breakfast first

Mobile Home Madness

Short but amusing article from USA Today on mobile homes in Malibu, California selling for significantly more than $1 million:

A two-bedroom, two-bathroom mobile home perched on a lot in Malibu is selling for $1.4 million. This isn't a greedy seller asking a ridiculous amount no one will pay.

Two others sold in the area recently for $1.3 million and $1.1 million. Another, at $1.8 million, is in escrow. Nearby, another lists for $2.7 million.

(via Dan Pink)

Took another sip of the potion and hit the three-wheel motion

Faced with the triple-whammy of the impending baby, the search for a house, and the geography of Seattle, Miss J and I caved in this weekend and bought a car. We held out as long as we could, but circumstances finally got the better of us.

We ended up leasing a nice Honda Accord, also known as Generic Car. Leasing was actually a great option for us, since we both work at home and won't put many miles on the car, and since we don't want to tie our money up with a baby and a house in the near future. I'd never leased a car before, so it was fun to learn all about how lease financing works in preparation for dealing with the car salesmen. (I admit a grim satisfaction at negotiating car deals.)

In addition to the Accord, we also looked in the Passat (aka Urban Family Car) and the Saab 9-3 (confidential to Ron in Palo Alto: we used the product!). The Passat GLX was our top pick (the GLS felt terrible, by the way); it had everything we wanted and looks great. Unfortunately, you pay through the nose for that -- leasing the GLX would have worked out to more than twice as much as our lease on the Accord. No thanks, I'd rather put that money towards my mortgage or my kid's outrageous future tuition.

One funny thing came up during the negotiations: we wanted a lease though Honda Finance, since they're offering ridiculously good rates. As we were doing the paperwork, the salesman casually mentioned that the dealership would need to run a credit check. I protested; obviously Honda Finance needed to run a credit check, but the dealer shouldn't have to -- and with mortgage applications in my future, I didn't want any unnecessary inquiries. The salesman told me it was standard, standard, standard. Yeah, why? Well, they just had to verify that I was who I say I am. Why? It's part of the Patriot Act. What?! Yes, it's not us; the federal government makes us verify that you're not a terrorist by running a credit check.

This smelled like total crap to me, so I kept protesting and finally told him that I wasn't comfortable with that and I would have to go home and do some research about that before I consented. Of course, the threat of leaving always changes things, and suddenly the sales manager was willing to take Honda Finance's word that I "was not a terrorist". The salesman went on and on about how exceptional this was -- he'd never, ever seen the sales manager bend the rules like that. Yeah, whatever.

When I got home, I did a little bit of investigation and apparently Section 326 of Patriot Act does redefine car dealerships as "financial institutions" and requires them to verify the identity of people involved in the transaction and check that they do not appear on the list of known or suspected terrorists (aka, Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) in an attempt to crack down on money laundering. As far as I could tell, nothing specifically states that a credit check needs to be performed -- I think a driver's license would do just as well. Credit reports are probably just an expedient way to meet the federal requirements and an easy way for the dealership to get a bunch of information about you to boot -- at your expense, of course. If you find yourself in a similar situation, don't let them get away with it.

About the Weather

When I first moved to San Francisco, I would sometimes grumble when it drizzled since, Hey, this is California -- it's always supposed to be sunny, right? "You can't control the weather," people would frequently reply. I would responded, jokingly, that it only seems like we can't control the weather because there isn't any significant financial incentive to do so. Maybe, I'd go on, if California state income taxes were tied to the number of sunny days in the year, or average temperature (and standard deviation), maybe then we'd see some progress in this whole weather-control business. Har har.

Well, I was pretty much stunned to learn tonight (and I'm sure this will amuse my more financially savvy friends) that there are indeed weather futures traded on stock exchanges! Apparently they first appeared on the Chicago Mercantile exchange in 1999 and have really taken off, allowing industries at the mercy of good weather to essentially buy an insurance policy. (This article has a pretty good overview.) That is some wild and wooly stuff.

While I'm all impressed by this display of creativity, I am somewhat worried (and I'm sure this will amuse my more free market-minded friends) that this will lead to humanity's rushing into things like dumping 4 tons of some space-age dessicant into the atmosphere to make a storm cloud disappear, without really knowing what exactly we're affecting. But insurance companies (thinking about hurricanes) and sporting event producers are no doubt wetting themselves over the possibilities, and as we know, the more money that's involved, the less time there is for reflection.

More saving on consumables

Hot on the heels of saving money on contacts lenses, I turned my attention to another money sink: razor blades. In the past, I've attempted to save money in this department by switching to an electric razor, but alas, even a high-end electric razor made mincemeat of my hella sensitive skin. (Aren't I just a mess of problems?) After that, I decided to play it safe and stick with my Mach 3/Neutrogena Razor Defense shaving cream, pricey habit though it is.

So I did a little searching the other night and found RazorsDirect.com, which sells in bulk and has pretty good prices (looks like about $1.37/cartridge in the 48-pack), so I'm going to give them a try. Sadly I don't have any stats on what I currently spend on razors, but considering that I typically pick them up on-demand, it's probably much more than that.

While searching, I also found all sorts of other fun stuff. It turns out there's a whole segment of the industry focused on after-market cryogenic tempering of razors, which supposedly makes them last a long time (about four times longer). Who knew? At this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if they had a magazine for razor mods, along the lines of Import Tuner.

I also discovered this great post on epinions which has a history of the Gillette razor product line, complete with prices (for recent models). (Wow, seeing names like "Trac II" and "Atra" really brings back memories of my youthful television watching.) Fun fact: the Sensor razor, introduced in 1990 and priced at $0.75/razor, would go for $1.07 today, when adjust for inflation (comparing October 1990 to October 2004 CPI data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics). In comparision, today's top-of-the-line Mach 3 M3Power blades go for $2.50 a razor. Dang. Meanwhile, Gillette has done well for itself during that same period.

The cost of a routine

It's funny how you get into little routines in life that end up costing you. For many years I've ordered my contacts online, and by default, I've always shopped at 1-800-contacts. I wear one-day disposables, so the price can really add up. And yet (other than when I first started ordering online) I've never really shopped around.

Tonight, I attempted to re-order my contacts. After a painful web navigation experience at the 1-800-contacts site (that's another story), I get to the final step of the order and see, way way at the bottom, in small type, that the estimated shipping date is...December 9th. "One or more of your items isn't in stock," it helpfully explained. I wear a pretty mild prescription, and standard lenses, so I can't imagine what would take a month.

Anyway, the potential delay got me thinking, so I decided to take a fast look around. I went to epinions and looked up my lens type. At the bottom of the page it listed a half-dozen online companies that sell my lenses, all cheaper than 1-800-contacts. I took a fast look at the sites, and ended up ordering from visiondirect.com, which says it's part of drugstore.com. Their price was about $5 less per box (30-day supply, per eye).

Assuming that I'll have a good experience with them, this will save us a lot of money over a year. Miss J wears similar contacts, so assuming a similar price reduction on her lenses, that will save us close to $250 a year. Pretty nice.

Sick, but with magazines

I've been a bit under the weather all week long but slipped into outright illness on last night's train ride home. Nothing like being sick over the weekend, eh? I'm sure I'll be tip-top by 8am on Monday.

Well, one consolation of being sick is that it gives me a chance to lie on the couch and read a bunch of magazines that have been piling up. I absolutely love magazines of all kind -- there's just something about the format that appeals to me. The cost of magazine addiction can quickly add up, though. (That's why these days I read a lot of magazines in the library. I haven't done this in a while, but in the past I would pick one regular night a week to go to the library for two or two and a half hours just to read whatever magazines struck my fancy. The time limit made me focus more than if I were flipping idly at home.) Subscribing to magazines rather than buying them at the newsstand is one way to keep costs down, but how do you know that you're getting a good deal? One way to feel better about it is to check out magazinepricesearch.com, which is a meta search engine for magazine subscriptions. I've looked around on there for some of my favorite magazines and have found some great deals.

As with any meta search engine, there's a temptation to put complete faith in the infallibility of the technology. Don't give in -- always sanity check the results by doing one or two searches on your own. You'll only spend a few extra seconds doing that, but you'll sleep better at night.