$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.

I monitor my stocks and mutual funds daily (yes, I know, too much but I like to know where I stand). I made about $1400 in paper profits in two days. Too much of a good thing too quickly, and for no economic reason.

I'm nervous. Anybody else?

3M's annual report and proxy vote came today. All my companies had a shareholder initative about CEO compensation. I voted for all of them.

Except for a morning coffee ($1.65), a nearly no spend day.

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

Well, my mailbox is full of fat envelopes. Must be the season of poring over annual reports and doing my shareholder duty by voting by proxy. To tell you the truth, I find poring over this stuff a lot of fun.

Coca-Cola's (KO) packet arrived yesterday, Wisconsin Energy (WEC) arrived tonight. In each of these packets, there is: one super glossy annual report, one 10K report, one invitation to foreign lands to personally vote (Delaware, anyone?), one ballot, one envelope.

The annual reports I find are the most fun. Reading them is a skill - no company ever intentionally put bad news in an annual report (they want you to keep investing after all), but you can find it if you have an eye for nuance and can combine graphs together that the company didn't really want you to. For example, KO's sales are still flat in most of the developed world - Latin America is what's growing.

Time to sharpen my kn--, I mean pencil, and see what new fun thing I get to vote for or against. I'm one of those shareholders who will read about what I'm voting on and also read for nuance. There's been some damn weird stuff that's been written up for a vote.

More tomorrow.

Lots of people out "sick" today.

Had a St. Patrick's Day lunch with a co worker/friend that I rarely see. We both had a hankering for corned beef and cabbage, and we both wanted to watch the drunks. We left for lunch at 11:15 am. First place we went to had no seating, and a table had been reserved for CBS radio. In order words, the green hair/green T-Shirt/drink green beer for breakfast people were already here.

The second place we had heard had a cover charge, so we went to take a peek. Open, but no one was out collecting money, so we walked in, asked a waitress if we could grab a table, and took our seats. There was a third person, another co worker, but she said she would be late. We waited.

Three minutes later the bouncer was at the door, collecting the 10$. Our third person came. She didn't have 10$, we didn't have 10$, the bouncer wouldn't let her in without 10$. Whoops. But we warned her...

Sometimes being frugal means you have to be lucky and be ON TIME.

We ordered hard cider at 6$ (we both could hole up and do something mindless while we were at the tipsy stage), corned beef and cabbage. The food was alright, nothing special, not really worth the 9.50$. But the company was good, and the thrill of drinking a cider at lunch was delicious in its own way.

Tonight, DH made more corned beef and cabbage in the crock pot. It was delicious, far better than the one at lunch. The whole pot probably cost less than 1/2 of my lunch.

Got the optional cash slip for my fourth DRP. Its a slip with the dividends; eventually the company tells you when you get dividends, so eventually you get the slip. Wrote a check for 500$ to kick start the account, and signed up for their online account so I can monitor it.

Vacation between the 3rd and the 9th of April. DH bought an exercise ball. We now have an agreement, I can use his ball and he can use my yoga mat and red band. The chiropractor tells me that my back is getting better - its holding the adjustments for several days - and he figures that I've put on about an inch because my posture has improved.

Put another 8$ into the tip box.

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

Mailed off Vanguard's rollover paperwork (form, 4Q statement, screenshot from a couple days ago) to Vanguard this afternoon, and sent it certified mail. That way I get a receipt and a confirmation number. Still no TIAA CREF paperwork; it might take a more few days for that. In the Vanguard packet I wrote a little note regarding my phone call to them and the situation.

I see the chiropractor twice a week now. I talked with the trainer. For the rest of this month I'm scheduled for twice a week, rather than three times a week. On Tuesdays I workout by myself. We'll see how that fits.

Work has been crazy; the phone was driving me nuts. As a result of hitting the Do Not Disturb button on the phone, I missed a call from the executor. On the voicemail he claimed that he will be briefing me on what has been happening, dad's estate wise. I wonder what he's really calling about. Time to get the scoop from sister this weekend.

Spending log - 1.65$ coffee + 9$ lunch
Saving log - 40$ Drp + 3$ tipbox

Not me, apparently! DH told me about a mutual fund analyzer at the nasd.com site:

http://tinyurl.com/8sr3n

Even with TIAA CREFs relatively low fees (2-3X the lowest Vanguard fee) and the small amount of money I'm going to move, its still worth it. I don't even dare to put in the fees of the mutual funds in my current 403B from Merrill Lynch. That would really, really disgust me for no good purpose.

I sprained the back of my knee a little on the roman chair, so the trainer had me doing that rise up movement on the air dome, then turn over on my back for the ab crunches. After a little rest, my knee is pretty good, so its back to the new bus route and the mile walk home. Working on the posture now.

The chiropractor is having me come only 2X/week, so that will help my budget tremendously. I talked things over with the trainer and she's willing to work with me. But I know that to keep making progress, I'm going to have to go to the gym at least 3X/ week - perhaps use the routines that the trainer wrote down 1-2X/week and have her come up with something fresh once/ week.

Got a BOGO coupon from a guy handing them out in front of the sub shop. Lunch today and tomorrow!

Spending log - 1.75 coffee + 7.50 lunch
Saving log - 3$ tip box

So I called TIAA CREF today, fairly late, so I only got about 10 minutes of peppy hold music, which kept me in an okay mood.

The customer service rep was very nice and informative. Apparently none of my TIAA holdings (International, Social Choice, Real Estate) are part of the rate hike. It involved large institutional holdings, and it financed "customer education". Commercials, probably. (Of course if TIAA could do an end a round rate hike to large holdings what's to say they wouldn't do it to tiny holdings like me?)

Thank you very much for the information, I said to him, and I'll put some more thought into keeping them put, but I'm still interested in rolling them into Vanguard to consolidate my holdings.

I'll send you the paperwork, he said. You can look at it, if you don't fill it out your money will stay put. A few more clicky keystrokes and some more news: I can move my accounts (depending on the type of account and the contract, sometimes you can't until you retire, the customer service rep informed me, and that's never a pleasant surprise), and I will not need a signature guarantee. Straight paperwork.

The plan for me is: a couple more bits of research, decide, if yes - sign and mail the Vanguard forms, sign and mail the TIAA CREF forms, and they talk amongst themselves for about 3-4 weeks.

Saving log - 100$ to ING
Spending log - 60$ to chiropractor

Got word from sister, who had gotten word from the cousin who does grandma's finances. No more divesting of assets in March or ever; by law grandma has to have 5 years worth now. 20% of my greedy grubby self is bummed (naughty!); the other 80% is breathing a sigh of relief. I've been trying to figure out what to do with what's left of her money now since November. Won't have to worry about that.

Took the fateful step of rolling over my TIAA CREF money into Vanguard. Its never, ever as easy as the ads make it out to be. You usually have to alert both sides of the transaction what you want to do - Vanguard to set up the IRA that it'll roll into and TIAA Cref to alert them that I want to withdraw it. Worse, it could be that I'll have to call U of Arizona (my original employer). I just know that there's going to be an icky step where I'm going to have get a signature guarantee from my bank. But if a meth-addled identity thief can do it, so can I.

Anyway, I printed out all the Vanguard forms and my TIAA CREF current position, and my TIAA CREF Q4 statement, too. Then I'll call TIAA CREF Monday and set the wheels in motion.

Lunch today was weird. I just wanted to go to a quick quiet place. Unfortunately since this is the first nice, blue-sky, warm Friday of the year, it seemed like everyone and their unemployed uncle was out and about. Every place I wanted to go to and eat had a line and today I was not thrilled about a line. Found a quick sandwich and salad (6$) and saved myself some bucks. It was just plan c.

In gym I learned about the roman chair and doing upside down situps. Lunges yesterday. Geez its hard work to get thin!

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.

Well, someone had to win and someone had to lose the Super Bowl. For us, we had some friends over that we rarely see, yakked away, watched some ads (nothing too memorable except that FedEx ad), ate pizza without guilt, got the house all clean, and we feel pretty sure that our friends won't have to drive through a riot. In other words, we got a lot out of today, even though the Seahawks lost. Lost 5$ in the football pool.

Yesterday, I found quite a deal at BestBuy. 1G USB drives were 69$, with a 20$ rebate. Even if the rebate bombs out, the price was still 20$ under what I priced them last year. I bought, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I can password protect files, so I'm going to use it to put electronic copies of my financial data on it. I put the pdf of my 2005 taxes on it already, and some of the ING Direct 1099 files. So begins one of my goals for 2006.

I was also pleasantly surprised that BestBuy has an online rebate application. Filled it out as soon as I got home.

I'm keeping an eye on my TIAA-CREF 403B mutual funds on Morningstar. TIAA-CREF's board voted to change the fee structure (despite the shareholders voting it down) on the three funds that I have, starting Feb 1, 2006. For stuff like that, the fees never go down , so I'm watching my funds from Morningstar to see what the fees will turn out to be. If Vanguard has similar funds with lower fees, its rollover time. Disappointing, because I've had the TIAA CREF funds for over ten years, but it has to be done. Don't mistake my good humor for positive sentiment - positive sentiment and positive finances don't mix. Control what you can, let go what you can't. Everyone else does when they are handling your money.

Speaking of that, the auditor signed up for ING on my invite. She must have done it as soon as she got home Friday. Another ten for me.

Day off.

Slept in, ate some breakfast, had a little coffee in a small cafe that I've wanted to try, bought a lunch and a water, and then suddenly it was time for an hour of gym. Yesterday I discovered that I fit into a large shirt, rather than an extra large. Exciting! I rewarded myself with some french toast (powdered sugar instead of syrup) and I went to the gym to work off some of it. I managed to stay on the elliptical machine two minutes longer each time, and that my heart rate went down or stayed steady as long as I took deep breaths. Gym today, gym yesterday. Suddenly, I'm a jock. Yikes! After gym I ate my lunch. Best tasting sandwich I ever had.

So to keep this a financial diary - got another tax form from my KO DRP, my 2006 IRA came through into my Vanguard account, I sent 40$ to my 3M DRP.

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.

I love my KO drp, I love my KO drp, I Love my KO drp.

I just don't love the automatic transfer from checking at the end of the month. Usually transfer agent pulls from my checking account on the last business day, sometimes even as late as on the first of the month. This month, due to the holiday, they pulled a couple days before, on the 27th. Due to Christmas, my December finances dipped a bit low, which meant an overdraft of a grand total of 17$. Yikes! Got burned by the frugal burn.

As soon as I saw it, I moved 20$ from savings to checking. Not fast enough, apparently. I got dinged today to the tune of 27$, which showed before my paycheck did, dinging me again.

I just finished an email missive. Not quite innocent because the transactions are all there, just wrote straight out begging for them to waive the fee. "My intent was good, my timing was lousy," I wrote. We'll see whether they'll wave it. DH tells me that for a first-time louse like me they usually waive it.

Learning to try and juggle frugality with good health. I think I can do both if I make sure to remember that my diet is not two lunches, but one good lunch, split in half and eaten four hours apart.

I opened up a 2005 traditional IRA with Vanguard this afternoon, using money from the ING account. It was pretty straightforward to do from the website

www.vanguard.com. The site itself is pretty clean with a lot of good information.

Did a little grocery shopping and bought a $15.00 bag of groceries for a food drive the grocery was running for Northwest Harvest. Except for tomato ketchup and spaghetti sauce, not a trace of vegetable in it. Not a great respite from junk food.

Cheapest gas in Seattle was down to $2.09. For us out here in the far left corner: wow. With the sun shining and blue sky deep, DH and I took a little Saturday drive through the arboretium. We ended up near the University, so I showed DH my bubble tea place.

Saving log - $4000 to the IRA for the tax break
Spending log - $1.80 coffee + 35$ grocery (15$ to Northwest Harvest) + 3$ bubble tea

Just like many other journals: after this week, I'd like to hole up this weekend.

Seattle is bright and sunny lately, but it gets bright late and dark early. The Hitchcock birds are gone - to where? - from the bare trees at my bus stop.

Neither DH nor I have great ideas on when to use the hotel room I've won. No Saturdays, No Christmas, No Valentines' Day. And we don't have great ideas for Christmas presents for his family. Sister is going to get a fish. Maybe we'll just give everyone a fish and be done with it.

I worked out today. I told the trainer that I was stressed, so he gave me a lot of upper body work. The hardest part of the diet that I'm on is to wake up early and eat breakfast, although when I do I'm a lot less likely to mindlessly snack at the end of the day. It took me a little while to figure out that the diet is decreases the starch and increases the protein and fat as the day goes on. Seeing a pattern like that makes it a lot more interesting to follow.

Of course, since this is supposed to be a financial diary, I'd be remiss to not write that I got my Vanguard mailings on how to start my traditional IRA. A little fun Friday night bedtime reading. It used to be that Friday nights were for romantic thoughts, but not this weekend.

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.

Not much today, thankfully. Trips to a couple of grocery stores to pick up milk, 8-grain hot cereal, brown rice, and bubble bath. I could have gotten away with going to one grocery but the holiday food samples were fantastic at the other, so I had a frugal lunch of samples.

Found the equation that tells me how to best invest in my DRPs - put it in my spreadsheet. When I want to deploy my lump sum into my DRPs I can figure it out.

But I should explore starting an IRA, to save money on my taxes. I've either done the 403B or been too poor for an IRA other years, not to mention that I thought that if you have one you can't do the other. I have too much dividend earnings, I think, to file 1040EZ this year while next year when dad's estate lands in my lap my taxes will be even higher. No matter where I invest 250K the interest, dividends, and capital gains is going to be high. (4% of 250K = 10K, and 33% of that would be 3.3K). Balancing that out every year with a 5K IRA contribution is only prudent. Roth or classic?

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

A lot of my co workers dressed for Halloween. I went topical - a medical professional with bird flu . DH, at a different office, went as Doc Holliday. He had the cough from last week. Scratch off another lifetime goal - I got on the bus in full makeup and costume and didn't die of complete embarrassment. Less embarrassment - I lost track of my bus pass this weekend. In Seattle, if you keep a regular routine, the bus driver knows that you have a pass and waves you in. Still, you have to mumble something like, "Sorry - I forgot it in my regular pants."

I ended up with 63$ for the month, not too bad because generally Halloween throws me for a loop. Without Halloween I would have ended up with 102$. With the work potluck it was very nearly a no-spend day - the only spend was a $1.65 coffee.

Got paid today, so the check has gotten farmed out - 445$ for my share of rent, 100$ to ING, 50$ to bank savings, 40$ to 3M DRP. I'm waiting now for what the I-bond rates are going to be. US Treasury tends to be pretty timely - they announce right away.

Didn't get any insights about Mr. Nut from Bugs Bunny, but I did get some laughs. Sister thinks we are at a standoff. Each side has to prove ownership of stuff, and unlike cars, equipment doesn't come with titles. Sister got some more bad news about the house - a corner of the foundation is collapsing. I don't see how she'll make the numbers work, or even why she would want to, but I support her nonetheless.

The triggers were all pulled today:
Moved $250 to savings to buy the October I-bond.
Wrote a $35 check to DRP#3.
$3 in the tip jar.

Decided after several weeks of due diligence to start a 4th DRP (Marshall & Ilsley, a mid-sized Midwestern bank), so I ordered it from Temper Investment Services. I wrote a voided check and tried unsuccessfully to fax it from work. We have phone and fax issues - grrr. I found a Kinko across from where I eat lunch and it worked there. Now I wait for a few weeks. I bought it before the 25th, so hopefully I caught their schedule correctly. If not, my stocks are a buy and hold, so what's a few more weeks when your timeframe is years?

And lunch today was in the Uwajimaya food court. Uwajimaya is an asian grocery store on steroids, along with a bookstore, food court, and mini-shopping center. It was the 10th anniversary, so everything was 10% off.

from debtfreeme: how do you buy a stock one at a time?

I first learned about buying company stock and dividend reinvestment plans (DRPs) from my DH, who bought me my first share of Coke 7 years ago. Here's the deal. Many blue chip companies that pay a dividend offer to sell company stock to shareholders through a transfer agent who operates like a bank (most transfer agents are banks). You then send money to the transfer agent, who then buys however amount of shares with the amount of money you gave them. In addition, dividends that your stock generates can be sent to you or can be reinvested to buy more stock. Many of these plans are free, or nearly so. The ones I have officially charge a fee, but the company pays the fee for me.

To read more about them, here are some links...

http://www.fool.com/School/DRIPs.htm
http://www.directinvesting.com/Drip-Information/DripInfo5.cfm
http://dripinvesting.org/drips.htm

The biggest hurdle of DRPs is starting a DRP and getting that first share of stock. You actually have to own that share, it has to be in your name - its different than actually buying that share from a broker, who buys it for you but the broker owns the stock and tacks your name on it. A broker will transfer a share into your name for a fee. If you have a friend who owns a share of a company you want you can ask them to transfer a share to you. Sometimes you can inherit shares and convert them.

After you get the share, you have to send that share to the company's transfer agent with paperwork. That's time, hassle, and other fees.
That's why I used The Temper Enrollment Services for my other two DRPs, here: http://www.directinvesting.com/ Click on "DRIP search" in the top bar. Its a great place. You can type in a company symbol and it'll tell you a bit about the drip.

For the price of a share + 10% of the share (in case the price goes up!) + $30 to $50 on-time-only fee (depends on whether its a big popular DRP or not), Temper does the whole thing for you - buys the share, contacts the transfer agent, has the transfer agent set up the DRP. In my mind, its money well spent. It just takes awhile to set it up.

After Temper sets it up, they leave and you just send money to the transfer agent. Depending on the DRP, you can send big amounts too.

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

The second of grampa's savings bonds is in my online manifest. Four weeks. That took a little longer but I guess the US government has a lot on its mind. Still waiting for the second, heiress piece of paper. My job evaluation is on Friday. The job itself is starting to get into its busy season - I'm keeping up and I have a high capacity but the screws are starting to tighten.

The second day of all the Seattle buses being diverted from the bus tunnel and going through downtown Seattle. Third Avenue looks kinda cool. Bus, bus, bus, bus, bus...all of them zooming. Once in awhile a car goes by that will get stopped by the cops for $101. A *lot* more people on the streets waiting for their bus; each stop on each side of the street had at least 75 people waiting for something coming by. I never knew. I used the tunnel during lunch so it was always deceptively quiet to me, but it turns out that 40% of downtown Seattle commutes by bus.

Sept 26
Spending log - 1.65 coffee + 6.00 lunch + 2.50 snack

Sept 27
Spending log - 1.65 coffee + 5.00 lunch

So I looked in my online Treasury Department account where I have my online savings bonds.

I filled out the paperwork and made a manifest on Aug 25. I see it on the website, so its been converted. Yay, it worked! Not that I've been biting my knuckle, but they did it in about 2 weeks. For government work, lightening fast. . I did the manifest of the second bond Saturday, and mailed it Monday, so now I know that it works and how much time it will take.

I wanted them all online so I can keep track of them and I wouldn't lose them. Plus, clutter worth a lot of money is still clutter.

Sister has loosened up and accepted the executor's deal. She asked me for advice on what to do next, now that the house is mostly clean. This is a new world for me too so I couldn't really give her a decent answer; the only thing I can think of is that its time to make up the household inventory - how much of what is in each room. I suggested that since she has her lawyer working in tandem with the bank that she ask him what to do next from her (and my) end. And I'll ask from my end.

And I reminded her that its only been 6 weeks since dad passed. We don't get brownie points for speed. Perhaps a couple of weeks of not thinking about estate stuff might be refreshing.

Spending log - 1.65 coffee + 7.00 lunch + 1.45 sbux chocolate chip cookie
Saving log - 2.00 tip box

Spending log:
coffee - $1.65 + lunch - $4 + bubble tea - 3$

Saving log:
Tip box - 5$

I collected my squeezings from the tip box and deposited it into the bank. I do this monthly. $45 this month. Average - it ranges from $40 to $53, but I had a lot on my mind. My savings account in my bank is a bit like the lobby - a holding area for when I decide where I want to put my savings - ING, bond, or DRP. It earns a laughable amount of interest.

Mailed the bond manifest yesterday. Now I can bite my knuckle.

Spending log:
Coffee - $1.65 + Lunch - $6.50

Saving log:
Tip box - $3

We have a lunch and learn at work - and today it was about our 403(b). We are lucky in 403(b) land in that we get a 3% match if we put in 6%. The choices are "okay". If I sound a little bitter, its because I'm of two minds. We used to have the choice of Vanguard fees, where the fees were about 0.2%. Right now we have Merrill Lynch-esque ones which are ranging between 0.7% - 2.0%. Bleegh! I put in 12% - I'm debating whether to drop it back down to 6%, get the match, and start an IRA (or a Roth IRA) back with Vanguard.

And then I have TIAA CREF money, where the fees are around 0.3%. A couple of people were asking about how to transfer into our funds. Yikes! I was going to ask if I can transfer *out* of them.

The presentation was the same ol' same ol'. Put money in and let us manage it or else you're gonna live to be 100, but eating cat food for the last 20. Not that I don't agree with that possibility, but frankly, just telling us everything's gonna be alright if you save at least 10% and forget it while we (*&% with you ... nope. I wasn't born yesterday.

I got my 50$ back - both the bank and the transfer agent were wrong. 35, not 85. Then again, how hard could the research be? I have crappy handwriting - but not bad enough to convert a "TH" into an "EI" on the check.

Sister mailed me the paper savings bond with my name on it. Its a EE with 7-1991 issue date. I'm in the process of converting the paper bond into an online one because its way easier to redeem them (don't have to find the oldest bank teller and hope that you don't get a confused look). So far, its pretty straightforward.
You have to get an invite to convert your bond - I sent an email for how to ask for one, and I was sent one.
With the bond in your hot little hand, you register your bond - name, issue date, type, serial number, etc.
You make a manifest, listing out the bonds you've registered. You sign the manifest instead of the back of your bond.
You mail the bond and the manifest to the US Treasury.
You cross your fingers... And you watch from your account its progress.

Spending log:
Coffee - 1.65 + lunch - $5.00 + drugstore - $6.00

Savings log:
Tip box - $2.00

Not much on the economic front. ING hiked up its interest rate, which works out to be a 0.01 more in interest/day. I talked with a woman who took me up on the ING invite. She noticed the increase in interest and was thinking on signing up her kids for ING savings accounts. I told her she should send them invites, because then she gets $10/each. She smiled and nodded. The wheels were turning and it was good to see.

Moved $450 of this paycheck into my bank savings account (the bank I have my checking account in). In about a week, the money in this savings account will go to buy an I-bond from Treasury Direct. Most my accounts are nested, like a series of buckets with controlled, budgeted leaks leaking into other buckets with higher interest rates. As long as I fill the inner bucket with my paycheck I'm all right. Just have to figure out when enough is enough.

Heard good work gossip at lunch, so lunch was a bit expensive. But you have to pay to play sometimes.

Spending log:
coffee - 1.65 (all change) + lunch - $11

Saving log:
Tip box - $2.