So far, so spiffy.

The multitude of accounts and savings goals mesmerizes me. Minus the tax payment due in a little more than two weeks we are almost at $30K.

Hubby is actually planning a vacation. This man rarely plans, so I feel very loved and special because it's on my behalf (birthday) that we are sailing out of the country (you read right) for a weekend.

Updated Content: I have now a sixth account at TD Ameritrade, the Suze Orman "Save Yourself" fund that a handful of my friends have. I am not proud. I did it for the RETURN.
Fils: 4 accounts
Mari: 4 accounts
Moi: 10 accounts

I also have some ideas for putting the 401(k) noncontributory fund to work, supported by up-to-date research from industrial analysts and current market outlook, and filtered by risk/reward and expense ratios. For the trading account, I'm looking at AAUK; for others: RPIBX, BEARX, and GLD.

Goals I'd like to try for next quarter:
1. Wheedle/coax for return to World's Easiest Contract Job of Adequate Lucre and Awesome Lunchmates.
2. Take a Cascade Bicycle Club Traffic Safety Course.
3. Outfit my bike with blinking lights, buy ugly neon jacket to promote visibility.
4. Remodel bathroom -- boy will be irked; apparently I am the only resident guided by visions to believe there is another bathroom downstairs.
5. Get bicycle tuned up.
6. Apportion equal amounts of savings to Home Improvement, and Mortgage Reduction.
7. Install garden. I am cutting back my initial garden plans by half: this will allow me to pay it off faster and to start on the landscaping.
8. Order cistern: find space for it in the back.
9. Consult with a local rainwater harvesting/plumbing dude about greywater filtration system.
10. Apportion some savings to Swiss Francs, Canadian Dollars, Euros, Yen, Silver.
11. Apply for Passport renewal.
12. Apply for Disability insurance.
13. Learn Japanese.

Was actually Earth 48 minutes (hey, hourlong TV shows are about 45 minutes...) but we cheated with battery-powered flashlights/torches and candles and battery-powered radio. We figured the radio host knew it was Earth Hour because she put on garbage lounge muzak for most of that hour (The Three Suns, for example).

The males were game to participate. We even shut down our PCs. When I rebooted the next morning I had three major software updates awaiting... But anyway, we had fun with the flashlights and talking, and goofing around making shadows on the walls, acting as law enforcement officers (Drinking/Driving Counterattack) interrogating the cats: "Ma'am? How many ounces of catnip did you have this evening?" Then we playacted some Kids in the Hall sketches. The boy became very animated, and I understand this: I remember being excited in a good way by power outages at his age. At 9:00:10 pm the spouse flicked the lights on.

I invited the Realtor who helped us buy our home in 1999 to come over and give us ideas for what we can do to "upgrade" our house for the cost of what we would have spent to sell (about 11% of the current value, which she sees as higher than what Zillow tells us). Our house and property are a mess, thanks to years of child-tending, depression, laziness, distraction, full-time day care and retirement money-growing. But now, of course, with the market in a tailspin, and credit markets seizing up, I have an emergency fund and some cash to invest in the house. Score one for timing Ms. Goddard! That's up there with giving birth three weeks after 9/11!

I am so glad I invited her over: she was honest as a real estate professional could be, yet optimistic that we'd have s shorter recessionary/depression stint given our state's export strengths and tendency to be last in/first out in economic downcycles (except for the dark Boeing years of the mid 1970s?). Inventory in the county is at near ten months, but in my price range it's more like three months. She gave us names of the professionals she uses for remodeling and landscaping. This will be a multi-year project, which means that relocating is probably out of the question this year. Maybe in 2011...

In the meantime I'll see if I can raise our HELOC to $60K or as low as $40K. I read on Mish's Global Economics blog an article excerpt where a woman with a $168K HELOC on her Newport Beach, CA property had found it reduced to $10,000. She had never used the HELOC and found her limit cut to 6% of what it was formerly. I myself would be irritated/squawking like a wet hen if my HELOC was reduced to $1,071, and yes entitlement has a mighty squawk to it. I'm wondering if Citigroup's nervous condition has anything to do with the 94% pruneback.

Mish supports Citigroup's stunning move:
Look at this from Citigroup's point of view.

• She has decreasing home equity, most likely no equity.
• California is in decline with a long way to go before houses can be considered affordable.
• The US is in recession.
• People are losing jobs.
• She does not know the difference between money and credit.
• She does not understand the difference between her money and someone else's money.
• She spent $55,000 trying to "make a baby" (mentioned in the article).
• She is about to adopt a child instead (also mentioned in the article).
• Her cash went down and her expenses are clearly going to rise as a result of the last two points. (Yeah, if FT daycare is now 105% that of a mortgage payment, not to mention diapers, and baby food...)

Yet she had $300K to put down on a home and rental properties. How do people with this kind of thinking get money? Stock options? Inheritances? Rich partners?

What will I do if I can't raise the HELOC? Probably just renovate the bathroom for now, pay it off in four months, see if I can get my MSFT contract renewed for another 12, and if yes, then I'm doing the kitchen.

There's my cue to go get disability insurance, because I can't count on using the HELOC for an emergency fund. Truth be told, I had been doing exactly that since June 2006, using the money only for the windows, which added at least as much in value to the house as I had spent on them, and paying it back at the rate of $1400/week.

I dug holes for two strawberry plants purchased this afternoon: Shuksan and Tristar.

I'm going to restrict the garden beds to two for now, and try some garden ovals in the back and in the front, and move the roses somewhere sunny. Maybe the roses can have an oval to themselves in front -- they do a good job at getting me out in the sun and talking to the neighbours.

I get a kick out of reading Amendments to Terms and Conditions agreements that Bank of America sends every now and then, especially increases in fees and charges, introduction of universal default, removal of 0% cash advance offers, removal of maximum caps on cash advance offers, and decrease of grace period, explained neatly by "primarily due to a change in business practice" because it's obvious that these changes do no good to the cardholders.

"As of April 1, 2008 we will hike all APRs of cardholders who pay in full every month to 24.99%, as it doesn't matter how high the interest rate is if no fees are owing, and shorten the grace period from 20 days to 15, primarily due to a change in business practice."

"For protection, our branches are introducing Customer Specialists of above-average measurements, armed with Louisville Slugger protective equipment and brass knuckles, for one-to-one counseling with customers who may not immediately see value in our new business practices. This of course, is primarily due to a change in business practice."

"Current real estate price trajectories cause us to reassess our customers' lines of credit and lines against their property more briskly than usual. Your property was purchased at the height of the market frenzy and your HELOC is for close to half of your current equity. For your convenience we have limited your HELOC to the equivalent of two months' mortgage payments. This is, primarily, due to a change in business practice."

Have some fun here: provide a real or fictional clause that a major credit card issuer or foundering bank may add as an amendment to a terms and conditions agreement, following it up with "primarily due to a change in business practice."

No credit can I claim for this, but I read online that my mortgagor bank has had a profit over the last fiscal year. Yes, a residential lending institution and bank showed a profit, in the United States, headquartered in a city where many recent mortgages are of the toxic variety.

Losses from residential and commercial construction loans went up, but because the bank is privately owned, there's no urgency in hiking up profits by doing risky mortgages.

So seven-nine weeks ago I had misplaced my ring between emerging from a hot bath to getting into bed. I thought it'd slipped from the bathroom vanity into the garbage. I felt around for it in the garbage (yecch) and couldn't find it and thought "damn, it's gone forever. Oh well, it's only money, and I'm still married."

And, feeling around this morning for a pair of pants in a drawer I obviously don't visit too often, there it was. And now it is on my finger, relievedly.

I am in my second respite day after two agonizing weeks of anxiety. Yay for the oasis of serenity! Perhaps it's because I'm taking steps instead of hemming and hawing and wondering if it's too late that I feel calmer. Or if it's the Bach's Rescue Remedy, or my mantra of "let go and let God" or learning to ask the universe for what I want and weaning away from obsessing about what I DON'T WANT.

I sold close to half of the shares in two of my Roth IRA mutual funds (Vanguard index funds, if one must know), and am awaiting the proceeds of my 401(k) to rollover into my non-contributory IRA. At my discount brokerage I am fortunate to have an advisor (Anniebird, don't start with me: this one isn't a parasite feasting on my net worth, and he respects the worthiness and sensibility of my personal asset allocation strategy) willing to act as a sounding board.

I am two paycheques (his and hers) away from mailing in my tax payment. That will free up some money to go toward Japan. We may go in person on Saturday to talk about reapplying for a larger HELOC, although I'm skittish about incurring extra debt. It's a ten-year draw, and rates are very low right now, and our house would benefit from some interior improvement and exterior energy conservation through walls and doors -- I am keeping in mind Katwoman's suggestion of replacing the windows in the basement and contemplating drywall too.

I met with some bearish (economically, not the big hairy gay kind) gentlemen on Thursday, and a sweet and wise woman, and had Goldschlager and Guinness with them. They helped stabilize my emotional equilibrium: yes things are going to get worse, but I've gone through bad stuff before, I have a community of like-minded progressive worrywarts who have constructive solutions, and I'm better off than I think, because I'm getting prepared.

First it was 866-526-9732 calling (I never picked up, but Caller ID and Google can't both lie together) more than once.

Now it's market@fastloanopt.com leaving text message spam.

Fastloanopt.com is a domain registered as of March 24, 2008.

IP address : 72.5.175.97
ISP : Internap Network Services
Organization : New.net

My mobile phone provider gives inadequate support for combating spam: a limit of 50 phone numbers or e-mail addresses. I'd rather just not receive the spam in the first place. I called Customer Care where an account rep with subpar comprehension and problem-solving skills pressed for a password. I hadn't had been asked for a password before, and wondered why it was necessary if all I wanted to do was to report and dispute an unsolicited text message spam.

I am not renewing my contract with this provider. If I choose to get another phone, it will have a pay-as-you-go plan, and it will with a carrier that has the same disdain for unsolicited text messages as I do, with superior blocking policies and tools, and with a customer service team that has adequate comprehension and problem-solving skills.

The customer service levels, costs of plans, increase in SMS spam, and increased threats to motorcyclists' and pedestrians' safety from oblivious cell phone users behind the wheel do little to justify the saturation market of these
high-priced toys/distractions. Any business model that profits by charging the unwitting recipient for unsolicited commercial SMS messages is one that, in a morally responsible and sane country, would not work.

$19.15 saved from $84.81 windfall earlier last week.

$2.38 added to challenge from yesterday evening's piecrust and apple juice foray.

$0.29 added from gas savings: $2.67.

I wonder where my $20 challenge savings should go. Maybe the deserving "pocket" or "envelope" will change quarterly.

It dawned on me today that my family spends more on coffee and hot chocolates out than it does for gasoline. Um. There's a goal to work on.

I had an instant message chat with my bro who is in Asia. He claims biochemistry is kicking my behind, and perhaps that's true. I moaned to him that I might not have enough money to go to Japan. That's apparently because I was looking at the wrong flights, and the wrong date. Flights right now, return, are around a thousand dollars from Vancouver, BC, and I was thinking maybe three times that much. I can manage spending over a grand to fly 9838 miles!

I checked with a local Peak Oil contact person, and we're going to meet later in the week for apple tart and beer and see what my best options are: fight or flight. From what I chose to share with him, he's optimistic. If you want to play along at home, look at the savings tracks.

Link du Jour: How to Stop Worrying. Because the Fourfold breath isn't always all that. "I decide my fate and my mood" is one possible mantra.

I also had my vile soul drycleaned so I can be spiritually prepared for any suffering I undertake. I think maybe there's some masochistic streak inside me that's addicted to the adrenaline of fear, and also paradoxically my inner child has had enough abuse/sorrow and just doesn't want anything bad to happen ever. Which would happen only if I dropped dead immediately after hitting the 'Save and Publish' button.

This week: looking at life, disability and personal property insurance. I have learned that my safe deposit box goodies are not insured, and that scares me. But then, right now, tapping me on the shoulder would send me clawing the ceiling like a cartoon cat.

I received a cheque for $84.81. $35 went toward refilling the car's gas tank, and I saved twenty-nine cents at the pump. Woo woo challenge money. $30 went for my medication. Now I have a two-month supply.

I'm considering giving up some out-and-about time for baking bread, and soaking/cooking large amounts of legumes to freeze in small containers. Yes, friends, I'm rereading More with Less. Some of the introduction, originally written by Doris Janzen Longacre, was penned at a time of grain and fuel shortages and high inflation.

I gotta stop blaming myself for everything. "Oh inflation is here, this is my fault--if I had a vegetable garden up already I wouldn't be paying so much for Community supported Agriculture boxes. I am rotten because I drive a car that gets 28-35 mpg and we haven't yet forsaken our scooters and gas-powered lawnmower. The US dollar is tumbling and I better put my money in gold or else I won't afford to see my brother get married in Japan and then I win the award of World's Biggest Loser. I suck because my 60-year-old house still has a while to go before it can be energy-efficient and I was distracted by child-care and retirement. If only I did a mega Mortgage Equity Withdrawal, remodeling the house to dozens of thousands of dollars, anticipating energy shortages and spikes, I'd be okay today." I require so much reassurance, and when I don't get it I believe it's because everyone else has managed these achievements. Because these ideas don't just come to me from the aether -- I read about Americans doing these energy conservation things. I feel especially ashamed as my goals don't seem all that frivolous: we don't NEED all this stuff, but I sure am attracted to the idea of saving 10-30% off my energy and food bills. I should take the Joe Stalin route and develop a five-year-plan.

Joan.of.the.Arch, I didn't get through much of When All Hell Breaks Loose before returning it to the library, but the first chapter is all about not panicking and keeping a cool head and wits about one. Preparation goes a long way, but so do self-directedness (believing one is entirely and directly responsible for one's life) and confidence.

What I'm reading now is Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life which is entertaining. My kid sees it on the table and says "Jim Cramer yells all the time." I think Jim's editors should have named the book Stay Livid. So far I'm only on the second chapter -- first chapter is very basic for beginners: get out of credit card debt, plan ahead, make a budget and stick by it, reassess when you miss budget targets.

With some preparation and luck, I may Freecycle or junk some large items downstairs. I've got to remain upbeat and positive about our survival chances.

I've just remembered my brother plans to get married later this year in Asia. I should probably bring my kid (yay huge transpacific flight: can you say "melatonin"?). Calculating $6850 for trip. If somehow miraculously we do really well this year maybe I'll try a night or two in Honolulu. Buy more gold now? Swiss Francs? Japanese Yen?

What's good about my life that I can almost overlook wheat and honey and oil spikes:
1. I have the URL for Walton Feed.
2. I have space downstairs for bulk storage.
3. I have employment for six months.
4. I have recipes for bread made with other grains, and know where to get sprouted bread.
5. A bus pass helps me deal with the oil prices.
6. My family doesn't have consumer debt right now.
7. Except for my caffeine habit, none of my family has vices.
8. I know the Fourfold Breath and the immediate calming effect it has.
9. I have seen "Persepolis" and I am glad I don't have to restrict my personal freedoms, nor have I yet experienced the horror of war right on my street.

I surprised myself with a VERY delicious Butternut Squash with Black Beans and Vegetables last night -- a cheapish vegan entree, colourful with just a hint of spice from cumin. I'm just flat out surprised how good butternut squash tastes, as a matter of fact. I hope I can get used to the tastes of kale and chard.

Maybe it's a hormonal fluctuation, but I've been anxious since Wednesday. Perhaps I should sip some chamomile tea, do a crossword, go out for a walk.

I did prune my roses today, in the sun. A local media gardening expert said this was the time to do it (The All About Roses book I have said April was the time to prune). Seeing all those thin, reedy, large, canes with red leafy growth was initially daunting, but I picked up some momentum and energy and went to it. I think there are some stragglers that might be shovel-pruned soon. The grandifloras did very well indeed (Lagerfeld, and Queen Elizabeth, for any rose enthusiasts reading).

Sharp observers will note that I have shaved one month off my the actual term end-date for my mortgage. I have learned, from looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Inflation Calcula..., that our new mortgage payment, in inflation-indexed dollars, after taxes, is cheaper than the principal and interest was when we first purchased! And that's AFTER a 127% rise in assessment values since purchase. So I don't know who these people are who complain about property taxes in our county: hard to believe that they'd be homeowners in my city. They should try living in the states of New York or New Jersey.

Also went to the Farmers' Market today -- talked with a honey farmer who told me that in the next few months we could expect a 150% price jump for honey. Good thing we have a cool place to store it. Next week I'll bring a cardboard box and my credit card.

I bought a Canadian Maple Leaf gold coin today, as I do at the end of any week where the Dow drops over 500 points, and adjusted my Savings Tracks. I also deposited my first cheque from my current position.

Causing me some consternation is my whack at a budget. I have read Consumer Spending Patterns in my metro area and used the inflation multiplier of 1.26. People are/were, in 2004-2005, still paying less for rent and shelter than we are/were. In our city, expenditures are 20.3% greater than the U.S. average. Why, I don't know. Greyness, misery and self-absorbed PDA-twiddlin' drivers can't be worth THAT much... why do I stay? It's close to where I used to live and still have friends and family, and I don't have to drive in snow, and don't have mosquitoes or cockroaches to contend with, and the jobs are pretty easy to come by.

We lost someone in our debt support group, but for good/happy reasons: she took a job in another state that paid better, and had a lower cost of living. She gets to live near her ailing parents, and will soon have a 4-bedroom house with a swimming pool, in a sunny location. I'm thrilled that she's happy. It would be nice to have some new faces in our little social group, but I guess we're the only people in a population of 600,000 who are freaked out enough by our debts to meet and share goals and work through plans over a social breakfast.

I looked at About.com's Food Storage Calculator. I don't know that I need to keep food for a year: I'm thinking perhaps three months, maybe six at the most. I'm not a member of LDS, but still, getting the idea of building an ark in one's head is just as good as Divine Providence telling one to build an ark, right? And for the agnostics/atheists out there, I'm well aware that the man who kidnapped Frank Sinatra Jr. also believed the Lord told him to do that too. Perception is reality.

The itch for a new car is temporarily overshadowed by ideas of a cistern (less expensive than I thought) and a greywater harvesting/recycling system.

I realize I'm six months behind or ahead in prepping for a garden and filtration system, but better now than never, huh?

Oh, and I was reminded of the $20 challenge. Through unanticipated discounts and savings, I'm up to $173-something, so I bought two shares of BNI stock for my li'l tycoon, in his UTMA.

I dreamt I was with some folks from my old workplace, and I said something to the effect of: "I'm more into paying for what I owe now, rather than leave it up to my kid. It's bad enough he has to live with environmental devastation and a huge tax burden." And people looked at me like I was bonkers.

I reasoned, in my dream, I was the only person who had a child, and the workplace folks were counting on my kid to support them and their consumption in their old age.

A few days earlier I dreamt I was given a nasty bill from a small event thirty years earlier.

I'm reading Cody Lundin's When All Hell Breaks Loose. Weeks earlier I had read Viktor E. Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Slowly I'm reaching toward the center, where the joy is.

Seattle Urban Farm Company is coming over in two weeks.

When I wrote about being surprised I hadn't made my full Roth IRA contrib... I apparently had good reason to be surprised. I had made the maximum contribution, but my discount brokerage firm hadn't updated its records. So I get a call telling me I overpaid. "Where should I have looked, other than my account which had wrong information, for an accurate total of my year-to-date contributions for 2007?" Crickets chirping. Then the numbskulls blanket me with a "there's still time to make your 2007 IRA Contribution!" flyer.
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I'm not making any sort of political endorsement here, but just pointing out that of the ten states with the largest domestic product figures, seven selected HRC in primaries and/or caucuses, and two gave most of its Democrat delegates to BHO. I mention this because of those ten states with the largest GDPs: California, Texas, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, lots of them are having industrial woes and/or housing crashes and credit crunches. Six of the states had Metropolitan Statistical Areas registering house value depreciation over the last four quarters, according to OFHEO. If you were in an industry headquartered in one of these states, you might be a squeaky wheel begging for grease. Why am I leaving the GOP out of this, when it has a perfectly good acronym and has participated in primaries/caucuses in nine of those states? Because it already has a lone Presidential Candidate for the 2008 election, as of the evening of March 4, 2008. You can expect squeaky wheels in those states calling on McCain for grease too.

If you were financially free enough to invest whimsically, you might think of buying ETFs in the following countries: Brazil, Canada, Argentina, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Republic of Korea, France, Australia, Mexico, and Russia, the countries with GDPs roughly corresponding with the Top Ten States. I guess you could invest in other countries on the map, if you wanted (e.g., Japan, China, India). Then again, consider what countries are going to be hit up by the U.S. with requests for bailouts... maybe investing in Thailand, Poland and Turkey doesn't look so bad...
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I updated my savings tracks: there was a $5000 difference between our accounts and the savings tracks. There's still some difference: the $2370 my spouse received won't be distributed in any of the tracks. I am hoping he'll make his full Roth IRA contribution for 2007. With the remainder, I'm tempted to accumulate some BNI (Burlington Northern) for the tot. If Buffett's buying railroads, so should my li'l banker-tadpole.

A. Gardening
1. Bought one start of English thyme. Why? Because it can be grown year-round.
2. Bought one start of Cupani sweet pea. Why? Because I like the smell of it.
3. Bought one bag of potting soil. Why? To start potting some herbs.
4. E-mailed Seattle Farm Company to help me with my urban farmscape.
5. Am sterilizing my plastic pots with a vinegar-water solution.

I am not kidding myself so much to believe I can tend a backyard garden by myself. But I would like to grow tomatoes (I've read your comment, lostindebt: last May at Mother's Day I got two tomato plants, and they were pumping out succulent fruit like it was nobody's business).

B. Exercise
1. Reserved my spot for an introduction to yoga class.

C. Being sociable/good neighbour.
1. Agreed to donate blood. Now must go buy some iron and some Vitamin C tablets.
2. Paid for tickets for school auction.
3. Strongly considering attending an ice cream social at a community club.

Learned through the Hsh.com calculator that we need an income of $63925.57 to afford our mortgage payment. This is some relief.

Counted forty-four homes for sale as we arced from the Fremont neighbourhood back to our home. Who knew Fremont, Phinney Ridge, and Greenwood areas to be so crappy that people would be rushing to sell early in the year? Or are the looming ARM resets responsible?

Had a nasty dream this morning: in my dream I had a memory of us as a family doing something fun and leisurely in July 1978, and the bills accumulated and came to me in payment this year, as my mother had passed on almost a decade ago. "$16,000? Okay. $37,000? For one little trip? That's pricey, but I can manage." and then a third bill for $310,898. "Holy moly! I can't pay that!"

I think $314098.92 might be very close to what we would eventually pay for our house, with principal and interest. Blood rushes from my head to think about what bill my son would be looking at for our collective short-term fiscal myopia... he might never leave our house.

So the Certificate of Deposit I thought was for five months is actually for ten. On the happy side, I'll be getting close to five percent interest. On the other hand, I'll need to raid savings for my tax bill.

My scooter went into the shop for 12K/V-Belt maintenance today: $502.43. This is a sum greater than a year's worth of gasoline. And yet, with a downtown commute for at least the next three months, how much use am I going to get from the scooter?

I attended a 90 minute lecture on the economy. I realize now that I have been accustomed, lifelong, to fear. That's what's keeping me off the road: fear of drivers distracted by PDAs, laptops and cellphones; fear of a crumbling economy with no family support; fear of people who choose to drive in the dark without headlights on; fear stops me from having a fun and fulfilling life, and yet it's the oblivious, over-entitled people I fear more than the homicidal crazies. I am happy to know I'm not crazy though, or if I am, there are other crazy people along with me. Good networking opportunity.

I am now having to pay for my transportation to work. This is a rarity for me. I'll also have to schedule time in the evening to prepare lunches. Otherwise, it's about $40/week at the fave sandwich shop/bakery place.

To do some reading now, and gardening planning. I should have done this last week (sigh). I'll check out the Seattle Urban Farm Company. I was going to make my own garden by myself, but time doesn't allow me to do that.