Lazy Man and Money

Frugality and FIRE Friends

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It’s still a very busy summer for dog sitting, so rather than be 80% blogger and 20% dog sitter, it’s close to 95% dog sitter and 5% blogger. I expect that to change when kids go back to school in September and families stop traveling.

Last week this Tweet caught my attention:

It’s simple and straight to the point. However, I read it and think of it from a historical perspective. My blogging mentality is still stuck in 2006 and 2007 when I started.

Frugality Bashing Over Time

There were bloggers in 2006 who were into extreme frugality. I remember reading an article where the person calculated that opening the refrigerator costs four cents. So before opening the fridge, he planned his attack to grab all the items as quick as possible. There were also jokes that if you by 2-ply toilet paper, you can just pull one ply apart and “BAM!” double your toilet paper. Some of the extreme frugality got a little weird.

In general, though, people were just doing common sense things to save money. Make coffee at home, bring lunch to work, that kind of thing. However, people have started attacking those kinds of frugal suggestions. Their argument is, “No one got rich making coffee at home.” That may be true, but brewing coffee at home makes sense.

One decision repeated many times over a long time can make a significant difference. However, it’s more than that one decision. That one decision can grow into creating many mindful and frugal spending habits. When I developed these habits, I had more money left over to max out my 401k at a fairly young age (the maximum allowable contribution was lower then). This 45-year-old is thanking his younger self for doing that.

You have to have money to invest money. Not everyone can have a high-paying career (I did, fortunately), so frugality can be the path to having that money.

If you read a money guru and they are against frugality, it’s probably a good idea to shop for a new guru. They have not walked a mile in your shoes. I haven’t either. However, I’m not going to shut the door and bash an idea that mathematically is proven to help so many people.

Bashing of the FIRE Community

When I read “FIRE community”, my 2006 dinosaur brain interprets it as “personal finance community.” For all practical purposes, they are synonyms. FIRE is a better marketing term and “Financial Independence, Retire Early” evokes a sense of freedom to do whatever you want in life. There are no new money tips and tricks in FIRE that weren’t already in the personal finance community. We could call it all a “money community” and everyone would know what we are talking about.

The thing about defining a money community is that it’s nebulous. There are money communities in website forums (Bogleheads for example), blogs (this one for example), Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. Sometimes the people in one community don’t know who I am, but in another community, they know me quite well. Finding the community that supports you as you work towards your money goals is what’s important.

I don’t understand why anyone would bash a supportive group. I suppose I can imagine a person with enough hate in their hearts to do that. I imagine the bashing happens mostly on social media where people may just be trying to get attention (even negative attention) or entertain themselves. That used to get me going and angrily responding. Now, I just feel a little sad for that person, because he/she does not seem to have a focus and/or a community to help themselves move forward.

Final Thoughts

Frugality and FIRE communities are tremendously useful money tools. They’ve worked for countless people for decades. It makes no more sense to bash them than it does to bash being in a high-paying career or investing. My 8th-grade math teacher used to say, “There’s more than one way to Moody Street” (a big street in my hometown). There are many money tools that can get you to financial independence. Use the ones that work for you.

Yard Sales are Very Weird

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This past weekend, my wife and I participated in a church yard sale. By “my wife and I”, I mostly mean my wife as she ran the show.

I usually have strong feelings about everything. It’s just in my nature to lean towards everything being either black or white. I know there’s lots of gray. I’m trying to get more comfortable with that as I get older, but it just isn’t natural to me.

Yard sales baffle me. They are one of the few things that I’m wishy-washy about.

Here are some thoughts about each side of the coin… I’ll leave it to you to determine the context on how I feel about each item.

As a Yard Sale Seller

  • So Much Work – There’s a reason why my wife runs the show at yard sales. It’s a lot of work… and I’m so very Lazy. That said, I was up an hour early making coffee and doing other household chores to help make the yard sale work.
  • So Little Money – A couple of years ago, my wife sold a ton of baby stuff at “high ticket” prices. It netted around $200. After the $25 table buy-in, we (she) made about $30. I won’t even look up what a per-diem pharmacist could get with a single hour of work… that would depress me.
  • No More “Stuff” – Kids grow and the old stuff needs to be replaced with new stuff. This includes books, toys, and clothes. We’ve accumulated so much of all it. I’m guilty for some of the toys, because I have zero impulse control on anything with “STEM” in it. Toys aren’t terrible… I can see how a new toy lights up the mind of my kids. It could be quite possibly the best feeling I can think of.
  • Recycling – I hate seeing anything thrown into a landfill. Kid stuff should last through multiple kids. They grow so fast (at least through age 5) that clothes are still good.
  • Bargaining – One person said that she bought clothes at $0.25 a piece at the last yard sale she was at. I wish I was quick enough to say, “It’s a $25 buy-in to a very good charity. So you are asking us to sell 100 pieces of clothes to just break even with our time here?

As a Yard Sale Buyer

  • Bargaining – I respect game. The person above had game. I think it’s best to take the game elsewhere. You are getting things for pennies on the dollar. I never bargain. Please don’t bargain at yard sales unless you know an item is overpriced.
  • Treasure Hunt – I love a modern-day treasure hunt, without the work of “hunting.” I went to see what other people were selling. I found a General Hospital board game from the early 80s for $4. It seemed like it could be worth more, but more importantly, my wife thought that she could use it for a possible social connection in her past. I didn’t think about money because those social connections are priceless.

    I also bought a 260-piece Harry Potter puzzle for 25 cents. It says “8+” on it, which would turn-off my kids (age 5 and 6) normally. However, I pointed out that they are 11 combined, so they can work together and do it. The next day my oldest said, “Since I’m 6 and a half, and my brother is 5 and half, it’s like we’re 12.”

    Perhaps the best 25 cents ever spent?

Another person at the yard sale spend about 15 minutes negotiating about the prices. He ended up buying about a quarter of our stuff. After the negotiattion, he pulled out a stack of $100 bills. He didn’t have change. This exploded my mind.

If you have a way to put my mind back together (or have other yard sale thoughts), let me know in the comments.

Jay Leno ($13 Million Mansion and 180 Cars) Says He’s Frugal

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Jay Leno is my neighbor. He’s not my next-door neighbor, but our small Newport, RI community consists of around 60,000 people. Even though I’ve never met him, I hear he’s an extremely nice guy. That’s why this is a uniquely difficult article to write.

A couple of days ago I was reading Money Magazine and came across the following article:

Jay Leno Money Magazine
(Note: I’m including the article here because the free online version from a year earlier is a little less tone-deaf and contains the same basic information. My fair-use to criticize is dependent on the print version above.)

I haven’t seen a money/celebrity article this bad since the famous Men’s Health/Erin Burnett article of late 2007. A few days after I pointed it out it started to make headline news.

This isn’t as bad as that one was, but it reminded me of it. (Now I wonder if the Kylie Jenner self-made billionaire mess was as bad.)

Let’s start with the subheader, “The comedian enjoys the fastlane – but lives like he’s on his last dime.”

I had trouble reconciling that with this piece of news from about 15 months ago, Jay Leno just bought a $13.5 million oceanfront mansion in Newport, R.I. — take a look inside

Here are some nuggets from the article according to the real estate listing:

A gated entrance and winding drive leads up to the estate, which sits on a 9-acre lot and features 15,851 square feet of living space. The home has 12 bedrooms, 12 full bathrooms and three half-baths, according to the listing. It’s also packed with luxe amenities, including a carriage house, walled garden and tennis court.

(Grrr… no Oxford comma!)

There’s more to the description, but a $13.5 million home tells you all you need to know. Using standard estimates on maintenance of a home of 1% of annual price per year, he’ll spend about $135,000 a year just to keep it as it is. Maybe it’s even more with the extensive landscaping.

Jay Leno’s “last dime” must be Scrooge McDuck lucky one.

Originally, I thought that the online version of May 15, 2018 was before he bought the mansion, but it was after.

The Money Magazine article above also mentions that he has around 350 motor vehicles. That includes one he bought in 1999 for $800,000. That’s over 1.2 million in inflation-adjusted dollars today.

I found only one thing in the article that led me to believe he’s frugal. Leno says he doesn’t spend much on clothes.

Leno does make an attempt to preach good financial habits. He says that he never bought anything before he could afford it, never bought anything on credit, and that cash is king. Unfortunately, these are all things that Paris Hilton could say as soon as she was old enough to talk. While Leno made his fortune himself, it’s doesn’t mean he’s frugal. Those financial habits are very easy to follow… if you have a net worth of $350 million.

The Money Magazine article finished up with a quote of “I live pretty frugally.”

If a $13.5 million home and a $70 million car collection*, is living frugally then, you too, can be frugal!

I’m having a lot of difficulty in trying to stretch that to be frugal… even in celebrity terms. I haven’t seen his car show, but if someone is making a show to show off dozens of millions of dollars of your purchases… you can’t say you “live pretty frugally.”

I’m almost having a lot of trouble trying to figure out what feels worse to me about this. Should it be:

  1. Jay Leno himself – I actually think that Jay Leno might deserve the least blame. He’s just saying things like they are for him and giving a little background in his past.
  2. Jay Leno’s publicist – Shouldn’t his publicist take a look at this and say, “Ummm, Jay, this comes off like an alcoholic claiming he isn’t one because he rarely drinks tequila. Instead he only drinks 2 liters of vodka by noon each day”?
  3. Money Magazine – Shouldn’t an editor at Money Magazine take a look at this and say, “We lose a lot of credibility when we blindly equate spending dozens of millions of dollars with being frugal. Only Larry Ellison** can relate when he reads this. The rest of our audience is going to collectively think WTF“?

I’m also confused about why Money Magazine would recycle this interview from about a year ago now. I wonder if they ran out of production time and quickly edited something old as filler.

I’m going to leave those questions up to you, the reader to answer. Let me know your thoughts in comments.

And if I’ve been a little harsh to Jay Leno here and he’s reading it, hopefully he has a sense of humor ;-). I’m not nearly as bad as John Oliver was a little over a week ago:

* This is estimated by adding the 50 more cars mentioned in this interview to the $50 million mentioned at that link.

** Larry Ellison is one of my other rich “neighbors”.

The Lost Sock Drawer and Books Galore!

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This was an interesting weekend as far as frugality goes. I scored a couple of big frugal wins:

The Lost Sock Drawer

A few years ago I decided not to throw out any of my orphaned socks that have no matches coming from the laundry. Instead I saved them in the “lost sock drawer.” My thinking was that even if one sock was ripped or torn, it’s partner may find another partner who has experienced a similar fate. Then they can live together (and maybe their partners will meet up in sock heaven).

Recently, it became very difficult to close my lost sock drawer. It was time to see if I could match some of them up.

I was surprised how many socks I was able to match up!

socks

That’s 35 pairs of socks for those not interested in counting. There were so many socks that I couldn’t put them all in my (found?) sock drawer. I ended up stocking many of them as pairs in the lost sock drawer. I hope they don’t have hurt feelings, but I was able to give them the remaining 23 orphaned socks as friends.

It might be a very long before I need to buy more socks.

Books Galore!

Our family went to a church fundraiser this past weekend. I don’t really fit in at an English tea, but the wife liked the idea. We weren’t sure if the 2 and 3 year old were going to behave for it, but there was only one way to find out.

When we got there, we were surprised to find that they had a children’s English tea that was Harry Potter themed. We changed plans and bought tickets for our kids. They did a terrific job with exception attention to detail. I think it helped that the teenagers volunteering to help run it were enthusiastic about being Harry Potter characters.

It was a great time and they had other things such as a petting zoo for the kids too.

As we were leaving, we noticed a book tent. It was mostly books, but there were also a lot of CDs and DVDs. I wasn’t too interested in the books… I have a few dozen on my shelf that I want to read that I will probably never get to.

I thought about the DVDs, but they seemed to be either movies that I had seen or ones that I didn’t have big interest in seeing. One of the exceptions was Rent. I figured it was probably worth a couple of dollars even though I’ve seen it a couple of times.

It was the end of the day. They didn’t want to haul all the books away. Instead they decided they’d sell a bag for 5 dollars and let people fill it with whatever they wanted in the tent. We jumped on the opportunity. My wife and I must have come away with 20 books (and the Rent DVD). We even got the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Soundtrack for the kids. Yes, it’s a movie they haven’t seen, but maybe some day they will and we’ll be happy to have the DVD.

My books tended to be personal finance books and self-improvement books (fodder for Be Better Now). My wife’s books tended to be fiction books (typically ones that have been made into movies).

The lesson: While showing up early gives you the best picks of the litter, you can often score some big deals at the close as well. I’ve found that this works well for yard sales and farmer’s markets.

10 Free Winter Date Ideas

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Cabin fever is the worst, especially for romantics out there. Sure, bundling up by a roaring fireplace can be a nice treat, but what happens when that’s all you have or you can’t afford to do much else? Luckily for you, the season presents a ton of amazing free or super inexpensive date ideas just about everyone will love.

1. Sunset Watch

One of the worst parts of winter could become one of your favorite parts! With the sun going down so early, grab a blanket, find a spot on a hill, and invite your date to enjoy the sights. Bring hot tea or cocoa to up the romance.

2. The Local Tourist

In the winter, when kids are back in school, museums often feature free days or hours aimed at getting people in during the slow months. Take a day off and hit the exhibits before it becomes overpriced or too crowded to enjoy.

3. Antique Roadshow

If you love anything old, take to flea markets, bazaars, and shops to learn about America’s history. You don’t have to buy anything, but bring along a smartphone or WIFI enabled tablet so you can look up the maker or see the real value of that vintage tea seat or painting.

4. Old School Sledding

Have a little fun by going back in time to your childhood. Sledding isn’t just for kids! Grab a plastic saucer, a pool inner tube, a tray from a cafeteria (shhh…), or borrow a real sled and go crazy! It’s a winter amusement park waiting to happen.

5. Take a Class

When winter comes, smaller communities love to offer introductory classes. These may be in fitness, art, cooking, etc. Scan your Facebook page, local newspaper, or event website to see what’s going on in your area for free.

6. Bookworm Challenge

Love to read? Bring your date to the library and challenge them to pick out three books for you (and do the same for them). Then grab a table and have them tell you why you should read it. It may sound cheesey, but it’s a great way to open up and get some awesome reading recommendations too.

7. Indoor Cookout

Don’t bring the grill inside! Inside, turn up a fireplace or stand by a burner and create s’mores, hot dogs, or popcorn. Then snuggle up to a camping or outdoor movie to complete the feel. It’s a tasty treat that doesn’t require much in supplies or even too much creativity, but it’s always a fun change up on routines.

8. Get Intellectual

Once college is back in session, schools start packing their schedule with presenters and lecturers from all over the country. And most are free and open to the public! Try a music rehearsal with a famous conductor, sit in on a talk on human psychology with a famed author, or even learn about a new social issue from a visiting politician. You’ll leave with so much to talk about!

9. Bar Trivia

Bar trivia is a winter favorite of frugal people everywhere. It often only requires the purchase of one drink (stick with soda) to play, and you’ll love the competitiveness of it. Plus, who doesn’t want the chance to win gift cards, money, or other great prizes just by answering a few random questions correctly? This one is always a win for nerds and know-it-alls!

10. Score Free Tapping Tickets

If you live in a major city like New York or LA, you’re in luck! Shows filmed in your area are always looking for live audiences to fill their seats and provide laughter or even contestants. Luckily for us, all of that is free! You just need to reserve your spots online or over the phone and read the rules very carefully.