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Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Educating My Daughter On Negotiation And Finance


My wife and I got a text from our daughter the other day that said

"Yo peeps. I need more money!"

In further texts, composed in a similarly elegant style, she explained that she wanted to start buying some clothes and other items. She wasn’t just asking for a handout. She was looking for more work to do to earn money.

In fairness, it was probably time to revisit this subject. We haven’t changed her allowance in years. That being said, she doesn’t buy a lot of stuff, either, so there hasn’t been much of a need to adjust things. But, she’s now 14 and will be entering high school in two months. I remember  when I was in high school, I spent a lot of money on records and tapes. (I'm dating myself here. CDs started getting popular right as I was entering high school, but the players were still pretty expensive. I didn’t buy my first CD until I was in college.) I went out to restaurants with friends and hung out at arcades. Basically, entering high school brought many changes to my life, most of which involved spending money.

So my wife and I sat down with our daughter to hash out the details. We purposely let her lead the discussion, curious to see what she would ask for and would she would offer in return. She was willing to take on extra chores and also was looking for additional one-time jobs she could do to earn some additional cash. But this is where things got a little.. surreal.

In an attempt to teach some negotiation skills beyond “yo, I need more money,” we asked her how much more she wanted, expecting her to ask for some crazy increase. Instead, she asked for less than my wife and I had decided to give her! This was not the direction I expected the conversation to go, so instead of agreeing to the lower figure, we added a couple more chores to the list and offered the figure we had in mind (which again, was more than she asked for). She was OK with the additional work, but actually wanted less money. Yikes. At this point, I looked at her and said “Don’t turn down someone offering more than you asked for, especially for the same amount of work. That’s just stupid!

It was surprisingly difficult, but we did finally get her to accept the larger amount. It turns out, she was worried about the effect she would have on the household budget. She often hears me and my wife talking about the various different budgets we have for running the household and she was worried her raise would upset that. So cute…

Then came the next hurdle.

We've always split her allowance into two parts – money she can spend and money she has to save. When discussing her new allowance, we were willing to say her increase could be entirely used for spending and she didn’t have to save any of it. Surprisingly, she balked.

She said she didn’t feel right spending all that new money. “Mission accomplished!” I thought to myself. After some further discussion, she ended up saving the same percentage of her raise as she was for her current allowance – 30%.

So all in all, I feel this was something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, she tried to turn down extra money, but on the other, she made sure to keep saving a big chunk of the increase. I think the saving lesson is the more important one and I’m glad that she had the response she did. As for turning down more money, well, I obviously still have some more teaching to do there!

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Tesla Hits Milestone - Tax Credit Going Away

My Tesla just got a little bit more expensive.

According to Ars Technica, Tesla has now sold enough cars in the US that the $7,500 tax credit is starting to get phased out. Once Tesla sold 200,000 vehicles, the phase out period starts.

For the remainder of 2018, if you buy a Tesla and it is delivered before the end of the year, you can still get the full $7,500 tax credit. Teslas delivered in the first six months of 2019 are eligible for half of that tax credit or $3,750. Those delivered in the final 6 months of 2019, get half again, or $1,875. Cars delivered after that are no longer eligible. On the bright side, the remaining tax credits are now limited by time, not how many cars Tesla sells.

Individual states may still be offering tax incentives.

It will be interesting to see how much this will affect sales. I know the incentive is a big selling point. If buyers are looking for that tax credit, they might decide to buy a Model S or Model X rather than a Model 3, because the Model 3 deliveries have such a backlog. This will also put some pressure on Tesla to deliver cars as fast as possible before the end of the year. I know if my car was delivered on Jan 1, 2019, I would be pissed at Tesla for delivering one day late and costing me $3,750.


Thursday, July 5, 2018

Goal Update: End of June 2018

At the end of each month, I post an update of my goals, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred during the month. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog.

Last updated: End of June, 2018
Current value: $46,124
Change from last Month: +$1,559
Percent of Goal:  42.42%




Note that the funds in this account are invested in stock, so there will be fluctuations in value that are outside my control. I never withdraw money from this account, so any dips are purely due to stock price changes.


Events Of Note Last Month:


My SQL courses on Udemy generated $93.97 of income. My courses on SkillShare earned $46.25. I also received $94.91 from a class action lawsuit settlement.

Our annual summer trip to Las Vegas was fun and, although we did not return home with more than we left with, we did lose less than I planned on, so there's that. We told the casino it was my wife's birthday (which was really just 2 weeks away) and we got an offer to upgrade to a swanky 910 square foot suite for only $75 per night, which we took. (Our original deal was a free room plus  $50 in dining credit and $125 in free casino play.) The suite typically goes for between $500 and $1,100 per night, so that was a screaming deal. The room had 2 bathrooms, a small kitchen, and a nice balcony overlooking the Bellagio fountains. My wife also got a small box of fancy chocolate bars. We also got a free dessert at one of the restaurants we ate at. We went with my wife's sister and her husband, plus her other sister. Someone from each group (including my wife and myself) got at least one $1,000 royal flush win on video poker. Good times!

I crossed the $45,000 threshold this month and unlocked that achievement!



Net Worth Update

Our net worth went up $3,456 this month to $848,911 - another new all-time high! Woo-hoo! Not much else to report on this front.




May 2018
June 2018



























If you have any questions or suggestions for topics, please drop me a line in the comments section!