senrable's blog

I’m 27 and I’ve never had a written budget.  There, I said it.  I’ve had budgets in various forms, especially when I was looking to move out of my parent’s house, figuring out what salary I could live on, etc.  But other than figuring out how much rent I could afford or what car I could buy, I haven’t ever allotted money to specific categories and thought about following it.  Maybe it’s the economy, maybe it’s the MacBook Pro I’ve been wanting for a few months but haven’t saved any money for, maybe it’s reading blogs about living frugally but not putting what I’ve learned into practice.

Enter the envelopes.  I heard Dave Ramsey on NPR this week and after reading Crystal’s blog for almost four  years, I’ve really appreciated the wisdom that he teaches.  Dave Ramsey advocates budgeting every cent and using cash to the greatest extent possible.  So, I wrote myself a budget for the month, went to the bank to get cash, and put that cash in envelopes, by category.  Due to practicality, I didn’t get cash for my gas money, and am going to keep my existing monthly withdrawls. 

My goal is to not only reduce spending, but have a better idea of where my money is going.  That visual reminder (rather than Mint.com telling me I’m over in a certain area) should be helpful.

While I have no debt other than my mortgage and car payment, I would like to pay off my car sooner than scheduled and put more money into savings for a larger emergency fund and for home remodels.

An excerpt from a birthday e-card from my Grandma.  The second phrase cracked me up, because it’s true both in the traditional and modern sense.

“Trust you will have a good year ahead…I
suppose D.C. area is all “a-twitter” over the
Inauguaration…”

Maybe I should sign my grandma up for a Twitter account.

      One of my favorite “time-filler” sites is MentalFloss.com

They also have great t-shirts (though over $15 for a t-shirt seems really expensive to me, so I’ll probably never buy one.

As a math major, I have to love this one:

I wish I actually had the nerve to wear this one, it cracks me up:

I really like both the design and execution of this one:

There are tons more here, I have to run to (another) firm party!

This headline: Read the Warning, Light a Cigarette? caught my eye today and reading through the letters, and this one really stood out to me:

It really made me think about how we sometimes view sin – we refuse to recognize the harm that sin has in our lives – if it doesn’t hurt anyone else, why should I stop doing it?  Who are you to look down on me for my sin, if I enjoy it?  Why should you deny my human nature?

To the Editor:

As someone who has no intention of quitting smoking, I must say that Martin Lindstrom’s article doesn’t surprise me in the least. It doesn’t take a scientific study to tell us that campaigns to bully people out of their pleasures only work up to a point — especially when you’re trying to bully taxpaying adults out of enjoying a legal product.

The discrimination and stigmatization that smokers have to deal with on a daily basis may well push some into quitting, but they make others increasingly angry and defiant.

It’s one thing to be antismoking, but it’s quite another to deny that tobacco gives pleasure and comfort to millions, to deny that many of us are deeply skeptical of the antismoking movement and, ultimately, to deny human nature.

Antitobacco scaremongering is indeed at, or beyond, the point of being counterproductive.

I suggest an alternative, though it may strike some as radical. How about just leaving us alone? Joe Jackson

New York, Dec. 12, 2008

I bought a new car today.  The whole process was relatively easy and the dealer that I ended up going with was a pleasure to work with.  I learned a few things in the process though.

**Note, this post is long detailed, but I wanted to provide a source for those who are looking to buy a car that cosolidates all of the advice I received from friends and in my online research.  Skip unless you have nothing else to do :-).  Also, I am not a lawyer, financial analyst, or any other professional, so take everything with a grain of salt.  I bear no responsibility for how you use this information or the final outcome of your vehicle purchase.**

I had decided to do all of my negotiating over email and then go into the dealer once I had a final “out-the-door” quote.  An “out-the-door” quote includes the base price, freight/destination charge (standard price across all dealers, for the same model), “processing fee” (which varies – Maryland dealers fee is much lower), sales tax, title/tags/registration.  Mine also included a few add-ons.  I knew going into the dealer what I would pay and was pleasantly surprised when it was actually about $50 less than agreed (due to keeping my existing tags on my car).

A few FAQs I had up front:

-Regardless of where you live, both Maryland and Virginia dealers are equipped to register and collect sales tax for your state of residency.  For some reason, all of the Maryland dealers are able to charge a slightly lower sales tax rate (for Virginia) than the Virginia dealers.
-Every dealer except one (out of 15 total) volunteered a price over email and most were willing to negotiate (to some degree) over email.

Okay, here’s the process I followed (after talking to a few friends that had done a similar thing – thanks Yoon and Cheryl! and some lessons I learned in the process)

1. Go to ConsumerReports.com and pay for the vehicle price report (get the unlimited for 3 months if you are thinking about more than 3 models or model years).  This will give you a price range to aim for – you want 4-^% above the actual dealer cost, which they’ll give you (which is below invoice)

2. Go to Edmunds.com and get a price quote.  If you click “view full dealer inventory,” you will get a listing of all dealers, organized by distance from your zip code.  I ended up going up to 25 miles, I was willing to drive that far if the price was good.
*Note: even if you select “Email anytime,” you will still get lots of phone calls.  Rather than enter a bogus phone number, I used my Grandcentral.com number (free voicemail and forwarding to any phone).  That way, dealers could leave messages and I could listen to them at my convenience.  I did not return any calls, because I had selected to be contacted via email. 

3. As the quotes came in, some gave me just a number and others gave me the breakdown.  The ultimate goal is to get a breakdown of each number, so that you can get an “out-the-door” price.  When you go to the dealer, this is the price that you will pay, no ifs, ands, or buts (unless you agree to service contracts or gap coverage).  I emailed each back if they did not provide me the breakdown.  I kept a spreadsheet so that I could compare all of the numbers.  I had the following columns: Dealer, Location, Base Price, Destination, Processing, Tax (note that sales tax is calculated on the base price + destination + processing + any additional options – I multiplied the sales tax rate times the other columns to check the quoted math), title/tags, other (this was appearance packages or whatever they quoted me).  Those added up together give the “Out-the-door” price.  I also had a column for Base + Destination + Processing.  This was to compare to the range given by Consumer Reports.

4. At some point (sooner rather than later), you will need to check out your financing options.  Honda was running a really good financing deal that beat other offers, but I wanted to make sure that I had a fall-back in case for some reason I was denied the advertised rate.  I can’t recommend any of the options I tried, one failed to approve me, another approved me for a rate much higher than advertised on their website and could not explain why, and the other took too long.  I ended up going with the Honda financing – I received the quoted rate and the salesperson complemented me on my credit score.  I had also run my credit scores (MyFico.com) the night before I went into the dealer and printed them out to bring with, in case they came back and told me my score was too low to qualify.  Also think about how much cash you want to provide as down payment.

5. After you start receiving detailed price quotes, you have two options.  I ended up doing a blend of the two, it really depends on how happy you are with the lowest quoted out-the-door price.  You can repeat the following steps (especially #2) if the prices you get aren’t what you like, or if the price quoted keeps dropping below your previous best offer.
A. If the lowest quoted price is in the 4-6% above dealer cost range (from Consumer Reports), this is an excellent bargaining chip.  I made sure that I had the complete break down (from my spreadsheet) and then sent the following email to all of the other dealers:

**I didn’t feel like getting quotes if I couldn’t get it in the color I really wanted.  I figured that with 15 dealers competing, some had to either have the color combination or have access to it.

B. You can also send the following email.  I ended up sending it to the lowest priced dealer along with others that weren’t moving the price down enough or refused to provide counter offers over email.  I ended up getting an email from the low price dealer saying they couldn’t budge much more, but to tell them what I wanted, so this lead into the options discussion (next step).

6. Now it’s time to consider options.  I used to think of options as an extra dealer money making venue (which it really is), but there were a few options that weren’t included in the normal options that I really liked on my other car (e.g. fog lights or wheel locks).  My approach was to price the options (uninstalled) using the Honda website to get a ballpark.  Install can be up to 50% of the price of the option.  I added up what I wanted and then tacked it onto the out-the-door price I had been quoted.  I low-balled it (but something reasonable) and sent an email back to those who had come close to the low offer asking if they could give me the car with the listed options (installed) for $XX,XXX.  I made it a nice round number.  Each time that I emailed the dealers, I made sure to provide the exact year, model, style, and color, so that there was never any switching to a cheaper trim package.  I wanted to make sure that I avoided bait and switch and had it documented to bring to the dealer with me.

7. A few dealers sent me back quotes for the entire package I wanted, above my requested price (I didn’t expect it to be met, it was pretty low, but it doesn’t hurt to ask :-)).  I compared the offers and kept track of them on my spreadsheet.  As I was satisfied with the offer, I emailed back with the year, model, style and color, options (installed) and copied the listed features for that style from the Honda website to avoid any surprises and asked for confirmation.

8. After you have good offers and the dealers are begging you to come in (wait, they start begging from their first offer) and you are ready to deal, there is an important step that I missed until after visiting one dealer.  If you are looking to trade in your car, take it to CarMax to have it appraised.  The appraisal is free, it takes about 45 minutes (depending on wait time), and relatively low pressure.  The first dealer asked me if I had had it appraised and I had to fib about having taken it in.  You’ll want to do this right before you are ready to go in and buy, because the offer is only good for seven days and if you take it back to be reappraised after that timeframe, the appraised price will drop dramatically, or so I’ve heard.  Having this appraisal in hand is valuable to negotiating your trade in.  I didn’t have it at the first dealer (and I think he knew that, based on my evasiveness), but I actually took it in before visiting the second dealer.  The second dealer actually ended up giving me almost double the CarMax offer, even though she never saw the offer or asked for it.  Just telling her that I had had it appraised at CarMax meant I had a huge ace in my pocket.  Again, dealers will only offer to match the CarMax offer if it’s less than seven days old.

9. Schedule an appointment with the best dealer.  I actually scheduled two appointments – one at a dealer that gave me the second best offer, because it was closer to home, and one with the best offer, which was farther away.  My plan was to call the second dealer if I ended up buying the car from the first.

10. Going into the dealer – make sure to bring everything (listed below) in a folder and something to keep you occupied while the run around doing whatever it is they do.  I brought a book so that I could focus on something else.  I went into the dealer, met with my contact, and said “we’ve already agreed on the price, so if you can make my trade-in and financing work, you will have my business.”  This made it very easy to walk away when the trade-in wasn’t what I expected or wanted (see CarMax section for my mistake in not going first). 

11. Remember that you can always get up and walk away at the dealer.  You don’t owe them anything until you have signed the final paperwork.  If you do walk away before your financing application (if applicable) is run, make sure to take it with you, so nothing is run without your knowledge.  If you forget this before you walk out to drive off, it slightly reduces the impact of walking out (yeah, I had to go back in when I realized it).  But suck up your pride and walk back in :-).

12. Talk trade in, negotiate it next.  If you are asked about trade-in during emails, ignore it.  Remember that you can always take it to CarMax or sell it privately.  I didn’t have to negotiate my trade in at the final dealer, because it was much higher than the CarMax quote.  I could have bargained, but I didn’t really have a basis for it.

13. Get the trade in value written down on your sales contract.  I also wrote it down on the printout of the email I had received, so I could track it through the process.  Ask about transferring your license plates if you have vanity plates, otherwise new plates will be ordered (this could be the source of the mysterious $50 savings described below).

14. Do the loan stuff with the finance person.  I can’t really speak to this – I filled out a ton of paperwork.  One thing to make sure is that all the numbers match everything that you’ve already agreed to.  When I saw the out-the-door price of the car on the computer screen of the finance guy, the number was $100 higher than I had negotiated.  He checked the numbers and he had calculated the title and registration fees for the wrong state.  In the end, it was $50 lower than I had been quoted, so it saved me $150 to check the math!

15. Sign tons and tons of paperwork, including the naming rights to your firstborn child (kidding, kinda …).  I tried to read everything, but I signed about half a dozen papers related to not having my title that day (permission to get it from the VA DMV if I didn’t bring it in, permission to do other stuff).  It all seemed on the up and up, but I’ll have to keep an eye on my mail for bills for lifetime subscriptions to Time Life videos or some other such nonsense.

16. Pay your downpayment (the dealer I went with allowed up to $2500 to be charged to credit card, if you don’t have your checkbook).  Credit card acceptance will vary by dealer.  Turn over your keys to your old car and the title, if you remembered to bring it with (it’s not that I forgot, I was actually just not expecting to settle on that day, so I wanted an excuse to come back, but it wasn’t necessary).

17.  And if everything goes smoothly, drive away in your new car.  Get directions home if you left your navigation system at home and your phone is dying due to excessive Google maps use that day.  Drive carefully in the first snowfall of the year.  Go back two days later to drop off your title and the extra set of keys that you found in your purse.  Fret when you get home because you can’t find your parking pass that you lost somewhere in the process.

**Again, I am not responsible for the process or outcome of your trade-in, purchase, or finance of your car.  I have no real knowlege or expertise of the car buying process outside of my own experience.**

I am a huge fan of Cakewrecks (I would H/T, but I can’t remember who tipped me off to it).  I was catching up on previous posts (I’ve been more busy than usual this month at work and it’s only going to get worse through April) and I found this one that I love!

Other favorite: (“Olympics Rings”)

Note: All Cakewrecks cakes are cakes that were made by professional bakeries that people paid for (e.g. supermarket, price club, individual bakery) that went horribly wrong.  Some are due to misspellings, inappropriate punctuation (my favorite) and literal interpretations of orders that were scribbled down.

P.S. Wasn’t Sprinkles the name of Angela’s cat that Dwight killed and froze on The Office?

I received the following email from an old small group member and rather than spam everyone’s email inbox, I figured I’d post it here for those who wish to read it.

Col 2:2 MBI Team Facilitators to YWAM frontlines

My co-worker sent me a NYT article a few weeks back and I finally got around to reading it.  Note the date on the article.

The most prophetic paragraph:

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.

Also, why do the Democrats get so much more faith from the American people that they have an answer to this economic crisis?  Weren’t they in power when this all started?

I haven’t done a quiz in awhile, but I saw this on a friend’s blog and it intrigued me.  I had to figure out where I fell.  Apparently I’m American (doesn’t capitalist=American?) :-P.

Pretty centrist, as I’ve always figured.  What does economically conservative mean?

You are a              Social Moderate          (56% permissive)               and an…           Economic Conservative           (70% permissive)                 You are best described as a:      Capitalist                                                                                                                                                                              Link: The Politics Test    on  Ok Cupid Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Before reading an article on orthorexia, I thought that everyone who choses to stick to a raw food diet was just misguided in trying to eat healthy.  I never realized that there was a (creepy) spiritual aspect to it.

Here are some excerpts from the interesting article:

“Anorexics seem to always think they’re fat,” he said, but “orthorexics know they’re thin, but they want to be pure.”

…Andersen couldn’t eat at restaurants or friends’ homes, fearing she would be pressured to eat impure foods.  “I was afraid that if I got anything wrong I was going to get cancer,” she said. And plenty of diet gurus will tell you, Andersen was right to worry. 

“You become what you consume. You consume dead food, and death accelerates its presence,” diet guru Viktoras Kulvinskas said.  Kulvinskas is a leading advocate of the “raw food” diet.

Raw foodists believe cooking vegetables even a little destroys their nutritional value. And eating meat is even worse, Kulvinskas said, because you eat the animal’s fear.

…In the quest for purity, Finn eliminated more and more from her diet. Her appearance deteriorated. “The beautiful, vibrant Kate had really become someone that looked much older. People would stare,” Erin Finn said … Finally, Finn agreed to let her family take her to a hospital.

But it was too late. She was discovered dead, at age 37. As Finn’s family read through her diary, they learned that she had been listening to several health food gurus. Among the experts: Viktoras Kulvinskas.

Kulvinskas’s appearance in Finn’s diary doesn’t surprise him.  “I’m in the diary of so many people who overcome cancer, asthma and diabetes,” he said. “My compassion reaches out to her that she took the path. Well, at least she got detoxified and clean, and moved on into another incarnation.”

…”I was trying so hard to control how I was going to die, and in the end nobody gets to pick how they die,” she said. “We only get to pick how we live, and I wasn’t living.”