Get Rich Slick

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The kids were spending the weekend with their aunt so my wife and I were left alone for the weekend. We opted to go out on a “date” on Saturday and settled on dinner & a movie. We figured it would be an inexpensive night out since this Brazilian steak house sent us a two for one dinner voucher but that wasn’t the case.

The dinner ended up costing about $85.00. We had Brazilian meats, a glass of wine and a dessert and weren’t too impressed with the meal. The actual cost would have been $127.00 had we not had the two for one voucher.

We opted to go see The Dark Knight flick. Tickets to movie theater: $18.50. Popcorn & a Drink: $11.75. I’m not factoring in other expenses too since we used at least a couple of gallons of gas to get to/from the restaurant and movie theater. We got dressed up so we’ll have to add the dry cleaning bill to the festivities.

So much for an inexpensive night out.

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I picked up an HD Camcorder this weekend and quickly realized that the $750 it cost was a mere starting point of expenses associated with this new toy.   I’ll start off by saying that the HD picture quality on this camcorder is absolutely amazing.  With some upcoming vacation trips overseas, I wanted to get the best picture & video quality while on our excursions and I have no regrets!

The first expense came in with the purchase of some 43mm filters for the lens on the camera.  I ordered a clear filter to protect the built in lens and ordered an ND9 filter to film in extremely sunny days.   Bright sun and white sandy beaches don’t come out well on a camcorder without some filters so they’re definitely needed.   The pair of filters came in at around $50.

The camcorder came with a battery but unfortunately, the small battery only has about 2 hours of time so I ordered an extended (larger) battery.  Cost $100.

The camcorder has high resolution picture taking capability and an SD slot but unfortunately, the camera didn’t come with an SD card.  I’m actually glad it didn’t come with one because most cameras come with a 32mb card which is practically useless on high resolution photos.  I purchased a 2 gb SD card for $20.

While at the store purchasing these items, I came across a “gorilla” tripod.   It’s a “slinky” type tripod that will wrap around various objects vs. the standard fixed three-leg model.   What caught my eye was seeing the tripod wrapped around handle bars on a bike and after that point, I was sold.  I figured that if I’m biking through Europe or on a beach that it would be cool to fix my camera to my bike with the tripod.   I’ll find some other interesting uses for the tripod as well in my amateur photography hobby.  Cost $20.

The last thing I purchased was a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable.  Unfortunately, the camcorder didn’t come packed with one but did come packed with USB and Composite cables to hook up to the TV.  Obviously, if you want HD quality you need to use HDMI interfaces on your camcorder and TV.  Cost $25.

I’m still debating on whether I really need some of the other accessories.  Additional fixed zoom microphone, zoom lens, wide angle lens, lights, and other miscellaneous items.

I may likely buy the wide angle lens and that will set me back another $130.  At some point, I’ll need to store all the video on either hard drives or BluRay discs of some type so the expenses will only keep growing.

It’s just another case of cascading expenses and I’m glad I have the cash to enjoy the toys to their full potential.

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Our two new Toyota vehicles came with satellite equipment and complimentary service to XM Radio for a brief period of time.  I was excited to have such a wide variety of choices and sorely disappointment when I heard was the unmistakable sound of “commercials” on my satellite channels.

For some reason, I was under the impression that XM Radio was commercial free.  After all, why would anyone want to pay to hear commercials on a paid service?   I simply don’t get it.

I’ll let the free trial period run its course and let it expire.    It is a near certainty that this company doesn’t have long to live because it occurred to me that I could setup my new vehicles with so many alternatives.  I have an auxiliary port for my iPod which I’ll likely use.  If I can enable my vehicles with WiFi internet somehow, I could install a Mac-Mini and perhaps stream audio from the internet for free so why bother with satellite service?

XM, you have two choices, offer the service for free with commercials or take the commercials off if you want my business.

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I finally decided to go ahead and buy my second new vehicle (first was for wife) so I opted to go to a Toyota dealership this past week. I drove up in my beat up car, walked up to a salesman who greeted me warmly, I told him I wanted to test drive a Toyota Tundra.

He went inside grabbed some keys, came out started the truck and said, “go for ride.”

The amazing part was he requested absolutely no identification from me! Last time I went to a dealership, I had to hand over my drivers license, copy of my insurance and hand over the keys to my current vehicle before they let me drive a test car off.

Perhaps the fact that I was wearing a suit set him at ease or maybe the salesman didn’t care if the car got stolen or totaled but I was truly amazed that a man could walk up to a car dealer and drive away with 40k worth of car with not even exchanging names with a sales guy!

I definitely enjoyed the ride and I’ll likely buy the vehicle soon. The goal was to purchase vehicles for their utilitarian use so we’ve now have the “family” vehicle - Toyota Highlander, will soon have the “utility” vehicle - Toyota Tundra and the only thing needed is the “mid-life crisis” luxury/sport vehicle sometime in a year or two.

I’ll keep you posted.

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After 12 years, our AC and Furnace finally died. The AC was leaking freon at various points (coil, lines) and our furnace had rusted out at various locations. We received various quotes from various vendors and ultimately selected a friend’s recommendation. The total cost of the AC unit was actually $1800 and our initial plan was to replace the AC unit now and the furnace in the winter.

Unfortunately, in order to replace the AC unit, the furnace needed to be dismantled and re-assembled so it didn’t make any point to pay for that service then have to pay for it all over again in the winter so we decided to just go ahead and replace the furnace now as well which added another $1800 in cost and $400 in labor.

The grand total was $4000 and it’s just part of the cascading expenses of owning a home. Of course there are also more recurring expenses associated with HVAC too. Replacing the air filters every 3 months costs about $35 and of course you’ll spend about $200/month in electricity charges to power the AC unit and in the winter, you’ll pay $60 in gas charges for heating.

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We’ve had our current mattress for a decade now and we’ve decided that it’s time to purchase a new bed.  There are many bedding options: air bed, visco-elastic, traditional spring, and others.

We are leaning toward the visco-elastic type bed and these mattresses cost around $2000.  Unfortunately this wouldn’t be the end of the expense.

I have to confess, I’m somewhat of a sheet snob and I refuse to sleep in anything less than 800 thread Egyptian cotton sheets.  Once you’ve gone from 200 thread cotton to 800 thread Egyptian cotton sheets, you’ll wonder how you lived so savagely.  These sheets can cost anywhere from $150 (on sale) to $400 (full retail) and you normally need to buy a few sets.

With any new bed, new pillows are soon to follow.  I’m not a pillow snob and any variety will do as long as the pillow is somewhat thin and flat.  Pillows add an additional $20 to $40 to the cost of bedding.

It’s normally wise to buy a mattress pad to protect the mattress since it’s fairly expensive to begin with and this is a small “insurance” policy to insure that mattress stays clean.  Mattress pad costs $40 to $80.

Then there are the other “optional” expenses that seem to arise from buying a new bed.  New comforters, decorative pillows, and matching curtains and rug are a quick sample and just the beginning.

So if you’re considering a new mattress and see a $2000 price tag, know and understand that this is just the beginning of a cascading expense.

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It’s been a while since I’ve written a Cascading Expenses post and yesterday we purchased our Christmas tree for $100 which gave me the idea for this post. My daughter insisted on a Noble Fir Tree and the only one available was a 9ft tree which we ended up chopping down to 8ft to fit in our home. I took down the holiday decorations from our attic and was amazed that we had SIX full bins of holiday stuff.

Our bins contained:

1. Many, many Christmas lights

• Outdoor lights
• Indoor lights
• Tree lights

2. Ornaments

• Expensive ornaments (Lennox) which marked special moments
• Inexpensive ornaments - for the kids to hang
• Multicolored ornaments - to add color
• Solid colored ornaments - to add balance

3. Miniature Cities

• Little Houses
• Little People
• Little Trees

4. Figurines

• Ceramic Santa
• Snow globes

5. Miscellaneous Stuff

• Christmas Table cloths
• Wreaths
• Beads
• Nativity Scene
• Bunch of other stuff

All of these things were purchased over the past ten years so I’m not really sure how much we spent on all of this stuff. I’d venture to guess that it was at least $600 of decorative stuff but we “save” so much money because my wife usually picks up “bargains” the day after Christmas when retail outlets have their “sales” to get rid of inventory.

Christmas, like most holidays, have their own set of cascading expenses that you have to watch out for but this is one holiday we don’t mind splurging on for the kids.

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I stopped by and picked up another Motorola C139 phone at my local Walgreens for $20. It’s funny but the girl behind the counter asked me if I was actually going to use the phone or resell it. She said people were going in and buying up large amounts of phones and reselling them. It is ironic but the phones were cleared out of the isles and yet there were hundreds of prepaid cards available.

I was honest with her and told her that I was going to wipe the phone and use my existing service with it. I did happen to purchase the last phone they had though and I’m not sure if they’ll get any more any time soon so I guess I consider myself lucky.

By the way….these phones work great in Europe and other GSM world wide networks and if you happen to lose one or have it stolen it’s no big loss. You can also buy a prepaid phone SIM in any overseas country and use your phone locally - it saves a lot of money!

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My wife’s cell phone finally died and we called up our provider to see what options we had to get an replacement. Unfortunately, any new phone would require a new two year contract and to add misery to injury, her old plan would no longer be available and the new plan would go up $10/month in cost. Doing some math, $10/month x 24 months = $240 for 1 new phone = bad deal.

We were glancing through a Walgreens flyer and came across an advertisement for a Motorola C139 phone that seemed to offer the perfect solution: A cheap replacement ($19.99) phone which appeared to be GSM compatible.
We asked the clerk if the phone was GSM capable and he adamantly said, “No, that’s a prepaid cell phone and you need the prepaid cards.”

I had a feeling that the phone was GSM capable and we figured what the hell, we’d just lose $20 if it didn’t work. I took the phone home, took my wife’s SIM and plugged it in. No go, got an error message reading, “INVALID SIM”

I googled the net for some possible solutions and came across a link that offered a free download of some software that would allow you to completely wipe the phone and restore it to an original manufacturer condition. I ran the application (I did have to order a cable for $10 from somewhere else) and the phone was completely wiped! The pre-paid vendor’s logo was wiped and replaced with a cheerful Motorola Logo. I took the wife’s Sim card and put it in the phone and it worked perfectly!

I will likely go and buy a couple of more phones and wipe them to keep as spares in the event she loses or breaks one and I might even buy one for myself too! Before any of you question the legality of my action, I will simply refer you to this CNN article about the US Copyright office lifting restrictions on doing exactly what I just did…..

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/11/23/digital.copyright.ap/index.html

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We frequently talk about inflation and the ravaging effect it can have on the purchasing power of your dollar but I’ve begun to understand that there is also something which I’ll call “techflation” in which subsequent generations find themselves needing more technology based items in order to get by.

What are some examples?

My grandparents lived rather modestly.  While they owned a TV in the latter part of their lives they didn’t own a VCR until the last decade of their life.

Here is a list of things my grandparents didn’t have in their life and how those things impact the cost of getting by today.

Computers - $800+  - didn’t really go into mass production until late 80’s early 90’s
Cell Phone- $100+  - didn’t really go into mass production until late 80’s early 90’s
DVD Player- $100+  - a rather recent invention available in the mid 90’s on large scale
PS2/XBox  - $300+  - another recent invention available in the mid 90’s on large scale
Cable/SAT - $100+  - while availble since early 80’s, became a “necessity” in the late 90’s
iPods/MP3 - $250+  - a recent invention of the late 90’s early 00’s
HDTV      - $1000+ - recent invention of the 00’s
ISP       - $40+   - high speed internet is a must
Camcorder - $300+  - record those precious memory on video
DVR       - $100+  - record those TV shows

If I add up the base cost of these things it comes to about $3100.  This doesn’t include the cost of the cascading expenses that arise as a result of owning these items.  A PS2 for example will need to havve controllers replaced $30 and games purchased $30+/each to enjoy.

I know many will say that you don’t “need” cable or satellite TV or some of these other items but in today’s globalized world you do. I think of every thing that I purchase as an investment tool.  The SAT TV brings me news from around the world.  A bad harvest of wheat in Australia will impact inflation in the US.  An HD show on the phenomenal growth in China will lead me look into an exchange traded fund (FXI) as an investment opportunity.

My iPod allows me to listen to radio broadcasts (Ray Lucia, the Money Man) that I would otherwise have missed.

Of course, it’s hard to justify a PS2 as an investment expense but there must be a litte fun in our lives.

I can only wonder what “techflation” will do to my grandkids.  Instead of leasing a high speed internet connection will they be buying “cycles” on a gigantic grid computer?  Instead of mp3 portable player will they have holographic projectors?  Instead of a real life human financial advisor will they lease a virtual financial advisor that trades for them automatically based on their financial goals?

Only time will tell but techflation is here to stay.

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