Reminisc
ences of a Chase operator

Class action lawsuit over Chase's $10 monthly fee

Chase sent my hubby a credit card solicitation. I remember when Capital One, American Express, FirstUSA used to send him offers. I can't think of why they'd send solicitations nowadays: they have been working hard to shed themselves of their icky customer base (icky defined as: people who pay in full and/or on time). Even American Express has given up on us.

I apparently still have web access to my school PTA's accounts, although I sat in person with the new team as we requested my access be removed. I'm not getting statements anymore, so that's good.

Bank of America hasn't yet tried to give us $30 annual fees on our cards -- has anyone at SavingAdvice encountered this?

Busy week for me despite rising unemployment numbers. Looking forward to earning money again, investing again. Somehow turning into community blogger/restaurant reviewer, which is a-okay with me.

We've been eating takeout more often than dining out, now that we know local restaurant staff expect 20% of the bill in tips. I remember when it was 15%, but can't imagine how service has improved 33%.

Donated some washable blankets to Tent City: a nomadic community of homeless people. The weather's been execrable as of late, so I hope they'll have some extra comfort and warmth. This sounds selfish, but I've frequently seen karma boomerang to me within 24-48 hours after I do a charitable act, and I admit to hoping that would happen.

Fresh Picked Seattle-- a local blog dedicated to fresh, inexpensive healthful food. Found it while scrounging for quickie online notes from anyone who may have gone to the Oct. 8 Recessionomics lecture I missed.


Grocery Shopping Helper -- if you have the time and thought to write down where your most frequently purchased items are at the supermarket, you can generate a grocery shopping helper that allows you to zoom with your basket or cart to your chosen item. Watch out for the mobility scooters!

Several readers have likely seen the New York Times article about Samantha Smith, the children's dance teacher who ate an Angus Beef Patty with Bacon and Cheese, processed by Cargill, and had food poisoning so awful she was in a coma for nine weeks (doctor-induced, to stop her convulsions) and became a paraplegic.

I had stopped buying commercial meat, except for the Public Market or local butcher shops, two years ago, without knowing of Ms. Smith's horrific experience. My fear that companies don't fess up to unsafe additives or practices until hundreds of thousands of people get sick or die, combined with Food Labeling laws that allow food manufacturers and processors to limit listing ingredients to what they want the customer to know, led me to limit my supermarket shopping. Now I find that Costco has its own meat processing plant so its private label ("Kirkland") products have stringent safety standards, although they probably don't control for what the animals and birds eat before they get slaughtered. Still, better than Cargill's shoddy food safety practices. In a deregulated market a company can get away with pretty much anything. I might try buying meat again from Costco, although we've had some success opening up our protein choices to include more fish and chicken. Once a month, though, my iron needs replenishing, and a 6-8 oz. steak from a pasture-fed martyr does the job nicely.
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Eight-Week Home Cure

I am eager to try this. Slowly we are changing our house so it more closely resembles a restful retreat. Now it looks like all three of our ADD-afflicted minds exploded. It's the Toxic Brain Dump. We've replaced our child's curtains that he's had since infancy with blackout shades, my husband has painted most of downstairs, and we're visiting the dump to discard our accumulated waste. Soon I hope to suppress or eliminate the bioelectronic urge in my head to borrow 18 books, 3 DVDs and 2 CDs from the library. I think my brain must be bulimic. Gorge Gorge Gorge info and new ideas. Hwaaaaaaaugh: no nutrients (good ideas put into practice) stay in the head.
I am hoping to stick with the Green Cure, like I hope to start a novena and a regular exercise program.

Slowly coming along to organizing. I may be able to plan dinner entrees by the week. One complication/pitfall I have is that some seafood I like to buy demands to be prepared/cooked as soon as possible, so I am unsure about buying mussels, for example, on Saturday and waiting until Tuesday to fix them. Yet mussels and clams can be economical and very nutritious: Vitamin C, iron, phosphorus, Omega-3 fatty acids, manganese and Vitamin B12.


Reading a great book on parent-child attachment relationships by a psychologist and a physician, both from Vancouver: Hold On to Your Kids. I recommend it for people with kidlets or planning to have kidlets. It's made me reflect on our attachment behaviours, and has given me new ideas for corrective, natural discipline.

Tell it like it is, lady!

She got results!

Some of my honest questions are regarded as prickly or obnoxious by some people: you just can't tell who's out there on the Internet, or even why the hyper-sensitive would read blogs or go watch television so they can get themselves riled up. Sorry. I'm trying to be bland and innocuous.

How do people between the ages of 25 and 65 make time for television? Is it true that people just use it for noise? The people I know who talk a lot about television are single female senior citizens.

How many typos should I excuse/forgive on a professional staffing/recruiting company application form? I attempted an application form online and lost patience with six typos. You can imagine how few Facebook quizzes I fill in (not interested in paying for text charges, or cramming done by third parties on my phone bill, both of which can happen with these quizzes but that is fodder for more posts).

How do I get rid of fruit flies?

Is it a sign of middle-age that I am finding radio/iPod music in university-area restaurants and cafes too loud? Does noise tolerance deteriorate with age? Is loud music a covert fogey-deterrent? Or am I just sensitive to noise? I ask as I've brought up the matter with a middle-aged owner of one cafe/bar and he agrees with me and is forever telling his twenty-something employees to turn the noise down. I'm beginning to think that loud music in restaurants/coffee shops means "go away old people. Only people under 30 welcome here."

For Americans, because I've just heard some David Cross comedy: Have you actually seen a redneck fight? I've made but one visit to the South, and I had a lovely time: people were super-nice and casual-friendly. Because my husband was from a state with mixed history as far as some domestic business in 1861-1865 was concerned, and I was from a foreign country, we were treated to history lessons that the winners don't tell, plus gossip about the Faulkner Family. We saw poverty I'd never seen in this continent (or anywhere in my travels, and that includes council tenancies in East London--not Ontario!). Illuminating and fascinating. But no redneck fight.

For animal behaviourists, worldwide: my younger, smaller cat believes he is the top cat. The females in our house don't quite believe him. But we can tell he has pretensions: he gets upset when one cat rests on me, and if I am feeding treats to the other female, and he finds out about it, he'll trot over to her and bat her downstairs. The females won't go near me when he's around, on account he gets fussy/prissy/feisty. Top cats supposedly think they're more entitled because they're stronger/fitter, but what about the Emmanuel Lewises/Gary Colemans of the cat world? They're not stronger/fitter. Do purebreds think they're smarter/better than other cats?

why did I not name my cats Charlotte Rae, Dana Plato and Gary Coleman?

Link du Jour: MomLogic.com's 30-Day Recession Survival

I have a phone screen tomorrow so wish me luck if it moves you: it's a non-fattening, legal and karmic thing to do. I had a productive/happy day, full of intuition, light and magic. I wish I could bottle this stuff, seriously.

Link du Jour: Card Data Breached, Firm Says

A forum elsewhere asks if we can live without credit cards. Right now I am not prepared to live without them. I am thankful that the Appliance vendor took a personal check: I didn't want to give Bank of America any transaction fee revenue from my credit cards, but I think that, although I will have mostly cash with me on my Osaka trip, credit cards will be useful for my hotel stays. What was I supposed to do: get $800 from the ATM and say to the vendor 'uh, whatever clothes dryer I buy has to be less than the cash I have on me right now. I forgot to have $800 kicking around for when my appliances go kaput unexpectedly.'

After that, maybe not so much credit card use, except for the gym membership. I have fraud alert on some accounts.

Think of it:
Bank of America doesn't want me to use its cards. They'd have kept my 25-day grace period and improved the terms and conditions as my credit score rose.

Credit card processor companies who don't adequately protect their data don't want me to use credit cards. With cybercrime rising, I just don't see where this will do me any good.

I do have a fraud alert. Maybe that'll help.

update: Bank of America removed my 0% + 3.00% no-cap transaction fee offer and replaced it with a 1.99% + 3.00% no-cap transaction fee offer. Sounds like BAC REALLY wants my business!

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Link Bonus: Expensive things that save money -- I am vindicated! Dig the plug for cast iron and enamel cookware, fresh local organic produce, and energy-efficient appliances!

Changing Prospects for Building Home Equity predicts that new buyers in 33 overheated housing markets will likely experience negative equity, particularly if they limit themselves to 30-year loans and incur selling costs that equal 6% of the property's value, and buy a house priced at 75% of the median value.

A Low Estimate of Equity Loss for my city was $117,000. Golly! There's my cue to accelerate my house payments.

I'm tracking six properties' mortgages and deeds of trust: one acquaintance/friend and one neighbour are just treading water; two properties have equity above 40%.

I resisted the purchase. I don't need an entertainment laptop, just one to do work on (Viz Studio, Office Ultimate, Quicken, Excel). Although that recent rate cut is leading me again into temptation...

We ordered appliances yesterday for the kitchen: $1710. We'll be paying for those with credit card, and then from savings when the bill is due.

I reread the HELOC terms and conditions, and saw a condition about suspending the credit line when the market value of the property is significantly below its appraisal value at the time of borrowing. That hasn't happened yet -- we borrowed just before our property received its highest ever assessment, but unless the County decides it doesn't need as much of our property taxes, the assessment will go down. By how much remains to be seen.

I should do some reading about the conditions that urge a lender to REDUCE the HELOC, and conditions that urge the lender to SUSPEND it.

Considering goals for 2009 -- I see some planners are mulling theirs over already. My goals shift from month to month, it seems: something always happens. Nebulous nice-to-haves would be getting the hubby to save for his retirement this year, having an equal amount saved for the replacement car as there is owing on the HELOC, and return of automatic investment into boy's Coverdell account.

Links du Jour:employers suspending 401(k) matching

American Express seeks cash advance -- considering its credit record, and ability to pay, how much APR would you assign to AXP if it came to you for money?

I delivered my November mortgage payment this morning. I had hoped to be cheery, and wrote a cute note of gratitude to wrap around my cheque. However, the vibe I got from the bank (8:45 am) was not chipper, not informed (I was asked to endorse my payment). I removed my cheque from my envelope, and kept my note hidden.

I just want to celebrate the fact that 20% of my mortgage principal has been paid off. For those of us who are reducing debt and saving and building equity, we know the thrill of bounding over an early hurdle.

I know my savings tribe will share in my celebration, even if the bank wasn't in a mood to. I treated myself to a Viennese mocha from Dilettante en route to the bus stop as a reward.

Phew! I had worried that I forgot to make BEARX part of my automated purchase plan. That's not the case! I don't have the r-to-the-power-of-3s (write it out, math geeks) to look at my balance. Other things gnawing at my nerves.

401(k): down 40%
Rollover IRA: down 10%
Roth IRA: I CAN'T LOOK.

Link du Jour: Dividend Stock Investment Strategy

My Congresscritter wants to abolish the 401(k) tax benefits. However, a different kind of mandatory retirement plan is being discussed.

Smart Money identified my city as one of nine whose real estate values haven't completely tanked. Depends what neighborhood, size, school cluster, economic vitality we're talking about. The schools where I live are crowded and we need more capacity. Still, many houses in our area are for sale.

No Microsoft Money for 2009, but Quicken Online is ditching its fees.

I'm paying attention to peer-to-peer lending sites in the wreckage of tapeworm bank implosions.

If the US dollar is rising, why does it buy fewer Yen than it did a month ago? Look at the Yahoo! currency chart.

Link du Jour: smartstops.net Oh that I had learned of this site back in August...

Smart starts
Potential long-term growth industries worth researching this fall and investing this winter:
environmental companies
low-end retailers
educational companies
infrastructure companies
biotechnology
Real Estate Invetment Trusts
tax preparation companies
asset management firms focused predominantly on retirement assets

It's safe. No discussion of what happened today. No snark. No politics. No juice recipes. No 'my kid said the cutest thing today.' Come on in.

Humberto Cruz's 20 rules to apply to your finances

Andrew Tobias, six years ago, had a multi-article run on the wisdom of Dick Davis, who had an investment newsletter and who has a book out: The Dick Davis Dividend.

Thank you to all who contributed recipes and advice on my potluck predicament, and thank you to the people who validated my culinary skills. I may invite you to dine once the kitchen is done. At least it'll be done before American Thanksgiving.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney's Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights was approved by the House of Representatives this week.

Analyze Now publishes a letter its author wrote to his family, advising them on financial strategy and asset allocations during this tough time.

I'm not going to do any active rebalancing, other than check my periodic investment plans to see that I'm still contributing to short-term treasuries and BEARX.

Another question: someone on another forum boasted that her electricity utility cost was $0.0008/kWh, or 0.08 cents. What state has insanely cheap electricity costs? I'm paying $0.069/kWh and thought that was fairly decent... or did she not know how to use a decimal points with Anglo-American standard currency notation? This matters to me, I don't want to be paying electricity bills that are 70x higher than some other state's... [updated price per kWh, also found Nationwide Utilities survey. My utility is at the bottom of the list, but I'm paying 87x more than someone else?

I wouldn't have thought so, but I am very motivated: either to sell, or to pay off the house. A friend in the United Kingdom tells me her partner is on track to pay off his house in two-three years.

So I found on the Money Crashers blog two useful spreadsheets: a debt elimination spreadsheet, and a budget spreadsheet. I hope you find them as useful as I am finding them.

The dawn simulator timer works well. My cat wasted no time in telling us he had SAD, and appropriated my pillow the moment my spouse tested our ceiling-mount light setup.

Can someone also tell me how "looking for 25-day grace period" translates automatically yet incorrectly into some people's heads as "doesn't pay in full each month"? Because I've paid in full for years, and don't see how an increasing credit score and longer, more robust credit history disqualifies me from a 25-day grace period offered by major credit issuers. Are there some people who cannot process questions without running through some autopilot "blame the victim. Where there is no blame to hand victim, shut off contact" psychoscript?

I'm angry. I know, what else is new? I'm angry because I have just now understood that if I remained angry, I'd be closer to being completely debt-free. But no: I had to be melancholic, lethargic, maternal, content, stuck, pessimistic, distracted. I did not stay quixotic.

MSN Money contributor Liz Pulliam Weston's article "What if we all got money-smart? has fanned my flames.

What if every household in America:

* Paid off credit cards in full every month and carried no high-rate debt? (54% of credit card holders do this; at least 25% of the population has no credit cards)

* Had an emergency fund equal to at least three months' worth of expenses? (38% of Americans actually keep that much savings on hand)

* Saved at least 10% of earnings for retirement?

* Paid off cars before trading them in? (76% of people do this)

* Bought only as much house as it could afford? (2% of households in the country are in foreclosure, so 98%? or are we waiting for 12% of the mortgage-payers to go under?)

I thought 67% of American households were already doing that, and that would be enough. Why does it have to be 100% of households? Maybe I'll just sacrifice some more, and really build up my savings, so I can:
• pay off the mortgage and starve the bank;
• buy real estate somewhere where the crash won't be so keenly felt;
• pay less in consumption taxes and worsen the infrastructure budget, and shame the government(s) I don't approve of.

When I save 40% of our pre-tax income, and prosper in a failing economy, you'll know I am well and truly vexed beyond measure.

Have you seen this one?

http://htaindex.cnt.org/map_tool

Maps of metropolitan statistical areas that track Housing and Transportation Costs as Percent of Income. Blue areas indicate areas that do not meet affordability standards (housing + transportation greater than or equal to 45% of median income). Cream areas meet affordability standards.

I'm surprised to learn that my area is among the unaffordable. We have postwar houses, trucks, RVs. Not really manicured lawns, few luxury SUVs, no homeowner association - subdivisions. The new Priuses and the Subaru wagons with the Thules and the Coexist bumper stickers are in the even less affordable areas south of us. On the other hand, the affordable areas in our city are the ones with the highest crime rates (burglary, gang violence, car theft).

Then again, I can also understand why the payday lending places are nearby. It's cheaper to rent where I live than to own.

Note to DH, who's reading this: your parents live in one of the few "blue" areas of your hometown. It's a small area, but over a mile away from any other blue area so it's easy to identify.

or is it lacking payment stamina? These past two weeks have been the fiscal equivalent of having three pints of blood withdrawn.

We made our last payment for childcare. I signed up for some community education courses: Japanese, Yoga, decluttering and kitchen remodeling.

Mailed the cheques out to the contractor, although he's on vacation.

I showered in our new bathroom. I love the light in it. Everything gleams so brightly, I suddenly note the rust on our shower rod. Guessing $3300 addition to the house value. Bathtub may need a new enamel job: its beige tint doesn't go well with the bright white gleam.

Considering a dawn simulator for the fall and autumn months. I had pondered a big full-spectrum therapy light box but they're expensive, and I haven't had a proper diagnosis of Seasonal Affective Disorder. The dawn simulator would help us both. I should start on the St. Johns Wort now, I reckon.

A new Yamaha battery would set me back a mere $70 on eBay. Considering... one thing I really like about my city is that there are many scooter and motorcycle riders who are generous with their advice. If I get the job in the city 20 miles north I'll lean on the spouse to sell one of our scooters, and consider blowing my car fund. Or -- gasp! -- lease a car. If I knew for certain I'd be back in the home country for keeps within 24 months, I would lease. Ideally, he'd get a ZipCar membership for taking the kid to appointments.

$5000 away from having 67% equity in the house. Watch this happen five years from now.
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Link du Jour: Home Equity Frenzy Was a Bank Ad Come True -- "The Debt Trap" series by the New York Times: banks' advertising campaigns to promote home equity loans and home equity lines of credit.

Americans are beginning to reduce their debt exposure - as seen in the savings rate, which rose from 0.3pc to 2.6pc in the last three months, the third steepest quarterly increase since the Second World War.

Before the US economy can truly begin to expand again, Rosenberg believes the savings rate must rise to pre-bubble levels of 8pc, that the US housing stocks must fall to below eight months' supply, and that the household interest coverage ratio must fall from 14pc to 10.5pc.

"It's important to note what sort of surgery that is going to require. We will probably have to eliminate $2 trillion of household debt to get there," he predicts, saying this will happen either through debt being written off, as major financial institutions continue to do, or for consumers themselves to shrink their own "balance sheets".

My family's share of household debt to pay off: $19354.84. Could be house renovations, could be the mortgage. But there's a goal: $1612.91/month to divide between the mortgage and the home renovations, maybe even a car. I'd looked at CarTalk.com and MotherProof for car recommendations and reviews. Still liking the Nissan Altima Hybrid, or honda Accord, or Toyota Prius, although the Nissan Versa is a consideration too now.

But hey, way to crank up that savings rate, America! If you can nontuple your savings, why can't I?

Scheduling to tackle the $19354.84 after March 2009, when the bathroom is done, and I've returned from Japan.

I freaked a little yesterday when I read my utility needed to raise its water service charges by 40% over the next three years. So, because I am stoopid, I Googled the following links:

Save Water 49 Ways

How to conserve water in your home and yard

How to conserve water

Questions and answers for the three people who read this:

1. What personal finance podcasts do you listen to?
I don't have any money podcasts I can use RSS or subscription methods for. I know of Financial Sense but never have the time to listen to it. I have started to listen to Michelle Singletary on NPR. I have a bookmark for Gerri Detweiler's ARCHIVED podcast too.

2. If you have a del.icio.us account, what bookmarks do you have for 'frugality', 'budgeting' or 'saving'? Bonus points for 'housekeeping' or 'home organization'

Some of mine are: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/10/02/the-one-hour-project-thirty-ways-to-use-one-hour-to-improve-your-finances-and-open-the-door-to-more-riches/

http://www.frugalfun.com/frugal.html

Most of my del.icio.us links are added on this page as links in a side column

What is frugality? Is it living below your means? Is it living on one person's income and saving the other's, when the income division is close to 50-50? Is it saving 10% of your gross income?


None of the above. Frugality is the practice of acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services to achieve a longer term goal.

Yes, I ripped most of the above paragraph and everything below from Wikipedia's frugality entry.

Common strategies of frugality include:
• the reduction of waste,
• the curbing of costly habits,
• suppression of instant gratification by means of fiscal self-restraint,
• the search for efficiency,
• traps avoidance,
• defiance of expensive social norms,
• embrace of free (as in gratis) options, using barter, and staying well-informed about local circumstances and both market and product/service realities.

I don't know what means 'traps avoidance' but the first thing that comes to my head is cell phone plans. I'll be working on the first four strategies. I feel I have near-mastery of defiance of expensive social norms: our mortgage plus tax plus insurance plus utilities plus maintenance is still less than what we'd be paying as renters in our area.

As we can't be bothered to check the phone for voice mail on a regular basis, I'm going to get rid of voice mail. It's a waste. I also want one scooter gone. Somehow we will meet Jean Chatzky's '$10 a day' challenge. Even if it means me preparing lunches in the evening for the next day, or soaking beans (hey, what about those soaked lentils in the fridge?) learning to love eggs and cheese as cheaper protein alternatives to fish, fowl, and meat.

Link du Jour: Frugality tips from Pinchtown (why do I have the Steve Miller Band in my head?)
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Another Link du Jour: Interesting Web Interactive Applications served up by the New York Times in its July 20 Debt and Credit feature.

How I stack up or suck:
2004 the average debt on a home by 35-44 year olds was $108062. Ours was $170000 (we were not yet 35).
2004 the average house price was $264,000. Ours was about $296500. Then again, 52% of families aged 35-44 had $100K - $320K in mortgage debt back then.

I like how the 1941-1946 period is the one period over 88 years where savings outnumbered debt.

Link du Jour: 3000 miles debunked

My auto manufacturer still recommends 3000 miles as the appropriate interval for oil changes, but it's good to know that of the cars I am most likely to purchase in the next two years I can postpone the Grease Monkey trip.
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from the etc. bin: I am so tantalizingly close to completing two savings goals! When I can deposit two cheques into the accounts I can consider #2 (bathroom) and #6 (garage door) complete! Maybe I should start #1, #4, #5, and #7 in earnest on 7/25 to keep things quarterly.

If you're in debt, and it's a taboo subject to bring up, do you suppose everyone else is in debt too, or do you suffer silently convinced you are the only one?

This is of course the wrong question to ask on a Savings blog: the readers are money-conscious and goal-oriented. But before you got here, if you were in debt, which did you believe? Were you better off thinking you were the only one, or that consumer debt would always be a fact of life?

I still have a hard time believing so many other people are in debt: they have higher retirement accounts, bigger houses, newer cars, mommy and daddy to leech from. A quarter of the houses on my street are paid-in-full. I never see a trace of worry on their faces. I tend to think people pay in cash for vehicles and home renovations, because we ought to. And I think the taboo custom here is what reinforces my belief. My friend has no problem getting people to confide they owe money -- me, I do not give off those vibes at all. I only give off the vibes of being approachable for money, despite how ill-fitting, wrinkled, or old my clothes are. Yet when I ask my self-employed friends with their $600K+ houses how they set up their Keoghs or SEP-IRAs they don't respond. Is that a taboo, or are they too cashpoor?

What would the nation look like if people were open about how much they owed? Would people get out any faster? Would they be in peer collectives sharing their strategies as middle-income households rather than heeding a milionaire talking head or a spoken voice over a mass medium?

Ka-ching! Consumers spend more on credit cards

Credit card debt more taboo than sex** I was banned from commenting on this one, due to the IP address I was using (shared by 60,000+ other people) so I am commenting on it here. I see the Consumer Smarts blogger hasn't mentioned whether she is debt-free or has consumer debt.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/devouringseattle/archives...

Not meant to be advertisement for personal gain.