Yes, it's been a while. But seeing as how I am not yet a well-followed blogger and do not rely on income from this to pay even for a gallon of gas, I have given myself the okay.
Since last posting, I had an action-packed four days attending RECon in Las Vegas. I stayed at the Flamingo, dined at multiple venues including STK, Lago at the Bellagio, Gordon Ramsey's fish and chips spot and an awesome Chinese restaurant off the Strip called flock and fowl. The bars that we enjoyed cocktails at were also some of the top venues including two at the Cosmopolitan, Vesper Bar and the Chandelier Bar. The best drinking spot that we visited was the Beer Park at the Paris.
Being a mensch who often thinks, talks and writes about money, it goes without saying that the money spent on the trip that our Mayor, my boss and I took was fairly substantial but that, too, is in the eyes of the beholder. We did attend a dinner for eight with a tab around two grand (STK), but someone else treated so to us it did not cost a dime.
I barely slept for three days and after returning around dinner time on Wednesday, I tried catching up on some sleep and went to work on Thursday and Friday to catch up with the dozens of people seeking information from me and wanting to meet with me. My millennial boss took a bit of pity on me and cut me loose early Friday afternoon and it was not until now, Sunday afternoon, that I felt compelled to return to blogging and Tweeting.
Speaking of money, as I write this my wife has spent the last hour on the phone in relation to over ten grand of fraudulent charges made to her Bank of America Visa card. We were made aware of it when her statement showed up two weeks ago and saw five charges to Airbnb, each totaling over two thousand bucks.
She called right away and her card was canceled and she was issued a new one. So imagine our surprise when I called the 800 number today expecting to hear that the balance has been corrected to around $1,500, the amount that she did charge. Well, what fools we are since another $6,000 or so has been charged to her card since we called and she has been on the phone ever since trying to clear this up.
Like me, she has been hacked and her credit stolen big-time. She will be filling out a police report in a day or two, since B. of A. insisted she do so since the fraudulent charges were over ten thousand. She is currently on the phone with Airbnb customer service telling them not to accept any charges at all on her new credit card number. Considering that we have been talking about staying in Airbnb's instead of hotels for a number of years, I guess that if we do we had better put it on my card.
Horse Riding With the Upper Crust
In an effort to indulge our daughter in some things that we never had growing up, I have taken her for horse riding lessons for quite a few years. It is a sporadic thing with months sometimes passing between lessons.
We recently switched where I take her to a place both closer to home and better run than the one we used to go to. Without designating it a birthday present or anything, I purchased ten lessons for her a few weeks ago for about four hundred bucks. You get the tenth lesson "for free" when you purchase nine, so they are about forty bucks a pop for a half hour.
I sure did feel lowly and unsuccessful yesterday as I parked the old clunker minivan that has not had A/C for nearly ten years and is starting to rust out and had a fair amount of bird crap on it between a brand new Tesla and a Maserati.
I sat there alternating between reading the latest Baldacci book and photographing my daughter as she rode by. The two women who sat nearest to me but did not acknowledge my existence despite my interesting week of meeting with corporate executives from hotel chains in Las Vegas were talking loudly and quickly about their summer travels, homes in northern Wisconsin, a new RV the size of a house that one of their husbands was purchasing and where their daughters were going to travel to horse shows.
Meanwhile, my beautiful, talented and self-motivated daughter rode one of the horses that lives there around the outdoor stable about twenty times. Whether she ends up like one of the ladies with a new Tesla, summer homes, horse shows and trips to Europe or just a regular ol' middle class folk like me remains to be seen.
Son Played a Graduation
Meanwhile, my son played his trumpet in the hot sun for several hours yesterday morning in the hot sun for his college's graduation.
When one attends a graduation, one tends to take the music for granted. You do not think about the musician whose mother drove him to the college around seven in the morning on the first Saturday after he completed the school year. You do not consider him or her wearing dress clothes in ninety degree heat for four hours.
I went to pick him up and, boy, was he glad that I came to get him and had some cold water. I took him to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and we split some flautas and a steak torta. And this was an authentic place, I should add. As un-Taco Bell like as you could imagine.
Read a Great Book
Not being a mensch who listens to his own electronic devices on airplanes, I read about ninety percent of a great book between the airplane rides to and from Vegas. I did not read the entire time on either, perhaps half of the time on each.
I was wedged between two slightly heavy people on the way there, which made me want to read more and not make any actual eye or verbal contact with them.
The book is called When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. Some of the stories he tells in this book are awesome and quite comical. I may write a brief post about some favorite lines in the book but, then again, I may not. I have lost some of my ambition for sharing thoughts like those and might just write some more shorter, simplistic SEO-friendly posts in the future in an effort to make more than the dollar that I have made so far with AdWords.
Miscellaneous Expenses
The piddly stuff continues unabated, but to the point where I seem to be shelling out a hundred bucks per day for what I would label "miscellaneous." I did the grocery shopping for dinner last night and lunch today and, as usual, bought a dozen items not on our list. I did buy some Halal quality chicken for our dinner last night and Angus beef patties for lunch that we should have when I stop blogging and suggest to my lovely wife that we have lunch.
I took my daughter out for Slurpees yesterday. I just took my old beater van to Jiffy Lube and spent about forty bucks for an oil change and for some coolant that will leak out of the van by three days from now. We both had to buy gasoline.
All in all, it is easy to see how ten grand continues to leave our checking account month after month while I hustle and work hard to keep nearly the same amount coming in.
Everyone has these expenses, so that is not the point. The point is that I have continued Paying Ourselves First this May, to the tune of $1,600 by my calculations.
I am stepping it up a wee bit. As I have written quite a few times, we automatically contribute $400 to our daughter's 529 account on the first of every month. I do not want to invite further hackers into our lives, but I write here that she has over one hundred grand as of today in her college accounts. Closer to one-ten. I write "as of today" because the majority of it is invested in the Wellington fund and even though I have an endless amount of faith in Wellington Management, there is always the chance that the market will take a dive starting on Tuesday and money will be lost.
I have sent seven hundred to my own IRA account this month, more than usual because I was once again "forced" to cash out two vacation days. I sent five hundred to my wife's IRA per my new strategy with hers, which is to send a check for $250 every payday to hers.
Thus, $700+$500+$400=Paying Ourselves $1,600.
$100 in Plants
We like to cook in our home and really love using basil, chives, tomatoes and green peppers from our own garden during the warm months.
Today, I took the wife and kids to one of the highest priced plant nurseries in the area.
We purchased a potted tomato plant ($24.99), a potted green pepper plant ($24.99), a beautiful hanging basket of flowers for the front of the house ($29.99) and our son added some rosemary ($4.49) and some packets to attempt to grow strawberries again ($2.19), adding up to $95.32 including $8.67 in taxes at a ten percent rate.
Siding Cleaned
In my former blogging life as the Middle Class Guy, a person that I still am, one of my resolutions for this year was to have a home improvement done.
Almost counting was getting our siding cleaned a few days before I set out for Vegas, the same day that our lawn was mowed for the third time this year by my new lawn mowing guy.
Just mentioning it because our house has white aluminum siding along the frontage and it was looking pretty bad before we got it cleaned.
Our siding is now pristine, so my wife should be a little happier. It cost us $200, which I consider money well spent.
Bonefish Tonight
My father passed away nearly six years ago in summer of 2012, leaving my mother behind.
She travels quite frequently between the home that we grew up in, in Evanston, and my sister's home in Uptown New Orleans and my brother's in Ohio.
When she is at home, we have her over to our house most Sundays weather permitting. Many times, after we have her dog stay at our house she "pays us back" by taking us out to what has become our go-to restaurant, Bonefish Grill.
Although we do not require or expect to be compensated for watching her dog, we also do not mind when she takes us all out for a great dinner. When she called yesterday and offered, I said thanks and made a reservation.
I only mention it here because, as it relates to money, the amount being spent on my own dining over the past week is well beyond the normal range of a regular middle class person. My steak at STK alone was over eighty bucks and I ordered one of the cheaper ones. My meal at Lago was well into the $150 range, and the dinner that we had tonight including my mother, wife, two children and myself came out to about that same amount.
We consumed two orders of our favorite appetizer, Bang Bang Shrimp. My mother had a salad, my wife and son both ordered fish tacos, although different ones and my daughter ordered a half pound Wagyu steak burger, which she always eats half of. I ordered a six ounce sirloin with a crab cake, which was comped when the chef could not bring the steak beyond raw after two tries.
Oh well, the bread, appetizers, crab cake, side dishes and blackened fish taco that my wife gave me were great, and my meal was comped.
What I really wanted to order was an Old Fashioned, after having had several in Las Vegas bars earlier this week, but since I took my family out to my favorite all-time business, Dairy Queen, after dinner, I thought it best not to consume hard alcohol before driving.
Next time we go to Bonefish, I'll be taking my wife for our anniversary date and will definitely have a cocktail or two.
Gave Back
Besides spending my own and my community's money at a rapid clip over the past few weeks after also spending another grand attending a conference in Mad-City earlier this month, I did not forget to give back.
As many a financial guru has opined, you cannot forget to give something back. Obsessing over money and spending and saving is what many of us do continually. But you cannot only think about giving back during the holidays.
Thus, when my favorite charitable organization, Ronald McDonald House, sent me their form letter requesting a donation this month, I did not throw it into the recycle bin and think that I will give something around Chrismukkah like I usually do.
Their letter stated that $80 to host one family for one night, thus that is the amount that I donated.
Having had to stay there, myself, a little over four years ago when our son was very ill in the cardiac unit at Lurie Hospital and I was stressed out as much as possible, I will never forget how well they treated me and the other families that were staying there under similar circumstances.
Besides wanting to make more money for myself and my family's benefit, I would also like to be able to donate $500 or $1,000 per year to Ronald McDonald House instead of the $80 that I currently do.
Don't Forget
Per the History Channel, Memorial Day is an American holiday observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. Military.
Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially it marks the beginning of the summer season.
You know this already, so why mention it?
Well, I blog about money-related things under the moniker of Money Mensch. Most of the self-appointed personal finance bloggers that I follow write as if the world revolves around money. I often feel that it does, myself.
It just dawned on me, however, as I wrap up this post that I'm writing just for a post's sake is that while I stress out about investing, spending, traveling, college, dining out, donating money to the tune of ten grand this month, there are many others who died in the service of our country without making so much as a few hundred dollars.
Men and women from all walks of life who were either drafted or volunteered to serve our country so that people like you and me could enjoy freedom to make money by writing on the Internet, self-publishing books, working full-time or part-time or gigging here and there, whatever the case may be.
As you calculate your earning, spending and investing this month of May 2018 and plan on what you will earn, spend and invest next month, you should never forget those who came before you, many of whom paid the ultimate price, to ensure the religious, economic and political freedoms that you sometimes take for granted today.
Me, I am going to do my best to be thankful and grateful this Memorial Day weekend in 2018 that I am spending it with my family, we have a decent air conditioned home as the temperatures swelter into the mid-nineties outside, we have a nice new car to drive around in, our children are receiving top-notch educations and we have plenty of food to go around.
Having a long-lost side of the family to the death camps that the Polish would so much like to deny were ever there, and thinking about the millions who lost their lives protecting our American way of life, I really have nothing to complain about this Memorial Day, do I?
Since last posting, I had an action-packed four days attending RECon in Las Vegas. I stayed at the Flamingo, dined at multiple venues including STK, Lago at the Bellagio, Gordon Ramsey's fish and chips spot and an awesome Chinese restaurant off the Strip called flock and fowl. The bars that we enjoyed cocktails at were also some of the top venues including two at the Cosmopolitan, Vesper Bar and the Chandelier Bar. The best drinking spot that we visited was the Beer Park at the Paris.
I barely slept for three days and after returning around dinner time on Wednesday, I tried catching up on some sleep and went to work on Thursday and Friday to catch up with the dozens of people seeking information from me and wanting to meet with me. My millennial boss took a bit of pity on me and cut me loose early Friday afternoon and it was not until now, Sunday afternoon, that I felt compelled to return to blogging and Tweeting.
 |
| The view from my room was the back of the flamingo. |
She called right away and her card was canceled and she was issued a new one. So imagine our surprise when I called the 800 number today expecting to hear that the balance has been corrected to around $1,500, the amount that she did charge. Well, what fools we are since another $6,000 or so has been charged to her card since we called and she has been on the phone ever since trying to clear this up.
Like me, she has been hacked and her credit stolen big-time. She will be filling out a police report in a day or two, since B. of A. insisted she do so since the fraudulent charges were over ten thousand. She is currently on the phone with Airbnb customer service telling them not to accept any charges at all on her new credit card number. Considering that we have been talking about staying in Airbnb's instead of hotels for a number of years, I guess that if we do we had better put it on my card.
Horse Riding With the Upper Crust
In an effort to indulge our daughter in some things that we never had growing up, I have taken her for horse riding lessons for quite a few years. It is a sporadic thing with months sometimes passing between lessons.
We recently switched where I take her to a place both closer to home and better run than the one we used to go to. Without designating it a birthday present or anything, I purchased ten lessons for her a few weeks ago for about four hundred bucks. You get the tenth lesson "for free" when you purchase nine, so they are about forty bucks a pop for a half hour.
I sure did feel lowly and unsuccessful yesterday as I parked the old clunker minivan that has not had A/C for nearly ten years and is starting to rust out and had a fair amount of bird crap on it between a brand new Tesla and a Maserati.
I sat there alternating between reading the latest Baldacci book and photographing my daughter as she rode by. The two women who sat nearest to me but did not acknowledge my existence despite my interesting week of meeting with corporate executives from hotel chains in Las Vegas were talking loudly and quickly about their summer travels, homes in northern Wisconsin, a new RV the size of a house that one of their husbands was purchasing and where their daughters were going to travel to horse shows.
 |
| I take my daughter to a beautiful stable to ride horses. |
Son Played a Graduation
Meanwhile, my son played his trumpet in the hot sun for several hours yesterday morning in the hot sun for his college's graduation.
When one attends a graduation, one tends to take the music for granted. You do not think about the musician whose mother drove him to the college around seven in the morning on the first Saturday after he completed the school year. You do not consider him or her wearing dress clothes in ninety degree heat for four hours.
 |
| Thousands more young adults became college grads yesterday. |
Read a Great Book
Not being a mensch who listens to his own electronic devices on airplanes, I read about ninety percent of a great book between the airplane rides to and from Vegas. I did not read the entire time on either, perhaps half of the time on each.
I was wedged between two slightly heavy people on the way there, which made me want to read more and not make any actual eye or verbal contact with them.
The book is called When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. Some of the stories he tells in this book are awesome and quite comical. I may write a brief post about some favorite lines in the book but, then again, I may not. I have lost some of my ambition for sharing thoughts like those and might just write some more shorter, simplistic SEO-friendly posts in the future in an effort to make more than the dollar that I have made so far with AdWords.
Miscellaneous Expenses
The piddly stuff continues unabated, but to the point where I seem to be shelling out a hundred bucks per day for what I would label "miscellaneous." I did the grocery shopping for dinner last night and lunch today and, as usual, bought a dozen items not on our list. I did buy some Halal quality chicken for our dinner last night and Angus beef patties for lunch that we should have when I stop blogging and suggest to my lovely wife that we have lunch.
I took my daughter out for Slurpees yesterday. I just took my old beater van to Jiffy Lube and spent about forty bucks for an oil change and for some coolant that will leak out of the van by three days from now. We both had to buy gasoline.
All in all, it is easy to see how ten grand continues to leave our checking account month after month while I hustle and work hard to keep nearly the same amount coming in.
Everyone has these expenses, so that is not the point. The point is that I have continued Paying Ourselves First this May, to the tune of $1,600 by my calculations.
I am stepping it up a wee bit. As I have written quite a few times, we automatically contribute $400 to our daughter's 529 account on the first of every month. I do not want to invite further hackers into our lives, but I write here that she has over one hundred grand as of today in her college accounts. Closer to one-ten. I write "as of today" because the majority of it is invested in the Wellington fund and even though I have an endless amount of faith in Wellington Management, there is always the chance that the market will take a dive starting on Tuesday and money will be lost.
I have sent seven hundred to my own IRA account this month, more than usual because I was once again "forced" to cash out two vacation days. I sent five hundred to my wife's IRA per my new strategy with hers, which is to send a check for $250 every payday to hers.
Thus, $700+$500+$400=Paying Ourselves $1,600.
$100 in Plants
We like to cook in our home and really love using basil, chives, tomatoes and green peppers from our own garden during the warm months.
Today, I took the wife and kids to one of the highest priced plant nurseries in the area.
 |
| We went to one of the fanciest plant nurseries in the burbs today. |
Siding Cleaned
In my former blogging life as the Middle Class Guy, a person that I still am, one of my resolutions for this year was to have a home improvement done.
Almost counting was getting our siding cleaned a few days before I set out for Vegas, the same day that our lawn was mowed for the third time this year by my new lawn mowing guy.
Just mentioning it because our house has white aluminum siding along the frontage and it was looking pretty bad before we got it cleaned.
 |
| Source: Two Men and a Little Farm |
Bonefish Tonight
My father passed away nearly six years ago in summer of 2012, leaving my mother behind.
She travels quite frequently between the home that we grew up in, in Evanston, and my sister's home in Uptown New Orleans and my brother's in Ohio.
When she is at home, we have her over to our house most Sundays weather permitting. Many times, after we have her dog stay at our house she "pays us back" by taking us out to what has become our go-to restaurant, Bonefish Grill.
Although we do not require or expect to be compensated for watching her dog, we also do not mind when she takes us all out for a great dinner. When she called yesterday and offered, I said thanks and made a reservation.
I only mention it here because, as it relates to money, the amount being spent on my own dining over the past week is well beyond the normal range of a regular middle class person. My steak at STK alone was over eighty bucks and I ordered one of the cheaper ones. My meal at Lago was well into the $150 range, and the dinner that we had tonight including my mother, wife, two children and myself came out to about that same amount.
We consumed two orders of our favorite appetizer, Bang Bang Shrimp. My mother had a salad, my wife and son both ordered fish tacos, although different ones and my daughter ordered a half pound Wagyu steak burger, which she always eats half of. I ordered a six ounce sirloin with a crab cake, which was comped when the chef could not bring the steak beyond raw after two tries.
Oh well, the bread, appetizers, crab cake, side dishes and blackened fish taco that my wife gave me were great, and my meal was comped.
What I really wanted to order was an Old Fashioned, after having had several in Las Vegas bars earlier this week, but since I took my family out to my favorite all-time business, Dairy Queen, after dinner, I thought it best not to consume hard alcohol before driving.
Next time we go to Bonefish, I'll be taking my wife for our anniversary date and will definitely have a cocktail or two.
Gave Back
Besides spending my own and my community's money at a rapid clip over the past few weeks after also spending another grand attending a conference in Mad-City earlier this month, I did not forget to give back.
As many a financial guru has opined, you cannot forget to give something back. Obsessing over money and spending and saving is what many of us do continually. But you cannot only think about giving back during the holidays.
Thus, when my favorite charitable organization, Ronald McDonald House, sent me their form letter requesting a donation this month, I did not throw it into the recycle bin and think that I will give something around Chrismukkah like I usually do.
Their letter stated that $80 to host one family for one night, thus that is the amount that I donated.
Having had to stay there, myself, a little over four years ago when our son was very ill in the cardiac unit at Lurie Hospital and I was stressed out as much as possible, I will never forget how well they treated me and the other families that were staying there under similar circumstances.
Besides wanting to make more money for myself and my family's benefit, I would also like to be able to donate $500 or $1,000 per year to Ronald McDonald House instead of the $80 that I currently do.
Don't Forget
Per the History Channel, Memorial Day is an American holiday observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. Military.
Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially it marks the beginning of the summer season.
You know this already, so why mention it?
Well, I blog about money-related things under the moniker of Money Mensch. Most of the self-appointed personal finance bloggers that I follow write as if the world revolves around money. I often feel that it does, myself.
It just dawned on me, however, as I wrap up this post that I'm writing just for a post's sake is that while I stress out about investing, spending, traveling, college, dining out, donating money to the tune of ten grand this month, there are many others who died in the service of our country without making so much as a few hundred dollars.
Men and women from all walks of life who were either drafted or volunteered to serve our country so that people like you and me could enjoy freedom to make money by writing on the Internet, self-publishing books, working full-time or part-time or gigging here and there, whatever the case may be.
As you calculate your earning, spending and investing this month of May 2018 and plan on what you will earn, spend and invest next month, you should never forget those who came before you, many of whom paid the ultimate price, to ensure the religious, economic and political freedoms that you sometimes take for granted today.
Me, I am going to do my best to be thankful and grateful this Memorial Day weekend in 2018 that I am spending it with my family, we have a decent air conditioned home as the temperatures swelter into the mid-nineties outside, we have a nice new car to drive around in, our children are receiving top-notch educations and we have plenty of food to go around.
Having a long-lost side of the family to the death camps that the Polish would so much like to deny were ever there, and thinking about the millions who lost their lives protecting our American way of life, I really have nothing to complain about this Memorial Day, do I?
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