No one really wants to think about retirement. For most of us it is decades away, and not really at the forefront of our minds. However one day all those will grow old, and will wish to leave the work force. To do this we need to make sure we have enough money to live [...]
Not too long ago, Christmas was a truly stressful time in the Llama household. We were used to having “Plastic Christmases” – you know the kind. Every gift was purchased on a credit card. That wouldn’t have been a bad thing – if we had the means to pay off said card at the end [...]
Every time you’ve filled up your gas tank over the past few weeks, you’ve likely noticed that the bill got larger each time. Gas has been going way up in price – mostly thanks to record oil prices. To make matters worse, experts expect to see another $.20 jump in prices in the very near [...]
CFL’s are becoming more popular every day, but there are still a ton of myths about them. Let’s take a look at the big ones: They flicker – The really old CFL’s did flicker, and they were terrible. Fortunately modern day CFL’s have resolved this issue, and they don’t flicker at all. They produce unnatural [...]
To the left you’ll see my first electric bill for my new home ( Click on it to make it full-size ). $123.17 doesn’t seem bad, considering its’ for a 2732 square foot, two story home in southern Texas. However, I’m extremely disappointed. For the last week weeks of the month, we didn’t use the [...]
I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a couple mutual funds for awhile. I hadn’t acted on the impulse for a few reasons – risk and retirement. The risk factor will always be there, but I think mutual funds are a safer bet than individual stocks anyday. I suppose I’ve become a little more [...]
This blog is only 5 days old, and I’m no coding expert. I know there are still a couple bugs here that I need to hammer out ( especially the Popular Posts section up top ). My apologies for the errors, and I’m hoping to get them squared away soon. Right now I’m concentrating more [...]
There are many different ways to calculate your net worth. Some folks include everything they own, include posessions, while others only focus on monetary items. Still others will include houses, cars, or both. At the end of the day you need to decide which items you want to include, and be consistent. Here’s what I [...]
Whenever you get into a conversation about electricity, CFL’s are bound to come up. In case you aren’t familiar with them, CFL’s are Compact Fluorescent Lights, and are basically much more efficient versions of the regular old incandescent light bulb. Take for example, the ever popular 60 watt bulb. Look around – you probably have [...]
The Fed’s interest rate drop caused ING Direct, one of the most popular online savings accounts, to drop their rate to 4.20% APY. This is a pretty normal reaction – after all, if the bank has to pay more to borrow money, then they can’t very well afford to pay you the same amount as [...]
