The last you heard from me, I was renting an apartment, having come a long way from my humble origins as a graduate teaching assistant in the upper Midwest. It is my duty to inform you that much has changed once again. A few months ago, my wife and I packed our belongings, including our rabbit, and moved five hours away to drought-stricken south Texas. Why did we move? I ended up changing jobs – I’m still a professor, but I landed a job at a different university, and I feel damn lucky to have done so. My previous job was tolerable, but not great, but I’m much happier with where I have landed. Most of all, I simply feel lucky to have a job at all, and I feel great sympathy for those who are looking for work. My wife has found nothing but occasional part-time for for over two years now, so we know how hard the search process can be. My best wishes to all those seeking employment….

Back to the topic at hand: we left our old apartment at the end of July 2011 and moved into our new house in south Texas. Yes, we bought a house. Interest rates and housing prices have trended downward so much this year that we decided it prudent to go ahead and buy a house. This is on top of the house that we still own in the Midwest (which I may refinance soon – stay tuned for details). In any case, I locked in a 15-year fixed mortgage at 3.625% back in early August with Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Between locking the rate and actually closing on the house, rates continued to trend downward, but what can you do? I’m still pretty happy with the rate we got, and I have no plans to refinance our current mortgage unless I can find a no-closing-cost loan. To be continued…..

Lifestyle Inflation?

So, here I am in a major city, in a new job, and marveling at how much time has passed since I finished graduate school. I remember the promise that I made to myself that I would try my best to continue living like a poor graduate student. So, how’s that promise holding up? Not too bad, actually. My wife and I did have to buy a second car – that’s the reality of living in a major city; I can’t walk or bike to work anymore. To our credit, it is a used car with low mileage. And…. we did have to buy a bunch of stuff related to moving into our house, but in our day-to-day lives, I’d say we’re doing pretty well. We rarely go out to eat and we tend to buy things in bulk at Costco, but we still enjoy some of the finer things in life, such as good cheese, whole-bean coffee, and an occasional glass of good wine.

Yes, I’d say we spend more than we did as graduate students, but only to the point that’s reflective of climbing out of poverty. I’m a tightwad in general, but I don’t mind spending money on travel and good food, as we find these items and experiences worthwhile. On the other hand, we still have most of the same furniture that we did in graduate school, and we still don’t own a television, and we still have our old Sprint SERO cell phone plans (though our contract is coming up for renewal soon and I have to decide how to proceed from here). Overall, I’d say we’re earning a B+ with regard to my original promise: there’s room for improvement, but we’re doing alright.

Future Plans

Where to go from here? I plan to stay in my current job for as long as I can. My wife is still seeking employment, and there’s talk of having a child in the near future. We’ll see how that goes. I DO plan to take a more active role in updating this site, dear reader, and I apologize for my neglect.

Much has changed in the political and investment landscapes in the last few years, and I have much to say in that regard, but will save it for future posts. For the time being, I’ll just say that Mr. B is back, and I’ll have a few things to say about these matters soon enough.

As always, thanks for reading.

~ Mr. B

(This is a guest article by Alban Guillemot.)

A favorite point of contention with voters the world over is to chastise their governments for their spending and inevitable budget deficits. However, before we start throwing stones at government spending, it is worth taking a look at the glass houses many nations have built around themselves with personal, household debts.

Some nations have always been leaders in personal debt thanks to a consumerist society while others have powered ahead in recent years, having been lulled into larger mortgages by lower interest rates and by forgetting to control their credit cards as well. Of particular note are the nations whose household debts exceed GDP, as nations who as a whole spend more than they earn are on track for internal financial crises, just as the effects of the global crisis subside. To this end, some of the world’s worst debts include Britain, Australia and Switzerland, countries which touted their survival of the GFC, exemplify their low government debts and yet can’t stick to a budget of their own.

The United Kingdom

The picture of household debt in Britain has not been looking good for some time. In 2007, Britons had already accumulated so much debt that it exceeded the value of the country’s economy. With gross domestic product only reaching £1.33 trillion and £1.35 trillion outstanding on mortgages, credit cards and personal loans, this was the first time the citizens of the UK owed more to their banks and creditors, than the value of everything produced by the country. Consumer debt accounted for £1.131 trillion and personal loan and credit card debt was £214 billion.

In 2007, this meant that each individual owed £1,344,721,000,000, however the independent financial analyst Datamonitor has predicted that the total number of Britons who are blacklisted will jump by 20% by 2011 to 8.6 million people.

In 2008, families in the UK owed 173% of their incomes in debts which put the UK debt to income ratio higher than any other country in the Group of Seven leading industrialized economies. Five years earlier Britons had owed just 129% of their incomes.

These figures were the precursor to show an economic slowdown for the UK as a debt burden of 173% of household income even exceeded Japan’s figures at the 1990 peak, which was before what has now been a decade of deflation. The outlook for GDP in 2009 expected it to slow to just 0.5% increasing the chances of a technical recession.

In June 2010, Britain was just one of two countries whose household debt exceeds its GDP, coming in second place behind Switzerland.

Australia

The Australian Government did not have to bail out any of its banks, and there are fewer job losses and foreclosures in Australia after the Global Financial Crisis, leading its leaders to constantly remind the world how they avoided the brunt of the GFC and now have a healthy and growing economy.

However, Australians have the highest personal debt levels in relation to their disposable income, compared to anywhere in the world. In January 2010, each Australian adult was in debt to the value of approximately USD $56,000, where American adults had just USD $44,000 of personal debts each. Mortgage, credit card, and personal loan debts in Australia totals more than AU $1.2 trillion, which is a 71% increase from the previous five years.

This is also the first time for Australians that personal debt has exceeded GDP where debt has risen to 100.04% of the annual gross domestic product. Australians enjoyed emergency level interest rates for some time, and at the same time were encouraged by government stimulus packages to get into the property market, and keep spending – which they did, meaning many families are now heavily indebted and are going to struggle to make it out as their repayments and interest rates rise. Unfortunately, they have a poor example set by the government whose stimulus packages were some of the biggest in relation to the population at AU $42 billion, but have left the government with a large deficit.

While 2008 may have begun to show debt levels and disposable income levels coming closer, the ratio of debt to income is around 156% in Australia today, mainly due to the mortgage and housing boom encouraged by significant first home owner grants. In April 2010 the Reserve Bank of Australia revealed that the total outstanding mortgage debt in Australia was $1.1 trillion and personal debt was around $141 billion.

However, the levels of personal debt in Australia will not go unnoticed and could not only lead to a personal credit crisis for many families but a national one as well. Almost 30% of the funding for Australian banks comes from the global markets. Therefore, if investors become overly concerned about the debt levels, Australians could see credit tighten as funds are harder to come by.

Switzerland

Switzerland are in the unique and somewhat hypocritical position of having the highest level of personal debt in relation to GDP, but one of the lowest government debts. As a member of the European Union, Switzerland is part of the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact, which is designed to enforce fiscal discipline by setting deficit ceilings for members, where Brussels has the right to warn and sanction countries who violate these limits.

For the past decade the Pact has been able to strengthen the financial markets of the euro area, and as a result convinced markets that the bloc could manage fiscal and economic differences amongst its members. However, the GFC shook up this stability and single currency members such as Greece, Portugal and Spain are now under pressure due to increased deficits, leading economists to look for new ways to strengthen or replace the pact.

The Swiss President, Doris Leuthard, has been able to keep her country’s economy in line with the bloc’s Maastricht Treaty which requires countries to keep total debt under 60% of GDP and the public deficit below 3% and even though Switzerland is not a part of the European Union, Leuthard wants the bloc to succeed by taking a lesson from her figures.

Switzerland has a debt level of 39% of GDP and is doing its part to foster an economically credible Europe. However, 24 of the 27 EU member states are under the European Commission’s excessive deficit procedure, after exceeding budget limits under the Stability and Growth Pact. As a result, the value of the euro has been shaken, and for the EU to bail out Greece, a 750 billion euro safety net has been set up with the IMF to help any other member state who needs it.

At the same time, the Swiss have the greatest percentage of household debt to GDP across Europe, Asia and the Americas at almost 120%, as illustrated by the first chart in this article.

If there was ever a time for a reality check on debt levels, it is now, as families and individuals are still picking up the pieces of their lives and their finances after realizing they can’t live week to week, paycheck to paycheck, because that does not account for emergencies like job loss or foreclosure. Therefore, every nation and every individual needs to look at their debt levels in relation to their income and find ways to be financially independent and live within their means.

About the author: Alban is a personal finance writer at Home Loans Finder, which helps people find a mortgage broker.

Being someone of generally nice temperament, I stopped walking and allowed the man to catch up to me. Yeah, this was probably my first mistake, but I’m a pretty big guy and not easily intimidated. Plus, I had no idea if his intentions were friendly or hostile. For all I knew, maybe something fell out of my bag and he was retrieving it for me. At worst, I thought, maybe he’s going to try to sell me something.

I was wrong. After a brief formality he launched into a sob story about how he had just moved to town from Nebraska with his wife and mother and how they were completely destitute. Can you spare any money for some food and milk, he asked. Any little bit will help, we’re in dire straits.

It’s not everyday that I run into someone begging for money. I live in a major university town, but the total population is under 100k people. Occasionally we have few homeless people show up in our downtown area, but I’ve lived here for five years, and this was the first time someone solicited me for money far away from downtown. I admit that it caught me off guard. I had braced myself for him to start some kind of sales pitch, but not for this. Maybe he really had a destitute family and was merely trying to find them some food. Though he was unshaven, he certainly wasn’t dressed like a total bum.

Now, I’ve never lived in the heart of a big city, so I’m not cold and insensitive to requests for help from others, but I’m not about to open my wallet to any random guy on the street asking for money. As he unfolded his sob story before me, my mind weighed two options:

1. Believe his story and try to help.
2. Walk away.

I thought that if I went with the first option, there was still no way I would open my wallet in front of him and give him money. The possibility for outright theft would be just too great. Instead, the nearest grocery store was only a block or two away, and I thought that maybe we could walk there and I would buy some food and milk for him and his family.

I had almost settled on this option when I noticed it – his breath reeked of alcohol.* At that instant I no longer believed his sob story. More likely he was just a wandering alcoholic – still worthy of pity, but not of a handout.

Immediately, I launched into a story of my own about how I’d love to help him, but I’m just a poor grad student who struggles to pay the bills each month. I had no need to embellish the truth since my current salary is only a mind-blistering 8k a year… until this September, anyway.

He appealed once or twice more for money, but I firmly resisted and wished him luck. He thanked me anyway and wandered off, no doubt in search of a cash infusion from someone else.

Perhaps I should have bought some groceries for him anyway, but if he really needed the food, the least he could do is sober up before asking for help from strangers.

–

* Just for the record, I’m not opposed to the thought of alcohol. I grew up in the Deep South, and many people I knew considered alcohol evil, an idea I find ridiculous. I thoroughly enjoy a good ale or a bottle of wine occasionally, but it’s only bad if you let it control you. Some people let Diet Coke control them, which I find just as bad.

I suppose I’m a hypocrite, though. Coffee has a pretty solid grip over my emotions in the morning.

My hope is that you are able to devote time to friends, family, and other loved ones this time of year. This past year has been rough financially, and I know that my own meager portfolio is down much more than I care to consider.

Still, none of that is important right now. Happiness is not measured in net worth, but instead, in friendship, love, and memories.

My wife and I are sharing Christmas with only each other this year, since we live quite far from any relatives. That’s our tree in the picture? Like it? It’s our living, economical Christmas tree.

Yep, there are a few presents under it, all shipped in from the in-laws. Due to our status as poor grad students, my wife and I agreed months ago that we were not buying any presents for each other. Instead, we will likely curl up together on the couch with a blanket and some hot chocolate. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier.

Best wishes, warm greetings, and Happy Holidays!

• Dollar Savings Direct – for keeping their 4% APY despite the Fed’s slash-and-burn habit.
• ShareBuilder – for giving me a nice $50 bonus.
• Jim – (the Bankrupt Man) – for allowing responsible people to make money off of credit cards.
• Dow Jones Industrial Average – for having four green days in a row. It’s a miracle! My retirement portfolio is still deep underwater, though.
• General health and happiness – Just being alive is a tremendous gift.
• My wife – for her extraordinary love and patience while we suffer through this low-income period of our lives.

And of course… to my dear readers! Thank you for the feedback, support, and comments! Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

No longer! Gadget lovers, you can now read my latest entries by pointing your mobile browser to:

http://m.interestingmoney.com (no www)

Don’t have a mobile browser? That’s ok. Go ahead and click that link in a regular browser. You will see a slick demo of exactly how the site appears on a mobile phone. There’s even an illustrious iPhone preview.

For those interested, I set up the mobile version using the free MoFuse service. Essentially, all you have to do to create a mobile version of your own blog is to create an account with them and give them a link to your RSS feed. They handle the rest, including automatic image resizing (no more horizontal scrolling).

MoFuse even has a revenue-sharing program. In exchange for their service, they split your AdMob or Mobile Adsense impressions in a 50/50 ratio. Considering that it only took me about 20 minutes to get my mobile site running, I’m fine with this.

There are a few other similar services available, such as Mippin Maker, but I ultimately went with MoFuse because I liked the resulting layout better. If you have a self-hosted website or blog, I encourage you to create a mobile version, no matter what method (or service) you choose to create it.

By the way, TipsFor.us has a neat article on setting up an automatic Contacts and Calendar sync for Windows Mobile phones using Thunderbird and Google Calendar, all for free. It’s a fairly-intense setup, but it could save you a few hundred dollars if you dislike (or can’t afford) Microsoft Outlook.

Two quick tips for new MOTO Q owners:

• Enabling Internet access – my phone would not connect to the Internet until I updated my PCS Vision Profile. To do so, go to Start → Settings → keep choosing the “More” option until you reach the PCS Vision Menu. Now choose option C – Update Vision Profile. Once updated, my Internet access started working.

• Finding the Underscore key – While the QWERTY keyboard is awesome, where the heck is the underscore key? To find it, press the ALT key (on the left side of the keyboard) followed by the CAP key (right side of the keyboard). This will spawn an Insert Character screen, and the underscore key is the first symbol that you can choose.

I hope these two tips help someone.

In frugal fashion, check out our economical “living” Christmas tree. Yes, there are more presents around it now.

(click to enlarge)

Not only do we get to use it year-after-year, we can feel good about ourselves for not killing a tree! Best of all, we paid for the tree using a gift card provided by Citibank (as part of a credit card sign-up bonus).

Best wishes to you all. Enjoy your Holiday season!

800-293-1621

After scratching my head for a few minutes, I realized this is the phone number for the E-Trade security department, and as a result of my wrestling match with them earlier this year, I’m currently the top hit for that particular search query.

etrade bankrupt

Really? That’s one I haven’t heard yet. But hey, I read it on the internet, so it must be true!

disregard information sent in error

Sure thing, boss. Consider it disregarded. Oh, I’ll have those TPS reports to you by five.

who owns fnbo direct?

That’s a good question. Are there any other questions? Perhaps you should feast your eyes on their executive profiles page.

apology for email sent

Apology accepted!

i have to drive a crappy car

Sorry to hear that, though I wish you’d explain why it causes you so much consternation. Actually… wait, is that you, Jim?

Junk mail is a problem. Not only does it create a tremendous waste of wood and water to produce, but most of it is transferred straight from our mailboxes to a landfill.

Perhaps you are lucky and barely receive any junk mail, but if you’re like most of us, you receive several pieces a day. No thank you BoA, I don’t want a loan for my child’s education (which is especially funny since I have no children). No thanks, Terminex. Don’t call me, I’ll call you. What’s this? A group who will pray for me if I pay them $20? Um… I’ll pass.

So, that begs the question:

For myself, I have arrived at the perfect answer. My wife and I own a house, and especially when the weather cools we like to sit on our back porch next to our lovely fire pit. All the junk mail that we receive, plus the remains of legitimate mail, become kindling for a nice evening fire.

There is nothing quite like sipping a glass of red wine while basking in the warm glow of all of those magazine and worthless credit card offers.

To be fair, I always scan the junk mail, as some of my best credit card sign-up bonus offers have been in the form of targeted mail. Anything that fails inspection goes straight to the burn pile!

As an ancillary benefit, I can take the ashen remains of the junk mail and use it as fertilizer for our garden.

So, dear reader, what do YOU do with your junk mail?