More Babble for Your Ears

Words below are not my own. I just like them. 

Question: Are you pro second amendment or do you support this new legislation?

Answer: I don’t accept this premise. I am both.

I’m pro compromise, common purpose, safety, reason.

Americans have been asked to give up many rights far more fundamental than the extremity of our personal arsenals in the name of safety. We allow ourselves to get patted down and disrobed in public, stopped and frisked while walking. Our calls and communications have been monitored without warrants. So prevalent is the degradation of our privacy, so entrenched the idea that “9/11 is why we can’t have nice things” that we are now in a tech environment that uses our personal information as a commodity and most of us don’t notice or mind. That’s the price you pay to play. You want in, you have to expose yourself. That’s what we have been asked to accept, the freedom we have been asked to give up.

We have also been asked to give our money and our friends (and for some of us, ourselves) to foreign conflict in the name of our public safety, notwithstanding the specious nature of much of our involvement.

Some of this has helped, some of this hasn’t, but it’s what’s been asked of all of us to protect the lives of those around us. And the process has contributed to the stagnation of both the American Dream of individual liberty and the American Dream of social mobility. The only group who has not had to sacrifice one modicum of their dream? Those who wish to use guns for recreation, sport and protection. Lost in the nebulous conjecture of potential threat is the stark reality that less innocent people would die with reasonable restrictions on gun ownership. And yet, the NRA has chosen to lash themselves to a (relatively modern) position of never giving an inch, that any regulation is the enemy (sound familiar?) and we all pay for it every time there is an episode of extreme violence like so many recent instances I need not cite.

People should be able to own guns, should be able to protect themselves but should be able to give up a bit on the margins to save lives. We give up a lot more for a lot worse reasons every day.

via I love Charts by the chartmaster himself. 

I can't wait to TripAdvisor the h*$# our of my trip to Boca

We're taking a short vacay/long weekend away over MLK day to FL and this chart describes

EXACTLY

how I feel.

Florida is the armpit of America. A garbage dump. Hee-haw swamp-town with pepperings of old Jews, bayou people and red necks. 

I love you, Floridian friends. Make no mistake that my feelings for your state bear NO reflection on my affection for you :)

The Best Places For Your Faces

So despite my leper-face, I guess I'm well-equipped in Chicago. Way to go Austin for breaking the bad trend in the south!

The last facial I had was on a recommendation from B.Lill at this spa. 'Twas glorious.

I would walk 500 miles

via

Fantasy Map: Chicago El Overlaid On New York CityA bit of whimsy for you today from Reddit, brought to my attention by Twitter user@GordonWerner. The El has been flipped both horizontally and vertically, then rotated to fit Manhattan’s street grid, but the scaling is totally accurate. It looks like The Loop is placed in the area directly below Central Park. A few things from this: it’s actually kind of scary how well this fits; and it’s astounding just how dense the New York subway’s lines really are (shown here in white).(Source: Reddit)

I WILL walk 500 miles. Over 500 miles (624, to be exact) per year now, just walking to and from the train.

I used to live off of the orange squiggle above (in Chicago), but now will live off of one of the blue squiggles. My walking distance is 2 minutes on the home-side and 5 minutes on the work-side now. It will increase on both ends to 15 minutes on the home-side and 9 minutes on the work-side.

I may not need to run as much now. And I might be able to return to talking on the phone on my way home from work as I will spend more time in fresh, open air instead of cramped on a train.

Be prepared for more 12 minute phone calls, friends and family!

Sometimes I miss the luxury of driving to work.

Listening to the radio.
Putting your heels in the backseat and wearing something comfortable.
Being able to schlep and unlimited amount of bags (gym, lunch, purse, etc.) and not look crazy or take up too many train seats.
Not having to smell other people on the train.
And having private phone conversations.

At least I can talk on the phone now if I need to and I wont feel like a jerk disrupting the peace of the train car.

How do you commute? What do you do on your commutes?

Chart Roundup

both via ilovecharts.

Chart Roundup

This last chart is actually a t-shirt made by my mentee, Sam, from POA (my scholarship program in college that afforded me the chance to attend Purdue with lowered financial strain). So proud of this guy!

I saw all of these charts on ilovecharts.

Tipsy Tuesday: The Quarterly Financial Roundup and Retirement

(The last time I did this was for October, so therefore, 'tis quarterly when measured on my own, made-up cycle.)

**Update at the bottom**

Get excited! I've got charts for you:

The first chart shows how conservative we are with our spending. When I say "not spending" I don't always mean "saving" because sometimes that extra money sits in our checking account (instead of our higher-interest savings account) until we move it over to savings. Which we/Mr. S recently did. 

Boom... and...

The second chart shows the breakdown of our expenses. There is some wiggle room in there as we did just pay for flights to Nicaragua in January (the dark blue slice) and we pay for a family plan for cell phones when we get reimbursed for the cost of some of the users (the lighter blue slice) and that reimbursement isn't reflected here.

BAM! 

These charts reflect January's spending, saving and where all the money went. It's it glorious!?

When we were in Nica with our friends B.Lill and her husband (collectively they are called BaM), B and I started discussing investments, particularly retirement. (If retirement savings isn't considered an "investment", please leave a comment to correct me. I love learning and am working on humbly accepting fault!)

Anyway, BaM saves aggressively for retirement. M's parent's retired early after selling their dental practice and are still living-da-vida-loca as young retirees. BaM want to do the same and are busting their butts to make it happen. 

Their primary goal is retirement savings (as they already own their forever-home, a car and probably have a nice cushion set up if/when kids come along in the next few years). 

Hearing about Social Security in the news and learning how flawed of a plan it is for both our parents and our own golden years makes me scared for retirement. Not for me necessarily, because I believe Mr. S and I are aware of the issue there and realize that we need to start planning now if we want to take it easy in our older years, but for our generation.

Are you scared about retirement? Do you know where your security is going to come from when you're older? Are you squirreling away ANYTHING now? Yes, even in your 20's. 

My advice to you: start saving for your retirement. Max out your 401k. Is a Roth IRA better for you? More tips for planning for retirement while in your 20's. 

Also, keep a handle on your finances. Check them regularly (I have made charts quarterly, but I check Mint.com regularly). Get a handle on overspending and reward yourself when you've done well.

What tools do you use to plan for retirement? To save?

Drink Pairing: fresh orange, pear, parsley and strawberry juice. We juiced this morning (as we committed to  do everyday this week for breakfast) and it was our best combo yet. Parsley may be an odd choice, but it has vitamin K!


**Update**
I had a comment from what I assume is my college roommate, RM. Not sure what happened to the comment, but she said she uses Mint.com and that her transactions are appearing twice. Does this help? If not, should you alert Mint to your problem? I know Mint is working on fixing things overtime and opening tickets with them might help you and others get solutions faster. :) So glad you use Mint!!

Last Money Chart For The Week, I Promise

Put your laughing pants on. This is how I spend my money:

Bagels get their own catagory.

Here's what my spending looks like when put into broader terms.

This may show that I am over 75% more concerned with eating than I am with being clean.

Charts and weirdness from here, again.

C'mon. Someone else do some weird charties!