Saturday, July 31, 2010

The Boomer Blog

The Boomer Blog


FH Boom Daily Digest – July 30, 2010

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 05:13 AM PDT

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Calculating how much you need for retirement
Gail MarksJarvis
Chicago Tribune
July 29, 2010

Overview: "It's a shocking statistic: About 47 percent of early baby boomers and 44.5 percent of Generation Xers — age 36 to 45 — are on course to run short of money for basic living expenses like food and electricity in retirement, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute."
http://tinyurl.com/2avhq4g

Most unusual retirement communities: There's something for everyone
Aaron Crowe
WalletPop
July 29, 2010

Overview: "Baby Boomers and their children have moved more often and are spread across the country more, leaving retirees searching for a new sense of community and housing where they can be around people who share the same interests."
http://tinyurl.com/25qh4tn

Going Like Sixty

Going Like Sixty


ER or OR, Nancy Always Tries to Send Me Home.

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 11:22 PM PDT

Nancy has been an ER regular lately. First there was the hair-dye allergy and Wednesday it was a blood sugar and heat exhaustion attack.

She’s been an OR fairly regularly too the past twelve months.  Latest was Friday for three operations on her hand.

It Doesn't Hurt Like This

Blue Marks Indicate Cuts Doc Will Make

She had two trigger fingers released (ring and middle), her thumb joint removed and replaced with tendon taken from her arm to get rid of the arthritis, and scar tissue will be removed from a previous carpal tunnel surgery. She will be bowling by October. tyvm.

Since it was the day before her birthday, she asked everyone she came in contact with that she expected “Happy Birthday” to be sung to her in the OR

She’s a good patient. Especially, since I can always count on her to give me permission to leave her in a drug induced stupor laying on a gurney in the ER or recovery.

With nurses and docs coming and going, she eventually will murmur, eyes closed:

“You don’t have to stay, you can go home.”

No really! And I’m not one of those that paces or sighs heavily or keeps looking at the time. Really. I’m as supportive as I know how. I don’t even turn on the Tee Vee.  I don’t leave.

Who would come pick her up when she is dismissed?

So after 43 years of marriage on August 17, the next time she says I can leave her in an OR or ER, I think I’ll go to the cafeteria and have a ice-cream fudge brownie delight.

See, the thing is with the drugs or natural stupor, she won’t know I’m gone.  And when I come back, I’ll tell her I did go home. That will teach her.

When she puts me on a gurney with those daggers to my heart, I’ll tell her…

“You don’t have to stay, you can go home.”

Three Reasons to Love My Walk to the Mailbox

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 01:57 PM PDT

Remember when a walk to the mailbox used to be the highlight of the day? When everything important came by US Postal Service? Before Fed-Up? Before email, before IMing, before Facebook?

Now I only have three reasons to walk to the mailbox.

  1. It’s code to Oliver for “take a shit.”

    Oliver

    At noon, he will be all curled up on the sofa on his own special blanket and I have to say “Oliver! Go to the mailbox?” And if you know anything about dogs, you know the punctuation marks have to be in the right place. If I said, “Oliver, go the mailbox” he would just look at me. “Oliver? Go to the mailbox!” now that would piss him off and he would go shit by my computer. Same deal at 9 o’clock p.m.

  2. To pick up a Google check. Sweet. My money. All mine. All the way back to the house where I turn it over to my CFO and only see it when I take it to the bank to deposit.
  3. Mainly, I love my walk to the mailbox to get FREEBIES. There is so much stuff floating around on the innerwebs, there are entire websites built on telling me how to collect…

Today my walk netted me, two free samples for Bullseye BBQ Sauce (note: annoying autoplay sound): Texas and Memphis style. Why they didn’t send me their Carolina and Kansas City style is beyond me. And they don’t even make Kentucky style!

Yesterday, my walk rewarded me with two New Castle Brown Ale Pub Glasses.

My absolute favorite, most reliable, and goofiest webfreebiemaster is Goob at Hey, It’s Free. First, because he does a fantastic job of digging this stuff out and posting it quick (most freebies are gone very quickly) Second, he gives you tips that come in handy, like how to fill out a form written in Spanish:

Nombre – first name
Apellido – last name
Sexo – sex
Fecha de Nacimiento – date of birth
Dirección – address
Ciudad – city
Estado – state
Código Postal – zip code
Teléfono – telephone
Correo electrónico – e-mail

I’m contributing: Clavé – password and…

Means, A HA! you loco gringo, you think we don’t already know your nombre and direccion?

Think again el stupido lame-o, you think you are Pancho Villa?

Thank you.

I also like Goob because he puts the freebie right in his RSS feed with some suitable snark or quip.

Every package seems to have different freebies, so it's like a mystery as to what you'll get. Just imagine you're on a modern-day version of Let's Make A Deal and about to find out what you won. In fact, do that with every aspect of your life and you'll find that many everyday activities are enhanced.

And his website name sums up why I sign up for adult diapers, magazine subscription to Boating magazine, Eucerin Daily Skin Balance lotion, and two Kotex Lightdays pantiliners.

Hey! It’s FREE.

Just don’t go shooting your mouth of to everyone about HeyIt’sFree.NET, so far it’s Goob and me and you and a few others that know about what he’s doing.

Sign up for HeyItsFree.NET and start loving your walk to the mailbox.

Da Nada.

The Boomer Chronicles

The Boomer Chronicles


Friday Links Variety Show (July 30, 2010)

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 12:27 PM PDT

Relying on Social Security?

The economics of bicycling to work

Gay and Gray: a movie not to be missed

Friday, July 30, 2010

Consumer Boomer

Consumer Boomer


ShareBuilder Review: Another Great Online Brokerage Option

Posted: 29 Jul 2010 07:35 AM PDT

When it comes to picking the right brokerage account, the type of trader you are is crucial in your decision. ShareBuilder is an online broker that is part of the same parent company of ING. ShareBuilder was created to make automatic online investments through automated withdrawals from your existing accounts so that your savings will grow automatically. It's very similar to the way that an IRA or 401K is managed by your financial advisor.

Easy as Pie to Open an Account

Automated Withdrawals with ShareBuilder

Automated withdrawals can be used to your advantage in many different ways. For example, if you have ever owned a 401k or IRA, you may have noticed the deduction when you receive your pay stub at the end of your pay period. Your financial advisor set this up so that the deduction goes straight into your IRA or 401k which is typically a collection of mutual funds. These mutual funds are all made up of individual securities which commonly are shares of common stock. What ShareBuilder has created allows you to do the same thing except you are in control of your investment activities. You can set up this automated withdrawal from either an existing checking account, a deduction from your paycheck, wire transfer or by simply mailing a check. Upon setting up your account, you get to decide the frequency as well as the amount of these withdrawals's which will be automatically transferred into your ShareBuilder account. For example, if you receive$1,000 check bi-weekly, you can opt for $200 to be automatically invested into ShareBuilder. ShareBuilder will take whatever Equity, ETF, or Mutual Fund of your choosing and automatically invest the dollar amount. This gives you the opportunity to buy partial shares so that you can put the entire $200 into your account. At the most simplistic level, this is essentially creating your own IRA or retirement fund that you personally manage. The fees that you will be assessed depend on the account level you sign up for.

Different Accounts That ShareBuilder Offers

ShareBuilder offers three different account levels. They offer a Basic Plan, a Standard Plan as well as an Advantage Plan. The Basic plan has no monthly fee so it's free to start. When using the automated investment method with the Basic Plan, you will be assessed a $4 fee for every automated transaction, as well as $9.95 for all real time trades. You can trade Options with the Basic Plan as well for $9.95 per trade + $1.50 per contract. With the Standard Plan you will be paying $12 per month but 6 automated transfers per month will be assessed no fee. All automated transfers after 6 per month will be assessed a fee of $2. The real time trading fees as well as options fees are consistent with the Basic Plan. With the Advantage Plan, you will be paying $20 per month and receiving 20 free automated trades monthly. All additional automated transfers will cost $1, while real time trades as well as options will also be consistent with the Basic Plan.

Excellent Research

Like any other broker, ShareBuilder offers a variety of tools to its customers. They offer fund as well as ETF screener's and your typical market movers and watch lists. They also offer easy tax applications to keep track of your gains/losses throughout the year which you can easily export to typical tax software programs.

Conclusion

If you consider yourself to be a day trader, then ShareBuilder is not the online broker for you. Their real time trades as well as options fees at $9.95 are not attractive relatively to other online brokers. ShareBuilder however is a great option if you have a good feel to pick quality ETF's, Equities or Mutual Funds to invest in. By picking these quality investment tools you will be able to set up automated withdrawals from variety of sources to have your account grow steadily with only 1-4 dollar transaction fees dependent upon the level you subscribe to. By setting up your account with ShareBuilder you will be able to theoretically replace your financial advisor using your own skills and ShareBuilders easy automated system to steadily save for retirement without the approximate 1% fee given to your advisor on an annual basis. Setting up your SharBuilder account will take no more than 20 minutes, and requires no extra paperwork than any other financial account.

Baby Boomers U. S. (The Blog)

Baby Boomers U. S. (The Blog)


This Weeks Good Reads-Week Forty-eight

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 04:06 AM PDT

coffee cupEvery week I come across an article or two that I find very helpful to me as a Baby Boomer and think may be of some interest to you, the community, as well.

They may be from an online news source, another Blog or Website or something I found surfing around the Internet. They could even be something that was sent in by a reader of the Blog or a member of the Baby Boomer’s Forum.

Enjoy!

The Coming Crisis for Social Security by Ben Domenech… Like  many others, I feel there is little hope of ever seeing any Social Security or Medicaid benefits when I retire. What say you?

The Ugly Road to Social Security’s Current Problems by Allen W Smith… Every wonder how the country got into such a mess with Social Security? This commentary pretty much tells the whole story.

I  hope you found this weeks choice(s) helpful and enjoyable. What did you think? Do you have any suggestions for next week?

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