Category — money

Agreed.

More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics by Steven E. Landsburg is a better read than Freakonomics, but not quite as good as The Undercover Economist.

A tasty morsel:

Though Dickens might not have recognized it, the primary moral of A Christmas Carol is that there should be no limit on IRA contributions.

One bone to pick:
I haven’t checked into any follow up Landsburg has done on this work, but I think he needs to revisit his assumptions about obesity. For example, he asks “Do big meals cause obesity or does obesity cause big meals?”

As one who has read Fast Food Nation and Fat Land, fast food companies increased porition sizes before the obesity epidemic struck and then took great measures to make sure the American consumer would eat more of these larger poritions.

Landsburg wants to take Big Food (McDonalds, ADM, etc.) off the hook, but the record suggests they played a part in the rise of obesity.

Monica Robins profiled my new glasses on Channel 3 News Monday night: Online eyewear can be cheaper alternative

Here’s the video

On December 10, I read a blog post titled Shattering The Eyeglasses Scam.

Being a big dork, I couldn’t get the story of how “Glassy eyes” got new glasses for $81 online.

The last pair I purchased cost about $500 before insurance from LensCrafters. After insurance, we were out about $250. (I can’t find the receipt — this was in 2004).

So, in early January, I headed over to LensCrafters for an exam. My carrot-eating regimen must have worked, because my prescription hadn’t changed. After being sure to get my “PD,” I spent about 30 minutes waiting for a ride home from my bro-in-law while looking through the LensCrafter offerings.

There was one pair that I really, really liked: The Donna Karan 3525.

Without the power of the internets, I would have gotten them on the spot. But, those frames (Just the frames) cost $200. After insurance, that would have put me back $70. And then the fun of being really blind and needing extra-thin lenses (think: money, money, money for LensCrafters) arrives and I end up spending a lot more than $70.

Back home, I started shopping for frames in earnest. After about an hour, I narrowed it down to two choices from Zenni Optical:

1. $29.95 pair
2. $8.95 pair

Ordered the frames Sunday, January 7th for $130 total (Again, I needed lens upgrades) and got the spectacles Saturday, January 20th.

The first pair is still in need of adjusting, but I’ve been wearing the second pair non-stop since having them slightly adjusted at Costco. (You can see the pair I’m wearing above. John Hodgman, look out. The other pair is on flickr)

Grand total so far? $10 co-pay for exam + $131.72 for glasses = $141.72.

If you want to save money on your next glasses purchase, here’s a brief review of online retailers: Eyeglass Retailer Reviews.

It’s the money, stupid

I spend a lot of time thinking about money.

Sadly, I use to little of this time to dream up new ways to create money — my thoughts are mostly about paying off old debts and trying to not incur new ones. This focus will change over the next 12 months.

Here’s my rundown of how my wife and I track and build wealth at the moment.

Budgeting
Simple monthly budget: Family monthly budget

Percentages: How much you should spend on what: It Pays to Do the Math In the Budget Game

Saving
ING Direct

Or, check BankRate.com to find a savings account that works for you

Debt reduction
Debt snowball

I’ve also created a simple excel file to track our outstanding debt. Just a simple spreadsheet that lists all of our debts that I revisit weekly to remind me why buying a Wii, a new car or some other dumb want makes no sense.

Investing
Road to successful investing

Buying
CapitalOneAutoFinance
We used CaptialOneAutoFinance for the only new car purchase we’ve made to date. Easy + a great rate.

Costco

Ongoing research
That being said, here are some financial resources that I check up on regularly:

Scott Burns. If you haven’t read The Coming Generational Storm you should. If books aren’t your bag, at least read his latest column Road to successful investing.

He’s the most common-sense financial writer employed by a media outlet today.

Get Rich Slowly. Great tips, great site.

I will teach you to be rich

Beat the Press. Dean Baker’s insightful look at the often-crummy economics journalism.

Using these guides, we’ve turned our financial outlook around this year.

I couldn’t have told you how much I could afford for a car payment before September 30. I had no idea how much we were spending on gas, let alone tell you if we were spending too much as a percentage of our income.

Also, this is the first year we’re going to make a good return on my 401(k) plan. All thanks to the people listed above.