Lazy Man and Money

How Much are You Spending on Your Home?

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[Editor’s Note: If you were a member of my VIP Email List on Wednesday, you know that I’m giving away $100. If you missed it, perhaps you should join the list as I’ll be doing more giveaways.]

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote, Your Life or Your Home. In it, I explained that people generally work 45 years and housing expenses. It’s estimated that people spend about 1/3 of their money on their homes, which translates to 15 years of work. (It’s not exactly that simple as income typically changes throughout one’s lifetime.)

I got an email from Zillow that reminded me about this. Their press release stated research that Mortgage Payments Require Largest Share of Income Since 2009.

If you think about it, it seems obvious. How could it be any other way with the housing recovery and rising interest rates on mortgages? I suppose income could be growing faster to outpace the recovery, but income (at a nationwide average level) doesn’t usually fluctuate that much.

This is the rare case where the headline didn’t seem to tell the most interesting story. It was almost anti-clickbait.

Zillow looked at the 35 largest housing markets and gave a regional breakdown of “Share of Income Spent On Mortgage” for each. They gave averages for the past and projections for the future, but I was mostly interested in the 2018 number. Maybe I’m just in a “live for now” mood today.

I think it’s worth looking at the national numbers to get some perspective on the average. From 1985-2000 mortgages were around 21% of income. In 2018 it’s only 17%, and that’s despite growing a lot over the last 9 years to reach a high. There are other housing expenses than just mortgages, but it still seems like this is below the 1/3 (33%) estimation that I’ve seen as an average.

I immediately decided to calculate our own number. I bet most people don’t know it off the top of their head. Our income fluctuates quite a bit due blogging, dog sitting, and whatever else we’ve got going on. I picked out a reasonable average and our mortgage came out to 21.6% of income. I’m changing my name from Lazy Man to Mr. National Average (at least in this case.) That may not be a fair number as we have a 15-year mortgage and most people probably have 30-year mortgages. It would likely have been closer to 15% if we didn’t love the idea of not paying the bank for 15 years.

The regional details in the report showed how much this number can fluctuate. If you scroll towards the bottom of the chart, you’ll see two of the extremes, Indianapolis at ~12% and San Jose at over 51% of income. Of course the job situation in Silicon Valley is very different than Indianapolis. It’s no surprise that housing prices were at opposite sides of the spectrum in these two cities. However, this number is a percentage of income, which means it should be normalized for all the high tech salaries in San Jose.

If you had guess without looking at the chart, you’d think that New York City would be like San Jose. We know the housing in New York City is outrageous, right? We’ll it’s 27.7% of income, which is just 6% more than average of the US. That’s not insignificant, but I found it notable that NYC is a lot closer to Indianapolis (15% difference) than San Jose (24% difference.)

When I wrote that aforementioned VIP Email List earlier this week, I asked people for suggestions on how to improve the website. Many of them asked for more practical advice. It’s hard to know what’s practical for a diverse group of people. However, what if we used this chart to figure out if relocation could pay off for us?

I know there are a lot of factors that go into choosing where you live. However, with so much of your income tied up by this decision, it’s probably worth taking a second look and seeing what you are spending on your home and what you could be spending. It’ll make a much bigger difference than that subscription to Netflix.

Goodbye McDonalds… Hello Taco Bell, Subway, and Dunkin Donuts!

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It feels like I get stuck in a pattern sometimes. I recently wrote Goodbye Google Finance, Hello Google Spreadsheets. The family passed around the plague for a couple of weeks. So I’m going to return back to that formula, because it works.

I have a history of writing about McDonalds. For years and years, they’ve been a great value. I recognize that it is unfortunate that the healthiest food (salads and grilled chicken sandwiches) are the most expensive. Nonetheless, if you were on the go, a single dollar (plus tax) could sustain you for quite a few hours. Here’s a brief history of what I’ve written about McDonalds over the years:

  • Back in 2006, you could use a Bank of America promotion to get 10-cent double cheeseburgers for 3 months!
  • In 2007, I defended McDonalds Double Cheeseburger as be more efficient than making your burgers. Another popular blogger went through a detailed exercise to say it wasn’t so.
  • In 2008, I wrote about McDonalds Eat-in Tax. This got very confusing for everyone, and I still don’t know what the truth is about whether McDonalds charged a separate tax for eating in the restaurant. I just know that on consecutive days, I was charged different prices and the receipt on the second day when I ate in had the difference which appeared to be clearly labeled.
  • In 2009, I wrote about McDonalds switching from the double cheeseburger to the McDouble on the Value Menu. They took away a slice of cheese and called it a McDouble. So if you weren’t paying attention and ordered a double cheeseburger, you paid a 29% premium for that extra slice of cheese. I called it sneaky, but credited McDonalds with good disclosure.
  • There seems to be a gap when not much changed. You could get a McDouble for a number of years for just a buck. Alas inflation, like Father Time always wins*. In 2013, I wrote that people should avoid McDonalds $2 egg. Essentially that was the price difference between Egg McMuffin with Sausage and the Sausage McMuffin. A wise blogger, Tight Fisted Miser chimed in that you could order a side of eggs separately. They were about $1.20 and you seemed to get twice as much egg.
  • In 2015, I wrote how to lose money at McDonalds. It compared making the silly choice of buying a QuarterPounder instead of a McDouble on the Value Menu.

As you can tell, I’ve been a fan of stretching my dollar when I go McDonalds. It may sound like I was a little obsessed, but it’s 6 articles in 11 years, so that’s not too bad, right?

Today, I think you can throw out most of those articles. The breakfast ones might be somewhat relevant, especially the eggs if they still honor that cheap price.

McDonalds went away from the Dollar Menu for awhile. They had various Pick 2 for $2 and Pick 2 for $5. I couldn’t make use of the Pick 2 for $5, but the Pick 2 for $2 of McDoubles could at least be shared with my wife.

Finally, it seems McDonalds has settled on their $1, $2, $3 Dollar Menu.

It seems like great marketing, but not a lot value for consumers.

For $1, you used to get a double cheeseburger. Now you can get a single cheeseburger. As we all know, the single cheeseburger is essentially bread, right? It’s 300 calories, and 8 less grams of protein from the McDouble, which makes it not very much of a meal. There’s a chicken sandwich, but there’s 40 empty calories from mayo. That brings it back down 310 calories.

For $2, you get a little more, but at that point you aren’t getting through for just a dollar. It doesn’t seem like much, especially if it’s only a sometime trip, but if becomes more of a regular thing, you are paying twice as much as you used to.

For the same reasons as the $2, menu, I don’t see a reason to dissect the $3 menu. There’s a triple cheeseburger, but shouldn’t that be less than $3 because I could get 3 of the $1 cheeseburgers and use the left over bread as Frisbees?

I understand that I’m rare to dissect McDonalds Dollar Menu like this. It’s good business for McDonalds and this will help improve their margins (as long as it doesn’t drive customers away). I don’t follow McDonalds stock, but maybe this is a good time to buy.

It would be easy to give McDonalds a pass and say, “Hey that’s just how inflation works.” However, it’s worth looking at a few other chains.

Hello Taco Bell!

Taco Bell’s $1 Menu is so large it feels like all its food is on it. The Beefy Frito Burrito is one such example. It’s not healthy. I don’t think anything with the word “Frito” in it pretends to be. However, it does have 440 calories. That qualifies as a meal for me at a price of a a single dollar.

While on the topic, I hear that the new nacho fries are good. I haven’t tried them, but they sound good. Again, this isn’t an article about healthy eating.

Hello Subway!

Subway seems to be having a hard time with its sales. Things got bad enough that they decided to bring back the $5 footlong while their franchises complain. I apologize to Subway franchise owners. I understand that you might not make big profits if everyone comes in and orders a $5 footlong without a drink or other “upsell” items.

That said, this is good news for me, the consumer! If I want something reasonably healthy (the health police are everywhere on such claims), I can pay $5 and often get 900 calories. That’s enough to two meals (I’m assuming a 450 calorie meal size, which is consistent with the calories in a McDonalds double cheeseburger, which was our baseline.)

So yes, it’s a little more money, but it feels more reasonable as a healthy upgrade.

Hello Dunkin Donuts!

I never thought I’d get Dunkin Donuts into a value article. I’m not a coffee drinker (the horrors!) and when we go there in the morning (my wife’s request), the bill always seems to come out to $12 because the breakfast sandwiches are so much. (The Wake-up Wrap is just an insult to food everywhere.)

However, there was a deal that caught my eye. It may just be my local franchise as I couldn’t find a lot of information online, but after 11AM they lower the price of the sandwiches to $2. That’s a decent price for a sausage, egg, and cheese on a bagel. I can see why Dunkin Donuts would want to do this. Their clients are focused on the morning coffee rush. I would expect business to be very poor after that.

It’s very tempting to do dinners at Dunkin Donuts especially since the only protein my kids will eat are their breakfast sandwiches for some quirky reason. They are small kids, so I can pick up dinner for the whole family for way under $10.

Random Fast Food Stuff

This isn’t part of the point of the article above, but I found these both interesting and worth reading:

* The exception to this is obviously Tom Brady. And yes, this qualifies for my obligatory Tom Brady mention in every article until at least the Super Bowl.

Environmentally Friendly Money Saving: Make Your Home Energy Efficient

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Because I’ve contracted the flu that’s been passing around the family, we’re going to do a guest post. Hopefully, when PainBot is done eating my soul, I’ll have a new article. In the meantime, Kostas Chiotis is here to save the day. He is an economist and he shares the latest tips on how to save money and manage finances at FinanceBlogZone.com. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

Every time we think about home improvements, the first question that comes to mind is, “ Will this save me money”? Your goal might be getting out of debt, or saving money or just keeping your budget in place, but did you know that you can save money while being kind to the planet? I will talk about how we can make our homes energy efficient without hurting the environment.

In recent years, many people have become sensitized of the need to conserve the environment and save money at the same time. The perception that eco-friendly homes must be newbuilds is misleading because you can start making small changes to your home with the few bucks that you have. Such improvements can be done with any budget, without breaking the bank. If you want to make a start, here are suggestions to reduce your energy bills and help the planet.

Top 10 Eco-friendly Home Improvements to Save you Money

1. Seal Leaks and Drafts

Sealing air leaks during winter and summer will help you save some dollars off your energy bill. Check your house for possible drafty doors and windows, that bring in cold or hot air, forcing your air HVAC system to work extra hard to maintain desirable temperatures. Overworking the air conditioners or furnace means that more energy will be used up, putting a strain on your wallet. Test for leakage in draft-prone areas such as window frames, doors, baseboards, pipes and chimney and use weather stripping or caulk to seal them.

2. Roof restoration

Investing in roof restoration will save you money in the long run, although the price for the restore services could be high. During the summer, roof restoration will prevent heated air from entering your house, thereby reducing strain on the cooling system. It also helps in keeping the house warm during winter. You can lower the cost of roof restoration by using green roofing products and hiring a local contractor.

3. Use wood-framed windows

solar-panels

Replacing your UPVC and metal windows with wood-framed windows will save you money and protect the environment. Wood-framed windows last a lifetime, are more insulating and less polluting than the popular UPVC windows which emit toxic compounds. Also, wood-framed windows are easy to repair.

4. Install a Programmable Thermostat

If you use an old air conditioner at home, you are likely to see inflated utility bills during the summer, since these systems have to do extra work to maintain the home temperatures. Ideally, you have to turn off the AC when there is no one at home or lower the temperatures when people are asleep. You can quickly forget such actions.

With the programmable thermostat, you can regulate your home’s temperatures depending on the settings you choose for specific times of the day. Plus, it is inexpensive to install, and it will shave off some bucks from your bill.

5. Buy Energy Efficient Electric Appliances

When purchasing new appliances or upgrading your home equipment, check if they have the Energy Star label. The label means that the devices have been certified by Energy Star and meet a high level of energy efficiency. They offer significant energy savings without compromising on the performance. Also, some electricity providers offer incentives for replacing old appliances with the energy star rated models.

6. Install Solar Energy

Solar energy power is a renewable source of energy that is provided naturally from the sun. Although solar panels are expensive to purchase and install, they can result in huge savings in the long term, making your home green.

To take advantage of solar power, make sure you locate it in a place where it can collect as much energy as possible. Hire a local contractor to advise you on the best location for the solar panels. Also, you can benefit from tax breaks, grants, and incentives from the government, as they continue to encourage the public to utilize the natural power around us and bring down electricity consumption. If you are in debt, getting advice on how to manage debt and taking advantage of such government grants and incentives is good for your wallet.

7. Use Sustainable Building Materials

Did you know that you can use eco-friendly materials when building every part of your home? Using materials such as recycled plastics, recycled glass, reclaimed lumber, bamboo, and cork will help reduce the impact of the construction on the surrounding. They can be used as building materials, roofing materials, floor insulation and sealing air leaks in your home.

In addition, insist that your contractor recycles old wood floors, doors, and windows instead of sending them to the landfill.

8. Eco-friendly Lighting

Replacing your old bulbs with compact fluorescents lamps (CFLs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs) will lower your electricity bills over time. CFLs and LEDs have a longer lifespan than the traditional bulbs, even though they are pricey. They are an ideal option for eco-friendly home improvements.

9. Add heavy curtains over windows and doors

Although they may seem cumbersome, heavy curtains or drapes will help conserve energy by trapping warm air inside during cold weather. Also, the curtains will keep the sun’s heat out during the summer, thus reducing an overwork on the air conditioner. This helps to reduce energy bills in the long term.

10. Water Saving Improvements

Moving from high flow to low flow faucets and showerheads will contribute to water conservation and cutting down your water bills. Also, you can help the environment by taking a shower rather than a bath that requires a lot of water.

Collect rain water by installing a water harvesting system and storing it in a tank. Use the rainwater for household activities such as watering your landscaping and flushing the toilet. Also, using tankless water heaters instead of hot water tanks will help save space and energy, since it heats only water that is passed through the electric coil. The extra space can be used for holding the rain barrels that store rainwater.

No matter how limited your budget is, you can make your home energy efficient and save the planet. The best part is, you do not have to make complete upgrades to be eco-friendly. Instead, start making small improvements, and your home will be green. In the course of the year, plan to make small improvements such as replacing your old bulbs with LEDs or CFLs, upgrading your electrical appliances to Energy Star rated models and sealing the air leaks around your window frames and doors.

Ask the Readers: Mounting a Flatscreen TV

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This is kind of a silly question and it’s surely a first world problem. Remember when I wrote about buying a new TV recently? Well, I can’t get it set-up.

When it comes to anything handy, I’m all thumbs. Scratch that… I’m all left baby toes. When it comes hanging what is essentially a very extremely piece of glass that could be a big deal.

So I did what I thought was the smart thing. I went to the local audio/video store and asked about pricing. They asked a few questions and came back with a number. That number was 3 times more than I thought it would be! The price? Around $850. That’s almost as much as some televisions.

One of the reasons it’s so pricey is that I want an arm that extends so that I can position the television for when I’m cooking in the kitchen. Another thing that adds to the price, concealing the cords in the walls. One further thought, I think it would be best to NOT conceal them as my television set-up is very elaborate with home theater PCs and such. I just don’t know if the wife will go for that.

I figured, maybe they are simply overcharging me? So I went on Angie’s List to see if there were some better options. I saw some ads for mounting from $99 to $129! Now we are talking, right? Unfortunately those vendors seemed to be California… about 3000 miles away from me. I think there was only one vendor in 50 miles that offers the service… and I don’t know if they’d travel that far.

I almost thought about not mounting the television. However, with a 4 and a 5 year old running around the house, not to mention the dogs we sit, it seems like an accident waiting to happen.

I looked on Amazon and it seems like there are some mounts that are very, very cheap and very, very high rated with 15,000 or more reviews. Here’s one example for only $65 though I might want more of a tilt angle.

Has anyone ever paid for a television mounting service? Anyone contact a handyman to have them do it? Anyone do it themselves?

Programming Note

This article is a little light on the personal finance. I’m winding down trying to get everything done for the holiday season while also doing a bit of traveling. I’m planning to still publish regularly, but what I plan and the reality don’t always work out especially when it comes to me and traveling.

I Bought a New Computer… and Perhaps You Should too.

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Today’s article may be a little dry and technical, so I’m going to take the unusual step of writing a summary upfront of the key points.

One thing that I love about blogging is that it serves as my personal journal. This article serves a dual purpose as an entry in that journal. I can look back at all the laptops I’ve owned and understand what I was thinking at the time I was making that decision. It’s particularly helpful for larger purchases. It’s another great reason for starting a blog.

One of the important points to take away from this article is that if you are looking to buy a new computer, you are going to want the new 8th generation Intel chips. They benchmarks show it to be an incredible leap forward. Perhaps more important (at least readers of this blog) is that such computers are quite affordable… at least they have been around holiday season.

While you may have missed out on the particular deal I (maybe) got, here’s a very powerful Dell for $580. If that deal sells out, there will likely be another coming soon.

Finally the title of “I hope” refers to Lenovo not shipping the product when they said they would. Nearly a week later, it still hasn’t shipped. I called and they are working on it, but we’ll see.

Let’s dig into the “meat” of the article:

So About that New Computer

Less than two weeks ago, I wrote:

“I’m going to try to resist [these laptop deals] and wait for the next cycle. However, if you are in the market for a new laptop, I’d jump on these now. I think prices will only go up after the holiday season before they float back down throughout 2018.”

What’s that they say about best-laid plans? I guess resistance is futile.

At least I can say that I put my money where my mouth is on the last part of the quote, right?

So what changed?

My Love/Hate Relationship with My Current Computer

I have a 13″ Dell XPS from late 2015. I love how small (almost no bezel!) and light it is. I paid $800 for 4GB of memory, 128GB of SSD storage, and a 5th generation Intel Core i5. That was with a deal that saved me a couple hundred dollars. The 4GB of memory was very low, but if I wanted to get 8GB of memory I would have had to pay $1200 or more. The Microsoft Store only stocked a low-end and high-end version. When I bought it, I immediately had some buyers remorse about only getting 4GB of memory. Worse that 4GB of memory can’t be upgraded.

The 128GB SSD storage was bare minimum at the time. The Core i5 was a middle of the road processor. Overall it was a little below average in performance, but it looked good, traveled well, and had tremendous battery life.

Fortunately, one of my very few talents is that I can make computers run a lot faster. I should be good at it due to my computer science degree. Despite this, I tend to have dozens of Firefox tabs open to work on several different articles and other projects at any given time.

Unfortunately, the new Firefox Quantum uses more memory, so my computer has ground to a halt for the last few weeks. If I had to point my finger on one thing, it would be this. Firefox Quantum is great if you aren’t bumping up against memory and disk space limits.

For example, I’ve just lost 15 minutes on a 3-minute task because my computer is simply trying to figure out what to do without memory or disk space. I write my articles in Notepad++ and cut and paste them into the WordPress, because typing on a website is painfully slow.

The easy answer is to just change my ways and keep my Firefox tabs limited. Unfortunately, I can never seem to manage that.

Technology Life Moves Pretty Fast…

… If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it. At least I think that’s what Ferris Bueller would say, right?

I don’t live for CPU benchmarks, but I have a general feel for them. A few months ago, Intel released their 8th generation Core i7 chip. It’s the top of the line chip available for ultra portable computers. As Laptop Mag’s review of the chip noted, “If you’re shopping for a laptop and there’s a model with 8th Gen Core available in your price range, you should definitely prioritize it.”

It seems like Intel is always coming out with new chips. However, this chip is revolutionary because it doubles the number of cores. That may sound like gobbledygook to you, so let me give you two numbers. My current computer’s processor scores a (3497 on Passmark’s test. The 8th generation i7 scores a 8016 on Passmark’s test.

It’s around 2.3 times faster.

That’s great, but I’ve never been able to justify buying an Core i7 chip, much less a new one. Those are the chips that they tend to put in $1500 laptops (for example, this Dell XPS).

I may not need a super-CPU, but as long as it doesn’t cost a lot of extra money, I might as well “future proof” and enjoy the best of the best for once, right? Well fortunately, it doesn’t cost a lot of money…

This Time it’s Different

I had rushed to publish my Black Friday deals article, because I wanted you to have a chance to get a this 14″ Lenovo 720s IdeaPad before it sold out. For $800 you could get the following:

  • Intel’s 8th Generation, Core i7 CPU
  • 14″ 1920×1080 IPS Anti-Glare Display
  • 8GB DDR4 Memory
  • 256GB PCIe Solid State Drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT MX150 2GB Graphics

I was able to resist this deal because it had a decent graphics card. That’s a great feature if you do some gaming, but I don’t. I didn’t want to pay a premium for something that I wouldn’t take advantage of. I would rather have a cheaper price or more memory to run more programs. Nonetheless, it sold out fairly quickly.

A little later, I saw an ideal laptop at an amazing price. Once again it was an Lenovo (this article is not sponsored by Lenovo in any way). Slickdeals showed this stacked Yoga 720s for $669:

  • Intel’s 8th Generation, Core i7 CPU
  • 13″ 1920×1080 IPS Anti-Glare Display
  • 16GB DDR4 Memory
  • 512GB PCIe Solid State Drive

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. More than twice as fast, four times the memory, and 4 times the size of the hard drive. That’s faster memory and a faster hard drive than what I have too. That’s so much memory that I could run almost any combination of anything. All of this in an ultra-portable computer like my current Dell 13″ XPS.

However, after spending $2000 on a television a couple of days before, I thought my wife would kill me if I made a big impulse purchase. I decided to sleep on it.

By morning it was sold out. It barely lasted a couple of hours. There was tremendous buzz that it was the best deal of the Black Friday weekend.

I kicked myself. I should make up that $700 in productivity in just the first 45 days with it, right?

Alas, there’s no use crying about missed deals. (I’m too busy crying about writing about Bitcoin in 2010 and not actually buying any.)

On December 1st, the same computer was back with another great deal. It wasn’t under $669 plus tax like the last one, but instead it was $800 with 10% back from Ebates. I ended up getting $90 back as I had just signed up for Ebates and they gave me an extra $10. In total it was $765. That’s $855 after tax minus the $90 cash back.

(You can sign up for Ebates here. It’s free. You can save some big money buying through there I as did. If you do sign up, I may get a referal fee, which means I’ll love you a little more.)

Now all I need is for Lenovo to deliver it. By the mid-January (when the holidays are dying down), I should be publishing a lot more with the increased productivity.

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