A couple of weekends ago we met up with Auntie and walked the grounds of Robert Allerton’s 1900s mansion.
Shae, Frugal Boy, and I have been here before, and I wrote about one of our earlier trips here.
Robert Allerton inherited his fortune from his father, a livestock baron, and used part of that fortune to build an elaborate set of gardens and grounds in central Illinois.
The sun dogs garden provided a nice vantage point.
You may remember these stairs from the last time we visited.
Evidence of a little engineer at work was obvious down by the river.
Overall, we had a nice day and Auntie was able to unwind after finishing up her first year of med school. Yay auntie!
The next day, Mother’s Day, Grandma, Grandpa, and a second Auntie came down to visit.
Frugal Boy had lots of fun playing with Grandpa and enjoyed the new toys that Great Uncle had gotten him.
He was looking pretty cute in his overalls.
It was a beautiful day, so we lazed about on the front porch. Sometimes it is nice to just watch the world go by.
and sometimes you just need to cuddle up to grandma.
It’s been a while since I have posted a bunch of pictures of Frugal Boy. The grandparents are probably getting itchy, so I better remedy that.
We transplanted a patch of creeping phlox from our backyard to a flower bed in the front yard. The resulting bare dirt patch has since been claimed by Frugal Boy.
We tried out a ‘dress yourself’ day. After he ran to Shae’s closet and grabbed a dress we reverted to picking his attire for him.
He has made great strides in potty training.
just kidding!
Wagon rides are pretty fun. You can sit, kneel, and lay down in the wagon. Frugal Boy still likes to test boundaries and try standing and straddling the side of the wagon.
Big hats help to keep the sun off that buttery smooth baby skin.
We learned that Frugal Boy’s attention span is better than we thought. He sat like this for almost 30 minutes.
He was watching a tree being cut down.
He has a new adventure friend.
The neighbor girl had a lot of fun playing with him one evening.
Labor Day weekend seemed like an excellent opportunity to get out of the Midwest and do a little traveling. We decided to meet up with family and camp out in West Virginia’s New River Gorge for three nights. It is a full day’s drive for us, and the first extended trip in Frugal Boy’s new car seat (he outgrew his infant seat).
We only have a three day supply of cloth diapers and the total trip duration was six days, so we had to break out our emergency supply of disposable diapers. It was weird seeing Frugal Boy in paper diapers.
With the car all packed up we took off on Thursday morning and by the afternoon we arrived at our first destination, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens.
Second oldest zoo in the country.
Frugal Boy’s cousin loved the giraffes, so we walked over to check them out and see if he had the same reaction.
Watching giraffes
The giraffes were a strike out, but would the lions be more fascinating?
Lions are just as boring as giraffes apparently
What about the African painted dogs?
Either in deep thought or completely tuned out
Okay, so the zoo was kind of a bust in terms of exposing Frugal Boy to some biodiversity. It is a nice zoo and if you are passing through the area or live nearby it is probably worth a stop.
Leaving the zoo behind, we navigated our way to the outskirts of Cincinnati and to a motel. Seeing the room doors open out to the street stirred many memories of childhood road trips and some real dives that I stayed at growing up. On the plus side, these types of establishments are generally pretty cheap.
easy come, easy go
Using Yelp, we checked out the nearby eateries to find something tasty for dinner. It wasn’t long before we were satiating our appetite at a nearby grill.
Food & Sleep!
The next morning we needed to cross over the Ohio river and complete our drive to West Virginia. Instead of taking the fastest, most direct route, we opted to drive along the scenic byway and take in some of the river valley sights.
neat bridge spanning the Ohio river
Welcome to Kentucky!
After connecting back up with the interstate we had to make a pit stop to stretch our legs and play.
It wasn’t long before we crossed into West Virginia and sped past the capitol in Charleston.
Kanawha County
We rolled into Army Camp (campground) around 2:30 on Friday. Army Camp is so named because in the 50s(?) the United States Army had a small training grounds set up there to practice building pontoon bridges. The army is long gone and now the area has been converted into a campground by the National Park Service.
Setting up “home” for the next three nights
Frugal Boy helped supervise.
One of the perks of traveling with a baby is that it is incredibly easy to meet people. As we waited for my brother and his girlfriend to arrive we had a long chat with the couple camping next to us in an RV. Apparently they had been camping there for the past two months and were locals to the area. Not only is socializing a good way to pass the time, it can be invaluable for information, and provided some genuine local flavor to our whole trip.
It was late in the afternoon, and we all needed a rest, especially Frugal Boy.
sweaty and tired
Later that evening, our campsite companions returned from their own day’s adventures. Frugal Boy wasted no time in making acquiantances.
gentle is not in Frugal Boy’s vocabulary
Thankfully, his new friend was good natured.
All in all, we had four tents set up for four families. This wasn’t even a full reunion!!
Late that night, the occupants of the blue tents arrived. In the morning we could say proper hellos. Frugal Boy’s cousin took to camping like a fish to water.
Meanwhile, Frugal Boy was getting tips from his Aunt on how to be a male model.
Blue Steel
Once everyone was dressed and fed, we loaded up in the cars and drove to Thurmond. Thurmond is an abandoned coal town (West Virginia is well known for its coal mining industry). The town and old train depot are now managed by the National Park Service.
The bridge in the background spans the New River and by far the most popular activity in New River Gorge is water sports. Kayaking, rafting, and tubing are all common sights.
kayakers shoot the rapids
After soaking up some history, we went to the visitors center for a picnic lunch.
A short boardwalk later and you have an impressive view of an iconic bridge.
According to the information sign, you can fit the Washington monument and two statue of liberties stacked one on top of the other and still have a few feet of clearance. It is the tallest bridge in America.
After driving back to camp it was time for some water fun, but first we needed to play with some bubbles.
bubbles are amazing!
Army Camp is situated in a bend of the New River and has a public access beach that is suitable for toddlers. There are also some class 1-2 rapids that you can easily tube down.
Waiting for the ladies to shoot the rapids
Weeeeee!
On Sunday, we played in the river some more and two of my brothers and myself took an extended tubing trip. That afternoon we all went to the local pizza joint, Pies and Pints, for some tasty specialty pizzas.
Mmmmm, grape pizza
With our stomachs (overly)full we decided a hike was in order and proceeded to Kaymoor Mine. Kaymoor mine is another abandoned coal mine that is now under the stewardship of the NPS.
Mining is brutally hard and dangerous work. Due to the fragility of the mine shafts, the height of the passages were limited to just three feet tall. I cannot even begin to imagine working all day stooped over.
By the time we got back to our campsite it was raining and dark so we called it an early night. The next day it was time to pack up and head home! We only made it across the bridge and around the bend (essentially the opposite bank from the campground) when we had to stop for a poopy diaper. The view of the river was stunning though and I am glad we stopped.
New River in the Smoky Mountains
We did the entire drive back on Monday so we could spend all of Tuesday recovering and cleaning up. We had a great time and the trip was relatively inexpensive. Frugal Boy got to add two more states to his list and is turning into a well accomplished traveler.
School starts tomorrow for our local K-12 schools. That means that you should be wrapping up your summer reading program. We finished ours and turned in our logs a couple of weeks ago. Some of the goodies that we got included a half pound of beer nuts, a free haircut coupon, and a free zoo admission coupon.
I didn’t finish Do Fathers Matter as there are only so many ways that the same conclusion can be reached in the span of 200 pages. I was in the mood for another personal finance book so I picked up a copy of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover from our local library. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dave Ramsey, let me give you a few bullet points about him.
He runs a self syndicated radio show that ranks in the top 10 in listenership
He has authored several New York Times best selling books about personal finance
He is anti debt
He is openly Christian and uses bible quotes in his books and on the air
His methods are controversial
The last point I will share my own thoughts as I walk through my summary of The Total Money Makeover.
What’s it all about?
Ramsey models the book after a fitness plan (there are many fitness analogies) and lays out seven steps to take the reader from debt laden to a golden retirement. The first five chapters cover some (un)common sense items about personal finance such as the importance of not racking up debt, ignoring the Joneses, the stupidity of gambling, and the importance of insurance. The next seven chapters Ramsey describes each of the seven steps of his plan along with some of the frequently asked questions. The last chapter paints a rosy picture of how good life will be once you have completed the makeover. It is also the chapter where his Christian ideologies come out in full force for better or for worse.
Step 1: Save $1,000
According to Ramsey, the first thing you should do to get out of debt and start building wealth is to put aside $1k for emergencies. Well, technically there is a step 0 where you have to get current, pay off any past due bills, on all of your existing debts. I digress. Ramsey spells out what qualifies as an emergency and what doesn’t. Christmas for example, isn’t an emergency because Christmas comes at the same time every year. The reasoning behind saving up $1k first is to keep you from sinking into any more debt when a real emergency such as your car’s strut coil blows out.
Step 2: The Debt Snowball
The second step of Ramsey’s plan is in my mind one of the most controversial points in the entire book. First I’ll describe the step as detailed by the author and then I will add in my 2¢.
With a $1k emergency fund in place, Ramsey suggests that the next prioritization to building wealth is to eliminate all debt. To do this, he recommends that you list all of your debts that are less than 50% of your gross annual income on a sheet of paper from smallest balance (e.g. $54 cell phone bill) to largest (e.g. $35,000 student loan). Then cut up all of your credit cards so you won’t use credit ever again. Finally, put every penny you can muster into paying off the smallest balance first while continuing to make the minimum payment on all of your other bills. When the smallest balance is paid off start on the next smallest and so on. If at any time your emergency fund dips below $1000, stop making extra debt payments and replenish the rainy day fund. According to Ramsey, most people should be able to finish steps 1 and 2 with two years.
Here is where I have some bones to pick with the author.
Number one, I don’t think that credit is the anti-christ. Ramsey tends to portray things in a very black and white world view; good vs evil, up and down, on and off. Credit cards are labeled as bad and dangerous when in reality they are no more dangerous than say a hammer. Sure, if you continually hit yourself or someone else in the face with a hammer, you can do a lot of damage. If you use the tool properly, it can make life a little easier for you. His assertion that debit cards provide the same level of protection as credit cards is incorrect. Yes, on paper they offer the same protection against fraud, but reality doesn’t line up nicely with what is written in the fine print. I had my debit card number stolen earlier this year and let me tell you what a pain in the ass that was. For starters, when a thief makes a bunch of charges using your debit card, that money is GONE from your checking account. Bye bye money, I hope you weren’t planning on buying anything important anytime soon. You contact your bank’s fraud department and they ask you a series of questions, then you print off, sign, and mail some affidavits to back up your claim. They credit your account with what is missing (assuming everything has gone according to plan) and you wait 4-6 weeks for confirmation that you really were robbed and the temporary credit will be made permanent. Compare that to when my credit card number was stolen several years ago. It was issued by the same card company. I called them up and reported the fraudulent purchases and because it was the company’s money that was taken, not mine, they took IMMEDIATE action.
With all of that said, if you are one of 60% of individuals who carries a card balance, aka you don’t pay the card off in full each month, then you should probably consider cutting up your credit cards. Hitting yourself with a hammer is no fun.
Number two, I cannot whole heartedly agree with his prioritization of debt repayment. Smallest balance to largest completely ignores the interest rates associated with the balance. Mathematically speaking, one should pay off the highest interest rate balance first and continue down the line until they are at the lowest rate. Logically, my way saves more money and would have debts paid off sooner, but humans are illogical and the psychological boost from paying off small debts probably does help individuals tackle the harder larger debts later on.
Step 3: Finish the Emergency Fund
Once all your debts except the house are paid off, Ramsey encourages the reader to finish funding their emergency stash. For the average American a full funded rainy day stash will be between $10-15k. Ideally that money should be kept in a savings, checking, or money market (with check writing) account for easy but not too easy access. CDs, bonds, and dresser drawers are not recommended because they are either too easy or too hard to access money in an emergency.
Step 4: Invest in Retirement
Only after paying off all debts except the mortgage and having a fully funded emergency fund does Ramsey suggest that you start contributing to a retirement account. Even if your company offers a match, he still doesn’t recommend contributing until the first three steps are complete. I have another beef with this because you are giving up FREE money for the sake of having debts paid off a month or two sooner. If I had to pick just one point of contention between Ramsey and other talking heads in the personal finance world, it would be concerning his investment advice. Ramsey swears by large cap growth mutual funds and their ‘unshakeable’ 12% annum return. Many of his calculations later on in the book use this magical 12% number to support ostentatious claims about golden retirements on small monthly investments. In fact, Ramsey only wants individuals to contribute 15% of their gross income to a tax preferred retirement account because that will be sufficient. If you have ever played around with a retirement calculator, you know that a change of even 1% return compounded over 20-40 years will have a HUGE impact on the final outcome. Consider for a moment that the de facto number used for most stock market investments is 8% and you have a pretty glaring difference between what Ramsey is preaching as truth and what may be truth.
Step 5: College Funding
If you don’t have kids or they have already graduated college you can skip this step. Going along with step 4, Ramsey discourages the practice of prepaying tuition at todays rates in favor of investing in a large cap growth mutual funds via an Education Savings Account, or ESA. His justification is that prepaid credits will only earn the rate of college tuition inflation, 8%, which is less than his superior 12% mutual funds. While 529 plans are okay, he thought they were too restrictive, mostly because they don’t allow you to arbitrarily pick investments like an ESA does. An ESA isn’t without restrictions. For starters, you can only contribute up to $2000 a year. Unlike 529s, you cannot roll the money over to another beneficiary. If money remains when the ESA beneficiary turns 30 years old, it must be withdrawn at a 10% penalty on top of regular capital gains taxes.
Either way, I would highly recommend that parents set up something for their kids education expenses. Student loans are a great catalyst for a life in debt.
Step 6: Pay off the home mortgage
If you forgive the fact that we haven’t cut up our credit cards (because we pay the balance each month), then this is the step that we are currently working on.
whittling down the mortgage
As you have probably learned by now, Ramsey despises debt. His first recommendation is that people should avoid mortgages and put down 100% cash on home purchases. Failing that, they should secure a 15 year fixed rate mortgage and work to pay it off early (that’s the route we went). One of the interesting conundrums that this step is challenged with is how one secures a mortgage if they have religiously followed the above steps. By closing all credit accounts, one’s credit score will drop. A low credit score makes it more challenging to get a prime mortgage. Ramsey’s ‘solution’ is to find a small bank or credit union that still does in house underwriting without relying on a FICO score. To me, this sounds like scuttling around the issue. Sure, there are probably some financial institutions out there that won’t pull your credit score but c’mon, most of them will.
Step 7: Build Wealth
By now you should be completely debt free, including your house, your retirement is on track for a dignified exit from this world, and your children are set to graduate from college with no student loan debt. Invest, spend, and give become the motto for this step. Continue to build your wealth but take some time to spend money on yourself and the wants that you have denied yourself for so long. Finally, Ramsey encourages a healthy dose of charity to help those that are less fortunate. In Ramsey’s eyes, you are considered wealthy when your money makes enough for you to live on.
Conclusion
So there you have it, one of the most popular financial planning books on the shelves. Is it a perfect one size fits all plan? No. Would I recommend the book to someone caught in a debt vortex. Yes.
Share your thoughts on The Total Money Makeover plan in the comments. What step are you on?
This past weekend we loaded up Frugal Boy in the car and visited family in Kentucky.
It’s nice having some cousins his age because it lets us parents share supplies and advice. Thanks Aunt Sarah for looking after Frugal Boy for awhile!
Here is a slightly younger cousin.
I keep trying to turn Frugal Boy into a water baby, but he still hasn’t gotten excited about pools.
Visiting family means a whole new set of toys to play with. The Little Mermaid was a short distraction.
The audience grew
and grew some more!
Frugal Boy lost the somber competition.
but he did score some Grandma time.
The drive there and back was pretty good (even better than the trip to Missouri). Frugal Boy had some new toys to keep him entertained. The string on this clip was almost as good as the pacifier itself.
Who needs a cuddly teddy bear when you can hold a stainless steel water bottle?
Thanks to all of our family members that made food and entertained Frugal Boy. It was a nice break from the daily grind!
Overall, we had a nice day and Auntie was able to unwind after finishing up her first year of med school. Yay auntie!
