Thanks, everybody

My recent pity party posts have garnered a nice round of sympathetic emails and comments. I appreciate your well wishes.

Mindless financial games

I logged into my Wachovia account today because I wanted to look at One Stop, which is what they call the Yodlee interface they provide to their customers. I needed to see when my credit card bills were due. How did I miss the news that they're ceasing to offer Yodlee on the day after tomorrow?

Crap. That sucks.

I was momentarily bummed until I remembered that I can also access Yodlee through Fidelity, where I have my brokerage accounts.

What a perfect way to kill the rest of my work shift on the quiet reference desk. I added almost all of my accounts. So far, I like Fidelity's Yodlee interface a little better. The font is smaller and the colors are better.

It's interesting that Wachovia puts banking in the prime spot on the page--in the upper left. Fidelity reserves that prime spot for your investing accounts. I guess it's good to know what side everybody's bread is buttered on.

How different people show love

Here's how my various family members reacted upon being told that I might have cancer again.

L (confused): But you went to the doctor. Why are you not feeling well if you already went to the doctor? And how did you get not feeling well, Mommy?

Me: I don't know, L. Oooof. Please, please, don't jump on my tummy right now.

Mother: I can tell you really need space right now. Call me when you're ready to talk. If you need my help, I'll be on the next plane.

Me: Thanks, Mom. I think it would really help little L to have you here. But let's wait til after the first surgery and see what the prognosis is.

Older sister: If you need my help, I'll cancel my trip to Hawaii.

Me: Of course you shouldn't cancel it, but that is so sweet of you to offer. I'm glad you'll be travelling with your cell phone so I can reach you if I need a sounding board.

Younger sister (sobbing): I know you don't want to talk about it, but I really need to. I'm just so upset. I can't handle this. I'm really depressed. I'm still unemployed, and I have had the flu, and things are just really hard right now. [Insert long, glowing account of how supportive her new husband has been.] Me, me, me, me, me. Do you want me to come sit by your bedside and hold your hand and talk about myself while you're recuperating? No? Well, if you need my help, I can be out the door in an hour.

Me: No, please, no. Your husband would miss you too much.

Brother: (Silence. Poor guy lives overseas and is always the last to get the news. I really should email him....)

Father (bracingly): I know you'll be fine. If you need help, I'll fly your mother or your sister out there to take care of you. I would come myself, but, well, your nieghborhood is just so different, and your guest bed is uncomfortable. If I pay for your mother's ticket, it will be as if I'm there also, helping you. I'll be on vacation, but I might check my messages once or twice, so let me know how the surgery goes.

Me (woodenly): Thanks, Dad. It's so nice to know I can count on you. Have a nice vacation.

Health problems are so inconvenient

I've mentioned that I've been going through some medical drama this year. Well, my oncologist is finally anxious enough about all my test results that she's going to do a laparoscopy in a couple of weeks to see what's going on. I had to sign something saying that she could take out any organs she didn't like the looks of. So I'll be going in not knowing if I'm just having outpatient surgery, or having much more invasive surgery.

This is such a bad time for this. I'm in the middle of writing this freelance article and don't want to let the editor down because she's taking a chance on a largely untried writer. I'm going to be away the weekend before the surgery and will have to come back to town and jump right into pre-surgery tests and so on. And there are a million smaller problems. I've promised to catsit for a friend, but now I think I should tell her to find someone else. Plus, I only have childcare from 9-12 every day. If I'm only having a laparoscopy, I can probably be back in my usual routine within a day or so. But those few days will require some juggling. Thankfully, some friends have already offered to help out with L care, even coming to stay overnight if necessary to be on call in case he wakes up in the night.

Our out-of-town family is all in a tizzy, trying to figure out if they should come to help. I'm going to ask that they not come for the initial surgery. Plenty of time for them to come and help if I end up having a longer recovery time. It will probably be minor surgery only, and in that case, I'd rather avoid the drama of having folks fly in from goodness knows where to clutter up my kitchen counters and read religious books to my child.

Worrying about the logistics is much easier than worrying about other aspects of the situation. And it will be a relief, after six months of ambiguity, to have an answer about what's going on.

Still, I don't expect to sleep too well for the next couple of weeks.

PS. To bring this post back around to financial matters, can I just say: Thank goodness for COBRA! I feel so lucky to be insured.

Home-made toys

Sometimes I get this parenting stuff right.

My kid has been obsessed with vehicles since before he could talk. He wants to own at least one of every kind of vehicle that exists. But lately he's figured out how to make things for himself. He still can't tie knots in string, but he knows how to give detailed instructions to the grown-ups in the house.

Last month, he got his father to help him make a crane. It doesn't look like what I'd call a crane, but L is happy with it and it never left his side for several weeks. It's a piece of cardboard (the body of the crane) with a string tied to it. The string is in turn tied to the chain from a broken tea ball, with a hook made out of a paper clip at the end of that. L carries it around and uses it to lift anything that will fit on the hook.

Now he's conceived a passion for aircraft carriers. One of his favorite library videos features an aircraft carrier and "planes with bombs" as he calls them. We've managed to minimize his interest in the planes with bombs, but he's still fascinated with the aircraft carrier itself. Each plane has a hook on its tail, and the hook catches a wire to help the plane stop quickly when it lands so it doesn't overshoot the landing strip and plunge into the ocean.

So, of course, L wants an aircraft carrier.

The solution? A string tied to the leg of our dining room table and the back of a chair. The chair is angled so that L can fly his plane (with a hook tied to the back), catch the string with the hook on the back of the plane, and land the plane on the seat of the chair.

Voila. An aircraft carrier. Now we just have to be careful not to trip on all these pieces of string.

Potty training will be the death of me

We've been working on helping our son learn to use the potty for about 18 months.

Today I told my son he can't have any more diapers during the day. He can wear them at night for a while longer, but during the day he has to wear undies when we're out of the house. In the house, he is welcome to either wear undies or go naked. He had two, ah, episodes at camp this morning, but since we got home 3 hours ago he has done very well. He even took himself to the toilet without help (a first).

I keep reminding myself that a year ago, I could not imagine how I was going to get this kid weaned. Now, he's been weaned for eight months. And a year ago, I could not imagine him sleeping through the night, especially not in his own bed. Now, about half the time, he sleeps through the night in his own bed.

So, probably a year from now he will be using the toilet consistently by himself and we won't even have any diapers in the house.

Still, it's hard to imagine getting there.

Sigh.

Philadelphia economy is lookin' good

The Fed recently reported that Philadelphia-area economic growth is outpacing many other regions.

Philadelphia area economy more positive than nation

This is because the housing bubble did not get quite as bubbly here, and so the softening of the real estate market hasn't hurt the region as much as other regions have been hurt. We're also experiencing some upturns in manufacturing, which is a very good thing for this industrial city that has been suffering for decades.

Yay, Philadelphia!

Yay, economic growth!

If only lower income households were feeling some of the good economic vibes.

International investing: Advice needed

I need some help rethinking the international category in my retirement portfolio.

If you recall, I'm sloooowly rebalancing my retirement accounts.

Last year, I devised this allocation strategy:
25% large cap
15% mid cap
15% small cap
25% international
10% emerging markets
10% bonds

And my current allocations look like this:
34% large cap
15% mid cap
5% small cap
24% international
12% bonds
9% cash
1% other

My immediate plan is buy shares in a small cap fund with the excess cash I have sitting in my Roth. I'll also sell some large cap fund shares, and perhaps sell off a bit of the international stock fund I own, and use the proceeds from both of those sales to buy a more diversified international fund.

Now, I've been looking at various emerging market funds, and frankly, the numbers scare me. Maybe they'll keep going up and up and up. But maybe not. I'm not comfortable buying when the earnings graphs have just skyrocketed, with only one small correction. But my international holdings are very, very concentrated in Europe. Does EVERYTHING that's not Europe or North American fall into the category of Emerging Markets? Cause I would like to diversify my international holdings a little without buying into the overinflated emerging markets funds.

Plus, I still feel unsure about the ethics of buying emerging markets. I favor socially responsible funds, and I don't think there is one geared towards emerging markets. How do I know I'm not profiting from the work of five year olds if I buy emerging markets?

So what should I do? Does anybody know if there's a nice, balanced international fund that's, say, 75% established markets and 25% emerging? That would be perfect for me.

My cute kid

Is that what I sound like?

The other day, M and I were both running around trying to get the car packed to go to the beach. L really wanted one of us to play with him.

L: "Mommy, I'm going to vacuum the couch. See? I'm taking all the pillows off. Mommy, I need my toy vacuum cleaner. Okay? Mommy, will you open the closet for me? Thanks. Mommy, I need a broom, too. I need to tie the broom to the vacuum cleaner with some string. Can you do that, Mommy? Mommy. Can you get some string please?"

Me: Okay, I have water, apples, watermelon, crackers. But no protein. What can I bring for protein? What did you say, L?

L: I need you to tie my vacuum cleaner to this broom with string so I can vacuum the couch.

Me: Why?

L: So I can vacuum the couch.

Me: L, I'm trying to get us ready to go to the beach. Don't you want to go to the beach?

L: Daaaaddy, can you get some string so I can--"

Me: L, he's in the basement. He can't hear you. We're both trying to get all the stuff together for the beach. You need to play by yourself.

L: Just calm down, Mama.

Me: I am calm.

L: Calm down. Just get some string. We'll figure it out. It's going to be all right.

Me: That's what I say to you, isn't it? What the heck. How long do you want the string to be?

L: See? It's all going to be all right.

Freelance writing: It's who you know

I just landed a fun and interesting freelance writing assignment.

How did I do that? Ten years ago I went to a writer's conference, that's how. The writer's conference was fairly lame, but I banded together with other cynics and we had a good time dissing the alcoholics and the philanderers and the wanna-bes who had attended the conference. I have only stayed in touch with one of the friends I made, but she's been a useful sounding board over the years and we've helped each other with writing projects off and on ever since. Now she's an editor, and she emailed me last week to tell me she needs articles for a column she's editing.

I've always heard that professional advancement is much easier if you know the right people. This is the first time, however, that I've felt like I know the right people.

The only fly in my ointment is that I'm going to have to put my other writing projects aside for a couple weeks to get this done, but the money it brings in will help me delay having to get another day job. That will definitely be worth any rearranging I have to do now.

Yippee!

Organic gardens and property values

This article (It's not easy being green in suburbs) reminded me of the difference between my yard and the yards of most of my neighbors. They tend to favor highly fertilized and pesticide-sprayed laws, maybe with a small carefully pruned bush or two. Some of them put in a neat border of annual flowers, something bright but essentially boring like impatiens. Their lawns look like carpet.

And then there's my yard. My lawn is full of wild violets and clover. I do try to keep the dandylions under control, mostly by pulling off the flowers before they go to seed, but I don't even bother to dig them out because of the holes that leaves in the lawn. My garden beds have uneven local stones around them, not neat borders, and they're a tangle of herbs and tomato plants and perennial flowering bushes. I don't think my yard is as wild as the one profiled in the article, but I'm sure my neighbors sometimes wish I wasn't so keen on the organic garden theme. I tend to have a lot of weeds because I fertilize with compost and the seeds in the compost often sprout into volunteer plants. But I'm out there nearly every day, watering and pulling weeds and dead-heading my rose bushes.

You CAN have a neatly groomed organic garden, but I prefer the method of gardening this woman seems to like. I like my garden to be slightly wild, so that I feel like I'm outside when I'm in it, not in some alien world where grass is so perfect it's like living astroturf.

But I don't live in the suburbs either. I live at the edge of the city, but folks in my neighborhood really pride themselves on being urban dwellers. As long as folks take reasonably good care of their houses and yards on my block, I don't much care what they do. Want to paint your trim neon green? Great. The neighborhood will look quirkier. Want to grow vegetables instead of ornamental flowers in your front yard? Great. I'll swap seed starts with you. I think my neighbors mostly feel the same.

I'm sure my house would sell for a bit more with a more perfectly groomed garden, and I'm sure all of the houses on the block would sell for a bit more if all the yards were impeccable. But when I'm walking through an unfamiliar neighborhood, what is it that makes me think, "This is a great block and I could imagine living here"? It's certainly not the kind of boring but perfect lawns and hedges my neighbors favor.

And if I saw a neighborhood with well-tended but slightly wild yards, plus solar panels and windmills? I'd be all over it.

Rebalancing ALL my retirement funds

In May, I started my first annual rebalancing adventure. I had decided on an asset allocation strategy in May of 2006, and this year was the first time I needed to rebalance to get back to that strategy.

However, I got a little derailed when reader DCL quite rightly pointed out that it was ridiculous to look at my asset allocation for only some of my retirement accounts. Curse you, DCL. I had hoped to take the easier route.

Now, I've finally gotten it together to look at all my accounts, and I'd glad I did. I used Morningstar's X-ray tool, and found that all my retirement accounts combined have an asset allocation that looks very different from the allocation I got when I only looked at my Roth and my current company's 403b.

My Roth-only allocation looks like this:
22% large cap
13% mid cap
14% small cap
24% int'l
13% bonds
14% cash

And my Roth plus current company's 403b looks like this:
42% large cap
6% mid cap
6% small cap
22% international
9% bonds
15% cash

But when I look at ALL my retirement accounts (Roth, current 403b, and old 403b), I get this:
34% large cap
15% mid cap
5% small cap
24% international
12% bonds
9% cash
1% other

I need to revise my goal allocations, but when I developed them last year they looked like this:
25% large cap
15% mid cap
15% small cap
25% international
10% emerging markets
10% bonds

So just a quick look reveals that I'm overweighted in large cap, bonds, and cash, and I'm underweighted in small cap and emerging markets. I still haven't decided if I'm going to buy emerging markets at all, but now I have the information needed to move forward on making the decision.

Next year I'll tackle the problem of looking at my retirement investments and my partner's retirement investments side-by-side. I can tell you right now, our combined portfolios will paint a much more conservative picture than mine do alone.

Review of the Rubber Stamp Champ

If you had any doubt about my extreme geekiness, it would be dispelled if you knew how long I've been sitting here looking at the products on the Rubber Stamp Champ website.

When I was asked to review this company's products, I thought, what the heck, I'll give them a quick look. But they have so many cool geeky toys that I was soon trying to convince myself that I needed to own a self-inking date stamp, with a special revolving carousel to hold it. Their website is even more fun than a quick browse through my favorite library supply catalog.

Rubber Stamp Champ carries a huge variety of self-inking address stamps. I remember being fascinated by these as a kid. They have a little mechanism so that when you press down on the handle, the stamp part pivots away from the inkpad to press into the paper. They also carry pre-inked stamps, which don't have an inkpad at all. The only pre-inked stamps I personally own have Hello Kitty characters on them, so I was intrigued to see that you can get more business-like versions.

But then. Then I got into the really good stuff. Not only do they have super modern date stamps, but you can also get the old fashioned kind that need a separate ink pad. And forget self-inking. I want an address stamp like these old-school hand stamps. They even have embossers, something I've always wanted. Embossers let you crimp a raised design into paper, so you can use them to personalize books or stationery.

I'm also intrigued by the pocket stamps, although it's hard to imagine having such a pressing stamping need that I'd have to carry one with me all the time. Plus, I'd be worried about them leaking. The product descriptions don't make any claims about being leak-proof. I assume that's because it's just a non-issue.

I wish the photos of the products showed me the finished result. I don't just want a picture of the embosser. I want a picture of a few samples of embossed pages that have been made using the embosser. I don't just want the measurements of the stamping surface of an address stamp. I want a picture of what kind of impression my date stamp or address stamp would make on the paper.

Overall, the prices at Rubber Stamp Champ seem to be pretty good, even though I wouldn't be buying in bulk. And what's not to love about free shipping?

Psychologically important

Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly rose above the "psychologically important" level of 14,000 points.

This phrase always leaves a funny taste in my mouth. To me, it implies that this is totally unimportant in every way that really matters, except that some investors think it's important and so it's newsworthy. But since psychology has a huge impact on the stock market, and therefore how investors feel about the stock market influences how much money we're all making from the money we have invested in stocks, those "psychologically important" numbers are actually very significant.

I'm confusing myself.

All I know is I got a little thrill when I heard the Dow had topped 14,000. Am I going jump online and buy a whole lot of stock today, assuming it can only go up from here? No way.

But I did have fun checking my account balances.

Time really is money

As I'm getting used to being nearly a stay-at-home-mom (I work 9 hours a week outside the house and about another 10 hours or so from home each week), I'm discovering that there are a lot of little ways I can save money that would never have been an option when I was working.

Line-drying my clothes. I never would have attempted this two months ago when I was still commuting to work outside the house. Now, I find it sort of meditative hanging a wet load of laundry to dry in my basement. I got into the habit when my old clothes dryer gave up the ghost last month, and even though we bought a new dryer I'm still line-drying my clothes. I have no idea how much money I'm saving, but it's rather satisfying to be ignoring my clothes dryer completely. The only time I use the dryer these days is when I need something quickly or when I have work clothes that can't be too wrinkled. I hate to iron, so I'd rather fluff dry my work shirts than iron them.

Cooperating. I saved a ton of money this summer by sending my son to a cooperative camp. Tomorrow morning it's my turn to lead 30 little kids ages 3-5 in a craft project. We'll be making bug antennae. Yay, pipe cleaners! I'm also saving a lot of money on babysitters by swapping informally with a friend who is happy to watch my son in exchange for my taking his kids off his hands occasionally. We have been members of a cooperative food store and a childcare cooperative for a long time, but now I actually have time to do the coop hours necessary.

Cooking from scratch means no more frozen entrees. Even when I do work my shift in the library, I always have leftovers on hand now and don't need to bring frozen meals to work.

Walking instead of driving. Okay, this is one area where I need to do better, but I now have a lot more time to do my errands on foot. If only it weren't so freaking hot....

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Buy-and-hold investing

I returned from the news blackout that was my vacation, and almost the first thing I learned was that the stock market had hit a new high. My sister told me about it over dinner at her house, where we had stopped on our way home from the lake.

Despite my long-time conviction that I will never, ever be smart enough or prescient enough to time the market, I had a momentary lapse and exclaimed, "I'd better sell some things, quick!"

My sister looked horrified, and immediate started quoting experts who say that the average investor really does better if they pretty much never sell.

Even when rebalancing, my sister says that it's better to adjust your allocations by buying underperformers with the new deposits you're putting in, rather than selling off the high-flyers.

I'm still trying to get around to my annual rebalancing (overdue since May). I have a couple thousand dollars in cash in my Roth, so I'm going to resist the urge to sell off the funds that are doing well, and instead balance my portfolio by using the cash to buy in the sectors where my position is too small.

I've been tempted to diversify a little bit by buying a fund that focuses on companies that are about to be acquired, like this one, but there have been so many articles about this kind of fund that I'm starting to worry that it's a fad whose time is about to be over. Last year I was itching to buy an emerging markets fund but I didn't have enough money to meet Fidelity's $2500 per-fund minimum investment. Now emerging markets seem to be kind of passe.

I think I should stop being distracted by all these interesting minor sectors and keep my portfolio balanced with the more traditional categories. Small, mid, and large cap. International. A small position in bonds for someone my age (I'm 30). Very, very basic.

This week or next, I'm determined to get my ducks in a row for my annual rebalancing act. I'll keep you posted.

Stolen wi-fi beside the lake

Hello from mid-vacation.

The weather is hot, but the lake is the perfect temperature. My little son has been getting more and more comfortable with the water. We have even had to tell him how deep he is allowed to go without a grownup holding his hand. This is a child who usually won't even consent to dabble his toes in a baby pool.

My brother-in-law and I are enjoying speculating about the cost of the homes around the lake, and who in their right mind would have built that monstrosity over there? And what were those people thinking not putting more windows on the lake side of their house? And how much money exactly do these people earn to be able to afford one of these houses as a second home? Very amusing.

I have gotten in the car only once in the last 48 hours for a run to the grocery store, where a local in the line behind me let me use their frequent buyer card and saved me $14.

I hope you all have air conditioning this week. I'm out on the deck to get a better wireless signal from somebody's unprotected router, but I think I'll go inside now and have some ice water and watch M playing Shutes and Ladders with L. We're firing up the gas grill tonight, so I better start shucking the corn.

I could really get used to a life of leisure.

The life of leisure

I'm going on vacation again today. This is a long-planned trip with M's sister and her family. For once it's a real vacation--we're not staying with friends or family. Instead, we've rented a house on a lake. I anticipate lots of swimming, playing cards, and reading. I don't think we'll have internet access.

I'll be back at the end of the week.

Have a good one, everybody.

Am I too old for cheap haircuts?

I have been wearing my hair quite short for several months now, but I'm not happy with the hair cutting place I've been using. It's only $14 for a haircut and they take drop-ins, but I don't usually like the haircut they give me. And who has time to go every 6 weeks or so? I've been overdue for a trim and looking like an alpaca in winter, so last night in a fit of the grumps I busted out my electric razor, put it on the longest setting, and gave myself a haircut. My hair is now uniformly one inch long all over. M says I look like a character from Dykes to Watch Out For. To which I say, "um, thanks, I think."

Somehow this haircut looked better the last time I did it, when I was about a decade younger, not to mention that I weighed about 20% less.

I think the next time I'm going to spring for a real haircut in a nice salon. Several friends whose hair I envy swear by a local place near my house. I hate to commit myself to a $50 expense every six weeks, but I can't seem to find a middle ground. M cuts his own hair and our son's hair, but the one time I convinced him to cut mine it was a very bad idea.

My hair has always either been very short (i.e., cut it once a month myself with an electric razor) or very long (i.e., down my back and not trimmed as often as it should be). I'm enjoying having short hair, but I don't know how to manage a decent short hairstyle frugally.

Suggestions? Where do you have your hair cut? Do you consider it a necessary expense or an extravagance?

Please share your frugal hair tips.

Grammar police

At the radiology outpatient center yesterday, I was appalled to see the same two engraved signs hanging on each wall.

Sign no. 1
"Attention all patients
There is a 48 hour notice
for all film request
Thank you"


Sign no. 2
"To our patients
You may not be taken in the order in which you arrived.
Due to the fact that specific exams require specific rooms.
Thank you for your patience."

Job perks I miss

This evening at 7PM my little son and I sallied forth between rainstorms to go to the grocery store to photocopy some paperwork. The deadline for submitting all our healthcare forms, emergency release forms, and our first tuition payment for his new preschool is July 15. While I was at it, I also copied some health insurance reimbursement claim forms so those can go out tomorrow.

It used to be I could have photocopied and even faxed this stuff off at work for free. Better yet, I could have filled out all the paperwork on the clock, and made the necessary follow-up calls when some papers inevitably when astray.

I sure do miss that job at moments like this.

But only for a moment.

Sailboat timeshares: Not a bad idea

This morning the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on a franchise that sells timeshares in luxury sailboats. There is a new chapter open in Philadelphia to allow well-to-do working people to sail regularly without the expense of owning their own boat. For about $550 a month, you get to sail seven times a month--twice on weekends and five times during the week. You don't have to pay any other maintenance fees, and who really has time to sail more than that anyway?

Although I'm normally opposed to things that allow people to parrot the wealthy, I think this is a great idea. I come from a sailing family on both sides. My mother sailed little one-person boats with her friends when she was a kid. My father and his brothers have sailed in different parts of the Pacific Ocean for decades. A couple people in my family have even sailed around the world. A few of them have been professional sailors for a while in their 20s. I myself spent time on boats as a kid, and several years ago I even did an ocean crossing (8 days out of the sight of land--never again, thank you).

When I was a small child, my dad owned a funky little catamaran and sailed it with his friends on the weekends. Life changed, we moved inland, he started working a lot more, and he sold it. Later, he bought a 24-foot sailboat. Mostly he used it for small local races around the San Francisco Bay Area, and we'd do day sails or overnight sails with the family once a month or so.

But he never really had time to sail it as much as he'd like to, and as the owner he was always scrambling to find enough crew for the races he wanted to do. His crew was often young men who didn't own their own boats but sort of hung around the yacht club. My dad provided the beer. They provided the manpower to sail the boat.

Now, my dad is an empty-nester, still works a lot, and still loves to sail. He hasn't owned a boat himself for at least 15 years, but he offers himself up as crew on friends' boats, and races on the Bay a couple times a month. He still brings the beer.

You should understand, the boats my family has owned have not been what I'd call luxury sailboats. They're small. They're old. They smell like bilge-water and gasoline and salt and mold. They're not real pretty.

What if they could sail newer, nicer boats, not have to pay for upkeep, and just pay a monthly fee? Sounds like a great deal, and it's not really a new idea. When I was a kid, my best friend's dad owned a sailboat in partnership with two friends. They shared the cost, and took turns sailing it. My dad's old high school friend has owned a sail boat with his business partner for years.

The idea of a company managing this relationship means you can own a smaller percentage of a nicer boat. Your costs are fixed instead of fluctuating, and you can do it even if you don't have any friends with the interest or cashflow to support a sailing hobby.

I myself am happy to sail once in a blue moon when the opportunity comes up. Besides, having grown up on the Pacific Ocean, sailing on the Delaware River doesn't hold much appeal. And there's no way I have $500-plus worth of wiggle-room in my monthly budget, or the time to add a time-consuming hobby like this one. But I'm glad this option is out there, and I'm going to mention the idea to my father next time he starts thinking aloud about buying another boat.

June 2007 budget and net worth report

Without further ado, here is my spending report for the month of June.

Income
Gross pay: $7804
FSAs and reimbursements: $141
Gift: $100
Total income: $8045

Savings
Retirement: $706
College: $25
Short term: $184
Total savings: $915

Expenses
Taxes (except property taxes): $1000
Mortgage (PITI): $600
Childcare: $125
Insurance (except homeowner's): $676
Utilities: $365
Groceries: $429
Restaurants: $145
Transportation: $189
Health and fitness: $394
Clothing: $90
Professional (dues, etc): $2
Household supplies: $176
House maintenance: $489
Entertainment: $80
Gifts: $137
Donations: $30
Personal: $27
Travel: $30
Total expenses: $4842

Reflections
This month was dreamy. I worked very little, but the last paychecks from my former employer were still trickling in. I got reimbursed for some business travel. M had 3 paychecks. It was great. Some time in July, reality will set in, that now we are only working 50 hours a week total between the two adults in the household, instead of 80 hours a week. Much, much less money. In particular, it looks like our taxes will be lower (except this month when M's 3rd paycheck didn't have any of his pre-tax benefits taken out so the tax bill was gigantic), our transportation and childcare expenses will be lower, but our insurance expenses will be much higher. I paid my first COBRA bill for July, but little L's health insurance hasn't taken its big bite out of his dad's paychecks yet. That starts in the July paychecks.

What else was different this month? I had a bunch of dental work done, which seems to be the story of my life this year. Next month I need a couple more fillings. Fun. I really need to lay off the sugary snacks. Utilities were higher partly because I paid two electric bills in June. Just the way the billing cycles worked out and when I got around to paying them online. Our big annual reckoning for our gas bill's budget billing plan meant that we paid a bit more to the gas company in June. Childcare expenses were blissfully low, but we had to buy a new clothes dryer so our house maintenance expenses were higher than usual.

Net worth
Net worth for this month pretty much just held steady. We had a gain of $757, bringing us up to a total net worth of $179,248. Why so dismal? I haven't been paying much attention (still need to get on the ball and do my annual asset allocation review) but I gather that the markets have been slower.

May 2007 budget and net worth report

What to pay teenage babysitters

Tomorrow, for the first time, I'm tapping one of the largest sources of informal childcare: The neighborhood teenager.

So what should I pay this 13-year-old? She has spent a few weeks working at a daycamp last summer and this summer, but she has very little experience being The One In Charge.

I did an informal survey of some friends and came up with the following figures.

Adults (for comparison): $10-15 per hour for babysitting, more for nannies

For an older teenager (senior in high school) who drives: $8-10 per hour.

For a sophomore in high school who doesn't drive: $8 per hour.

For a middle-schooler or very young teenager: $6-8 per hour.

For a mother's helper (young teenager who cares for kids while a parent is home): $4-5 per hour

I happen to know this teenager is paid $5/hour when she works at the daycamp. She's going to ask some of her friends who babysit a lot what they get paid, but I'm planning to offer her $6 or $6.50 per hour. I figure that by the end of the summer if she sits for me a half a dozen times, I'll give her a raise to $7. She's going into 8th grade. I'd pay her more if she had some babysitting experience, but she has hardly any. I am friends with her mother so I know she's a responsible kid and likes younger children, but she is not always very good at making independent decisions. I think a very little bit of babysitting will help her grow up a little, to the point where she'll be able to ask for more money.

What do you think? What do you pay your babysitters? I want to make it worth her while, but I also don't want to pay her top dollar til she has more experience.