I found out that the vending company that supplies snacks at work also provides the coffee to the company at no charge. I was pretty surprised by that, but then again, considering the quality of the beverage, I'm thinking it is appropriately priced.
149 thoughts on “Cup of Coffee, 28 February 2014: You Get What You Pay For”
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Finally picked up Turbotax recently; after updating the big hitters, looks like it's going to be a wash. Not bad, although I prefer getting a few bucks back as a reward for my effort of filling it out.
This year I discovered the secret to getting a big refund: Don't make much and spend a lot.
Not sure it's worth it.
Big refunds are never worth it. It's an interest free loan to the government. I'd rather hold on to my money for as long as possible. My dad gets really worked up every April because I never file my taxes until the last day or the day before that. Hello. I'm not cutting that check until I have to.
I'm cool with making that loan to the government. But there's politics behind that, so I won't go further. Also, though I could make a small amount of interest on that money each year, I think the value of an annual lump-sum payment to me, which I then usually make very conscious spending decisions about, is probably higher than the small interest.
Right. I know we've had this conversation before, but I definitely think it comes down to personal preference. Plus, for me, getting a big refund makes it way, way easier to take the child tax credit and put it in the 529's.
Dude. I hope you have set up an automatic deposit to the 529s. I can't recommend that highly enough. Every month. Dollar-cost average that college saving, and harness the power of compounding as early as possible. Set and forget. [looks for some more cliches....]
Man, I reaaalllly need to start a 529.
Yes, yes you do. It is ridiculously easy, and some states give you an up-front tax break (I wish!) too.
Eh, parents paying for college only contributes to the inflating costs of education. I'm not gonna contribute to that.
Maybe so, but its probably too late to reverse the inflation trend by not helping them out. When I look at my student debt load (I got help from my mom) and my wife's (no help at all) from the same school, I get all depressed knowing that we'll never actually repay hers until long, long, long after mine are gone (if ever.)
EDIT: Crap, I think I was replying to snark, wasn't I?
The best snark is rooted in truth.
I see it as a future loan to my children. My parents got no help with education and didn't have the opportunity to attend a four-year college. I did thanks to them paying for room and board (i.e. letting me not move out) and I paid for tuition. It's my way to push the next generation a bit higher up and make their life a tiny bit easier.
Despite my earlier comment, this is almost exactly my thoughts on it.
or think of it as pre-paying inheritance!
bS - I like this comment...where's that damn thumbs-up button?
I guess my other thought is should avoiding school loans be the top investment priority for your children? My wife's mom didn't invest a penny in college, but spent thousands upon thousands of dollars sending my wife on trips around the world so she could get a ton of experiences and culture when she was young. She wouldn't trade that for anything.
I guess my other thought is should avoiding school loans be the top investment priority for your children?
Seems fairly impossible to really tell at the young age of many of our children, but that's the nice part about these 529 plans. They don't necessarily have to be used for college should h they decide it isn't for them when the time comes.
Ugh, that's on the part of my to-do list than I never seem to do anything about. Anyone know where I should even begin?
savingforcollege.com is the place to start.
also, the Dept of Ed's College Affordability and Transparency website is a great research tool. You can select schools there and see side-by-side comparisons of such things as sticker price and average net price (out-of-pocket). And then drill down to see more detail on net price for individual schools. As in, you can see average net price by income band.
As you guys know, I'm a proud grad of an expensive, fancy-pants school. I'm here to tell you that a lot of those schools are in fact affordable, thanks to massive discounting. They pretty much all exercise heavy price discrimination, farming the federal government for financial aid if you have relatively low income and resources, and hitting you harder if you have more money. I'm ok with that, even as I wish my school had a much bigger endownment so that I could pay less. (examples: the average net price in my income bracket is MUCH higher at Carleton than at comps like Williams, Amherst, and Claremont McKenna).
[edit: I meant to link to College Navigator as the search tool. Not finding the side-by-side comparison tool I was using yesterday]
ahh, found the Side-by-Each comparison tool for college costs. It's at FAFSA on the Web. Go to the FAFSA school search page to search for a school code. You can then enter several schools and view their information side-by-side
Hint: don't think about inflation continuing for another 20 years and having to put in $450 a month to pay for a single child.
also, while I am on the bandwagon, Do As I Say, Not As I Do [Did]:
If you have not opened a Roth IRA, DO IT NOW. If you can only afford the minimum monthly deposit, DO IT ANYWAY. Dollar-cost average with after-tax dollars to get tax-free earnings for retirement. If you are young and in a low(er) tax bracket, you will probably someday be older and in a higher one. Automatic deposit from your bank account each month so that you are not tempted to spend it.
Eh, planning for retirement is only going to encourage me to retire. I'm not gonna contribute to that.
I've prepared myself that I'm never going to really retire. As a social worker, there'll always be work I can do until I can't get out of bed. It would be nice, however, to be able to afford comforts and the occasional experience away from home.
This.
I have basically accepted this as well. It was easier when I thought I was punching my ticket to a secure life in the upper middle class. Now that I'm basically hoping I can at least stay level with my parents' lower middle class status this is a much scarier proposition.
Philosnark is on a roll today!
bS, did you mean "on the soapbox" or am I misunderstanding the "bandwagon" usage? Either way, your (& cheap's) 529 comments reminded me that I needed to finish setting ours up. Had all the info but investment guy was on vacation last week and it slipped my mind for the third month in a row.
Long story short, I just got off the phone with him and the ball is rolling. All he needs is a signature and a check and we're on our way to paying for a useless humanities degree from some private liberal arts college!
I set my soapbox on the bandwagon.
also, "investment guy"? Huh. 😉
California's 529 plan (Scholarshare) is (currently) managed by TIAA-CREF. Lots of options.
I have our Roths through Vanguard (hers) and Fidelity (mine), respectively. Again, lots of options.
Sure, "investment guy" - Ed Jones had a storefront on main street (Atlantic Ave) in Morris when I was out there for college about 15 years ago. I set up a Roth with the guy back then and have kept in touch. He calls to check in a couple times a year, sends birthday & Christmas cards and has always responded to my questions and concerns honestly and without dumbing things down or trying to sell me on anything. It's in part due to his advice that I have a federal retirement account (dumped Navy signing bonus into it and contributed monthly), a 401k with my current employer and now a 529 for my little one.
My folks were never very vocal about saving, spending or investing habits (I ended up with 6-figure student loan debt) so someone telling 18-year-old Corn about the time value of money and compounding interest was probably a life-saver. I didn't take it all to heart (because credit cards and financing law school choices), but I did start saving for retirement because what he said to me made sense.
so, winning!
for sure!
Agree, do the ROTH. This year, we took a bunch of money we had sitting in traditional IRAs and moved them to ROTH. We knew we were going to take a hit on the tax side this year, but we'd be set up for the rest of our lives with tax free interest.
Also, has no one seen the Arthur and Ben example (I think from Dave Ramsey). Basically, Arthur invests 2000 each year for 8 years, Ben sees arthur making money and decides to invest 2000 a year for 30 some odd years after Arthur. Arthur stops after 8 years. At the end of the 30 years, Arthur still has more money than Ben. Now, it assumes 12% interest (yeah right) but it does make the point that compound interest is an amazing thing.
Also, highly recommend Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.
The annual average return from the S&P 500 is around 9 percent. But as that piece emphasizes, there's substantial year-to-year variance, which affects your yield substantially. Take a careful look at the table. Starting points matter a lot for your individual yield.
Obviously, 2008 and 2002 were killers for long-term returns. But there are also big winner years.
As much as I would love to take this advice, I'm having financial difficulties these days and just can't afford to do that right now. For me, the only real option is tax returns until I can progress a bit further in my pay scale.
I hear this. We all know the value of investing early, I'm sure. But you can only invest early in so many things - particularly so when you have debt (law school!!!!). We've got some investment in retirement, and we're working on paying down debt. There will be challenges ahead because we haven't done things like a 529, but at least we've thought about where we're putting our available funds, and understand the effects of those choices.
I can definitely sympathize (although it has been a long time since I was in that position).
For Minnesota's plan, the minimum monthly contribution is $25 (or $15 by automatic payroll deduction where available).
I'm on the Wisconsin Edvest plan, which is the same. I may try to see if that is something I can do, but I think I'm going to wait until October when raises are given out.
generally apropos of this discussion about college costs, one can find information about college endowments out there.
this piece from 2012 puts some useful context on college endowments. It shows endowments, endowments per student, and endowment*0.05 per student, to give you a rough idea of the resources these fancy-pants colleges have to bring to bear for financial aid (to discount off their sticker prices).
When I first started out, I always used raise time to kick my 401(k) up another 1%. Not a bad idea with 529's either, for that matter
we're going to lose our college credit this year (and dependant? we'll see) so we're going to have to do some finagling.
brianS bait - someone at the Newspaper of Record is cribbing story ideas from the World's Greatest Online Magazine!
Edit - link skims Forbidden Zone, but doesn't appear to take sides.
there's been a lot of bloviation in the last couple of years about college costs. Most of the pieces are fast and loose with the facts about out-of-pocket costs ("net price") and equality of opportunity. And glib with solutions.
I have put almost exactly 3,000 miles on my car since the first of the year. That's about 18,000 miles a year, which seems like a lot, but considering that there will be multiple months with only one trip to ND, I might come in closer to 15,000 miles. At 15,000 miles a year, I figure that I can drive this vehicle another 6 years. For various reasons, I have been able to avoid making a car payment in the 21st century. I'm hoping to stretch that streak out for another three or four years, at least.
I got a new car on January 11th. I might cross over the 900 mile mark this weekend; but then again, it being so cold, I might just hunker down this weekend, pushing that "milestone" to Monday or Tuesday.
At the beginning of the year, I thought it would have been one year since my last oil change. After actually reading the little sticker I realized my last oil change wasn't in 2013, but 2012. Based on the number written down to bring it in again, I drove about 4200 miles in two years.
'Bout the same here. I drive a '96 with 125,000 miles on it, and the vast majority of that was pre-2003. I should be driving this one for many more years
My constraint is Cali's emission requirements. I had to put down our '93 Saturn wagon in 2012 because it could not pass inspection., despite still being very serviceable and getting close to 30 mpg (~170,000)
I may have to put down our '98 Sienna for the same reason this year or next. I'm hoping against hope that it passes inspection next month, so I can sell it this summer (~130,000).
Heh, my '96 Jetta has 199,000 miles on it (I'm responsible for the last 40,000 or so). I'll run it until something major breaks that I can't repair. If it had to pass emissions checks, it would already have been junked.
That's the boat I'm in with my 2002 Golf with 210,000 miles (110,000 of which are mine) on it. I've damn near overhauled the front end suspension in the past 6 months (all new steering rack and struts) but the bullet-proof engine is still rumbling on just fine so I've got plenty of life left in it.
Man, cars today. I remember when it'd be unthinkable and completely crazy to buy a used car with 100,000+ on it.
And you have to look hard to find any rust on your typical car anymore.
I don't..... The one thing I haven't enjoyed about the cold weather lately is the inability to wash the salt off my car, so some rust is showing up around the wheel wells.
My Volvo's got over 300,000 on it, but replacing three leaking calipers last month cost me about 60% of the likely value of the car. It's basically on borrowed time now, except I can't afford to replace it.
Man, I think I drive too much. I've averaged almost 25,000 miles/year since I got my car and I don't have a recurring drive to ND to explain it.
My wife puts on a ton of miles, almost as much as me! Where is she going? I don't understand it.
Right there with you, man. My wife goes closer to your yearly mileage, but I'm hoping that goes down since she's been SAHM for a year now. At least with my mileage, I know its because I have a 40 mile commute every day.
I think this is close to what I average, too. Biweekly trips to Winnipeg, plus ~18 miles round trip to work every day, plus the occasional trip to MSP. My 1995 Escort has just over 104,000 miles on it. I don't really want to invest in a newer car until I drive less. Some day soon I hope.
I have two vehicles, both Buicks. The "new" car, a 2005 LeSabre, has over 137,000 miles on it. The "old" car, a 2000 Century, has around 230,000 miles on it. Both continue to run very well. I'm hoping to keep them for some time yet.
We bought a new Subaru after my wife totaled her newish Camry during the first winter she lived here. (Thanks, insurance!) We're about to cross 100,000 with it, which means I have to start worrying about head gaskets, the timing belt, and the water pump. It's been a terrific car, though.
We're going to need another car soon. Given the age and mileage on my Volvo, repairs are both more frequent and more costly in terms of the car's remaining value. Both my wife and I would like one car that gets high 30s mpg at the absolute minimum.
I just bought a timing belt and water pump for my VW, since I'm sure they're well past due (I really doubt the guy who had it before me did any maintenance with it, preventative,scheduled, or otherwise). Waiting for the weather to get nicer before working on it in my unheated garage...
Not here.
CH, which Subaru? My wife and I getting ready to upgrade from our 2-door Civic ('02 with just under 200,000 miles) to something more family friendly and are strongly considering the Forester.
The new Forester looks great, and I've read good things about it. If I were looking at a new family vehicle, I'd have it near the top of my test drive list.
We have a 2008 Outback, the last year for the 4th gen Outback. It strikes me in many ways as the modern equivalent of the Volvo 240s my family has relied on for nearly thirty years. Some good friends of ours just bought a 2014 Outback a couple months ago. It's larger and a bit nicer than ours inside. I like them both for different reasons – ours is a little more compact and easy to park, theirs has more room and a bit nicer ride because of the longer wheelbase.
Depending on what you're looking for in equipment levels, the numbers on a Forester and an Outback should be fairly comparable. I'd look at both and see which you like better, or which seems like a better fit for your family.
One really nice thing Subaru does: you can get heated seats without having to buy leather. With other automakers you're almost always corralled into springing for a stupid luxury package to get heated seats, but Subaru doesn't do that. (Pretty sure you get heated mirrors & wipers with the same equipment level.) I almost never use the seat heat , but my wife does nearly all winter. Heated seats and dual-zone climate control have definitely made our marriage easier.
Good insights - thanks! Consumer Reports gave the Forester pretty high marks and their tests turned in even better overall mileage (26 mpg v. 24 mpg) than the Outback. We already have a Rav4, so we may end up in a sedan instead, and I'm not sure we'd go the Legacy route, but I've been throwing looks at Subaru's for a long time.
Culled from their research:
Subaru's new engine family and CVT really makes a difference in fuel economy. Our Outback was rated at 26mpg highway.
I found EPA's highway ratings easy to beat. Long distance highway I could get 30 (rated at 27) mpg while going about 72. On city freeways with frequent use of cruise control, topping 30 was really easy.
As for the Outback compared to the other I'm considering, the Jetta SportWagen:
This time a million. I have a 2011 Forester with heated seats that aren't leather. Heated seats I rarely use, but certain passengers (wife especially) that love them. I will second everything NBB said.
I drive a Subaru Forrester and couldn't be happier with it. Great headroom/visibility, ground clearance, and perfect for New England's Frankenwinters. I've never had issues on getting up our steep driveway (although it has been quite close a couple of times).
I've got a Thule bike rack on the back to haul the Cervelo (makes it easier to find in parking lots FTW!), and a kayak carrier on the roof.
Goodness do I love this place. First-hand user opinions from guys whose opinions I trust. Thanks to all of you - great stuff!
I was going to excerpt a few paragraphs, but Robson's latest piece on the local five is so chock full of goodness, you should go read the whole thing.
May as well add another tab to the dozen or so I already have open...
I agree with everything he says about Rubio/Barrea.
And I kept nodding my head in the sections about Adelman and Love and Bazzy...
Also- I'm noticing the Wolves aren't playing nearly as often after the all-star break, more like every third night or so, compared to constant back-to-backs prior. Are all the teams getting a bit more downtime, or is this just a quirk of the way the team's schedule played out?
If you are a member of Costco and get the AMEX card, you get an annual coupon (to Costco) as a reward for your usage of the card. We got ours the other day: almost 400 clams. I don't know what I'm going to buy at Costco for that amount.
That's a lot of wingwangs...
We're pretty credit card averse, but as an Executive Gold Star Member, the AMEX is one I've considered. The wife reeeaalllllly hates annual fees for some reason, and it's waived so long as you're a Costco member, and I don't see that changing anytime soon (man, I love that place).
I am against leaving balances on cards. But, I like to pay bills with the card and collect the little cashback reward. A couple of hundred bucks a year for using the card? Sign me up. (Of course, if you don't pay it off every month, this all evaporates.)
I am against leaving balances on cards.
And that's the long and skinny of it. Jane's not 100% convinced we will be able to keep on top of it, but I've recently initiated a completely new bill paying regime (automated pretty much everything), so I'm confident it shouldn't be a problem. Until, you know, it is.
We haven't paid CC interest in decades. Cashback bonus ftw.
Haven't ever carried a balance. Haven't ever spent my cashback either. When we use it/need it, that's gonna be a nice little option.
Spend that cashback on your next bill. If you feel like you want to save that money for a rainy day, take the offset amount and put it in a savings account or buy a savings bond or something. It's one thing to loan money to the government interest free, but to a credit card company?
yep, we always throw our cashback at the next bill
This makes lots and lots of sense to me.
I'll fortunately be throwing it at the next couple...
My reward is money straight to the principal on my house. With no balance, this works out just fine
Whoa, I may have to sign up for that thing.
3% on gas anywhere (up to $4000 spent, then 1%). At $3 plus a gallon, that's $0.10+ a gallon. Plus, with Costco right across the highway from our office, their gas is usually about $0.10 a gallon cheaper (it varies) than the station across the street.
Dido. We have one of the fancy-schmantsy memberships too, so we get a check from Costco and a check from AmEx every year. We seem to have no trouble spending it back at Costco.... (plus, they will give you cash for the balance when you use one of those checks)
We don't go all that often right now (our membership is paid for my my mom. Thanks mom!) and its a good 30 minute drive from our house, but for some of the stuff we need it'll probably be worth it with this card.
Our standard of living improved significantly when one opened within walking distance of our house (not that we ever walk there). Used to be a half-hour drive to the nearest one, so we only went occasionally. Now, seems like I'm there about 3-4 times per week, and often get out for under $100.
the only thing I don't like about buying gas there is no windshield squeegees. Sometimes a guy wants to clean his windshield while getting gas. Just sayin'.
My dad bought his own squeegee and wash bucket and mounted it in the garage for this very reason.
I don't understand. I didn't realize it was possible to leave Costco with under (at least) $200 of stuff (I kid. Sort of.)
You do know you can just give it to the Cashier and they'll give you cash for it, right?
Whoa. I did NOT know that. The Costco membership, one expenditure that I will not go without.
This (on rpz's point).
great tip, hj.
The Sam's Club secret is prices ending in a "1", i.e. $14.81. Same story as Costco.
Animal crackers? Swedish fish?
Tim McCarver leaves the FOX baseball booth only to be replaced by Harold Reynolds.
Was Joe Morgan not available?
I made this comment a while back: everyone wanted Joe Morgan fired, but man, be careful what you wish for. Harold Reynolds. Man.
He's no John Kruk.
I still dont understand why these analyst positions are not being filled by ex player who played baseball this century.
ID the AU -- identify the former Twins player (former or current) with this signature:
Wow. I wasn't within 10 miles of the right answer on this one. Couldn't even conjure up a guess.
I didn't have the right first initial.
Twins players that I know of with certified AU cards that I don't have yet ($$):
Balfour, Grant
Bryant, Patrick
Buxton, Byron
Dozier, Brian
Goryl, John
Johnson, J.J.
Kelly, Tom
Knoblauch, Chuck
Meyer, Alex
Morris, Jack
Naragon, Hal
Oliva, Tony
Perry, Jim
Pierzynski, A.J.
Puckett, Kirby
Sampson, Benj
Smalley, Roy
Stewart, Kohl
Ventura, Jesse
Viola, Frank
Walker, Adam
Dude. You gotta stop throwing money at your ROTH.
I've rolled money into Roth, but never thrown money at it.
Getchu someAt TonyO. Not sure JesseV.
Nope.
Hadn't a clue either...is he signing it
?
yeah, has to be
Well there's my excuse! 🙂
Woot.
It's an alien invasion!
Twins baseball on MLB!
Jon Bois created a basketball video game. You will be amused.
Breaking Bois.
Probably old news here, but if anyone's interested:
I imagine that DG would read about 500 books a month with this. Spritz is a new reading app that feeds you one word at a time. Supposedly, you can triple your reading speed. I tried the 500 WPM and I think I could do that pretty easily, as long as there's a handy button to allow me to pause.
I saw that the other day. I did 500 WPM no problem. I applied to be a beta tester.
maybe he wants to write about it for First Monday, since (again!), my cupboard is pretty much bare. Been having trouble staying awake long enough at night to finish the books I'd started long ago (and already written about). Also, Because NBA.
500 books a month
I wish. Grant applications due/olympics/new semester starting have cut my reading down to very disappointing levels recently. Still plugging away at Gravity's Rainbow, but I've got like 3 or 4 books half-read on the side as well.
If it makes you feel any better grandpa-in-law's death/olympics/new iPad have cut my reading of GR to less than 100 pages in Feb. Ugh.
It does, actually. I was worried that you'd be done, and I'd be on page 150 or something.
GR now on the plate with Marathon in the pocket.
That company better invest in an eye drops maker because that's going to create major eye strain. You can't blink or you'll miss a word. Blink rates already drop when people are looking at computer screens. This will also be a problem when trying to read out loud. We train ourselves to read ahead, but if you lose your train of thought you can always look back pretty easily when reading from a book or even on a normal computer/tablet screen. I personally didn't like how choppy the reading seemed. Before they make this available commercially, they need to make a simple way to slow down the rate a lot more and to pause and/or to scroll back on the words.
Wow -- Dazzle is actually for the new catcher collision avoidance ruling. I guess that part of the lawn can take a little treading.
The team might be encouraging him to get on board. We'll see how he reacts when the new rule is actually implemented in a game.
he knows there will be controversy, but as long as the ump can review it, he's okay, and he especially likes that it will prevent serious injury
Greg Olson likes this.
At some point, even as gallows humor, the joke is no longer funny. Sano has elbow soreness, will have elbow examined. Just schedule the TJ surgery now. Sigh.
From Mike Berardino
How can a team based in the state with the Mayo Clinic be this incompetent at accurately assessing and treating its players health issues?
Well if the Mayo were out of state, they could claim it to be an out-of-area emergency, but it's local enough that it just doesn't fly and they'd have to live with the higher coinsurance and out-of-pocket max.
If I'm a pro sports team, I'm only talking to health insurance companies willing to give me my choice of provider network.
Boss, your stomach-turning link to that Sano article at least brought me to this gem. It's a few weeks old, but considering our WGOM HOF and recent discussions of the A.S.S., I thought I'd link to it for your enjoyment. Of course, if you're an avid JoePos fan, you've probably read it already.
This chart from Bob Collins is great:
goddamn stat nerds.
Perhaps some regression analysis would have helped.
A good start, but we need more graphs.
Truly tragic news out of Northfield. Three Carleton students dead, two hospitalized after car accident on Hwy 3. No words.
Pretty exciting finale to the Wild game. Shootout goes to the seventh player. Kuemper made some saves that seemed just about impossible.
Who would have thought that the Wild would have an extended run wrapped around the Olympic break riding the coattails of Darcy Kuemper?