- Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s time to move on and start over. Today is the day I am moving to Colorado, so My Two Dollars will be offline for a few days until I get settled in up there (and get an internet connection back). I hope you guys all have a fantastic weekend and see you next week. Wish me luck.
The processes and practices of getting our personal finances in order are simple to understand, but difficult to implement because they involve behavior changes. In the past something about how you were managing your finances was working for you – you were getting something beneficial from it or you would have been doing it differently. For me, I was getting to avoid facing reality and could go on pretending to be “successful”.
A dream is what is going to get you through the process of changing your behavior. A Dream is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal; an idea that today seems a bit unrealistic, but so moving that the possibility of getting there will influence how you choose to live your life.
CNN/Money has come out with their 2009 Best Places To Live – Small Towns list, and I always enjoy checking out the towns that they include. And to my surprise this year, my hometown was ranked #16! I mean, it’s a great New England town, for sure, but to see it at #16 was pretty cool. I am sure that my mom would agree, and I have fond memories of growing up there. This is what they said about Acton, MA:
…for my car in Colorado, at least. I have had State Farm car and renter’s insurance here in New Mexico, and while they have been fine I do think that they are a little on the expensive side for Colorado. The best insurance company I have ever had the pleasure of doing business with was Wawanesa, but they are only for residents of California and Oregon (unless that has changed and I didn’t notice). So, I had to start looking around and it looks like Progressive is going to be the best combination of price/value/convenience for me in Denver. And because I am a new customer, I will be signing up online, and I am going to pay my 6 month premium in advance, I am getting a one-time discount of $69 off my 6 month rate. So for my 2008 Subaru with very decent coverage, I will pay $357 for 6 months – or the equivalent of $59.50 per month. Not bad at all.
Thinking of buying a new car in 2009 to get the tax benefits? Better act fast – you only have 60 or so days left before 2010! Because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, any new car, light truck, recreational vehicle or motorcycle purchased between February 17 and December 31, 2009 is eligible for a state and local motor vehicle sales and excise taxes deduction on your federal tax return. To get the full deduction of the taxes, your new car must not have cost more than $49,500 and you must not have made more than $125,000 ($250,000 for joint filers) in 2009. Of course, you have to still pay the taxes due when you buy the car, but you do get the money back when you file your taxes in a few months.
