A few months before Ashwini was born, I read about a website, Upromise.com. It is a consumer spending trend tracking program with a twist. Instead of a usual cash-back program, they put the cash in a Nevada-based “529 college-saving plan” run by Vanguard. More about 529 plans can be found here. You earn rewards not only by shopping online, but also at grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations, restaurants etc. You could also get a Citibank card connected to this program that gives 1% cash-back on all purchases and some additional rewards as well. You can also invite friends and family to link up to your account and help you save money for your children’s college. If you’d like to contribute some money to Ashwini’s college fund, click on this link for online shopping. I’ll only see the money received in the account and will not know what you buy. 
I opened an account at the website in Dec 2002 and just a few days ago, the total rewards received in this program crossed $1000. Over the next 13 years, I hope this will at least double in value on top of more earned rewards before Ashwini needs to use it.
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During the last couple of years of graduate school (1995-96), I discovered National Public Radio and have been listening to it ever since. Among the multitude of NPR shows that I like, A prairie home companion is one of the best. I really like how Garrison Keillor and his cast do a wonderful job of providing simple and clean entertainment each Saturday evening. I always wanted to watch them perform the show live but, never had a chance. They came to Kalamazoo, MI and Ann Arbor, MI right after I moved away from those towns.
Finally, I’ll get to watch the show live on April 25th, 2009 at the Palace theater in Waterbury, CT. It’ll be time to cross off one thing from my “100 things to do before I die” list.
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I was looking at the electric bill and our conservation efforts are working rather well. Comparing our consumption for the month of October, we used significantly less electricity in 2008 (17 Kwh/day) than 2007 (22 Kwh/day). That is 22.7% reduction. I was quite impressed given the fact that the average outside temperature for October 2007 was 58F compared to 48F this year.
Co-incidentally, the semi-annual water bill came in the mail as well. According to that, we used about 32000 gallons of water in 6 months. That is just over 5000 per month. We have these low-flow showerheads that limit flow at 2.5gpm. Considering about 10 minutes in the shower per person, we use about 100 gallons everyday for showers. That accounts for more than half of all our water usage. Toilets probably use another 30 gallons per day. We can’t cut down on showers, especially now in the winter season when it feels so good to stand under that hot shower. I should get those fancy flushing tanks that allows flushing two different volumes of water depending on your need. Or, choose the other cheaper option: Put a 2ltr soda bottle filled with water and some pebbles inside the tank to reduce available volume for flushing. Should experiment with these things. This will keep me busy for a few days, as if I have a lot of time I don’t know what to do with.
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Sold some stocks over the last week to capture some losses. After offsetting capital gains, upto $3000 of losses could be taken out of ordinary income. There are so many positions with loss in my portfolio that it was a difficult decision to make. Finally decided on Tata Motors and Microsoft. The proceeds will be invested in four ETFs: QQQQ, SPY, EFA and EEM.
A couple of weeks ago, sold off the lawn tractor. It was taking up space in the garage. It was better to get rid of it than put more money to build a shed in the backyard. Now, we can park the cars in the garage.
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Overheard Ashwini telling Adit…
Adit, you have to listen to what Aai and Daddy tell you. They are the boss of us.
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- Ashwini had an epiphany in the car this morning. “Daddy, did you know? The slow songs have slow music and fast songs have faster music.”
- On another note, she is absolutely positively certain that the person depicted in the “Statue of Liberty” is a man. No matter how much we tried to tell her otherwise didn’t change her mind. The reason why she is so certain is because “he” is not wearing a dress. If the statue was she, she would be wearing a dress.
- On a related note… It is very hard to make Adit stand in one place to get him ready in the morning. He is always trying get out of my grasp and run away. Today, I asked him to be the “Statue of Liberty” and he stood quietly in front of me with one arm raised above his head and the other on his tummy. It was so easy to get him ready. Lets see how many more times this trick works…
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The interest rate for I-bonds is getting attractive again. For the next 6 months, the fixed rate will be 0.70%. Adding 4.92% of inflation rate, brings it to 5.64%. I’ll be buying I-bonds monthly for next 6 months and wait for the May interest rate announcement to make decision about continuing further. Here is the detailed press release.
I don’t know why anyone would want to buy the EE-bonds that earn 1.30%. Probably someone who wants to buy more savings bonds after hitting the yearly $5000 limit for I-bonds. Afterall, these are undoubtedly one of the safest investments. Looking at my portfolio, the treasurydirect account is one of the handful that are in the black after this turmoil in the financial markets.
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This morning on my way to work, I voted in my first ever US presidential election. Unlike other places that I heard about on radio, there was no big line for voting. I was in and out of the polling place in less than 5 minutes.
After reading about the violent history of elections in USA, I was wondering if I should pack a sidearm for protection but, decided against it. Turned out that my fear was baseless. The polling station was full of senior citizens that are physically incapable of inflicting any bodily harm. I could cast my ballot and get out unscathed.
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