Quick Post, Video

I haven't had much of anything to say recently. I've been struggling to come up with topics, much less something interesting. Today, I've been pleasantly stuck in my own world, and this is the theme song: Fiona Apple - Across the Universe. It's been on repeat in my head. I apologize if it gets stuck in your head, too, but I think there are worse things that can happen. Fiona Apple!

Favorite Time of the Month

I look forward to the beginning of the month. It's a very special time for me. My mortgage payment goes out at the beginning of the month. This prompts me to... wait for it... update my spreadsheet!

My budget spreadsheet is the first I created with multiple worksheets. It has nine (one of which goes unused, and the other just has information used in calculations on other sheets)! I've always been a long-term thinking/planner. While I like the idea of tracking things monthly, like Jonathon does over at MyMoneyBlog, I think I'm content with updating things monthly but tracking things on a yearly basis. You can look at my spreadsheet as a long term planning item, and Mint.com as my monthly tracking place. Alternatively, you can look at Mint.com as my monthly history, and my spreadsheet as my yearly outlook. It's really not much of a budget, I guess.

Recently, I haven't been using much of the spreadsheet besides the Retirement Planning tab. (I may have to look at what this says about my current job satisfaction at a later time.) This tab isn't so much of a plan of how to get to retirement - my 401(k), Roth IRA, other savings, and house are my retirement plan already being taken care of. The Retirement Planning tab lets me know when I can retire and live forever off of my accrued savings. I compute the live forever part of that by determining if the growth of my investments will outpace inflation.

By my current assumptions of 3% inflation, 7% retirement portfolio return, and $70,000 (in 2006 dollars) yearly withdrawals, I can retire permanently at age 56. Now, $70,000 seems like a ridiculously large amount of money to spend in a year, to me. However, I would like to have a wife, and I don't want to underestimate those associated expenses... Seriously, though, that should allow for most travel plans I can think of, charitable giving, and regular living expenses, with hopefully enough left over to handle unexpected expenses, or temporary-ish ones like college costs for children.

Even though I don't use most of the parts that I programmed into it, updating the spreadsheet is still a very fun activity. Very few things are better than a large table of numbers.

---

This was supposed to be posted nearer to the beginning of the month, but my main computer was having issues. Chkdsk seems to have sorted them out, though. It took a few hours, but it completed. I was fooled a few times by long periods of no screen updates and the keyboard not working. That is, I restarted the process more times than necessary, I think. For future reference, the Num Lock and Caps Lock keys don't work when chkdsk is running, and it's apparently normal for some operations to take an hour without updating the screen.

On Finding a Web Host

Disclaimer: links to web hosts are referral links. Signing up through them is appreciated, but I don't expect anyone to. =)

For the past few days, I have been searching for a quality web host - preferably for ridiculously cheap. These two criteria (quality and inexpensiveness) are often at odds, but not always. I got a few recommendations, including DreamHost, Host Gator, and LunarPages. DreamHost was recommended about a year ago, while Host Gator and LunarPages were new recommendations. I was looking for some more information on the hosts, though.

As it turns out, it is very difficult to find information on web host quality. Most of the search results you get back for "web host reviews" and "top web hosts" and similar queries are lists of affiliate links ordered by highest paying referrals. In other words, they're a list of top web host affiliate programs, rather than top web hosts. I'm sure it's not the only honest web review site out there (assuming it is honest, of course), and it might not be the best, but http://whreviews.com/ struck me as fairly honest. One of his other sites, http://hostpeek.com/, was also helpful with some raw performance data. The fact that he hosted his sites on Host Gator was perhaps the best selling point.

That, coupled with the fact that the recommendation for LunarPages was qualified with some reports of downtime, left me heavily leaning toward using Host Gator. When I looked, http://hostpeek.com/ also listed HostGator in the top two in all three performance categories on the main page. I also found recommendations somewhere to have separate companies manage the web hosting and domain registration. I'm not convinced that is really necessary, but since Host Gator charges $15/year or so, and most places only charge $10/year, I figured I'd look into it. Five bucks is five bucks, right? I found Namecheap to be the most recommended place to register a domain, but as I'll explain in the next paragraph, I didn't end up using either it or Host Gator.

Just before I registered the domain, I decided to check one last time what DreamHost's domain registration costs, and how I could manage two accounts at once through them. It was when I was exploring my account control panel for a domain I ordered a year ago that I noticed I can host multiple domains through the same account. The only added cost is the domain registration of $9.99/year, which is close enough to Namecheap's rate. I originally signed up with DreamHost during a special for something like $22 for two years of hosting. It really was a ridiculously good price. I'm sure they are counting on renewals, which I don't think any host offers ongoing discounts on. So, while I probably can't continue getting hosting for so cheap, a little bit of research into multiple domain hosting saved me a lot of money, or at least put off the decision of finding a new web host for another year. All three web hosts listed in this post appear to offer multiple domain hosting, so my decision isn't narrowed down at this point. Chances are that I'll stick with DreamHost just to avoid the hassle of transferring things, unless prices are wildly different.

Now, all I need to do is develop an attractive web page. As you can tell from this blog, I go for simple layouts and colors (or lack thereof). Building an attractive page will be a first for me! (Help...)

DreamHost
Host Gator
LunarPages
Namecheap

Old School Assignment

I have discussed a story from my childhood and how it reflects my personality. I think this old assignment from college also reflects my personality, so I thought I would share that, too.

I found an old Technical Writing assignment after I fixed my file server. The assignment was to write a technical manual on an item in the kitchen. Almost everyone chose a toaster, a blender, an oven, or some other type of appliance. Everyone except me, that is. I created a manual for a bowl.

Click for full size (readable) image!

HipStuff was one of the companies my roommate and I planned. It started with his idea of HipSoft, which had the slogan "Software that doesn't suck." We had Hip subsidiaries planned for a lot of sectors, and the category was always one syllable. HipCo was the parent company, and HipStuff was kind of a catch-all. We also had HipFilm, I think, which would make movies that didn't suck. I found out this year that G4 shows movies as: "Movies that don't suck." I don't think they stole the idea from us, despite the similarity.

I remember adding the feature of the No-Tip base after I started the diagram. I started with a circle, naturally enough, but then realized the bowls would tip over. I was so astonished that I could miss something so fundamental that I decided to make it an official feature. I also particularly like the feature about the "Uniformly Symmetrical Shape," and the cleaning tip that mentions "extensive drying times" instead of a bowl full of (soapy) water. Mostly, I just like the idea of a bowl requiring a manual. My teacher was not thrilled, but had no choice but to give me an 'A'.

That was probably a common feeling... "Mark just spat in the face of the spirit of this assignment, but he did it correctly. Drat!"

New Parts for File Server

I fixed my file server a couple of weeks ago. I now have my 3.5TB of storage space available again! If you'll recall, I've fixed my file server a few times before...

I started trying to fix my file server a couple of months ago by reinstalling Ubuntu. Unfortunately, this would hang at about 5% on the formatting/partitioning step. I suspected a faulty system hard drive, but didn't get around to trying another one until early October. I tried an old (from back in high school, for at least part of the machine) 40GB drive. The installation went through, but the system wouldn't boot from that drive. Since the drive had been in my garage for a number of years, I didn't particularly trust it. So, I went to Micro Center and picked up a 500GB hard drive that was on sale. It, too, allowed the installation to complete but would not boot up. It should be noted that the system hard drive has to be an IDE hard drive because I use all the SATA ports for the RAID array.

I figured it was most likely a faulty motherboard at this point. I went to newegg.com and picked out a cheap motherboard and processor (I always prefer to buy them together to ensure I have the right socket and so I don't have to mess with reapplying thermal grease whenever possible). Along with my new camera, the parts arrived in just a few days. I really do love Newegg.

There's not much else to tell. The installation went well, the raid was recreated without much hassle. I did learn a new command: mdadm --scan --detail /dev/md0 >> /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf. I don't remember having to run this command or having to mess with mdadm.conf at all, in fact, in the past. I'm not sure what has changed, but in order to get the raid device to persist after rebooting, I had to do this. I'm just happy it all works.

And it does all work! I no longer have that noisy north bridge fan (this motherboard doesn't have a north bridge fan to get noisy)! Everything seems much more stable and efficient. I'm really quite pleased with the new motherboard. I'm also happy with the new camera. I took some pictures of the file server, which I can't believe I haven't done before!

The old, very dusty, motherboard.

My newly installed motherboard. So pretty.

The entire case. This is my first Micro ATX motherboard, and it is surprisingly tiny.

One-Time Expenses

A couple of days ago, my friend and I were talking about many things. One of these things included a comment about one-time expenses and how there seems to be one every month. I decided to analyze my one-time expenses over the past year and see what I can learn about my budget (as informal as it is). So:

• December: Living room TV: ~$800, second 24" monitor: ~$300.
• January: Video games: ~$100. Not too bad...
• February: Ladder to fix the roof: ~200, paying some guy to fix the roof: ~$60.
• March: No big expenses. Go me!
• April: Nothing again!
• May: Fiona died, and I took Apple in to get tests and shots: $130.
• June: Adopted Mac & Cheese: ~$100, initial vet visit for Mac & Cheese: $110
• July: Apple's eye infection: ~$50, Mac & Cheese declawed: ~$260, new tennis racquets: ~$230, video games: ~$100.
• August: I did good again!
• September: Video games: ~$75, miscellaneous family expenses: ~$200.
• October: File server parts & digital camera: ~$400.
• November: Planned car repairs: ~$400

This puts me at just about $300 per month for one-time expenses. I also want to get a new bed at some point, a storm door for the front, a new car eventually, and probably a few other things I have forgotten about while compiling the above list. The storm door will improve the heating/cooling efficiency of the house. The bed, at least, will likely be purchased at Nebraska Furniture Mart (can you believe I used to be anti-NFM at one point?) and therefore be spread out over the following 24-30 months...

I think the video games will also be a less frequent expense for awhile, since a lot of the video game purchases were large packs of games, and should keep me busy for quite a long time, really. There are still at least 10-20 games I haven't even installed/tried. I really hope my pet expenses (one-time, that is - food and litter are frequent purchases) are very low going forward. Regular check-ups only, please! My file server is running much smoother now (see future post), so that will hopefully truly be a one-time expense for the year or more. I remember justifying my living room TV as roommate retention. It's at least getting use. Some car repairs are definitely necessary - I worry about every strange noise I hear when I drive right now, which is not pleasant at all.

...I think what I learned is that even after compiling a list of one-time expenses while expecting a ridiculously high total, I still went into justification-mode after seeing it. I do keep my regular expenses fairly low, and I'm not at all worried about my cash flow. As I discussed previously, I save $200 each month, and that's after maxing out my 401(k) and Roth IRA contributions every year. I save a lot of money each year, and have multiple layers of financial cushions should I ever need to cut back on expenses. However, even if it's not strictly necessary, I think an occasional analysis of spending patterns is helpful.

Update: Speaking of Nebraska Furniture Mart, I forgot about my living room couch. It was purchased on my NFM card, though, and I technically haven't started paying that off yet - I'm still working on my dining room furniture. Or maybe it is my downstairs TV. I love 0% interest! Also, I think it important to mention my new furnace, since it was almost a full year's worth of one-time expenses by itself. Things happen.

Reserve Cash vs Investing

As I discussed awhile back, here, I have a primary E*TRADE Complete Savings account, and a reserve E*TRADE Complete Savings account. I set up a $200/month automatic transfer from my Complete Savings account to my Reserve Cash account quite awhile ago. This was in addition to a sizable initial funding.

So far, this has worked very well at keeping me from investing this cash in (riskier) stocks. For the most part, I think this has worked because the balance of each account is relatively small, so it doesn't feel like I have that much extra to invest. You'll notice that I don't say spend - I have an automatic transfer of $1200/month to my checking account, which covers all credit card transactions plus those utilities not charged to the credit card. This has been more than enough to cover my limited expenses so far. It also helps me keep the few bigger purchases I make, such as buying a new camera, well spaced throughout the year. My main problem in keeping a cash reserve is that I feel that money is wasted just sitting there, when it could be averaging 8% per year sitting in the stock market.

I think this feeling will become a larger issue very soon, when my Reserve Cash account will surpass my Complete Savings account. At that point, I fear it will suddenly appear to be a much larger chunk of money than it is. To combat this feeling, I think I need a specific goal. For example, MyMoneyBlog's author keeps $100K in reserve, which is way too much cash to have on hand (at least for me). If I take my $1200 spending money plus $1400 mortgage payment, I get monthly expenses of $2600. In an emergency, I can take off more than $100 from my mortgage payment, and can easily cut down spending. But, to be conservative, let's leave one month's expenses at $2500 (a small adjustment for nice round numbers).

My first thought is to keep $10K in my reserve account. This would be at least 4 months of expenses, and is a nice round number. Combined with the fact that I always keep at least $3K in my Complete Savings account just in case there's a problem with my direct deposit for a month, this seems like a more than adequate cash reserve. However, never having had an emergency in my life, I'd be interested to hear other perspectives. Is 4 months of expenses a stupidly low cushion, despite most places recommending 3-6 months? How many months expenses do you keep on hand?

New Camera

My old camera is a PowerShot A610 5.0 MP camera. It still works, but it requires a lot of batteries. I bought some rechargeable batteries, but they only keep the thing running for about 15 pictures. They also lose their charge after sitting in the camera for a day or two, and they don't stay charged if I leave them in the charger, either. Basically, the (name brand) rechargeable batteries I bought are crap.

I've decided that my next camera will have a Li-ion battery pack to avoid these problems. If my new cell phone is any indication, it should last quite a long time with each charge. It looks like this will also allow for a smaller camera, since they can make Li-ion batteries in whatever size they need for the camera.

That decided, the question is now what type of camera to get. So far, I'm a fan of the Canon PowerShot SD780 IS and the Canon EOS Rebel XSi. I like the idea of getting a camera that will be able to handle any future photography plans I may have (ie, the Rebel), but I think I have to admit that 99% of its features would go completely unused by me. I don't know what most of them are, let alone how to use them effectively. The only thing I know I'd like currently is the rapid frame rate. On the other hand, I'll never learn about photography if I only ever have a point and shoot camera.

And then there's the size. You basically have to plan on taking pictures with a DSLR camera. It's not practical to take on a walk on the off chance you get inspired by a flower or eccentric person. The SD780 is only a little bit bigger than my cell phone, and less than an ounce heavier.

It comes down to practical versus ideal. The point and shoot will suit my current needs wonderfully, I'm sure. I've always liked the idea of being artistic, though. Photography is one of the few art forms where you don't have to be able to create beautiful things. You can be a successful photographer by knowing how to capture the beauty in things. (I realize many photographers do create beautiful things and photograph them, or alter photographs to make them better, etc. In no way do I mean to trivialize photographic artists or their art.) Can I capture the beauty in things, or do I just think I could? Would I devote the time required to learn about photography, thereby making a DSLR actually perform better for me than a point and shoot camera?

A Story From My Childhood

My grandma told me a story that my older brother, Brian, recently told her about our childhood. I think it says a lot about who I was and still am.

Brian and I were working in her backyard by picking up acorns. I don't know what the context was - perhaps we were just picking up acorns to make barefoot walking more comfortable, or perhaps we were prepping the yard for being covered with sand, brick, and rock. After all, it wouldn't be good to have hundreds of oak trees trying to grow up out of a patio. Either way, Brian and I each had a bucket that we were filling with acorns for some reason.

After awhile, Brian noticed that my bucket was a lot more full than his was. My grandma said he was surprised because he is four years older, but maybe he'll grace us with a comment giving his side of the story directly. He asked me, "Did you pick up all those acorns yourself?" I responded, "No." After a bit of silence, he prompted, "Well, how did all those acorns get in there?" "One fell from the tree and landed in the bucket," I answered.

This tells me three things about myself that remain true to this day. First, I have an aptitude for tedious tasks like picking up acorns or knitting. Second, I don't always recognize when more information is expected after I give an initial answer. Third, I generally don't lie, especially when it comes to pointing out technicalities.

It's also interesting to analyze my memory of this. I don't remember the words said, but I do remember the acorn falling into the bucket, and I remember that I pointed it out somehow when explaining the fullness of my bucket. I don't remember anything else about the scene, though. I was pretty young, so I'll use that as my excuse. Anyway, nothing major in this post, just thought it was cute and fun.

New Car On the Horizon

A few days ago, I was driving home on the highway and may car starting making a noise somewhere between a screech and a whine. It was a constant sort of noise, but once I got off the highway, I found that it varied depending on the speed of the wheel - I assume it was once per revolution. It also sounded worse when I applied the brake. I pulled into the gas station, but did not see anything wrong with the wheel right off.

As I continued to drive home, the noise stopped abruptly with a little *plink* sound, and it looked like a washer or something similar was bouncing around behind my car. This was not a comforting development, even though the noise went away.

I took my car in on Monday, and they charged me $50 or so to diagnose the problem. They didn't actually find anything that would result in the noise and missing part that I described, but they found plenty of other problems:

• Air dam deflector - $151.00 - This is apparently a piece of plastic that scoops air into the engine area. I see no reason to spend $151.00 on a piece of plastic.


• Front brake pads and resurface rotors - $180.00 - I knew I needed new brakes soon, but I think they are now likely to find something else wrong with the brake assembly when they get around to putting new ones in.


• Transmission side cover gasket leaks - $274.00 - This one makes me a bit nervous. It evidently isn't leaking horribly, but a leak of transmission fluid is bad. I am clearly an auto maintenance expert, you can tell.


• Rear sway bar links - $244.00 - I knew about this one from awhile back, and they said it wasn't critical. The sway bar distributes load from side to side, so the fact that mine is broken makes my handling worse on turns, and I'm more likely to slide around. It hasn't been a problem yet.


• Left/Rear strut with spring - $531.00 - They skipped this in their haste to go over the list before closing. It's expensive and sounds important. At the moment, I have to plan on fixing it.


• Serpentine belt - $92.00 - The main belt, apparently. They said it has major cracks and they found part of it wrapped around the axle, so it's already falling apart. This is the most pressing issue.


• Muffler strap - $99.00 - This is just a simple bracket that helps hold the muffler on. There is no reason this should cost $99.00, and I refuse to fix it.

All told, the things that aren't completely trivial would cost $1321 to fix. I also need an oil change soon. Thus, I entered into a cost analysis to see if getting a new car was a better investment than continued maintenance.

Car:	Civic	Corolla	Focus	Prius
Price1:	18225	16750	15995	22000
Monthly cost2,5:	$285.94	$255.21	$239.48	$364.58
Monthly Insurance3:	$25.5	$26.00	$24.83	$21.83
Monthly Total:	$311.44	$281.21	$264.31	$386.42
Months to recoup4,5:	18.69	20.69	22.02	15.06

1. Price is base price of a model, not including any packages. I don't need any packages or options, but dealers rarely have plain cars in stock, so this price will probably be an underestimate. It also doesn't include fees, taxes, charges, whathaveyou.


2. Monthly cost is based on a 48-month 0% loan. I probably can't get that rate at the moment, but it also doesn't account for any down payment or trade-in money, and so shouldn't be too terribly far off.


3. Monthly insurance is the cost to insure the new vehicle minus my current monthly rate on my old car.


4. Months to recoup is how long I would have to keep driving my current car to make the repairs worthwhile.


5. Figures reflect a $4500 price reduction corresponding to a CARS trade-in (my family has an old van that is rapidly dying). This represents an opportunity cost associated with repairing my current vehicle as opposed to buying a new one.

At this point, I find it unlikely that I can drive my car for another year or two without the need for further repairs. The bonus of a $4500 price reduction makes getting a new car very practical!

UPDATE (08.22.2009-1019): It would appear that we cannot get into the safe deposit box that contains our car titles, so there can be no trade-ins. With the $4500 bonus out of the picture, the recoup time becomes just 2-4 months, making the repairs far more practical. No new car for me!