Bill Gillenwater: 1929-2008

Family


Laura’s paternal grandfather lost his battle with cancer today, this afternoon in his bed, as peacefully as could be.

He is the first grandparent to pass away, on either side, for both of us. We have been so blessed to have families that have been healthy. It is a rare, but true blessing to have eight grandparents still alive while Laura and I approach the age of 30. Sadly, now we only have seven.

Bill was a very funny man, always smiling, making us laugh, telling jokes, or acting goofy — to get us to smile. He had a sweet spirit about him that was contagious and attractive. I remember an afternoon where he and Laura were sitting on the couch and he was grabbing her knee to tickle her. She was struggling to breathe because she was laughing so hard from the tickling. He relented and then she grabbed his knee to tickle him. It didn’t tickle him at all, but he roared out in a silly laugh, to mock her ticklishness. All the while, I’m laughing because he’s acting like it tickled when, really, she wasn’t able to get him back! Or, he’d poke her in the ribs, she’d squirm, and then he’d yell in a mad voice to, “Sit still girl! Quit shaking the couch!”

It truly is amazing to see someone like Bill be so happy, when he came from such poverty and lived such a hard life. His life is a lesson to me to not become cynical or bitter. See, he grew up with nothing. And when he had kids, he had so little money, he would walk the rails, and at the sharp turns in the railroad, he’d look for and pick up coal that had fallen from the coal car, to take home and heat his house. (Now, he has a coal miner figurine, carved out of a piece of coal, pictured here.) A coal miner in West Virginia didn’t earn a fancy living or garner much respect in the eyes of most, but Bill was a wealthy man — not in finances, but in family, spirit, and attitude. Someone like myself has a lot to learn from people like Bill. He never played the “woe is me” card, never felt sorry for himself, and lived like he had no regrets.

I have a fancy job, make decent money, have a nice house, drive a nice car, eat out at restaurants, have fancy toys and a big TV. Big deal. Would I have the same spirit about myself if my material possessions were taken away? Would I be as cheerful as Bill if I grew up with nothing? I would hope the answer is yes, but Bill wouldn’t have to hope — he lived it!

In the end, God provided for Bill and his family. Today, his nice house is paid off, the funeral taken care of, four kids, now grown, had their needs met, and God took care of this coal miner’s family. God always provides, doesn’t he? Bill has had a blessed life, and the final blessing God bestowed upon him, in a final act of grace upon this man, God took him swiftly, painlessly, and quietly. His oldest daughter and a visiting nurse stood at his bedside this afternoon. The two were discussing how Bill didn’t have much time left, and that his breathing would stop and start and stop yet again. At one point, the nurse said, he just won’t start breathing again. His daughter looked down and noticed he wasn’t breathing. She said, “Like now? I don’t see him breathing.” And that was it. He was in heaven. God took him so peacefully, that he was taken right in front of others, and they didn’t even know it. Losing him this year makes this past Christmas extra special.

Even though Bill lost his battle with cancer today, he leaves us as an inspiration to look beyond ourselves, make due and be happy with what we have, and be a joy filled blessing to others. We are so happy that Bill no longer has to suffer in this earthly tent we wear for 80 some years. He is now cancer free, pain free, and able to run outside and know what it truly means to walk with Him. I look forward to seeing him again.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

Ultra Long Haul

Aviation

The following is a fascinating article written by Patrick Smith, in his Ask the Pilot series, at Salon.com I read it over a year ago, and it is still a great read. This article talks about long-haul flying, and explains what is involved in doing so. I was given more inspiration to apply to Cathay Pacific because of this article.

Nov 18, 2005 | On Nov. 10, for the first time in a while, an airplane made news for reasons other than crashing.
That plane was a Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner, the newest variant of Boeing’s highly successful twin-engine wide body. The LR, if it doesn’t jump out at you, is short for “long range.” Living up to its moniker, a prototype Worldliner, carrying eight crew, 35 guests and 54,000 gallons of jet fuel, completed a remarkable 22-hour and 43-minute flight from Hong Kong to London. The 11,664-nautical-mile trip marks an all-time world record for distance traveled nonstop by a commercial jetliner. The folks from Guinness were on hand at the arrival ceremony for official certification.
This might seem confusing when you consider that Hong Kong-to-London nonstops are nothing new. Daily flights by British Airways and Cathay Pacific connect the two cities in a little more than 12 hours. The difference is in the flight path. A normal HKG-LHR routing, which is to say the shortest distance between the two, goes northwesterly, up through China, Kazakhstan and Russia. (Or, to quote the Associated Press’ Dummies version: “Hong Kong-London flights usually fly over Russia.”) Captained by Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann, a Boeing flight test pilot since 1985, the Worldliner went the long way — not only eastbound but due east, avoiding any Great Circle shortcuts at higher latitudes. From Hong Kong, the jet crossed the northern Pacific, eventually making landfall over Los Angeles. From there it passed near Chicago and New York before traversing the Atlantic for a midafternoon arrival at London’s Heathrow Airport. The plane, decked out in Boeing’s spiffy blue and white house colors, touched down with more than 2,700 gallons of fuel left in its tanks.
Seven other pilots assisted Darcy-Hennemann, and no doubt she welcomed the company. Twenty-three hours aloft is prone to induce a certain circadian madness: Along the way, passengers and crew were able to witness two separate sunrises.
All very impressive, but in essence a publicity caper. Aircraft manufacturers are known to do this sort of thing now and again, setting out to break existing distance records during demo or delivery flights. Only eight years ago another 777 made media rounds after completing a 10,823-nautical-mile Seattle-Kuala Lumpur delivery flight for Malaysia Airlines. (Quibblers beware: With respect to these records, published distances between cities is not necessarily the same as mileage actually flown.) In 1993, an Airbus A340 took off from the Paris Air Show and flew 10,307 miles to Auckland, New Zealand. Back in 1976, a South African Airways 747SP made history on an 8,800-mile delivery run from Seattle to Cape Town, not surpassed until 1989, when the first 747-400 built for Qantas pulled off a slightly longer London-Sydney haul (more on that in a moment).
In nautical mileage, the Worldliner’s accomplishment represents approximately half of the globe’s circumference. Measured at its equatorial waist, planet Earth records 21,600 miles around. Thus, virtually any two commercial air markets in the world should now be linkable in a single fell swoop.
To wit: “Almost every major city pair on earth will be connectable with this astoundingly long-legged aircraft.” That’s a line from an old Ask the Pilot column, and appears in my book as well. ”This amazing airplane will connect virtually any two cities in the world with nonstop service,” echoed Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplane division, at the plane’s rollout party last February.
Long-haul stars like the 747-400 and A340 have been shrinking the world for decades now. Just how many city pairs, exactly, are left to claim?
The grail route, at 9,188 nautical miles, is probably London-Sydney. Don’t be surprised to see the Worldliner, scheduled to enter service with Pakistan International Airlines later this winter, doing some predelivery, nonstop showboating on this route, possibly joined by its chief rival, the Airbus A340-500. Range specs for the four-engined Airbus, which entered service earlier this year with Emirates, run neck and neck with the Worldliner. For Boeing, elimination of a refueling stop along the old “Kangaroo Route” would be a major marketing coup. Already Qantas is studying the feasibility of buying and deploying 777s on England-Australia nonstops in an all-business-class configuration.
While Boeing and the airlines hash things out, bear in mind that just because a plane is able to complete a promotional stunt of more than 11,000 miles doesn’t mean it can actually make such flights in scheduled commercial service. Boeing’s listed data for the Worldliner show that with a maximum payload, its reach will be a more modest 9,400 miles. You also have EROPS (extended range operations) restrictions to deal with, local airspace constraints, seasonal weather variations and so on, all affecting range on a route-by-route, indeed flight-by-flight basis. London-Sydney and Sydney-London are, in a way, two very different journeys. The eastbound leg out of England is within the capabilities of existing aircraft like the A340-500. Consistent headwinds, on the other hand, make the westbound trip more challenging. In other words, it’s somewhat foolish to measure an aircraft’s range by a value of fixed mileage, as flight times along published routes can vary markedly. Endurance is the true determining factor.
Using a 747-400, Qantas once tinkered with the elusive Sydney-London route, and discovered it could, under optimum and fairly unpredictable conditions, make the run without having to pit-stop in Singapore or Bangkok or Bahrain. But this was so pushing the envelope that it proved a real teeth chatterer for the carrier’s crews and dispatchers, who were forced to juggle the logistics of fuel, weather and diversion planning with utmost attention and accuracy. Not to mention its being untenable for advertising: “Qantas to London. Nonstop. Sometimes.”
Whether or not it can close the “Kangaroo” gap, the Worldliner’s capabilities are nonetheless astounding, clearing the way for pairings such as New York-Singapore at full-passenger loads and with revenue cargo down below. Many of today’s longest hauls are forced to submit to payload limitations on days when headwinds are howling or the temperature soars. (Flying standby, I was once left stranded at the airport in Hong Kong while United’s flight 896 to Chicago took off without me, weight restricted in deference to a temperamental jet stream.)
So, with all of this fine print in mind, the hoopla surrounding Boeing’s recent aero-thon doesn’t terribly impress me (much as I’d have loved one of those onboard press seats the plane maker gave away for the event). I’m much more fascinated by the distance records held by active, scheduled flights. Here’s a rundown of the lengthiest trips presently for sale, gauged in nautical miles:
1. New York-Singapore: 8,288 (Singapore Airlines)
2. Los Angeles-Singapore: 7,621 (Singapore Airlines)
3. New York-Bangkok: 7,525 (Thai Airways)
4. New York-Hong Kong: 7,014 (Cathay Pacific, Continental)
5. Los Angeles-Melbourne: 6,883 (Qantas)
6. Toronto-Hong Kong: 6,787 (Air Canada)
7. Chicago-Hong Kong: 6,773 (United Airlines)
8. Vancouver-Sydney: 6,741 (Air Canada)
9. Los Angeles-Sydney: 6,507 (United, Qantas) 
10. Chicago-Delhi: 6,503 (American)
Note to nitpickers: Mileage tallies were computed with Karl Swartz’s inimitable Great Circle Mapper, and needless to say routes are frequently swapped, dropped and restarted with short notice. Just off the list is Continental’s Newark-Delhi, inaugurated earlier this month.
Nos. 1 and 2 were covered here previously and are new within the past two years. Thai Airways’ JFK-Bangkok debuted last summer. Sadly absent from the list is South African Airways’ JFK-Johannesburg nonstop, now discontinued. This route — at 6,925 it would’ve placed fifth in the above list — began in the 1970s with the advent of the 747SP, a short-bodied variant of the famous Boeing jumbo designed for what was then an ultra-long haul. Later, 747-400s were used. South African’s flights are now one stoppers via Dakar, Senegal, using an A340.
The venerable JFK-Johannesburg was the only one in the top ten that I’ve experienced myself, on the way to Botswana in 2000. Our 747 that day was ZS-SAV, the Durban. Another book excerpt: “Total flying time was 14 hours and 46 minutes. I’m able to attest that it was exactly 14 hours and 46 minutes thanks to a digital timer bolted to the bulkhead, triggered by retraction of the landing gear to provide a minute-by-minute update. Watching the hours tick by seemed a torturous proposition until a certain passenger was bold enough to tape a piece of paper over the clock.”
On the drawing board, as we already know, is London-Sydney. There’s also the chance for a New York-Sydney route (8,646), though passenger volumes may be too low to support such a service. That two cities are technologically connectable means little to an airline unless there is an exploitable market to justify connecting them. London-Sydney is not the longest possible flight, but it may be the longest possible flight guaranteed to provide a steady supply of passengers. More formidable pairings are at least conceivable, marketplace depending. The most intriguing of these are São Paulo-Tokyo (9,984), Auckland-London (9,884) and Buenos Aires-Tokyo (9,910). Shattering the 10,000-nautical-mile frontier — Buenos Aires-Seoul, anyone? — remains, let’s just say, a long shot.
Our ability to cover vast distances without refueling makes mincemeat of old notions of what constitutes short/medium/long-haul operations. Quaint seem the days when 707s would put down for fuel in Shannon, Ireland, or in Gander, Newfoundland, just to reach Europe from parts of North America and Pan Am’s JFK-Tokyo flight sounded almost unbelievable. “Long haul” once meant New York-Paris. There are no official definitions, but I’ll give you an “Ask the Pilot” parsing of en route tedium:
1. Minihaul: Any flight up to two hours’ duration. Examples: Chicago-Cleveland, Orlando-Atlanta, Madrid-Barcelona
2. Short haul: Any flight between two and five hours’ duration. Examples: New York-Miami, Denver-Boston, Tokyo-Seoul
3. Medium haul: Any flight between five and nine hours’ duration. Examples: New York-London, Tokyo-Bangkok, London-Cairo
4. Long haul: Any flight between nine and 14 hours’ duration. Examples: New York-Tokyo, London-Johannesburg, Paris-Hong Kong
5. Ultra-long haul, aka megahaul: Any flight over 14 hours’ duration. Examples: New York-Singapore, New York-Hong Kong, New York-Boston (during weather delays).
If you’re seated in category 1, chances are your ears are ringing and your knees are getting bruised. That’s because you’re wedged into a turboprop or a regional jet. If you’re seated in categories 4 or 5, pray that you’re in first or business class aboard a non-U.S. carrier.
To me, nothing better personifies the beauty of air travel than the advancement of long-range flying — the idea, previously inconceivable, that distant, exotic continents are but a single, simple journey away. And for you, the consumer? A look on Travelocity shows that a super-saver from Singapore Airlines, on the longest flight in the world, is selling for as little as $815 round trip. To put it another way, that’s about five cents a mile.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

Vonage, the only way to go

Financial, Internet

Kiss your old phone line good-bye and say hello to Vonage. It is revolutionary, will change the way you think about phones (if you thought about them at all), and is a must have for anyone who uses more than just a mobile phone.

What is it and how does it work? Simply put, it’s an affordable and easy to install phone system that costs much less, offers more, and is much more flexible than any other type of phone, other than mobile phones. What it ISN”T is a gimmicky, hard to mess with, finicky phone system that is not worth the trouble.

Vonage uses the internet to send and receive phone calls instead of old time phones that use a land line. All you need is high-speed internet, either DSL or Cable, and you’ll be all set. Even if you don’t have high-speed, with the amount of money I saved by switching from AT&T; to Vonage, I was able to rationalize the price of high-speed! I was paying $10 dollars a month for dial-up internet, and $35 dollars a month for a basic phone line, with no long distance on it, no voicemail, and no extra features, except for call waiting and caller ID. That was $45 a month for horrible dial-up internet and terrible phone service. I switched to a highspeed cable modem for $35 dollars a month and Vonage, for $15 dollars month, for a total of $50 dollars a month. It was a five dollar increase in price per month, but an unspeakable improvement in internet capabilities and a vast improvement on phone service — for five bucks extra! So if you don’t have highspeed internet, Vonage may just put you over the edge in reasons to get it. If you already have highspeed, then (no offense) you should have switched to Vonage a long time ago! It will save you money each month, money you could put into a high yield savings account discussed here.

Traditional phone lines change your voice over to an electronic signal which is then sent over a copper wire, out of your house, to a phone company routing station, and then on to a satellite or some other transmission device, until it ends up at the house of the person you are calling. With Vonage, the principle is the same, and actually works in a nearly identical fashion as the cable companies offering “Digital phone service”, except Vonage only costs $15 bucks, instead of $40 bucks, like the cable companies charge. Vonage changes your voice into an electronic signal that is then sent over the internet, via a protocol called VOIP, or Voice Over Internet Protocol. Your voice, via “e-mail” ends up at a Vonage computer that sends it on to the person you called, via magic. With Vonage, you can call anyone in the world, anywhere in the world. It sounds crystal clear, costs pennies a call if the call isn’t free (more on that later), and you wouldn’t notice that the call wasn’t made with a traditional land line phone.

Vonage is not Skype. Skype is fun and free, but very gimmicky and not capable of acting like a regular home phone. When people hear the words, “Internet phone”, they probably think of poor quality, hard to use, and need a computer to make the call. Skype, and others like it, utilize a headset that plugs into a computer and then you talk “over the internet” while plugged into a laptop or desktop computer. Vonage is different in that it doesn’t need a computer at all. If I were to sneak into your house tonight and install Vonage, you wouldn’t even know that I had done it! It’s that good.

How to set it up. Okay, this is how it all works. The internet comes into your house via a coax cable. That cable goes to your cable modem. Then an ethernet cable comes out of the modem and plugs into your computer and you have the “internet” on your computer. Vonage is a simple router. You take that ethernet cable that goes from the modem to the computer and plug it into the Vonage router instead. The router is simply a device that splits up your internet signal into multiple signals so that more than one item can use the internet signal at once. In this case, the Vonage router takes the internet signal it needs, and passes it on to other devices, like your home computer, and laptop, etc. Setting up this part literally takes 15 seconds. There is a phone jack on the back of the Vonage router. There is a supplied phone cord that you then connect that jack and any phone jack on the wall in your house.

Now for the tricky part (it might take three minutes!): go outside and find your phone box. It is where the phone company phone line comes in from the telephone pole. There are two halves to this box, an upper and lower half. The lower half is yours and the upper half is the phone company’s (this could be reversed at your house). The upper half needs a special tool to open, because AT&T; owns this. Don’t worry about this, and don’t open it, it isn’t yours! The lower half is yours and opens with a simple phillips screwdriver. Open the box and you will see a phone cord plugged into a phone jack (just like you see in your house). Unplug this phone cord. Wrap the end with electrical tape or masking tape so that the phone repair man never comes out and plugs this back in. I wrote on my masking tape: “Do not use.” Now your house is separated from the outside world and all your phone jacks in the house are no longer connected to the phantom power that comes through the telephone wire from the pole. (Normally, your phones are powered by a small amount of power sent through the phone lines.) When you do this, all your jacks in the house are now powered by the Vonage router, so all the jacks in your house will work like normal, except you will be using Vonage. This is a great way to set things up because when I first heard about it, I thought that only phones connected via a wire to the router would work, but that isn’t true. It’s nice to have the phone up in the bedroom, alarm system in the basement, and kitchen and living room phones all work off the Vonage system.

Features. This is where Vonage really shines. Vonage gives you so many features, that if you ordered all of them from AT&T;, you’d be paying $100 dollars a month, not including the cost of calls! With Vonage, they are all included. I won’t list them all here, but for a full list, click here. Some of the features we enjoy are the standard call waiting, caller ID, call forwarding, voicemail accessible from anywhere, e-mail voice messaging (where you can receive voice mail in an e-mail sent to you and checked while on the go) blocking of unknown callers, and much more than I can’t think of right now. You get to keep your old number, just like when you switch mobile phone providers.

If the power goes out and you lose your internet connection, calls are automatically forwarded to another number. I use my mobile phone number. So, if on a stormy night, the wind knocks a tree into the power and phone line outside your friend’s house, he will be left unable to receive calls, but not you, with Vonage, because your mobile phone or alternate number will ring.

Vonage doesn’t care where you are, as long as it can get the internet. Think about what this means for you and your phone. Going on a business trip but don’t want everyone to know your mobile number? Just give out your home number and throw the Vonage router into your suitcase (it’s the size of a small Bible). When you get to your hotel with highspeed internet in it, plug your router into the ethernet cable, and plug the room phone into your router. Now, whether you traveled from Ohio to Michigan, or Ohio to Singapore, your phone will ring when someone calls your number! Take advantage of this on business trips, vacations, or by not subscribing to national calling plans on your mobile phone plan.

Add a second line, for other family members, a fax line, or whatever, for $10 dollars. Add an 800 number that only your kids know so that they can always call home, even from a pay phone or party. Add different rings for multiple lines. Use simulring, to ring two phones at once, like at home and an office. Use the flash drive phone when you are on the go: a flash drive plugs into a laptop, and whenever the laptop is connected to the internet, wirelessly or not, you can make calls by turning your computer into a phone, similar to Skype. Add a business package to your plan to run your business. My company, and many others, have switched over to this type of phone. Instead of having thousands of phone lines within the office complex, they have phones that only hook up to the internet. They use the internet to make their calls, both within the office and abroad. It saves thousands of dollars in telecommunication costs.

Pricing. This is very simple. There are two plans. $15 dollars a month and $25 dollars a month. The only difference is that the more affordable plan gives you 500 minutes a month whereas the pricier plan gives you unlimited calling. We are on the $15 plan because we use our home phone in conjunction with our mobile phones. If you are a talker, splurge for the pricier plan, but only after you’ve tried the 500 minute plan. You may surprise yourself at how much you actually talk on your home phone versus your mobile. Why pay for more until you know you need it?

The 500 minute plan gives you free calls to other Vonage customers, and free incoming calls — so we never even approach 500 minutes used per month.

International calls are so cheap, you’ll feel like you are cheating someone, somewhere. Calls within North America are always free. Most calls to Europe are free. Iraq is free. Honk Kong is 4¢ cents a minute. My mobile phone charged me $1.49 a minute while I was in Hong Kong! Laura called me several times while I was there for three days, and our total bill was not even $1.49, like one minute of my mobile calls would have been. These prices vary, so always check for the latest prices, but from what I’ve seen, it seems like they are adding more countries to the free list than anything else.

Too good to be true? Well, there were some initial concerns about 911 dialing. Because the system is internet based, it has no idea where it is on the planet. When 911 is dialed on an old land line, the phone company uses your physical address linked to your phone number to route the call to the closest 911 call center. Mobile phones work the same way by using the location of the tower the call bounced off. When you sign up for Vonage, you provide an address so that the same thing can occur. If you are in a different location than home, simply remember to tell the 911 operator that you are not in Hog Knuckle, Tennessee, but in Maui on vacation . . . Someone died because the 911 call wasn’t routed correctly. This was big news a few years ago and published in the Socialist Today (I mean USA Today). Buried in one of the last lines of the story (typical) the reporter mentions that the person failed to provide their home address when they signed up for the service. Vonage does not fix dumb, sorry.

Some home alarm companies do not like their systems tapped into a VOIP system like Vonage. They fear that if someone cuts the power to the house, the alarm monitoring center will not receive the call from the box in your basement. So a thief will take the risk of cutting your power lines with a big bolt cutter and risk electrocution, but not cut the phone line with a pair of scissors with zero risk of shock? Riiiiight. That’s what I stay awake at night for hours worrying about. Alarm companies want to sell you their “cell phone” technology caller that dials the call center via an internal mobile phone, thus unaffected by power and phone line outages. Only you can decide if the extra $20 dollars a month is necessary for this extra protection, but it shouldn’t affect your Vonage decision. All computers, alarm systems, and other devices that need the phone, like DirecTV, cannot tell the difference between the dial tone of a land line phone and a Vonage line. These electronics just want to make calls, like you, and look for a dial tone, which Vonage obviously provides.

So what? What’s next? Go to Vonage.com and sign up for one of the two plans. In a few days, you will receive a small box that holds the Vonage router, a few cables, and a pamphlet on how to hook it all up. I kid you not, ten minutes later, you’ll have it up and running and making calls for free! Pick up the phone and you’ll hear the standard dial tone sound. While you’re at it, give me a call and we’ll chat about all the features you are getting and all the money you are saving. Go ahead, call me!

I really feel like this is a great way to save you some money and improve your life. Otherwise, I wouldn’t share it with you. I believe in it so much that I hope that everyone who reads this either has it or signs up for it soon. Your first month is free, so if you hate it (how could you?) you can cancel it. If you sign up through me, I get a month free as well. However, to prove that I truly am interested in my reader’s well being, and not shameless plugs, I’m not going to post the link here for you to do it for me. Trust me, you will enjoy Vonage and it’s savings.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

I love free money, don’t you?

Financial


Laura and I just got $945 dollars, for FREE! It was just given to us. I did about ten minutes of work on the internet, and was paid over nine hundred dollars for doing so. It was so easy, it was child’s play. If I can do you it, anyone can. As a matter of fact, I would say that if you weren’t given free money like we were, you aren’t making your money work hard enough for you. How did we do it? How and why did some bank just hand over that kind of money to us? Well, if you’d like to be in our shoes, just read on to learn about online banking, high yield online savings accounts, and our credit card usage. Those three things paid us over $900 dollars in 2007 alone, and cost us nothing!

Online banking. First of all, if you want to make this work, you need to be a little internet savvy. A dial-up connection will do, but you need to at least be in a position to do some banking online. I know that some people are not in a mind set (yet) to be willing to do much of anything on the internet, let alone, banking on the internet. Most, if not all banks, trying to compete, now offer free, online banking, and online checking, and online bill payment methods, and so forth. These are great tools that ultimately save you money, time, energy, and help you stay organized and earn more money. For example, the amount of checks Laura and I write in one year is almost negligible, maybe three or four. Also, we never use cash, so the amount of actual “hard currency” we spend is very limited each year, as well. Almost everything we spend is electronic: credit or online debit/check writing. We use Huntington Bank to do our banking, and they provide a free bill payer, and electronic check writing, and online checking and access to our accounts. When we “write” a check to a charity, an individual, or business, we fill out an online form, and our “check” is sent, electronically, for free to whomever we choose. For example, we donate to Lightrider, and our bank sends them a check. We don’t pay for the check, the postage, we don’t have to drop it off in the post office box, and we certainly don’t have to write anything down in our statement, because it’s all taken care of on our online checking account for us to see. For free!

I hate late fees. They waste my hard earned money. I hate having to remember which bill is due when, and how much it should be. I don’t like having to juggle all that in my head. So, each bill we get, is automatically billed to either our credit card (to earn bonus points) or to our checking account. The online bill payment function works great because then, the bills for the gas, electricity, mortgage, credit card (yes, more on this later!), cable, Roth IRA, mobile phone, and more, get paid automatically for me. Out of sight, out of mind. Not that I don’t see them going out; I want to see them for any unusual billing, but I don’t have to remember to withdraw them, pay them, or worry about them. I just have to keep the paychecks coming in to cover them!

So, lesson one is to get organized with an online checking account. The more you are organized, the less money you will lose (waste) on late fees, missed payments, and losing track of your money. Start a free online checking account with any bank TODAY. Two bonuses to doing so are: 1) No more balancing a checkbook and 2) Linking to an online high yield savings account. Not balancing a checkbook is priceless. Even if you write checks from your checkbook instead of for free online, the checks (both paper and electronic) show up in your online daily balance, as withdrawals. The reason to balance a check book is to 1) know how much money you have: your balance, and 2) to keep track of checks written. Well, you can do both with an online checking account, without balancing at all! “How much do I have in my account?” “Can I cover this next purchase?” I don’t know, look up your online account and see your balance; it’s instantaneous and live. “What did I write this check for? I don’t remember.” Look up on your online account and see a picture of the actual check you wrote and you’ll see who you wrote it to. Magic! Online checking accounts also let you link to online high yield savings accounts. Online banking saves you money and keeps you organized, but online savings accounts are where the real money is.

Online savings accounts. The power of compound interest is a wonderful tool — just ask Warren Buffett. At one time, before he gave all his money to charity, he was the second richest man on earth, behind the Windows computer nerd. He drove a 20 year old beater car, because he couldn’t stand the thought of spending $45,000 dollars on a new car, when he could put that same $45,000 into an investment or savings account and make 10 times that, where a car only depreciates in value. He knows that toys are usually terrible investments: boats, new cars, clothes, and, well, you get the idea.

The best way to have your money safely work for you is high interest paid to you on your money. Yes, banks have done this for years, but they pay such a paltry amount, it hasn’t been worthwhile. I always want my cake and be able to eat it too. I want to have the best of both worlds. I want to have the convenience of online banking and all its goodies, but I also want to make a lot of money on the cash I have in my bank. Right now, the only way to do that is with online savings accounts — high yield ones.  Big banks have entire divisions dedicated to operating strictly online. Being online, they don’t have to pay tellers, electric bills, security costs, heating and air conditioning bills, leases on buildings, and so forth. So, if they have no overhead, they can afford to pay a higher interest rate to you to use your money — more than the local National City or Huntington bank down the street can. They take your money and make loans with it, as usual, but pay a much higher rate to you because it costs them less money to use your money. If I had $75,000 dollars in my Huntington Bank savings account, it would earn .75% Not even 1%! However, that same 75,000, or just one plain old dollar, would make about 4.5% in an online savings account. How about that? $2,000 dollars in an online savings account would pay $90 dollars in one year, where as if that same $2,000 dollars was put into the local bank, earning just .5% (and that’s being generous), in that same year, would earn just $10 dollars. A difference of $80 bucks. Now, I don’t know about you, but potentially throwing away $80 dollars doesn’t sound smart to me, and heck, I certainly could use that $80.

Sign up for a reputable bank’s online savings account, and get rid of the savings account you have at your local bank TODAY! You want every penny you can working for you. When I closed my savings (not checking) account at my local Huntington bank, they asked why. I happily told them that I was switching to an online savings account. Their eyes cast downward and they sighed while saying, “Oh.” They new what I was doing and it sounded like they were losing a lot of business that way. That should be encouragement to you, if you are nervous about going this route: Many people are doing this!

Here are some reputable places to look at and start:
HSBC
Capital One
iGoBanking
Click on one above and find their “High Yield Money Market Account” or MMA. Many banks do this, and if you want to compare, go to Bankrate.comand that website will list out all the online high yield savings accounts, by customer satisfaction, percentage rate, or whatever you want. The process of setting one up is very easy, but you do need to pay attention to the online steps and follow them carefully.

We set up our accounts with Capital One, but many are easy and functional as well. We signed up online and filled out our bank’s routing and transit number (found on every one of your checks) in the online enrollment process. Within one week, Capital One deposited two small amounts into our Huntington checking account and then withdrew them. They were 61¢ cents and 38¢ cents. Then, once that happened, we filled in those two amounts in the enrollment form online. This verified that I was who I said I was, and that I had a legitimate bank account. Then, Capital One mailed me a login and password that I then used to log in the first time. I then changed it to something more memorable. That was it, it is all set up. When I log in, I can see a a drop-down box that shows my online savings account with Capital One, and my Huntington checking account. I can then make transfers between the two. My paycheck goes into my checking account, and then my Capital One account makes automatic withdrawals from my checking account for different things we want to save for. Each transfer takes three business days, so think a little ahead, but also, it’s good to keep a small “safety net” amount in your checking to cover unexpected costs that come up inside of the three day window. But don’t keep too much in your checking! Remember, the whole point is to earn as much interest as you can on as much money as you can.

Pay yourself. This high interest online savings account should change the way you think about money and saving. It opens up a lot of new opportunities, and with automation, like automatic transfers, it is quick and easy to start saving, all without you having to remember to set money aside. I, like most people, have a hard time setting money aside. If I see it, I may end up just spending it, instead of saving it. We have six accounts set up inside our online savings account at Capital One. Each one takes out a specified amount from our checking account, on a specified day. I have all six take money out of our checking on the 25th of the month — that way I know there is money in there from my paycheck. The six accounts are: Main savings, House, Cars, College, Vacation, and Furniture. Each month we have a certain amount go into each one. This is where it really gets good. We have certain bills that re-occur annually (house insurance) and biannually (property tax, car insurance, etc). Pay yourself these bills each month and make money on the interest until the bill comes due! For example, lets say our property tax is $2,400 dollars a year, or $1,200 dollars every six months. In our county, taxes are due twice a year, so in this example, you would want to pay yourself $200 dollars a month, every month, for six months. This method is much easier than trying to cough up $1,200 dollars all at once when the bill comes in the mail. Put the money away, since you have to pay it anyway, but now you are making interest off that money. So, instead of having $1,200 dollars at the end of six months, you would have $1,254 dollars in your account to pay your $1,200 dollar tax bill because of your interest rate. Once the bill is paid, you have $54 dollars left. Start paying yourself $200 a month again, and in six month, you’ll have $1,254, plus the $54 you started with, and you’ll have over $1,310 dollars. And as this cycle continues, you’ll continue to make money. Do this with any recurring bill. Set it up so that the transfers are automatically done each month so you don’t even have to think about it. When I get our car insurance bill, tax bill, or whatever, I don’t even sweat it because I know I’ve got the coin in the bank, plus interest. (I then pay those bills with our credit card and get either 1 or 3 percent back!)

With some online savings accounts, they even provide a debit card linked to it, so spending is easier (not necessarily a good thing: harder access to your money means you are more likely to save it! Just like not carrying a credit card or cash.) If you keep your spending under control, the debit card is a great convenience factor.

Where else can you set up a way to earn nearly 5% on your money, have it cost you nothing, provide an easy way to start saving for rainy days or special expenditures like vacations or toys, and earning interest with only one dollar (opposed to banks which have tiers where the first $50,000 may only pay half a percent of interest)? Open one today! Even if it is only 10 bucks a month, because one day, you will be glad you did. People who fear the internet ultimately lose out. Don’t be afraid, the internet is safe, if you stick with reputable web sites (not: Jim Bob’s savings accounts). I feel bad for all the people who fear the internet and put their money away in something “safe” like a CD. A CD may pay 4.5% for one year, just like an online savings account, but with a CD, you lose access to your money for a whole year!

Finally, credit card usage. This is another great way to earn free money. With disciplined use, we earned almost as much in one year by using our credit card that pays us back, as we did with our online savings account. How about that? Finding a good card is half the battle, but once you do, life is wonderful. A word of caution here: credit cards must be used with diligence and discipline. I DO NOT buy into the idea that some people aren’t cut out for using credit cards because of overspending. We are as responsible as we choose to be. It takes practice, but with a little foresight, a little thought about “How long will this take to pay back?” and “Do I really need this?” everyone should be able to use a credit card responsibly.

Credit cards are not for increasing your wallet size! If you do not have the money in your bank account, do not put credit on your credit card. How simple is that? Do not use a credit card to cover expenses that you can’t pay for, even in an emergency. If you need cash, talk to a rich relative, your local bank, or get a second job, but don’t put bills on a credit card — the interest will kill you and your whole plan of earning wealth via interest. Embrace the mindset that these banking jokers have to pay YOU interest, not the other way around! Use them to your advantage, and see things from the viewpoint that you won’t be a sucker or slave to the banks. Make THEM play the fool for once and have them pay you.

So what card should you use? Reward cards are the only way to go. There are as many reward cards as their are preferences. I personally don’t care what interest rate credit cards charge in interest because we pay our bill off every month. Reward cards (ones that pay you back or give you something in return, like airline miles) usually have higher interest rates on balances, but who cares? My card could have a 50% interest rate, but since we pay it off each month, it doesn’t matter. Cards that don’t pay rewards usually don’t have as high an interest rate, but why fool with them if they aren’t going to pay you to swipe your card? Don’t be the sucker; make them be the sucker and make them pay you for using their card. Since we never carry cash, we put almost everything on our card. Why use cash or checks when I get paid to use a credit card? Our rewards add up fast . . .

The best card that I have found is the Chase Freedom card. I know there are lots of cards out there, and many people have their own ideas on which card is best, but in my opinion, the Chase Freedom card is the best and is what we use. Why is it the best? For three main reasons: it pays us back at either 1% or 3% for each purchase, depending on what the purchase is. (3% off any gas, pharmacy, grocery, fast food, and many other categories, and 1% back on all other purchases). Secondly, it will allow us to switch between cash back and points, like airline miles, and back again. One month I may want to cash out some rewards in the form of money. The next month, I may want those points to go toward airline miles that can be used on my next airline ticket purchase. They are switchable. Finally, it is one of the few cards that will allow you to pay the balance in full, each month, automatically! You heard right: never pay late fees or finance charges with this card, because every month, it deducts the monthly balance from our checking account. Most cards won’t let anyone do this because they love it when you only pay the minimum balance or are late because then they get to make more money off you and charge late fees! But the wise financial wizard that you are will never have to worry about this with a Chase Freedom card because it will pay off your balance without you having to remember to do so, or even be home. If you are on vacation or celebrating during the holidays, it pays off your card. Who hasn’t forgotten to pay a bill? With this card and a properly set up online bank account, you won’t have to worry about it again, and you can earn money too! Click on the picture of the card above to sign up.

I don’t type any of this to gloat, preach, or be condescending. I know that most people who read this will already know most everything I’ve mentioned here. I do hope though, that this motivates you to get out there and sign up for online banking, a good rewards credit card, and most importantly, a high yield online savings account. Do it today — you’ll be glad you did.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

Bucks Lose Again

Fun

Once again the Buckeyes show us just how overrated they really get at times. I love it when a team, which is overrated because of its popularity, loses to a lower ranked team with real talent, and a quarterback from Tyler, Texas!

” . . . For sure, the Buckeyes were perhaps the most-maligned No. 1 team in recent memory, with critics attacking them all season. Tressel gave his players a 10-minute DVD filled with insults hurled at them by television and radio announcers, hoping it would motivate his team. Instead, the Tigers ravaged the nation’s best defense and showed that maybe all those naysayers were right . . . “

There were several teams that probably deserved to be in the BCS Championship game, but because teams ahead of OSU lost, they Bucks backed their way into a buzz saw. Once again, another overrated Buckeye team got blown out when playing the SEC, the best football conference by the numbers. The problem with OSU is that they don’t play anyone all season, and then get drummed when they see a great team. That’s what happened last year in the BCS game against Florida, and that’s what happened this year.

The first four teams OSU played this year, where:

Youngstown
Akron
Washington
Northwestern

YAWN . . . Because of OSU popularity, they start high in the rankings. Rankings are simply popularity contests, so when they start high up in the rankings, they hamper more deserved teams, like LSU, USC, Georgia, West Virginia, Kansas, or Missouri from climbing the rankings.

Maybe, instead of kneeling on the ball with 1:12 left in the game, LSU “should have gone for six, because they couldn’t go for seven,” as Woody would say.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

Christmas Letter from Jesus

Faith


This letter “from Jesus” came from Pastor David Dykes’s blog. It has truly changed my way of thinking during the holidays and has given me an extreme amount of peace. Basically, I can’t control how others celebrate the holidays, but I can control how I worship, celebrate, and remember Him during Christmas

Dear Children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you’ve forgotten that I wasn’t actually born during this time of the year. Historically, some of your predecessors decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival. Although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don’t care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, just GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Now, having said that, let Me go on. If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn’t allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that, there wouldn’t be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be plenty of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grapevine if you wish: I actually spoke of that one in a teaching, explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. Remember to look up John 15: 1 – 8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth, here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don’t have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing George complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don’t you write and tell him that you’ll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up. It will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can’t afford and they don’t need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms–no matter how old they are–and remind them that I love them.

5. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take his or her own life this season, feeling so alone and hopeless? Since you never know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile; it could make all the difference.

6. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren’t allowed to wish you a ‘Merry Christmas’, that doesn’t keep you from wishing them one.

7. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary– especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My name.

8. Here’s a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no ‘Christmas’ tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don’t know them, buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the Salvation Army or some other charity that believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

9. Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don’t do things in secret that you wouldn’t do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of Mine.

Don’t forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do. I’ll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work; time is short. I’ll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love and remember.

I LOVE YOU,

Jesus

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

Nikon D40

Fun, Photography

I’m excited about it, and will update this blog post with more about the Nikon D40 as I have time . . .

I also got the flash. The D40 comes with a pop up flash, but the optional flash provide a lot better light, and more options with bounce effects (pointing it up to the ceiling to get a softer light, instead of harsh, in your face, blasts of white light, like the on camera flash provides.)

I also ordered a fun little remote! It is wireless and now, when Laura and I want to make our photo with both of us in the shot, I can press the remote button and bingo! We can get a nice shot of us without me having to set the timer, run back into the shot, and then trip on something, so I have a picture of me looking crazy, like in this picture. There is just something funny about watching a countdown light from ten seconds, knowing you have to hold still, smile but not laugh, and be ready when the light stops blinking and the shutter fires. We took our Christmas card photo about 25 times to get it right. Hopefully, with the remote, when we have found our positions, stopped chuckling, and are ready, I can just squeeze off the remote button, and boom, picture!

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!