Finance Year in Review

Interesting statistic - the average person in the US saved money this year - 2.4 percent of income as of the most recent report. (http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm) Not much, but it's better than the negative numbers of previous recent years. Interesting when tracked historically that the number has never exceeded 15 percent http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/nipaweb/Nipa-Frb.asp

How do I stack up?

Since I've now been at one address with one job for over a year the finances are stable enough to note (sale of house excluded from the numbers below - only job income counted)

Percent of total pre tax income to:
Income Tax - 21% set aside in deductions - based on previous years this is pretty accurate
Rent and Utilities - 23%
401k - 8%
Money Market Savings - 28%
General spending - food/gas/travel/clothing/stuff - 20%

Other interesting facts - The interest gains in the mm-savings account did not offset the losses due to some optimistic stock bets in my 401k - total investments are down 1.6% on the year.

Rent and utilities are high in an absolute sense - though offset by very small gasoline expenditures - no gas for the commute and errands works out to less than a tank per month.

I had the sense there was going to be a stock market drop and rearranged the 401k, but not enough apparently. I also rearranged a bit post-correction, though still a bit risky. It will probably be a year until things really start to turn around and post small gains there.

General spending also seems high in an absolute sense - but then there's the quality of life quotient... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122955255403315677.html ... I suppose it's a small price to pay.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Sunrise: 7:55AM, planned Sunset 4:20PM... not even 8.5 hours of daylight on the shortest day of the year when you're this far north.

It has been a nice winter week - got a couple inches of snow on Wednesday - cold since then so it hasn't melted. Then a couple more inches last night to cover up the sanded/slushed ice with new white snow. It's apparently pretty rare to have this much snow near the sound.

(The inland suburbs have had about a foot total by now)

Not that I'm complaining - it has limited the consumerist Christmas rush - people walking around downtown are shopping, but the snow is at least as interesting it seems.

Quiet morning - coffee - NPR - headed to the market when the vendors typically set up in an hour or so.

That's the news from Seattle.

Too organized?

So last night I ironed all existing clothes in the closet and then organized them.

There are 7 respectable shirts (5 button down linen, 2 polo) with matching pants for the work week - those go in the middle part. I oddly never mix the shirts to different pants b/c then there's a disparity that will result in having an unmatched pair of pants at the end of the cycle. (Won't wear a black shirt with brown pants, so on)

Then there is the suit, two suit shirts: one standard cuff and one french cuff, and two 'nice' shirts for going out to dinner.

Then there is the ratty pair of jeans and two pairs of hiking/camping pants.

Anything that doesn't fit me anymore or doesn't fit the organizational scheme is now either rags or donated.

This is one of those odd moments of equilibrium in the wardrobe. No clothes are to be bought until the number of available outfits drops to 3 (one load of laundry)

It may sound boring, but I don't like to think about what to wear - I just want to wear it and consign thinking to other areas of life. It's not like it's an entire closet full of white shirts and grey pants... I don't work for a bank (presently).

Survey Says

In Seattle, coffee capital of the US... 8 computer nerds are in class (4 locals, 4 people that moved here from eleswhere, including me) - the morning beverages of choice are as follows:

2 green tea, 1 black tea, 1 earl grey, 1 coffee (the Hawaiian)

Random observation.