First Gen American.com

Author: Sandy L

  • Durable Things I Love

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    Tweet When we bought our house in 2000, our friends got together and bought us a Weber Grill. We entertained a lot back then. Our friend Mike put on his brass knuckles and told people “you know you’re going to benefit from this contribution, so get that wallet out.”  I’m happy to report that he…

  • The Dumpster Dilemma + Underwater Summer Homes

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    Tweet The house next door to Babci just sold for $99K and it’s about identical to hers.  We bought Babci’s house at the peak of the market in 2005 and are currently about $155K into it.  We have already replaced the roof, furnace, refinished the hardwoods downstairs, gutted the hall and one of upstairs bedrooms.…

  • How Shallow are You?

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    Tweet So, here’s a little poll for you. You enter a sweepstakes and you find out that you’ve won up to $50K in plastic surgery.  You can’t trade it in for cash, and it’s non transferable.  If you don’t use the prize in 10 years, it expires. Would you have surgery or some other cosmetic…

  • Life Lessons – More than One Way to Learn

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    Tweet I recently wrote a post on Budgeting the Fun Stuff  on Financial Aid and it got me thinking about my children and their upcoming college experience.  Because we’re a dual income family, it’s unlikely my children will qualify for financial aid. As a result, I plan on helping my kids with many of their…

  • Negative Role Models

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    Tweet A couple of weeks ago, I did a guest post on Punch Debt in the Face and spoke of Positive Role Models. I originally wrote the negative role model article first, and then realized positive role models might be even more important in the molding of a youth, hence the second article. So here…

  • A few favorites..The Buying Local Edition

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    Tweet Get Rich Slowly wrote an article on Buying Locally, that also spurred a couple of other good ones at Money Reasons, The Simple Dollar , My Two Dollars. I particularly liked a couple of How to Make a difference’s reasons, one of them being keeping in touch with the seasons. I live in the…

  • Verbal Abuse, Brainwashing and Personal Finance

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    Tweet I figure I’ll write a few posts on my dad, as he taught me many lessons in all the worst ways. A little background. My dad was not a very nice person. To top it off, he was a lazy, racist, manipulative, gambling alcoholic. Here’s a photo of us when I was born. You…

  • Alexa Experiment and High School

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    Tweet So, I’ve been blogging for about 5 weeks off and on and I thought I’d try and figure out what this Alexa business is all about.  For those of you who are just readers and not bloggers, Alexa is this little toolbar that you put on your header and it gives you a  ranking of the particular website…

  • College Savings are Last on My List

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    Tweet Hi All, Today I’m doing a guest post over at Budgeting for the Fun Stuff.  Be sure to go over to the site and have a look. The gist of the post is that most people will be better off if they put all other savings goals ahead of saving for their children’s education.…

  • Vacation, Bad Dreams & Emotional Spending

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    Tweet Just a quick note:  I will be unplugging for a good chunk of this week for vacation. I’m one of those people who have wild and crazy dreams on a regular basis. I have two recurring dreams. The first involves a person trying to kill me. Sometimes I run, but in most cases, I use elaborate…