Red Is A Flavor

While spending the day with my family at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park a few years ago, my bag which contained my wallet was stolen. 

I learned a few lessons that day:  first, spend the few dollars on the locker, and second, Disney is THE PLACE to have your wallet stolen (I'll explain the later in another post).

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From the time the bag was taken, to when I noticed it, was not more than 45 minutes.  So with the help of Disney security and the Orange County Sheriffs Office I was able to file a police report and call to cancel all of my cards in rather short order (or so I thought).

The Disney personnel did everything they could to help me figure out phone numbers to all of the credit cards that I had in my wallet, that I remembered, but in the back of my wallet, laid a card that I forgot, my HELOC line of credit.

We were staying in Orlando that entire weekend, so while I was upset by the wallet issue, I had thought that the crisis had been averted.  When we arrived home at the end of the weekend, a couple sobering messages were on voicemail.

Apparently, Countrywide (who I held my HELOC with) keeps a pretty watchful eye on these accounts.  They called to confirm charges that were being made in Kissimmee, FL for a few hundred dollars each, totaling over $1000.  I quickly told them what happened and contested the charges with no problems.  While the thief only ended up with a $1000 worth of electronics, it could have been much MUCH worse, as there was over $30,000 available in that credit line.

Back Up your Wallet

Unlike your flash drive, you cannot keep a functional copy of your drivers license, credit cards, etc., but you can keep a readily accessible facsimile using gMail, by simple doing the following.

1. Empty your wallet or purse
2. Scan the front and back of EVERYTHING
3. Email it to your gmail account

Now, if your purse or wallet is stolen, all you need is a Internet connection to retrieve the contents.  By scanning the back of all of the cards, you have every phone number you need accessible.

As credit cards are replaced or updated, I simply scan that card and reply to the original message to that it is now maintained in the original message's thread.

What makes this even better, is the fact that gMail has a mobile interface, which means you could look up the contents of your wallet on almost ANY cellphone.  In emergencies like these, paying a couple dollars for the data rate transfers (if you don't have an unlimited data plan) would be worth it in the long run.

If you utilize Google Apps for your Domain, you can even setup a emergency backup email account on gmail to hold this and other important documents.  It is like free, secure, offsite storage.

Thanks Google!

Image: The Magical Adventures of SJ & Brett... [via Flickr]

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In 1996, while in the military, earning below poverty level, my wife and I managed our pennies and nickels using the plain old checkbook register. When I was finally able to save up enough to upgrade my IBM PS2 to a flashy new Packard Bell XT, we noticed it came preloaded with Microsoft Money. Just out of curiosity, we gave it a try. Eleven years, thousands of transactions, dozens of banks later, we still use it, a new version obviously, but still reliable old MS Money.

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Through financial good times and bad, MS Money has helped us tremendously over the years. From budgeting to savings, it allowed us to instantly take a snapshot of our financial status, and tweak it as needed. It helped us get through a rough patch in 2000 that brought us nearly to bankruptcy, to currently managing our net worth. Most of all, it allowed us to track our spending trends over time; which is the REAL power of any financial management tool. This information empowers you, by showing you where and what you spend your money on, and how you can reduce it.

To call be a MS Money fan is an understatement, I'm more of a MS Money Evangelist, trying to convert everyone I know to some kind of financial management tool, be it Money or Quicken. I have friends that do not balance their checkbook, let alone track their spending. Some of which make more money (inflation adjusted), than we used to, and live at a lower standard of living than we did. Convincing them that money management is one of the keys to success, is difficult. I try to explain, that without knowing where their money goes over time, how can they possibly change their spending and savings habits? Without balancing your banks transactions, how can you be sure they are not making mistakes?

In the 10+ years that I've been using MS Money, I have caught dozens and dozens of errors by the banks. Some have benefited them, some me. Some small and some large enough to require drastic action. If you are not auditing your accounts, I will almost guarantee you've been screwed, probably a lot more than once.

While it bugs Jennifer, I love to look at our spending over long terms. I guess it is that Accountant in me, trying to escape. Check out the charts below. You will definitely see some trends that were out of our control.

Automobile Fuel 1997-2008

Medical Expenses 1997-2008

Food Expenses 1997-2008
(we added another mouth in 2000)

If you have not started managing your money using an automated system, start today. While it will feel painful for a few weeks or even months, you will quickly see the benefits.

• Microsoft Money
• Intuit Quicken
• Mint

Poll: How to do you manage your money? Submit your answers in the comments.

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Do you need a cheap and really effective method of cable management?  Here is how I did it using simple vinyl rain gutters from the home improvement stores.

I have three Ikea desktops in my home office, under each I put little eyelets about 6" apart and every 2-2 1/2'.  I then hung the rain gutter, cut to desk length, using 6" mini bungee cords.

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The gutter is large enough to hold cables, power strips and more.  All of the cables can be accessed simply by rotating the gutter slightly.  There is a little play between the gutter and desk, which allows cables to enter and exit the gutter at any point.

Total cost for 10-12' of cable management was less than $10.  Nothing can be seen unless you bend down and look.

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I'm chomping at the bit for Ikea to open in Orando this fall. In fact, I'm already putting together my shopping lists (note the plural).

Ikea offers free software that helps you layout your rooms in 3D, and make quick time of your list. That is my office (in the new house) to the right.

The software lets you customize the options, placement, etc. It then will show you your costs using the current prices from their catalog.

Check it out at http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/rooms_ideas/
office/download1.html

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If your house is anything like mine, the chore of setting up and taking down Christmas crap is a back-breaking event. This year my wife was recovering from a surgery so I had to come up with a way of getting the stuff down out of the attic without her. All I had was me and my six year old. Some of the boxes weigh over 75 pounds, so it was doubtful he was helping me much.

I came up with the idea for a pulley system to raise and lower boxes out of the attic, using just a couple of scrap 2x2s, some rope, and a 100lb rated eyelet.

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Most trusses are 24" on center, so it was easy to make a mount that would just slip over the truss'. What makes this better, is the fact that the attic opening is also directly between truss'. To the right is a rough sketch of what I built (click to see it larger). It could obviously be enhanced with a block and tackle if need be, but for my purposes it works without it. Note that the rig is not permanently mounted to the truss, it simply is placed on top. This makes it easy to move where you need it or loan it to a friend.

Using this "attic-rig", I was able to quickly load the boxes into the sling in the attic, then lower it down. My six year old, easily guided the boxes to the ground, unhooked the sling, then pushed the boxes out of the way. We were able to unpack the attic in 1/2 the time in normally takes, and I didn't have to take aspirin afterward. Needless to say, the repacking of the attic will be using the same setup. Good luck!

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If you are not using one of the social bookmarking sites by now, please come out from under that rock. For those that have embraced it, here is an easy and neat trick. When you are browsing the net for the lastest and greatest widget to get, tag the pages with the word "WISHLIST". Be it Amazon, Ebay, Fairvilla, etc, it doesn't matter. Del.icio.us enables you to have one master Wishlist. Your friends and family can then quickly access your Christmas/Birthday/Graduation/whatever list, whenever.

Just remember to remove the items you do actually get!

Take a look at my WishList (Some of you guys might have to pool your money, to get the sailboat and piano for me)

If you are not using del.icio.us (or something simular)...wake up. You will quickly learn that there is much more to the Internet than MySpace and Porn.

http://del.icio.us/

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While digging around on my normal blog sites, I came across an interesting method of using a specially built image as your wallpaper to organize your desktop.

The concept is to section off your screen to store and group your icons. For instance for mine I created the following areas.

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• Open Desktop - blank area for general Windows applications.
• Active Documents/Projects - Duh! Provides quick access to your current projects.
• Temporary Use Files - I always save stuff on my desktop as I'm working on it. Especially quick save things when they are part of a multi-step process. Icons here get cleaned out at least once a week.
• Archive Storage - Here I store folders that contain data that I need accessible enough to not want to dig for it. Examples PDF books, MP3s, etc.
• Management Tools - As a developer and server administer, there are various tools I use all of the time. This block makes them easy to find.

Try it out.
[via LifeHacker]

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