Our other new baby

So we had been planning on purchasing a van for awhile, and with Madelyn's due date getting so close, we thought we would check out minivan's.  I ended up stopping by Roseville Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep on Friday (before Madelyn was born) and had Joe quote me a price for a basic Grand Caravan Crew, and appraising my Golf TDI '05.

The quote for the Crew was good, a couple hundred over Edmund's invoice, the quote for my Golf was a bit less than I thought it should be ($7500).  Long story short, we ended up going back on Saturday and buying the van for the price he offered, and $9000 for my trade it.  We received $8000 in cash for the trade and financed the van at 0%.  I like having the money to invest, and not feeling like I should pay off the car sooner rather than later :)

A happy note as well is that, I had signed up to do a test drive when I went to look at the van, and I received an email for a $50 gift card if I went through with it.  We received the gift card today :)  So don't just delete those emails.

Bringing home baby

We have had a very exciting two weeks, we brought home our new baby girl last Wednesday!  Jen had a super fast labor we were at the hospital at 05:30 and Madelyn was born at 06:08.  Wow!  Everyone is doing really well :)

Extreme Early Retirment

I have a confession, I have been reading this guys blog for the past couple days.  He seems like a really interesting person, with some very counter-culture ideas.  It is very inspiring, and I am happy to provide him some income by ignoring the ads on his site :)

He is a post that I enjoyed about how to spend very little money.  It is basically how the guy (Jacob, I believe), managed to retire at 32 years old.  If you want to learn (waste) about 2 days, start reading from the beginning, hey it doesn't cost you anything but time. :)

His book will though ;)

Historical Tax Rates

I was curious what the top marginal tax rates have been for the last century.  As you can see the last time we had rates this low it preceded the Great Depression.

There is a lot of interesting information on that tax policy website, unfortunately it could be organized quite a bit better.  The Times has an article by Paul Krugman explaining that corporation have ample cash right now, but the problem is a lack of consumers.  You can't trickle down to a not existent middle class.

Financial Independence Sale!

ING Direct is having a sale, with some pretty good deals today and tomorrow.

• $126 for opening a checking account and direct depositing into it.
• $76 for opening a Sharebuilder account.
• $76 for opening an IRA.
• $76 for referring 2 friends ;)  (Call / email me if you want a referral and I will split the bonus with you)
• $1776 off closing costs.

I decided to apply for a 5 year ARM @ 3.125%.  Unfortunately, our house probably won't appraise for enough to finance the whole amount anymore, plus ING required 75% loan to value, but we do have some extra cash in the bank at the moment so it might make sense.  Our payments would go from $2200 a month to $1700 a month, which would be really nice with Jen probably not working this year.

And who knows what it is going to be like in 5 years, worst case scenario interest rate raises to 9.125% after 8 years for a payment of around $3000.  So actually that should be doable as well (in 8 years). 

How about 6 tons of River Rock?

We are working on placing river rock about the house.  Looking at the cost of buying it bags from Menards (1/2 ft³ for around $2 on sale), Gertens, and Hot Rocks.   Hot Rocks seemed to have the best price, even though I have to go back and forth with the sales person (18 emails... she confused me once with another customer).  I asked for a 10% discount they listed on the website that had expired, but they gave it to me anyways.

I ended up paying $214.30 for 6 tons of river rock with delivery and taxes.  Now we just have to find the time to move it around :(

No Soda how about Hawaiian Punch

Since I quit soda for June (wow only 2 days left :), I have been drinking a lot more water, but also I have been using single packets for flavor.  My favorite has been Hawaiian Punch.  Target dollar spot usually has 8 packets for a dollar, which works out to 12 cents per packet.  I usually have 2 a day.  Now I have to go read a study on Aspartame...

If you don't have a Target near you, I have found you can also buy cases at Dollar Tree online for the same price (but in bulk).  Enjoy!