I got some scary news from my oncologist last week, so I've been busy coping with it and avoiding all the phone calls from concerned friends and family.But my visit to the oncologist today was very, very heartening. The thing they see on my liver is probably not more cancer after all. It's probably some damaged tissue from the surgery they did in November. They're going to scan again in April to make sure, but so far things are looking good.When I woke up this morning, I was positive that I was going to have a big chunk of ... (more)

I expected the new series on Queercents, called Pink and Green Parenting, to be mostly about the finances of being a gay parent. After all, Queercents is a personal finance blog for LGBTQ folks.But this new series has more to do with minimizing the environmental impact of having a baby. It's still on topic, because all the things they suggest doing to save the environment also save money.Check it out. Lost in the plastic rainforest: Greening your homeHow to REALLY reduce the expense and environmental impact of parentingSaving money and the planet (Even if you must use disposable diapers) ... (more)

On Tuesday I dropped a twenty in the library on campus and got all the way to my car before I realized it. I was tired and hungry and it was damned cold out, but twenty bucks is twenty bucks, so I retraced my steps. I got almost to the room where I had been in a meeting, and still I hadn't found it, so I asked a student I recognized, who was studying at a table nearby, if he had found a twenty dollar bill. (How many dependent clauses am I up to there?)"Maybe," he said. "What's the serial ... (more)

I haven't received a paycheck since the middle of November. My partner has been working reduced hours for the past two and a half months. We've had some help from family, and we've tapped our emergency fund, but I was starting to eye my bank balance. I had a little note in my calendar to transfer even more money out of the savings account on Monday if no money had come in, so there would be enough to pay some big bills coming due at the end of the month.Finally, finally, I got paid for one of the travel insurance ... (more)

Today, my son L had a slight fever and a head cold. He stayed home and took great care of me all day.Me: You don't have to go to school today, L. I think you need to stay home and rest.L: Yay! I love not going to school.Me: But I do have a couple things to do, so you need to run a few errands with me. We need to go to the post office, and I have to go to my doctor's office to drop something off.(Long pause)L: Is it the doctor that... (makes cutting motion with his hand ... (more)

Paul Navone, the New Jersey millworker who became a multimillionaire without ever earning more than $11/hour, says his motto has always been, "I'll work for the money, and then I want the money to work for me."Other notable things about Paul: He never married or had children, he doesn't own a phone or a TV, and he buys all his clothes at thrift stores.See Donor built millions on $11 an hour, in the Philadelphia Inquirer today. ... (more)

I'm happy to say I finally finished by 2006 state taxes this week. Of course the Federal taxes are the most complicated. I got those in on time, but I just haven't gotten around to putting in the 2 hours or so needed to do the state taxes. For the first time ever, I filed for an extension. Now I've got a $92 refund coming to me.This leaves me only a few weeks to enjoy NOT doing taxes before it will be time to start feeling guilty about postponing my 2007 taxes. Maybe I'll learn my lesson this year and ... (more)

Having looked at my year-end net worth, and having revisited my goals for 2007, it's time to set some goals for the coming year.Goal #1: Contribute $10,000 to my spouse's retirement accounts. This one is going to be hard. But he's turning 45 this year, and I'd like to see his retirement savings equal 1x his annual income by the end of the year. We're $10K away from that number. If we contribute $10K and we also see some investment gains, so much the better. 1x annual income at age 45 is still much lower than the ideal, but it's ... (more)

In my net worth reports to date, I've valued my house at $70,000. Today, I'm rethinking that number.As I tried to describe in a somewhat muddled way in this post, I am really nervous about counting my chickens before they hatch when it comes to home equity. I do include my home in my net worth calculations, because I consider it an investment. But I keep the value very low so I won't take a big psychological hit if the prices in my area decline rapidly.But it's getting ridiculous, trying to pretend I think my house is still worth only ... (more)

It's time to see whether I met my goals for 2007.Goal #1 Move my primary checking account from a large corporate bank to a local neighborhood bank.I did manage to accomplish this in 2007, but not until December. I'm still working on moving all my direct deposits and bill pay stuff to the new account.Goal #2 Reach a total balance of $50K in my Fidelity accounts.Done!Goal #3 Rebalance my retirement accounts in early summer.Done! Okay, it was more like midsummer, but I did do it. Goal #4 Budget and track spending.I did really well with this until September. I need ... (more)

Even though we are apparently way behind in retirement savings (thanks for that cheery news, Boston Gal), I still look at our household net worth I can't believe I put the comma in the right place. I think we're doing fabulously, especially considering the stinky stock market and some equally stink recent events.Here's how our different pots of money add up:AssetsCashTaxable brokerage: $324Checking accounts: $6019 (some pending transfers will lower this number)Paypal: $94ING: $31,000TOTAL CASH: $38,436StocksTaxable brokerage: $3945Sharebuilder: $151529 accounts: $31,438TOTAL STOCKS: $35,534RetirementMy 403b accounts: $15,902Partner's accounts: $36,498My Roth: $23,397My Rollover IRA: $16,176TOTAL RETIREMENT: $91,973Real estate2004 purchase price of primary ... (more)

Our last houseguests left this morning. We've had a constant parade of them since the middle of November. It has been fun, and it was a big help when I was sick, but I'm so happy that I don't have to wash the sheets and make up the guest bed and prepare my son (remember so-and-so? she gave you that book you like. you haven't seen her in a long time).I'm still in my pajamas. In a few minutes, my partner is taking my son on an outing that should last several hours. I'm planning to take a long bath ... (more)

Have you ever been a freelancer or an independent contractor--with only one client?Before I started freelance writing, a friend told me that more than half of his freelance income came from the same client, for whom he published a magazine twice a year. These long projects, 3 months each, allowed him to make it as a freelancer. Throughout the rest of the year, he cobbled together what work he could find.I was alarmed. What if he lost that client? It didn't sound like he had enough other clients to get him through.Now I am a freelancer and I have exactly ... (more)

The new year is less than 48 hours away, so I'm using some Christmas gift money to write a few last-minute checks to my favorite non-profit organizations. I'll be happy I did when tax time rolls around.We're sticking loosely to our giving plan, with a few other groups thrown in that have inspired us lately. ... (more)

That's what it cost when I went to the emergency room, spent a total of 6 days in intensive care, had two surgeries and a couple blood transfusions. Of course, I have no idea what my insurance company actually paid, but the total amount billed was $196,366. As far as I can tell, though, this doesn't include any of the doctors' fees. This amount was just for the services rendered by the hospital. Luckily I was able to read the bill without raising my heart rate because the amount due said only $240, the co-pay my insurance company requires for ... (more)

When we set out on Xmas Eve to drive 100 miles to spend Christmas with family, we got about 2 miles from our house when our 14-year-old car started behaving strangely. The steering wheel was pulling rapidly from left to right, shaking violently, and generally acting like it was going to start making its own decisoins about which direction the car should go. After much fretting and tinkering, we ended up taking the car on the trip anyway without any serious mishaps, but we used our time on the road to talk about whether we should think about replacing our ... (more)

Some recent good reads from the PF blogosphere:Madame X asks, What's your walk score?, and sends us to this sitewhere you can find out how walkable your neighborhood is. My house scored a 62 out of a possible 100, but I found there were a lot of restaurants and shops missing from the list. There is an up-and-coming retail strip half a mile from my house, and many of its stores were left out of the list. MSN Money and NY Times columnist M.P. Dunleavey defends her recent decision to buy a more expensive home. Readers and PF bloggers have ... (more)

This is the most dangerous time of the holiday season for me.I finished my Xmas shopping a couple of weeks ago. I don't enjoy shopping, and I despise rushed, last-minute, high-pressure shopping. So I start shopping around Halloween and by early December, I'm pretty much done.Then I think of MORE gifts, and MORE and MORE. I usually manage to control myself, but at the very last minute, I kind of lose my self control and start shopping again.For the last week, every time I leave the house, I find myself coming home with more things. At the moment my weakness ... (more)

Normally, I work on my laptop at our dining room table. But there are some types of work that it's hard to do with kids and chatty relatives in the room.I've got a deadline this week that's totally manageable, but I need the time and the space to get the work done. Yesterday I spent most of the day shut up in my bedroom, partly procrastinating and partly working, sitting cross-legged on my bed. My partner's mother came this week to help us, so she and the kid were downstairs the whole day, playing together while I hid upstairs and ... (more)

...for tension and bickering among families.Between now and January 3rd, I have 3 rounds of houseguests coming. They don't overlap but they're separated by only one night each. Luckily, they're all the helpful and cheerful sort of houseguests. There's another relative coming to town, who is not that sort of houseguest, but she's staying in a hotel. The logistics are terrifying. Nobody calls each other to make plans. They all call me, and ask me to interpret the others' actions."Do you think she's getting me a gift? Do I have to get one for her?""Where is she staying?""When is she ... (more)

After 7 years, I have finally gotten around to kicking my big corporate bank to the curb. My partner and I opened a checking account at a local neighborhood bank this week. There are some disadvantages. The bank opened very recently. There are only 2500 customers, and so far there is only one branch and one ATM. Still, they're growing fast, and they are opening a second branch next year. But I think I'll enjoy the small-town feeling. While we were opening our account, the manager walked by and recognized me, because I was in there six months ago grilling ... (more)

Within the space of an hour today, I accomplished the following graceful maneuvers.1. I tried to reply to an individual email, and accidentally replied to a listserv with 1300 subscribers. This same listserv recently had a spate of people emailing the whole list saying "please unsubscribe me", and I wrote a very helpful post explaining listserv commands, how to unsubscribe, how to reply to the whole list and how to reply to an individual. And now I've proved myself to be as idiotic as the other list members.2. While refilling the small bottle of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap that I ... (more)

We recently celebrated our son's fourth birthday, and he was very happy with his party and his presents. This year I did it all for under $100, and I thought I'd share how I pulled it off.Have the party at home. I've heard the rule of thumb that you should invite a small number of kids--your child's age plus one is supposed to be an ideal number. But between my son's school friends, neighborhood friends, and non-school friends, we were quickly up to a dozen kids, especially since my son is still young enough that parents often stay for the ... (more)

A friend of mine has left the country for a month, and has left me her car and her house. I intend to use the house when I need a place to hide out. Also, she has a lot of puzzles. I love puzzles, but I am not so stupid as to do a puzzle at home where Someone Small would take great delight in "helping" me. And when I got frustrated and asked him not to "help" me any more, he would do something with the pieces like steal them by the handful to use as gravel for his ... (more)

What's your most important financial tool to help you get through a medical crisis? One word. Insurance.I'm going to look at the different types of insurance, including the types that I have and the types I wish I had.Health insurance. This one is a no brainer. If you don't have it, you need to get it immediately. If you've got a medical condition like I do, or a medical history that makes you look like a bad investment, the easiest way to get insured is to get a job that offers health coverage. You can also move to a state ... (more)