A couple of weeks ago I received a very interesting and though provoking email that I though you might find interesting as well. It’s an analogy put together by David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, University of Georgia. The story attempts to explain how our US Tax system works using an example of 10 men who visit a coffee shop.
I’m not sure I completely agree with it, but I thought it would be fun to share and discuss.
I’m not one to rant here on Gather Little by Little and I’ll do my very best to avoid making this article a rant but I really need to voice my opinion on something that I am beginning to think is getting a bit out of hand: Tipping. Is it just me or does it seem like everyone store you visit and every service provider want a tip these days?
I’m pretty vocal about how much I love ING Direct. One of the many features I like about them is the ability to create and rename accounts. If I have a need for a new savings account it literally takes just a few minutes to login and create an account. One of things I’ve done recently is create a firewall account with ING Direct. I first read about this from Jim over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.
I’ve decided to take the day off to spend some time with my family and work on our house a bit. Please pause to remember our Veterans and those serving in our military.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Photo by: Matito
As many of you know, we recently moved to the mountains. When we lived in the city, we had two dogs: a 10 year old Golden Retriever and a Pomeranian. Both were outside dogs for the most part. Of course during the winter they spent the evenings in our garage with a heater. I am highly allergic to dogs, so unfortunately they couldn’t come inside. The retriever we bought as an outside dog. The Pomeranian we saved from death…but that’s another story.
This week as been a very busy, but interesting week. We’ve had a bunch of miscellaneous things going on in our lives:
I give the readers of Gather Little by Little a chance to ask me anything. The only real rule is that I can decline to answer. I’ll do my best to answer as many questions as I can though. Have a question you would like answered? Just drop me a line!
Wendy asks:
We are selling a commercial property that we own with a bunch of family
members. The closing is set for early January, to maximize tax benefits. My
husband and I expect to receive approx $330,000 after taxes from the sale.
Those of you that have been reading Gather Little by Little for a while know that I’m a planner. I’m not a long term planner, but when I know something is coming up I work out all of the details ahead of time, and in particular the financial aspects of it. I generally layout a spreadsheet listing out all of the expected costs and how much I think each of those line items are going to be. Right next to that I layout where the money is going to come from.
I got the upsetting news yesterday that a friend and co-worker where I worked died over the weekend. He began having major back pain early in the week but held off going to the doctor. His wife finally convinced him to go on Saturday where he was diagnosed with a major infection that had spread throughout his body. The doctors did what they could, but he died at 6:40pm on Sunday evening. He left behind his wife, a teenage daughter and teenage son, his mother, father, and brother.
This article is part of an ongoing series called Money Saving Monday. Each Monday, I share tips and techniques you can use to start saving money.
Now that we’re getting settled into the new house we’ve begun to explore the area a bit and locate the various stores and restaurants, unfortunately the closest grocery store is 20 minutes away as is the closest decent hardware/home store. The least expensive grocery store is 25 minutes away.
We’ve been spoiled. In our old home, we were 5 minutes from three different grocery stores and about 10 minutes to two diffeent hardware/home stores. When we decided we needed something, we just hoped in the car real quick and went and got.
