By Len Penzo on January 25, 2009
As required by our household constitution, the household CFO is required to deliver the family financial report to the household CEO each January.
As such, the ever-dependable Honeybee has painstakingly tracked and recorded our finances for over 10 years using Excel, which is a Microsoft spreadsheet tool that I highly recommend. I’ve reviewed the numbers and I am quite pleased.
With her report for 2008 finished I thought you, too, might like to see a detailed breakdown of my household expenses for the past year. By doing this, hopefully some of you may also be able to gain some insight by looking at exactly how we track and manage our household finances.
Since I have detailed records going back to 1999, I will also show you data that reveals longer-term trends applicable to typical households with a genuine commitment to living within their means. By observing this long-term data I hope
Continue reading My 2008 State of the Household Financial Report…
By Len Penzo on January 20, 2009
There is a Starbucks in my neighborhood grocery store. Then again, where isn’t there a Starbucks? I live in a place that has almost as many Starbucks (11) as the Lakers have NBA championships (14). Based on those numbers you might expect that I live in a big city with a large population, but in fact it is a fairly small town with a population of maybe 75,000; that’s one Starbucks for every 6,800 people! By comparison, we have only two McDonalds (and thank God for that).
Occasionally the Honeybee likes to get a venti Caramel Macchiato which, I’ve been told, is some kind of special caramel vanilla coffee drink. These abominations on the traditional cup of joe cost in the vicinity of $4.60 with tax, which is why I like to call Starbucks “Fourbucks.”
The Honeybee might have one of these overpriced concoctions a couple times a month,
Continue reading I’m Just Askin: Why Waste Money at Starbucks?…
By Len Penzo on January 19, 2009
Recently I was talking with a buddy of mine, who happens to be a higher-echelon employee for a major bank, about my desire to refinance into a longer-term home loan in order to provide me with additional financial flexibility in the event I ever lost my job.
Eventually, our conversation migrated over to the case of my mother-in-law. I wanted to also refinance her mortgage for the same reason because she has a very limited monthly income that will become even more limited when she finally retires. Unfortunately, although she is 65, she has very little saved for retirement and therefore she will be almost entirely dependent on her social security payments in the coming years. Here is an approximation of her current situation:
Monthly Social Security Income: $1000
Monthly Mortgage Payment: $400
Remaining Mortgage Balance: $40,000
Value of House: $200,000
As you can see, once she retires her mortgage will eat up roughly 40% of her
Continue reading Using a HELOC as an Alternative to Refinancing…
By Len Penzo on January 18, 2009
We’ll now continue with Part 2 of my list on the Top 12 Songs That Teach A Lesson About Money. For those of you that missed it, the list’s first 6 songs, along with the complete explanation of criteria and qualifications that enabled a song to qualify, can be found here in Part 1. With that, here is:
The Top 12 Songs That Teach A Lesson About Money (Part 2)
6. Lady Madonna (The Beatles)
Music: 70
Message: 100
Total Score: 170
Money Moral: It costs a significant chunk of change to support a family (Surprise!)
Key Lines:
Lady Madonna, children at your feet
Wonder how you manage to make ends meet
Who find the money when you pay the rent
Did you think that money was heaven sent
Len: This song gets a perfect 100 on the message meter; it is an especially important message for young adults and teenagers. One thing I intend to do before my kids start dating
Continue reading Top 12 Songs That Teach A Lesson About Money (Part 2)…
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