Today was the day my 6 month CD matured, so as a noon-time errand, I stopped over to my brick and mortar bank to release it into my checking account. A teller did the deed, but then came the questions:

"Can I interest you in taking out another CD?"
-a quick check at the current 6 mo CD rate was 3.4%; 12 mo was at 4.6% with a bump rate. Umm, no.

"Don't quote me on it but there might be a change in a few days at the first of the month."
I told her that if its advertised on the website, I'll see it.

"May I see a second form of ID? You are transferring a lot."
I showed her my butt-ugly drivers license.

"Perhaps I can interest you in a credit card?"
I slowed her down by asking for a brochure.

She tried - I have to hand it to her. The bank got the use of 30K for 6 months...who wouldn't want another hit on that pipe? But right now, 6K to the bed & the personal trainer, the 665$ in interest to ING and probably to the chiropractor, and the 24K to Vanguard.

Anyway, I came home and told DH that he was now sleeping with a woman with over 32K in her checking account.

Another crazy thing I did was go to work, shoveling emails, and the craziest was that I actually worked out. The trainer took pity on me; we went slow and just did the machines.

Only because the cold deepened and I spent another day at home mostly asleep. The new bed is baptized in cooties now. When the cooties get big enough to adjust my sleep number I'll be seriously upset.

T-bill matured - sent $7.07 in my ING account. T-bill auctions are held every Tuesday, and the bills themselves are bought and sold on Thursday. Actually, the bucks aren't coming from the matured T-bill; they come from the fact that I'm buying $2000 for (this week) $1992.93 - they're the leftovers from buying the next 4 week T-bill.

Moved 300$ to my ING account.
Bought a 100$ I-bond. I can hardly wait until November 1...I'm pretty sick of 2.41%, and it looks like the next 6 months will have a much better rate.
Banked 47$ from the tip box.

Lunch with the usual foursome - me, lawyer friend, his partner, and perhaps soon-to-be screenwriter friend. Lawyer friend figures that sister is going to ask me to help hold the farmmette (house, barn, sheds, 7 acres). And really, he said, its all right. Its an asset that we got as a freebie. We can hold to sell during better times. (I'm still not thrilled.)

Talked with the DJ Myng, my DJ friend/co worker. Not only did he totally love what I had written for his soon to be internet radio station, he used bits and pieces of my stuff for his myspace site. He's in my Sites I Frequent list, so if you want to take a look, feel free. Just remember that my original had paragraphs. I asked him and he is going to throw me some more business.

5$ in the tip box.
T-bill interest that made it to my ING account this week - 7.22$

A quickie favor to write up my DJ friend's bio for his website. I figure to take a whack at it and see what I come up with.

Spent 7.75 on lunch, which kept it from being no-spend day. My boss treated me to a coffee close to my caffeine sensitive cutoff time of 10am. Usually if I have coffee after 10am, its worthless and I have trouble getting to sleep. Today I had a second cup at 10:15am. It wasn't worthless - I was buzzed for the day and went at gym with a passion. LOL, bedtime'll be a good little experiment.

About a week ago I got a letter from my brick and mortar bank - my 30K CD is maturing at the end of September. Since I've decided what to do with it doesn't involve re-upping for another 6 month stint, I went to tell 'em to put the 30K in my checking account.

I was too early. The grace period is 10 days and its 10 days from the day it matures, not 10 days before it matures. I get to come back nine days later. Oh well, at least I made the mistake in a way that's correctable.

Bought my cheap coffee ($1.37), but also bought a pint of non-fat milk to put in the refeer. A little more expensive than the free cream ($.65), but I'll shave a few calories off.

no tip box doings today

Nice quiet day at work - did the data intensive project today (the type that distractions are very unwelcome). Still have a couple more updates before I'm really ready for the months to come.

Sent off the passport and renewal application by certified mail. Since I won't need the passport for at least another year, I should get a new one back in eight weeks.

My 30K CD is maturing at the end of this month. I'll double check the APY on the next leg just in case, but really my plan is to put 6K of it on the credit card (bed and the next set of personal training appointments) to pay it off, then put the rest into a simple Vanguard index fund. Come January of 2007, the maximum goes into a Roth IRA.

Had a chiropractic appointment today - next week I'm down to one/week, which will free up another 20$/week. I asked him what he meant yesterday. He was still cagey, but promised that he would do something for me "legally". I said that I have to keep my clothes on.

No sense pushing anything. Let people give you a gift and be modest, grateful and appreciative if they do so.

Put 6$ in the tip box.

Had a chat with the chiropractor. Week after next, I'm just going once a week. One $40 check drops to $20.

Glancing at a before and after diet commercial, I realized how incredibly frugal I am. Everyone else in these commercials is wearing the great condition fat pants, sticking their thumb out from the waist to show how big the pants are. Dammit, I'm wearing my too big stuff until it falls apart (or it falls off - hah hah). No one's getting me to pose in perfectly new usuable stuff. Besides, everything's incredibly comfortable and easy to get on.

Put the $7.45 from this week's T-bill into ING.

Put $10 in the tip box, sent $40 to my MMM drip.

Yesterday I got all bummed out and wigged because I took that test that I promised to take after the Nashville trip...

I failed it. By 3 questions.

The Director of IT took it about a month and a half ago and my other two compatriots took it and passed, so we got our three people for the cheap rate, and yep the questions were crapily worded (blame the tools, not the craftsman)...but still. Sigh...

I'm not the gal I used to be in that regard. In my first year of grad school, I took a immunology midterm when I hadn't even bought the book and had to borrow a pencil from a nervous pre-med (frugally excellent psych-out technique, FYI) and scored second in the class. "Imagine how I'd do if I bought the book," was all I said.

Good times, good times.

Bought my third 4-week T-bill. So my plan is to have 4 $2000 4-week T-bills, staggered so each is bought a different week, and bought from the account that the T-bill matured in. The interest earned from the bills gets scraped back into ING. This $8000 and the $6000+ in my ING account comprise my liquid emergency fund. Everything else is medium and long term-investment.

Got paid today at the raise rate - it was a 30$ increase, so increasing the pay-yourself rate to 75$ from 50$ at the top of the month means I've saved my raise.

Gym was upper body. For the last several days, I've been stopping on 15th NW, a 7 block further walk.

Eventually she'll get into the 21st century. She's buying a Dell laptop (hold the flaming battery) with WiFi and that will be delivered next week. Her 6 month CD is maturing, as is mine, so she's been asking me for advice for what else to do with the bucks. At least its advice on how to save money, not on how to spend it.

Off and on, as long as I've had my ING account, I've sent her several ING invites to try to get her to try out Internet banking, to get that immediate 9% return. Now that I'm down to my last invite, and I know of a couple of people who will bite, I'm thinking that its now or never. Of course I've said that several times. I just know that if she sees the advantages of one, she'd get mad at me if I could have offered it to her but didn't.

My latest argument is that since she's going on vacation in mid-October, if she needs emergency money, she can tap an Internet bank anywhere she can find a secure connection.

My other argument is that my little fiscal empire is dependent on me being able to move money easily to other places. Its a lot easier to buy a T-bill or move dollars to Vanguard electronically. But electronically moving dollars requires a bit of faith the first few times one does it. I know that a couple of other bloggers much prefer the paper/in the hand method. A week of cleaning and trying to find assets in a two story undefended, barely padlocked farm house taught me the problems with that. All it would have taken for some of the assets to disappear was gasoline and a match. (Plenty of items outside the house walked away.) Even now there's the story of the homeless guy who found savings bonds in a jacket bought at the thrift store. I'm half expecting that some of our assets could have been found that way.

No really good buys at Larry's when I went for what I figured to be the last time, but I did get a couple of good deals on pork, chicken drumsticks (DH can perfect his fried chicken recipe), and ramen. Sometimes I have a hankering for ramen! It's sad seeing empty spaces and knowing that the stock is going. Shopping at Larry's in North Seattle was a real Saturday routine and I got to know all the cashiers and grocers. Next week we'll be at a loss.

do I seem to wear out my jeans at the crotch? Even when they are officially 1 size too big? Don't answer that, and I am fully ready to delete the obscene comments (after I wipe my eyes from laughing)...

Got the recycling bin cleared up. All the paper/cardboard I chucked from the linen closet and the home office is gone, gone, gone.

On my last real vacation day (DH tells me I should count the weekend, too, but I'm not), I got my haircut and walked 1/2 of Green Lake, listening to Vanguard podcasts.

The second T-bill matured yesterday, and after Treasury Direct automatically rebought for the next 4 weeks - I scraped the leftover back into ING. Another $7.89.

Slept much, much better on the couch last night, it was quite a bit softer than the air mattress. It took awhile to get into a good position with my neck and upper back straight and not over the side of the couch. I might be able to keep my humanity and sanity by the time the new bed gets delivered and assembled. I guess its a bit more than plunking down a box spring and a mattress over a bed frame. Still..two weeks?

Anyway, did the deep decluttering of the linen closet. The floor became a miscellaneous storage area along with shelves stuffed with bed linens, beth towels, hand towels, dish towels, napkins, tablecloths, pillows. I tossed three boxes worth of stuff - two boxes of magazines (anyone for Consumer Reports 1996?) and fifteen year old scientific journals. It felt a bit sad, but I hadn't looked at them since we moved here six years ago. And there is always the Internet and the library. I bound up a very large plastic bag of clean linens for donation and put it in the car trunk. Out of sight, out of mind...only the memories remain.

I mentioned it to DH in passing. I didn't want to be a complete sneak about this, but I have to use some special strategies with him. Yesterday I mentioned that I put a large catalog out for recycling and that I did the same with his Chilton manual on his old car (the one that was wrecked, now is gone)...he still wanted it! He has this fantasy of putting the manual on the hood of the first 1988 Corolla AllTrak he saw. That book cost $60!, he said. DH never went to college...you get a little blase about book prices when you do!

I'm rolling my eyes here.

My special strategy is to put the manual in the car, because he must be out and about and driving when he blesses some hood with the manual. He can look at the book in the back seat for a week or so. Then I move the manual to the floor of the car, kind of out of sight, then the trunk, and then...poof. If he asks... I dunno, where did you put it?

Transfered $200 into ING today. Its not all my bonus, but a good chunk of it. I figure my raise works out to about $40/paycheck, so I've hiked my pay-yourself-first rate by $25 at the beginning of the month, and $50 at the fifteenth.

Ate breakfast and coffee out today, and celebrated the linen closet by a gigantic fruit and green tea slurpee concoction. Yum.

Lesson paraphrased from lrjohnsons blog -

--Aren't we nickel and diming our savings when we fail to do financial planning on what we save? Saving is one thing; making money and saving money as we make money is another, more important piece.

Its a bit like this: when we first learn to save, we're trying to pay off debt to keep from drowning; a good saver can tread water for a very, very long time, but not get anywhere; but plan your finances along with saving and you swim somewhere - the stronger the planning, the stronger and faster you'll get away from the sharks and onto that tropical island.

This is my financial plan, and I'm the first one to tell that I have plenty of holes and gaps to fill.

My finances are like a three layer cake. Layer one is lemon - the 6 month emergency fund (for when life gives you lemons). How much is easy: I count paychecks. I don't bother with expenses - if you live at or below your means, your means become a unit of measure. I get paid twice a month, $1100/paycheck, net. My final emergency fund should be $2,200 x 6 or $13,200.

The lemon layer should be lemon creme - gooey and nearly liquid, but it still should earn as much as possible. I have most of my money in ING. I like the interface and that I can move money within a day, but I've become increasingly dissatisfied with the interest rate. So I've put a little bit of it (1 months' paycheck) in a 5% 6-month CD. I'm still not thrilled with the interest rate and that its locked up for 6 months. (Interest rates have been rising, so when its locked up you get left behind) I've been buying 4-week T-bills at a bit above 5%. I have two months worth of paychecks in T-bills spaced two weeks apart, and I've made the transactions repeat. The mature T-bill gets deposited in the same spot that the next T-bill gets bought from.

Layer two is the carrot cake. Intermediate layer (5-10yrs); healthy and diversified, and as tax deferred as possible. But percents and tax deferral matter here. I figure my I-bonds are here (5 yrs), and so is my little DRP portfolio (10 yrs or so). I like my DRPs here, because I can put money into stocks, the dividends are reinvested with nearly no fees. My KO drp charges a $1 to do online purchases (2% fees for a $50 purchase - which is barely acceptable). I pay taxes on the dividends, and I plan to buy and hold, so sell only after I get the long term capital gain (these days, only 366 days), or if the stock absolutely sucks. The inheritance CD is here too, and while I plan to slot it in as intermediate money, I haven't yet finalized my plans.

I don't really have a target dollar amount here, so I don't know when to stop with the intermediate cash. I know that my lemon layer protects me against the bitter carrot bits, sour pineapple, and dry coconut

Layer three is pure chocolate. Long term layer (+20yrs); inflation, fees, and taxes are your primary concern here. I have a current 403B, an old 403B and a traditional IRA. I plan on starting a Roth in 2007; I'm also thinking about converting the traditional IRA to a Roth. I get a match, so it is like adding chocolate chips to the cake. Stocks (equities) comprise 90% of what's in these accounts, bonds 10% - I have a lot of T-bills, I-bonds, and CDs in the other layers. My concern here is that my 403B charges excessive fees, as compared to Vanguard.

Two disparate analogies - cake and swimming - just make sure you wait an hour before doing them both.

Lawyer friend's partner is alright, but I found out that I knew another friend, initials CG, who worked there and had gotten shot in the knees. Time to circle the wagons, figure out what is needed for her and how to help.

Now for the more mundane:
- I put 7$ in the tip box.
- I managed to "play my cards right" and get a week's worth of breakfast coffee for $1 (usually runs $8.75).
- Payment made it to the transfer agent in time to buy comparatively cheap 3M stock next week.
- Signed up for another fitness challenge, along with the two friends from work. The personal trainer rates are cheaper during this time, and she was in a contest to sign up the most people. Since I put her over the top, she's giving me a free session. Might just as well make gym pay me if at all possible.

3M is one of my DRPs. Last night I decided to send that DRP $2000 of inheritance money. Between the mailing, the cashing of the check and the actual buying of the stock, it takes awhile between the decision and the implementation - about 2 weeks. This afternoon I was pleased, in a speculative sort of way, that 3M is at a three year low. My fingers are crossed that it drops a little bit more while my check is in the mail.

I'm also buying another 4 wk T-bill at $2000. This one looks like it is going to be at 5.007%. My 6 mo ING CD is getting shabby, and my brick-and-mortar bank CD is starting to look very, very shabby at 4.35%, but I only have 3 more months to go on that one.

Tomorrow I also buy $100 I-bond.

I guess that instead of shopping for stuff like a lot of Americans, I'm shopping for money. I'd love to buy a dollar's worth for 70 cents; lately it seems like I'm buying a dollar's worth for 90-95 cents.

We are having a heat alert in Seattle tomorrow, so I expect to have another not-so-good night of sleep. Last night our 19 yr old cat kept hurking up, so his food is being cut back a bit.

Today I spent stupid money. I left my bus pass in my yesterday's pants pocket, I had to beg to get on in the morning and pay $1.50 on the return trip home. Lunch out with lawyer friend, but at places charging only 6$. Compared to 10-11$ a month or two ago, we are making progress.

Last night I was going to change a bit of information on my Treasury Direct account. I was so clever a year ago answering the security questions. Too clever: I locked my account. I highly recommend their customer service - no hold, no hold music, just a nice guy who answered the phone on the second ring, asked me some security questions and unlocked my account in all of five minutes.

I've still been doing gym. I haven't been measured lately, so I think I will ask next week. My large gym shirt is comfortable (It'll be years before I become a medium), the upper ab bulge is disappearing and the shirt is not creeping up. Yippee! My trainer is now working with my two co workers, who are now gym buddies and come in nearly every day. I'm excited for them, too.

Spending log - $1.65 coffee + $6 lunch + $1.50 bus ride.
Saving log - $1 tip box, scheduled a $2000 transfer from ING to another 4 wk T-bill, moved $1000 into another DRP.

Again - spent the $1.75 for the coffee and $3 for the tip jar and ate the sandwich from the work refrigerator; but best of all, for an after-lunch walk I went to Elliott Bay Book, perused the used section and found The Millionaire Next Door for $7. In the wedding gift pile it went. Of course, I had to check for condition, see that there was no notes in the margins, or at least see if the notes weren't of the "this sucks!" level. So I reread my favorite parts.

Of course, I'm still not a PAW (prodigious accumulator of wealth). Even with the saving and the current advances on the inheritance, I'm still about $50K from being an AAW (average accumulator of wealth). But I know I'm not a UAW (under accumulator of wealth). And I'll get to the million dollar stage eventually.

I bought my first T-bill today. A 4-week bond is 4.89%

Tomorrow will be the curry lunch and its payday.

Stepping into my routine nicely - found a good deal on pork ribs ($1.37/lb). A jar of sauerkraut that I had already, and my crockpot equals dinner. It is a little heavy for today - 80, but the temperature is going to drop tomorrow. All I did this afternoon was revert back to my childhood and watch the DVD of the original The Wild Wild West, disc 1, season 1. Thanks Netflix.

Yesterday, we discovered a bit of geographic coincidence in Seattle. There are produce stands on the corners of 65th and 15th NE and 65th and 15th NW. Mirror images of each other, and each has been in there place for years. Mentioned it to the owner of the NW stand and he told us that both addresses are 6501 15th (NE/NW). I feel a Rod Serling moment coming on.

But the something new I'm trying is to buy $2000 of 4 week Treasury bills using my ING account. I won't know what the interest rate until Tuesday, but last week's was at 4.75%. After the T-bill matures (4 weeks), I going to rollover that 2K for another 4 weeks, and so on, and so on. Heh, heh. I must be inspired by the ghosts of Jim West and Artemis Gordon*.

(*Secret Service is part of Treasury Dept.)

Don't laugh, I made a batch from a recipe that I got from the New York Times food section. I finished my first batch during dinner tonight - I'm taking another batch to the potluck tomorrow...And pearl barley is .49/lb right now.

Scottish tabouli (heh, heh, heh)

1 cup pearl barley
2 cup whole kernel corn (I used frozen - we're not in corn season yet)
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
4 radichio "rocket" leaves (recipe called for arugula, so I winged it) - shredded and chopped
2 tsp dried parsley

olive oil
lemon juice
salt
pepper

Soak barley for a couple of hours, or overnight. Boil until tender. Drain & cool - this is cold or a room temp salad.
Cook corn according to package directions. Also drain & cool the corn.
Chop your tomato, shred your rocket.

Make a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper - think tabouli, and also take into account that the barley really sucks up the dressing.

Fluff up the barley, add the cold corn, dress with dressing. Add the parsely, toss, add the tomato, toss, add the rocket, toss. Taste, and correct for seasoning (barley seems to take a lot of salt). Serve at room temperature.

After reading a bit more on the thread "Why ING?" I decided to start a 6 mo CD "escalator" in my ING account. Right now the interest is 5.00%. I expect that the interest rate will go up a bit in the next few months, so I plan to buy 6 6-month CD for 2K around the first of the month. 6 months later, when the first CD matures, I see what's what. All the interest goes into my emergency fund.

It's a little bit different than the ladder, when you construct it so that your CDs mature at once.

That was this weekend, and that's today. No economic news.

4$ in the tip jar. $35 in another Drp (dividend reinvestment program). Dropping stock prices excite me when I'm adding a bit of money to my stock position via drps; its not exciting me any looking at my 403B. Both of the two advances are in a 6-month CD or in ING, just patiently generating cash.

Inflation is going up a tiny bit, so I'm still happy with putting a *little* bit in I-bonds ($100/month), but it soon will be time to call it quits. I figure about 10K for that style of fixed income.

Fun spending right now is for work, if you can believe it. I'm in the prize procurement business for a little bowling event at work. I found a person at work even luckier than I am at a yard sale - she found a beaut of a bowling shirt. Best individual score prize, if you ask me.

Not so fun spending right now is for several weddings. Tis the season. I hate the wedding-industrial-complex, so I never look at the bridal registry. My imagination on where a gift like a silver fish fork will end up (eBay, the yard sale, husband's forehead, melted down for silver) will just depress me. Unless I come up with a more brilliant idea, I go to my fallback position and give a gift certificate to Hardwick's, a consignment hardware store.

$5 in the tip box.

Decided to put in only $100/month into I-bonds this 6 month cycle. I like the idea of 1.4% fixed more than 1.0% or 1.2%, but I think I will see something higher than that in the near future. Just a feeling, 'cause I'm an INFP.

Did the footlong sandwich strategy for lunch. Bought a footlong, put every vegetable on it (I want a salad with my sandwich), had it cut in 4s. In other words, I bought 1st lunch and 2nd lunch for today and tomorrow. (I'm supposed to eat 2 small lunches slowly instead of huff down 1 large lunch). Washed it down with water.

Gotta love water. It does what you ask of it with no calories and probably at no cost to you. I think its even better than diet or unsweetened tea. You have to pay for it, and somehow a flavor conveys an expectation. I don't know how to explain it. If you get used to water, you have less of a craving for sugared soda or even diet soda than you would if you got used to diet soda. At least for me; YMMV.

Did gym yesterday. Balancing and upper body. I'm improving my balance each time. Now can balance myself on an air dome thingee and do bicep curls and shoulder presses. Exciting!

The junket to Nashville is getting more interesting. Apparently I can save my non-profit some money if I take a test and certify myself in special training. It smacks of taking a test for money, a situation that hasn't presented itself to me in twenty years.

I'm a ringer! Ha ha.

Tomorrow will be the one week anniversary of no DH car (I haven't owned one in 7 years). He's surviving, but he really enjoys driving so its hard on him. We are within walking distance of 3 grocery stores, so no biggie on the basics. The problem is the lugging of said basics, so we'll have to invest in one of those wheeled wire carts. Kitty litter bag + hill/2 hands = long, slow trip. But today was just materials for easter dinner and easter dinner leftovers : ham, potatoes, milk, cheese. Today is easter dinner; while tomorrow is easter dinner au gratin.

Paid the electric bill - 160$! Yikes. I must be more diligent in trailing DH and turning off lights after him. We heat by electric (NW, land of hydroelectric power) so we also suspect that some of our heating bill is caused by our fireplace. We closed the damper, and lit a couple of candles in the fireplace to warm it up a bit. Our thought is if we can warm up the fireplace cheaply, the fireplace won't draw warm air out of the room, so the thermostat won't kick on.

After looking at my obligations for this paycheck, I've shored up my immediate savings by 100$ this month. I will buy a 300$ I-bond at the end of this month to still get the six months' worth of 6.73%. The next set of rates for I-bonds is really up in the air; the inflation rate is low, so maybe, maybe the fixed rate would improve. We find out May 1.

Wall to wall crazy. Me: trying to get at least one of my horror projects (one involving 1.02M, the other involving 31M) done before the end of the week so I can, in good conscience, enjoy my week off. Everyone else: can you fix this 200$ discrepancy? Here's an envelope for you! This isn't working! or the ever-popular favorite...Hi! I had to chase lawyer friend out my office because everyone else put me in a foul, foul mood. Neither the DND (do not disturb) button nor a shut door deterred anyone today. I did manage to get the 1.02M project done. Tomorrow comes the 31M.

On the bus back home, it got me thinking that it would be so ... restful... to be irresponsible and dumb. To ask questions of someone else. To just be in the moment with what was set in front of me. I must really, really, really need next week.

On the financial front(s):
1. TIAA CREF money is heading toward Vanguard.
2. Voted my proxy on two stocks. KO had the more interesting things to vote for/against - disclosing charitable contributions, report of KO's involvement in India's water problem, report of KO involvement in abuses in Columbia. WEC only had the Board of Directors and which of the big-4 accountants would run the audit.
3. Got copies of the probate filings for dad's estate. Nothing for me to do, they were just an FYI.
4. Sent in 40$ for the MMM Drp.
5. 30K into a bank CD, 6 months at 4.35%. I figure it will generate about 3.57$/day

Lots happened today.

I got this in my fortune cookie at lunch. "You will hear good news today."

Thirty minutes later I talked with the executors. They described the situation with the 80 acres and it was exactly the same as I wrote a couple of entries ago. The consensus was to: get the property re-assessed (it was first assessed split between house/ five acres and the rest, then the pieces added together), then put the property on the real estate market. The property itself is 80 acres, but only 61 acres is tillable - the rest is creek and wetland. Sister wants what's left of the furnishing, for $2500; I will get $2500 more cash than sister. Nut apparently got $1500, and he went away. No hospital or the state of Wisconsin came forward asking for payment for mom's cancer treatment. So when the second piece of property is sold, and dad's last tax return has been filed, and the money has been distributed, the executors job will be done.

Since 300K is sitting in a money market fund (@4% or 12,000/year!), the executors mentioned if I wanted an advance - "$25,000 or $30,000", just let us know and we'll send you the forms. Now I'm starting to feel it. Finis.

Got the forms from TIAA CREF and I filled them out.

Spending log - 1.65 coffee + 7$ lunch (fortune cookie was priceless)
Saving log - 9$ tip box

Life's rolling on.

Attended another little lunch and learn about our 403B's. Half an hour later, I was showing a co worker how to go into her account and rebalance it/ even readjust it. She'll teach her floor. The hard part is figuring out where to go when you get into your account.

Apparently the dog mutual fund in our set is getting replaced in the beginning of March but in these last couple of months that fund has been barreling along. Rebalanced it just to take my profit before we pick the next dog.

And they introduced the social choice fund. Someone asked about their criteria. The prospectus said basically it was whatever the fund manager picked as social choice. Ha ha. Talk about circular logic.

Changed my bus and have been doing my 1 mi walk now for a week and I've been pushing myself on the elliptical machines by keeping the same level of difficulty but trying to move faster. Tried the stationary bike for the last couple of minutes - what was a challenge in December now is not. Yay! Measurements on Saturday. Boo.

Nothing, no news at all from sister. Now that I've blogged will come news. Bought the I-bond for the month, two of my Drp stocks have declared dividend increases - about .04/ quarter/ share - good news there. I took one of the Pinecone invites and I now will be in a phone survey tomorrow. The money appears to good but if its going to take zillions of hours I'll have to rethink that. I will finish the month at 50$. Thank you God that February's short.

I decided to use the other half of gramma's gift money to fully fund my 2006 IRA. A couple of weeks ago I funded my 2005 IRA. Per retire@50, none of this pansy-a**ed dollar cost averaging. I had the $4000, I put it in all at once in Vanguard and now it has all year to grow.

Had a nice lunch with a co worker. Turns out that she has inheritance money that has been sitting in her brick and mortar bank for a year. I sent her an ING account invite. I know, I know, now ING is sooo done compared to HSBC, Emigrant, and PayPal even, but still. Its a big jump from .5% to 3.8%, much bigger than 3.8% to 4.25%, and the 25$ for her is a nice little incentive. We dare not even mention the $10 for me.

Thank you retire@50!

Took a look at the official IRS publication for IRAs

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590.pdf. I made under $40,000 this year, including dividends and interest which right now isn't that much. I'm at the high end (it appears that $45,000 is the cutoff), but the traditional IRA is what I'm looking for. Since I can do it - I'm going to the limit at $4,000.

I asked Vanguard to mail me some info. I have a little time and I want to pull it from my ING account, which is going to the de facto antechamber for the family gifts and the inheritance. It'll be the first project that my inheritance money is going to. I decided that the big lump of money will go to Vanguard unless they mishandle the little IRA, so it will be a test for them too.

Speaking of ING, I figured out how to make a sub account so now I have the family gifts and the kiss my a** fund separated. Its important to me - otherwise its the family kiss my a** gift fund. That was 10 years ago. Thanks to mymoneyblog, I found out what the routing number of ING is. I'm not really interested in pulling 4000$ back into my checking account.

Geez, after only 6 weeks? I try to space out my junk food proclivities, but today it was very rainy and dark in Seattle. I woke up at 7:00 and wondered if I was in a cave and when daylight would come. Worse, I really wanted to stay in nice, warm bed. I bribed myself - a junk food lunch if I would wake up and go to work.

A co-worker wanted to thank me for a couple of emergency projects I did for him. (I work for a non-profit and during fundraising season nearly everything is an emergency project) I picked up a Starbucks gift card as a thank you from another co-worker...so I gave him my card and asked him to load it up. Haven't used the card yet, but it seems like a quickie way to collect goodwill.

Scheduled my next set of I-bond purchases in 2006. 300$/month for 6 months. Since I worked my way up saving 500$, it means that I free up 200$ to buy more DRP stock. I know that there's a calculation (from the Drip Advisor) that you can make on your portfolio to buy stock in the most strategic way. A nice little project. I have a couple of months to figure it out and either pick up an Excel spreadsheet with the calculation or make one.

Tonight the tops of all the trees at my bus stop look like they are covered with black, oblong fruit. Then one of the fruits flutters a bit and settles on another branch. Starlings settling down for the night. Brrrr.

Spending log - 1.65$ coffee + 6.28$ burger, fries, root beer.
Saving log - 3$ in the tip jar

I was sick, so I stayed home. Actually it was due to eating a large quantity of roasted, salted pumpkin seeds. I was impacted, let's leave it at that. I called it in as food poisoning, and although I wasn't exactly poisoned, it did involve food. What else was I going to say?

Most of the day I slept, except when I ate the last 4 caramels from trick or treating. (Gotta get right back on that horse ) We got 20 trick or treaters last night, last year we got zero. Very unpredictable. Its why I love caramels - they're usually the frugal choice.

Got the household inventory, the executor's summary, and a box from sister in the mail today. I asked for a several items and pictures and I suspect that that's inside the box. The letters were soaking wet in the mailbox; I'll have to email the executors and warn them to send anything that I have to sign in a water-proof envelope.

I'm a bit disappointed by the fixed rate rate on the new I-bonds, but buying a small amount each month ($300-$500) means I have the luxury of keeping them put. I don't have a large lump of money nor time to chase interest rates.

Put another 50$ into bank savings (not ING), and put another 7$ in the tip box, which eventually goes into bank savings. This is where I pull the funds to buy the savings bonds. Paid my share of the rent ($445). Saw online that I bought over 1 share of Coke stock at the end of the month and bought another third of a share by the quarterly dividend.

Yesterday was just plain weird. I forgot my PDA (Handspring Visor) so I felt naked all day. The bus was packed by mostly rude people (what kind of person can sit next to a 75 year old woman standing in the aisle?), but a few were nice enough. A car cut the bus off and parked right in front of the bus, causing it to have problems getting out of its stop. The driver was incensed enough to get out of the bus and yell at the guy for a minute or two. A few blocks later he mused (over the microphone) why are car drivers so stupid. A passenger shot back: all the bright car owners are on the bus.

I was invited to an inpromptu lunch at my favorite curry place. I barely knew the two of my lunch companions from work, but they were friendly enough. I opened my wallet and whooops -- I had to borrow some money. I was strangely unembarrassed when I asked the woman next to me for a loan.

After lunch I went to the bank, and the only place that had something cheap enough to break a twenty the right way was a Starbucks. So I bought and drank a coffee at 1 pm. Went back to work and paid off my loan. She was a little surprised to get it back so quick (45 min, no chance for interest). Right around 11 pm I knew that that 1 pm coffee was a very, very big mistake.

It set me up for a not so terrific day today. But not much happened. At least nothing weird.

No heiress letter yet, emailed sister to ask whats up.

Had the urge for another bad-for-your-health-life-affirming lunch. Hit Dome Burger for the first time in three years. All their burgers are fresh, the fries were hot, and all the condiments you could want. I had a meeting today so I didn't load up on the onions. Took me back to high school and college; Dome Burger decor reminds me of a college dorm. Prices had gone up about .50 from last I went.

Bought a $300 I-bond today. You buy those at the end of the month because the issue date is set at the first of the month. Buying at the end of the month means instead of a year's wait before you can redeem them, its 11 months.

My $40 bought a 1/2 a share of 3M, so I have 19.66 shares of 3M. Tomorrow $50 will be taken out of my savings account to buy Coke. I should have 61.50 shares of that. (FYI - Dome Burger has a Coke fountain. Ka-ching!) On the first day of October the $35 I sent to Wisconsin Energy Corp should buy another share of that. I should have over 10 shares of that. Compared to my 403Bs, these stocks are a small proportion. I just thought I'd quietly add to my positions, reinvest the dividends (all pay a reasonable dividend and cost nothing to invest in their DRPs). Investing $40, $50 at a time feels way different than plunking down a $1000 at a time - it feels nice, like I'm sending my money away to earn money for me.

Waiting for the paycheck to come on Friday.

Spending log - 1.65 coffee (paid w/change) + 6.00 lunch + 2.75 bubble tea
Saving log - 4.00 tip box + 300 savings bond