Lazy Man and Money

Should You Include Your Pension in Your Net Worth?

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In late March my wife reached 20 years of military service qualifying for half of her basic pay. She hasn’t retired yet and as she continues to work the pension has the potential to rise exponentially.

Pension - Net Worth

Pensions are very rare nowadays. It seems like almost all companies have stopped offering them. Often companies have difficulties fulfilling those pension obligations. Pensions are still a part of many careers such as teaching, law enforcement, and firefighting. Typically those pensions are set by a state formula and each state is different. Sometimes states mismanage the pension fund. It seems that I’m often reading about how some corruption raided the pension fund.

Military pensions are indexed to inflation. They are also backed by the US federal government. As far as pensions go, it doesn’t get much better than that. We are grateful to have this tremendous financial benefit.

However, it does raise some interesting questions. Chief among them is:

Should we include the pension in our net worth?

I’ve been tracking my net worth with a spreadsheet since at least 2006*. What started as a very simple spreadsheet of a couple of bank and retirement accounts has expanded to incorporate my wife’s assets**, two kids assets, 3 rental properties, and a pile of formulas (liquid cash, real estate equity, and debt/net worth ratio, rule of 4%, etc.). I used to update it every quarter, but over the last 5 years, I’ve religiously updated it every month. It’s not a coincidence that I’ve been more motivated with this bull market

It’s been a tremendously helpful tool. However, like most tools, you can choose to use it how you want.

Some people choose are adamant that you can’t include the value of the your home in your net worth. They say that since you can’t use that money, it shouldn’t count. I never bought into that argument because there are options to access that home equity such as downsizing, getting a second mortgage, or a reverse mortgage. However, the biggest reason, I include the value of my home is that, if you own it, you don’t have to pay as much for your largest living expense. It’s mostly insurance, property tax, and maintenance.

But let’s get back to pensions. They are a little trickier. That’s money coming in the future. If you don’t have a pension, you can think of Social Security as something similar. Would you include the value of your Social Security benefit in your net worth? I don’t know anyone who does that. To take it a step further, I know very few of my personal finance blogging peers who factor Social Security into their retirement plans. Almost all would say it’s the cherry on top of the sundae, not the ice cream, hot fudge, nuts, and whip cream.

I decided I’d ask Twitter. My timeline typically consists of personal finance people, so it’s somewhat knowledgeable.

While 44 votes may not be enough, a 61% majority gives a slight edge to “count pension in your net worth.”

I’d put myself in that 61%. A pension can save one from having to directly put as much money into their retirement savings. That can free up hundreds of dollars a month that other people would put into their retirement plans. Also as one lawyer pointed out, pensions are considered assets in divorce court.

As I continued down this rabbit hole, I felt more and more confident about my position in counting it as part of our net worth. However, then I thought about this website. It’s a business that brings in income. It’s an asset. Theoretically, I could sell it. I’m not sure who would want to buy it, but there are some guidelines of how much it would be worth.

Yet, it’s never occurred to me, before now, to count this website in my net worth. I’m not sure many personal finance bloggers do… unless they sell it and unlock that value.

At the end of the day, you can calculate your net worth however you want. It’s simply a number. It doesn’t change the underlying finances.

* I remember using Quicken before that, but I was too Lazy to import and categorize everything and moved to a new system.

** We keep some assets separate, but even if we didn’t, some finances simply can’t be combined like her TSP or Roth IRA.

How Much Should I Spend on a Cell Phone?

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For the first in forever, I’m at a loss on how much I should spend on a phone. In the past it was an easy decision.

My smart phone history started with a Handspring Treo 180 around 2002. I continued to upgrade to a new Treo whenever they came out, because carrying the internet in your pocket was awesome. (So was SD storage cards to hold videos, which some iCompanies still can’t figure out.) Sprint had a really cheap plan, so everything was great.

Things changed in 2009. That’s when the Palm Pre came out. I continued with various Palm Pre’s even getting an unreleased Pre 3.*

The best part about this upgrade cycle is that you could always sell the old phone on Ebay for around 70-75% of the new phone.

After 4 years with the Pre, I had to finally move on. Since Hewlett-Packard wasn’t going to support it, I had to make the choice that most people do: iOS or Android.

I voted with my wallet. Android won. Apple phones were way too expensive.

In October 2013 I went bought a Google Nexus 5. When that screen broke (Feb 2017), I moved to my current phone Moto X Pure.

I know what you are thinking, “Cool story, bro.”

cell phone spending

While it’s not exciting, I can use this to look at a history of purchase prices of phones per year. The cost of new hardware for Treo era (7 years) was about $350… or $50 a year. The Palm Pre was $200 (after $100 mail-in rebate), which got me through another 4 years… or $50 a year. The Nexus 5 at $399 made me sick to my stomach, but I got 3.5 years or around $115 a year. My $300 Moto X Pure is more than 2 years old, so we’re approaching around $120 a year.

Recently my phone started feeling slow, very slow. My first thought that was it was time to upgrade. After all, the phone came out in 2015 which is old nowadays. However, I realized that the lethargy was likely due to the 100+ Chrome tabs or the pile of apps on it that I rarely use. I deleted a bunch of stuff and now manage just a few browser tabs. That seemed to buy me some time, but doesn’t have the same life it had when I first got it.

I can’t push off the decision forever. I want to have control how I use my phone… not have my phone control how I use it. I’m going to have upgrade at some point.

That’s when there’s that looming question:

How Much Should I Spend on a Cell Phone?

There are a few reasons why it is more difficult this time. First, there are more phones out there. My current phone was the only phone where I had to actually think about what I wanted and compare specifications and pricing.

The second reason is that phone prices are going up. The introduction of the $1000 iPhone and the $2000 Samsung folding phone disaster creates a lot of room for mid-range phones to charge $500.

However, by far the biggest reason why this is a difficult choice is an odd phenomenon. The choice is between a very good product at a very cheap price and an excellent product that is a lot more money. At first it seems obvious to me that I should go with the cheap option. However, because of how often a cell phone is used, that small difference between very good and excellent is greatly amplified.

For me, the choice is likely between three phones:

  1. Moto G6 – At $140 on Amazon, the Moto G6 is only a year old. Moving my phone up from a higher-end in 2015 technology to a mid-range 2018 is a good upgrade.
  2. Moto X4 – For only $120 on Amazon, the Moto X4 is a little older than the G6, but it’s higher-end phone. I think it’s a better phone for $20 less, but it could be up to personal preference.
  3. Google Pixel 3a – This phone is supposed to be announced and launched today so I don’t have a link. It’s a “lite” version of Google Pixel expensive flagship Pixel 3. It’s rumored to be priced at $399 – half the price of its big brother. With the same camera, it doesn’t compromise too much in other areas. I think it’s a happy medium between the very good at a very cheap price and the excellent at a very expensive price.

While the Pixel 3a is tempting, I have soured on it. It doesn’t feel like a bargain. The Pixel 3 was on sale a couple of weeks ago for $399 and I didn’t bite then. It’s hard to justify spending the same money for the light version today. The good news is that the Pixel 3a may be on sale when I upgrade my phone down the line.

If I had to make a choice today, I’d go with the Moto X4. I’m confident that I could be happy for a couple of years with it. At a price of $60 a year, it would be a very good value compared to some of my other phones. It would also be easy to justify giving it to one of the kids when it’s time to upgrade.

How Much Should You Spend on a Cell Phone?

Exactly $424.42… not a penny more or less. (Joking, of course.)

If you were expecting me to tell you want to do about anything, you’ve come to the wrong place. You know yourself best.

However, I can give you a couple of tips that have helped me. The first I’ve already written about. Looking at a phone as a cost per year may be helpful in making your choice. Some people may feel that $2 a day ($700+ a year) is a reasonable price for all the value they get out of their phone. I think I prefer to save the $500 and put it towards hiring a cleaning service.

The second tip is to consider the purchase in the context of your overall technology budget. I’m a big tech geek (hence the smartphone back in 2002), so I usually spend more than most people. My wife doesn’t care that much, so the low-end laptops and cell phones work for her. If I know that I’m going to spend half my internet on my cell phone, I might spend more on it. However, I am usually around my laptop, so that’s my priority.

Final Thoughts on Cell Phone Spending

We live in an era where cell phones aren’t advancing that much. They continue to get faster, more efficient chips, more memory, and better cameras. There aren’t a lot of new featuers. Some of the more recent phones have embraced wireless charging pioneered by my beloved Palm Pre (celebrating it’s 10-year birthday next month).

For us as consumers, there’s almost no wrong choice. It’s great to have very good phones available for less than $150. That’s the right choice for me, but for the first time in a long time, I understand why people spend a lot more.

* I started up the Palm Pre 3 last year and it still works great. The replaceable battery I bought very cheaply on Ebay allowed me to get all my pictures.

My Kids Get Roth IRAs

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My kids are getting a Roth IRA to jump-start them to an early retirement. How? Read On.

Yesterday, my dog walked me to a yard sale. I’m used to be walked places by him since he’s a sled dog. Rarely is there anything very interesting. This time was different:


Someone asked why I negotiated up at a yard sale. If someone is going to save me $50-60 in something that will give our family literally hundreds of hours of entertainment, I don’t mind giving him/her an extra Hamilton. It makes the seller’s day and keeps the money in the community. My day (with the savings) and my kids’ days were already happy. It’s a rare, feel-good case where everyone wins.

It was later that evening, during a family game of Rack-o where I had a revelation – my wife was going to win the game. I had a pretty poor board and I pinned myself into needing a couple of specific numbers. Although there were four of us playing, it was a simple matter of process of elimination…

… the other two players were my 5 and 6 year old sons. The game is 8+, so there were no expectations that they would be able to play a strategic game. So jokingly, said that they were a “couple of buffoons.” Everyone laughed because buffoon is a funny word, especially for a 5 and 6 year old.

That’s a long Grandpa Simpson Story way of saying that I hired my sons to do real work. I’m going to pay them real money. They’ll start funding their retirement plan this year.

Kids and Roth IRAs

It’s difficult for a child as young as ours to build wealth. They get money on birthdays and Christmas. Occasionally they give my wife a toy to sell on Ebay. We recently started to have them do some chores around the house for extra money.

Their ability to earn extra money is very limited. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) makes it clear that only earned income can be used for a Roth IRA. The problem is that my baby modeling idea never took off. I also don’t see people lining up to purchase their wonderful Pokemon art creations.

For a more detailed look at kids and Roth IRAs, CNBC has a helpful video. It’s especially powerful to see the amazing growth of compound interest over 55 years. Who wouldn’t want 3.4 million in one of their accounts?



So how are they going to earn this money to comply with the IRS’ demands for funding a Roth IRA. I’m going to pay them. Unfortunately, the IRS doesn’t let you pay them for household chores. For many people that’s a show-stopper for kids this age.

Kids Roth IRA

However, I make money dog sitting on Rover.com. It’s a very significant amount too since I can “double dip” at home doing other freelancing gigs.

I’ve been doing this for three and a half years now, so the kids have grown up with a couple of extra dogs around. They’ve become naturally curious about feeding dogs. They love to play fetch with the dogs. Recently, we’ve introduced them to picking up the dog droppings. It’s a chore that their peers do for allowance. However, for the family dog sitting business it’s a core part of the job.

Feeding dogs, playing with dogs, keeping the water bowl filled, and picking up after the dogs is most of the dog sitting job. These are all things that my kids can do. Occasionally I have to give them medicine, but that’s about the only thing that I need to do 100% myself. The IRS should have no issue with me subcontracting out some of the work to them. In fact, I did some math on what a professional pooper scooper company costs and it seems like it could be thousands a year for the amount of dogs we have and how often they’d have to come.

My kids are going to go into the dog sitting business. I haven’t figured out exactly what I will pay them. I think the professional pooper scooper service may be a good guide. My kids aren’t professionals, but the service doesn’t fill the water bowls or play with the dogs.

Contributing to a Roth IRA at this age is very, very powerful. Money grows quite a bit with 60 years of compounding until they reach ages 65 and 66. If they were to earn 7% interest over that long period of time, a single dollar would be nearly $58. So $1000 in a Roth IRA would be worth $58,000. Of course, at 3.5% inflation over that time, you’d need $7,878 to have the buying power of $1,000 today.

When you crunch those numbers, it gives them a real post-inflation gain of 7x their money. Theoretically, if they could earn the $6000 Roth IRA limit, they’d set themselves up with $42,000 in retirement. Of course, that would be an extreme amount of dog care and that wouldn’t be reasonable.

In addition to the Roth IRA, we’ll be paying them some real spending money. They are saving up for a Nintendo Switch, so we’re going to be creating a chart of their progress.

Finally, in the next couple of years, I’m hoping they can participate in some of blogging work. Perhaps later this year or next year, I’ll introduce a bi-weekly kids article. I’ll interview them and get their perspective on what money-related thoughts they have. I’ll then explore how we are parenting their use of money. This is just a seed of an idea. I need to think a little more about how this would work. Of course, I’d pay them for their time and insight.

Impact on Our Taxes

I have to check on this with our tax planning, but I think we’d make out well with this too. We’d be able to write off the amount we are paying, just as we would a professional service. Of course our kids would have to report the income, but it would be too low for them to be taxed on it. As best I can tell, this (small amount money) wouldn’t be taxed all and, since it is going into a Roth IRA would never be taxed.

I think it gets more complicated with them helping out with the blog since it’s an S-Corp. I may have to set-up payroll and things like that which get a little tricky. I’ll definitely need some professional tax guidance on that.

Again, I’m not sure if my understanding of that is accurate, so please check with your own tax professionals before trying anything like this.

After all, the real buffoon in the game was me. My 6 year old won handily.

This article contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation if you click on and choose to use one of the products or services.

Are You Successful?

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That’s a loaded question for three simple words, right?

The only way to get started is to come up with a definition of success. A couple of days ago, Joe from Retire by 40, asked, “What Does Success Mean to You?”

That question indirectly leads us to a definition of success. You are going to have to create a definition for yourself. Maybe you must be a banker to be fulfilled in life. While that may work for a sitcom, chances are your definition of success is much deeper.

Is Money the Measure of Success?

This is a blog about money… it’s in the name. And most discussions of success are going to lead back to money. After all, in the impeccable wisdom of Liz Phair:

It’s nice to be liked
But it’s better by far to get paid
I know that most of the friends that I have
Don’t really see it that way
But if you can give ’em each one wish
How much do you want to bet?
They’d which success for themselves and their friends
And that would include lots of money
I would surely include lots of money
You’ve got to have sh**loads of M-O-N-E-why, money

As you might be able to tell, Ms. Phair values money as a great sign of success. However, I think we can agree that it isn’t the only sign of success.

Most people would consider Saint Teresa of Calcutta as very successful, but money wasn’t a part of that success. Additionally, we have all heard the stories of lottery winners who have been unhappy. Joe made the great point that the richest person in the world failed at marriage.

Joe did what I would have done. He made a spreadsheet of the qualities that he considered important to success. Hopefully he doesn’t mind that I share it here, because it makes it easier to see where I’m going with this:

In his article, Joe then goes through each one and gives a little explanation about why it’s important and why he gave it the score he did. He chose to score each of them equally on a scale of 1 to 10 and average them out.

I (obviously) loved the idea or I wouldn’t be writing about it today. However, I thought I could make a couple of improvements. I love to tinker, especially with spreadsheets.

The first thing I did was take notice that some things are related. Joe has money, material things, and experiences all listed. If money is high (which it is for him) he can trade some for material things. The reason he doesn’t is that he doesn’t value a lot of material things as high as he does his freedom, another item on his list.*

I’ve started to do some mind mapping recently and I’d group some of these related items together. There’s a Four Burners Theory that says you have to split your efforts across family, friends, work, and health. It’s almost impossible for everyone to have enough gas to have all of them on full power.

I decided blatantly steal borrow Joe’s list and put the items in some categories. It’s not perfect, because I’d rather get your thoughts on this draft and evolve it. (That’s a hint to please leave a comment.) I also decided to allot 100 points among all the categories. The categories with more points are more important to me.

For example, Ebenezer Scrooge might have 90 points in the money category… and he might award himself an 85 for his success in getting money. In this system, he will have likely rated himself a great success. Saint Teresa would likely have put most her points in the philanthropy and spirituality categories and rate herself as a great success.

Here’s what mine looks like:

Lazy Success

The first thing you might notice is that my 1 to 100 scale only goes to 70. That’s because I’ve reserved the last 30 points for relationships, family and friends. I’ve decided to keep those private.

One important thing to keep in mind is that the numbers are very subjective. I just went with my gut and quickly filled up a 100 possible points. Then I spent 30 seconds thinking about whether I valued one thing more or less. In fact, I did this so quickly that just before publishing, I realized that I left health completely out of the spreadsheet. (It would have been an average 50% score.)

In the future, I may value material things less, but I bumped it up to an even number so that I could give myself half the points. In hindsight, the overall money category is worth the same amount as relationships (30 points), which needs some adjusting in a future draft.

Lazy Man’s Success Breakdown

Money Category

We have a very nice house and some nice things. However, I’m inherently frugal. I don’t mind Dollar Tree utensils for cooking. I’m very happy to wear an old Patriots sweatshirt from 1993 most of the time. We do have a fancy OLED TV and a luxury SUV. We also have a futon from Wal-Mart and our bedroom furniture is what I got after graduating college.

We have plenty of good experiences which includes our trips to Aruba and Disney World. We live on an island that is 5 minutes from the beach. Our kids get (mostly) the best education money can buy.

We are doing well with our finances. I hope to update this old article this summer, but we should have $200,000 a year in retirement income after my wife’s pension, rental properties, investments, social security, and some hobbies that make money.

Work

Joe included his engineering career and his blogging career. I’ll do the same and throw in my dog sitting career. I wasn’t the best software engineer, but I had some big accomplishments I can be proud of. In 13 years of blogging, I’ve managed 12 million page views and have been nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Plutus Award. I haven’t been featured in Rockstar Finance and I am still Susan Lucci/Ash Ketchum when it comes to winning a Plutus Award.

This is life on the blogger roller coaster.

Others’ View

I didn’t know what to call this category of fame, power, and legacy, so “others’ view” was my best attempt. I don’t care to much for fame and only a little bit about power. I care more about legacy.

I rated myself highly on legacy for things that have mostly flown under the radar. They are the things that show up in the 12 million page views and that Lifetime Achievement nomination. I’d like to write more about this someday, but I’m a little humble. Also, I don’t want it to trigger too much fame.

Own View

I gave myself a 3 of 5 when it comes to philanthropy. Some would look at money that I’ve donated and say that 3 is generous. However, I’ve devoted thousands of hours to helping people not get tied up into pyramid schemes and other scams.

I need to work on spirituality. It should be a larger in both possible points and awarded points.

I was perhaps generous in giving myself a 6 in contentment. It’s something that I actively have to work on.

Freedom

Finally, I gave myself a freedom score of 6 of 8. Maybe freedom should have more possible points, but it shares some of the Money’s points. The score of 6 is based on our financial situation and ability to work from home in a variety of different ways. It’s not going to be perfect because it’s not like we can just pick up and go to France on a moment’s notice. It’s hard to be truly free when you are raising a 5 and 6 year old.

Final thoughts

So I scored 45 of the 70 points. That’s nearly 65%… a solid D grade. Part of the reason it isn’t higher is that I didn’t believe in giving myself a perfect score, as there’s always someone else doing it better. So realistically it is 45 of 59 (I did give myself perfect fame) which is more of a C.

If I go buy a few nice things, win a Plutus award, and meditate my way to higher contentment, I should be able to pull of a solid B.

Now I’m off to go look at my old, very popular how to be successful article and see how I can make it better.

* I may be projecting my thoughts about Joe, but it’s my interpretation after reading his blog for a long time. While I could be wrong, we can still move on as if it were true for the purposes of the exercise.

Four Years of Solar Power Reviewed

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Funny Solar Panel

Happy Earth Day! It’s hard to believe, but this month is exactly four years since we got solar panels installed and activated.

I was nervous about taking the plunge. We got a $16,000 Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) to pay for the panels. That’s a lot of money. And though I thought I understood everything about solar panels, you never truly know what you don’t know. Finally, I never know if I can trust local contractors that I’ll save money – they are interested in getting the job and it would be impossible to hold them accountable if they stretched the truth.

Fortunately, everything went according to plan and we’ve been extremely happy. (Knock on wood.)

One very important thing to note is that government funding via state grants and federal tax credits paid for another $16,000. Obviously state grants are going to depend where you live. I did very quick/rough research and it seems like the 30% federal tax credit is still around for 2019, but then it starts to become less in 2020 and 2021 before disappearing for residences/homes.

In short, if you are thinking about solar power, now may be the last chance to get the best price.

Before I get into our personal financial experience with solar power, the benefits to the environment have to be mentioned. Even if it financially break-even, why not do something that helps the environment? To date, our dashboard says that our panels have accomplished the equivalent of planting 686 trees. Using metrics from the EPA, planting one tree offsets the same amount of CO2 as 55.3 kilowatt-hours of clean energy production.

Put another way, our panels have generated the equivalent of 12,640,541 AA batteries. My math could be off, but I think that’s around 668,822 pounds of batteries. It’s a good thing our house doesn’t run on AA batteries.

Calculating the Value of our Solar Power

You can call it 686 trees or 12.6 million batteries, but scientists would say we’ve generated 37.9 megawatt-hours in 4 years. Thanks to the wonders of the metric system, we can say it’s 37,900 kilowatt-hours or kWh.

The reason why we care about the kilowatt-hours measurement is because that’s the unit your electric bill uses. In Rhode Island it costs 11 cents to create one kWh and 10 cents to deliver it. The costs are broken down into more excruciating detail, but I’ll spare you. So overall, using a kWh costs $0.21.

That’s actually the most expensive electricity in the continental United States. (For some reason their numbers are 22.67 cents, which is different than my bill, but it’s close enough.) The average bill in Rhode Island is $203.35. Ouch!

The 37,900 kWh that we’ve generated in 4 years would have cost us $7,985.53. We can round up that last nearly $15 and call it $8000… exactly half of $16,000 we financed. Roughly speaking we’ll have recouped our $16,000 in 4 more years. However to account for interest and inflation, let’s call it 5 years.

Thus after a total of 9 years, we’ll save roughly $2000 a year. (That’s based on easy math of the $8000 we saved already over 4 years.) It will be more as electricity prices rise over time due to inflation.

Our panels are guaranteed to be ~95% efficient for 25 years. It doesn’t mean that they won’t last longer, but that’s just the guarantee. By the time that guarantee is up we’ll have 16 years of free electricity. With inflation our electricity would likely cost around $3200 by the end. I’ll conservatively estimate that the savings come out to around $2500 a year over those 16 years.

That’s $40,000 in savings! If the system keeps working well, it could be more than $50,000.

For a handful of days of research and another few for doing the work, that’s quite the return on investment. It’s a year’s worth of income for many people. While your state will likely be less of a savings, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.

If you are thinking about getting solar power yourself, here’s a quick guide I wrote. It’s hard to get too specific because each state has its own tax credits as well as it’s own costs of power. If energy is cheap in your state, it could be a poor financial decision to get solar power. That’s why it can still save us money even though Rhode Island is not known for being sunny.

Have you explored solar power? Let me know what you think in the comments.

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