I'm going to digress a little here. I mentioned earlier in the week that we should be keeping an eye on Greece.
Late this week, the news became dominated by Arianna what's her name licking a doughnut. That was the top story on most of the news stations I listen to while driving into work. With that much noise about some stupid pop star licking a doughnut and claiming to hate America, I began to wonder what was going on in the wider world that we were trying to distract attention away from.
I checked the U.S. news, and the only other story I could find was about the removal of the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina State House.
I chugged on over the the BBC, and there I found it: China's Stock Market is crashing. Desperate measures have been taken to halt the sell-off. Even on the BBC, it wasn't top of the page news, but at least it wasn't buried behind several clicks.
When the U.S. news media begins to fixate on the antics of a celebrity, something big is going on somewhere else. Something that might "worry" you. Unfortunately, these "things" that they are trying to distract you from are "things" of which we should all be aware. Things that we really should be paying attention to.
Smoke and Mirrors. It's what magicians use to distract you from what they're really doing.
Arianna Idiot licks a doughnut and professes to hate her country: smoke and mirrors. "Don't look over here - look at THIS!!!"
Okay, end of rant now. Enjoy your weekend.
China's Stock Market Bubble: (worth your time). There's a lot more out there, but these are the top news sources that I trust.
Fear China's Stock Market Earthquake, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33440565
China Stock Market Surges in Volatile Session, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33456768
China Stock Market Crash is a Problem for the Whole World, The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/10/china-stock-market-crash-world-problem-struggling-economy-small-invesots
China's Stock Market Crash in Two Minutes, CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/09/investing/china-crash-in-two-minutes/
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Friday, July 10, 2015
Affording College, again
No debt. That's our goal. To have our kids graduate with no overhanging student loan debt. We've done our best. The first one is out, with no debt, and will be starting graduate school on a fellowship next month.
The middle one will be a Junior this fall, and the youngest one will be entering school in September.
Here's what we've done to minimize college expenses:
1) Taken AP classes. The oldest two children graduated from high school with enough AP credits that they were Sophomores by credit upon entering college.
2) Concurrent Enrollment- daughter has taken AP classes as well as concurrent enrollment. She has 12 credits of college credit from the community college, and 12 credits of AP credit. That's 24 hours of college credit that she'll be starting with.
3) The Maryland Pre-Paid College Trust. This savings vehicle locks in your tuition prices down the line at today's price. We invested in this when the kids were young. This pays the tuition and fees for the flagship university for the state of Maryland. This has worked well for the boys who both went in-state. It left us with only a small amount of money to pay out of pocket. For daughter who will be going out of state, they will pay the amount of the mandatory tuition and fees for the flagship university for the state of Maryland. We'll still have a difference to pay, more than what we paid for the boys, but not the full amount.
4) Work. All 3 of our kids work part time jobs. Not only do they pay for their own "fun" expenses, they also pay for their own books. Oldest child was able to pull together enough money to pay for the difference between his scholarships and the total amount due for the last two years of college.
5) Scholarships. Apply for them. All of them. Many colleges offer some fantastic scholarships. Make sure your child applies to more than one college. You will be pleasantly surprised. We have young friends who began at the Community College, were accepted into the Honors Program at the Community College, and received some extremely generous scholarships from the Community College, and some nice transfer scholarships from their 4 year schools.
1) We only invested in 2 years of the pre-paid trust. I had stupidly thought that I'd be able to get the grandparents to invest in at least one more year for us. I should not have counted on that. I should have gone ahead and invested in 4 years. I also should have invested soon after each of them was born. Unfortunately, that was in one of the first few years of the plan's existence, and I was waiting for a legislative guarantee before we invested.
2) I would have socked some money away into the Maryland College Investment Plan, or another 529 investment plan. This account can be used for college expenses. We could have used this to pay for that difference between the pre-paid college trust and the final balances, textbooks, and the computer.
Food for thought.
The middle one will be a Junior this fall, and the youngest one will be entering school in September.
Here's what we've done to minimize college expenses:
1) Taken AP classes. The oldest two children graduated from high school with enough AP credits that they were Sophomores by credit upon entering college.
2) Concurrent Enrollment- daughter has taken AP classes as well as concurrent enrollment. She has 12 credits of college credit from the community college, and 12 credits of AP credit. That's 24 hours of college credit that she'll be starting with.
3) The Maryland Pre-Paid College Trust. This savings vehicle locks in your tuition prices down the line at today's price. We invested in this when the kids were young. This pays the tuition and fees for the flagship university for the state of Maryland. This has worked well for the boys who both went in-state. It left us with only a small amount of money to pay out of pocket. For daughter who will be going out of state, they will pay the amount of the mandatory tuition and fees for the flagship university for the state of Maryland. We'll still have a difference to pay, more than what we paid for the boys, but not the full amount.
4) Work. All 3 of our kids work part time jobs. Not only do they pay for their own "fun" expenses, they also pay for their own books. Oldest child was able to pull together enough money to pay for the difference between his scholarships and the total amount due for the last two years of college.
5) Scholarships. Apply for them. All of them. Many colleges offer some fantastic scholarships. Make sure your child applies to more than one college. You will be pleasantly surprised. We have young friends who began at the Community College, were accepted into the Honors Program at the Community College, and received some extremely generous scholarships from the Community College, and some nice transfer scholarships from their 4 year schools.
If we had to do it differently?
1) We only invested in 2 years of the pre-paid trust. I had stupidly thought that I'd be able to get the grandparents to invest in at least one more year for us. I should not have counted on that. I should have gone ahead and invested in 4 years. I also should have invested soon after each of them was born. Unfortunately, that was in one of the first few years of the plan's existence, and I was waiting for a legislative guarantee before we invested.
2) I would have socked some money away into the Maryland College Investment Plan, or another 529 investment plan. This account can be used for college expenses. We could have used this to pay for that difference between the pre-paid college trust and the final balances, textbooks, and the computer.
Food for thought.
Shutterfly Deal
Note: This post contains affiliate links to Shutterfly.
Daughter is working on her dorm room furnishings. She has taken some beautiful photography over the course of her AP 2D classes, and was looking for a way to highlight them without taking up precious wall space.
While perusing Shutterfly, she found a fantastic idea. Shutterfly will take your photos, put them on fabric, and make them into throw pillows. After much thought, she ordered 5 pillows for her dorm room - with photos from her AP 2D class and the graduation trip she took to Bar Harbor with her Dad just after graduation.
The price for each pillow was beyond reasonable. We are awaiting the arrival of the pillows.
While I was perusing through some deals this afternoon, I found a deal at Shutterfly that was too good to pass up. All customers enjoy 30% off orders $1-$49.99, 40% off orders $50-$99.99 or 50% off orders $100+ with promo code MORE4ME at checkout
You can take advantage of this deal by following this link:
http://www.shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=277682&m=12808&u=1027099
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Random Pictures
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| It's toad season! I can't believe I used to catch these little guys and release them down by the stream when I was a kid! |
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| My favorite little used book store. Just look at how jam packed those shelves are! |
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| May the Force be with your cereal? Really? |
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| This squirrel likes to hang out on the edge of the gutter every day. There are still some helicopters - you know - maple seeds in there. He comes and eats the helicopters and drives Princess Luna absolutely nuts. |
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| Our washing machine broke. Husband can fix it, but until the parts come in, we're stuck using the laundromat. Things haven't really changed all that much since I last used one back in college. The price has gone up - doubled - but the experience is still the same. Lots of bored people, and a television focused on Dr. Phil. |
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| This sign just tickled me. ALL of their machines are front loaders! And they only accept quarters! (I was rather punchy after a full morning of work and then a fun filled afternoon at the laundromat.) |
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Amazon Prime Day
Disclosure Statement: This post contains affiliate links.
Have you heard about this? In order to better celebrate their 20th anniversary, they are offering a fantastic one day sale on July 15. The sales and deals on this day are supposed to be even more fantastic than anything they offer on Black Friday.
There's a catch, though. The sales are only available to people who are members of Amazon Prime.
I'm not a Prime member, but for this event, I am going to join Amazon Prime on a free one month trial. This will give me access to the sale, and then I can decide if the Amazon Prime membership is worthwhile.
The Incredible Mr. Ed
I've mentioned before that Amy's family, of Life in Amy's World, have been lifelong friends of our family.
Her Dad, who we'll call "Mr. Ed", holds a very special place in my heart.
The year was 1975. We were living outside of Dayton, Ohio. My Dad was in the Air Force and traveled a lot. Amy's parents lived near by, and we spent a lot of time hanging out with Amy's mom, getting into mischief of one kind or another.
I enjoyed watching my cousins play baseball in the park on Saturday afternoons. The Cincinnati Reds were on fire that year. It was a glorious year to be a Reds fan, and to be living just outside of Dayton.
One night, we stopped by the Kentucky Fried Chicken (as it was called then) to pick up dinner. On the counter, the franchise owner had placed a giant bucket with a hole in the lid, and he had entry forms on the counter to win a pair of tickets to a Reds home game.
While Mom ordered and paid, I filled out an entry form and dropped it into the bucket.
I was shocked when an envelope arrived 2 weeks later, with my name on the front. Inside was a pair of tickets to the game! Let me tell you, these weren't just any seats. These were the owner's own season ticket seats, and they were excellent!
My Dad was going to be out of town that day, so my Mom asked "Mr. Ed" if he would take me to the game.
THAT was a magical day.
"Mr. Ed" picked me up and we drove down to Cinncinnati.
I still vividly remember the excitement on the field, the bright white of the uniforms, and "Mr. Ed", calmly sitting next to me, explaining all of the strategy on the field. Why were pinch hitters put in? Why would someone bunt a hit? What was the strike zone, and why a batter would not swing on certain balls... He even went so far as to explain why certain types of pitches were thrown to certain batters.
Such a patient guy. My Dad frequently ran low on patience, and let me tell you, I appreciated the amount of patience he had for me. Still do, as a matter of fact. I never once got the impression that he was tired of listening to me talk, or had better things to do with his time.
I'm sure that he didn't think a whole lot of it, but let me tell you, it was a defining moment in my life.
I found a love of sports, and baseball in particular. I found out the value of patience - baseball is a game of patience! I will NEVER be a good baseball player. I can't even hit a pinata with a baseball bat, but I really appreciate the effort and strategy that goes into baseball.
There's a deeper thing going on here - my parent's marriage was always a troubled one. Growing up in that house was difficult, at best. Being included in Amy's family was amazing. Her parents had so much love for each other that they had room to share that love with other people who were not in their family. What a great gift for me, to be able to share a little bit of that love. And a model. I was able to see what a "normal" family looked like, and discover what I wanted to search for in my own relationships when I grew up.
What a great gift I got from Amy's family. A priceless gift.
Her Dad, who we'll call "Mr. Ed", holds a very special place in my heart.
The year was 1975. We were living outside of Dayton, Ohio. My Dad was in the Air Force and traveled a lot. Amy's parents lived near by, and we spent a lot of time hanging out with Amy's mom, getting into mischief of one kind or another.
I enjoyed watching my cousins play baseball in the park on Saturday afternoons. The Cincinnati Reds were on fire that year. It was a glorious year to be a Reds fan, and to be living just outside of Dayton.
One night, we stopped by the Kentucky Fried Chicken (as it was called then) to pick up dinner. On the counter, the franchise owner had placed a giant bucket with a hole in the lid, and he had entry forms on the counter to win a pair of tickets to a Reds home game.
While Mom ordered and paid, I filled out an entry form and dropped it into the bucket.
I was shocked when an envelope arrived 2 weeks later, with my name on the front. Inside was a pair of tickets to the game! Let me tell you, these weren't just any seats. These were the owner's own season ticket seats, and they were excellent!
My Dad was going to be out of town that day, so my Mom asked "Mr. Ed" if he would take me to the game.
THAT was a magical day.
"Mr. Ed" picked me up and we drove down to Cinncinnati.
I still vividly remember the excitement on the field, the bright white of the uniforms, and "Mr. Ed", calmly sitting next to me, explaining all of the strategy on the field. Why were pinch hitters put in? Why would someone bunt a hit? What was the strike zone, and why a batter would not swing on certain balls... He even went so far as to explain why certain types of pitches were thrown to certain batters.
Such a patient guy. My Dad frequently ran low on patience, and let me tell you, I appreciated the amount of patience he had for me. Still do, as a matter of fact. I never once got the impression that he was tired of listening to me talk, or had better things to do with his time.
I'm sure that he didn't think a whole lot of it, but let me tell you, it was a defining moment in my life.
I found a love of sports, and baseball in particular. I found out the value of patience - baseball is a game of patience! I will NEVER be a good baseball player. I can't even hit a pinata with a baseball bat, but I really appreciate the effort and strategy that goes into baseball.
There's a deeper thing going on here - my parent's marriage was always a troubled one. Growing up in that house was difficult, at best. Being included in Amy's family was amazing. Her parents had so much love for each other that they had room to share that love with other people who were not in their family. What a great gift for me, to be able to share a little bit of that love. And a model. I was able to see what a "normal" family looked like, and discover what I wanted to search for in my own relationships when I grew up.
What a great gift I got from Amy's family. A priceless gift.
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