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Bloggers write a lot. That is what I have determined after my exhaustive study and analysis, which has mostly consisted of me opening my rss reader every day and seeing far too many unread posts. The odd part is so many of the bloggers I used to read when I started blogging a few years ago, no longer seem to be in the game anymore. Yet, I still have all these unread posts, which means I am either reading more bloggers now or the remaining people really need another hobby.

Life for me has been busy and stressful the last few weeks. I think it should settle down soon, but until it does, I exist in varying stages of stress. The odd part is that most of the things I am stressed about are actually good things - opportunities and such, but how do I know if they are good opportunities or the right choice. It is questions like this that make me sleepless at night and no one seems to have any answers. They may start out thinking that they do but after talking to me for a few minutes they shake their heads, toss up their hands and say, "Good luck with that." I cannot say that I blame them. I would do the same thing, except I happen to be in the unfortunate position of having to make the ultimate decision. Somehow, I think people feel I should be happier about my current position.

Work has been good. Two of our paralegals, though, have cancer. It is a scary thing. I watched my mother go through it and the treatments years ago and now I get to watch some of the staff experience it. It seems like so many people get it. I feel like all of us will end up with it within another forty years, which really sort of sucks, when you think about it.

I have given up on the election for the next few months. My girlfriend is still passionate about it but I have sort of resigned myself to the fact the next president will just be stuck with a huge mess on his/her hands and they probably are not going to be able to fix it. Sure, the Federal Reserve can act in the wink of an eye - overnight even - and rescue a failing bank, but any relief for failing homeowners has to go through Congress and committee and be discussed, ad nauseum . I keep hearing about how these people knew what they were doing and that they were reckless and that they should not be rewarded for it - they should have to face the consequences. Meanwhile, we funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to the banks that all helped cause it.

I do not know how reckless these people were. I attended a lot of real estate closings with a lot of buyers, back when the market was booming. You always knew when you were with someone that really could not afford the loan they were about to get, but the broker had talked them into it. We would talk to the borrower about negative amortization and the loan interest reset date and the borrower would sometimes briefly have a slightly worried expression but the broker or someone else in the room would reassure them that they would just refinance before then - after all with all that built-up equity, the banks would be lining up to hand them money. We knew the crash was coming. We all watched the banks writing absolutely ridiculous loans, with the lenders and mortgage brokers making insane fees, and then the bottom fell out and everyone was surprised. I was in a meeting one day and got to watch an attorney blame a local paper for the collapse of the real estate market because it was just alarmist and did not understand the market.

Much of our society does not make sense to me when it comes to the financial markets. For example, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has generated a new report based upon information from the IRS. It says a few interesting things: 1) 2006 was the fourth straight year of significant income gains at the very top and very small gains everywhere else: from 2002-2006, the top 1% had average incomes rise by 44% or $335,0000. The bottom 90% had incomes rise by 3%, or $1000; 2) The share of the nation's income going to the top 1% hasn't been that high since just before the Great Depression; and, 3) Those in the very top income distribution--the top one-tenth of 1 percent--had enormous income gains rising 60%, or $1.9 million per household, since 2002. See also this blog.

It's Been A While

I know, I know. I have not written in over a week on this thing I call my blog, but again, I have been busy.

I went to Chicago two weekends ago and experienced both Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due. The latter is across the street from the former. Apparently, early on, Uno's just got too darn crowded. So the owner opened up a second restaurant across the street. Brilliant! And because not as many people seem to know about Pizzeria Due, it appears to be less crowded and easier to get a table there. We went to Uno's on a whim, saying well, while their pizza is often a little too greasy, we are in Chicago and we should at east try it to say that we tried it before we leave. Oh my God. Forget Giordano's. Forget Gino's East. No, no, no, my friend. Pizzeria Uno and Due is where it is at. Uno's was so good we went to Due the next day for more. And even today, I wake up with a desire to go back and have some more. Certainly, the best deep dish pizza I have ever had. I wish the franchised stores could make it as well as those two places do.

I discovered a new Web-based financial management site. It was written up in a number of places and got some stellar reviews. In fact, the reviews were so good, the company was inundated with new customers wanting to use their product, and their servers couldn't keep up with the demand. It took them several days to install additional servers and get everything running smoothly but they appear to have accomplished it. What is so cool about this site, is you enter your username and password for all of your credit card and bank accounts and it automatically goes there and pulls all your transaction data and keeps it up to date on an ongoing basis, so you do not have to keep entering your transactions as you go. It also categorizes your transactions, and keeps track of your debt to cash ratio and your interest rates and gives you a comparative analysis, based upon national averages, makes suggestions of you could save additional money, and gives you charts as to how much of your budget goes to what - travel, entertainment, gas, groceries, etc. In short, it's exactly what I always wanted. The site is called Mint, and it's completely free. How is it free you may ask because I sure know I did. Well, remember how I said it figures out ways for you to save money, like it pointed out to me that I could open an ING checking account and earn over 4% on my money. 4% in a checking account with no minimum balance! Insane. Well, ING pays them for that ad placement recommendation, as do other companies that offer cool programs and offers that can save or earn you extra money. Is it safe? Well, they sound pretty safe, and their security practices have been approved by e-Trust and Verisign.

As to the trip planning for Costa Rica, because Kate asked. The planning is going great. I have mostly figured out all the logistics of the trip and have selected hotels that we could probably stay at and how much most of all of that will cost. I eliminated one city and possibly added a different one, as it was just logistically easier. Our trip will probably not involve most of the beaches in Costa Rica, which we are mostly ok with, as we live in Florida and can go to the beach whenever we want. We were more interested in the rafting, kayaking, volcanoes and rain forest exploration than the beaches. Maybe if we go back, we will try to take in more beach areas. Overall, though, the trip sounds like it is going to be amazing. Absolutely everyone I know who has been says it is just an amazing place and as more and more retired foreigners and speculators are settling there and trying to make it even more of a tourist destination, I feel fairly sure that if I do not get there soon, I will lose almost any chance I have of seeing it as something other than Disneyland. And that's the story on Costa Rica. If you have any individual questions, let me know. I have looked through about eight travel books on the country and have a couple of favorites so far, but we will see how I feel about them after I get back. I have also done research on other areas of the country and the beaches, but my predominant focus has been elsewhere.

Ok, now off to being busy again.

Unexpected Costs

"I'm sorry, sir, but while you are entitled to twenty physical therapy visits per year, we only cover the cost of the therapy after you've met your deductible."

"But that's $2,000.00."

"Yes, that's correct, sir."

"But the woman I spoke to before I started the therapy several weeks ago said that it would all be covered without any cost to me."

"I'm sorry, sir; I don't see that in the system, but you can appeal it if you'd like."

The really interesting part is that there is no way you could meet the deductible with twenty visits, and it's unlikely twenty visits would ever be enough to recover from surgery. Not to mention the fact that you'd have no coverage if you should need any therapy for another injury later in the year. What a brilliant system. Pay for insurance that never really affords you a benefit. Brilliant. I'd imagine my office saves quite a bit with having this coverage in place. Unfortunately, I don't make anywhere near as much as the partner that selected this plan and am unable to so easily absorb the additional out-of-pocket expense.

My day could really only get better from there one would think. However, as the day wore on, I started hearing about terrible things that were happening to others and it was hard for me to feel bad for myself. A woman who used to work at my office has a husband who will die from cancer within the next week or two and a friend of mine lost his house in a fire. Not to be outdone, I immediately got sick. I know it still doesn't quite measure up, but having lost two homes to fire in the past and almost losing my mother to cancer, I feel like I should get some credit for it.

Our office took up a collection for the woman. We're not sure how helpful it will be or if she'll even be able to pay all the medical bills that are sure to be accruing right now, but we figured it should be helpful to at least help her buy some food or something for now. It's hard to know what to do when tragedy strikes. I remember reading recently, about all the people that donated money to an organization that was supposed to help the families of the firefighters that lost their lives in California last year, only to find out recently that the money raised may not qualify for the charitable deduction. It makes me wonder what would happen if a person hit hard times and needed to file bankruptcy but because of all the money being donated to them, they couldn't qualify for relief. What an odd predicament that would be.

It now remains to be seen how I will be able to afford the surgery I am supposed to have next month, and still pay my rent. I think it's rather odd that I'm an attorney and I have to worry myself with questions like this, and I'm still undecided about how I feel about the fact that I cannot deduct the interest I pay on my student loans every year, as I make just enough in gross income to meet the phase-out limitation, but still not enough to afford my medical bills, as half of my annual salary goes directly to student loans and rent.

It always reminds me of a message my friend's father had on his refrigerator when I was growing up, "Due to financial constraints the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off until further notice."