows Point in Baltimore that made the GMC Safari and other GM light trucks. The affiliated Allison transmission plant is still in suburban B'more.

BMW IIRC has a plant in South Carolina.
Honda in Ohio.
VW has plants in Mexico and recently announced a plant for TN. Plus their North American HQ is in suburban DC where I live. :-)

Of course many of the Japanese plants are not UAW or discourage unionizing. Not sure what that picture looks like these days.

Re: Publicly Shame a Deadbeat

mapgirl — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:03:28 -0000

Instead of this, why not re-institute debtor's prison? Because suing someone for slander and libel on an anonymous website doesn't really get a debt paid does it? Just look all those deadbeat dads who don't pay child support. Their names go up on public websites, but does it really get all of them to pay? (I'm sure some do, but certainly not all. Many go on being deadbeats.)

Re: Introducing Fuelly

mapgirl — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:23:40 -0000

Oh. My. God. This is the website that all my fuel receipts have been waiting for all these years.

Unfortunately, it doesn't make a distinction between automatic and manual. I drive a manual and I can tell you already that I get WAY better mileage than the 2001 Altimas listed. If I am under 25mpg, I get really ticked off. When I first got my car, and occasionally still on long road trips, I get 30mpg.

Re: Investing Strategy: Set it and Forget It (Except Once Annually for Rebalancing)

mapgirl — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:10:58 -0000

Clearly you listen to Marketplace on NPR.

I'm a lazy rebalancer. When I started with my new company I was slightly overwhelmed by their offerings (over 50 funds) so I freaked out and told myself I'd research them more later, which I did.

At the same time, I altered some other investments from an old 401k plan I rolled over. And since I change jobs a lot, I probably have traded too much, but I rarely make major rebalance moves. Usually I just change the contributions that come in till it gets where I want it to be.

It's not good to stare at balances and panic. You always have to look at how far you've come on an investment and where you think it's going to go. But I do agree, it's not good to check all the time and execute lots of trades.

Re: Confirmed: TIAA-CREF Laying Off 10% of Workforce

mapgirl — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:23:50 -0000

RIF's under a certain size aren't announced in press releases. Therefore if you roll them out slowly, you don't get the big black mark in the marketplace on your stock, but it will show up as operating costs on your quarterly numbers. In the long run though the one-time charge companies take with the RIF is small compared to the costs of having that many employees.

The question I want to know is what kind of severance are they getting? Is it good or bad? Because bad packages on top of a RIF is a bad sign. In dot-com days that mean the company was near shuttering the office. But I doubt TIAA-CREF is at that point.

Re: 5 Years of Consumerism Commentary: What Would You Like to See Here?

mapgirl — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:46:07 -0000

Wow! 5 years! Thanks for the great blog and all the help you've given me with mine. Here's to another 5 years of prosperity!

Re: My First Quarter 401(k) Results Are In

mapgirl — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:53:59 -0000

What if you were up 37% for the previous 3 years? Would that make you feel any better? *winky*

I'll live witha Q1 loss since I'm still up over the duration of the investment. At least in one of my 401k rollover accounts...

Re: Anyone Fly Virgin America?

mapgirl — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:20:48 -0000

I had a crappy experience with their flight from IAD to SFO. But I cut them a lot of slack for it since that was probably in the first week or two of starting that route. (I think I have a review of it somewhere on my blog. I flew them at Christmastime. Or did I forget to write it?)

The problems were these:
1) Mood lighting like I'm at a nightclub. If you've ever heard the song by They Might Be Giants, "Man, it's so loud in here". That describes it. The look was swankier than bars I've been to in DC.

2) Overheated flight. Perhaps due to the winter weather, I was sweating like a hog on the flight and so were my fellow passengers. We collectively had to ask them to change the temperature for us.

3) The stupid computers for food ordering. Very nice and while EXCELLENT in concept, way poor in execution. On the flight in and out, the onboard computers had to be rebooted. Very bad if you ask me. The controllers for playing games weren't that great either. I was gouging a fingernail into the 'touch-sensitive' screens because they weren't responsive or picking up when I pressed a button at all.

Upsides. Yes! There were some!

1) The music selections were pretty awesome. Much better than on other airlines.

2) The service was very good. They effed up my dinner order, but were kind enough to own up to their mistake and offer me a new dinner. However, I had torn through mine in about 5 minutes so it was way too late by then. But I appreciated the gesture.

3) I think once they work the kinks out of the DC-SFO route, it will be a very good alternative to the United Airlines non-stop stranglehold on DC. I'm happy to pay $400-550 on a non-stop coast to coast flights since the $300 ones were bombed out of existence by 9/11. A 10-14 hour one-way trip kills a potential 4 day weekend to visit my family, but a single 5-7 hour flight makes it possible again!

Just my two cents.

Re: Searching for a CD as the Rates Plummet

mapgirl — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:32:22 -0000

Interesting. I financed my condo very similarly to your home. I had an 80-15-5 with a 7/1 ARM as the primary mortgage, with a similar rate, but slightly higher. The second trust isn't a balloon mortgage though. It's a HELOC that I converted to a fixed rate. I suspect it's a higher rate than your balloon mortgage. That might have been a good idea for me, but I'm happy with my place and where it's at. It will turn adjustable in another 3 years, but we shall see what the future brings. I'm considering a refi, but I'm still not sure it's right for me.

Hey Sasha, kick ass job you do here btw. Don't think I haven't noticed. :-)

Re: Full 2007 Goal Review: How Well Did I Meet My Goals?

mapgirl — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:45:35 -0000

Great write up of goals. I am afraid to look at mine since I know I failed miserably on some of them. blah. But I suppose I'll only know by looking right?

Re: Online Banking is Safe

mapgirl — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:31:04 -0000

I agree with "Me". Rarely is there ever an emergency I have where I can't wait 3 days for an online banking transfer into my regular checking account. If I really need THAT much money THAT quickly, a credit card will suffice. Therefore my emergency fund is online and I still keep some money around for ATM withdrawls at a brick and mortar bank.

Re: Livin’ it Up: Young Philly Couple Charged With Identity Theft

mapgirl — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:35:56 -0000

Excuse me. I had a private school upbringing (on financial aid) and very supportive parents. That does not instantly mean you should group all private school students with people who cheat, defraud and lie. I recently went to an alumni function and the number of people who work in public service and non-profit industries was well represented.

They are two very stupid adults, but they aren't stereotypical of people who go to private school, OK? Chip and Buffy still play squash at the club, etc. But thieving still remains outside the norm.

Re: How to Turn $500 Into $7 The Hard Way

mapgirl — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:51:15 -0000

I'm wondering why you bought an encyclopedia, but when I was a kid, my mom and dad bought the whole she-bang. Thing is, I actually read them back in the olden days before there was a computer in every home. I used to do my vocabulary homework in front of the TV with the dictionary set, get lost in the encyclopedias when I was looking up something else for school, yanked out a Great Book and read a few chapters of Montaigne when I wanted to feel erudite and arcane. I probably wouldn't know half the things I know without reference books at home to inspire me to learn more.

It sure beat running to the library all the time. The interwebs are great these days, but there's still something nice about sitting on the couch with a book on your lap and just flipping the pages till you get to a picture of something weird and interesting looking and reading the entry.

Alright. I'm a dork. I know. I admit it. Better here than on my own blog! LOL!

Re: Members Only: Discounts Offered When Flashing the AAA Card

mapgirl — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:03:19 -0000

The greatest thing are the free guidebooks you can get with membership. I drove cross country once and before I left, I got guidebooks for my trip. I walked out of the local office with about $30-50 worth of books in hand. Plus, we blew a tire and used my membership to get a tow. Those two things made the membership completely worthwhile.

A lot of the tourist sites and some of the restaurants featured will also get you discounts with AAA.

For cheap, local getaways, the guidebooks are probably excellent as well since we would read a little blurb about some obscure place and pull over and have fun taking goofy pictures and eating lunch. I will never forget a huge piece of chocolate cake in SD for a buck as well as the Mitchell Corn Palace. I also had one of my best sushi dinners in Canada because of a place we found in a guidebook. (Yes! AAA has Canada guides too!)

Re: Selling a Car While Upside-Down

mapgirl — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 13:09:52 -0000

Not to hijack your post, but the NADA Guides offer a better price for sellers than Kelley Blue Book. I'm not sure how it compares to Edmunds, but a dealer will usually honor the NADA price since, NADA are the dealers.

Re: Caption Contest: Bill Gates and Bill Clinton

mapgirl — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 13:11:06 -0000

Flexo! You entered your own caption contest?

Ok here's two:

"Check out the rack on the blonde in navy in row 3."

"Thanks for the tip on Viagra. It's been working great!"

Re: Carnival of Personal Finance #53

mapgirl — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 08:46:14 -0000

Thanks for hosting! Good color shading on the table. It fits well with your color theme. :-)

Here's to another year of success for the CoPF! Hip Hip Hooray!

Re: Carnival of Investing #25

mapgirl — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 09:09:12 -0000

Thanks for hosting this Carnival and incorporating the links I sent over. Yay Flexo!

Re: News Items

mapgirl — Wed, 24 May 2006 22:32:02 -0000

Thanks for reposting that outward appearance article. It's why I code alone in a cube. I'm all about the wrinkly, non-dry-clean clothes. I must look a fright as Frumperella. ;-)

Re: Chicago Tribune Mentions Personal Finance Blogs

mapgirl — Mon, 22 May 2006 11:43:28 -0000

The Google service seems to pick up ad focused sites that repost feeds. For instance LAMoney Guy's blog mention of my Automatic Millionaire book review seems to be reposted to some sites out of the UK. What's up with that?

Re: Looking for Apartments, Update 2

mapgirl — Mon, 15 May 2006 13:32:06 -0000

Learn to speak Korean, and it'll probably get you small discounts in all the Korean places around Fort Lee and Palisades Park! ;-)

Re: Ten Free Ways To Improve Sleep, Part 1

mapgirl — Thu, 04 May 2006 08:51:45 -0000

#4 is what kills me. I still like going out all night on the weekends, but what everyone says is true. Once you turn 30, you just can't go out every weekend. *wah!*

Re: Some Carnival Hosts Will Be Removed

mapgirl — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 16:32:00 -0000

Flexo, if you could, please move me up to an earlier one in August if there is a spot. Otherwise, I'm happy to trade with someone later than Sept 11th. (A silly wedding is interfering with my blogging!)

Re: In-N-Out

mapgirl — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:54:59 -0000

Ask for one 'animal style' and be prepared to eat.

Re: Update From The West Coast

mapgirl — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 22:55:32 -0000

Yeah, Tahoe is frequently still open for skiing in April. In spring and summer after an El Nino winter, it's not unheard of to ski on snow/slush in July.

Re: Keeping Busy

mapgirl — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 00:55:03 -0000

Have fun in CA. I love the part you are visiting. I dream of a vacation home in Truckee for summer and winter.

Good luck on that new job!

Re: ten tips for new bloggers

mapgirl — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:42:53 -0000

A great list. I am on a quasi-political/pop culture blog and frankly, I don't love it as much as personal finance.
What do you think of scrapers and using a full-feed? I have a full-feed because around DC, it's difficult to get out past DoD firewalls, so my military site readers have asked me to turn it on.

Re: I want it. You buy it. Any questions?

mapgirl — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:48:07 -0000

I think it's time for you to have a Cafe Press store. If not, I'll have to take your ideas!

LOL

Mine says 'Got Tap Water?'

I bought the font and everything. Just never got around to opening the store.

Re: As mother’s day closes

mapgirl — Thu, 18 May 2006 09:00:39 -0000

I followed here from Gaping Void. I'm so sorry about your mother's stroke. My father recently had one, but is recovering. I know it's hard to sit and hold hands, but there's a lot to keeping the connection and the warmth of human touch. Just being able to be close to her is good.

Re: Use Left-Over Wool as Packaging Material

mapgirl — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:33:55 -0000

M needs to re-read the article. The wool in use is waste wool likely from the milling process.

Sheep are still hand-sheared and any spinner can tell you that second cuts of wool are no-good. The short fibers can't be spun well and usually just end up as pills on a garment of poor or low quality. Neither is this stuff good for felting. If it was, it would be felted. The whole point of this product is to use up wool that is otherwise wasted and has no commercial value.

Many sheep farmers have excess wool and they just bury it in their pastures because it is low-quality wool off of meat animals vs sheep bred for fiber. It's a common practice in the US to bury the stuff. I am sure farmers in Austraila and rest of the world do something similar because you can't just store the stuff in a loft for later use.

Wool from sheep is a great renewable resource. It keeps people warm even when wet and you don't have to kill the animal to harvest it.

Re: Survey: Do You Fix Your Shoes?

mapgirl — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:44:03 -0000

Of course I fix my shoes! I still call the shoe repair guy a 'cobbler' too. It's not just a word out of a kid's nursery rhyme.

What I don't understand is why everyone doesn't buy repairable shoes. Sneakers I understand. But for my dress shoes, I never buy crepe soles that don't last.

Re: Computer Ownership Chart Offers Surprising Breakdown

mapgirl — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:17:55 -0000

And what country is 'Canda' anyway?

Re: Use Left-Over Wool as Packaging Material

mapgirl — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:33:55 -0000

M needs to re-read the article. The wool in use is waste wool likely from the milling process.

Wool from sheep is a great renewable resource. It keeps people warm even when wet and you don't have to kill the animal to harvest it.