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Health Insurance Costs Outpacing Inflation...
2006-09-26 22:07:00
The associated press is reporting that health care costs will be going up this year by 7.7%, twice the rate of inflation. That's the smallest increase since 1999. Since 2000 health insurance premiums have been raised by 87%, while wages are only up 20%. A survey done by "The Kaiser Family Foundation" finds that more that 155 million American's obtain their health insurance through they're employer. On average those employers pick up 84% of the cost for individuals, and 73% for families. employers pick up 84% of the cost for individuals, and 73% for families. I guess it's not a surprise that since 2000, the percentage of companies providing health insurance has gone from 69% to 61%. But they also find that number has been slowing as of late with the smaller businesses. The average cost of health insurance for an individual is $4,242, while families are paying $11,480. It's estimated that 2.7 million workers are enrolled in high-deductible plans with a savings account. employers...
More About: Health , Insurance , Inflation , Cost , Health Insurance

If only I had a dollar for every name in this book...
2006-09-26 19:41:00
Currently reading... This complete baby naming resource includes more names and more helpful features than any other book on the market: Over 100,000 baby names and their meanings, derivations and famous namesakes 5,000 Hispanic names. Icons to identify names used for both genders, and to indicate whether they're used evenly, more for boys, or more for girls. Updated lists ranking the 100 most popular names for boys and girls in 2004 Top-hundred ranked names are starred in the main text of the book. A new introductory chapter by Bruce Lansky: "How to Pick A Name for Your Baby" 300 helpful lists of names to consider, including famous authors, actors, athletes, artists, scientists as well as lists of names that convey an image: attractive, smart, competent, friendly, wimpy, etc.
More About: Dollar , Book , Ever

Wedding day...
2006-09-23 18:51:00
Today my wife and I will be attending a co-workers wedding and reception. It'll be one of three we will be going to in the next several months. And two of them we'll actually be participating in! Needless to say the frugal angel on my shoulder is wondering how much this is going to cost. We typically give about $200 bucks from the both of us. That's normally the approximate cost of a plate nowa days. And in my friends case, his future in laws will be paying for it, so that's 100% profit. How much do you typically give at weddings?
More About: Wedding

You're Fired...
2006-09-19 20:26:00
That's what a former co-worker heard last week. It's not often that some one is fired from our department, but it does happen. That's what happens when you frequently call out sick, and come in late. The good and bad of this for me is more overtime, one of the reasons I haven't been posting as much recently. I'm actually hitting an all time high this year in overtime. With a baby on the way, we need all the help we can get...
More About: Fire , Fired

Wallet cooling down as the summer heats up...
2006-09-12 00:13:00
...Well, at least for our electric bill. We saved $23.40 for the month of September from last year on our electric bill. That translates into using 226 kilowatts per hour less for the month. Since January it's a total savings of $179.44. That's very surprising since the average temperature for last month was 98 degrees! According to electric company that's up 18 degrees over last years temp.
More About: Summer , Cool , Wall , Heat , Down

Top 10 Investing Books...
2006-05-04 01:08:00
In an attempt to become a better investor, I set out on a search to find a few, good solid books about investing. I sometimes roam around in the investment catagory @ Amazon, or just google it. I was feelin' a little lazy, so I googled it and found a top 10 list from Joshua Kennon @ About.com. Here are the books he believes are the top 10 investment books... The Intelligent Invest or One Up on Wall Street The Essays of Warren Buffett Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits & Other Writings Security Analysis How to be a Billionaire The Interpretation of Financial Statements 9 Steps to Financial Freedom Use the News Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks and Fraud Hm, I haven't heard of most of these, but they're worth a shot. Has anyone reading this post read any of these books? If so, any reviews or recommendations? I've also come across Amazon's Investing top sellers.
More About: Books , Sting

Net Worth Update...
2006-05-02 03:22:00
Looks like we've reached the 100k mark in the month of May. Our net worth increased by $2905.99, for a 2.98% increase. Not our best month, but it's progress. A couple of factors made a big difference. I'm in the process of moving my Roth IRA from my current brokerage to Vanguard, so my funds had to be sold. Unfortunately they were back loaded funds, something like 4.00%. I'm looking foward to Vanguards low cost funds and ETF's. We also purchased a new computer a few days ago, half price from Dell. Climbing the ladder, slowly but surely...
More About: Update , Net worth , Worth , Wort

Personal Finance...Vlogger?
2006-04-28 15:44:00
Yeah, I said "vlogger." That wasn't a typo. It's short for the brand new and upcoming medium "Video Blogger." I don't know about any of you, but this is the first I'm hearing about it. Apparently it's starting to become a booming form of internet media. There are now approximately 6,500 vlogs out there, and growing fast. That's more than 6,200 from the year before! Good news for any vlogger out there, advertisers like the online video spots. Internet video ads reeled in $225 million dollars last year, and are expected to break the $1 billion mark by 2008! The overhead for producing a vlog is low, and the potential for getting advertisers is good for this new and hip Internet medium. The most popluar vlog on the net is a satirical news show named Rocketboom. They report to have over 250,000 visitors a day, and growing. They've recently auctioned off ads for their vlog on Ebay, the winning bid was $40,000. In October I-tunes offered vlogs for download as video podcasts giving t...
More About: Personal , Personal Finance , Finance , Person , Logger

April Net Worth...
2006-04-03 22:54:00
Is it that time of month already? Oh no, I'm afraid to look. Concert tickets, birthday gifts, taxes, extra pay periods, a family loan, oh my! It was a busy month financially. But it looks ok, (4.85%) we're making progress....
More About: April , Net worth , Worth , Wort

March Net Worth...
2006-03-06 20:13:00
Looks like it's that time of the month. Time to calculate our net worth and do a little analyzation. I keep track of our net worth in a excel document..Marc h _Net_Wort h .xls (15kb) Not a bad increase for 27 days. I was thinking about waiting until the 30 day mark which would be more of a round figure to represent an average month...and have an extra paycheck by then. But I was a bit too anxious since I've never consistantly compiled a net worth monthly before. The figures might've been a bit higher, but we had a nice vacation this month with out of town relatives, which equals more spending than usual. I think we can do better taking into account our net income for the month, and the small unnecessary expenditures. Bankrate.com has some very informative articles on net worth. I think they're worth a look.
More About: Net worth

February Networth...
2006-02-07 22:36:00
Our net worth for the month of February networth.xls (13 KB) Do you know what your net worth is? CNN Money Net Wort h Calculator
More About: Net worth

First post, first step...
2006-02-07 18:47:00
The name I've chosen for my blog is a metaphor that represents our finacial progress in a climbing , upward moving motion...hopefully. I'll use it to record and measure the finances of me and my wife. I've come accross so many interesting and impressive blogs recently, that it's inspired me to create one of my own. I suppose I'll consider this post, the first step on "The Financial Ladder!"
More About: Post , First , First Post , Step