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

The markets have been increasing in volatility recently. With a broad market sell off in all three major indices and the VIX (a broad measure of volatility) picking up the pace to new highs. So what does this mean? I don't know. Frankly (get it :P), it's anybody's guess whats around the corner, and my guess is hardly that much better.

All I can say is to keep being broadly invested in a diversified portfolio and don't pull everything out and put it under the mattress. Nothing sage here, just some practical tips.

Update:
Holy sh*t. Now we're down 4% across the board. Damn, talk about volatility.

Tags: personal finance

David Bach has his Latte Factor™, well Frank the FSA has the Forgo Eating Factor™. Think about all the time you eat, it's practically every day! Take my family for example. We currently spend $100 a week on groceries and then another $100 a month eating out. That's over $6,000 a year on a wasteful process...namely eating. Our bodies are so bad at processing any type of food. Why do you think we need bathrooms?!?!

By not eating, we could take that $6,000, invest it in an aggresive mutual fund that returns 10% a year. Stick it in a Roth IRA so there are no taxes to worry about, and in 100 years you'd have ammased over $800 million dollars (which unfortunately is only a measly $39 mill in today's money)!

Plus there are additional benefits to not eating. Think how productive you can be if you don't have to waste time eating. Also, you save money on gas since you don't need to drive to the grocery store every week. Those additional savings will also compound on your existing not eating savings, and before you know it, you will be a millionaire.

Try to top that, Mr. David Bach.


Tags: personal finance humor kinda funny someone found that funny right maybe just a little bit

Well it looks like Matt LaClair has finally gotten ahold of the ACLU. It's really sad that it had to come to this. However, the CNN article is really annoying. They make it look like a case of he said she said. Here's Paszkiewicz lawyer:

From Paszkiewicz's point of view, he was merely answering a question posed to him in a question-and-answer session, according to Demetrios Stratis, a Fair Lawn lawyer who said he represented the teacher

Bullshit. He was caught in the act and he lied about it until he was confronted with the recordings.
Matt LaClair went with Paszkiewicz to the principal office. Paszkiewicz denied saying anything that Matt accused him of, and when confronted with the recording clammed up and said he wanted a lawyer/union rep. Why doesn't the mainstream media mention that minor detail? Seriously?

Not only that, but LaClair has been ostracized at school where everyone is taking up for the popular teacher.

I wonder how many have probably quoted this bible passage to Paszkiewicz to make him feel better:
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:10-12)

That's right. It's Paszkiewicz who's been persecuted for rightousness. Praise the lord. It is god's will.

It was also god's will for Paszkiewicz to lie when confronted by LaClair, because he was just telling his students the truth!

What a load of crock. The school district should be ashamed of they are handling the situation. They've banned students from recording in the classroom without teacher's consent and they claim they've taken disciplinary action against the teacher but refuse to mention what it is.

Tags: matt laclair david paszkiewicz

The title sums up this article from Yahoo.

Then go read Hazzard's post about insurance as well.

That's all for today.

Tags: personal finance insurance

I posed a few questions to my readers and lo and behold they came through for me.

On my quest to defrag my hard-drive, Karl had this helpful comment to offer:

Lifehacker.com is a really good site for finding reliable open source software recommendations (as well as general tips on improving life and stuff). I did a search on "defrag", and here's some stuff that came up...

Contig
http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/contig.html

PageDefrag
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html

Power Defragmenter GUI
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Power_Defragmenter_GUI_d4647.html

Here's a nice thread with some free and not-so-free options:
http://lifehacker.com/software/defragment/call-for-help-best-defrag-tool-166769.php

Hope this helps!

Indeed it did Karl. From that thread I downloaded a free trial of O&O Defrag Professional. So far so good. I've gone from 50% to 20%, and then after deleting some old media files (of questionable legality *cough, cough*), I'm done to 7.57% defragmentation. Totally sweet and awesome.

Edmund also had a helpful link:

Here are some other options. A lot of other nice freeware also. http://www.techsupportalert.com/more/extended.htm#67

Thanks Ed.

Then, in my somewhat facetious latte post, I got more information than I bargained for:

I don't know what a latte is, but I think it's coffee and milk in some mixed form.

I go for coffee and hot chocolate (handmade with swiss miss and plain coffee when available for free), which I think is called Mochachinno

Clever Dude

http://www.2basnob.com/coffee-dictionary.html

All you'd ever want to know about coffee nomenclature.

I personally don't drink the stuff (caffeine gives me a headache).

HC

ARGH. "Cafe Latte" in ITALIAN is a drink for invalids and children. No self-respecting Italian drinks their espresso that way. It dilutes the coffee!

Next time someone asks you for a latte, hand them some straight milk, because that's what it is.

Yes. I am slightly stuck up about coffee. AND I'm lactose intolerant!

mapgirl


Um, wow. Thanks for all the...help guys. Now I know what a latte is. Next question. Why are they so damn expensive?!?!?!?!

Tags: personal finance defrag latte

What the f&@$% is a latte and why does it keep showing up in everyone's blog posts? I blame David Bach and his damn "latte factor". Aaarrrgg.

Tags:

This is what happens when you don't have much to blog about. You just start posting random crap. Hopefully I'll have something better later in the week, but I just seem to have a severe case of writer's block. Until then here is the range of my salary +/- two random numbers. Not sure why I'm doing this. I mean, it's not all that important, but it's one of those things that people are interested in. My wife says I'm overpaid, and I tend to agree somewhat. Oh well, it pays the bills, can't complain too much.

So without further ado:

Last year my yearly salary was between $51,351 and $107,468.

Tags:

Anyone know a of a good free and/or free trial application for defragging one's hard drive? I used the windows defragger and it did a really crappy job. Let me know, thanks.

Tags:

Atheism/Skepticism

Ebon Muse with Faith-Based Fraud. The disturbing trend of religious people being targeted by con artists of many kinds. Truly, very sad.

53rd Skeptic's Circle

Transcript of Herb's Silverman Debate at the Oxford Union. The issue was: 'American religion undermines American values.' Thoughtful piece.

CNN is the new FOX. Which is interesting enough.

Personal Finance

Life Insurance for Men

Tired but happy's kid just inherited a large sum of money. Unfortunately, this comes with some grief on her end.

Trent is doing the unthinkable! He wants to borrow against a retirement plan to make a 20% down payment. This post already has 30 comments, and the discussion is interesting. It should be noted that he is using his retirement account as collateral, not pulling money out.

Tags: personal finance atheism

So Trent (not surprisingly to me at least) is a Christian. So is FMF, JLP, Nick, Savvy Steward, Clever Dude, and probably a fair amount of the personal finance blogosphere. Not only the personal finance blogosphere, but also the vast majority of the United States. Which is why comments like this are puzzling to me:

It’s probably safe to assume that some readers will simply shut the door on this blog right now because I dare to mention the “C” word, especially on a personal finance site. After all, given the political climate in America for the past twenty years, anyone who dares call themselves a Christian should be tossed in a dungeon with Pat Robertson and locked up for good for the safety of us all, right?

Trent

Then if you go to the comments you see things like this:
"The “c” word is not a 4 letter word." Toby Getch

and then this comment from Trent:
If you really think that Christians are taken seriously at all or treated with any modicum of respect in mainstream popular culture, you’re kidding yourself.

I think what many of these comments stem from and what would be more accurate is to state that the word Christians connote many different things to people. They might even be tempted to claim that this perception has been tainted from vociferous individuals who are not "true" christians (i.e. Pat Robertson). I would characterize these as a mostly accurate statement, although the last part about "true" christians is fallacious.
But to say things like the 'c' word is not a 4 letter word (or the 'g' word for that matter) is quite absurd. With the vast majority of the United States one type of Christian or another, a political party that plays to the evangelical vote, and a President who is born-again thanks to Billy Graham, it stands that such claims are nonsensical.

Plus, I find it hard to believe that Christians are not treated with "any modicum" of respect at all? Really, how so? Are you going to wax on about the biased liberal media? Or have atheists and agnostics taken over the "mainstream popular culture"?

I will concede that I do agree with Trent on one matter, when he says that: "The only reason politicians pretend to be Christian is because the 'average voter' is a Christian senior citizen. That’s also the same reason why none claim to be atheist. Christians vote in a disproportionate manner compared to the general populace"
In other words, politicians will do whatever it takes to get them elected, whether it's pretending to be a Christian or otherwise. In that we are of one accord.

Tags: atheism

Sometimes you're just going along trying to save money, trying to stay in your budget, trying to provide the best opportunities for your kids and life just throws a big fuck you to stir things up.

1. My ebay account got hacked. I don't know how, where, or when some nefarious ahole got a hold of my account, but they hacked it. I checked my personal email Friday evening to see 50 different items that had listed for sale on ebay. Luckily, ebay realized that my account had been hacked and froze my account. I updated my virus scanner and scanned for viruses and spyware on both computers. They came back with nothing. We haven't used ebay in a long time, so I'm not sure why/how they got access to my account.

I then had to change passwords for that account as well as my email just in case. I tried speaking to ebay about where the IP address was located, but they wouldn't tell me. I contacted the police and they were equally unhelpful. Because we had noticed the perpetrator early enough that I didn't suffer a monetary loss, he couldn't investigate an "almost crime". He just mentioned that we should monitor our credit report and also monitor our credit cards. Planning on doing that anyway, so that wasn't too helpful. While recovering from the initial shock and feelings of being violated on Friday, I thought, "Why my ebay account?" "Why are they going for this and not going after something else?" In either case I plan on changing every single password I can in an attempt to thwart the hacker(s). We'll have to be extra vigilent and also request free copies of our credit reports.

2. My wife just called to talk to me about the piano. We had someone come take a look to see how much it would cost to repair it. Unfortunately, the news wasn't good. The piano is in poor shape. It would cost way too much to repair it. He said that he could tune it up, but that it still wouldn't sound exactly right.

So that's particularly frustrating because we were expecting to save money with this piano purchase. Now we're not sure what to do. Pay $300 to repair a not so great piano? Get an expensive digital piano for ~$1,500? All this adds to an increasing lack of enthusiasm on my wife's part with the lessons.

All in all, I'm just not sure what to do. I'm going to try to get through this day and we'll talk about it some more when I get home.
Tags: personal finance

Scenario one:
DNA evidence convincingly concludes that Jesus of Nazareth was born solely of a woman. That is to say, he did not have a father. What is the most likely reaction to this news?

1. Typical Theologians: "Who cares? Science and Faith represents two separate spheres of influence. It is a matter of faith and no DNA testing, physics experiment, or any other scientific enterprise can offer anything substantial to the realm of faith.

or

2. Typical Theologians: "Science has once again validated what people of faith have always known. That Jesus was born of a virgin, the son of god. Who came to forgive us of our sins. Truly this is a glorious day for believers."

Scenario two:
DNA evidence convincingly concludes that Jesus of Nazareth was born of a mother and father. Not only that, but his father was most likely Roman. What is the most likely reaction to this news?

1. Typical Theologians: "Who cares? Science and Faith represents two separate spheres of influence. It is a matter of faith and no DNA testing, physics experiment, or any other scientific enterprise can offer anything substantial to the realm of faith.

or

2. Typical Theologians: "Science has once again validated what people of faith have always known. That Jesus was born of a virgin, the son of god. Who came to forgive us of our sins. Truly this is a glorious day for believers." [Ok, so number two doesn't really fit, but I couldn't think of how they would try to spin this to be positive news.]

Most people would say that in Scenario one, the typical theologian would be represented by response 2, and in scenario two, the typical theologian would be represented by response 1.

Why is that?

* Got this scenario from Richard Dawkins the God Delusion.
Tags: atheism

I should have probably said this sooner, but now is as good a time as any. I am not a financial advisor. I'm only 23. I am working on the "financially savvy" part of my moniker (got the atheism part down though) and I wouldn't trust most of my advice with a ten foot pool.

As I write this blog, it's more to chronicle my thoughts, goals, aspirations, failures, and etc. I will tell you what works/worked/is working for me. I will also tell you about my failures. It doesn't mean I'm advocating taking out $30,000 in balance transfers, I'm just telling you how I did it, and why it works for me.

So don't listen to me. Of course, please keep reading my blog, but take it with a large grain of salt. I am not an expert by any means. Heck, I can't even stop my networth from plummeting over 90% in one month. Why would you trust me at all?

There, the chattiest disclaimer ever.

Tags: personal finance

Here's MaryAnn Johanson with a review of HBO's Friends of God.

She also has a review of Jesus Camp.

Go check them both out. Good stuff. Almost made me wish I had HBO. :)
Tags: atheism

Ouch! This month Net Worth just hurts so bad.

The homes for sale near to us have been on the market for a few months now. One home lowered their asking price and I correspondingly lowered my valuation for our home below that asking price by $10,000. That was really painful. Even though it's all paper wealth, it still hurts. I was expecting it though. Before we get to the painful number, here's a quick breakdown between assets and liabilities.

Assets
Assets fell by almost 5% this month due to the (hopefully) one-time writedown of our primary home. It also fell due to the continual depreciation of both automobiles. 401(k) growth was robust due to contributions from myself and my employer. Also, this past month saw a significant bump from my employer's profit sharing contribution. Unfortunately, this was offset by the 4 year vesting period contributing little to the bottom line. Other areas of growth included the kids 529 plan as the final vestige of Christmas gifts were deposited. Interest earned from balance transfer money in emigrant direct totaled more than $160.

Liabilities
There was a moderate uptick in liabilities this month by 35 bps (0.35%). This was partly due to an error which understated the wife's student loan amount. Spending was moderate, with such large expenditures as a piano and transportation costs for said piano. We are in the middle of a debt restructuring where the outstanding auto loan in being transferred to an American Express card which offers 3.99% on balance transfers for the life of the transfer. This will result in interest expense savings and allow for the retirement of the auto debt sooner, rather than later. Another benefit will be the release of the title to the FSA family, so that technically the car will belong to us and not the credit union.

Net Worth
As a result the FSA family net worth is approximately:

$1815
for the month ending in January.
On the plus side there are reimbursements that will be paid next month for child care and medical expenses incurred this past month. In addition, we are expecting some mileage reimbursement for work-related driving. Also, we are anticipating another $2,500 from our tax refund.

On the negative side, the piano still needs to be tuned and repaired. There will be additional expenses from plumbing work done this month as well as tuition for our first son's weekend "school" activity.

Next month's net worth is expected to be flat to modestly higher barring any additional write-down to real estate.

Tags: personal finance net worth