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Re: The Trial of the Century Continues!
Board: Ryan's a Total Goober
Reply to: #15716 by Green Tortuga
Feb 1, 2006 4:04am
Thread Board
Quote Question: what do people do with airbags they have stolen from cars?


It does not take much of a major collision to set off an airbag, which is the point of them. But it DOES take money to replace them since they are "one time use only" items. So some less scrupulous collision shops will use an "after market" one to replace an original at a fraction of the cost.
Re: Easy Appetizer Recipes Needed
Board: Food For Thought
Reply to: #15712 by daelphinus
Feb 1, 2006 5:42am
Thread Board
Quote BBQ Weenies
Add (1) 32 oz jar of grape jelly and (3) 12 oz. jars of chili sauce to a crockpot. Heat until jelly is melted. Add miniature weenies. Heat through for an hour. Serve with toothpicks.

Wow--this recipe looks neat & so simple! I have no idea where to get the miniature sausages but I wonder if this would work with sliced turkey sausage/kielbasa? Definitely looks like something I'll try in the future.


I've used these to make a sweet tasting gravy for homemade meatballs. I just mix in the goodies to the meat and the egg and breadcrumbs, cook them in the oven and then throw it in the crockpot and put this mixture over it. Big hit at potlucks! First time I made it my man looked at me melting the chili sauce and grape jelly together and kind of shook his head, but he's the first one in line for them. Even the dog ate them off of the counter once!

Moonduck
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15713 by Kaaren the Vampire Slayer
Feb 1, 2006 5:44am
Thread Board
I guess I get confused about the 401K here at my work. Some guy came and talked to us about it, but I had a meeting in the middle of that and missed out. What I understood was that I get to play with how my money is invested? My tax person told me that I should do it and it will help with my taxes as well.

I'd ask our person here, but he likes to talk really loud about confidential things and also talks to you like you're stupid, which is not a good incentive to ask questions when you don't know anything about the topic at hand.

Moonduck
Re: The Trial of the Century Continues!
Board: Ryan's a Total Goober
Reply to: #15717 by Eidolon
Feb 1, 2006 7:05am
Thread Board
Just loved reading this account! I was on jury duty once. Found out that they like having teachers on juries - everyone thinks they will be impartial. I got on two trials but as soon as we got seated, the people decided to plead guilty! So I never had to do anything. Makes you wonder what they saw in our faces that made them decide not to go through with it.
Beachcomber
Re: Easy Appetizer Recipes Needed
Board: Food For Thought
Reply to: #15715 by Maiden
Feb 1, 2006 8:16am
Thread Board
I took this dip to a party a couple of weeks ago. Served with lots of vegies, both blanched and raw, and slices of a baguette that I toasted, then rubbed with a raw garlic clove. Just a couple of lonely carrot sticks left on the plate.

It is also yummy with 4-5 slices of crisp bacon crumbled up.
colls
Re: Easy Appetizer Recipes Needed
Board: Food For Thought
Reply to: #15624 by The Wolf Family
Feb 1, 2006 8:37am
Thread Board
Quote No cook treats:
Take ham lunchmeat, spread cream cheese on it and roll it up and stick a toothpick in it.


I've made this too, but I put a baby dill pickle in the middle. Nice combination of textures.

Quote Wrap Bacon around a whole water chestnut and lay out on a cookie sheet. You can secure them with a toothpick. Cook in Oven until the bacon is done!! They are wonderful!!


Even better if you marinade them in Teriyoki sauce before you cook them!
Re: Big stamp
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #15690 by Doctroid
Feb 1, 2006 8:41am
Thread Board
Easy enough box to do. Duplicate the stamp and plant ... if there's a spot to hide it.

Interesting piece of art ...


CPAScott
Images
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Feb 1, 2006 8:43am
Thread Board
I just got my first digital camera and loaded the software on my computer and started playing last night. I discovered that I can take a picture and turn it into a "coloring book" copy. It just leaves black and white lines, pretty cool, so the first thing I thought was that I could use it to make a stamp. Has anyone done this/tried this yet? How did it work for you?

Moonduck
Re: Images
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #15727 by Moonduck
Feb 1, 2006 8:46am
Thread Board
No, but this sounds VERY COOL!
Koyote
Re: Images
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #15727 by Moonduck
Feb 1, 2006 8:57am
Thread Board
That's what I do OR...in a program like Microsoft publisher ( a desktop publisher) you can format any image you put onto a page. You can make a color photo black and white lines (the colorbook effect) or greyscale etc.

depending on which program you use the same effect is sometimes called something different. I have one program with the coloring book effect and a couple with diferent editing features that work well.

DixieKin
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15719 by Moonduck
Feb 1, 2006 9:22am
Thread Board
Quote I guess I get confused about the 401K here at my work. Some guy came and talked to us about it, but I had a meeting in the middle of that and missed out. What I understood was that I get to play with how my money is invested? My tax person told me that I should do it and it will help with my taxes as well.

Moonduck


Hi Moonduck

Search out www.bobbrinker.com and on his home page there is a function for finding his radio program in your area. The name of his program is Money Talk. He also has a listing for some basic books that will get you started. If you stay in the no load index Vangard fund family then it will be pretty hard to go wrong. One thing to consider is placing some funds outside IRA or 401K as well. When you need to start cashing in IRA or 401K then it is taxed at what ever rate you fall into. If you cash in assets outside of your IRA or 401K then it comes under capital gains(if you have held it over 1 year) and that rate could be far less. So best thing to do is max out retirement funds and kick in some in other accounts.

Don
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15731 by Don and Gwen
Feb 1, 2006 9:49am
Thread Board
Thanks for the advice, I'll have to give that radio program a try. Surprisingly some of this made sense, I knew about cashing in and paying taxes on it. I think that Vangard thing is an option for us. I just know that there were pie charts that had "safe" bets and "more dangerous" bets and high pay offs and low ones, and jeez louise, I just don't know!

Is this why places like Edward Jones exists? I've never thought about my retirement until lately (altho I'm still young) and I know my dad had a really good pension, so he never dealt with any of this kind of stuff. One of my friends here at work participates and says he doesn't notice it coming out of his check, but it does add up big time. I just know that I when I get to retirement age, I'll have the choice to do it and to not work. I want to enjoy my golden years to the max!

Moonduck
Re: The Trial of the Century Continues!
Board: Ryan's a Total Goober
Reply to: #15721 by Beachcomber
Feb 1, 2006 9:54am
Thread Board
Quote I got on two trials but as soon as we got seated, the people decided to plead guilty! So I never had to do anything. Makes you wonder what they saw in our faces that made them decide not to go through with it.


I hate it when the defense plays that game! Whenever we prosecute some one for fraud there are some defense attorneys that know they don't have a case but will "bluff" that they do. If the prosecution can't get all the witnesses there on the trial date they will ask for it to be dismissed which the judge may do. They wait until the last witness is in and then they suddenly plead guilty. Even more aggravating is when all the witnesses show up and then the defense asks for a continuance and the judge grants it. Then all the witnesses have to show up again and the defense is hoping that one won't show up the second time (everyone hates to take off time from work and is pretty angry at coming again). When they do all show up the defense suddenly pleads guilty. It makes you wonder how much of this is really about justice being served.
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15732 by Moonduck
Feb 1, 2006 9:55am
Thread Board
Quote I just know that I when I get to retirement age, I'll have the choice to do it and to not work. I want to enjoy my golden years to the max!

Moonduck


We be there!!!!!

Don
Re: Images
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #15729 by Dixie
Feb 1, 2006 10:08am
Thread Board
could you explain how to do this on Micrsoft Publisher? I'm sitting here tinkering with it and I cannot figure it out. Thanks!
Desi
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15713 by Kaaren the Vampire Slayer
Feb 1, 2006 10:25am
Thread Board
Quote My old boss had me raise my 401k by 5% when he gave me a raise.


Putting a raise into your 401K is definitely a good way to painlessly save.

Another good way, is to increase it 1% every 3 months, if your plan allows that. Extremely painless, even on a limited income.
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15719 by Moonduck
Feb 1, 2006 10:35am
Thread Board
We have a pseudo-401K through work and we can direct our percentages of our contributions to 5 different types of funds:

Government Securities Fund (low risk, low return)
Bond Index Fund (low risk, low return)
Common Stock Index Fund (higher risk, higher return)
Small Capitalization Index Fund aka 'small cap' (higher risk, higher return)
International Stock Index Fund (higher risk but diversified to a larger extent, higher return)

If your work 'matches' your contributions--try to max out your contributions to the limit. Our employer doesn't match (YUCK!) so it isn't the best investment for us but we still contribute to it above what we put into our IRAs and Educational Savings Accounts each year because it does provide a slight tax benefit to us each year.

If you can direct your contributions to funds like I've listed above, then the ratio of how you direct your funds might be different depending upon your age/stage in life. We're mid30s with kids (no debt) so we're going aggressive with our investments (higher risk, higher return) and have decided on a split between the Common Stock, Small Cap and International Stock--it's up to you to decide on how you split it. We're something like 40%-C, 30%-S & 30%-I, but we tweak it every now and then. As you age, you modify your investments by heading towards the lower risk, lower return type funds--to help 'protect' your investments as you'll be more likely to withdraw from them as you near retirement.

If you have to choose a particular fund (or array of funds) for your 401K (which is probably how yours is set up) keep this in mind, too. You may want to diversify (in fact, that's what Bob Brinker will tell you too!) between a couple different funds if you're allowed. Don't have any more than 4% of your entire investment portfolio in one single stock (or type/family of stock). If you exceed that amount, you're more likely to take a major punch if that stock dives (look at Google's performance today alone as a good representation of why you should apply this rule!). Try to find funds that are in different families (the families are generally similar to the 5 types I've listed above) so they don't 'overlap' or invest in similar types of stocks/bonds. By doing this, you'll spread your 'risk' across the spectrum of the market and reduce your 'exposure' to downward trends in a single sector of the market (usually tech stocks do this alot).

Hope this helps,

dvn2r ckr

Good books to help learn more about this:

Eliminating debt so you have more to invest:
Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace Revisited"
http://www.daveramsey.com
daily 3-hr radio show, even available on internet archives for free from his site

Investing without much effort: Lewis Schiff & Douglas Gerlach's "Armchair Millionaire"

MoneyTalk with Bob Brinker:
http://bobbrinker.com/
Radio talk show is 2-5 hours on Sat/Sun

AND I love books by Peter Lynch--

"One Up on Wall Street"
"Beating the Street"
and his books on investing for kids--he explains it in really easy to understand terms!!!
Re: Images
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #15735 by drgdlg
Feb 1, 2006 10:44am
Thread Board
For Publisher 2002, right click on the picture and choose Recolor Picture, for color, select black and Recolor Whole Picture. Click ok and you should have a black and white picture!

At least that's how I did it :)
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15737 by daelphinus
Feb 1, 2006 10:56am
Thread Board
Quote AND I love books by Peter Lynch--

"One Up on Wall Street"
"Beating the Street"


Yeah, I really enjoyed those two book as well. =)

If you've ever read anything by Warren Buffett, it's pretty fascinating as well. He doesn't have any books (well, none that he's written, at least--lots of books about him, though!), but his annual reports are very interesting and educational and worth a peep every now and then. =) Not as easy to read as Peter Lynch's books, but very fascinating!

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

-- Ryan
Re: Big stamp
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #15726 by CPAScott
Feb 1, 2006 11:23am
Thread Board
Hey...it was my idea in the first place!

No squatters on my land! =]
Re: Easy Appetizer Recipes Needed
Board: Food For Thought
Reply to: #15722 by colls n DB
Feb 1, 2006 12:04pm
Thread Board
I took this dip to a party a couple of weeks ago. Served with lots of vegies, both blanched and raw, and slices of a baguette that I toasted, then rubbed with a raw garlic clove. Just a couple of lonely carrot sticks left on the plate.

It is also yummy with 4-5 slices of crisp bacon crumbled up.
colls





Guess that wasn't very clear....I meant the Knorr Spinich Dip!
colls
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15739 by Green Tortuga
Feb 1, 2006 12:08pm
Thread Board
In my non-letterboxing life (could there be such a thing?) I write about books for an investment magazine. These are a few of my favorite personal finance/investing books (beyond the ones previously mentioned):

Personal Finance for Dummies and Investing for Dummies, both by Eric Tyson

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias (there's a newly updated edition)

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko - a very eye-opening book about why the people you think are really rich just might not be and how to follow the example of true millionaires to build your own wealth.

If you invest in mutual funds, you MUST read something by John Bogle (founder of Vanguard). His latest book, Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, is a scary and scathing look at the industry and the reforms he thinks are necessary.

If you're trying to figure out how much you'll need for retirement, the just-published book The Number by Lee Eisenberg gives a unique, funny and philosophical take on the subject. I had a lot of fun reading that one.

For parents wanting to teach their kids about money, I really like Raising Financially Fit Kids by Joline Godfrey and The First National Bank of Dad by David Owen.

There are a lot more books I really admire but time prevents me from making a truly comprehensive list. I have more shelves of financial books that should be legally allowed - if you're thinking about reading/buying anything in particular, I'd be happy to offer up my opinion if I've read it so just ask.

TurtleMcQ
Re: 401K update- Books
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15742 by TurtleMcQ
Feb 1, 2006 1:13pm
Thread Board
How about Arm Chair Millionare by Silent Doug?

Don
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15713 by Kaaren the Vampire Slayer
Feb 1, 2006 1:13pm
Thread Board
I have been putting the max into my 401K since 1989 and I have a nice little nest egg there! I used to date a stockbroker and he would help me make the decisions on what options I should direct the money to...

Unfortunately, my company does NOT match contributions in any way, shape, or form. Of course you can't blame them when they are bankrupt most of the time! Darn Airlines!!

My Dad was the one who told me to do the 401K in the beginning when I first got my job. If you have always contributed money to it, you never miss it! And he could see the handwriting on the wall as far as pensions and social security!! I am amazed at the number of Flight Attendants who did not do the 401K in the beginning and are just now thinking about it after 15 years of working!! Especially since many of them plan to try to retire within the next 10 years.

-Amanda from Seattle
Rockhounding
Board: Miscellaneous Oddities
Feb 1, 2006 1:32pm
Thread Board
Discovered an interesting side-line to Letterboxing - whenever I'm out on the trail, I find myself picking up rocks....pretty ones, odd shaped ones, colorful ones - whatever catches my eye. Makes for a heavy pack after a while, but they do have a certain appeal! Anyone else do this??
Re: Rockhounding
Board: Miscellaneous Oddities
Reply to: #15747 by sojourner
Feb 1, 2006 1:58pm
Thread Board
I do this when I go the beach. I put them in my aquarium after a good cleaning/boiling.

Moonduck
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15746 by Amanda from Seattle
Feb 1, 2006 2:25pm
Thread Board
Quote Unfortunately, my company does NOT match contributions in any way, shape, or form. Of course you can't blame them when they are bankrupt most of the time! Darn Airlines!!


Thankfully, mine matches 50% of what I put in, so it helps out a lot.

I never thought about retirement, until my old boss really pushed it. My parents both did not plan for theirs. Dad is 61 and has barely anything for retirement. :( I don't want to have to keep working until I am 70 or more....unless I really want to, not because I HAVE to.
Re: Rockhounding
Board: Miscellaneous Oddities
Reply to: #15747 by sojourner
Feb 1, 2006 2:26pm
Thread Board
I love rocks. But...we don't have any nice ones down here (central Florida). It stinks.
Re: Rockhounding
Board: Miscellaneous Oddities
Reply to: #15747 by sojourner
Feb 1, 2006 2:34pm
Thread Board
Absolutely! Forest Troll and I have been doing this forever, long before I discovered letterboxing. I have rocks from all over the country. And they bring back memories of when I was 'there' when I see them. I was a big rock hound when I lived in Oregon. You had agates and Jasper and shell fossils on the coast. There were many kinds of lava rocks and Thunder eggs in the Cascades. One of my favorites is a green lace lava. Have fun with rockhounding!
Sahalie
Re: 401K update
Board: Money and Investing
Reply to: #15751 by Kaaren the Vampire Slayer
Feb 1, 2006 2:37pm
Thread Board
Quote Thankfully, mine matches 50% of what I put in, so it helps out a lot.

It really makes me crazy when I think of all the money I COULD have had! If USAirways matched contributions! WOW. But I am lucky that I have been doing what I have been!

I had an old boyfriend who was bamboozled that I had so much money taken out of my paychecks and put into 401K. (And this was in the early 90's) He couldn't see why I would do that! I told him that I didn't think HE would be taking care of me when I was 80 years old!! I was right about that! :-) He is long gone.
:-)
-Amanda