Solid Planning

For the Inventors

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Here's an idea that I would love to see and inventor capitalise on......

Quite simply it's a vent in an oven that releases the heat of the oven outside of the home once baking is finished. It will same the homeowner cooling costs in the summer sine the excess heat is not released in the home.

May Investment Results

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:59:00 +0000

The upward trend continues! Although the DJIA is still in negative territory our investments from Januaruy 1, 2009 thru May 31, 2009 reflects a Personal Rate of Return of 11.4 %.

If you would like to know more about investment strategies please visit our Investment Planning articles.

April Investment Results

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:44:00 +0000

April shows a positive trend for the DJIA and our Fidelity account reflects the same trend with a gain of 5. 4%. We're finally going the right direction!

Have you minimized your risk and positioned your investments to perform well when the market begins to come back?

If you would like to know more about investment strategies please visit our Investment Planning articles.

Back to Business

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:29:00 +0000

We took some time off however it's time to start updating once again. It was a great summer!

Shortly I'll be posting news on our investment strategy and how we are performing, as well as updates on our goals. We've fallen behind on some of them and others were "fortunately" on autopilot.

The family has also started working on an idea that is right up our readers alley so stay tuned for those updates as well.

Happy Fathers Day!

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:42:00 +0000

Happy Father's Day to those who are lucky enough to enjoy this wonderful honor. Did you know Fathers day is celebrated in 52 of the world's countries and on other days elsewhere?

"A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty." -- Unknown

Enjoy the day!

Run Jim Run!

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:49:00 +0000

Okay, so I am getting older and I have lots of items remaining on my list of accomplishments that I want to check off before I check out. So on Monday, April 19, 2010 I hope to be in Boston. That is if I can successfully run and acquire proof of my qualification, such as a copy of a finish certificate or results listing before the deadline ends. (I'm talking Boston Marathon yet again!)

I am starting at zero so I am not sure I can pull this off however this has been on my list for years and every year it slips further and further away. Now's the time to get started on my race. I'm not sure what obstacles are before me yet I know time never stops and keeps building the odds against me.

Typical of my personality, I did some research and I found this great story to inspire me: Jacob's story. (So maybe I don't need to "officially" qualify yet I hope to do so.)

Supper Planning Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 24 May 2009 13:04:00 +0000

I've been watching the family budget and looking for additional ways to save. A few ideas have popped in my head that I'll pursue however one really stood out. I enjoy cooking on occasion and I wondered if there were ways to link my passion for saving money with my enjoyment of cooking.

Quick numbers: If the average family meal runs around $20.00 the cost to feed the family runs over $1800.00 per month! A large number for sure. Is $20.00 the correct amount to use per meal, I'm not sure just yet. Dropping the average cost to $10.00 per meal would slice the cost in half and may save $900.00 per month. Is it possible? Will the family rebel? Or can we make a deal and share the savings with a pay for performance approach?

Book Review: The Last Lecture

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:45:00 +0000

It's been a crazy week for me and I have been really stressed. On a promising note I read an excellent book titled "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. You may have heard Mr. Pausch's story, he presented a lecture at Carnegie Mellon after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The book is excellent and it provides a point of view that makes you consider your priorities, what matters most and how to live your life.

I really enjoyed reading about Randy's life and his childhood. As a mater of fact, I plan on incorporating his use of his "dictionary to get through dinner" as part of our family dinner discussion. As stated in the book, Randy Pausch's parents drove his thirst for knowledge. To quote Randy's parents from the book, "if you have a question, then find the answer."

I pulled several additional Paushisms from the book including:

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Whether you think you can or can't, you're right.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted....... and experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.
In preparation to do something consider what's the most terrible thing that could happen?
One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.

If you would like to see the last lecture by Randy Pausch please click on the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo.

I highly recommend this book to improve your outlook on life and to boost your Solid Planning.

Pausch, Randy. New York: Hyperion, (2008)

This is the seventh book review of our planned fifty two book reviews.

Debt Stacking

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 17 May 2009 11:14:00 +0000

If you are making monthly payments on several different credit cards I can help you prioritize your efforts in seven simple steps:

1) Collect all of the monthly statements you can track down.
2) Organize the statements by placing them in separate piles based on the card issuer.
3) Organize each pile in descending order based on the month. (The current month should be on top.)
4) Paperclip or rubber band each individual stack.
5) Place the stacks in a single descending order pile based on the of the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of each individual stack. (Highest APR on should be top.)
6) You have just created your debt stack. If you pay more than the minimum monthly payment on your credit cards you should stop doing so. That's right, reduce the monthly payment on each card to the minimum and then apply the difference to the payment made to the card that is on top of your debt stack. If you are currently only making the minimum payments on all of your bills then you should focus all of the extra money you can afford to spend on the card that is on top of your debt stack.
7) Once the card that is on top is paid off apply the payment you were making to the card to the next one in your debt stack.

This approach will help your prioritize your payments and accelerate the payoff of your debts.

Our xbox Victory!

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:34:00 +0000

THIS JUST IN..... We found several articles today that indicate xbox has agree to extend the red-ring warranty to include E74 errors.

A search on Microsoft's website found the following message: "After investigating the issue, we have determined that the E74 error message can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three flashing red lights error on the console. As a result, we have decided to cover repairs related to the E74 error message under our three-year warranty program for certain general hardware failures that was announced in July 2007. We have already made improvements to the console that will reduce the likelihood of an occurrence of this issue."

"Microsoft will refund to customers the amount paid for an out of warranty repair due to a general hardware failure associated with the e74 error message. Those customers should automatically receive the refund within 4-12 weeks, and no additional action by customers should be necessary." How sweet the Victory! To see the article on Microsoft's website click here!

*So Claudia of Microsoft support, how does it feel to know you were wrong, we told you so, and now your company has admitted it. We have won.

However, it does not make up for your poor customer service so we plan to continue our reporting on the product, and you, until we receive a written apology from Microsoft or until we find out you have been disciplined. Have a nice day!!

Netflix Upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:00:00 +0000

A short while ago we shared our decision to join Netflix. We started with the $4.99 plan however, we have now decided to upgrade to the $8.99 plan. The Unlimited Instant Watching is fantastic. Now we can stream movies and watch them on our schedule. No more running to the video store or return trips.

Netfix offers over 12,000 choices instantly to your TV and you can instantly watch movies and TV episodes on your TV in as little as 30 seconds. You can watch as much as you want since watching instantly is included in your membership. You can still get all your DVDs by mail however now you'll also get movies & TV episodes streamed instantly to your TV.

If you are a movie buff, Netflix is the way to go.

Missing Money, Found

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:21:00 +0000

Based on an article I saw online, I searched a site called MissingMoney.com to see if I was one of those lucky folks due some "missing" cash. This site does not charge to re-unite folks and their missing money so I had nothing to loose.

Based on some of the comments about the site on the article I had low expectations. Many of the comments indicated the site did not work or the site was down. I gave it a shot like many folks that day and also found the site unresponsive.

However before crossing the site off completely I tried the site again a few days later. It was up and running and within just a few clicks I was searching the country for my share of the missing cash pie.

To my surprise I found two small amounts that were actually due to my family! Simply amazing!! Based upon further research I learned that the site crashed due to the number of hits it received that day from the article.

Per MissingMoney.com "The states have implemented active outreach programs designed to reunite unclaimed property owners with their lost or forgotten assets. To enhance the states' outreach efforts, MissingMoney.com, a national database, was established in November 1999 and is the only database endorsed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA). MissingMoney.com enables owners to perform comprehensive searches for lost assets required by law to be turned over to the states."

We recommend you take a few seconds and use the site to search for your missing money, you may find a nice surprise!

4868 Once again.....

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:55:00 +0000

We'll after telling myself for several months now that I would file my taxes before the April 15th , I found myself driving to the post office yesterday to ensure my extension, form 4868, was postmarked on April 15th.

I know I could file electronically however, I had to mail our IRA contribution for 2008 anyway so I took a drive.

Even though this years' return should reflect a considerable decrease in my tax liabilaity since we took several important steps to reduce our taxable income in 2008, I just can't get motiviated to file my taxes. It's odd. Perhaps it's the realization of how much I pay in taxes or perhaps it's all of the paperwork involved. Oh well, I am sure I'll file before October 15th. SP:)

Xbox and E74 No More

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:09:00 +0000

Disappointed by the poor quality of xbox and Microsoft's failure to stand behind their flawed product we've decided to sell the xbox console that was out of warranty when it experienced the E74 error. The supply of broken consoles is huge (poor quality) so the going rate is about $30.00 dollars.

Based on our calculations, if we pay for the repair ($100.00 including shipping) we can sell the fixed console with some games for about $200.00. So after deducting the $100.00 repair fee and the value of the games sold separately $50.00 we have increased the value of the broken unit by $20.00 (Working xbox value $200 - repair fee $100 - broken value $30 - value of games $50 = $20 increase).

The nice part about fixing the unit is that the warranty is reinstated and xbox is now liable for the repairs for an additional year. We consider this a victory so the xbox is for sale.

*There you Claudia of Microsoft, your poor quality product and terrible customer service drove us to abandon the product as well as the related games. Better still we eliminated a retail sale of your shoddy product by selling ours on the after market, we stuck xbox with another year of support, and we recouped the ridiculous repair fee.

And finally, the entire sale price, approximately $200.00, will be spent on the superior PS3 game console.

Time-weighted formula

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:10:00 +0000

Fidelity Investments has an exclamation on their statements and their web site next to the field titled "Your Personal Rate of Return".

The exclamation states the following; "Your Personal Rate of Return is calculated with a time-weighted formula, widely used by financial analysts to calculate investment earnings. The calculated value reflects the result of your investment selections as well as any activity in the plan accounts shown. Other personal rate of return formulas may yield different results."

To better understand the term time-weighted we performed several searches. One of the searches produced the following definition from the site dailyvest.com: Time-weighted rate of return takes into account the amount of time an investor has been invested in a fund. It measures how well he or she performs in increasing the dollars that have been invested. Cash flows moving in and out of the fund do not affect the time-weighted rate of return.

Based on this definition we are confident the time-weighted formula is perfect for our comparisons against the DJIA.

Fidelity Loss in March

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:10:00 +0000

Our investment performance in 2009 still reflects a loss. However our portfolio, like the DJIA, has started an upward trend. Due to the fact our portfolio has been performing better than the DJIA we believe our portfolio diversification strategy is working pretty well.

During the period January 1, 2009 through March 31, 2009 the performance of the DJIA has been down about 16%, which is an improvement from last month which reflected a loss of 22%.

Our return for the same period reflects a loss of 2.75% using Fidelity's time-weighted formula. We'll perform some additional research to make sure the calculation of the formula does not invalidate our performance.

If you would like to know more about investment strategies please visit our Investment Planning articles.

Solid Planning Tips and Tricks Carnival, 2nd Edition

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:04:00 +0000

Welcome to the 2nd carnival hosted at solidplanning.com. We apologize this carnival was late leaving the station. We experienced some delays in putting the material together.

As a refresher, a Carnival consists of articles from a variety of authors that are collected and published as a round-up or "carnival" to the publishers site. We would like to thank all of the authors who submitted articles to our carnival. It was quite a challenge to pick the articles to include and we thank everyone who submitted an article.

Now.... All aboard!

Our first stop...... Savings!

Raj Patel presents Savings rate rises to 14-year high in January posted at Debt Goal.

Debbie Ducker presents an article titled Your Children and Grandchildren Must Learn to Save Money posted at Ducker Promotion Ezine.

Carrie presents Adjusting Your Budget for New Monthly Expenses posted at Less is More.

Destroy Debt presents an article titled How to Organize Your Coupons posted at Destroy Debt.

Scott Crawford presents The Cost of Having Too Many Debt Accounts posted at Debt Goal.

Second Stop.... Investing!

PicktheBrain presents an article titled The First Investment a Beginner Should Make posted at Beginner Investing.

Sam Carterson presents Create Your Dream Home And Put Money In Your Pocket posted at Personal Finance.

Carrie presents Money Notes from Schwab's On Investing Spring 2009 posted at Less is More.

Third stop...... Knowledge, including some really cool tech items!

It's Frugal Being Green presents an article called Generating Passive Income During Time Off Work posted at It's Frugal Being Green.

DebtLite presents an article titled What Are the Root Causes of Debt? posted at Debt Advice.

David presents an article titled Comeks: add more fun to your photos posted at Hack how to - the best tips and tricks on the web.

David presents an acticle titled Unlimited Free Online Storage with LiveDrive posted at Hack how to - the best tips and tricks on the web.

David presents an article titled docjax - documents right everywhere docjax - documents right everywhere posted at Hack how to - the best tips and tricks on the web.

This concludes our trip! Please be sure to visit our next carnival which is not yet scheduled. To be included in the carnival please submit your article using our carnival submission form! Thanks for visiting. sp:)

Annual Escrow Statement

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:10:00 +0000

We received an exciting item in the mail yesterday. Our annual escrow statement indicated our account had an overage. Included with the escrow statement was a check for $1,465.46! Talk about an unexpected and nice surprise!

Even better, to avoid incurring a overage going forward, the mortgage company is reducing our house payment by $97.56 per month starting in May. Now that's a huge amount to add to our snowflake account.

Encouraged by this sudden reduction on our house payment we have challenged ourselves to reduce our homeowners insurance costs by at least 10%, and to give serious thought to refinancing our home.

Homeowners Insurance, an Annual Review

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:47:00 +0000

While visiting with some friends last weekend one of our discussions centered around the cost of homeowners insurance. My friend has a significantly lower annual premium compared to ours premium so I decided to begin reviewing my policy and shopping to compare my rate.

In my research I found a website that caught my attention because it is to the point and the author seems very knowledgeable.

http://www.castlerockagency.com/how-much-should-i-insure-my-home-for.html

If you're like us, you probably rushed around to insure the property as part of the financing closing process and you may not have looked at your policy or the premium since then. We think that is a mistake and that we should review our policy as part of an annual review process.

We'll keep you posted on our findings and hopefully our savings!

What's up with your Xbox War?

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:46:00 +0000

If you're wondering about our Xbox war postings and why they are on a site about saving money and achieving goals we understand your curiosity. The escalation of events started when my son's Xbox broke again just six months after it was previously repaired for the same issue. Adding to our fervor was the fact that our second Xbox console broke a few weeks after and it also had the same issue.

We called Xbox and we were informed that our first console was out of warranty and that we would need to pay for the repair. That' 15 months and three repairs for the same issue. Per a statement from Xbox an "E74 is a general hardware error on Xbox 360 indicated by a single red flashing light in the Xbox Ring of Light and an error message visible on the television. This error is unrelated to the three flashing red lights error and there is not a single root cause. We encourage anyone who receives this error to contact Xbox Customer support through www.xbox.com/support or 1-800-4-MY-XBOX."

Since the release of Xbox in 2005 there have been many articles in the media about the Xbox 360's high failure rates. Recently, there has been legal action taken attempting to hold Microsoft responsible for the failure rate among the Xbox 360 and provide reasonable compensation for those affected.

We're outraged at Xbox (Microsoft) about the poor quality of their product and their poor customer service. So we are urging our readers to avoid purchasing the product. Save your money, that's the tie into SolidPlanning.com!

If you have already made the purchase, you should buy the extended service agreement even though it feeds the company additional dollars it s the right choice for now since statistics show you will need it in the suture. Reduce your risk, that's an additional tie into SolidPlanning.com!

Oh and once again, we urge our readers to call Xbox support at 800-469-9269 and ask for Claudia. She will not assist you, and she will not make you feel better however she is a perfect example of Xbox and Microsoft's poor quality commitment and poor customer service so please tell her what you think. Oh and please tell Claudia we said hello.

Hard Times: Part Two - CEO to Pizza Delivery

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:07:00 +0000

In a prior article, Hard Times: Part One, we wrote about a story found on Yahoo.com about a Florida man who lost his CEO job and now delivers pizza. Here's a follow up article:

The man apparently used his house as equity when he tried to establish a hedge fund. Once the market soured he lost his business and in a domino effect he also lost his house. It sounds like the man did not have enough money saved to start a business nor did he properly plan for the business.

We also found it interesting that the man indicated on job interviews before his business collapsed he "probably" came across as a jerk because he wanted to see if the "firm was worthy" of him. What's interesting about this is that we believe every person being interviewed should also be interviewing the potential employer to ensure the job and the company are an appropriate fit. However in this case it sounds like the man was arrogant in prior job interviews so we wonder about this management style as well as his personality.

So what happened? ABC news ran a story about the man and shortly thereafter the station received emails and calls from people wanting to offer the man a job. A follow up story indicated that some of the offers were not much better than pizza delivery however some were executive positions with executive salaries. Amazing!

We knew something was clearly wrong with the story when we read it on Yahoo.com and wondered why he could not find a job that uses his skills and experience. It appears that the man did have another motive in mind: He used the power of the news, the press, and websites like ours, to market to thousands, perhaps millions, of potential opportunities. He bypassed other job candidates, and the interview process completely, with a compelling story and apparent humility.

So poor planning and past arrogance a side, mass marketing yielded him fantastic results. Sounds like the man was using some of his skills and experience after all!

Xbox, Some Heat from Yahoo

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:26:00 +0000

Glad to see Yahoo and Joystiq.com are on the case. Perhaps now the continued poor quality of Xbox consoles will get addressed.

We believe they need some Customer Service help as well. Right Claudia?

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/is-quot-e74-quot-the-xbox-360-s-new-red-ring-of-death-/1299076

Hard Times: Part One

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:37:00 +0000

Recently I came across an interesting article on Yahoo.com that shows a Florida man that went from "CEO to Delivering Pizza." The article states that at one point he made around $750,000 per year and now he's making $7.29 per hour.

Something is clearly wrong with this story. Why he can't find a job that uses some of his skills and experience? Seriously, your telling me a man with an MBA from UCLA can not land a management or consulting job? The economy in Florida is bad but it's not that bad.

It just doesn't add up. Has he given up? Is there another motive? I plan to follow this story to better understand it. I also plan to use the story as motivation to drive awareness for planning.

Life has challenges and we must face them head on to reach our goals and dreams. We can not let hard times keep us down and we must plan for these hard times. Plan to work and work the plan to be successful!

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=12582289&ch=4226720&src=news

Don't waste your money on Xbox

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:39:00 +0000

We admit the games are great, unfortunately Xbox 360 appears to have significant quality issues. For example, both of our consoles have experienced an E74 error. (E74 is the error code which is displayed on the screen.) One console broke about 9 months after it was purchased. We had it repaired and it broke again within another 6 months. Our other console broke within 12 months of purchase. That's a total of three E74 errors within 15 month period. Now that's quality issues!

We called Xbox to complain about the quality of their product and we were informed that they would happily repair the console for a fee of $100.00. Remember, that's just 3 months after the warranty expiration date and after it was already repaired once before. Some how we should pay for their poor quality?

I spoke with a young lady at Xbox named Claudia who identified herself as a Supervisor. Claudia could do nothing for me except explain that they would not repair my console unless I paid the $100 service fee. I asked Claudia about the difference in one red ring verses three rings and again, she could do nothing for me except explain the three ring issue has a three year warranty and the one ring issue has a one year warranty. Gee, Thanks Claudia, you're definitely supervisor material.

So here's our suggestion for potential Xbox customer's don't waste your money! If you have already wasted your money on Xbox you should immediately call Xbox at 800-469-9269 and purchase a one year warranty. If your warranty has expired unfortunately your out of luck and Xbox will not assist you. However we have a suggestion for you as well: Call Xbox, ask for Claudia, and suggest a new war game about a huge battle against a corporate giant with poor quality, poor service, and mean drones that do nothing but spout corporate talk. Oh, and tell Claudia we said hello.

Solid Planning Followers Gadget

noreply@blogger.com (SolidPlanning.com) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:45:00 +0000

We have enjoyed 178 page views from January 1 through February 28 and we're pretty proud of these statistics. Becase of these statistics we have decided to add the Followers gadget to our page.

It's a little scary adding a gadget that shows no followers so we would like to quickly change that. If you like our site please include us in the sites you follow. Thank you! SP:)