Money $ Liberty

New site: www.moneyliberty.net

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:38:00 +0000

Hi all. So I took the next step and bought a domain name through GoDaddy. Actually, I didn't really buy it so much as obtained a code for a free 1-year domain name registration.

Anyway, I am going to stop using this Blogger account and start posting my stuff over at:

www.moneyliberty.net

Please come see me at my new home.

How to avoid fees without petitioning the government

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:58:00 +0000

Over at MSN Money Central, Liz Pulliam Weston argues that you should send your comments to the Federal Reserve on their proposed changes to banking rules related to various types of fees and fee calculations.

I'm not going to comment on the pros and cons of the proposed rules themselves. Rather, I'd like to focus on how you can set up a few personal rules that you can follow yourself to avoid having to pay fees like those described in Ms. Weston's article. You'll note that a lot of them have a common solution, which makes it easier for us because it means we only have a few simple personal rules to follow.

Retroactive re-pricing, double-cycle billing, unfair payment allocation and bait-and-switch offers – These practices are all related to interest rates. The best way to avoid finance charges for both high- and low-interest rate credit cards is to simply pay the complete balance every month. If you have a balance that is going to take you awhile to pay down, look for a card with a good 0% balance transfer offer, and then focus on paying that card down.

Arbitrary due times – If you're consistently failing to make a payment by a matter of hours, then something needs to change. Whether sending a check by mail or using an online bill payment service through your bank's website, you should give yourself at least seven business days for the payment to go through. If using your credit card company's site, be sure you know the cutoff time.

If you're having trouble remembering when things are due, there's a great task/reminder service called Remember the Milk that can help. I use it to set reminders for my upcoming bill payments (when I don't schedule them right away), as well as a number of other things.

Mandatory bounce protection – This one is easy: Don't overdraft your checking account. You should always know how much you have in your account and are able to spend. If you don't, then put away the debit card and stop writing checks until you straighten it out.

Charging overdraft fees based on holds – This one is a bit tougher, because it's hard to know when a merchant is going to place an arbitrarily large hold on your account. However, as Ms. Weston says, certain merchants (like gas stations and rental companies) are notorious for this, so when purchasing goods and services from these types of merchants, you should either pay in cash or use a credit card (a rewards card is even better, since you'll earn some bonus cash or points with the purchase) – just remember to pay it off in full!

The bottom line

When it comes down to it, we shouldn't need the government to step in and prevent banks from charging fees that we can avoid by following some personal rules. The rules I've outlined here are nothing revolutionary, and for the most part they are things that anyone who is interested in personal financial freedom should be doing anyway.

What did you do with your stimulus package?

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:43:00 +0000

Hopefully you did something better than what these guys suggest.

For my part, I put the money into a high-yield savings account to put toward 0% balance transfers once they expire.

My 401(k) loan experience

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:03:00 +0000

Jonathon over at My Money Blog has given a straightforward example of how 401(k) loans are not double-taxed. It's an interesting and informative post, especially because it goes against the "conventional wisdom" that people often give with borrowing money from your retirement account.

Anyway, this got me thinking about my own experience with a 401(k) loan. I've alluded to that loan before, but I've never given any specifics. Well, here they are.

Realization of a need

Now, I think I've always been a pretty financially aware kind of guy. I've had at least one savings account for as long as I can remember, and while I only worked during the summers in high school, I've always had a savings mindset. Until I got married.

Now, I'm not blaming anything on my wife. But there are certain, um, concessions that I was willing to make with regard to our finances that I should not have made. Fast forward a few years through a stupid timeshare purchase, a major relocation, some time out of work for my wife after we had our daughter, the purchase of a new home, and one failed home-based business. In November 2005, we realized we had a major problem – specifically about $15,000 in debt, and horrible credit scores.

At that point, we knew we needed some major changes in our financial lives. We looked at various options, but some of them weren't open to us (such as 0% balance transfers) and others simply were not palatable. Finally, with great reserve, I turned to my 401(k), which had about $20,000 in it at the time.

Doing the math

After looking at the numbers, here's what I came up with:

My employer allowed me to take up to 50% of my 401(k) as a loan, a little more than $10,000
I would be paying around $110 per paycheck (so about $220 per month, or $330 some months)
The rate was around 6.25% (I don't recall exactly what it was), the proceeds of which would go into my 401(k)

To me, this actually looked like a very attractive offer. On the pro side:

I was able to pay off a large chunk (more than 2/3) of my credit card debt in one fell swoop
The amount per month to pay back the loan was roughly equivalent to the amount I was paying in minimum amounts on my existing debt
I was "paying myself" the interest, instead of a big, mean credit card company
The payments were consolidated into one bi-weekly payment that came right out of my paycheck, which meant:
- I didn't have to worry about paying multiple credit card bills
- I couldn't make a late payment and incur more fees

There were some cons too:

Freeing up credit card debt meant we might use those cards to incur more debt – we negated this one by canceling a majority of our credit card accounts
It reduced our cash flow by $200-300 per month – but that was money we were putting toward debt anyway
The loan didn't pay down all of our debt – but we were able to reduce the rate on the rest of it to 0% or a very low rate
If I wanted to pay off the loan, I could only pay off the whole thing. I couldn't, say, put an extra $100 toward it each month to pay it off faster.

To me, the pros far outweighed the cons (most of which were otherwise mitigated). My wife agreed, and so we took the loan.

Paying down the debt and long-lasting effects

From November 2005 through May 2007, I paid off the loan with each paycheck. At $220 per month over 19 months, I had paid about $4,180. That year we got a $6,200 tax refund, which I used to pay off the rest of the loan.

(You may note that May last year is also about the time that I started this blog.)

From a stock market perspective, this may not have been the best time to take the loan. The market was rising, which means any capital gains and dividends I might have received on the money I had taken out of my 401(k) did not materialize. I was still making my contributions (in addition to my loan payments), so it wasn't a complete loss.

But in the long run, there won't be much real harm. As Jonathon points out in the post linked about, the "double taxation" that everyone seems to worry about is non-existent except for the interest portion of my payment. I paid maybe a couple hundred dollars in interest over the course of the loan, which will have hopefully 35-40 years to compound. In the long run, I think that I'll still come out ahead with that small bit of double taxation than I would have paying anywhere from 9.99% to 18.99% in finance charges to a credit card company.

So am I saying taking a 401(k) loan is good?

Not at all! In general, I think it's a horrible idea. But I do think that in some cases, it can be a less-bad idea than most people think. In my particular instance, it gave me the opportunity to get out from a metric butt-load of credit card debt with little negative side effects. That let me focus on improving other areas of my financial situation, which has helped me greatly.

Short of paying down a large amount of high-interest credit card debt, however, I think 401(k) loans should not be an option. Here are some things I would definitely advise against buying with funds from a 401(k) loan.

Lower-interest and/or tax-advantaged debt, like mortgages, home equity loans or lines of credit, and student loans
Large, one-time events or expenses, such as weddings, vacations, high-tech junk, and so on
Hookers and blow

Minimum wage employees get 12% pay raise!

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:40:00 +0000

Did you get a 12% pay increase this year? I got a raise, but it nowhere near 12% (though I did get a substantial bonus in March). Given the current economy, though, I'm okay with what I got, knowing that a lot of people I work with did not get even that much.

But if you work for minimum wage, you should be happy on Friday when the federal minimum wage rate increases from $5.85 per hour to $6.55 per hour. That's a whopping 12% pay raise!

As you might tell, I'm no big fan of the federal minimum wage to begin with. For one thing, most states have minimum wage rates that are higher than the federal rate anyway. And while I'm not a fan of state minimum wage laws either, I'm even less thrilled with the passage of politically charged laws that aren't really any of the federal government's business to begin with. At least at a state level, people on both sides of the issue who are locally affected have a better chance to have their voices and votes heard.

Some people argue that the federal minimum wage rate doesn't really matter. For example, this post at Wise Bread says:

Some have argued that a raise in minimum wage would hurt small businesses, but according to a survey conducted last year, only 3 percent of the small businesses they surveyed paid their workers only the Federal minimum wage, and 6 percent paid only the state minimum wage. The remaining 91%, of small businesses already pay their workers more than the minimum wage so there is not much for them to worry about.

Okay, first obvious statement: Just because a small business doesn't currently pay workers at minimum wage, that doesn't mean an increase won't affect them. For example, say a business pays their workers $6.25 per hour – that's above the current minimum wage rate of $5.85, but lower than the new rate of $6.55. The increase definitely will affect such businesses.

Also, there may be businesses that, while they don't pay minimum wage, might tie their employee wages to minimum wage somehow (e.g., starting wages might be 10% above minimum). These business will either have to increase their wage or live with the perception that they are paying less competitive wages than they were last week.

Small businesses will also have to deal with longer term price increases generally associated with minimum wage increases (more money = higher prices). At a time when people are clamoring for lower prices on just about everything from gas to food to iPhones, this is perhaps the worst possible time to be increasing the minimum wage.

Ultimately, though, focusing on how small businesses are affected by minimum wages is simply clever misdirection. According to the Economic Policy Institute's frequently asked questions about the minimum wage:

An estimated 13.0 million workers (10% of the workforce) would benefit from an increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 by 2009. Of these workers, 5.6 million would be directly affected and 7.4 million would indirectly receive raises due to the spillover effect of a minimum wage increase.

Since there's no way that 3-6% of small businesses employ 10% of the workforce, there must be some other kind of fuzzy math going on here. The truth is that the majority of minimum wage workers work for big businesses, like Wal-Mart and McDonald's. While these companies are better situated to take the hit of a wage increase, they will still have to make up for the increase by not hiring new people and/or increasing prices. (If you don't like Wal-Mart's [lack of] customer service now, just wait until they have even fewer employees around to do things. On second thought, maybe that's not a bad thing...) Ultimately, neither one is good for the overall economy.

Sob stories that make me sob

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:02:00 +0000

Stories like this one are written in an attempt to make me feel some kind of empathy for the people described. But while I might be sobbing after reading this sob story, it's not because I feel sorry for the people involved – it's because I feel sorry that such people even exist in this world.

That might sound a little harsh, but let me do some proof-texting for you to make a point:

[Some introductory text]

Okay, for one thing, if I were writing a story about somebody not being able to afford meat, I'd probably try to pick someone who didn't have so much meat on their bones. That might be mean, but the people picked here hardly look to me like the poster children for a story about starvation.

Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job.

Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps. Some have part-time jobs, but working is made more difficult with no car or public transportation.

Um, how about walking? Riding a bike? It's great for your health, and might help you lose a few pounds.

If that's not palatable, then there's a little concept called "car pooling" that helps defray the costs of commuting to work each day. These people live in a complex full of other people who allegedly have the same problems. There should be at least a few people you could ride to work with each day.

Finally, if you're not close enough to jobs to walk, ride or car pool, then move! Sitting on your couch and complaining isn't going to bring more jobs closer to you.

Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job.

Okay, so 40 - 17 = 23. I'm assuming Ms. Nunez did not get a high school degree because she dropped out. Say she dropped out at the last minute when she was close to 18 years old (most people graduate high school just before or after their 18th birthday), even though it's more likely she dropped out earlier. Yet she claims to have never worked – why not? What did she do during those five years of adulthood before she allegedly became depressed and disabled and unable to work? Well, apparently she had a daughter at age 21 (her daughter is 19 now according to the story), but a lot of people have kids and continue working, so that hardly seems like a reason to have never worked.

Two bits of advice I'd like to give to Ms. Nunez:

Get your GED.
Stop thinking of yourself as disabled.

Doing both of these things will greatly improve your chances of getting more money by landing a meager job.

The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries – $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight.

Prices fluctuate throughout the country, but this seems low to me. Only seven bags of groceries for $100? Are they using coupons and looking for good deals? Probably not – I've found that many people on public assistance do not. Instead, they complain that they don't get enough money from the government to feed themselves.

So Nunez and her daughter are mostly stuck at home.

...

So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.

Isn't that the definition of "couch potato"? Close enough for government work, anyway.

I'm sure someone will tell me that I'm being heartless and cruel. But it is really hard to feel sorry for someone who is morbidly obese and has the audacity to claim that she doesn't get enough government money to buy food.

A big month for me - positive net liquid assets!

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:20:00 +0000

Last weekend, I updated the spreadsheet where I track my net worth, and I noticed something amazing: I have positive net liquid assets!

As I've mentioned before, I calculate net liquid assets as follows:

Total liquid money (deposit accounts, cash) – total immediate debt (credit cards, home equity, student loans and other debt [but not car])

This is the first month since I've started tracking it that the calculation above has been positive for me, to the tune of about $600. Considering that a year ago my net liquid assets were negative $7,000, I consider that a major achievement.

Of course, that doesn't mean I have no debt. I do still have one student loan and a significant balance on credit cards. But simply knowing that I have enough liquid assets to pay those off immediately if I had to is a great feeling.

Here's my current overall net liquid asset status report:

Deposits: ~$9,400
- ~$3,700 of this is targeted toward paying off credit card debt, once the 0% balance transfers expire. I am now adding about $500 (minus minimum payments) to this amount monthly.
Investments (non-retirement): ~2,700
Short-term Debt: ~$11,500
- Credit Cards: ~7,500
- Student Loan: ~3,900

$9,400 + $2,700 - $11,500 = $600

This is very exciting indeed.

Dodd is full of crap

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:54:00 +0000

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) recently got caught with both hands in Countrywide's cookie jar in order to get a sweet deal on refinancing his mortgage. He claims he wasn't looking for any special treatment:

"As a United States senator, I would never ask or expect to be treated differently than anyone else refinancing their home," Dodd said in a statement.

Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) is in the same boat. Here's his attempt at ignorance:

"I called (the Countrywide CEO). I said, 'I'm buying this property. Would you be interested in the mortgage?', and he said, 'Yeah. Call these people and we'll take a look,'" Conrad said.

"I did not think for one moment — and no one ever suggested to me — that I was getting preferential treatment."

Come on, do you seriously mean to tell me that you didn't expect to get special treatment WHEN YOU CALLED THE CEO!?!?! If you weren't looking for special favors, you should've walked into the front door of a Countrywide office and spent two hours talking with a retail mortgage specialist, instead of going straight to the crooked top.

I don't buy that either of these guys were clueless about the fact that they were getting special deals. These kind of kickbacks are the most heinous. They both out to be impeached.

Are "professional" panhandlers evil?

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:57:00 +0000

Jim over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity asks whether his readers give to panhandlers (he doesn't). I don't give to panhandlers, but then there aren't very many in the small upstate town where I live. I doubt I would give to them in a larger area either.

My reason for not giving to panhandlers has nothing to do with the fact that there are "professionals" out there who play on people's emotions for money. Shoot, that type of thing happens in all kinds of industries, not just the panhandling scene. I suppose in one sense, telling an untrue sob story is fraud, and so should be reproached from a moral or ethical standpoint. But on the other hand, I find it hard to believe that most people actually talk at length with the people who are asking for money. People who are willing to put a dollar into a cup without knowing the panhandler's circumstances have no basis to complain later when they find out the guy they gave money to lives in a nice four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath in a glitzy part of town.

One might also argue that there's a certain performance value to the professional panhandler's schtick. (And no, I'm not referring to actual street performers who play guitar, or do magic, or whatever.) The well-off panhandler has to get into costume and assume a role, just the same as any actor or sales associate. If the panhandler does his job well enough to convince you to part with a few bucks, then I say his performance was worth the capital expenditure on your part.

As an aside that seems somewhat appropriate here, my favorite comment to Jim's post is this one:

There is one exception that stands out in my brain. About 14 years ago, a panhandler approached me and gave me a long pitch about the benefits of giving to the United Negro Pizza Fund. I gave him some money, but made it clear that I was doing so because I was entertained by his pitch.

Anyway, one other point is that professional panhandlers may actually do more good with the money they get than "real" panhandlers who "need" the money. Because when it comes down to it, "need" is a relative term – just because a panhandler actually has no money and could use some good food, that doesn't mean he will use the money to buy food. He might just as easily take the money and buy booze or drugs. On the other hand, the "impostor" panhandler who uses the money to buy luxury items benefits society more, because the money he spends helps keep people in their jobs.

Obviously, this is all a bit tongue-in-cheek. But I think we can all agree that there are some panhandlers out there – both professional and "real" – who will make good use of the money given them, and there are others who will not.

Ultimately, I agree with Jim: Give to charities, but not without doing your research first!

Check out my new stock blog

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:49:00 +0000

Howdy all!

It's been awhile since I've blogged, and I apologize. Hopefully nobody's been anguishing about my lack of posts, and you've all taken some time to catch up on other financial matters that need attending to.

Anyway, to get to the point, my good friend Dave and I started a new blog over at PoorBrotherTom.com. My first post was last Thursday, and it predicted great earnings for Priceline.com (PCLN), which turned out to be true. I love it when I'm right! :)

I posted a new one today about Titan Machinery Inc. (TITN), a manufacturer and seller of heavy-duty farm machinery in Iowa and surrounding states – farm country, in other words! I think this company is going to do very well in upcoming quarters, and I explain why in my new post.

Hope you enjoy the new site. I do plan to continue blogging here from time to time, so please don't take my RSS and Atom feed off your aggregator quite yet.

Thanks for reading!

Deal goal update: March

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Back at the beginning of February, I set a goal for myself to earn $2,000 this year in deal and "found" money – through promotional offers, incentive checks (such as signing up for Chase Payment Protector or various Trilegiant programs), and general arbitrage plays. Basically, to reach my goal that means "finding" about $167 per month.

How am I doing so far? Here's the run down:

	Value	Cost	Net	% to Goal
Completed	$305.00	$96.02	$208.98	10.45%
Pending	$125.00	$0.00	$125.00	6.75%
Total	$430.00	$96.02	$333.98	16.7%

What to do with a bonus

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 12:35:00 +0000

I found out last week that I am getting a 10% bonus this year, which is really, really cool. I should see it in my next check, and so over the past week I've been thinking about what to do with it.

It really isn't that hard of a decision for me. I could go get a new LCD TV and a wii, or maybe schedule a vacation (what's that again?). But of course, that wouldn't be the responsible thing to do *sigh*.

I haven't given any debt updates recently, and part of that is because we've got into some trouble over the last couple months. Firstly, back in November and December I had to put new tires on both mine and my wife's cars (~$800 total), and then I had another $700 or so of work that needed to be done to my car to pass inspection. On top of that, I bought new MacBook laptops for my wife and I for Christmas, and put them on my 0% credit card. Admittedly, buying the laptops was partly in anticipation of receiving a bonus.

So, essentially I've done what one should never do and spent my bonus before I had it, or even knew definitively that I was getting one. It worked out for me this time, since my bonus should just about cover the outstanding balance on my card (and just in time, since my 0% rate is about to expire). It would have been a very bad situation, though, had I not received a bonus this year, or had it been less than I was hoping for.

Deal goal for 2008: $2,000

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:56:00 +0000

So, I was doing some number crunching and discovered that last year I completed $1,428.95 in sundry deals over the course of the year. Most of that was from sign-up bonuses and in the form of cash (or cash equivalent, such as a statement credit). I also got at least $50 in gas cards, and a free iPod shuffle (Gen 2), which I gave to my daughter.

Since 2007 was the first year I really focused on getting free money, I didn't really have any expectations about how much I would make. I think $1,400 and change was a respectable amount, not having any goals. But I think that with a year of experience under my belt, I can do better.

So this year, I'm setting a goal for myself of an even $2,000 in bonus deals. I've mentioned before that it seems like bank deals are drying up, so it will be a challenge. Plus, I expect that with some markets having officially entered a recession, we might find companies are less willing to hand out money like they have in the past.

It'll be a fun challenge to meet, especially since the closer I get to it, the more money I'll have.

Where to find deals

Bank Deals Blog is a daily blog that posts a lot of great information about the latest deals, including account opening and referral bonuses and the latest and greatest rates. If you're just looking for bonuses and aren't as concerned with the ubiquitous rate updates, I'd suggest looking at the items labeled bonuses.
Fat Wallet finance forum has a lot of great information about finances in general, including where to get free money with bank deals, credit card signup bonuses, and the like.
Slick Deals is geared more toward good retail plays than bonuses, but from time to time you can find some good deals there as well.
Refund Cents e-mail newsletter, the free version, gives good retail deal info as well, often including information about how to make money by stacking store-based deals and coupons. While I don't actually track this type of money-making deal, it's nice to know with a little scissor-snipping you can get some cash you didn't have before.

Why politics is important in personal finance

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 12:58:00 +0000

FMF over at Free Money Finance recently posted his thoughts about the importance of religion in personal finance. I don't intend to respond to his post – except perhaps to say that I agree religion can be an important part of one's personal finance, but isn't necessarily required to have a healthy personal financial outlook – but one comment he made has given me impetus to pull myself out of the three-week blogging funk I've been in (maybe I'll blame it on the holidays – yeah, that's it...). Here's what he said:

(I’d argue that political leanings probably do too, but that’s for a different post by a more-qualified blogger.)

Now, it's debatable whether I'm a more qualified blogger, but I'll leave that to you to decide after you read this post.

Please note that while many of the examples and facts I use below are particular to U.S. politics, many of the principles I discuss apply to politics anywhere in the world.

Taxes and personal finance

Every day, legislators at all levels of government discuss ways to make you pay more or less for certain things. Much of this discussion is about taxes: How much to tax people, what types of transactions and income are taxable, what "services" to provide with tax dollars collected, whom to give tax breaks, and so on. Politicians also decide what regulations people and companies have to follow – everything from state-required vehicle inspections to complex federal accounting guidelines – and that costs a lot of money.

Now, of course this affects people differently. But here's the kicker for people interested in personal finance: The more you work to better your personal financial situation, the more impact government taxes and regulations will have on you.

For example, say you've worked hard for a couple years to pay down your credit card debt and now find yourself in a position to start saving for your retirement. You can open a couple different types of accounts, but ultimately your ability to save is hindered by government regulations on the types of accounts you can open, how much of your savings can be sheltered from taxes, when you can withdraw it, and what sorts of penalties you'll pay if you don't do everything correctly (a term here meaning "according to what politicians deem is correct").

All of these taxes and regulations have a much larger impact than most people think. The Americans for Tax Reform estimate that the cost of government taxes and regulations came to approximately 52% of the national gross domestic product in 2007. That means that slightly more than half of the average person's income went straight into the control of politicians.

Keep in mind that taxes on business also affect personal finance. Manufacturers, retailers, service providers and other companies all pass the cost of taxes on to their consumers. When you're buying groceries, you're not just paying for the cost of production plus a meager profit – you're also paying to cover the cost of taxes that have to be paid by the grocery, the distributor, the manufacturer, and even the manufacturer's suppliers. The effect is diluted each step down the line, but it's still there, and it increases your costs. Stockpiling, using coupons and hitting the major sales all help, but they can't eliminate completely the impact of taxing business on personal finance.

Taking the high road just leaves you high and dry

I've seen some people argue that, because it's very hard to change the political climate and individuals have only little (if any) impact, it's better to just ignore politics altogether and focus on bettering your personal financial situation. This makes a certain amount of sense, since people can obviously do very well for themselves simply by becoming disciplined and working to reduce debt while increasing income.

On the other hand, ignoring politics can be detrimental as well. If you had a chance to decrease your credit card APR, you would jump at it, even if it meant doing some unpleasant or hard things, such as dealing with collections departments and credit reporting agencies. But when it comes to reducing one's tax burden, which is likely more detrimental for most people than their credit card debt, some people think it's just something that shouldn't be talked about.

Waxing philosophical for a moment, becoming proficient in personal finance should be something of a journey to personal self discovery. If you ignore the impact of politics on personal finance, you're only hurting yourself by overlooking something that could give you better understanding of yourself and the world around you.

That's not to say we should throw ourselves completely into a particular candidate's political campaign on the hopes that they'll completely change our economy for the better. First of all, it's extremely unlikely that any specific person, regardless of whether he's running for mayor of Podunkville or president of the U.S., will have as much impact as he or she likes to think. (On the other hand, we're still feeling the negative effects of presidents who were in office 70 years ago.) What it comes down to is involving yourself enough to make an informed decision about what each candidate believes and has done in the past. If a politician is saying he will lower taxes as president, but did not lower them during his term of office while governor, then it's quite likely he's either lying or incompetent, neither of which are traits worthy of supporting.

Use your personal finance knowledge to make political decisions

I think it's kind of odd that people so often become "altruistic" when they think about politics. They often make broad statements like "we need free, universal health care" or "we need to fight poverty with everything we've got." Of course, these altruistic statements usually have two assumptions behind them:

Somebody else will pay to provide these services.
Providing these services will not harm us in other ways.

The problem is that people who make these statements simply aren't thinking about the impacts from a personal finance perspective. This is silly, since the money for these services comes directly from you, me and everyone else in the country. Furthermore, historically speaking the government is horrible at managing these types of services (just look at the bankrupt Social Security program), which means the money taken from us is being used extremely inefficiently – a state of affairs that should irritate anyone and everyone interested in personal finance. Finally, the unseen effects are often the worst, such as when the free market is unable to developing new products and services, desired by the people but prohibited by the various arbitrary and "humane" restrictions placed by the government.

I won't touch here on the point of political issues that may seem to fall outside the realm of financial matters, except to say that many of them probably do affect personal finance in one form or another. I'll leave the determination of which additional issues affect personal finance as an exercise to the reader.

Conclusion

Personal finance and politics are very closely related, whether or not some people choose to believe it. It's important to view politics in light of your personal financial goals, and it's also important to use your personal finance knowledge to create a better political arena for you, me and everyone else.

Gifts that save money - or cost more...

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:41:00 +0000

An article at Yahoo! Finance provides a list of 10 gifts that save money. Some of them are great ideas – like the electric oven (hint, hint, for anyone who is looking to donate to a worthy blogger) – but a few are stretches. Here's my take on the more sketchy "money saving" gifts.

Nintendo Wii: Okay, yes, it's true that Nintendo is marketing their latest game console as a potential replacement for the overpriced, over-muscled gym down the street. But it is potentially a money trap too. The Wii comes with various subscription- and purchase-based services that are potential killers to personal finance discipline. Also, video games are expensive. You could just as easily exercise by walking around your neighborhood or, for those of us in colder climes, by shoveling your driveway or that of a neighbor who can't do it for themselves.

Tivo: Tivo requires a subscription, which could be as much as $12.95 per month depending on the payment plan chosen. Perhaps its true that with Tivo you could save time and money by managing your entertainment better, but it might also become another subscription service that you can't afford. You might even be tempted to upgrade your cable to more channels, and there's the chance that being able to record anything at any time means you end up watching more TV in your free time, thus becoming less productive.

Final thoughts

The other items on the all seemed like they actually were likely to save money. Then again, is that really the purpose of a gift – to save them money? I suppose in one sense it is, since gifts are usually things that the recipient wouldn't want or think to buy on their own. So in a sense, gifts that save money are the proverbial gifts that keep on giving. And when you give a gift that saves money to a person who isn't normally concerned with saving money, you can feel satisfied knowing that you helped make the world a little better by reducing wastefulness.

Musing on my own laziness and lack of consistency...

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:13:00 +0000

Well, it's been a week since I last posted. Why is it that whenever I start getting into the grove of posting regularly, I somehow seem to derailed. Anyway, I logged in to respond to a comment on my post about the myths of "free, universal" health care, and figured I'd better do a real post. Coming up shortly...

Here's why you'll continue paying more for energy

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:53:00 +0000

From the latest Investor's Business Daily:

The House, on a 235-181 vote, passed a Dem-backed energy bill that would eliminate $13.5 bil in tax breaks for oil companies and requires automakers to boost fuel efficiency 40% by 2020. The bill, which also includes $21.5 bil in tax incentives for development of renewable energy, faces a filibuster in the Senate and a Bush veto threat.

So, let me get this straight: Giving tax breaks to a profitable companies that provide energy (and jobs!) to many, many people in the U.S. is bad, but giving tax breaks to unprofitable companies that employ few people and develop unproven technology is good. That's just messed up.

I'm not saying I like the special tax breaks given to big oil. Government shouldn't be playing favorites when it comes to industry. But given that I don't like the taxes to begin with, I find it very hard to blame the oil companies for taking advantage of a freebie. Besides the government gets more money per barrel of oil than oil companies do. So all this talk about removing tax breaks from oil companies is really just politicians pandering to the public so they can sap even more money from productive business.

I'm also not saying that I dislike alternative energy sources. Renewable, sustainable energy is clearly something that we need to develop if we are going to continue living the way we do now. But if giving special privileges to one set of companies is bad (and I agree that it is), then giving special privileges to their competitors is just as heinous.

A radical solution

Now, call me crazy, but it seems to me that if the government just got the hell out of the way and let the free market work, individuals and companies might actually come up with a solution to solve the energy crisis. Instead, though, we waste billions of dollars every year arguing about whether cars should get 36 or 37 miles to the gallon, whether we should ban incandescent light bulbs, which industry should get more tax breaks than the other, and so on.

If there is any legitimate function of the government, it would be to regulate industry. Unfortunately, people often misinterpret the word "regulate" to mean "whatever the government wants." But the word is more accurately defined as "to make regular" – i.e., to provide a consistent set of rules for all to play by. Taxing some individuals and companies more than others is inconsistent, and so is turning the rules of taxation on their head so that the opposite individuals and companies start paying more than they did before. It's also destructive.

I think that's what most politicians are going for. They won't say it, of course, but think about it this way: If there were no "problems" to "solve" then they'd have a heck of a hard time justifying their exorbitant salaries and benefits, not to mention their per diems. So they create problems by meddling in affairs better left by businessmen and investors, like the best way make money from various forms of energy.

You'll be paying for a long time to come

I don't know if this energy bill will pass or not. My sense is that it will get changed before it gets to Bush's desk. Or he might veto it, in which case our elected officials will spend millions more in tax dollars arguing about whether the amount of tax breaks should equal $19 or $21 billion. In the end, the oil companies will take a small hit and the alt-energy companies will get some sort of additional incentives. Which will really end up being another tax on you, since both sets of companies will pass on the tax in the form of higher prices to consumers.

Go government!!

Productively pissed off

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:12:00 +0000

What do you do when you're pissed off? Do you let your anger become a debilitation, or do you find a way to redirect your energy into something constructive?

It may be that you do a little of each. I've found that often times, when I get upset by something with my job (which seems to be happening frequently, lately), I have to get up and walk away from my computer. When I'm in my office, that usually means I go down the hall and get a soda or something, which is bad. When I'm working from home, though, it usually means I do something that actually needs doing, like putting in a load of laundry or shoveling the driveway.

Or maybe write a blog post. (Pause for thoughtful consideration.)

When I get irritated with my wife, on the other hand, I tend to tune out completely and watch TV or log on to the computer for some mindless browsing. Ultimately, I guess when I'm angry, I just want to find a way to escape from whatever it is that's making me angry. In my office, it means doing something completely outside the realm of work, and about the only thing available is food and soda (my office is in a large building offset from a highway with no other buildings nearby). At home, however, I can turn away from my computer and do something domestic, making me feel like I've left work behind for the time being.

It would be nice if I could find a way to become productive in those situations where my escapism does not have a constructive outlet. Anyone have any great ideas?

Drained

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:53:00 +0000

This post has nothing to do with personal finance....

Have you ever had one of those days when you are just absolutely drained? Today is one of those for me, and it's not even done yet.

I know I haven't posted much in the last week or so, but I have a couple posts in progress. It's snowing heavily tonight, so I likely will be inside and not doing much. Or shoveling.

How much is your blog worth?

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:15:00 +0000

JLP of All Financial Matters notes that Engadget and Gizmodo were valued at $30 million and $50 million, respectively, according to a recent article in Fortune. JLP then figures his blog is worth a cool quarter mil based the number of visitors he gets in proportion to these uber-popular.

Using this method, M$L is worth a respectable $1,350. Okay, so I won't be selling it off and moving to a small Caribbean island any time soon. I prefer the $5,000 suggested by Dane Carlson's method, but it's based on outdated data, so probably not too accurate.

Valuation of any kind of business (including blogs!) is a tricky and subjective task. Of course, it doesn't really matter until you find someone who is willing to pay you for it.

Know how your company makes money

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:52:00 +0000

I work for a multinational financial institution, and earlier this year it posted a series of videos on its intranet describing how the company makes money. While I don't know that I learned any new facts from the video series, it was very interesting to see the company present a simple – and frank – communication showing at a high level why it operates the way it does.

This sort of awareness is very important, I believe, for both employers and their employees. Employers benefit by ensuring that their employees understand the reasons behind some of their policies, procedures and other guidelines. Employees benefit by understanding where their paycheck comes from as well as understanding how to please their employers by doing things that increase revenue while avoiding things that decrease revenue.

Unfortunately, not all employers see the benefits of explaining how they make money to their employees. Perhaps they assume the employee already knows, or perhaps they figure it's more trouble than it's worth. Likewise, not all employees care to know, especially if they are in temporary or wage-based position.

How does your company make money?

If you don't know how your company makes money, then you should ask your employer and/or manager to take a few minutes and explain it to you. It probably won't be any great mystery, and you might be surprised at the simplicity of the scheme. If for some reason your employer or manager is not able or willing to share with you how the company makes money, or if it seems overly complex, you might want to look for another job.

Ultimately, there are really only a few ways that a company can make money.

Product sales – Sales are the primary source of revenue for many businesses. Products can include raw materials, finished products, real estate, or any other tangible asset or commodity. Simply put, to stay in business a company must sell things for more than they cost to make or obtain. I would include licenses, for things like software and trademarks, in this category.
Service fees – Some companies specialize in providing specific services, and others develop services to complement the products they produce or sell. Fees for services can range from simple flat fees to timed-based fees to service contracts that describe numerous fees for various levels of service. Fees typically are established to cover the costs of providing a particular service as well as provide a reasonable amount of revenue; however, sometimes fees are punitive as well, assessed by companies to try to prevent customers from doing things that are costly or undesired (such as checking account overdraft fees).
Interest income – Companies often put operating cash into a safe, liquid account that earns interest, such as a money market account or some type of cash-equivalent like treasury bills. Other companies, such as financial institutions or even retailers that do in-house financing, earn interest on money lent out in the form of loans or lines of credit.
Investment income – Companies can sometimes increase their earnings by investing, just like individuals do. While an "investment" can be a loose term, typical investments could include the purchasing of companies (in whole or part), commodities not used in production, or even debt securities such as other companies' bonds. Capital expenditures could also be considered investments.

Again, it's not rocket science, but it's nice to know that making money is theoretically very easy.

Working for a financial institution, my company relies primarily on service fees and interest and investment income. Depending on how you define a "product" versus a "service," it may generate some product sales as well.

What about you? How do your bills get paid?

Psychology of 0% interest rates

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:39:00 +0000

First, hope all my regular readers (yo, Dave!) had a good Thanksgiving. I didn't intend to be silent over the last several days, but we ended up staying over at my in-laws' house on Thursday and Friday nights, and then on Saturday I was doubled over with a stomach bug.

Anyway, two things have gotten me thinking recently about the psychology of interest rates:

Noticing that my recently acquired Citi Driver's Edge card does not have an introductory 0% on purchases
A post by No Credit Needed about how he paid off debt early, which included the instruction to not obsess over interest rates

The danger of 0% rates

To the discerning and disciplined consumer, 0% balance transfers can be a useful tool. They give you an opportunity to drastically reduce fees while giving you some extra time to pay off your debt.

But something else happens when you refinance your credit card debt at 0%: It removes the immediate pressure to pay the debt. A positive, and even high, interest rate can be a good incentive to pay down the debt. When the interest rate is lowered or eliminated, even for a time, thoughts like the following can creep into your head:

I have a whole year to pay this card off; I can just make the minimum payment now and catch up later.

It's better to put this large purchase on my 0% card and earn interest on the cash, instead of paying cash up front.

I can always get another 0% balance transfer if I don't pay it all off in a year.

There's nothing inherently untrue or morally wrong about these statements. They are very speculative, however, and could end up protracting debt reduction and payoff plans. There's no guarantee that you'll be able to pay more in the future, that you will be able to keep the money you set aside for a large purchase, or that you will qualify for another 0% balance transfer. If you find yourself thinking these thoughts, or similar, nip them in the bud as quickly as you can.

The tough part is that credit card companies want you to think this way. They hope and expect that in six or twelve months – whenever your balance transfer offer runs out – that you will still have a significant balance on your card so that they increase their own bottom lines. They'll send you all manner of reminders about how convenient your 0% rate is, with easy ways to access your line of credit such as with convenience checks and online balance transfers. Don't give in!

Plan to avoid 0% psychology traps

The best way to avoid these sorts of psychological traps is to create a debt reduction plan and stick to it. I created a plan to reduce my debt drastically by the end of 2008, and for the most part I've been able to stick to it. A few things to keep in mind when developing your own debt reduction plan:

Commit to paying off a set amount each month, as your budget allows. The easiest way to do this, I've found, is to set up direct deposit into a high-yield savings or checking account so that the money is separated immediately. If you don't have direct deposit through your employer, or you cannot split your deposit between more than a couple accounts, you should be able to set up a recurring transfer through your bank's online banking.
You might consider doing a variation on the balance transfer arbitrage play by paying just the minimum each month while keeping the rest of the designated pay-off money in your high-yield account. However, you must keep this money in an account separate from your regular account. Otherwise, it could become very tempting to use it for something else, or you might find that an accounting error leaves you with less than you thought you had. When your balance transfer rate comes to an end, you can then pay off the remainder in one lump sum, and knock off a little more than you might have been able to originally (since you will have earned interest on the portion you saved throughout the year).
If you think you can do so responsibly, continue to use other credit cards to earn rewards and manage your finances easier. However, be sure to keep the cards used for purchases separate from the cards used for balance transfers. Lock your balance-transfer cards in a safe to avoid any temptation or mistakes.

What happened with my Citi Drivers Edge card

I alluded earlier to a mishap with my Citi Driver's Edge card. Don't want to leave you hanging, so here's the basic story.

I applied for the card back in my August app-o-rama. I thought it had included a 0% introductory rate on purchases, but it turns out the 0% rate was good on balance transfers only.

For the first couple months, this wasn't a problem because I paid off the balances in full. But then we had to get new tires for my wife's car. It was an unplanned expense, and as such I knew it would take a couple of months to pay it off. I had decided to put it on the Citi Driver's Edge card to get a few extra points. I paid off half the balance almost immediately, leaving the rest for the next month. When I got my statement the next month, I saw that it had a 13% rate and I had a few dollars in finance charges. I paid it off right away, but I'll probably get dinged again this month because according to the terms of the card, the grace period on purchase finance charges won't be reimplemented until I pay off the balance in full for two statement periods in a row.

Of course, this was my own fault for not checking first to make sure that the card actually had a 0% rate on purchases. I made an assumption, and it hurt me.

The self-destruction of a local screen printing business

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:09:00 +0000

It's a sad story of expectations and undeserved feelings of entitlement.

My wife is the president of the parent-teacher group at our daughter's school, and each year the group sponsors the purchase of "spirit wear" where students and parents can order clothing emblazoned with the school's mascot. As such, last year my wife did some research into who could produce the clothing. She preferred to go with a local vendor, and in asking around found out that the uncle of one of the children in our daughter's class owned a screen printing business.

But she heard rumors that this guy did not do a quality job. She decided to give him an opportunity to present his estimates to the PT group, along with a couple other vendors. He didn't show up, and the group decided to go with another vendor (who ended up being quite a nightmare in his own right, but that's a different story).

So, a year goes by and here my wife is once again ready to get the ball rolling for this year's spirit wear order. One day, while talking with the principal of the school, she has a conversation that goes something like this.

Principal: T.'s uncle asked me why we didn't go with him for last year's spirit wear order, and wants to know if he has the job this year.

My wife: He didn't get the job last year because he never gave us the information we asked for. Why would we choose him if we don't even know what his prices are, how long it will take him to order and print the clothes, and the other details we need to know.

My wife decided to try and give him another chance and tells him that if he can get the info she needs, they will consider going with him this year. The information was due by the last meeting, and the guy never provided anything to her.

So the other day, one of my wife's friends (J.) tells her that she's still waiting on an order from this guy for her son's peewee football clothes. Peewee football ended in October. And of course, parents paid up front, which means now a lot of people are pissed.

And yet, when my J. talked to the guy, he seemed to think that he was completely in the right. He even brought up the issue of the spirit wear (J. is the treasurer of the PT group), and starts reaming her out because he didn't get the job. He said he deserved it because he was a parent of someone who goes to that school, and so he should've had first dibs.

I just don't understand this sort of attitude. How does someone do crappy work and yet still expect to get business when he can't even bother to answer simple questions like: How much is it gonna cost? What sort of business owner is this who can't even bother to show up for a half-hour meeting to get potentially a few thousand dollars in orders? Not a very good one, I've gotta say.

And yet, he is still in business. Either he has no repeat business, or he does just good enough of a job to make him better than one or two others. But that's no way to run a business.

Small businesses especially have to cater to the needs of their customers much more than medium and large business. We put up with incompetence and rudeness at Wal-Mart because we can buy things for less money. In this age of the ever-expanding internet, you can find dozens of screen printing businesses online that offer more variety at comparable – or maybe even cheaper – prices. The local guy has to provide something more, and it should start with common courtesy.

Carnival of PF update and a nod to Financial Trends Matter

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:03:00 +0000

My post about changing the banking system hit a good tastebud in the mouth of Moolanomy, who is hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance #127 - Wonders of the World. As usual, the carnival has a lot of great posts in it, so please go on over and check it out (unless you just came from there, in which case please check out my own site before you return :o).

Also, I wanted to give a shoutout to fellow Blogspot blogger David of Finance Trends Matter, who linked to my post warning about the secret motivations of charitable incentive programs. He's got some interesting posts as well, so please check them out.

The Googlification of modern society: Maybe it ain't so bad

noreply@blogger.com (Curtis) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 05:30:00 +0000

As a company, Google just doesn't seem to be able to stop its own growth. Not that it wants to – why would it? But a part of me wonders if it's not starting to act like a giant black hole that will soon suck all aspects of life into its dark and hungry maw.

I say this knowing that I myself have become almost completely agooglimated (royalties owed to me by anyone using this term!) by the sheer variety, quality and convenience of Google's pantagruelian (why does Gargantua get all the props? And yes, I do realize that I just missed out on the perfect opportunity to coin googantuan) product suite. All asides aside, I absolutely love what Google has done for me: Specifically, that it has made many of the things I want to do simpler. Here are a few ways it has helped me.

Search: The flagship product, Google's search engine, also happens to be my most used. I use it all the time from Firefox's address/location bar, and it's my first resource for general information. Rarely do I not find something interesting and/or useful (regardless of whether it's what I was looking for) when searching with Google.

Gmail: Google mail was a godsend. Or at least a googsend (no, I won't stop coining these horrible neogoogisms). Since college, I had been using Angelfire as my free online e-mail provider of choice, but they got out of the e-mail biz in 2004, right about the time Google mail was in beta and only available through much-coveted invitations. After trying out my ISP's e-mail for awhile (I didn't like being tied to my service provider), I decided to snag the first gmail invitation I could lay my hands on. I haven't looked back a day since. Gmail rocks in so many ways – excellent clean interface, easy searching and tagging of e-mails, downright snazzy spam filter, POP retrieval of e-mail from other servers, and many other features that the best desktop e-mail software wishes it had. And hey, even if you do like your desktop software better, you can always use gmail's POP or IMAP features.

Blogger: Blogger is one of those things that got sucked into the singularity that is Google, and it couldn't have been a better acquisition. I'd tried out Blogger awhile back when my now-defunct home-rolled blog had, well, gone defunct. But it was an awful experience. I'm quite impressed though with the updates that have been made, including the vast improvement on the Blogger template/layout system. I mean, here I am, right now, using it. That's freakin' awesome.

Documents: I was a bit apprehensive when I first started using Google Documents. I use Microsoft products for work (don't have much of a choice), and Open Office generally for personal use. The first time I used Google Docs was when I wanted to share a spreadsheet of stocks I was analyzing with my friend Dave. I was quite impressed with the sharing features and some convenient Google-specific functions, like lookups of stock info through Google Finance. The documents can be a little slow at times, but the autosave and revision backup features are stellar.

Books: I do a lot of volunteer work for Distributed Proofreaders, which is a volunteer-based feeder of books into Project Gutenberg, the world's first free electronic library. When Google first launched their book project in conjunction with a number of university libraries, there was a lot of hesitation and even some outcry that important old works were being given to Google for a pittance, and that the mean, bad, private company was making tons of money off public domain works. Also, at first the quality of the books weren't the best, but they are starting to improve. And they have lots of great stuff that just isn't available elsewhere.

Reader: I've recently (in the last month or so) become a huge fan of Google's Reader application. For awhile, I've searched and searched for a good way to manage the very large list of blogs, news and and other frequently updated sites that I like to peruse. But the problem is I had a list I'd use at work, and a list I'd use at home, with no real good way to sync them. Which meant that I was constantly reading things over that I had already read, or would add a feed to one and not the other. Google Reader solves that by being available to me from essentially anywhere I have a net connection. And there's some cool ajax interface trickery as well, which is always nice.

Adsense: Due to the terms of service, I'm not supposed to point out the fact that my site has adsense ads on it, so I've deleted this paragraph. Suffice it to say that adsense is a great way to make a few cents doing something I love: Spouting off about money and freedom.

Analytics: This is perhaps one of the coolest tools for anyone who has a website. With a fairly simple bit of javascript added into my template, it tells me a number of cool statistics about my visitors (yes, I do have some!) like what sites they came from, what search terms they used to get here, which of my posts they read and so on. Don't worry though, it's all anonymous – except for that one dude in Singapore who's really into my post about recycling being profitable. The best part is, I have the reports e-mailed to me, so I don't even need to remember to visit the analytics site.

And a few others: I've also used Google Checkout, Google Calendar and Google News, but not nearly as much as the products I've listed out separately above. Google Checkout is okay if you can get a good deal, but it's not really any easier to use than any other site's checkout. Google Calendar is handy, especially if you use it with a service such as Remember the Milk, but I just don't put much on my personal calendar. Google News I likely use a bit more frequently, but only if I'm looking up a specific story. I use Google Reader to get most of my daily glut of news.

Some services I don't use

I do think Google is great, but there are some services I just don't use. For one, I much prefer Yahoo! Finance over Google Finance, though that's perhaps more out of habit than any real difference in quality. My portfolios are already set up in Y! Finance, and I have no real motive to set them up again in Google.

I also hear a lot of talk about how cool Google Maps is, but I just don't get the excitement. I suppose they're alright, but cartography isn't really my thing.

Google owns YouTube now (black hole gettin' bigga'!), so it seems kind of silly to me that it keeps its Videos product around. Perhaps at some point they'll merge. I like YouTube, but I spend my time on other sites.

And likely many others.

Parting thoughts

Quite frankly, I will likely never buy Google stock, because it seems way overpriced to me. But then, I dig their products a lot, so maybe I'm just being dumb. Either way, Google has done wonders for my productivity (not that I'm that productive), and providing quality services at a reasonable price is the epitome of the free market. What's not to like.

Hail Google!