Baby Finances

Is it more secure or something to sign in on a second page? Because it's really flipping annoying. Why the hell should I click a link just to sign in? Why can't the old sign in on the home page work? What's the difference of signing in on the home page and a click to login? I hate that click. So flipping annoying. 90% of the people visiting your site are signing in, so why torture them? Why not just get to it. Mint.com - your foreplay sucks.

So, I got an email today, as a faithful - though bitter subscriber to JustThrive.com letting me know that they had been acquired by Tree.com. They write this nice letter telling me how Thrive is still "thrive" and how nothing is going to change etc etc. Do they expect me to believe that bullsh*t? I can't believe that Tree would acquire Thrive for no alterior motive other than to just be nice. No, Tree wants to make money. LendingTree, RealEstate.com Etc are all there to make money. They are not there to just sit and do nothing and look nice. To be honest, I'm not really sure why they would acquire Thrive other than to joint advertise with their other site, and get people to pay them more money. Let's be realistic this is a business. So please, JustThrive.com do not give me more bullsh*t - I've gotten enough out of you already. You're below my expectations, and your canned response to getting acquired is just as expected. I expect that by 2010 there...

In light of the amazingly warm weather this weekend. (I totally got trodon out of his frozen tundra of a parking spot - finally!) I'm getting excited about spring, and therefore spring gardening! I am trying to be super organized this year with my summer garden after the semi-disaster of last year. Last year, I started everything with baby plants instead of seed, and I started them about a month too late. Then, by the time things were really starting to move along we had a really rough storm that ravaged the budding flowers on the plants, and basically gave me very very little yield. Between all of us we are going to basically have a garden on our back deck I think before the spring is over. I did a bit of research to figure out what I could grow other than tomatoes. And not very much to my surprise, I found that the tomato plants I bought from Home Depot last year aren't really designed for Boston weather. I looked up some other stuff to figure out what else would do well ...

In talking to one of my friends the other day I realized that I've been obsessing over money. I mean obsessing. Almost every waking moment lately I've been thinking about, how much I have, how much I can make with it, how I can make more. Where more is coming from, where/how I could lose it, etc. Note, I'm not thinking about spending money, all I'm thinking about is making, saving, and earning more with it. I think that's kind of crazy. Most people do the opposite. I think I should take a month long money break. Not to go out and just spend frivolously, but to really just relax and stop thinking about it. Stop checking mint every day, stop looking at justthrive once a week. Don't look at my investments, don't do anything for one month. Maybe it will be like going cold turkey on a p0rn addiction. It might be difficult. Maybe I just need to distract myself with other things, like playing piano? Or maybe I should learn to juggle. I know in my head t...

I think it's absolutely hilarious that more people are looking at going back to school - specifically going to university. People go to university in hopes of getting a higher paying job. The problem is that many people think that just getting a degree, any degree, will make them more money. This logic is extremely flawed. I totally subscribe to the fact that college is not for all people. If you are going to school for a program that does not directly lead to a position that pays well, why are you there? I'm sorry but a program in Art History is not going to get you a higher paying job that what you would get out of high school. For some reason, my parents generation looked down on trade schools. I'm not sure why the social shift. But it was a terrible idea. The reality of the situation is for the kids that aren't motivated or smart enough to get university mostly paid for - I really don't think they should be in university. If your first year's salar...

One of my friends and I have a debate about shower order. Do you clean your hair first then your body, or do you start with your body and end with the shampoo & conditioner? Personally, I've always ended with the hair. But I think that's a historical thing. My parents operated that way when I was a kid. Mostly, I think because they didn't want the tears from the shampoo to start any sooner than absolutely necessary. But logically, it would make sense that you would wash off any hair dirt that stuck to your body after the shampoo freed it from your follicles . He's all about the logic. Hair then the rest. I think it decreases the usefulness of the conditioner. I like illogical sometimes. It's fun.

Mint.com just made a major update to their site. It absolutely rocks. They allow you to put in your full net worth including your car, how much it's worth, real estate & how much it's worth vs how much you owe. It is pretty freaking cool. I've been wondering for a while if there was a way to really calculate my net worth since the value of my car wasn't included. Now there is! The only real feature I want Mint to add yet is a savings plan. So that I can set up goals. Not only can I see everything in one place, but actually being able to set up financial goals other than a monthly budget would absolutely rock my world. The only thing in this update I'm not sure about is that everything is down to the cent. I'd rather round up to the dollar. But that's neither here nor there. The updated ways to save is rocking too. I love that it compares so many places at the same time. It bites that I just opened an ETrade savings account and now there is a D...