Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance.

I’ve got another busy weekend ahead of me, so let’s get right to this week’s commentary…

From the Great Depression, to the stagflation ’70s, to the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, to the current housing bubble, every economic downturn over the past century can be traced to the Fed flooding the economy with easy money, leading to a misallocation of resources and an artificial ‘boom’ followed by a recession or depression when the bubble bursts.

– Ron Paul

Credits and Debits

Credit: Did you see this? Apparently, a growing number of people who are struggling to keep their head above water are now managing their budgets with an old money-management trick called “cash stuffing” where, each month, they convert their take-home income into cash and then divide the money into labeled envelopes for specific spending categories like groceries, bills, and savings. The goal is to spend no more than that cash you’ve set aside for each category. At the same time, cash stuffing also prevents credit card debt and stops impulse buying. That being said, we wonder how many “cash stuffers” decided to include an envelope for their retirement savings…

Debit: So… with a growing number of household managers trying new budgeting gimmicks to limit their financial red ink, perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that a new survey of 2000 people found that a majority of Americans say the cost of living is the worst they can remember. In fact, 5 in 9 said the cost of living is the worst they have ever experienced, while slightly more than 1 in 4 said it’s bad, but they can also remember worse times. On the other hand, just 8% described the cost of living as “not bad.” In the meantime, some of you may want to consider this…

Debit: On a related note, Congress is looking at imposing a cost of living adjustment (COLA) cap that would limit the annual US dollar (USD) increase of high-benefit recipients. The proposal that was first considered 40 years ago, but never implemented. The proposed flat-rate COLA would cut the SS shortfall in half by setting the COLA received by a beneficiary at the 20th percentile of the benefit range; it’s a move that effectively creates a COLA cap with a COLA floor at the same level. The good news is: Doing so would boost SS benefits for the lowest-quintile beneficiaries by 13%. The bad news is it also slowly reduces the purchasing power of all top-quartile beneficiaries by roughly 19% over a 30-year period. Oh, and speaking of top-quartile beneficiaries…

Credit: In other news, after decades of decline, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) reports that American manufacturing has turned toward modest growth and factories returning from overseas thanks to new investments spurred by a reduction in federal government red tape. The removal of bureaucratic road blocks has also been bolstered with corporate tax incentives that have led to new manufacturing investments that are currently underway in all 50 states. The trouble is, it takes time to build new factories – or take them out of mothballs – and get them up to speed. In many cases, the process can take several years. Just don’t tell that to the Fed bureaucrats who publish their “GDP Now” forecasts every week…

Gary Larson – The Far Side

Debit: Indeed, while the US industrial base on-shoring trend is positive, domestic manufacturing growth remains distinctly modest. In fact, NAM also notes that while American manufacturers added 3000 jobs in June, manufacturing employment has been in decline over the past few years and is slightly below pre-pandemic levels. So there’s that. As usual, it’s hard to discern from the official data what is actually happening anymore.

Scott Adams – Dilbert

Debit: On the other hand, there are far bigger problems out there than the status of the US manufacturing base. Perhaps the most concerning at the moment is the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which confirms that the US is now officially suffering from stagflation – which we haven’t seen since the 1970s – thanks to contracting employment coupled with surging inflation. (Yes, even after the BLS gamed the numbers with their fraudulent “birth-death model” numbers.) Oh… and if you look under the hood, you’ll see that full-time positions have been declining for 6 of the past 7 months. Yeah… nothing to see here, folks. Besides, the stock market continues hitting new all-time highs. Magic!

Debit: Then again, that stagflation is primarily being driven by government debt – which only continues to get worse. And while we routinely remind you of the National Debt problem we are dealing with here in the US, that fast-approaching $40 trillion financial millstone around America’s neck pales in comparison to the global debt time bomb, which is fast approaching $355 trillion. No, really. The good news is, this can be managed. (Until it can’t…)

Debit: Meanwhile, in Japan, which currently has a debt-to-GDP ratio that is nearly twice the US’s alarming ratio, more than one-quarter of its government spending is now being consumed to pay for past borrowing. And the debt service is now spiraling out of control as the Bank of Japan (BoJ) is being forced to raise interest rates – and therefore, the cost of debt service – in a desperate attempt to save its currency (the yen). This is how all sovereign debt crises eventually start. The trouble is, eventually, central banks will have to choose between crashing their economies or destroying the remaining purchasing power of their currencies – even if they refuse to admit it.

Credit: Back in the US, the Fed continues to hint that it may – may – raise interest rates in September to bolster the USD and tame rising prices here in America. But the US has its own budding debt service issues; as such, we think they’re bluffing. But even so, as the sagacious macro analyst Franklin Sanders points out, “Y’all realize that long-term it doesn’t make a hill of beans difference what the Fed does with rates because they’re inflating the USD and will keep right on destroying it. There’s no way out but an eventual bust.” Truer words have never been spoken. Unfortunately, the mainstream media doesn’t understand this. As a result, neither does the general public.

h/t: @Durango773

Credit: Of course, as macro analyst Martin Armstrong notes, when it comes to currency crises, “Japan will be the first domino to fall because it pushed modern monetary experimentation further than any other major economy. It normalized zero and negative interest rates, allowed its central bank to dominate the government bond market, and assumed domestic savings would finance public deficits forever. Europe and the US followed the same path later, believing they could avoid Japan’s fate.” The key word there is “could.” Still, most people prefer dancin’ around reality…

Debit: As for how sovereign debt crises end, well… as the BoJ is finally beginning to find out, it’s not pretty. Unfortunately, most Japanese citizens won’t figure things out until it is far too late. Suffice to say that those who fail to protect their hard-earned long-term savings accumulated over a lifetime of working will see the purchasing power of their nest eggs greatly diminished, if not completely evaporated. And history has proven since time immemorial that physical precious metal held in your possession is the most reliable way to insure wealth. Got gold?

By the Numbers

With individual health insurance premiums rising significantly in recent years, a new study analyzed average premiums in each of the 50 states, then compared it to the median household income in order to shed light on where Americans are struggling the most to stay covered. With that in mind, here are five US states where Americans are shelling out the most – and least – for health insurance.

50 Maryland (4.7% of income)

49 New Hampshire (4.8%)

48 Massachusetts (5.5%)

47 Virginia (5.8%)

46 Minnesota (5.9%)

5 Mississippi (14%)

4 Arkansas (15%)

3 Wyoming (17%)

2 Vermont (19%)

1 West Virginia (21%)

Source: WalletHub

Last Week’s Poll Results

How much cash do you have in your wallet or purse right now?

• $11 to $50     30%
• More than $100    29%
• $51 to $100     26%
• $10 or less     16%

More than 2700 Len Penzo dot Com readers responded to last week’s question and it turns out that 5 in 9 of you were carrying more than $50 in your purse or wallet at the time. Way to go, big spenders! 😉

If you have a question you’d like me to ask the readers here, send it to me at Len@LenPenzo.com and be sure to put “Question of the Week” in the subject line.

The Question of the Week

Useless News: Dead Duck

A woman brought her very limp pet duck, Cuddles, into a veterinary surgeon.

As she laid her beloved duck on the table, the vet put his stethoscope to the bird’s chest and listened carefully.

A moment later the vet shook his head and said sadly, “I’m really sorry, ma’am — but Cuddles has passed away.”

The woman became quite distressed and began to cry.

“Are you sure?” she said with tears flooding from her eyes.

“Yes ma’am,” the vet responded, “Your duck is definitely dead.”

“But how can you be so sure?” the woman protested. “I mean, you haven’t done any testing on him or anything have you? Perhaps he’s just stunned or in a coma or something.”

The vet rolled his eyes, then turned around and left the room.

A few minutes later he returned with a black Labrador retriever.

As the duck’s owner looked on in amazement, the Labrador stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed around the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.

The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room.

A few minutes later the vet returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and delicately sniffed the bird from its head to its webbed feet. After a moment the cat looked up, shook its head, and meowed softly. The vet nodded solemnly to the feline, which then jumped off the table and sauntered out of the exam room.

The vet then looked at the woman and said, “Look, ma’am; I’m really sorry, but as I said before, this is most definitely a duck that is no longer of this world. Cuddles is dead.”

The vet then turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman.

Still in shock, she looked at the bill and saw it was $150. Incredulous, she shouted, “What??? You want $150 just for telling me that my duck is dead?”

The vet shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’m really sorry, ma’am. If you had taken my word for it, the bill would’ve only been $20 — but the lab report and cat scan isn’t cheap.”

(h/t: Cowpoke)

Squirrel Cam (After Dark)

The other night we got a visit from Poppy the possum….

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Buy Me a Coffee? Thank You!

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More Useless News

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1. Subscribe to my weekly Len Penzo dot Com Newsletter!

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Letters, I Get Letters

Every week I feature the most interesting question or comment — assuming I get one, that is. And folks who are lucky enough to have the only question in the mailbag get their letter highlighted here whether it’s interesting or not! You can reach out to me at: Len@LenPenzo.com

This week Claire dropped the following question into the Len Penzo dot Com mailbox:

I have $18,000 in credit card debt and $110,000 in school loans. I’m earning $52,000 a year. Any advice on the best way to erase these loans quickly?

Yes! Ask your boss for a really REALLY big raise.

If you enjoyed this edition of Black Coffee and found it to be informative, please forward it to your friends and family. Thank you!

I’m Len Penzo and I approved this message.

Photo Credit: public domain

The post Black Coffee: That ’70s Show appeared first on Len Penzo dot Com.

And considering that 60% of small businesses go out of business within six months of a cyber attack, it’s more important than ever to crack down on your small business’s security standards. If you’re looking to beef up security, both physical and digital, here are just a few tips for optimizing your small business’s security.

Communicate Clearly

The first step to making your small business as digitally secure as possible comes with communicating rules and procedures clearly and consistently.

“Before you hire the first employee, you should establish a Code of Conduct. This document should outline what is acceptable or proper behavior within office premises and what repercussions there will be if an employee violates the terms,” says Businesssecurity.net. “Though this document does not need to detail all necessary actions, it is best to outline necessary areas such as protecting company property and keeping sensitive information safe and within company premises.”

Consistently Shred Old and Outdated Documents

Remember, sensitive information is often stored physically as well as virtually. Make it a company ritual to gather for weekly or monthly shredding sessions. Everybody can bring the documents they no longer need and protect company and customer information, which most likely includes sensitive personal and financial data.

Schedule A Security Audit

In 2010, there were 28 million small businesses in the United States, and many of their owners choose to amp up their security by having a professional conduct a security audit. These audits should reveal any vulnerable areas that could use increased security measures. Once these potential breaches are revealed, act immediately by implementing solutions to correct and strengthen any underlying infrastructure issues.

Audits aren’t there to look for faults in your employees. They are in place to evaluate the security measures that you have set up on computers and around your office area. You should emphasize this when you notify your employees of the audits. This way no one will misunderstand your purpose in conducting the audit.

Keep Software Updated

One extra measure you can take to protect digital information is to keep all software updated to the latest version. There may be bugs in your current software that could lead to a data breach, so emphasize the importance of keeping your systems’ software as current as possible. You should also make sure to use a secure connection at all times — a public WiFi network sounds nice, but it simply isn’t feasible in a world where cyber attacks run rampant. Password protect all company WiFi networks and change them frequently. Sure, it’s an extra step that may seem unnecessary, but if it protects your business, then it’s entirely worth it. If it stops a data breach, it could keep your company in business.

Ultimately, staying vigilant about your small business’s security protocol is the best way to avoid a breach.

Photo Credit: stock photo

The post How to Increase the Security of Your Business appeared first on Len Penzo dot Com.

Exterior improvements can make a property more attractive, more comfortable, and easier to maintain over time. The right upgrades can also help protect the structure from weather, wear, and everyday use. However, not every project has the same value, timeline, or maintenance demand. Before investing, homeowners should think about which improvements solve practical problems while also strengthening curb appeal.

Upgrade the Roof

The roof is one of the most important exterior systems because it helps protect the entire home from moisture, wind, heat, and storm damage. When a roof is aging, damaged, or nearing the end of its service life, other parts of the property may become more vulnerable. According to Forbes, roofing materials can last anywhere from about 15 to 50 years, depending on what the roof is made from. That wide range makes it important to understand the condition and material of the existing roof before planning other exterior updates.

A roof upgrade can also improve the appearance of the home. Shingles, metal panels, tile, and other materials all create different visual effects, so the roofing choice should fit the home’s architecture. Homeowners should also consider ventilation, flashing, gutters, and drainage when planning roof-related work. A strong roofing system supports the rest of the exterior and can help prevent expensive repairs later.

Add Window Awnings

Window awnings are a practical improvement because they add shade while also changing the look of the home. They can help protect windows from direct sunlight, reduce glare indoors, and make exterior elevations look more finished. According to Grand View Research, window awnings may reduce solar heat gain by 65% to 77%. For homes with windows that receive strong sun exposure, that can make awnings a useful comfort-focused upgrade.

Awnings come in many styles, materials, and colors, so they can be chosen to match the property rather than look like an afterthought. Fixed awnings may work well for consistent shade, while retractable options can offer more flexibility. Homeowners should consider wind exposure, window placement, and maintenance needs before selecting a design. A well-chosen awning can support both function and curb appeal.

Improve Asphalt Surfaces

Driveways and paved walkways affect the way people approach and use a property. Cracked, uneven, or deteriorating asphalt can make the exterior look neglected and may create drainage or access concerns. According to This Old House, asphalt paving can last about 15 to 20 years when it is sealed regularly. This makes paving a long-term investment, especially when the surface is properly installed and maintained.

Improving asphalt surfaces can involve resurfacing, sealing, repairing cracks, or replacing areas that have failed. A refreshed driveway can make the front of the property look cleaner and more organized. It can also support safer vehicle and pedestrian movement when the surface is smooth and properly graded. Because paved areas are used daily, keeping them in good condition has both practical and visual benefits.

Refresh Exterior Lighting

Exterior lighting is often overlooked, but it can change how a property looks and functions after dark. Entry lights, pathway fixtures, garage lighting, patio lighting, and landscape lighting can all make outdoor areas easier to navigate. Good lighting can also highlight architectural details and make the home feel more welcoming. This type of improvement is especially useful when older fixtures are dim, outdated, or poorly placed.

Lighting plans should focus on balance rather than brightness alone. Too much light can feel harsh, while too little can leave important areas hard to see. Homeowners may want to consider fixture style, placement, energy use, and how the lights look from the street. When done thoughtfully, exterior lighting improves both everyday convenience and overall curb appeal.

The best exterior improvements combine appearance, protection, comfort, and long-term practicality. A roof upgrade can support the structure, awnings can reduce sun exposure, asphalt work can improve access, and exterior lighting can make the property more usable. By choosing projects that serve a clear purpose, homeowners can invest in updates that make the outside of the home stronger, more attractive, and easier to enjoy.

Photo Credit: public domain

The post The 4 Best Exterior Home Improvements to Invest In appeared first on Len Penzo dot Com.

So I fired the second agent too.

Then I sold the house myself.

I told the full story in an earlier article explaining why I didn’t think the agents were worth what I was being asked to pay. The short recap is that my first agent did almost nothing to market my modest starter home beyond entering it in the Multiple Listing Service and printing a few fliers.

The second agent’s fliers looked nicer.

That was the most noticeable improvement.

Eventually, I found the buyer myself. I hired an attorney who charged me a flat $300 fee to handle the negotiations, while the title company took care of most of the technical paperwork.

And that was that.

No agent. No percentage commission. No commemorative fruit basket either, but somehow I survived.

Of course, that happened almost three decades ago. So it’s fair to ask whether I would still try to sell a home without a traditional agent today.

The answer is yes.

Well… probably.

First, a Reminder About What I Actually Did

Although I sold my house without an agent, I didn’t literally do everything myself.

I found the buyer. I dealt directly with the people interested in the property. I made the decisions. But I also paid qualified professionals to handle the work that I wasn’t comfortable doing on my own.

That distinction is important.

“For sale by owner” (FSBO) sometimes creates an image of a homeowner standing in the front yard with a cardboard sign, a ballpoint pen and a contract downloaded from a website operated by somebody named Honest Eddie.

That wasn’t my strategy.

I eliminated the traditional agent, but I didn’t eliminate professional assistance. I simply purchased the services I needed separately instead of paying for all of them through a commission based on the sale price.

In other words, my 1997 sale was less about refusing help and more about refusing to pay for help that I didn’t believe was providing sufficient value.

That remains the heart of the issue today.

Selling a Home Is Easier Today

In some ways, homeowners have far more tools now than I had in 1997.

Back then, the Internet was still clearing its throat. Most people weren’t carrying miniature computers in their pockets, and online real estate searches were nowhere near as important as they are today.

Social media didn’t exist. Digital signatures weren’t part of everyday life. A “virtual tour” probably involved looking at vacation slides in somebody’s living room.

Today, homeowners can research recent sales, study competing listings, advertise online, communicate instantly with prospective buyers and hire photographers, stagers, appraisers, lawyers and other specialists without relying on one person to arrange everything.

That should make selling your own home easier.

And in many respects, it does.

But technology has also raised buyer expectations.

In 1997, taking decent property photos meant keeping your thumb away from the camera lens. Today, buyers may expect professional photography, measured floor plans, polished listing descriptions, video tours and enough high-resolution images to document every closet shelf in the house.

Technology has made it easier to reach buyers. It has also made poorly presented homes look even worse beside professionally marketed competition.

So yes, the modern seller has more power.

The modern seller also has more ways to make a mess.

The Percentage Problem Hasn’t Disappeared

My biggest objection to the traditional commission model has always been the relationship between the work performed and the value of the property.

Suppose two similar homes require roughly the same amount of marketing, communication, paperwork and negotiation. One sells for $500,000 and the other sells for $1 million.

Under a percentage-based model, the compensation tied to the second property can be significantly higher even though it may not require twice the work.

Why?

Because percentages are funny that way.

A percentage sign is tiny. The check it produces is not.

This is why I have always believed real estate compensation should be evaluated like every other major household expense: What am I getting, what is it worth, and is there a less expensive way to obtain the same result?

Longtime readers already know that I once included high-end real estate agents among the jobs I considered particularly overpaid.

Subtle, I know.

That doesn’t mean every agent is overpaid. A skilled professional who develops an effective pricing strategy, creates excellent marketing, finds qualified buyers, manages difficult negotiations and keeps a complicated transaction from imploding can provide substantial value.

But the seller should be able to identify that value.

Simply entering a property into a listing system and waiting for another agent to bring the buyer may not justify a large fee, especially when the homeowner is doing much of the preparation, cleaning, decision-making and schedule disruption.

Then again, compensation models aren’t identical everywhere, and neither are the responsibilities associated with them.

My 1997 California Sale Isn’t a Canadian Instruction Manual

My sale took place in Southern California under the practices and legal framework that applied there in 1997.

That FSBO experience should not be treated as a step-by-step guide for somebody selling a home in Canada today.

Canada is not simply the United States with friendlier cash and better manners.

Real estate is regulated provincially. Forms, disclosure practices, terminology, listing access and the roles played by lawyers or other professionals can differ depending on where the property is located. Commission arrangements also vary by province, brokerage, service package and individual agreement.

Canadian homeowners may encounter true private sales, flat-fee listing arrangements, limited-service packages, fixed-fee representation and traditional full-service models. Those services are not interchangeable, even when their advertisements make them sound as if they are.

For example, paying a brokerage to place a home on MLS® and REALTOR.ca does not necessarily mean the seller is receiving pricing advice, negotiation support or full representation. It may provide valuable exposure while leaving most of the actual work and responsibility with the homeowner.

Anyone north of the border considering this route should start with a practical breakdown of the available options and responsibilities before assuming that an American FSBO story from 1997 applies directly to a current Canadian transaction.

Trying to follow my old California playbook word for word would be like using a Los Angeles road map to find a coffee shop in Quebec.

You may eventually get somewhere.

But not before annoying everyone else in the car.

FSBO Is No Longer an All-or-Nothing Decision

One of the biggest misconceptions about selling without a traditional agent is that the homeowner has only two choices:

1. Pay for full traditional representation.
2. Do absolutely everything alone.

That was never entirely true, including in my case.

I hired an attorney because I wanted someone qualified to negotiate and protect my interests. I relied on the title company for technical work. I found the buyer and managed the sale, but I paid for expertise where I believed it mattered.

Homeowners can take the same approach today.

An FSBO seller may decide to hire:

• A professional photographer
• An appraiser or pricing consultant
• A home inspector
• A real estate lawyer
• A staging consultant
• A flat-fee listing service
• A professional to review offers
• An agent for negotiation or transaction support
• A full-service representative charging a fixed or reduced fee

There is no trophy for doing every task personally.

Nobody receives a merit badge for taking listing photos in bad lighting or drafting legal clauses after watching a six-minute video.

The objective is not to prove that you can sell a house with no assistance whatsoever. The objective for FSBO sellers is to control costs while obtaining enough qualified help to complete the transaction properly.

What Hasn’t Changed Since 1997

Even with better technology and more service options, the FSBO seller still has to solve the same basic problems.

Pricing the home

This is where emotion can become expensive.

Homeowners know every improvement they have made, every repair they have paid for and every Saturday they sacrificed to keep the lawn alive.

Buyers don’t care.

They compare the property with other available homes and recent sales. The seller who prices according to personal memories rather than market evidence may spend months wondering why nobody recognizes the imported kitchen faucet’s emotional significance.

Preparing the property

A private seller competes against homes represented by people who may have experience with staging, photography, listing descriptions and buyer psychology.

An FSBO sign in the yard and a prayer are not a marketing plan.

The home has to be clean, accessible and presented in a way that helps buyers imagine living there.

Managing inquiries and showings

Some inquiries will be serious.

Others will come from curious neighbors, recreational house browsers and people who begin every negotiation by offering approximately the value of your garden shed.

The seller has to answer questions, screen interest, arrange access and follow up without becoming irritated.

At least not visibly.

Negotiating objectively

Negotiating your own home is different from haggling over a television or used car. The numbers are larger, the conditions matter, and emotional attachment can interfere with sound judgment.

Even so, almost everything is negotiable, including the price and structure of the professional services used during a sale.

That applies to the buyer’s offer too.

The highest price is not always the best offer if it comes with weak financing, difficult conditions or a closing date that creates another expensive problem.

Managing the paperwork and closing

Finding a willing buyer is only part of the job.

The agreement, disclosures, deposit, conditions, inspections, financing and closing all have to be handled correctly. The exact process depends on the jurisdiction.

That is why I used an attorney in 1997, and it is why I would involve the appropriate legal professional again.

Saving money is good.

Saving money by signing documents you don’t understand is less good.

Who Should Consider Selling Without Traditional Full Service?

I would seriously consider going the FSBO route again if:

• I had enough time to manage the process.
• I understood the local market.
• I could obtain reliable pricing information.
• I was comfortable speaking directly with buyers.
• I could remain objective during negotiations.
• I had access to qualified legal help.
• I was willing to pay separately for photography, listing exposure or other services when needed.
• The property and ownership situation were reasonably straightforward.
• The potential savings justified the effort and risk.

Having a likely buyer would make the decision even easier.

When I sold my home in 1997, finding the buyer was my main responsibility. If a seller already knows who is interested, paying a large percentage of the sale price for full marketing services may be difficult to justify.

The key word is “may.”

Who Should Pay for More Help?

I would be much more inclined to hire experienced representation if:

• I had little time to manage inquiries and showings.
• The property was difficult to price.
• The sale involved tenants, estates, multiple owners or unusual legal issues.
• I was buying another home at the same time.
• The market was moving quickly.
• I expected multiple offers with materially different conditions.
• I was uncomfortable negotiating.
• A failed transaction would create serious financial consequences.
• The professional could clearly explain the service being provided and why it was worth the fee.

There are excellent real estate professionals. There are also poor ones.

The license does not tell you which one is standing in front of you.

That means sellers still have homework to do, even when they decide not to handle the sale themselves.

They should interview multiple professionals, compare services, ask who will perform each task, understand the contract and negotiate the compensation.

The worst arrangement is not necessarily paying an agent.

The worst arrangement is paying a large fee without knowing what you are buying.

So, Would I Sell My Own Home Again?

Yes, I would seriously consider it.

I would not automatically hire a traditional full-service agent merely because that is what homeowners are expected to do. I would begin by determining which parts of the sale I could manage competently, which parts required professional expertise and how much each service was worth.

Then I would compare the total cost and risk of the available options.

Maybe I would choose a private sale and go the FSBO route.

Maybe I would purchase listing exposure and hire a lawyer.

Maybe I would select limited-service or flat-fee representation.

And yes, I might even hire a traditional agent if that person demonstrated enough skill, effort and market knowledge to justify the compensation.

Hey… I’m skeptical, not unreasonable.

My opinion from 1997 about FSBO has not changed as much as it has matured.

Homeowners who have the time, temperament and ability to manage a sale should not assume that paying a traditional percentage commission is their only responsible option.

At the same time, doing it yourself does not mean doing it blindly, cheaply or completely alone.

Whether you are in California, Canada or anywhere else, the real question remains the same:

What work needs to be done, who is best qualified to do it, and what is that work actually worth?

After all, it’s your house.

More importantly, it’s your money.

The post FSBO: I Sold My Home On My Own in 1997. Would I Do It Again? appeared first on Len Penzo dot Com.

Most home improvements are one-and-done changes that don’t provide additional future returns. For example, you may call a company to change out your worn out door locks, but don’t expect those new locks to save you money down the road.

On the other hand, certain investments can indeed have a significant impact on your wallet in the future. In fact, here are four money-saving home improvements that are well worth the effort:

Installing Ductless Air Conditioning

Ductless air conditioning may be an affordable and meaningful solution to help keep your home cool. It frequently involves much less installation work than a traditional air conditioner which requires a technician to come in and install ducts throughout the house. This can be a drain on your budget as well as frustrating to have people inside your home. However, it is typically easy to install ductless AC.

Improving Home Insulation

Insulating your home and sealing doors and windows is a common advice to prepare your home for winter, but no matter when you take on these tasks they will always pay off in terms of your electric bill. Adding insulation in crucial areas of your home such as your attic, and getting a good seal on your doors and windows — or replacing them with more insulated versions — can help keep your house cool during the other seasons, thereby allowing you to maximize the benefits of ductless AC.

Replacing Inefficient Appliances

You’ll get the most bang for your home improvement buck if you upgrade any outdated and inefficient appliances in your home. The top energy suckers in your home are air conditioning, dehumidifiers, heating systems, refrigerators and hot water heaters. Other ways to maximize your long-term savings include installing a programmable thermostat and running your appliances at night.

Correcting Structural and Gutter-Based Problems

The most expensive home repairs are typically tied to water problems — so whether you live in a rainy area or are concerned about snow, it’s critical to stop the leaks and control water in and around your home. While just a little bit of clutter in the gutter doesn’t sound that risky, gutters are your first line of defense against cracked foundations, water problems in the basement, leaking roofs and wood destroying insects. Professional gutter cleaning typically costs a few hundred dollars, while repairing downspouts and gutters costs slightly more. On the other hand, if you need your foundation repaired, then expect to pay more than $6000. As such, it’s well worth making these investments now.

Do your research ahead of time to discover what’s going to make the most sense as an upfront investment that could pay off later. A few small changes can make your life easier while also reducing a significant hit to your wallet in the future.

Photo Credit: m01229

The post 4 Smart Home Improvement Projects That Save Money in the Long Run appeared first on Len Penzo dot Com.

As my most recent sandwich survey shows, the average sandwich price has reached another all-time high.

If you’re like most people, it’s been hard not to notice the increase in your monthly grocery bill since the pandemic. After a huge run-up in prices for everything from gasoline to food – and despite the latest consumer price index showing that inflation in 2026 is currently running at an annual clip of “just” 3% – more grocery shoppers than ever can be seen visibly wincing when the final total flashes at the checkout counter.

Meanwhile, the estimated cost of a school lunch this year is $3.50. For a family with two kids, that amounts to $1260 during the course of a 180-day school year.

Oh, sure; $3.50 for lunch may sound like a great deal, but the truth is, despite food inflation and those ever-rising grocery bills, people who choose to brown-bag a sandwich, piece of fruit, and carrot sticks or a serving of chips, are always going to spend less than the folks who buy their lunch at a restaurant, school cafeteria or fast-food joint.

On the other hand, not all sandwiches are created equally, as celebrity chef Martin Blunos demonstrated a few years ago with his decadent $184 cheese sarnie. The good news is, while food prices are climbing faster than ever, the results of my latest annual brown bag sandwich price survey show that most folks will spend far less than that this year.

How I Conduct the Sandwich Survey

As usual, I visited my local grocery store and recorded the per-serving costs of various ingredients for ten of the most common brown bag sandwiches: peanut butter & jelly (PB&J); bologna; tuna; ham & Swiss; roast beef & cheddar; egg salad; salami; American cheese; turkey; and bacon, lettuce & tomato (BLT).

For consistency, I only selected items with the cheapest per unit costs, regardless of brand. And to keep it simple, I also assume that all sandwiches are with wheat bread.

Sandwich Survey Ingredients Data

Here are the results of this year’s sandwich price survey. The survey was conducted on August 1st, 2026. The first graphic shows the sandwich serving sizes and per-serving costs for each ingredient. It also includes the percentage increase or decrease in the per-serving price of each item from last year’s survey:

With that data in hand, and using my handy spreadsheet, it’s no effort at all to determine the most economical sandwiches.

Sandwich Survey Rankings for 2026

Here are the official Len Penzo dot Com rankings of the ten most common brown bag sandwiches this yea. Rankings are based upon total ingredient unit costs, from least to most expensive.

As you can see, at just 52 cents, the unheralded-but-mighty PB&J sandwich remains the undisputed Most Economical Sandwich. Notably, this is only the fifth time in 18 years that bologna has failed to hold at least a share of the Most Economical Sandwich crown.

As for the rest of this year’s rankings, although there was little movement at the top and bottom ends of the table, there was a big shake up in the middle positions. PB&J and bologna held their positions at the top of the list, as did the perennial basement dwellers: Roast Beef & Cheddar, Tuna Salad, and BLT. In the midsection, Salami was the biggest mover, dropping two positions from #3 to #5.

Sandwich Survey Historical Price Data

The next chart is an annual comparison of each sandwich since my inaugural survey in 2009. This year, Egg Salad was the only sandwich that was cheaper than last year. Needless to say, the overall effects of food inflation on the surveyed sandwiches – especially since the pandemic – continue to be striking.

In 2010, the average price of all ten sandwiches was 84 cents – that was the all-time low. This year, the average cost of the survey’s ten sandwiches is $1.71; that’s 17% higher than last year! The only year with a steeper increase in the average sandwich inflation rate was 2022, when it skyrocketed 27% over the previous year.

Even more alarming, this year’s average sandwich price is 52% higher than the 2021 average – and 80% more than it was in 2018. Ouch.

The only sandwich that saw a price decline this year was Egg Salad; at 89 cents per sandwich, it’s 18% cheaper than last year. Only PB&J, bologna and American cheese are less expensive.

Tips and Observations

• Five sandwiches in this year’s survey cost less than a buck. Ironically, despite the steep rise in overall sandwich costs, that’s one more than last year.
• After climbing 15% two years ago, this year the price of wheat bread rose another 50% (!) to $2.69. If you think that is alarming, since 2018, the price of bread is up 167%.
• Ten of the 18 sandwich ingredients saw price increases this year. From highest to lowest: ham, bread, tuna, tomato, salami, turkey, roast beef, bologna, Cheddar and Swiss.
• Among all of the ingredients, ham saw the largest price increase this year (80%).
• Are you hooked on tuna? After a massive 97% increase in 2022, albacore tuna prices retreated 90 cents over the following two years. Unfortunately, the surveyed price of albacore tuna is rising again; it climbed 44%. And that’s after rising 30% in 2025.
• The price of a BLT rose a relatively modest 8% over the past year. The good news is, even at $4.55 this year, a home-cooked BLT is still $2 less than the average price of a Big Mac.
• Cooking your own ham and turkey and slicing it yourself is a great way to reduce your grocery bill. It’s also cheaper to buy block cheese and slice it at home.
• If you’re like me and love to put tomatoes on a sandwich, grow your own— you’ll save a bundle. Best of all, they taste much better than anything you can buy from your grocer.
• You can save upwards of 40% by purchasing store-brand products. As my popular blind taste tests have proven, their quality is often just as good — if not better.

Photo Credit: neil russo

The post My 18th Annual Cost Survey of 10 Popular Brown Bag Sandwiches appeared first on Len Penzo dot Com.

Before the Dollar

For the early colonists, currency was a bit of a free-for-all.

Officially, cash was denominated in pounds, shillings, and pence, but in reality things were a different story. Cash was often scarce, and colonists needed to be innovative to fulfill transactions. At various points in time, they used tobacco, beaver skins, and wampum in the place of money. Some colonies even tried to issue their own fiat currencies — many of which went bust.

As it turned out, the Spanish dollar was often the most abundant form of cash and this is what led to US currency eventually being denominated in dollars.

The Revolution

During the American Revolution in 1775, the Continental Congress issued a money known as the Continental Currency to try and fund the war. The government printed too many, and the value of a Continental diminished rapidly.

Just five years later, after runaway inflation, the Continental was worth 2.5% of its face value. Benjamin Franklin rightly noted that the depreciation of the Continental had, in fact, acted as a tax to pay for the war. Holders of the currency — everyday people — were punished by losing massive amounts of buying power. Interestingly, this is where we get the phrase “Not worth a Continental.”

Birth of the Dollar

The failure of the Continental Currency must have been top of mind during the writing of the Constitution. A clause was even added, under Article 1, Section 10, to make sure such a failure would never happen again. It was written that states were not permitted to “coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; [or] make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”

And so, the Coinage Act of 1792 created the US dollar as a standard unit of currency. The US Mint was authorized to oversee coinage. The Act also established a penalty of death for debasing coinage issued by the Mint.

The Almighty Buck

In the 19th Century, a new slang term emerged for the dollar.

Especially in the Great Lakes area, different amounts of money were equated with animal skins. One particular reference showed that in Ohio in 1851, the skin of a muskrat was worth 25 cents, and that of a doe was worth 50 cents. Meanwhile, the skin of a buck was equal to the “almighty dollar” — and hence, the word “buck” became synonymous with the US dollar.

The Civil War

Leading up to the Civil War, private banks around the country issued their own paper currencies.

With 10,000 or so of these currencies in circulation as the war broke out, governments soon found it very cumbersome to try and pay debts with many different types of notes. As a result, the $10 Demand Note was the first official paper currency issued in 1861 by the government to help finance the war.

The North began paying debts with a fiat currency called the “greenback,” while Confederate states issued their own paper currency as well. The latter was worthless by the time the Confederacy lost the war.

The Counterfeiting Problem

Around this time, counterfeiting was a widespread problem with greenbacks and all the private notes that were circulating. More than one-third of all bills were fake at this time.

Sophisticated counterfeit operations were happening in British Canada, and some bank engravers would even moonlight as counterfeiters, using the same plates and dyes they had from their day job.

To deal with the problem, the Secret Service was formed in 1865.

The Modern Dollar

Counterfeiting measures have come a long way since the late 19th century. Today, it’s estimated that less than 0.01% of notes are fake.

Photo Credit: Frankie Leon; Infographic: The Money Project

The post A Pictorial Timeline Explaining How the US Dollar Was Born appeared first on Len Penzo dot Com.

Cigarettes Aren’t Cheap

Buying cigarettes is a very pricey habit. Cigarettes prices vary around the country, from almost $12 in New York to just over $6 in Missouri. Plus, of course, the number of cigarettes one smokes varies. But let’s say you’re a pack-a-day smoker who spends $6 per pack. That adds up to almost $2200 per year.

If you spend in the mid-range of New York and Missouri prices — currently about $9 per pack — you would spend much more than that: $3285. Over the course of 10 years, you’d have saved anywhere from $22,000 to $32,850 by not smoking. That can help with a down payment on a house, or part of your child’s college tuition.

It gets even steeper if you add up a lifetime’s worth of expenditures. Let’s say you began smoking at 20 and ended at 60 probably from a cigarette-related death, because smoking also reduces your life expectancy. That’s 40 years of smoking. At $9 per pack, that’s more than $131,000.

Smokers Have Higher Healthcare Expenses

But the direct cost of cigarettes is only part of the fiscal drain of cigarettes. Your doctors and hospitals may be treating you for cancer, heart disease, emphysema and more from a fairly young age.

When you’re sick and undergoing treatment, you can’t work as much, or you may not be able to work at all. So there are costs associated with lost productivity.

Together, smoking-related US healthcare costs add up to $225 billion every year.

Smoking can result in higher healthcare costs in several different ways. For example:

• Higher insurance premiums, compared to non-smokers.
• Higher deductibles and copays for medical treatment related to smoking.
• Higher illness rates than nonsmokers.
• Increased risk of life-long care as a result of chronic smoking-related illnesses, such as emphysema.
• Longer surgery-recovery times, resulting in longer hospital stays.

Smoking Increases Your Dental Bills

When people discuss the fiscal and health impacts of smoking, they seldom mention dental health. However, 16% of smokers have poor dental health, ranging from increased cavities and root canals to yellow teeth. Cavities, root canals and tooth whitening all cost a pretty penny. Never mind that smokers also suffer from increased risk of oral cancer, and its resultant costs.

Cigarette Smoke Can Reduce Your Home’s Value

Linking smoking to your home’s financial worth may have you scratching your head. But think about it: If you or someone in your household uses cigarettes, the house and furniture likely smell of smoke. Smokers may not notice the smell — but non-smokers do.

A house smelling strongly of smoke can turn prospective buyers off, which can delay the sale of your house. And houses that sit on the market too long only see their value go in one direction: downhill.

Your house may also be damaged by smoking, evidenced by discolored windows and mirrors, burned carpet, and stained countertops. And if your furniture holds odors, it may be impossible to sell secondhand.

Smokers May Have Higher Clothing Expenses

Smoke odors get into clothes too, resulting in more frequent trips to the dry cleaner, or doing the laundry more often. Embers and ash from cigarettes can also damage clothes, thereby increasing clothing expenses.

In Conclusion …

When it comes to how smoking affects your finances, the lesson is simple: The cost of smoking goes far beyond the price of a cigarette pack. It also leads to higher healthcare costs, reduces income via increased sick days and decreased productivity, and can even erode the value of your home.

In other words, choosing to smoke cigarettes is one of the worst financial decisions you can ever make.

Photo Credit: Alex

The post 5 Ways Smoking Negatively Affects Your Finances appeared first on Len Penzo dot Com.

For example, consider the pattern on the back of this cat:

I know; I can’t believe it either.

I’ll never forget the time I came across an eggplant at my local grocery store that looked exactly like Richard Milhous Nixon. I’m not kidding.

OK, on second thought, the eggplant didn’t look exactly like America’s 37th president — but the resemblance was definitely uncanny.

Not too long ago I came across something in my change that always made me scratch my head: a red quarter.

In fact, it looked very similar to the one in this photo:

I remember occasionally finding red-painted quarters in my change ever since I was a kid — and I’ve always wondered about their significance. How about you?

The truth is, red quarters are more common than you might think, and there are several good explanations floating around the infallible Internet explaining exactly how those scarlet-colored coins entered into circulation over the years.

Here are a few of the more plausible answers:

They’re old test coins

In the past, repairmen used them to check out the coin-operated pay phones, vending machines, and laundromat washers they were fixing in order to avoid being accused of stealing. That makes sense to me.

They were “house” money

Red quarters are sometimes used by business owners as perks; they give them to their preferred customers for free plays on the coin-operated pool tables, pinball machines and video games. Red quarters were also used by waitresses to “prime” otherwise quiet jukeboxes in order to encourage other patrons to add their own quarters and keep the music coming.

Somebody painted it as a sign of defiance

According to Answers.com, the red coins were part of a campaign in the 1970s to protest New Jersey officials’ decision to increase the toll on the Garden State Parkway from 15 cents to a quarter.

They were once used for free laundry

For some apartment managers, free laundry is apparently a fringe benefit. Landlords will often give their building supervisors red quarters for use in the apartment laundromats. The managers would get their quarters back when the owner or laundromat vendor removed the cash from the machines.

So there you have it. The next time you come across an old quarter that has the remnants of red paint or a little bit of scarlet nail polish on it, you won’t have to wonder anymore.

Now if I could only figure out how to explain that darned eggplant.

Photo Credit: picshag

The post 4 Good Reasons Why Some Quarters Are Painted Red appeared first on Len Penzo dot Com.

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance.

I’ve got another busy weekend ahead of me, so let’s get right to this week’s commentary…

Economists need to get their heads out of the textbooks and get a job in the real world. I wouldn’t even let one of them handle my grocery shopping.

– Pauline Hanson

Credits and Debits

Credit: Did you see this? Taylor Swift’s new husband, Travis Kelce, signed a four-year rookie deal worth $3.1 million after being drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013, which included a $703,304 signing bonus. For most folks, that’s life-changing money, but by the end of his first NFL season Kelce was dead broke; in fact, he still didn’t have a car, and he couldn’t cover his rent. Where did all the cash go? Kelce said he wasted all of it on frivilous stuff including a Rolex, a $10,000 (!) pair of sneakers, excessive leisure travel, and lots of “VIP bottle service” at tawny nightclubs. But he says, “It’s an experience that I appreciate now, because it helped me figure out exactly how to spend, how to save, and how to invest” later on.

The Far Side – Gary Larson

Credit: Meanwhile, with high living costs and labor market uncertainty making personal finance discussion more open than ever, Gen Z is breaking one of the most deeply rooted social taboos by openly discussing salaries. We wonder if that’s because more and more people are collecting a six-figure salary these days. On the other hand, we also wonder how many people earning $100,000 per year today understand that that has the equivalent purchasing power of just $53,600 back in 2000. Or, looking at it in reverse, $100,000 at the turn of this century had the purchasing power of roughly $188,000 today (but probably much more considering official inflation figures are understated). Either way, that goes a long way toward explaining this…

Debit: We wonder how many of those Gen Zers admit they were caught holding shares of IBM stock on July 14th when it fell more than 25%. Yes; in a single day. Ouch. The technology stock’s collapse was its worst drop in decades, after the company preannounced earnings that fell well below Wall Street’s expectations. Apparently, customers have shifted their spending away from software and mainframe products and toward AI servers and memory.

Credit: We see that the government’s shamelessly-gamed (yeah, we said it) inflation indicator known as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) had it’s biggest monthly decline in June after falling 0.4% month-over-month (MoM). No, really. That’s the biggest monthly decline since the pandemic (April 2020). That also managed to drag the year-over-year (YoY) CPI change down to 3.5%. Looking under the CPI’s hood, lower energy prices were the largest contributor to last month’s decline, more than offsetting price increases for everything else, including shelter and food. Now for the bad news: That was then. And this is now…

Credit: As for those grocery prices, they officially increased 0.2% on a monthly basis in June and ticked up 2.7% year over year. Food inflation was little changed from May’s 2.7% increase, but it was milder than April’s 2.9% rate, which just so happened to be the highest reading since August 2023. Meanwhile, food inflation at restaurants and bars fell to its lowest YoY reading since June 2020, at 3.4%.Then again, we guess that depends on who you talk to…

Credit: On a related note, a new study compared the cost of 15 store-brand essentials at Kroger, Walmart, Aldi and Albertsons, including milk, bread, eggs, chicken breast, spaghetti, canned beans and baking items. The winner? Kroger, with a total basket cost of $30. In fact, Kroger had the lowest prices on 10 of the 15 items analyzed, including dry spaghetti, sugar, a dozen large eggs, and canned diced tomatoes. As for the other competitors, Walmart came in second with a basket total of $30.95, followed by Aldi at $33.15 and Albertsons at $35.58. Meanwhile, back in the produce department…

Debit: In other news, the US National Debt will soon be crossing $40 trillion. To show you just how quickly the growth in red ink is accelerating, today’s US annual budget deficits now routinely exceed the entire National Debt back in 1984. And the pace is only going speed up from here. So it’s folly to believe that the current US dollar based (USD) monetary system will be continue to facilitate market functionality for much longer. If only there was a way to stop this ongoing destructive monetary larceny. Hmmmm. Perhaps something like this?

Credit: Of course, precious metals analyst Craig Hemke also points out that, “The investment world expresses value in fiat currency. Think: US dollars (USD) per share, or USDs per ounce. But in doing so, they miscalculate by using the USD as the measuring stick, as if the USD has a stable underlying value. However, that’s untrue. The USD – or any fiat currency, for that matter – is constantly being devalued by new issuance,” thereby diluting the purchasing power of all USDs that are already in circulation. By the way, that includes the USD-denominated assets in your long-term retirement retirement accounts. As for how fast that wealth will disappear, well… as the saying goes: Gradually at first – but then…

Credit: That being said, Mr. Hemke points out that, ultimately, “Gold just sits and collects dust as it pays no interest or dividends. But that’s the point! It’s value is not measurable because it is the measure. The gold price isn’t changing over time; its value remains stable. What changes is the amount of fiat currency needed to acquire it.” Indeed. Which is why, with the USD currency supply growing at a rapidly-accelerating pace, it’s a near-certainty that the price of the yellow metal in USDs will be at least an order of magnitude higher in the coming decades – despite the inevitable temporary pull backs that typically occur along the way.

Source: DiscoveryAlert.com

Credit: Unfortunately, as economist Peter Earle reminds us, as “prices rise, and the currency supply balloons… the number of zeroes layered onto economic life are quietly extended, (while) a USD buys far less than it once did. Even if nothing real changed – if no new factories were built, no technologies discovered, and no improvement in living standards achieved – the same assets would be priced higher over time as each USD lost purchasing power.” Alas, he says that steady upward drift of nominal magnitudes leads “the public to mistake financial scale for real, truly-productive achievement.” Uh huh. And that’s the boiling-frog analogy in a nutshell. And, sadly, most people won’t try to protect themselves until it is too late.

By the Numbers

With fast food prices increasing by an average of 60% over the past decade, a new study has analyzed average prices for burgers, pizza, and fried chicken sandwiches across all 50 states and compared them with each state’s median household income in order to assess where consumers spend the most and least relative to their income. Here are the five states where consumers spend the most – and least – relative to their paychecks.

50 New Jersey (0.27% of income)

49 Maryland (0.28%)

48 Massachusetts (0.29%)

47 Utah (0.29%)

46 Connecticut (0.30%)

5 West Virginia (0.43%)

4 New Mexico (0.44%)

3 Louisiana (0.44%)

2 Arkansas (0.45%)

1 Mississippi (0.48%)

Source: WalletHub

Last Week’s Poll Results

What’s the most you’ve paid for a single concert or sporting event ticket?

• $100 or less     52%
• $101 to $500     36%
• More than $1000     9%
• $501 to $1000     3%

More than 2600 Len Penzo dot Com readers responded to last week’s question and it turns out that slightly more than 1 in 9 of you have spent more than $500 for a single concert or sporting event ticket. As for my biggest single expenditure in that category, I spent slightly more than $2300 in 2014 for a ticket to Stanley Cup finals. That’s $3100 in today’s inflation-adjusted USDs.

Last week’s question was suggested by reader Frank. If you have a question you’d like me to ask the readers here, send it to me at Len@LenPenzo.com and be sure to put “Question of the Week” in the subject line.

The Question of the Week

Useless News: An Appeal for Charity

A devastated-looking man knocked on the door of an extremely kind woman who was well known in town for her charity.

When she opened the door the man immediately implored, “Please, ma’am. I beg of you … Can you help this unfortunate family with a baby who lives down the block? The father lost his job two months ago, his wife is too ill to work, and all three of them are going to be turned out into the cold dark streets unless someone can pay their rent by tomorrow evening.”

The woman was immediately touched by the tragic story. After quickly composing herself she said, “Oh, dear! That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life! May I ask who you are?”

“But of course,” the man replied. “I’m their landlord.”

(h/t: Cowpoke)

Squirrel Cam

Say hello to Rosie. The new mom was enjoying a little snack on our backyard patio the other day….

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Buy Me a Coffee? Thank You!

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More Useless News

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1. Subscribe to my weekly Len Penzo dot Com Newsletter!

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Letters, I Get Letters

Every week I feature the most interesting question or comment — assuming I get one, that is. And folks who are lucky enough to have the only question in the mailbag get their letter highlighted here whether it’s interesting or not! You can reach out to me at: Len@LenPenzo.com

After reading my aged — but still popular — post knocking the old Coke Rewards program, Joe Smithers left this comment:

I think this is the dumbest article I have ever read.

And you, Joe, are clearly mistaking me for somebody who cares.

If you enjoyed this edition of Black Coffee and found it to be informative, please forward it to your friends and family. Thank you!

I’m Len Penzo and I approved this message.

Photo Credit: public domain

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