Three Minutes Ahead
2 months ago
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Snow Day
I’m being optimistic by leaving that in the singular but I am sure it will end up being “snow days” instead. I am only measuring 2.5 inches. But some parts of the county look to have gotten more like 4 or 5.
Monday, January 15, 2018
Hamilton!
Eventually, anyway! I had originally wanted to take Joel to NY to see Hamilton for his 45th birthday in April, but procuring those tickets at this point would have necessitating paying somewhere between 2 and 4 times face value on the resale market, so instead I got on the ball for the block of tickets that goes on sale tomorrow to the general public for performances between mid August and mid- January. I signed up for the verified fan pre-sale through Ticketmaster, and was able to get an access code through their lottery system and scored tickets for the 2PM show on our anniversary, October 27th. I *think* the seats are pretty good, I selected "best available" and it came up with orchestra level, left of center stage, row L. Now I have like 9 months to plan the rest of the NYC weekend ;) Starting with where to eat dinner - Nobu again?? Decisions, decisions :) And as a footnote, YES I know the touring production of Hamilton will be right here in Charlotte next October - but getting those tickets for such a limited engagement and with so many tickets already having been set aside for season ticket holders seemed like it would probably be even harder than getting tickets for the NY show. Also, there's talk that they may not even put those tickets on sale until a couple of weeks before the show to try to put a damper on the illegal resale market, and if I waited that long to try to get tickets and couldn't get them I'd be sad, so sad LOL. This girl likes to plan things far in advance, in case you hadn't noticed. Hamilton, here I come! Later.
Lego Chewbacca
I won't lie, some tears were shed during assembly! Miss Becca needs to learn to be more patient, and to leave things for a while when they become frustrating and come back later. But, she was certainly happy when she was finished!
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Out with the Old and... Well, Just Out with the Old
One of my new year's resolutions is to stop wasting money / be more intentional about the ways we spend and save money. To this end, I have accomplished several things already this week.
1. Cancelled our 13 year relationship with DirecTV. We were spending over $200 a month on DirecTV and watching maybe 5 channels plus the Eagles games on the football package. I told Joel that next season he and Ben are going to have to find a bar to watch the Eagles games at. We signed up for Hulu Live TV instead, which is $40 a month and gives us live TV for most of the channels we used to watch on DirecTV, as well as access to Hulu's library of TV and movies. It's definitely going to take some getting used to, but considering that we already have Netflix and Amazon Prime video as well, I don't think there's any reason why anyone should have any difficulty finding something to watch :) While I was at it, I called our internet company and got them to increase our speeds while simultaneously dropping that bill by $40 a month as well. I also asked my boss to increase my internet stipend from $55 to $70 a month and he increased it to $75 a month :) I wanted to get rid of our landline phone line, but Joel wouldn't let me.
2. Cancelled our 20+ year relationship with American Express (sorry Dad!) We switched 95% of our spending to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card over a year ago, and since that experiment has gone well, there's no need to be paying a $175 annual fee on a card that we were using very little. The other up side to that is that the random monthly expenses like consumer reports, kindle Time magazine subscription, and a few other things that were going to that card that we don't even use won't be able to get charged now ;) Also cancelled a couple other subscriptions like New York Times digital subscription that had been $8 a month when I signed up but now is $16, and the Guitarjamz online music lesson subscription Joel had paid $19.99 a month for the last year and never used (ugh).
All in all my goal is to save an extra about $300 a month with the above, which I am going to start putting in a fund for the girls' bat mitzvahs.
I also had been researching 529 college savings plans and came across a few articles rating North Carolina's plan as neutral at best and since there's no tax break any more for NC residents contributing to an NC 529 plan, I decided to move the kids' funds to a plan with lower fees and better average returns. So I picked California's plan, and opened the accounts and submitted the rollover paperwork.
The next item on my to do list is to review my 401(k) fund allocation and make some changes there. At the moment I believe I have about 60% of the funds in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America, which did quite nicely for me this past year but it's probably a little risky to continue with that long term :)
1. Cancelled our 13 year relationship with DirecTV. We were spending over $200 a month on DirecTV and watching maybe 5 channels plus the Eagles games on the football package. I told Joel that next season he and Ben are going to have to find a bar to watch the Eagles games at. We signed up for Hulu Live TV instead, which is $40 a month and gives us live TV for most of the channels we used to watch on DirecTV, as well as access to Hulu's library of TV and movies. It's definitely going to take some getting used to, but considering that we already have Netflix and Amazon Prime video as well, I don't think there's any reason why anyone should have any difficulty finding something to watch :) While I was at it, I called our internet company and got them to increase our speeds while simultaneously dropping that bill by $40 a month as well. I also asked my boss to increase my internet stipend from $55 to $70 a month and he increased it to $75 a month :) I wanted to get rid of our landline phone line, but Joel wouldn't let me.
2. Cancelled our 20+ year relationship with American Express (sorry Dad!) We switched 95% of our spending to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card over a year ago, and since that experiment has gone well, there's no need to be paying a $175 annual fee on a card that we were using very little. The other up side to that is that the random monthly expenses like consumer reports, kindle Time magazine subscription, and a few other things that were going to that card that we don't even use won't be able to get charged now ;) Also cancelled a couple other subscriptions like New York Times digital subscription that had been $8 a month when I signed up but now is $16, and the Guitarjamz online music lesson subscription Joel had paid $19.99 a month for the last year and never used (ugh).
All in all my goal is to save an extra about $300 a month with the above, which I am going to start putting in a fund for the girls' bat mitzvahs.
I also had been researching 529 college savings plans and came across a few articles rating North Carolina's plan as neutral at best and since there's no tax break any more for NC residents contributing to an NC 529 plan, I decided to move the kids' funds to a plan with lower fees and better average returns. So I picked California's plan, and opened the accounts and submitted the rollover paperwork.
The next item on my to do list is to review my 401(k) fund allocation and make some changes there. At the moment I believe I have about 60% of the funds in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America, which did quite nicely for me this past year but it's probably a little risky to continue with that long term :)
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Since June 19, 2008