I am enjoying reading them myself, so I hope you guys are enjoying the guest posts this week. I have a few more for next week while I finish my visit to California. Have a fantastic weekend!
My car knows when I get paid. Like clockwork it demands a new repair with every paycheck. As a result, I’ve had to gather estimates for such big jobs as replacing the timing belt, repairing all four brakes (including replacing pads, shoes and rotor).
Much to my chagrin, I learned that although a timing belt costs just $55, estimates for replacement ran as high as $850. Why so much? Because two out of three shops recommend also replace the water pump, front engine seals, drive belt, idlers and tensioners.
Although this post is not directly related to personal finance issues, it does have something to do with it in terms of your financial security. For a long time now, I have had emergency kits in my car and in my home in case I suddenly had to vacate the house or got trapped away from home. After 9/11, the tsunami in Thailand, Hurricane Katrina, and the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, I figured that if it can happen to all of those people then it can happen to me. We all go through life figuring that the bad stuff always happens to other people, but someday the other people could be you and you better be prepared.
“If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather than superfluities of life, there might be fewer wants, and even fewer pleasures, but infinitely more happiness.“ – Oliver Goldsmith
If only…
Hey, My Two Dollars is looking for guest posts for the next few weeks while I go on vacation. So if you are interested, feel free to email me or use my contact form to get in touch. Thanks!
A friend of mine just had both his computer AND his external backup hard drive die on the same day. Rare? Yes…but not impossible. While I have never had anything so catastrophic happen to my computer setup, I have always backed everything up both here in my house and online each day. I use an external Western Digital Passport drive with Time Machine (the built-in Apple backup application) that backs up my data every hour, and I also use BackBlaze to do daily backups over the internet. That first online backup took a few days, but now it only takes a few minutes per day (at most) because it only backs up changed files. My friend luckily used Mozy for his own online backup, so within a few days they sent him all his data via mail for him to reinstall on his now fixed computer. Thank goodness for online backups, because if he hadn’t been doing his, everything on his computer and external drive would have been gone – music, family photos, important documents – everything. And since my entire life is now digital (all my music, videos, “paperwork”, etc) is on my computer, backups are incredibly important to keep me from losing all my stuff. The lesson learned here? Don’t just do external hard drive backups, but also start doing online backups as well. BackBlaze is $5 a month for backup, and it’s the best $5 I have spent lately. Backup your computer…or else.
