Personal Interest - Latest Comments

Re: Mental health and personal finance: What to read, what to watch

William Blake — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 05:19:38 -0000

these are good options but if we can learn managing money then we keep stress away from us.

Heritage Resp

Re: 529 plan for college tuition savings more than meets the eye

William Blake — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 05:49:49 -0000

i read about 529 plan on many sites but here i came to know different aspects of this plan. great info!

Heritage Education Funds

Re: Getting Away From Your Timeshare

Charles Berger — Tue, 28 May 2013 14:14:48 -0000

Nice article! timeshare ownership has consistently been known for three things: beautiful properties, incredible destinations and FRIGHTENING sales practices. Nevertheless, the reason for owning a timeshare has never changed – people simply want to spend quality time with their family and friends. Unfortunately, after being deceived by their developer, the majority of timeshare and vacation ownership owners have forgotten why they purchased a timeshare in the first place. They find themselves scratching their heads trying to figure out how they wound up deep in debt and angry over the process that landed them there. This is a good article about the REAL value of timeshares:

http://www.timesharescam.com/b...

Re: Guide to buying a hamster

Dwarf Hamster Blog — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:09:22 -0000

This is a good guide for people considering hamsters as pets. I think knowing that hamsters are nocturnal is important before getting one. I see people complaining about their hamsters keeping them up at night / sleeping all day because they don't know / didn't do their research before getting one as a pet.

However, dwarf hamsters are omnivores, not herbivores. In the wild, insects are part of their diets and when kept as pets, they can also be given mealworms and crickets from the pet store (as treats) although not many people do that because the bugs make people queasy (and it doesn't help that hamsters have been known to store half a worm in their cheek pouches if there's too much to finish!)

Re: Guide to buying air conditioners

Emily Victor — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:41:46 -0000

Good one, When we decide to purchase a air condition we need to think some think about this. We must check size of our home and then go to shop. Big house needs big air condition.

Re: Set up price alerts for anything on Craigslist with IFTTT

Dave — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:32:36 -0000

I hadn't realized you could do that. Pretty cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.

I'm the founder of JiSu, an online shopping assistant (www.jisushopping.com). I just blogged today about how to use Jisu to set up wish lists/shopping carts in Craigslist (http://www.jisushopping.net/bl.... I'd love for you to check it out and here your thoughts in using JiSu for Craigslist or just in general. Thanks.

Re: New Fund created to support victims of Boston Marathon explosions

Sagar Parida — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:56:38 -0000

EarN mONEY

Re: New Fund created to support victims of Boston Marathon explosions

Sagar Parida — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:54:11 -0000

Re: Let the kid study music, already

devin fox — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:33:22 -0000

im a freshmen in highschool and i basiclly fail every test put in front of me i dont see myself going into anything other than music\singing but my parents are school teachers and they know i love singing and want to make a career out of it but my grades are horrible its getting so bad im thinking about dropping out and joining a band

Re: Let the kid study music, already

IanO — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:07:03 -0000

I co-produced a short doc about local singers (aged 9 to 16) 303 Choir collaborating with Ian Cooke on his song Rover.
Here is a short trailer: https://vimeo.com/60861887
and here is the full doc: http://www.openaircpr.org/node...
This seems like the perfect group to watch it. Enjoy!

Re: Divorce Mediation

Paul — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:00:13 -0000

HI Denisa,
Divorce mediation is a nice method to make settlements between the spouses. The mediator always stays as a neutral third party and listens to both the parties. Divorce mediation is helpful both before and after divorce but it fails if both the parties agrees for mediation and also if the reason behind the divorce is physical torture than also the mediation fails. Otherwise it works great most of the time.
Regards
Paul

Re: Is our credit-card culture denying kids a chance to practice math?

I love math — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:00:47 -0000

Ever have to figure out how your furniture will fit in the rooms of a new home? That's algebra and geometry. What about how much paint to purchase for a room? More math. Ever host a party and need to adapt a recipe, yep, even more math. It is so sad today to see clerks in the store who cannot make change unless the machine tells them what change they need to give. I've even seem some who struggle with figuring which coins to select to make the change.

Don't blame teachers, they've been forced to follow these new math curriculms or suffer bad performance reviews by their "teaching coaches". This commentator has it right, be a parent and ensure your children grow up know their basic math skills.

Re: Is our credit-card culture denying kids a chance to practice math?

Brian — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:46:13 -0000

If you wanna let em work on basic math just teach em Blackjack instead ;)

Re: Is our credit-card culture denying kids a chance to practice math?

Matt — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:38:30 -0000

Are kids getting more practice with percentages with credit card use? 20% tip on a 45$ tab. Go little Johnny. 9$. Good little Johnny. Remember counting change back is for basic kids calculating percentages is for accelerated kids.

Re: Is our credit-card culture denying kids a chance to practice math?

disqus_8AFfyGiWaT — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:12:32 -0000

no, have a smart enough teacher would help, they are rare today.

Re: Is our credit-card culture denying kids a chance to practice math?

NeonBlaqk — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:01:23 -0000

I'm the one out of the five and frankly I don't see what the fuss is about. Ok, I can calculate tips, double kitchen fractions, and the like, but it's not like I'm crippled in daily life by an inability to do post middle school level math. It's not like kids are going to starve as adults cause they can't double a recipe on paper. When's the last time you actually had to do a proper algebra problem in your head? Calculus? Trig? Unless you're an engineer, it's probably been a minute. With the rise of technology it will become even more of a waste of time for most kids to learn that sort of thing.

Re: Is our credit-card culture denying kids a chance to practice math?

Nancy — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:09:54 -0000

I am totally with you! The first place I noticed the lack of opportunity for practicing math skills was the bowling alley. I would love to keep score on the scoresheet and had to practice all kinds of math skills. As I got older and more competitive, every three frames or so I would calculate the best and possibly worst score depending on how I thought I could do. Between my childhood and my daughter's they installed the automatic score machine and my daughter did not have the opportunity I had to practice math skills. Of course, we could still look at the scoreboard and project our best scores, but it just wasn't the same as having to add every frame by hand and have everyone counting on you to add correctly.

Re: Divorce Mediation

James david — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 08:32:19 -0000

Your explanation is quit interesting and knowledgeable, my sister really need to read this article, her situation is quite difficult these days. Thanks buddy for sharing the content.

Re: Car vs. bus calculator: How much can you save on your commute?

Dave Burdick — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:41:59 -0000

I agree that population density doesn't make it easy in many parts of the city. I consider that a pretty significant hidden cost when looking at places to live.

Re: Car vs. bus calculator: How much can you save on your commute?

Dave Burdick — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:40:53 -0000

Thanks!

I do a lot of this stuff in spreadsheets to start with, too, and end up adding way more variables than would make sense for something for mass consumption.

Thanks for the feedback. As long as you're factoring in the value of your time, I'd ask this about the time spent on the bus, though -- is there something you could be doing with that time on the bus that you couldn't in the car?

And to be fair, I don't think I made any points about environmental impacts in my post, although a commenter here has done so.

If you feel like sharing the one you create, post it here and I'll tweet it out when I see it. Good luck!

Re: Car vs. bus calculator: How much can you save on your commute?

Gus — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:34:42 -0000

As an economics major I love this calculator! I do share some views below about the cost of ones time as a variable and how time bus can feel expensive for people who value their time at a premium.

The reason I'm writing is for constructive criticism I'm in the process of recreating this calculator in Excel so I can add in time as a variable. One thing I think needs a little more explanation is the distance traveled box. When you enter your commute in miles into the calculator above it needs to be entered as a one-way trip, not the round-trip distance or else the calculator will over estimate.

When doing my calculation my savings for taking the bus was $45 dollars per month. At my pay rate that's 3 hours of work a month in savings. Since getting to work on the bus takes 45 minutes where as driving takes 15, I lose about 30 minutes a day, 2.5 hours a week, or 10 hours a month, on the bus.

When I calculate my time as a variable I save around $105 dollars a month just on time spent walking to and from, waiting for, and riding on the bus. So If getting home in time for jeopardy is my priority, i think i'd rather drive.

After all that I want to say that I think this calculator is really great and your point about the environmental impacts of cars upon society is probably much more costly to everyone than any one persons time, rings very true.

Re: Mass Kickstarter love reminds us it’s OK to be inefficient with money sometimes

COLBY LEIGH — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 07:49:40 -0000

it contained on very imortent points and give me a right information

http://blog.seattlepi.com/theb...

Re: Car vs. bus calculator: How much can you save on your commute?

solo rider — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 13:49:10 -0000

The bus (RTD) is a joke. I get sick every time I ride it. No turn in for bus stops, so the bus has to stop in traffic to pick people up and make everyone else wait (WTF). The tram is OK but doesn't go were I need to go! and I still need to drive to the station. Also I've figured out a taxi or limo service ends up being cheaper and more convenient then your own car or public transportation,if you have a couple of people split the fare. That is normally what I end up doing when I'm on business trips to other large cities around the world. The problem with Denver and most other cities in the west is the population density is not conducive to economical operation of mass transit. Give the option I would rather drive myself even if I sit in traffic. at least I can sit in my own leather chair and listen to my music at a volume I like and sip my coffee with out someone asking me for dollar every two minutes. Cost of owning a car is cheap in the USA compared to the rest of the world.

Re: Car vs. bus calculator: How much can you save on your commute?

Dave Burdick — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:08:50 -0000

Time is definitely another issue, and how you spend it makes all the difference in the world. I usually tend to work email, or read for business or pleasure during my commute. If you're living far from public transportation, that's certainly something that makes it far less likely to be useful.

Re: Car vs. bus calculator: How much can you save on your commute?

Charlie Tarver — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:48:47 -0000

this is such an oversimplified comparison, . the cost of the automobile to the american society is one of the world greatest burdens. destruction of social connectivity, unbalanced use of natural resources, government subsidation creating non viable freemarket industry, degradation of environment and the associated medical cost.
thank you
just a thought or two i jotted down while enjoying the free time riding a bus EVERYDAY. oh yeah. add in the amount of productive time enjoyed by NOT driving and being chauffeured to and from work by the public transportation system .