"Did a single broker ever complain to a media outlet that reporters were being "too optimistic" about house prices...?"

My mother recently gave me a hard time for not warning her about the impending doom in the markets. I do remember questioning, gently, at the time about investing in real estate as she considered a vacation home. My major gripe was that even being in the upper-half on the income spectrum, I could not afford a home in most of the cities that I have worked. This article draws a connection between the rise and incomes and the rise in home prices. It also figures that we are not at the bottom. This is good analysis! Perhaps my predictions of the Journals quality death were premature...

Aw Snap!

I got this "Aw Snap!" error when I load Google's Chrome browser. I have been running Chrome since it was released. This link had a remedy for the problem. It's possible that something my employeer loaded on my computer that broke it. 

However, I have been having really flaky performance from Chrome at home and at work ever since I installed the "local" email and did the multi-panes of inboxes. It has been a real pain. For the first time, I have been feeling let down by Gmail. I have also noticed a bunch of people switching back to Yahoo mail recently... That could be the power of suggestion though.

Relationship Between Budgeting and Health

The more I spend eating out, the less healthy I eat. When I go to the grocery store I do not purchase cookies and cheeseburgers. When I eat out, I inevitably will choose cookies with cheeseburgers.

The past few weeks have been a good time to apply some of my lessons from work to my personal life. I have been doing a little bit better job of cleaning up my Quicken data from 2008 so that I can do some analysis. Nothing too surprising. I did spend an appalling amount of money on dining out. I bought my lunch at work almost every day. That is a big factor. All that money would be fine, but I think a lot of the food that I eat out is pizza and burritos, like most people. I don't think that is very healthy.

In 2009, I am going to spend a lot more time grocery shopping and then cooking. As you can see from the graph, I could probably spend $1000 more on grocers and $2000 less on eating out and eat much better. If I am still around in 2009, I'll post an update.

Buying the Market

John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, has a prescriptive post on the WSJ.com website. I think it is pretty cut and dry and I like his advice. Although, I think he can be a little windy in the interviews I have heard with him.

It is interesting his point about buying the market. If you look at Vanguard's Total Market ETF, it has outperformed the S&P500 significantly over the past 8 years.

Rent vs Buy Calculator

This Rent vs. Buy calculator on the NYTimes.com website is one of the best financial tools around. It even has an advanced tab on the right hand side that let's you calculate all of those second order things that affect the ROI. Check it out..

Making Sense of the Madoff Scandal

James B. Stewart had a good article about making sense of the Madoff scandal. Probably the most useful, practical advice I have seen in all the articles I have read. Bottom line, double check the accountants at any investment are reputable (neglect Enron) and diversify, even if you are getting great returns.

How to Create Extra Leg Room in Coach

I recently flew from Washington DC to Boston. The flight is short, a little less than an hour. I am about 5'10'' (used to be average) and my legs are long enough that my knees touch the seat in front of me. This happens in almost all cases except for when my bottom is completely against the back of the seat. 

I often put my news paper in the seat pocket in front of me. This takes up even more precious leg room. Since I am too cheap to upgrade to the exit row, even short flights tend to be annoying. Last flight I had an ah-ha moment. I took the magazines out of the seat back pocket in front of me, and threw them in the over head compartment. Just like that I got an extra 1/2 of leg room. I am sure it is against the rules to toss the emergency instructions as well, so I left those in the pocket. I don't know why this did not occur to me before. Ryanair does not even have those stupid pockets any more. More often than not, they hold old tissues, and spent wrappers. In fact, on Ryanair, the saftey instructions are printed on the plastic seatback in front of you. I am not sure why the American carriers have not moved to this yet. I hope they get that but don't decrease the leg room to the same as Ryanair. It has to be the least in the Western world.