Stupid Credit Card Companies

My lovely wife and I eliminated all but one of our credit cards. That one is truly only for emergencies. 

It didn’t take long but we just got a preapproved credit card in the mail. The terms of the card were awful, combining a yearly fee with a high interest rate. One of the reasons we got rid of the credit cards in the first place was due to a jump in interest rates. 

Now we are running on debit cards, cash and checks. Yes, checks. I’m a boomer. Some people think having to deal with a check is a hostile act. That’s cool. I actually write checks to one company knowing they hate to have to deposit them. It’s one of those companies I have to deal with but don’t much like. 

I’ve no payment apps on my phone. Last year my PayPal account got hacked. It was soon straightened out, but that’s all I needed to eliminate them too. 

Actually, I do a lot of “business” in the barter and gift economies. It’s a win for the little guys and doesn’t leave a paper trail. 

Money is something for use outside of one’s tribe.

-Sixbears

Tent Skills

Recently my lovely wife and I loaned our six person L. L. Bean tent to a church group. There were several tents needed. They had to be set up ahead of the group’s arrival. So far so good. 

With years of tenting practice under our belts we set up our tent in about 15 minutes. We weren’t in a hurry. After that we helped a second group sort out the mess they made with their tent. That took much longer. 

Normally when camping we have the whole camp ready in about a half hour -right down to the bedding, kitchen area, comfy chairs and solar electricity. Plenty of people with RVs take longer than that. 

Actually, one of our fun activities in a campground is to watch the new RV owner try to park and set up their rigs. We’ve seen tree collisions, picnic tables run over, power and water poles smooshed and sewer lines crushed. Could we help them? Maybe, but I’m not going to take the chance. Emotions run high and spouses speak nasty words to each other. One couple made such a spectacle of themselvesb they later went around apologizing to other campers. 

Typically most people upgrade from a tent to some sort of trailer or motorhome. We enjoyed the heck out of camping out of a converted ambulance. When that was no longer reliable we sold it and went back to tents. Why didn’t we upgrade to something else?

Time and money were big reasons. A tow behind trailer needs a vehicle capable of safely pulling it down the highway. Few people are smart enough to get a small trailer that can be pulled by a normal vehicle. Instead they get a heavier trailer with more bells and whistles. That requires a sizable tow vehicle with the added initial cost plus on-going expenses. Motorhomes are horrible on fuel, are high maintenance and costly to insure. 

We don’t want to sell our house to live in an RV full time.

Here’s the thing about tents. Get a good one. While they can be pricey there are often sales. We bought our L. L. Bean tent off season from one of their discount outlets for half price. 

So what do you do if it rains for days on end? Go to a hotel for a few days. With the money saved by tenting a hotel room now and then won’t break the budget. 

-Sixbears

Well that’s going to be fun

Looks like our election is going to be very interesting this fall. Here’s a thought: just like Joe won’t be running it’s entirely possible Donald won’t be either. At his age anything can happen -just like what we saw with Joe. 

But enough of politics for now. I think I stirred up the hornet’s nest enough. 

Speaking of a hornet’s nest, a good friend was mowing her lawn on a riding mower and hit a ground hornet’s nest. She was stung repeatedly then fell off her mower and broke her arm. That’s what messing with a hornet’s nest will get you. In her case I wish it was only a metaphor. 

Weather here has been very wet with intense storms. A trip to VT right now involves some long detours to avoid damaged bridges and blocked roads. I’m very careful on my scooter these days. Where there once road shoulders there are three or four foot ditches. There are parts of the road to my place that are crumbling into the river. It’s like we now have spring floods several times during the summer. 

I’ve ordered a backup battery pack for my cpap. Right now I run it off my solar electric system. That’s good backup for the grid but lately I feel I need backups for my backups. While it’s still possible to turn money into useful things I might as well take advantage. Money always felt kinda make believe to me. 

Not a bad time to round out your preps. There may be some civil unrest in our future and I know there will be nasty weather issues. 

-Sixbears

Experiment

In my last post I made of point of pushing some people’s buttons. It was very educational. Traffic to the site jumped 40 – 50%. 

If that sort of thing was important to me I’d be hitting those emotional buttons all the time. News and  pretend news sites are aware of what drives traffic. They know upsetting people is good for business. Never forget that news is a business and their main focus is to make money. 

The “pay” from this site is insignificant and that’s not a problem. I certainly don’t do this to make money. That frees me to say whatever I want to say. 

-Sixbears

Taxes?

It had been over a decade since I last filed income taxes. It is totally legal too. Really. 

So this year I found myself in a situation where not filing taxes would be leaving money on the table. That wasn’t going to happen. 

Normally I’m a do it myself sort of guy but not this time. My tax status is weird in normal years. Two years in a row I was audited by the IRS. Eventually we sorted out the fact that I don’t have to file taxes. The first time I was nervous. The second time I wasn’t intimidated at all. 

Side note: I had an uncle who looked forward to fighting with the IRS every year. He was an independent businessman who took outrageous tax deductions. He was such a PITA to the agents that they’d eventually give up and he’d keep a lot of his sketchy deductions. Any man who could intimidate the IRS is some sort of hero in my book.

Anyway, my lovely wife had gathered all the proper paperwork and the tax pro sorted out our situation. It was money well spent. We are getting all our money back, so that’s good.

-Sixbears

It had been over a decade since I last filed income taxes. It is totally legal too. Really. 

So this year I found myself in a situation where not filing taxes would be leaving money on the table. That wasn’t going to happen. 

Normally I’m a do it myself sort of guy but not this time. My tax status is weird in normal years. Two years in a row I was audited by the IRS. Eventually we sorted out the fact that I don’t have to file taxes. The first time I was nervous. The second time I wasn’t intimidated at all. 

Side note: I had an uncle who looked forward to fighting with the IRS every year. He was an independent businessman who took outrageous tax deductions. He was such a PITA to the agents that they’d eventually give up and he’d keep a lot of his sketchy deductions. Any man who could intimidate the IRS is some sort of hero in my book.

Anyway, my lovely wife had gathered all the proper paperwork and the tax pro sorted out our situation. It was money well spent. We are getting all our money back, so that’s good.

-Sixbears

On the Ragged Edge

It’s easy to look down on those less fortunate. If they are poor they must be lazy or deficient in some way. 

I’m living a comfortable life now, but it wasn’t always that way. America has some big holes in its social safety net. Prepping was always a thing I did and it got me through a couple of bad years. However, the bad years kept coming. Year three was tough. Year four was impossible. 

My wife and three kids were living with the knowledge we two weeks away from being homeless. Then I won a four year legal battle and received enough back pay to bring everything up to date. 

It affected my kids. They’ve gone on to live successful lives. They’ve also never forgotten when times were so tight we didn’t through out potato peels. They have compassion for people in tough situations. They’ve started programs for the homeless in their community, taken in political refugees, and hired poor immigrants. 

Being in tough straits with kids to feed is a real test. During that time I found myself with $3000 cash accidentally given to me instead of someone else. I could have kept it but made sure it ended up in the right hands. Another time a bank sent me all the credit card details of over a dozen people. There was everything needed to run charges on other people’s cards. Instead of doing that I informed the bank of their error -and fried up those potato peels. 

Frankly, it was a near thing -not to make my life more comfortable, but for the kids. I understand the tough decisions people on the bottom have to make. 

-Sixbears

The loss of a good barber

So a buddy of mine was chatting with his barber. That’s what you do at the barber shop. Apparently my friend was telling the barber about some of my adventures. He told the barber about the exploits my wife and I experienced over the years. We didn’t let having three kids stop us from doing things. 

The next time my buddy goes to get his hair cut the shop owner was a bit ticked off at him. Apparently the barber, his employee, took my friend’s tales to heart. The guy quit his job so he and his wife could follow some of their dreams. Apparently they are avid hikers and decided to just do it. The owner has to replace a good employee.

I don’t feel bad about it. Waiting until you are 65 and retired to have adventures is not the way to go. Some things should be done before you get too old. Would my finances be better now had I been  more frugal in my 40s and 50s. Maybe, but so what? It’s only money. I’ve some great memories. 

Sixbears

On the Road

No, I’m not referring to the Beat novel by Jack Kerouac. Today it’s about keeping vehicles on the road. I just shelled out over $500 getting exhaust of my Ford Escape sorted out. I knew for months there were minor exhaust leaks and now I know why.

Some industrious yet barely competent welder shoe horned in an exhaust never meant to go on an Escape. That was interesting. Fixing that fix required more than I could do on my own -especially working outside in the ice and snow. 

A few weeks earlier my wife’s car needed new tires. There was no way the old ones were going to make it through the winter. 

More expensive than those items, however, was the cost of keeping the vehicles insured. If you’ve had to insure a vehicle lately you probably noticed a steep increase. In my state of New Hampshire car insurance is not technically required. Of course, you’d be personally liable for damages and that could ruin a person. Then there’s the issue that as soon as a state border was crossed I’d be breaking their laws. 

With a little searching I was able to save $600/year in car insurance. The kicker is that the whole year had to be paid in advance. It’s been an expensive few weeks. On the bright side, I just paid $2.89/gallon for gas so that’s nice. 

-Sixbears

Companies that get it

A lot of companies went to a remote worker situation during the pandemic. Now a number of companies want their workers back in the office. Even companies that are actually more profitable with remote workers want them to return. Management has some real control issues. 

Of course, the commercial real estate business is trouble, but I’m not going to shed any tears for them. They could always convert offices to much needed housing. 

A friend of mine was recently hired by a company for a remote work position. They sought her out and gave her a $20,000 raise over what she was making before. Working from home she’s now in a much better position to help with her elderly mother. That’s a huge relief. 

Then there’s the fact she’s not spending hours on the road every day. Her commutes were so bad she was destroying about one car a year. That isn’t cheap either. 

I’ve a number of friends and family working from home now. They are a lot happier than those who are locked in their cubicals. One friend actually moves his office to his garden during nice days. There’s a lot of envy from his coworkers who still go to the office. 

The nature of work is changing. Power is going back to workers. The companies who “get it” will do well. The others will go the way of the buggy whip business. 

-Sixbears

Housing

The North Country of New Hampshire had fairly cheap housing for quite a few years. Basically, the lack of good jobs limited how much someone could pay. Pay still ain’t great, but house prices and rents took a huge price jump. 

A good friend of mine has only a few months left to move out of his apartment. He’s been looking for a house for months now. The problem is that many of them have been in the Air B&B market. They are more like bunk houses than places you’d want to live in. Quite a few places were bought out by ATV riders who get together and purchase a house where they keep their machines. Very few of these places end up being bought by locals. 

Apartments have tripled in price in the last few years. Frankly, it’s cheaper for me to live at my cottage on the lake than in a small apartment in town. That’s just nuts. One woman I know of stayed in a deeply unhappy marriage for a year because she couldn’t find a decent apartment at any price. She finally got one. The previous renter had been shot and killed. 

My local area is just a small snapshot of a greater problem across the nation. No wonder homelessness is so bad. 

-Sixbears

Nomad Life

There are cheap ways to live like a nomad. You aren’t going to discover them watching RV YouTube channels. 

Newer RVs are expensive to buy, run, repair, and park. Older RVs aren’t even permitted in many campgrounds.  

There are cheap places to stay, but there are downsides. Walmart parking lots aren’t places to camp but might be fine for an overnight stop. There are cheap and even free places to park on public lands. You’d better be prepared to be self contained and know how to boondock. Then there’s the issue of driving your expensive RV up questionable bumpy dirt roads. That free parking could get expensive if you need an RV rescue tow truck. 

It’s a lot cheaper to live out of a van. You give up a lot of space but you also give up a lot of headaches. Just being able to park in normal parking spaces is a huge deal. Of course, you can go nuts and spend silly money on a tricked out camper van. I’ve seen some deluxe models in the $200,000 range. Then again, there are some nice home built conversions built on cheap second hand vehicles. 

Of course, you could just throw a decent tent in the back of the car you own now and go on an adventure. There’s something to be said for just getting out there. 

-Sixbears

Thinning the Herd

Many years ago when I was 17 I was about to purchase my first car. Dad took me aside and gave me a warning that cars would keep me broke. 

I bought the car and didn’t regret it. It needed a lot of work and most of my money to keep it on the road. What it gave me was the opportunity to go where I couldn’t go before. There are places you just don’t take mom or dad’s car. Let’s just say it greatly expanded my dating pool. That’s important to 17 year old males. 

While owning a car was great, dad was right. Cars have been doing a good job of keeping me broke ever since. Of course, it’s not just cars. Just about anything you have to register and insure will do that for you.

Then there’s the time and/or money issue. It takes either a fair bit of money or a fair bit of time to keep vehicles going. With that in mind I’ve decided to thin the motor pool a bit. Instead of fixing up one of my vehicles I’ve put it for sale so someone else can fix it. I just hope it’s not some 17 year old kid with stars in his eyes who buys it. 

-Sixbears

Student Loans

The Supreme Court rejected Biden’s student debt relief plan. 

So what happens next? 

I know one thing that’s not going to happen. The loans will not be repaid. Payments have been suspended long enough that people don’t budget for them anymore. They’ve gotten used to not paying those bills. Good thing they got some relief as the virus really messed up the economy for a while there. 

Right now most people are living paycheck to paycheck. Frankly, I’m betting most people can’t start payments again -even if they wanted to. 

There will be a lot of people in default. That’s going to seriously affect their credit rating. They won’t be able to finance things like cars and houses. The economy and especially the financial sector, will really take a hit. 

The economy was chugging along, in spite of all the recent challenges. This might just be the thing that  tips it over the edge. Good job Supreme Court. 

Now is the time to prepare for some serious economic disruptions. How you deal with that in your personal lives depends on your own situation. However, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to take on any massive debt right now. Might not be a good time to get that $80,000 pickup truck.

-Sixbears

Bank Failures

Another major bank just failed: First Republic. There are two ways to look at the current crop of bank failures. One way is to look at the number of banks that have fallen this year. If that’s your only metric it’s not really too far out of line for a normal year. The issue, however, isn’t the number of banks. The big problem is the size of the banks. These aren’t little Podunk banks suffering from a local downturn. The banks that have collapsed were all heavy hitters with lots of funds in play. 

This might be the early days of a much broader collapse. Okay, most likely we will have a major collapse. So far it’s been weird. Unemployment is low. House and car prices are still very high. Even used car prices haven’t come down much. When times are tough a paid off car is an asset that can be turned into cash. Not too many appear to be doing that. 

Maybe the used car market isn’t that great an indicator anymore. When your average regular new car goes for around $40,000 there’s incentive to hang onto your old car. With dealerships adding on all kinds of extra fees new cars are even less attractive. 

So how do you weather the banking storm? Everyone’s situation is different. At the very minimum keeping accounts below the Federally insured amount is a no brainer. Then you have to look at your banking situation. Having accounts at more than one bank makes sense. Set up your accounts so you can more funds electronically. Only losers wait in line to take cash out like during the Great Depression. 

Investments, your employment situation, bills -all these things should be examined. Day to day most people run their lives on autopilot. It would serve you well to stay alert and get a jump on problems. Keeping some actual physical cash on hand is never a bad idea. 

Of course we must always be prepared if everything grinds to a halt. Eventually a new normal will be established, but you don’t want to be caught out lacking the basics like food, water, and shelter until it does. Preps are always in order.

-Sixbears

Bank Failures and Downturns

With the recent increase in bank failures a lot of people are worried. It’s not really a problem -unless you are concerned about money, income, and paying bills. Then there’s the whole economic collapse thing. If you aren’t worried about those things it’s not an issue. 

In the real world, it’s an issue. 

I wasn’t too worried about my local bank but then they sent out an e-mail stating how everything was fine. That had me worried. I’ve had one my banks go under before and that was well before the 2008 crash. The bank I had my house mortgage with went belly up in the 80s. 

Funny thing about that. That bank wasn’t my first choice for a mortgage but my first choice refused me. Eventually the bank that refused me took over the failed bank and ended up with my mortgage anyway. The thing about owing money is that someone will take over your debt. 

It’s the savings side that’ll get you. The easiest thing to do is to keep deposits under the $250,000 insurance limit. The government may cover more but don’t count on it. One thing to keep in mind is that while you’ll get your money back it might take a while. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. 

There is some concern that the fund that backs the Federal insurance would soon run out. The numbers don’t look good. It’s my guess that the government would step in with a huge inflow of money to cover the losses. They have the printing presses after all. 

It’s going to be tough for people who are heavily leveraged with loads of debt. I’m no financial advisor but it would seem that reducing that exposure would be a high priority. Most people will probably muddle through. Just guessing, but it doesn’t seem like a full blown financial collapse will hit just yet.

Even if that would happen it’s not the end of the world. There’s a period when everything resets, but then life goes on for most people. The trick is to get through the tough transition phase without missing too many meals.

-Sixbears

Bank Runs

By now most people know that Silicon Valley Bank is going belly up. It looks like your classic bank run. Did you know that Silvergate shut down the day before? They specialized in servicing the crypto market and are part of the ongoing FTX fallout. 

Are these isolated incidents or is it going to get a whole lot worse? All I know for sure is that you don’t want to go to Jim Cramer for advice. A month ago he was recommending people buy Silicon Valley Bank. 

I am not a financial advisor. It had to be said. However, to me it just makes sense to avoid any bank heavily involved with crypto. That’s a given. All the major FTX people have been arrested but that won’t do your bank deposits much good. 

Then you have to ask yourself how many other banks are exposed the way Silicon Valley was. From what I could gather they had a lot of deposited from startup investor money. Rising interests rates put them in a bind where they lost billions. 

So how bad is this going to be? Bank regulations were proposed after the 2008 crash but those were mostly gutted. Powerful interests didn’t want that kind of oversight. If this goes sideways it could get interesting again.

You might want to have funds handy in case your bank suddenly closes its doors. Deposits are generally insured to $250,000 but it could take time for your insurance payout. I don’t deal much with big banks. Most of my financial day to day business is through a local credit union. 

About the only thing I plan on doing is to buy a couple more bags of rice. That’s the level my finances generally run at. Then again, rice is real and you can eat it -which is more than you can say about bank deposits in a failed bank.

-Sixbears

Retirement Lies

A while back I blogged about a friend who was still working from his hospital bed. Now he’s retired. Retirement for him involves home hospice, dying from cancer, and sleeping 22 hours a day. 

That’s the sort of thing that never makes it into the retirement brochures. It’s more common than you’d like to admit.

Just about everyone has heard of someone who finally retired and died soon after. Maybe they didn’t quite even make it to retirement age. Sometimes life sucks. 

Whatever you do, don’t think giving up that fancy Starbucks coffee is what’s keeping you from acquiring a nice nest egg. Robbing yourself of a few little pleasures isn’t the problem. The problem is that you aren’t getting paid enough. Enjoy life while you can.

My lovely wife hurt her retirement nest egg by taking a few months off every winter. We starting traveling winters when we were in our early 40s. It might have been done on the cheap, but it was done. We had a blast. Not only that, we were young enough to actually enjoy roughing it sometimes. 

We are at the age where a lot of people just start their retirement adventures. Some are actually in good enough health to do interesting things. Good for them, but you can’t count on it. Not only that, if you haven’t had adventures when you are younger you probably will not start in your 60s. People get set in their ways. 

I’ve friends my age are not so much interesting in going places. They are more interested in living in handicap accessible housing near good hospitals. 

Yeah, I’ll probably die broke. Is that tragic or good planning?

-Sixbears

Tighter Belts

Interest rates are going up. That’s certainly putting the brakes on housing markets. It’s going to make borrowed money in general more expensive. I’ve seen it before. It’s been worse. When I bought my first house interest rates were around 16%. That sounds crazy high. However, I paid just $15,000 for the house. That’s not a typo. Sure, it was a small house and needed some work, but my monthly payment was less than $170. 

As conditions change there were be winners and losers. If you have the cash there’s going to be some good deals. We aren’t quite there yet. There’s going to be a lot of pain before the really good deals show up. By pain I mean things like bankruptcies, foreclosures, repossessions -rinse and repeat for a few cycles. Right now businesses and individuals are doing their best to hold on but not everyone is going to make it financially. 

In a couple years I expect to see some really good deals on used cars and I’m planning accordingly. Right now the prices on toys like boats and motorcycles are already softening. They toys are the first to go. 

Historically I tend to do pretty well during tougher times. I don’t have the right mindset for hopping on financial bubbles. Boom times don’t really benefit me much. When things get tight, that’s where I tend to do better as I can make my limited income do more for me. 

Of course, I’m no financial advisor. My finances have been messy from time to time over the years. There’s more to life than dollars and cents.

-Sixbears

Stuff Happens

I’ve been AWOL for a while. Stuff to do and to deal with. 

Things appear to have settled down a bit. My lovely wife, kids, and grandkids are well. My father-in-law’s health is a concern but he’s been moved to a better hospital -one with equipment, supplies and better doctors. Good thing my sister-in-law lives in the same state as her parents and has been able to take time off from work. There’s only so much my lovely wife can do from 2000 miles away. 

On the bright side it’s looking good for getting Medicare. It’s a process. I could stress about the way things have been going but it’s not like I expected things to go smoothly with Social Security. I had to laugh when I got a letter in the mail reminding me of my appointment -a day after the actual appointment. Fortunately, I was on top of things and didn’t need the reminder. It will be nice to have some sort of medical insurance again. 

There are also some things in the works that could improve our personal finances. I won’t know for sure for a few months yet but it’s occurring. We aren’t talking a huge pile of money but when you live pretty frugally in the first place it doesn’t take much extra to make a difference. 

So all in all, things aren’t that bad. Pretty good even. 

-Sixbears

Off-grid and YouTube off-grid

There’s a lot of “off-grid” content on YouTube. It’s trending and a lot of people have jumped on the bandwagon. There’s money to be made -apparently. 

Some of these channels are pretty glitzy. What gets me is that money does not seem to be an issue. They have 20,000 watts of solar electric, and every battery powered tool imaginable. Some even fly in building materials by helicopter. I can’t even imagine. 

These off-grid places are impressive, but I can’t relate to them. While I’m not totally broke, I don’t have helicopter money. It’s pretty easy to solve homesteading problems when you can throw plenty of money around. They also can afford to hire professionals whenever they need help.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the person who goes out into the woods with little more than an ax and builds using native materials. While I’m not at that extreme, I’m closer to that end of the spectrum. 

It’s surprising what you can accomplish with a little knowhow and persistence. You focus on basic needs, not every possible gadget on the market. Plenty of people do wonders with native materials and salvaged items. They do well with tiny solar electric systems, hand pumped water, composting toilets, and wood stoves. 

Of course, most of these people don’t have YouTube channels. Those that do tend to have few followers. They don’t have the glitz and frankly what they do looks like a lot of work. Nobody wants to see that. 

-Sixbears