jeffcovey.net -- ymoyl news from 2004

here's the news from 2004:

ch-ch-ch-changes...
new in december 2004

12/31/2004
a temporary problem of liquidity

i've read john le carré's novels over the last few years, and a phrase from a perfect spy keeps coming back to my ears lately. whenever the shyster father explained why he couldn't (and never would) pay what he owed, he blamed "a temporary problem of liquidity".
last summer, i took a break from investing. like many people, i assumed that we were in the closing months of the halliburton administration, that less violent criminals would be coming into office, and that by the middle of 2005, the u.s. would have started the return to its standing as a highly suspect but occasionally reasonable member of the world community, and the economy would slowly recover. so, i stopped even trying to invest, and thought i'd wait it out, paying down my debt in the meantime.
but the mandate was given, and here we are, wondering how long it will be before a mushroom cloud blossoms over one of our cities and which country we'll randomly pick to annihilate in retaliation.
on the personal side, the end of 2004 saw my complete removal from my house to glenn's. my tenants asked that the monthly rent amount become fixed, so we moved from a month-to-month tenancy to a one-year lease. at the same time, where i'm living, i face the problem of all gay men who live in their partner's houses. if glenn should be hospitalized or die, my next step can be taken from my hands and given to relatives he hasn't seen in 20 years and i've never met.
i've signed away my right to live in my house for the next year, and have no legal right to be where i am.
i always like to plan for the worst-case scenario so i can be pleasantly surprised. at the moment, that means imagining that glenn dies and i lose my job in the coming weeks. where would that leave me? i would have to find a place to live for eleven months. in addition to paying rent there, i would have to continue paying on the house. the mortgage, insurance, and taxes come to just over $1,000, so i'd have to be coughing up $500 each month after applying the $600/month rent.
this will run through my unemployment emergency fund and start eating into my bonds pretty quickly while i'm looking for work. "liquid" has become the watchword of the new year for me. putting money into the equity of my home where i can't touch it is going to be unwise this year, and i don't expect the rates of long-term investments to improve while the country continues spiraling into madness. i'm going to move into building small cd ladders so my liquidity problems remain always as temporary as possible.
i hope you're able to adapt to whatever changes 2004 brought you and that the next year will treat you well.

new in november 2004

11/24/2004
the cost of having a car

here's a staggering number: in the first ten months of this year, i paid an average of $287.10 a month for fees, gas, insurance, repairs, and tolls for my car. that comes to exactly one fourth of my expenses for that period, discounting tax and mortgage payments.
i only use the car:

to drive to the zendo twice a week.
to drive from glenn's house, where i live, to my house, which i rent, to get my mail, things i have in storage there, etc.
for long trips to visit family, go to sesshin, etc.

that's it. i'm paying roughly $3,500 a year for a convenience which spends at least five days a week just sitting on the street, and that doesn't even count the cost of buying the car in the first place. i'm seriously considering joining the world of those who live without them. michael bluejay got me thinking about it, and an article in an alumni newsletter by a family that had made the switch lodged the idea in a place from which it continues to nag. my needs don't really require a car; all three of the activities above are easily changed:

i can get to the zendo by light rail and bus, or by light rail and bike. i've driven the route from the cold spring lane station to the zendo with an eye to its bike-friendliness, and it's quite doable. this may not be an option in very snowy and icy weather, but then i can just not go; they won't excommunicate me.
one of my tenants just said that he would like to have my house more formally, so i'm going to be removing all of my property from it and doing a change-of-address, after which there will be no need for me to go there.
when i need to go out of state, i can rent a car. it's expensive, but i don't imagine it will add up to $3,500.

everything else i need -- stores, post office, library, barber, dentist, etc. -- is an easy walk or bike ride away.
i've been observing what i do for a few weeks and thinking about how it would be different if i didn't have a car. i'm going to keep thinking about it over the winter months, buy a bike and learn to maintain and use it safely, and come spring, make a decision about whether to sell the car.
what if i had never bought it in february of 2002? i don't have easily-accessible data going back that far, but if we assume that each month over the life of owning the car has cost $287.10, between the monthly cost and the original purchase, i would have been $19,063.95 richer today. if that amount were invested at 4% interest, i'd be earning $63.55 a month instead of spending four and a half times that.
wow.

new in october 2004

10/25/2004
spoke too soon

this month's mortgage payment showed the first big change in interest since i started making extra payments. my interest payments usually drop by $3 each month; this time, it dropped by $20. the graph has made a charming little dip of its nose. so, i'm paying $20 less in interest each month, and $20 more is going into paying off the house, and i can testify to the fact that watching expenses plummet is nearly as satisfying as watching investment income climb.
i'm curious about whether other americans have come to the same decision, that the signs of the time demand giving up on investing and turning to paying down long-term debt. one more week will tell whether the country can turn itself and the world around from disasters much more serious than the economy.

10/18/2004
mortgage graphs

since i stopped investing and diverted my extra income to paying off the mortgage, the investment income line no longer moves and is not as gratifying as before. to give myself something encouraging to watch, i've started two mortgage-related graphs at the bottom of the graphs page. the first shows how much i still owe, and is taking a beautiful nosedive. the second shows how much i pay each month in interest on the loan. it's also going steadily downward, though the recent decreases can't compete with the huge dive it took after i refinanced to a lower rate.

new in august 2004

08/01/2004
yikes!

four new tires and two car repair jobs, registration for a camping trip, and property taxes conspired to make scary jumps in july's graph.

new in june 2004

06/09/2004
just for fun

i used my mortgage company's amortization calculator to run the differences between continuing to pay my mortgage as i have been and diverting all my extra money from investing to paying off the mortgage. by doing the latter, i can pay off the mortgage on 01/1/2007 and save $13,241.53 in interest.

06/01/2004
an update at last

well, i keep updating the graph each month, but never get around to saying anything anymore. let's catch up on a few things:
first, some meta-information about this page itself. it was getting too long, so i've moved the news items from previous years onto their own pages. i revised the introduction. also, i've added a page which plots each graph item separately and plots expenses against investment income so progress toward the crossover point can be seen.
how long has it been since i actually did a monthly tabulation and analysis of my income and expenses? march of 2002. ick. i guess i should admit defeat at this point and say that i won't be doing this for the foreseeable future unless i somehow automate it to make it easier on myself. i think it's good enough that when i review my profit & loss report each month, i'm happy with what's there, and the lines on the graph are all moving as they should.
most importantly, i believe i've decided to stop investing for a while. the american economy's completely in the toilet and will remain there at least until the bush administration is ousted.^[1] the best ymoyl-appropriate investments i can find earn just 4%. i'm earning less than $90/month from my treasury notes and paying $300/month in interest on my mortgage. time to wake up and switch. i'm going to take the money i've been investing and redirect it to paying down my mortgage. by the time i've brought the monthly interest payments on it down to something more reasonable, the world will hopefully have changed enough that i can return to investing at a more profitable rate.
so i skipped the treasury auction last month. i haven't started making extra mortgage payments yet, but have instead finally done something about the common wisdom of setting aside enough cash to cover 3-6 months of expenses in case of sudden unemployment. my expenses are roughly $2,000/month these days and i'm making $500/month from renting two rooms in my house, so i'm putting $4,500 into a money market account; this will be completed in a couple of weeks. it earns 2%, so at least i'll get $7.50/month from it.
i've also changed the accounting of the investment income total to reflect the actual amount i currently make from long-term investments, not that amount plus what i would get if i invested all my cash assets. calculating it that way was psychologically necessary for a long time to keep myself excited with seeing the line go up steadily, but it's no longer accurate since there won't be another investment in a couple of months, and i can switch to watching the expenses line come down instead as my mortgage interest payments shrink. the investment income had hit $101.20; it will now go down to $88.54.
i think that's all for now. thanks for checking in!

new in january 2004

01/01/2004
happy new year!

the real estate tax came due last month, so expenses shot through the roof. the little blue line keeps chugging along. i hope you're on the slow but steady way to all your goals, too.

new in december 2004
12/31/2004	a temporary problem of liquidity i've read john le carré's novels over the last few years, and a phrase from a perfect spy keeps coming back to my ears lately. whenever the shyster father explained why he couldn't (and never would) pay what he owed, he blamed "a temporary problem of liquidity". last summer, i took a break from investing. like many people, i assumed that we were in the closing months of the halliburton administration, that less violent criminals would be coming into office, and that by the middle of 2005, the u.s. would have started the return to its standing as a highly suspect but occasionally reasonable member of the world community, and the economy would slowly recover. so, i stopped even trying to invest, and thought i'd wait it out, paying down my debt in the meantime. but the mandate was given, and here we are, wondering how long it will be before a mushroom cloud blossoms over one of our cities and which country we'll randomly pick to annihilate in retaliation. on the personal side, the end of 2004 saw my complete removal from my house to glenn's. my tenants asked that the monthly rent amount become fixed, so we moved from a month-to-month tenancy to a one-year lease. at the same time, where i'm living, i face the problem of all gay men who live in their partner's houses. if glenn should be hospitalized or die, my next step can be taken from my hands and given to relatives he hasn't seen in 20 years and i've never met. i've signed away my right to live in my house for the next year, and have no legal right to be where i am. i always like to plan for the worst-case scenario so i can be pleasantly surprised. at the moment, that means imagining that glenn dies and i lose my job in the coming weeks. where would that leave me? i would have to find a place to live for eleven months. in addition to paying rent there, i would have to continue paying on the house. the mortgage, insurance, and taxes come to just over $1,000, so i'd have to be coughing up $500 each month after applying the $600/month rent. this will run through my unemployment emergency fund and start eating into my bonds pretty quickly while i'm looking for work. "liquid" has become the watchword of the new year for me. putting money into the equity of my home where i can't touch it is going to be unwise this year, and i don't expect the rates of long-term investments to improve while the country continues spiraling into madness. i'm going to move into building small cd ladders so my liquidity problems remain always as temporary as possible. i hope you're able to adapt to whatever changes 2004 brought you and that the next year will treat you well.
new in november 2004
11/24/2004	the cost of having a car here's a staggering number: in the first ten months of this year, i paid an average of $287.10 a month for fees, gas, insurance, repairs, and tolls for my car. that comes to exactly one fourth of my expenses for that period, discounting tax and mortgage payments. i only use the car: to drive to the zendo twice a week. to drive from glenn's house, where i live, to my house, which i rent, to get my mail, things i have in storage there, etc. for long trips to visit family, go to sesshin, etc. that's it. i'm paying roughly $3,500 a year for a convenience which spends at least five days a week just sitting on the street, and that doesn't even count the cost of buying the car in the first place. i'm seriously considering joining the world of those who live without them. michael bluejay got me thinking about it, and an article in an alumni newsletter by a family that had made the switch lodged the idea in a place from which it continues to nag. my needs don't really require a car; all three of the activities above are easily changed: i can get to the zendo by light rail and bus, or by light rail and bike. i've driven the route from the cold spring lane station to the zendo with an eye to its bike-friendliness, and it's quite doable. this may not be an option in very snowy and icy weather, but then i can just not go; they won't excommunicate me. one of my tenants just said that he would like to have my house more formally, so i'm going to be removing all of my property from it and doing a change-of-address, after which there will be no need for me to go there. when i need to go out of state, i can rent a car. it's expensive, but i don't imagine it will add up to $3,500. everything else i need -- stores, post office, library, barber, dentist, etc. -- is an easy walk or bike ride away. i've been observing what i do for a few weeks and thinking about how it would be different if i didn't have a car. i'm going to keep thinking about it over the winter months, buy a bike and learn to maintain and use it safely, and come spring, make a decision about whether to sell the car. what if i had never bought it in february of 2002? i don't have easily-accessible data going back that far, but if we assume that each month over the life of owning the car has cost $287.10, between the monthly cost and the original purchase, i would have been $19,063.95 richer today. if that amount were invested at 4% interest, i'd be earning $63.55 a month instead of spending four and a half times that. wow.
new in october 2004
10/25/2004	spoke too soon this month's mortgage payment showed the first big change in interest since i started making extra payments. my interest payments usually drop by $3 each month; this time, it dropped by $20. the graph has made a charming little dip of its nose. so, i'm paying $20 less in interest each month, and $20 more is going into paying off the house, and i can testify to the fact that watching expenses plummet is nearly as satisfying as watching investment income climb. i'm curious about whether other americans have come to the same decision, that the signs of the time demand giving up on investing and turning to paying down long-term debt. one more week will tell whether the country can turn itself and the world around from disasters much more serious than the economy.
10/18/2004	mortgage graphs since i stopped investing and diverted my extra income to paying off the mortgage, the investment income line no longer moves and is not as gratifying as before. to give myself something encouraging to watch, i've started two mortgage-related graphs at the bottom of the graphs page. the first shows how much i still owe, and is taking a beautiful nosedive. the second shows how much i pay each month in interest on the loan. it's also going steadily downward, though the recent decreases can't compete with the huge dive it took after i refinanced to a lower rate.
new in august 2004
08/01/2004	yikes! four new tires and two car repair jobs, registration for a camping trip, and property taxes conspired to make scary jumps in july's graph.
new in june 2004
06/09/2004	just for fun i used my mortgage company's amortization calculator to run the differences between continuing to pay my mortgage as i have been and diverting all my extra money from investing to paying off the mortgage. by doing the latter, i can pay off the mortgage on 01/1/2007 and save $13,241.53 in interest.
06/01/2004	an update at last well, i keep updating the graph each month, but never get around to saying anything anymore. let's catch up on a few things: first, some meta-information about this page itself. it was getting too long, so i've moved the news items from previous years onto their own pages. i revised the introduction. also, i've added a page which plots each graph item separately and plots expenses against investment income so progress toward the crossover point can be seen. how long has it been since i actually did a monthly tabulation and analysis of my income and expenses? march of 2002. ick. i guess i should admit defeat at this point and say that i won't be doing this for the foreseeable future unless i somehow automate it to make it easier on myself. i think it's good enough that when i review my profit & loss report each month, i'm happy with what's there, and the lines on the graph are all moving as they should. most importantly, i believe i've decided to stop investing for a while. the american economy's completely in the toilet and will remain there at least until the bush administration is ousted.^[1] the best ymoyl-appropriate investments i can find earn just 4%. i'm earning less than $90/month from my treasury notes and paying $300/month in interest on my mortgage. time to wake up and switch. i'm going to take the money i've been investing and redirect it to paying down my mortgage. by the time i've brought the monthly interest payments on it down to something more reasonable, the world will hopefully have changed enough that i can return to investing at a more profitable rate. so i skipped the treasury auction last month. i haven't started making extra mortgage payments yet, but have instead finally done something about the common wisdom of setting aside enough cash to cover 3-6 months of expenses in case of sudden unemployment. my expenses are roughly $2,000/month these days and i'm making $500/month from renting two rooms in my house, so i'm putting $4,500 into a money market account; this will be completed in a couple of weeks. it earns 2%, so at least i'll get $7.50/month from it. i've also changed the accounting of the investment income total to reflect the actual amount i currently make from long-term investments, not that amount plus what i would get if i invested all my cash assets. calculating it that way was psychologically necessary for a long time to keep myself excited with seeing the line go up steadily, but it's no longer accurate since there won't be another investment in a couple of months, and i can switch to watching the expenses line come down instead as my mortgage interest payments shrink. the investment income had hit $101.20; it will now go down to $88.54. i think that's all for now. thanks for checking in!
new in january 2004
01/01/2004	happy new year! the real estate tax came due last month, so expenses shot through the roof. the little blue line keeps chugging along. i hope you're on the slow but steady way to all your goals, too.