Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist - The F.S.A.

Just ran # 150, 50 more to go

Just ran # 151, 49 more to go

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And on and on it goes

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At night, we have been trying to get our two sons to sleep in their own beds with mixed results. We've gotten to a point where we'll have to either close their room door, or our room door at night in order to keep them in one place.

A few nights ago, we overheard this conversation between son 1 and son2:
son 2: Ma-Ma, Da-da [little voice filled with anguish]
son 1: [Son 2's Name], listen. Wait till sun go up, Ok. Then go Mama, Dada bed, Ok.
[We've been telling them they can only come in after the sun comes up in the morning. Sometimes that works]
son 2: Ma-Ma, Da-da [voice still filled with anguish]
son 1: [Son 2's Name]. wait till Ma-ma, Da-da go sleep then go Mama, Dada bed, ok

I was shocked! Such chicanery! What can I say, like father like son.

Just thought I'd share.

Tags: personal

I'm not quite at 100% yet. Still in a little bit of pain. I did have to leave work early on Monday, but yesterday I was able to put in a full day. I have some more ideas for posts and will try to get to the by the end of the week. However, I wouldn't hold your breath :).

In the meantime, sign up for my RSS feed to keep tabs on me. It's convenient and useful :).

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The gall of this woman and that ratings-whore Montel Williams. It's just unbelievable. The saddest part is the look on that poor victim's face when she realizes that Browne is full of sh*t. So very sad.



Seriously, this woman is a fake and a liar. Please, please, please do not fall for her crap. She doesn't have physic powers. She doesn't have any sort of supernatural ability. She is a liar, a fraud, and a deceitful woman.

HT: Two Percent Co, Big Heathen Mike, and PZ

Tags: sylvia browne atheism skepticism

I'm weaker, but still here. Just wanted to pop in and let everyone know. I'll be returning to work on Monday, but I probably will not be working my full hours (then again, my manager might want me to work anyway). In either case, I won't be back up to full strength for a few more days. The one positive about all this is the extra attention from my wife. A guy could get use to that :).

Look for my return in a few more days, thanks once again for your patience.

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I will be MIA for about 4 days. I will be having some surgery done today. Minor procedure, but I will be somewhat weaker for a little while. I may or may not talk about it here, as it does have some implications for our finances. In either case, while I'm out be sure to check out the following carnivals:
- Carnival of PF 61
- Carnival of Investing 36
- Skeptic's Circle
- Carnival of the Godless 47


Tags: personal finance atheism

Here is part two of the Root of All evil from Richard Dawkins. And yes, I do not have time for a post today.



Tags: atheism

Hi Claire, please check your yahoo email address. I think I might have fixed your template. Take a look when you can.
-Frank, the FSA

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I was googling "financially savvy atheist" and I can came across an article in the Star Tribune. If you go down to the 9th paragraph where Kara McGuire mentions pfblogs.org there is this small snippet:

The financial blogosphere The easiest way to get a taste of the numerous blogs out there (there's one devoted to being a financially savvy atheist) is to visit www.pfblog.org [emphasis added]

I don't get a link, but I do get a mention. It's a start!

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Ok, so when I first say this, I almost wet myself. Then again, I am a nerd. Go figure.

Today's math fun is entitled: Tupper's Self-Referential formula*. Here is the formula:

The bars around the x is the floor function which gives us the largest integer less than or equal to x. The mod function returns the remainder of dividing two numbers (i.e. mod(5,2) returns 1). Now, graph that funky formula with the following valus:
- 0 <= x <= 105
- n <= y <= n+16 with

Can you possible guess what that graph's to? No? Here is the graph:

Nope, I didn't just post a bad picture of the formula again, the formula actually graphs itself! How cool is that! Ok, maybe it's just me.

*See mathworld for more All images copyright Mathworld
Tags: math

Madame X asked an important question: "how have you changed the value of your home in calculating your net worth?".

I still value my home at my the initial appraisal from about a year ago. Recently a home down the street from me that is extremely similar went up for sale. My wife and I are watching it closely to see if that our appraisal is based in reality or is purely a work of fiction.

Tags: personal finance

I've talked about our long term net worth goals before, the $4.5 million by 45. In order to reach that goal and starting at a base net worth of $6,000, we need to increase our net worth by approximately 33.36% every year. I'm not sure where I got that $6,000 from as this was an analysis that I did a while back.

So my year-end net worth goal will be $6,000. I did a quick (ok, not that quick) estimate of to see if we have a shot. Right now with some pretty conservative (very fast car depreciation) and not so conservative (flat market) assumptions, we're hitting at $5,400. $600 shy of our target. I think we can get there between now and then, though. We've been selling old textbooks on half.com, and I've been doing online surveys. I've been thinking of monetizing the blog more, but that takes time and effort.

So there, I'm putting it out there. World, I want a $6,000 net worth by the end of 2006. I'm We're going to falter, but I have confidence in myself, my wife and our ability to reach our goal.

Tags: personal finance

Ah yes, finally another post where I can combine personal finance and atheism. Walter Updegrave over at CNN Money recently had an article entitled: Don't gamble with retirement. Here's the reader's question:

Why do you advise people planning for retirement to figure on living to 90 or beyond? I hope to retire at 57, but I'm not going to plan on living beyond 85. That just seems iffy at best. -- Paul, Bridgeport, Connecticut

Walter then recommends what most of us would expect, plan conservatively for retirement because you can never be sure if you'll drop dead tomorrow or live to be 100. Sound advice, for sure.

In the process of departing said sound advice, he utilizes the fallacious Pascal's Wager. Here is the wager in all it's glory:

God is, or He is not. But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up...Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose. This is one point settled. But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

Whoa, pretty heavy stuff. Basically he is stating that belief in god is better from an expected value standpoint. It seems like a reasonable argument, but it is fallacious. The wikipedia article I linked to provides a variety of criticisms, but one critique is this: which god are you suppose to believe in? Allah? Vishnu? Zeus? Jupiter? Christian God Catholic version? Christian God Protestant Version? Christian God Mormon Version? Odin?

Not only that, but mere belief isn't necessary for the infinite wonders of heaven. You have to drink the kool-aid. Whether it's praying X number of times a day, not eating pork, or condeming your best friends to an eternity of suffering for being themselves.

Taken to it's logical extreme, Pascal's Wager gives you this, The Altar of Unknown gods. That's right, an altar to appease gods that you don't know exists. How you do that, I'm not sure, especially if said gods have a rule against altars!

So Walter, you made a good point about being conservative with your retirement savings, but you might want to pick a better analogy next time.

Tags: personal finance atheism

CNN Money recently had an article titled: She's a saver. He's a spender. While there isn't really such a dichotomy between my wife and I, I do think the 5 tips they give are good exercises for any couple to go through. Here are the five:

• Think Big Picture
• Give each other financial space
• Swap roles
• Schedule Money Dates
• Get help if needed

I think I'm going to give these a try. I'll talk to my wife later tonight about this and post my thoughts on the value (or lack thereof) of each tip.

[Update]
Cap thinks the husband is a jerk...I agree.

Tags: personal finance

I am the number one search item on google for the phrase "match 6 lotto analysis". Hopefully that will point people in the right direction about lottories in general.

Tags: personal finance

My (early) birthday copy of the End of Faith by Sam Harris. I haven't started it yet, but I will let you know my thoughts.

Tags: atheism

Jonathan over at mymoneyblog has a great three part QA where he answers questions about 0% balance transfer arbitrage.

part 1
part 2
part 3.

This reminded me of my earlier post where I made a spreadsheet to see how much money I'd make doing CC arbitrage. A lot has changed since Jan-06, so it's time for an update.

Using citicards as an example, I assume the following:

• A balance transfer amount of $30,000
• A minimum payment of 1.5% of the outstanding balance
• Bank APY (Emigrant Direct) of 5.15%

I take a look at how the balances progress over the course of a year. Every month I pay the minimum payment on the current credit card balance from my online bank account. This decreases the amount of interest I earn.

After one year, I would expect to make about $1,424. Most likely, however, I would pay the balance off early. So I took a look at what kind of APY that translate into:

Not bad. The minimum payments will only cost me 78 basis points if I pay the balance off one month early. Not too shabby.

If I assume that the minimum payment is now 2% (which is typically the case for most credit cards), then after 11 months I would expect to make $1,278 for a cost of 89 basis points. Once again, not too shabby. I only wish that I could lever up more than my current level. However, from the $100 gift cards to the interest income this is generating, I'm not complaining too much :).

Tags: personal finance

What do you do when you don't have time to post...another multimedia clip! Here is the venerable Richard Dawkins in the Root of All Evil.



Tags: atheism

Scott over at the moneybloggerpodcast was nice enough to interview me. You can listen to the sound of my voice at this link.

It was a lot of fun, so thanks Scott.

Tags: personal finance atheism

Since I'm not multimedia enough on this blog, here's Penn and Teller on the Bible.



Favorite line: "Elvis didn't do no drugs"

Tags: atheism

Thanks to H&R block, our net worth for this month stands at -$1,350. I wanted to wait until I actually had the check in my hand (soon to be bank account) before doing an update. Some other major occurences:

• Matchings absolutely rocks! Unfortunately, vesting doesn't rock as much :(. Nevertheless, it feels great to be saving for retirement.


• Last month we were able to stick to our eating our budget of $100/month using the envelope method. This month, I had a family member visit so it's not going as well. However, I take heart in the fact that once things are back to normal then we should be fine.


• Credit Card arbitrage is fun and profitable. I love emigrant's direct new feature which tells you how much money you've accrued this month. Soon, we'll be adding some more funds and I expect to be clearing $100/month in interest. Best part, I have no federal income tax liability even when I take all that extra money into account. How sweet is that. That's going to be changing soon, though.


• We'll be receiving our first $200 in gift cards from Citi in a few weeks. And in a couple of days, we'll put in for anoth $100.

A great month overall, nothing to complain about, but still leaves me hungering for a positive net worth. Unfortunately, too many of our assets are depreciating (cars) and that needs to be remedied.

Sorry for the lack of posts, it's the usual suspects, work, family, etc. I took a week off from work last week and since then I've been catching up and I am crushed. Lots of ideas for posts that I'll try to get to. Thanks.

Tags: personal finance

My blog turned one this month (on Aug 3rd). I'm surprised that I'm still at it, but happy as well. Here's to another great year of atheistic ramblings, personal finances, and whatever else the wind blows. Thanks to everyone.

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Welcome to the 61st edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. I'm your host, Frank the FSA. We have a really great show for you today. What better way to start your Monday than with a heaping of personal finance. I've highlighted 6 posts that stood out and included a sample passage. All others got links (not to slight anyone, but just to make this more than a link-fest), although I did exercise some editorial restraint and didn't include everyone that sent a link. Some were very well written, but didn't tie into pf per se and were more suited for the carnival of investing. Others were pretty far off topic and still others were good but you couldn't comment on them (like, this one).

In either case, here are the top 6 posts in no particular order, plus the rest for you to enjoy.

1. Over at Ask Uncle Bill, there is a really interesting post entitled The Cincinnati Kid. A reader sent in a question asking about some career advice. Here is a brief snippet:

From a career standpoint, I need to do one of three things to advance.

1) Same job in a larger market, at a company with room for continued
advancement (larger company).
2) Start a business where I'm at, serving a market that I anticipate
being successful in.
3) Go back and get an MBA (possibly part-time while I work) and use
the MBA to transition into a new role.

Read the response and comments. I'll be checking make for more input from you readers.

2. Five Cent Nickel has the step by step process he used to determine if he was saving enough for retirement. Sure, someone always does one of these types of posts, but it's helpful to be reminded of these things now and again.

It goes without saying that an incredibly important aspect of saving for retirement is figuring out how much you’ll need. The problem here is that it’s tough to accurately predict how much you’ll need when there’s no good way of predicting how long you’ll live. Thus, it’s probably best to err on the side of caution, and to over-prepare for retirement. But here again we run into a similar quandary… How can we over-prepare if we don’t have a good idea of what it takes to be properly prepared.

3. Vince over at investorgeeks has a post on career allocation. Here is a choice quote:

In the investing world, financial services companies advocate asset allocation. The basic premise of asset allocation is that there are 3 basic asset classes:...But what if we thought about our careers with the same risk vs. rewards analysis? Would it look something like this?

I think that my career allocation is 99%, .5%, and .5%. But you don't know what that means, so click on over.

4. It's Just Money talks about time shares in this post. I really liked this statement he made:

Funny thing though, whenever we show disinterest, one of the first things they pull out of their back pocket is, "We have financing if you want." No kidding, you have financing? So does my dentist, my hospital, local furniture store, big screen TV store, jewelry store, just about anyone selling anything for more than a couple hundred dollars wants to get me on a payment plan!

5. Free Money Finance has a very helpful guide to purchasing a steam cleaner. Choice quote:

Her [his wife's] opinion is that buying your own carpet steamer is a great investment as it saves money over the alternatives, gives you the flexibility of cleaning when you want, and helps keep your carpets looking good (ours are seven years old and they look brand new).

6. Wenchypoo tackles that eternal question: stay-at-home or work. Well, more like she verbally tackles Linda Hirschman (Update: Sorry for not having the link from before).

For all the countless women out there who HAVE run the numbers and discovered that it’s more profitable, both monetarily and personally, to stay home and make the most of what DOES come in, I give you a big giant YOU GO, GIRL!

My only quibble with this post is that it paints all feminists as exactly like Linda Hirschman, but Wenchypoo is right when she states: "[women] do you feel like less of a person, or somehow demeaned, for not working outside the home? I sure as hell don’t—in fact, I feel more empowered than ever doing more with less". And I think that fits right in with feminism, maybe not Linda Hirschman's you-have-to-have-a-corporate-job type, but the type that offers choices to women and is non-judgemental. That's just my thought though.

The rest of the best! :)

CapApp tells us to shirk away from extended warranties. I would add also any type of furniture protection plan.

Mighty Bargain Hunter gives us what's not his idea of a buyer's market.

Money Matador has 5 reasons why some beggars make more than you do.

No Credit Needed has a post full of links that qualify for their own carnival! Read the 27 best ways to save money.

My Financial Awareness offers us some reasons why people ignore retirement planning.

Accumulating Wealth has a post about Women Millionaires

Jim at Bargaineering has a post on surprising 6-figure salaries.

Free Credit Debt Advice is planning on investing 75% of his/her? paycheck in their 401k. All I can say is wow, are you planning to eat at all?

My Money Forest points us to another p2p lending site kiva.

My Money Path started a 529 plan for his niece. Awww, isn't that sweet.

Nina at QueerCents had an article about Kathy Griffin's money stealing husband.

Over at Taking Control Over Finances, they're doing just that. Here is the process they took.

Searhlight Crusades reminds us that there is no such thing as a free lunch with this post about free loan appraisals.

Bouncing Back asks more life, or more mortgage? What, is she saying I can't have both?

The Insure Blog mentioned a new insurance product that protects your 401k contribution. Sounds great, but my question is what does it cost?

My 1st Million at 33 has a salary comparison between the top three engineerings schools.

Dave and Katy submit How a debt free relationship can be maintained for life.

The good human (I like that name) offers us Carrying consumer debt hurts your mind as well as your wallet.

He Just Laughs tells us his thoughts on penny stocks.

Free the Drones reminds us that the love of money is the root of all evil...just kidding, he tells us how to deal with finances if you hate money.

Over at the frugal underground, there's some thoughts on how to save money with DealMine.

Emmanuel tells us we don't need more money.

Thinking about money tells us You can Get Rich by Spending.

That's it for the carnival. If you've made it this far, thanks, that was a lot of work. For those who are new to my blog, check out my guide. Stop on by and comment on some of my other posts. I'd really appreciate it. The next carnival is going to be at the Money Blog Network. Whew, finished at 3:00 AM. Time for bed.
Tags: personal finance

Congratulations to vjack at atheist revolution. He is the winner of the $25 home depot gift card.

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Ricemutt left this comment with regards to my Ambivalent Feelings post:

I agree with you, as much as I can without having first-hand experience. At my undergrad, underrepresented minorities were REALLY underrepresented, and attrition rates for the few who attended were sky high, too.

So the question becomes, "What's the best way to strive for this diversified ideal?" I've worked with people in the scientific elite, and there's definitely still an unfortunate mindset that needs to change there.

My college was a hard enough place to be a student without having to bear the additional weight of narrowmindedness. Underrepresented minorities who succeeded as undergrads certainly went on to even greater achievements. But the confidence of the ones who didn't succeed suffered almost irreparably.

The only answer I have for you, Ricemutt, is get them while they're young. We need to educate kids from the beginning. I am grateful for my parents for doing just that. They instilled in me from the very beginning the importance of education. That's not the only thing we should do though, we must also get them exposure to scientists, engineers, businessmen/women, lawyers, etc. We have to show them what else is out there for them. They don't need to be a basketball player or a rapper to be successful. They can use their intellect.

For me personally, that means I need to be a role model for my kids growing up. Education is important, you can accomplish so much in life if you just use your intellect and apply yourself. This is what a doctor does, this is what a lawyer does, this is what an engineer does, this is what a genetic engineer does. Are there any other fields you are interested in learning about?

Especially now that we're having a daughter, I will be doing my utmost best to help her enjoy math and science! Being a girl doesn't mean you have to let the boys do all that stuff. You are just as smart as they are and hey, aren't fractions so totally cool! Plus, do you want to know why the sky is blue, it's really interesting!

I really need to stop responding to people at 4:00 in the morning, I tend to ramble on. Anyone else has any suggestions.

Tags: musings

I'd love to hear what you'd say to that claptrap about "everything happening the way it's supposed to happen." It seems to me that the only people who say that are the ones who have reason to be pretty pleased with their lot in life overall. While I'm not an atheist, I'm disturbed by sheltered upper-middle-class white people who think they're entitled to their privileges because of karma or some sh**.

As claire has already noted, the people who usually subscribe to this notion are already pretty pleased with their lot in life. No surprise there. The reason these people subscribe to this notion is because to think otherwise, would allow for their lot in life to be simply luck. It would mean that the only thing separating them from the guy on the street is one wrong move. One wrong move, one wrond decision and they would be on the street begging for money from someone who believes that the only reason "their" on the street is because they're suppose to be on the street.

Sorry for rambling on like that. I personally do not subscribe to the notion that "everything is happening the way it's suppose to happen". That's absolute bull-crap. We as human beings are great at rationalizing everything away. Our memories aren't infallible and as time goes by we put a positive spin on past decisions. Think about what happens when a person you know breaks up with their boy/girlfriend or get fired from their job. You inevitably try to comfort them: "He/she wasn't good enough for you...That job was holding you back". Given enough time after they either find someone else or get another job, and they will say some of those things themselves. "You know, I'm really glad such-and-such dumped me back then, he/she really wasn't good enough!"

Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, it can actually be a good coping mechanism. At the same time, taken to it's extreme doesn't make much sense either.

This might be more rambling than anything else, but I hope I've adequately responded to your inquiry.

Tags: musings

My wife has gotten into the balance transfer arbitrage with me and we went a little stir crazy. I now have 4 cards from citibank and she has 2. We're going to be getting $300 worth of giftcards as a result. $150 will be to Target, and $150 will be to Babies R Us. That's going to buy a whole lot of diapers.

Between the two of us, we're going to have close to $30,000 in 0% balance transfers. We did have to use some of that to pay for some unexpected expenses, but thanks to the kind people at H&R block, we're going to make up the difference more quickly than we expected.

That being said, arbitrage is arbitrage. Can't pass up that free money. Speaking of which, I haven't mentioned how I actually get the cash from the card. For citi, they just send us a check in the mail. For discover we just transfer the money to another card and have the bank send us a check in the mail.

Some things to keep in mind if you are thinking about trying this arbitrage.

1. Your credit score will suffer. We've maxed out the balance on more than 4 cards, this kills our score, but we're not planning on looking for a car loan or mortgage anytime soon, so we're fine.

2. Universal default can be a bitch. Every card agreement includes a provison that basically says if you are late on any other card or any other loan, your 0% is immediately bumped up to currently 30%. Keep that in mind.

As always, this is just general advice from a young guy pissing in the wind. Consult with...actually, just read the fine print of the card deals.

Tags: personal finance

Don't forget that this Friday someone will be a lucky winner of a $25 home depot gift card from Frank, the FSA. All you need to do is leave a comment or send me an email by Thursday at 11:59 PM. Then the grand prize winner will be determined by spread-sheet. Have at it!

Tags: personal finance

I was reading up on Miserly Bastard's explanation of the federal tax safe harbour rules. He has a precise definition:

(a) regular withholdings cover 90% of the actual tax liability; or (b) quarterly payments and regular withholdings cover 110% of last year's tax liability.

Seeing as how I have zero federal tax liability, can I therefore make 110% of zero in a year where I expect to have some liability? Probably not, though it's just a random thought.

Tags: personal finance taxes