Skin the Fox - Boycotting Fox News Advertisers.

I used to pimp the hell out of Lookout, a free outlook plug-in that makes search easy. Microsoft bought it, never used it and disabled it in Outlook 2007. Well the fix is out and I highly suggest anyone using Outlook as any sort of knowledge base (which means everyone) get this up and running. Found via Joel Spolsky, whose site you have probably read this on already.

Password Safe - I love to pimp open source projects, especially when they are very useful. We use this at work to manage application account passwords, etc. Great for personal use too!

30 Million Americans May Be Eligible In Class-Action Suit - Have not had a chance to look over all the info but may be useful to others.

CFL Fact Sheet - Good info on how to dispose of a broken CFL since they do contain mercury. More CFL Info

The Crossover Point - A good read about what should probably be your financial goal: Independence. Read the article and the comments have some links to spreadsheets that you can work with to figure out your crossover point. If you want to do it yourself so you can adjust the numbers how you want, here is what I did.

I have 6 columns in a spreadsheet:
1) Years Away - 0 thru 30 or you can do Age if you want.
2) Income- This year’s income and then a calculated 3% raise a year (a1 * 1.03 and drag down the column)
3) Expenses - I calculated at 85% of income - adjust accordingly.
4) Savings - Income minus expenses or Income * .15
5) Investment Sum - I used 9% return (adjust accordingly). I entered my starting savings in the first cell and for the second entered the (previous Investment Sum + 1.09) + current savings. For Instance Cell E8’s formula looks like =(E7*1.09) + D8
6) Investment Return = Investment Sum * .09

Now watch the Age/Years Away for Investment Return surpasses Expense and Income. You can adjust your savings rate to see how much you need to save per year until you reach finanical independence. Very cool!

Update: Or you can just visit WhatsMyCrossover.

Well I just finished the closing. I am feeling a bit sick to my stomach. The process was not bad but damn, everyone gets their hands in the pie when it comes to real estate. Things I learned about buying a house:

1. Get a real estate agent who knows the area you want to buy in. I was undecided about a couple of areas and went with a recommendation. She was not bad but I wish she had known the area I bought in a bit better.
2. If you get the seller to pay closing costs then be conservative in your estimates or you are just giving money to the seller. My seller made an extra $300+ because my agent overestimated. Take 10% off what your agent estimates closing costs will be and be prepared to cover that on closing.

If you try and do it own your own good luck. I have no idea how you would buy or sell on your own when it comes to getting the forms, how to file, etc. If someone out there has done it on there own, please leave a comment on your experiences.

Buying vs Renting - Now that I am about to close on a house I am reading all sorts of articles about how buying is not necessarily better than renting. WTF? Anyway the title link is a great tool to find your break even point.

Presidential Candidate Selector - Find the candidates who closest match your views. Via. Here are my results:

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Dennis Kucinich (77%)
3. Barack Obama (73%)
4. Alan Augustson (68%)
5. Joseph Biden (67%)
6. Al Gore (66%)
7. Wesley Clark (66%)
8. Christopher Dodd (65%)
9. John Edwards (65%)
10. Hillary Clinton (64%)
11. Michael Bloomberg (60%)
12. Bill Richardson (56%)
13. Mike Gravel (54%)
14. Ron Paul (46%)
15. Elaine Brown (38%)
16. Kent McManigal (37%)
17. Rudolph Giuliani (30%)
18. John McCain (28%)
19. Mike Huckabee (26%)
20. Mitt Romney (25%)
21. Tommy Thompson (21%)
22. Chuck Hagel (17%)
23. Tom Tancredo (16%)
24. Fred Thompson (13%)
25. Newt Gingrich (13%)
26. Jim Gilmore (11%)
27. Sam Brownback (10%)
28. Duncan Hunter (7%)

Hugh’s Mortgage and Financial Calculators - I am seriously thinking about buying a house. Feel free to leave tips/suggestions in the comments. The online calculators have been pretty useful so far.