I went to lunch with my friend yesterday. She told me her father lost his house and lives in rental now. From what she told me, her father and his wife (her stepmother) deserve to lose the house. They stretched themselves to the limit, and they knew what they were doing. My friend told me her stepmother knows the system and use it for her advantage. I don't know any detail how her stepmother did it, but they stayed in their house for one year without paying any mortgage by taking advantage of grace period to vacate the house or something. (Like I said, I have no idea how she did it. My friend told me her stepmother filed bankruptcy and every time she submitted paperwork, the grace period was extended, or something like that. Please don't quote me on this. I really don't know how the system works about bankruptcy.) Anyway, this is second time her stepmother filed bankruptcy.

My friend knew about her father's financial situation, so she told her stepmother not to get anything for Christmas last year. Of course, her stepmother went out and bought gifts for everyone. Things people do not need. My friend's husband got a shirt he will never wear and went straight to Goodwill. Her daughter received shoes she didn't like. So, my friend had to lie to her stepmother that they were too small, and find out the store step mom bought the shoes from. At least, she could exchange the shoes with something her daughter would wear.

Wow...... Good thing is my friend is not like her father, and is careful about money. I met her in Statistics class in community college. She is working on degree to become a speech therapist, and was just accepted to grad school.

I guess some people are totally fine losing their homes. Maybe, they don't care. Like her father, they find another place to live and move on..... But... will they ever learn about financial responsibility??? btw, my friend's father is 65 years old.

We have a daughter. She's sophomore in high school, and she is a good kid. Never missed a day of school, very personable, and works really hard. She doesn't know which university she wants to go, yet. But, I know it will not be a community college. While there is nothing wrong with earning lower division credit at a community college and transfer to UC or CSU (which I did), she says she is working too hard to settle for a community college. It is true. She spends most of her days studying, planning for student body activity, practicing instrument, or helping basket ball team stats.

Frustrating thing is, sometimes, what she wants to do and what she can do aren't the same thing. She wants to place herself in advance classes, but she is failing her math class. She is taking pre-cal/trig and seems that it is just way too much for her. She has been a B student in her Algebra and Geometry, so I was little concerned when she took pre-cal this year. I didn't think she had a strong enough foundation, but she was placed in pre-cal class since she passed Algebra II last year with a B. Well, she has been struggling as I predicted, and my husband is really upset about her bad grade.

I kind of feel sorry for her. When I did trig in my high school days, I didn't get it. And I didn't care, to be honest. I understand how frustrating it is to spend hours and hours studying and still get failing grade. I went to talk to her math teacher and she thinks our DD has an ability to pass. Well, then, why she keeps failing? I heard only three students in her class are passing. That doesn't sound right.

My DH may have a talk with the principle and find out what our options are. I'm not really concerned because she already has completed graduate requirement classes for math. But we just don't want her to damage her GPA. At this point, I don't know what to do with this issue. It's pretty frustrating.....

I find some similarities between managing money and managing relationship.

- You need to pay attention.
You pay attention to people you like and cultivate relationship. You pay attention to money and money will grow.

- You invest your time.
Developing good relationship takes time, and accumulating financial stability also takes time.

- Sometimes you need to keep distance.
If you're always together and too close, relationship may suffer. You also give some distance with your money and give it some room to grow.

- There will be some ups and downs.
Like marriage, we experience ups and downs in our savings and investment.

- If you treat the person nicely, you will be treated well in return.
If you treat money with care, it will reward you with a nice return.

In general, people who are managing their relationship well seem to be financially stable, too. It's just my observation.

I suppose some of you had a lot of fun getting Register Rewards for P&G products last week at Walgreens. Trial size worked like a charm and I ended up getting $92 worth of RR. (My out of pocket was $65.36, so I made $26.64 from this deal.) Unfortunately, 99 cents trial size were wiped out, and I could score only once. Still, I could find 1.39 trial size that gave me about $3 profit every time I bought. So, that was nice. What do I do with all these mini shampoos? I will donate them when holiday season comes. My office donate household necessities, i.e. soap & shampoo, to homeless people every year.

I used $4 to buy one of FAR items, and thinking what to get with the rest of $88. I may have problem buying gift card because it's $4 coupon and says one per order. We will see. I was planning to buy some Windex this week since we're running low. I have a couple of BOGO coupon for antibacterial kind, but I heard Safeway has them for BOGO this week, so it's cheaper to get theses at Safeway. (free....) I need to sit down and figure this out. It's only Monday, so I still have a whole week to think about it.

I'm leaving work at noon today because I have an exam for my accounting class tonight. It's about capitalization & depreciation. The teacher was really nice and held a review session yesterday afternoon that helped me a great deal. Very nice teacher. I hope his exam is as nice as he is LOL

I went to have my crown (for my tooth) done on Tuesday. After insurance and deductible, my portion was $559.50. Ouch!!

However, as I wrote before, I paid it with my FSA debit card. So, I don't feel much pain in my bank account. Money was already funded through FSA contribution. I love my FSA debit card.

I stopped by Walgreens and bought some P&G products. I heard trial size is working for Register Reward deal, so I gave it a try. And Voila!! It worked like a charm. I bought 6 trial size shampoo & conditioner, paid $8.34 ($1.39 x 6) and received $12 coupon that is good for next shopping trip. I am going to use the coupon to buy March FAR items.

And, I couldn't resist.... I bought two bags of M&M candies. I know, I know. It's not good for my wallet or teeth. But, it was $1 for a 12.6 oz bag!! (2 for $3 after Walgreens store coupon, then, add 2/$1 manufacture coupon makes them $1 each.) I'm sure you will understand ; )

I stopped by Trader Joe's on Saturday to pick up my usual.

Bananas, 19 cents per pound.
Fuji apples 49 cents each.
Sourdough bread $1.89 a loaf.
And a dozen of eggs...... I saw the price and skipped. The price of eggs has gone up AGAIN! It used to be 99 cents for a dozen of eggs not so long ago. Then, it went up to $1.19, to $1.69, and now it's $1.89. I know I'm talking about very small amount of money, but all of you know how quickly these 80 cents here and there add up. I decided to buy eggs at Longs Drug this time because their eggs are still $1.49 for a dozen. I need to go there to pick up new rebate book anyway.

Grocery prices are definitely going up as gas price goes up. Do you feel grocery price increase, too?

DH and I went to nice Korean BBQ dinner last night. Ohhh, it was soooo good! I had $20 off coupon for the restaurant, and the tab was $64, and I gave $10 tip for the waitress. After using the coupon, we paid $54. ($64 - $20 + $10 = $54.) The dinner was definitely worth the money.

Since we spent quite a bit for the dinner last night, I am making cheap dinner tonight LOL

Whole chicken $2.43 and I only used dark meat portion. So, half of $2.43 is $1.22
Green pepper 58 cents
Onion I don't know.... I bought two bags of onions for $2.99. So, it's about 20 cents or less.
Two cans of diced tomato $0.12 x 2 = 24 cents
Knorr soup mix I found this in my cover that was sitting there for a long time..... I guess it was like $1 at max. knowing my shopping habit.
Total $3.24 for a clock pot full of chicken dish (Main dish)

Side dish: Green giant veggie. 57 cents + Rice Roni (free) = 57 cents

Grand total $3.81

I know we won't finish everything, so left over will be my lunch.

I need new contact lenses (I use disposable kind), but my prescription expired. So, I went to check my vision yesterday. The exam was $109 and my co-pay was $10. And I ordered four boxes of contact lenses, two boxes for each eye. They were $147.92 and insurance covered $67. My portion for contact lenses, $80.92. I paid $99.92 with my FSA debit card.

I really like this FSA debit card system. It is so much easier than sending paperwork to the FSA processing company and wait for a check to arrive. I set $3,000 aside this year for medical expense, so I have enough fund to cover upcoming medical expenses for my family and myself. Fortunately, we do not have any major health problems, just dental and vision related items, and regular health check-up. But as you all know, these cost can add up really quickly.

Well, speaking of dental expense, I just received an estimate from my dentist for a crown I am planning to do in March. Estimated cost is $998, and insurance will cover $438.50, so my out of pocket will be $559.50. I am glad I don't have to stress about this money as it's funded in FSA already.

It's lunch time, and I'm eating BBQ sandwich I made.

I bought a rack of port spare ribs that were 50% off at Safeway, and paid $6.98 for it. I also bought a bag of buns (8 ct.) that was 79 cents after promotion. I cooked the spare ribs in my clock pot with a couple of onions, Cattlemen's BBQ sauce, and some maple syrup. It was our dinner last night and we still had a lot of left over, so I brought some to work for lunch.

The maple syrup I used is a gift from someone we have never met.

In December 2006, I was checking my bank account as usual, and noticed a deposit of $1,000. I asked my husband if he knows anything about it, but he had no clue. So, we called the bank and asked for a copy of deposit slip which we had really hard time to read. The only thing we could figure out was the deposit was made somewhere in East Coast (I forgot what state it was...) by Mr. A. We have no realatives in East Coast, and had no idea who Mr. A was.

We told the bank this deposit is a mistake even though deposit slip had our account number, and asked them to reverse the transfer. But the bank (BoA, by the way) could not do anything about it. They told us to take the money out and write a check for Mr. A. Well, we don't know who he is or where he lives! Plus, why do we have to go through all the trouble??? We didn't do anything wrong.

So, my husband googled Mr. A and found his phone number!! (How did we survive before Google???) DH called the guy and asked him what this money was about. It turns out the deposit was for his son who is in service and lives in CA. His son is married to a Japanese girl whose name is very similar to mine, and she has an account with BoA.

Mr. A told us he went to the bank and asked a bank teller to help him fill out the bank deposit slip. The bank teller searched in the system and found me instead of his son's wife! Well, the bank teller wrote down our account number she got from the system, and the money was transferred to our account. Boy, it's scary or what!!??

This money was a Christmas gift for their son, and this poor old couple had no idea we received the money instead of their son. Mr. A also contacted the bank after DH called him, and the bank gave the money back to Mr. A and transferred to his daughter-in-law's account. Few weeks later, we received a bottle of maple syrup from this old couple.

I've been spending quite a bit for grocery these days. I went to a Japanese grocery store to buy a bag of rice last week. I'm very particular about rice and always make a special trip to the store. While I was at the store, I bought some other things regular super markets don't carry. At the end, I paid $48. Ouch!

Today will be no spending day. I baked some muffins yesterday, and I brought one for my breakfast. I also bought a bunch of lunch meat and sandwich rolls at Safeway taking advantage of Sara Lee/Hillsher Farms deal. Lunch meats were free, and the bread was 72 cents for 6 ct. Not bad. I made a sandwich for my lunch using the stuff I bought. It's too bad Safeway ended the promotion one week earlier than they originally advertised.

People are talking about upcoming promotion at Safeway. I need to keep my eyes on the deals. Can't wait to get new store flyers tomorrow.

I found one annoying thing when I was reviewing my online bank statement. I bought a couple of pizzas last Saturday because my DD's friends were spending a night at our house. The receipt was $15.27, but the amount charged to my ATM card was $16.38 that is $1.11 more than the value on the receipt. Unfortunately, I threw away receipt after I wrote down the value in my price book/spending record. I remember someone was talking about a similar experience in his/her blog, but it was a good $1.11 lesson for me not to throw away receipts until confirming how much was actually charged. I think the person thinks nobody will come after for only $1.11, but I will say something next time this type of thing happens to me.

Yesterday was almost no spending day. I decided to go to Rite Aid and pick up a couple of feminine products that are almost free after coupon and rebate. They were $3.50 each, and I used two $2.50 off coupons, and will get $2 from rebate. Tax was 54 cents. So, actual spending for yesterday was 54 cents.

I will not spend anything today, so it will be no spending day today.

Pay January CC bill. Check!

I changed my CC from United mileage to Chase reward. $850 January ending balance paid in full, and this amount includes DD's airfare to NYC/DC this summer, $650.

Organize tax related document. Check!

I made a binder for 2007 tax and organized all the tax document I obtained so far.

Some more things to do today.
- Check tax software at Staples, and free software deal
- Gather up all the recipts for my FSA reimbursement for January
- Make a shopping list for this week

Yesterday, I stayed in the office all day, and went straight to school. Thus, No spending day. Oh, I returned one item at Rite Aid and got $8 back. So, it was positive in terms of cash flow. I bought some FAR (free after rebate) items at Rite Aid last week, and noticed one of them didn't ring up correctly and didn't qualify for rebate even though it was the qualified item. Somebody must entered wrong information in their computer. It wasn't something I desperately needed, so I just returned it and got my money back. New rebate period started at Rite Aid as well. I'd better check and see if they have anything good.

I'd better start working on our tax soon. All the paperwork is piled on my desk, and I haven't really organize them, yet. Tax time is also good time to get some free software. Staple normally offers tax software bundle deal this time of the year.

I was going to go FAR item shopping during lunch time, but it's raining..... again..... I guess I will just stay here.

I spent some money socializing with my friends on Saturday. One of my friend's friend is a Mary Kay consultant and I was invited to do a make over. I actually had a good time and learned something about make up, like how to apply mascara. I bought eye make up remover and acne solution for my DD. Total $22.

Then, I went out with my friends for a drink. We ordered bruschetta and pot stickers, and I had a cosmopolitan. My share was $12 which isn't too bad. Everything tasted good and we had a nice girls' talk.

We were really low on fruits and vegetables, so I went to Trader Joe's. I really don't care if things are organic or not, but their price is very reasonable. I bought 4 Fuji apples, bananas (19 cents per lb.!), a dozen eggs ($1.19), chocolate taffy cake (full size cake for $1.99), a package of tomatoes, a bag of tangerines, a bag of green beans, 3 green peppers, a package of mushrooms, a package of bok choy, a bag of small red potatoes, a loaf of sour dough bread, and paid $23.81.

Walgreens started new rebate period yesterday. I didn't buy anything for Walgreens rebate last month because there wasn't much. There are some good ones this week, and I am planning stop by after my class tonight.

This has been a slow day at work which is good. I don't need any surprises that causes extra reconciliation work to do.

I checked my 401K and it is down 8K since Jan. 1!! What will I do? Nothing. LOL I increased my contribution this year to take advantage of down market, and hoping this will pay off 10 years from now. I am not quite retiring, yet.

One annoying thing happened about my school, though. I signed up for the international accounting class on Tues & Thurs, starts at 4:30 p.m. Sometimes, it is not easy for me to leave work early, so when I found the school added a tax class that starts at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, I jumped on it and dropped the international accounting. Well, guess what? The school cancelled the tax class, and now I am in the waiting list for the international accounting class I originally had a seat. Grrrr!

As for money, today is going to be a no spending day.

I heard about the $800/$1600 payment from the government, and it reminded me so much of what I had experienced in Japan when their economy tanked in early 90's. It was a very similar situation. Real estate price went crazy in mid 80's, and people were buying real estate left and right. Banks loaned money to anybody and everybody. After that, there was a huge bad debt which banks had to deal with, and the government was trying so hard to re-bump the economy.

They did similar things. Lower interest rate. Yap. Japanese prime rate has been so low, my friends' mortgage rate is 2 to 3%. Yes, 2 to 3%. Keep in mind, interest rate for savings is like, 0.1%. My friend who moved to Bay Area a couple of years ago told me he was shocked to see "interest" in his bank statement that he hadn't seen for years.

Giving people money? Yap, done that too. The government paid about $200 per child, and I received $200 check for nothing. My friend has 4 kids, so she received about $800. Did it energize the economy? Of course, not LOL Their economy still hasn't fully recovered today.

I know we cannot conduct a simple comparison between US and Japan economy because I think US economy is much more flexible and dynamic. But I think it is interesting to see some similarities in economic downturn

I took care of a couple of plastic issues today.

One is cancelling my United Mileage card. This has $60 annual fee and it is due in February. I was going to cancel it last year anyway, but forgot about it and paid annual fee. I cleared the balance last week and called them today to cancel it. Sales rep. was pretty nice about it and closed the account right away without bothering me much. Maybe it's because I told them I switched from their mileage card to reward card. Technically, they didn't lose a customer.

Another one is my flexible spending account card. I thought the benefit company will send me new FSA debit card this year, so I threw my old one away. Well, it turns out that the card was good till its expiration date. I called the benefit center and requested new card. I really like debit card system because I don't have to worry about paperwork.

I've done a couple things to fulfill my new year's resolution.

Saturday: Went to get my pedicure. Check!

Sunday: Went for a walk for an hour. Since I could not go for a walk this week, I combined and made it for an hour, instead of 30 min. Check!

Now, I'm planning to do a couple of deals at Safeway. There are several deals going on at Safeway, and some are really good one.

One is breakfast deal. Buy 10 item and get $10 off. Quaker products are participating products and they are $2 each. That means, the price will be $1 each after buying 10 items, and can even lower using coupons.

I already bought 10 boxes of granola bars for 50 cents each. I still have coupons for oatmeal and oatmeal to go. Oatmeal will be 30 cents per box after promotion and coupons. That's pretty good. We still have some left from last Quaker deal, but expiration date for oatmeal is quite a long time.

Campbell's select soup is another deal I’m looking at. It is part of “Buy 10 and get $5 off” promotion, and the price is $1.5 each. After buying 10 of them, the final price is $1 each, and I can use five of .40/2 coupon that will bring the final price to $8, 80 cents per can.

I don’t feel like going anywhere now. So, I will stop by the store tomorrow after work.

Here's some pictures I took when I was in Hawaii.

We went to whale watching and a bunch of dolphins started racing with our boat!! They were so playful and cute.







Also, we saw an ocean turtle when we went to north shore. Waves were huge in north shore side and I actually saw a surfer doing pipeline! It was awesome.

I came back from Hawaii last night. Now, I'm back to work, back to reality.

Hawaii was just great. Last time I visited Hawaii was about 12 years ago, so, I totally forgot what it was like till I arrived there. I didn't need any long-sleeve shirt even in winter. It was about 80 degrees every day.

I stayed at my friend's house, and she took me around Oahu. It was so beautiful, and we had a lot of fun. Since I got home late last night, I haven't even unpacked my suitcase. I will post some pictures when I have time to download them.

One thing I was surprised was Hawaii is so Japan! There are more than one Japanese TV channel, many Japanese restaurants (some actually from Japan), and Japanese grocery store. I ate Japanese food, read Japanese newspaper, and watched Japanese drama. It wasn't like this last time I was there. Since food is very important part of life in Japan (Japanese don't eat to live, they live to eat), my friend told me their transition from life in Tokyo to Hawaii was easy. Well, she is a white girl from California, but she spent more than 10 years in Tokyo, so she got used to life in Japan, I guess....

As for money, yes, I did spent quite a bit for the trip. Airfare was little over $400, and bought some souvenirs for my family and friends. But, I didn't have to pay for hotel and a car. I think I saved more than $1,000 by staying at my friend's house. I am very grateful that she took time to show me around between driving her kids to school and other activities.

Also, spending time with my friend was priceless. We talked, talked and talked LOL We amazingly didn't run out of things to talk about. It was like a slumber party!

I arrived Honolulu this afternoon.

Ohhhhh, it is paradise. The weather is just perfect, and people are walking around with T-shirts. I'm sitting in my friend's living room and feeling totally relaxed. She drove by Waikiki beach and it is beautiful as usual. It's amazing how ocean is so clear.

I really don't have any plans to do anything. I just want to relax and enjoy the nice weather, I guess : )

My back pain is almost gone. At least I can move around. Thank God!

I am leaving for Hawaii tomorrow morning, so I really wanted to get rid of my backache. It made me realize being healthy is so important to do anything! I was going to get a pedicure on Saturday, but could not go because I couldn't move an inch. I felt I wasted a whole day that really sucked.

I managed to get several copies of newspaper yesterday, though. It was such a great coupon day.

We are low on Nyquil and I was looking for a deal. 6 oz. Nyquil is $4 this week at Walgreens and they're having "Buy $20 and get $10 back" deal. There was $1.50 coupon yesterday. So, I am planning to buy 5 Nyquil.

$4 x 5 = $20
Less $1.5 x 5 = $7.5
Less $10
Final price $2.50 for five 6 oz. Nyquil.

By the way, all of my grades are posted. I got an A for Cost Accounting, Operations Management, and Tax. But, stupid A- for my Philosophy. I wrote a really baaaad paper for the final. I mean it was so bad that I received a D!! I have never ever got a D for my paper before. That shows Philosophy is not my thing. I hardly studied for the class so I shouldn't complain for A-.

Now, I am preparing to get my tuition reimbursement. I am getting $1,561.60 back for my tuition and books for last semester.

Yesterday started really good after stormy Friday, then it went downhill....

I went for a walk for about 35 minutes after I got out of bed. My new year's resolution was to go for a walk twice a week and I did it for my first week in 2008. Check!

After I came home, I started scooping leaves in our pool. It took me a while to scoop all these leaves, and what I didn't realize was I twisted my back while I was scooping leaves.

I started feeling pain in my back and could not even move in the afternoon! I had some chores I wanted to do, and was invited to our friend's birthday party. But I could not do any of it because I couldn't move one inch. Ohhh, it was just terrible.

It feels little better today, but I am still careful and not moving around much. I want to go and buy some newspapers, though. Today's is a great coupon day and I really don't want to miss out.

I'm hoping this pain will go away completely very soon.

Our weather is CRAZY today. It was scary driving this morning to work. I had to hold on to my steering wheel and maintain control of my car. I just talked to my daughter and she told me our fence just fell down due to heavy wind. I heard the wind should die down a little by noon, but I don't know. I was thinking about avoiding free way when I go home but I also heard many signals are out. So, I guess I will leave work early and drive slow on free way. There are accidents everywhere and the traffic will be pretty bad anyway.

It's time to get my free credit report. So, I went to annualcreditreport.com and reviewed my credit report. I do this every four month to take advantage of free credit report from three agencies. (For example, I pick TransUnion in January, Experian in April, then Equifax in August.) I normally skip knowing my credit score because it cost about $8. My concern is accuracy in my account information, so I don't bother about the score. At least, not this time.

Reviewing my credit report is also a good reminder to close accounts I don't really need. I may close my Nordstrom account because it has been inactive for at least two years now.

I'm back to work. I wake up really early, like 4 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. So, I decided to get up around 5. Prepared and packed my breakfast and lunch, changed, and left home about 6. I normally leave home between 6:30 and 7, so it was early for me. I stopped by Starbucks and got some regular coffee, not my usual caramel latte. I found their brewed coffee is less expensive. (Well, of course....) I paid $1.65 and the gal filled up my coffee mug. Well worth the money.

It took only about 30 minutes to get to work because there was no traffic (it's 30 miles driving), and I got a nice parking spot close to my office building. I guess it's good to be an early bird sometimes.

I'm planning to leave work early since I came early. Probably will go and check out a couple of deals at Walgreens and Rite Aid.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2008 will be another successful year for
all of you.

It's beautiful in Sacramento area this morning. Very cold, but beautiful blue sky.

I went for a walk this morning and returned DVD. Hollywood video is about two miles away, so I walked about 4 miles this morning. First accomplishment of this year : )

Then, I applied for Chase freedom credit card that is offering $100 cash back and 3% cash back on my purchase. I have no CC balance because I pay off every month. So, I will add this Cash rewards to my EF when I receive it.

Off to a good start for this year.

Grocery shopping day today. Some highlights.

1st store:
Lipton onion soup mix was 99 cents per box, and used .75/2 coupon. I still have some sour cream I bought from Target that were 2 cents each after coupons. Makes cheap onion dip! I bought some other things, mainly cheap canned goods, paid $10.57 for 11 items.

2nd store:
I had a rain check for Post cereal, $1.50 per box, and used $1/2 coupon makes them $1 per box. Got 6 boxes.
Cornish game hen (twin pack) is 99 cents this week, and I picked up the one priced $3.19. Used $2 off coupon, and the final price was $1.19 for two game hen. For some reason, I got a catalina for free Lysol wipes last time I was at the store, so I got it for free. Their store brand salad is BOGO and the price is $3.49. Used two $1 coupon and the final price is $1.49 for two bags of salad. I also bought 2 gallons of milk, a dozen eggs, etc.

All and all, my final spending for two stores was about $30.

I spent all day cleaning carpet in DD's room. We have two dogs, and sometimes there are "accidents" and it happened last night. She tried to spot clean, but we could still see the spot.

So, we decided to rent a carpet cleaner from Home Depot. It was time to do deep cleaning, anyway. We moved all the furniture from her room, and cleaned the carpet. It looks pretty good.

Today's spending: $35 for the carpet cleaner.

I really need to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I clipped coupons today while I was waiting for carpet to be dried. I made a shopping list the day before yesterday when I got store fliers. Time to go shopping : )

I was reading Money last night, and found SavingAdvice.com was in "The 28 Best moeny websites." (It's in P.68 if you have the magazine.)

I wonder if we will have more members joining us : ) I think it's great that this website is viewed as the place to get real personal finace advice.

We are here to help! Right? LOL