February 24, 2009
The Credit Crisis Visualized
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
Overtime Taxes.
I'll be working overtime a whole bunch for the next few weeks. I am drawn in by the idea of time and a half, and need the cash for a down-payment. I got to thinking; "I wonder just how much I'll get after taxes..." Turns out, probably not a lot."The payoff for overtime work appears to be a very good deal for the employee. But here's some unpleasant news. Thanks to the rising burden of taxes, the bonus income actually received from working longer hours is much less than one might think."
Check out the article here: Working Overtime Is More Taxing Than You Think
If I make 350 bucks for 8 hours, I'll probably see about $200 of that. Kind of lame.
February 20, 2009
Friday Top 5: Home Styles
Home Styles
Having looked for houses for about a month now, I feel like I am on my way to understanding the myriad styles of architecture that dot the urban Twin Cities. Here are my top 5.5) Victorian
I don't know why, I would like living in a big old victorian. Something about having a turret really gets me, I can easily picture myself spending a lot of time reading up on the third story, gazing down at the street below every once in awhile.
4) Tudor
A bit out of our price range, but nice looking houses. Haven't really looked at the inside of any, but I do dig the style.
3) Arts & Crafts/Bungalow
We have seen a lot of these. Evidently they were pretty popular around the 1920s when the neighborhood that we are looking at was filling in. They are pretty affordable, if a bit large for a normal city-sized plot of land, and make for a very cozy house.
2) Craftsman
We have seen a few craftsman style homes in our search, always just out of reach. They are just ever so slightly out of our price range, and as such are made all that much more desirable. This is the real goal that I am looking for, this style is absolutely beautiful. The good thing that I have found recently is that it is not hard to make a house look like a craftsman, all one has to do is to add a nice porch, and viola!
1) Prairie
Obviously, we have not seen any of these in our search, as there is no prairie in the area that we are looking, and these are usually long and large. I was a huge Frank Lloyd Wright junkie in my high-school days, (and still am, to a lesser extent) but a house of this style is painfully expensive and requires a pretty good sized plot of land to succeed. Perhaps as a retirement home, but it would have to contend with the prospect of the underground house.
February 9, 2009
Scirocco Skips Across the Pond?
It does look very capable of doing so, all smooth and rounded like a weathered stone, and VW is saying that it wants to try to bring the Scirocco over here, perhaps as soon as mid-2009.
I would be in heaven were this summabitch to make an appearance in North America, even in limited quantities. I might even go as far as to say that I would start saving immediately in order to get one of these, as they will probably be a limited edition, and will probably go fast.
And boy will they go fast. The styling alone is enough to get many VW fanatic's underwear moist, and I am finding myself identifying with that crowd more and more (though I assure you, my underpants are clean and dry, for the time being).
I find myself in the interesting dilemma of needing to save money for a house, and really wanting to set money aside for this fine automotive gem (~40K). I fully realize that a home should be my first priority, that this is really nothing more than a glorified toy, and that going further into debt for a toy is never a good idea. 'Needs' should always trump 'wants', but, dammit! I'm an American! I need a flashy car to survive, right? Sadly, wrong; I must be responsible. I will probably just have to wait until I can get one of these used for half price. Probably in 2015 or some such.
It looks so COOL, though.
February 5, 2009
Busy busy.
Buying a house is a lot of work.Not necessarily for me, mind you, there is just a lot of stuff that needs to happen in a specific order to get it all worked out. Not to mention the emotional roller-coaster of finding a place, then missing out on it, then finding a place and discovering that it is a dump, then finding a place and trying to make an offer...
It is, as I'm sure everyone is aware, stressful.