tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60378226591866892492024-03-05T14:11:30.010-06:00FrigidFinanceRandom thoughts on Finance from the Frigid North.FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-10099204087043072252010-03-20T01:57:00.003-05:002010-03-20T02:00:26.886-05:00A Business Accociate of mine has put up a new website.They are Simons Landscaping.<br /><br />They can be found at <a href="http://www.simons-landscaping.com">http://www.simons-landscaping.com</a><br /><br />They are <a href="http://www.simons-landscaping.com">Simons Landscaping</a> in the <a href="http://www.simons-landscaping.com">Twin Cities MN</a>, USA, not in the UK.FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-43693960383271688522008-06-29T08:44:00.004-05:002008-06-29T09:08:56.445-05:00Taxes, Bonus and the potential demise of a "Close Friend"In July, My company pays out bonuses. I have been looking at my accounts, and this combined with my unspent welfare(Rebate) check may lead to some good news.<br /><br />Good News, The First:<br /><br /> I can now afford to run a power branch out to my detached garage. This with be a Do-It-Yourself project for me. I estimate the cost to be around $600, but will be happy if it stays under $1000 including the garage door opener, which is the primary benefit of having power out there. Up here in the winter, which is the best 10 months out of the year, a garage door opener makes life so much easier. no getting out of the car in the -10F weather to open the garage door. Currently my roommate and I only put our cars in the garage if we're expecting a large snowfall. I can't wait to join the masses of people who don't have to scrape their windows.. I can use the 10min a day elsewhere...<br /><br />Good News, The Second:<br /><br /> The other major benefit is that with the bonus money and my rebate check and my tax return<span style="font-style:italic;">(My first full year in a house, and I wasn't sure how much that would affect my taxes so I just left my withholding and grossly overpaid)</span> which were all "windfalls" or unexpected money this year; I should be able to pay off my student loan. If it is not quite enough to cover the loan, I should at least be able to pay off enough that my regular payments should have it paid off before the crimson creeps up on the forests this autumn.<br /><br />When the student loan is gone, I plan to start saving for a new car as mine is 11 years old and I have no idea when the car will be unreliable enough that it can no longer serve as my primary transportation. My goal is to pay cash for my next car.<br /><br />After that, I still need to do the following: Max out my Roth contributions, start saving for non-retirement investments. I am still thinking about Rental properties just for the amazing about of cash flow that can be built for retirement years. It takes time and effort, but I'm OK with that, I like to stay busy.<br /><br />Are there any other method for providing cash flow? I prefer cash flow to appreciation simply because cash flow can be used to pay bills now or used to buy more investments without the hassle of selling...FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-84611565185528960102008-06-22T07:56:00.003-05:002008-06-22T08:50:28.177-05:00Man fighting unreasonable parking fees from his HOAMan is booted by <a href="http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3880087">Arizona Parking Solutions</a> even though he has a valid parking permit.<br /><br />While he was initially in the wrong for not displaying his permit, the fact that they booted immediately without any warnings is unreasonable. Then when he called and said that he did have a permit, they still insisted that it was $140 to remove the boot.<br /><br />This is why I will never buy a home in a development with a HOA if I can avoid it. Monthly fees paid are used to contract with companies who then charge you more money?? Sounds a bit like extortion. To me, that's a bad investment. Pay money to have my life turned miserable. Thank You, but I'd Rather Not.<br /><br />Is this a good deal for the "Homeowners"?FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-88423065343400921302008-03-09T09:49:00.003-05:002008-03-09T09:51:12.519-05:00It's been awhile since I've Last writtenI am working on a summary/discussion for Chapter 2 of Financial Statements. Should be forthcoming. I suppose starting a blog wasn't necesarily a great thing, since I only like to write when something strikes me. That makes for irregular updates. I'm working on trying to improve. Please stick with me.FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-74206530502139911922008-01-19T00:36:00.000-06:002008-01-19T00:37:48.327-06:00Checked Escrow todayThe money has been refunded, so that is one item off my list. Now if only my tax info would come in so I can file and get that done with.FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-13995187787142815782008-01-16T21:10:00.000-06:002008-01-16T21:16:31.109-06:00I'm not dead...yetCalled about the escrow account. Apparently something was wrong with the check written for approximately 50 accounts, so they re-issued to avoid cancellation, and the value will be credited back to my account. I will check back to ensure the funds are replaced.<br /><br />On Christmas Eve, a City snowplow hit my car, so now I have to get estimates to fix it and submit a claim to the city. I still have to decide if it's worth fixing, or if I will just put it towards a down payment on a new car. The damage is mostly cosmetic (I lost 1 light) but with post '93 vehicles, if anything happens to crack the bumper, the entire bumper needs to be replaced. Since my car is a 1997 model and I expect problems with it in the future, since I just had to have a water leak into the passenger compartment fixed in May to the tune of $1000, I don't know if it's worth fixing cosmetic damage.<br /><br />All kinds of new experiences for me these past few month!FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-60297549564630727372007-11-17T10:52:00.000-06:002007-11-17T10:57:21.883-06:00Mortgage EscrowI got a notice in my E-Mail about Escrow activity happening on my account. I take a look and it appears that my annual Homeowners Insurance premium of $720 was paid. I love the fact that I don't have to worry about paying these bills, even if it means that I have an opportunity cost by keeping the money in the escrow account. The one problem I have with this payment is that two weeks ago there was another Homeowners insurance payment of $720 deducted.<br /><br />This is the first time that this has happened, so I will give them a chance to resolve it. However, if this becomes a trend rather than a rare occourance, I believe that I may be in for some very frustrating times. I sent in a request for information on those transactions, we'll see what I hear.FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-81122501659072281262007-11-08T23:59:00.000-06:002007-11-09T00:03:09.150-06:00GnuCashSo after trying to use Quicken in a Virtual Machine and having problems with it, I decided that I needed a new accounting program. I preferred one that was native to Linux as that is my Operating System of choice . I decided that I would try GnuCash (<a href="http://www.gnucash.org">http://www.gnucash.org</a>) which is also available for Mac OS X. Setting up my accounts in Gnucash took about 20 min or so, and was not hard to understand. The biggest change from quicken was that Gnucash uses accounts where quicken uses categories. So now instead of all my gas transactions being in a category of Auto:Gas, they are recorded to the Auto:Gas expense account. <br /><br />These Expense accounts (There are income accounts that behave similarly) basically represent another entity's books so that I can place the other half of my double entry into their "books". While this is a little confusing at first, I figured out that if I thought of those accounts as the accounts receiveable for another person, that account was essentially a joint account used only to transfer money. That helped me get used to the change.<br /><br />Right now the program looks promising. I plan on trying it for at least a couple months to see if it will work for me. The one thing that I can't budge on is that it must be able to accurately import all the .QIF</span> files that I download from my institutions, as I don't normally type any of my data in, I download it from my banks, and double check the data as I'm importing them. Because I am the only one that uses my accounts, and I don't have that many transactions, as I tend to spend a lot of money in few transactions, I can usually remember everything I did in the last month by looking at where the money went and how much it was.<br /><br />For me, keeping records of my finances is my one HUGE downfall. I hate it with a passion. I hate records, I hate to organize (although I do like an organized space, I just don't want to do it.) and I hate double checking everything just so that I can look back later and say "Wow! I filed that!" I'm hoping an easy to use program will help alleviate some of my pain.<br /><br />Is there anybody else out there that uses GnuCash? any hints for someone just starting out with the program?FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-51677040535511466622007-11-03T10:19:00.001-05:002007-11-03T18:00:48.022-05:00Online Personal Finance BlogsI have been reading different blogs online and have notice that most of them fall into two categories: "Pay off Consumer Debt" or "Increase your Current Capital". <br /><br />This is all fine and dandy, but it sometimes makes me feel like I'm in the middle ground. I never got into much debt (I agonized for months about taking out a $5000 student loan), but I don't yet have capital to push for higher and higher gains.<br /><br />The place where I do find the most knowledge to apply is in the Frugal blogs. While I don't consider them pure personal finance blogs, they fill that empty gulf between paying off debt and investing. They are the step that needs to be taken throughout all three phases of a person's financial life, and the only step that I feel applies to my current phase.<br /><br />In that Respect, here's a couple of blogs about Frugality:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.frugalforlife.blogspot.com/">Frugal for Life</a><br /><a href="http://live-frugal.blogspot.com/">Live Frugal</a><br /><br />and lastly, the Frugal Hacks site:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.frugalhacks.com/">Frugal Hacks</a><br /><br />Remember: Living below your means is the key; not necessarily to wealth, but definitely to financial security.FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-23767784202519709052007-11-01T01:02:00.000-05:002007-11-01T22:32:04.301-05:00Financial Statements by Thomas Ittelson<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1564143414?ie=UTF8&tag=frigfina-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1564143414"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpVFRF4U05XI2rjFWXjYIAdUsjKEeze2oHJKMBlmqwUZjLClzl9LwHNc3OjzwxrypgE6N_3HgzQkmyp3Ltmg0NCnbdM74l0bT0-bcESLBJL_iaWR_SrKp3iCXn81uPxnoAHujc8APb1v7/s320/21SB85NF5HL._AA_SL110_.jpg" border="0" /></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=frigfina-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1564143414" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /><br />I have started Reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1564143414?ie=UTF8&tag=frigfina-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1564143414">Financial Statements</a> <span style="font-style:italic;">(affiliate link)</span> by Thomas <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Ittelson</span>. I will review each chapter as I read, and discuss what I liked, disliked and learned from each chapter.<br /><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:180%;" ><br />Chapter 1</span><br /><br />Chapter 1 covers the 12 basic principles:<br /><br />1. the accounting entity<br />2. going concern<br />3. measurement<br />4. units of measure<br />5. historical cost<br />6. materiality<br />7. estimates and judgments<br />8. consistency<br />9. conservatism<br />10. periodicity<br />11. substance over form<br />12. accrual basis of presentation<br /><br /> This chapter gives a basic definition of each, and explains why the principle was adopted. While this chapter reads more like a dictionary than anything else, the author does a good job of making the reasoning behind each principle clear while not going into too much detail.<br /><br /> The ease of reading this chapter gives me hope that this book will make understanding Financial Statements a breeze.<br /><br />Looking through the table of contents, most of the chapters are around 25 pages in length and I think will make for nice small chunks to digest. If you follow along in the book with this series, please comment with your thoughts.FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-45090850748936073732007-10-28T00:27:00.000-05:002007-10-28T00:28:04.487-05:00Getting Set UpI am now setup to use KBlogger, a Nice KDE dock Applet. if you're using Linux and KDE, try it at:<br /><a href="http://kblogger.pwsp.net/">http</a><a href="http://kblogger.pwsp.net/">://</a><a href="http://kblogger.pwsp.net/">kblogger</a><a href="http://kblogger.pwsp.net/">.</a><a href="http://kblogger.pwsp.net/">pwsp</a><a href="http://kblogger.pwsp.net/">.net/</a><br /><br />With the ease of access that this software provides, I hope to make more blog posts. I have added a sidebar with some debts and savings goals. I hope to add assets and liabilities eventually. I think my first "Real" post will be a collection of Blogs that I currently track. We'll see.FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037822659186689249.post-55803070263360494862007-10-27T11:31:00.000-05:002007-10-27T11:41:21.298-05:00First PostWell, this is my first post. I'm not sure what this blog is going to turn into. Due to friends who don't think similarly and family who think too similarly, I plan on using this blog as a sounding board for myself while thinking through my financial decisions. If the blog becomes useful to someone else, all the better.FrigidFinancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11907975465260427451noreply@blogger.com0