What I’m Reading: Still Paying Comcast Edition
While I ponder whether or not I’m going to do anything about Comcast charging me $90/month for internet and one channel (the Discovery channel, everything else I get is a broadcast or PBS station and could be picked up without cable), here’s what I ‘ve been reading this last week.
Over at the Money Principle, John talks about being a baby boomer, and what that means to him in these uncertain financial times.
Super Frugalette shares why they are opting to fund their retirement over paying down debt faster. (I agree with this decision.)
Me at Stonehenge - be jealous
Jana of Daily Money $hot is one of my favorite bloggers and people in general. Besides her own great work, she features so wonderful guest posts, including a great one on Thursday from S at American Debt Project. So, yes, I will admit it- I am jealous of you, Jana.
Hank, from Money Q&A takes a moment to tell us about himself. I’m going to have to do one of these posts, soon, I think. But let me say three things to Hank. 1) Thank you for sharing. 2) Thank you for serving- my father and brother both served in the Army (armored cav and space command respectively), so I have a soft spot for Army guys. 3) Dogs are wonderful, and I have never met an English Bulldog that wasn’t sweet as could be, but please, please, please, contact me or do lots of research before you get one. They (sadly) have lots of health issues and can be some of the most every day work intensive dogs to own. (And by this I mean they need their bottoms wiped after potty breaks.)
My father, sometime in the early 70s
While I knew Jana before joining Yakezie, I’ve also met some wonderful bloggers since then. Average Joe and Money for College Project have become two of my favorite sites because I enjoy their writers so much. I have quite a bit in common with both of them, and love what they do.
This week, Average Joe finished up his College Planning series with Why He’s a Upromise Fanboy and Money for College Project talked about Financial Aid for Older Students. Given that C is in school for the foreseeable future, I should maybe be paying attention to these things.
And finally, I want people to know that I pay attention to where people find my blog. I noticed last week that I had gotten some folks coming over from a place called the Mr. Money Mustache forums- in fact, I was listed as one of the blogs someone over there follows. (Thank you, DC, whoever you are.) This made me happy (it really doesn’t take much), and I decided to check out the Mr. Money Mustache blog. I must say, I really enjoyed the compare and contrast between MMM and Tim Ferriss (author of the 4 Hour Work Week, in case, like me, you had no idea who that was.)
Last Sunday's dinner- made by J (now really be jealous)
When did you go to Stonehenge? I am jealous and I want to hear all about it!
March 2008. My MBA required that I have an international experience (paid for by my tuition), and I chose Ireland. Because they knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for most of us, they didn't mind of we messed with dates a little bit for our plane tickets. So, C and I went to England for a week before I then went over to Ireland for my class thing. We only had to pay his airfare, and a couple nights in hotels in London, then we headed out to a timeshare in Devon (love timeshare exchange programs), stopping a Stonehenge on the way.
Our digital camera had actually broken in London, and we were at Stonehenge without. We finished walking around and entered the gift shop, nearly in tears, I asked C if we could buy one of the ridiculously overprices disposable cameras because I just couldn't visit Stonehenge and not get pictures. He agreed and we went back out and took pictures.
We later bought a new digital camera from the store we did our grocery shopping at there. (I mentioned I love timeshares- buy groceries, make 2/3 of your meals at "home")
What a cool MBA program. Did you enjoy Ireland?
I did. I would have liked it more if C could have been there for that part, but Knowth in the Newgrange complex was amazing, as was the Portal Tomb.
I am curious what class were you taking?
It was a requirement of the MBA program that we do a week long international experience. I didn't take a specific class while I was in Ireland, but the professor who put together the Ireland experience was a marketing professor, so we focused on marketing, but we also met with some folks from one of the Irish universities and had a lecture on economics in Ireland at the time, and met with one of the members of the Irish Parliament and discussed the challenges of international businesses in Ireland.
It was in 2008, so it was still the Celtic Tiger. The recession hadn't quite hit them yet.
Haha! I'm jealous of all fun, international travel 🙂 although I definitely prefer tropical. Ireland for your MBA experience- WOW. That sounds beautiful.
It was, though early/mid March isn't exactly the best weather in England and Ireland. Our last day in England- when we saw Woodhenge, West Kennett Longbarrow (with view of Silbury Hill), Avebury, the Uffington Horse, and Waylan's Smithy (another barrow)- it snowed on us in the morning, cleared up, and then started snowing on us again on our last trek back to the car. Definitely not tropical.
Ireland was gorgeous in the spring, but also windy and chilly.
Thanks for the mention and for the kind words. I really appreciate it. I've heard that before about Bulldogs, and I will definitely be emailing you for advice before I get one.
Personality/temperament wise they are great dogs, but physical health wise, I actually think the breed should be abolished. I know that sounds mean, but when you've made it so that natural birth is not possible, you've gone too far. (All English Bulldogs are born via c-section, as their heads are too big for the birth canal).
Thanks for the mention!
First thanks for the mention. Every generation has its problems but I think ours (baby boomers and later) pale into insignificance compared to the problems of earlier generations, particularly those who lived through 2 world wars – and those that didn't survive of course! I wrote the piece because many in Gen X and Y seem to get the idea that we have been greedy!
Anyway I hope you enjoyed Ireland and a belated welcome to England! It sounds a good course you have there.
We loved our time in England, and I enjoyed Ireland tremendously. We very much hope to make it back again. Our timeshare was in Devonshire, so we mostly saw London and the southwest- there's so much more we want to see.
You know me too well to be jealous of me so you cut that out right now 🙂 ! I am super jealous of you and your visit to Ireland and Stonehenge and all of that.
Thanks for mentioning ADP's guest post!
You are just going to have to deal with the fact that I am totally jealous that you have a plan to stop working a day job and write full time and are making it work. You're even going to be published in a book. Yep, jealous and going to remain so. :-p
Your pictures of food are driving me nuts. I'm eating at your house from now on, period.
When did you go to Stonehenge? We rented a car from London and drove to Bath then hit Stonehenge on the way home. It was going to be open for another 15 minutes and they wanted full price to go in….so I have some awesome pics of it through the fence with our zoom lense so it looks closer.
An extra bonus: I only drove on the wrong side of the road twice.
Next week there's going to be a picture of the tirkey chili over rice with a side of corn bread that we had for dinner last night.
Stonehenge was March 2008. We went to Bath on that trip, too. I think the day after we saw Stonehenge. We paid for something that was like a month long visitor's pass to historic site in Britian. It wasn't that much more expensive than just Stonehenge, and it saved us parking/entrance fees at locations like Avebury, as well.
C did all the driving. We never went on the wrong side of the road, but we did lots of driving down roads that were only one lane wide (pull off into the fields at corners to let other people pass), so that helped. We did keep going to the wrong side of the car to get in, though.