Getting My Act Together for Retirement

I finally got around to opening the Roth IRA I have been thinking about for over three months. I first dropped my 401(k) contribution to 3% (from 6%) - which is the amount my company matches. The extra cash I'm now earning will go straight into the Roth. I opened my account through Fidelity because there is no fee to invest and no minimum balance (unless you want to put your money into funds, in which case there is a minimum balance of $2500). Also, I have gotten on the phone with reps over there about 20 times and they are really helpful. You can do the entire thing online, but the most confusing part was finding the form to give your employer for a direct deposit. That can be found here under "use this form". Let the retirement savings begin!

McDonald's Knows We Heart Free Food

I'm not sure how many of you remember a few months back when Taco Bell was giving away free tacos - but I sure do and it was as delicious as ever! Well now McDonald's has realized just how much everyone loves free food and is offering their new McSkillet Burrito FREE with any purchase of a drink tomorrow and Friday (Feb. 28 and 29). What's in the McSkillet you ask? Well go here and you can see all the goodies inside, including melted cheese, yum! Make sure you go during breakfast hours, and the drink you buy has to be a medium or a large. If you figure out the cheapest drink you can buy and still get a free burrito, please post below.

Best Mexican in Brooklyn, So Cross that Bridge!

Monday night I recovered from a long weekend of drinking at a fabulous restaurant named Chavella's in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The restaurant is very tiny - it seats only about 20 people - but everything is freshly prepared and the prices are insanely cheap (I actually felt guilty for at least 10 seconds). Because of the small size you are served promptly AND it's BYOB. What's better?! But if you're not in the drinkin' mood they also have Jarritos, which we all know are delicious. If you don't already live around here, I bet you'll never go, but then you're an idiot. The tamales are great, the tortilla soup is awesomely spicy, and basically everything else I haven't tasted is probably delicious (menu). For five of us to eat (a lot) the bill was $50. (Rumors are the brunch is killer. They deliver.)
I got this image off the blog Brooklyn Skeptic - they also reviewed, and loved, Chavella's

Chavella's
732 Classon Ave (b. Prospect Place and Park Place)
2, 3 to Eastern Pkwy or 4, 5 to Franklin
MAP

Fresh Directly get'n fresh with Singles

I love Fresh Direct. It's competitively priced yuppy shopping at its best. And when you live on the 4th floor, the delivery service is clutch.

I'm scoping out winter produce when I see they are having a V-Day promotion for the poor saps with no lovebug. I have yet to check out the menu but I'm expecting hi-fat content and generous serving size. If you can rally a few roommates, definitely get your waters/alcohol/TP/milk/canned food delivered. check it out!

Not Living "City Broke"

Well, as our *many* readers may have noticed we haven't been posting much this week. This is for two reasons: iSpend has a new job earning her at least a few hundred dollars more. iSave, frankly, has been a consumer whore, is not being frivolous with her spending and thus has nothing to blog about except how to spend way to much on clothes, the bar, eating out, albums, concerts, groceries, a plane and train ticket, and unnecessary pet stuff like a cat hat (which the cat hates). This all may be due to the fact she drank heavily at least 5 nights last week.

But don't worry! We'll be back on our feet and cheap as hell soon enough. iSpend is staying in tonight to save some cash - always a good move.

The Staten Island Ferry: New York's Best Bar

If you're looking for a cheap beer and great views, go no farther north than Water Street. The Staten Island Ferry not only provides a great view of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, they also offer (if I remember correctly after pounding about 5 of them) Coors tall boys for $3, and Corona bottles for about $4. Beat that LES! Not to mention that the ride itself is free and about a half hour each way - the perfect amount of time to blur your vision enough to make Staten Island seem inviting. Hint: take all tourists here! They will love it.

Take the R, W to Whitehall Street, 1,9 to South Ferry, 4,5 to Bowling Green, or J,M,Z to Broad Street.

Hey Hil, Love the 'Brows

"A little-known fact about Hillary Clinton: She had great eyebrows in high school," writes Marisa Rindone in a Forbes.com book review of the latest book butting into other people's business, Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers. This book is full of different women's memories and observations of Sen. Clinton. Rindone highlights "Marie Brenner's memory of seeing Hillary Clinton standing alone on the beach at Hilton Head only days before Monica Lewinsky became a household name...". So does this mean Hillary is not a robot? Let's pick up a copy and find out.

For the full review go here

Gladwell's Tipping Point convincingly challenged.

So Blink was fun, but trite, right? The contempt chapter was golden though - I think it was 11 - read that bit if you haven't.
Regardless, Gladwell is a pretty smug and furry dude.
This research geek at Yahoo thinks McGlad's business-as-usual (the Tipping Point is composed of other peoples' studies and theories and collected by the Hair) Influence theory is basically wrong. Check out excerpt and read the article.

"Watts believes this is because a trend's success depends not on the person who starts it, but on how susceptible the society is overall to the trend--not how persuasive the early adopter is, but whether everyone else is easily persuaded. And in fact, when Watts tweaked his model to increase everyone's odds of being infected, the number of trends skyrocketed."
read the Fast Company article

A Great (free) Subway Pastime (that does not include reading)

I have recently discovered something almost everyone else is aware of. No, not Chai Tea...podcasts, baby. My favorite (ok, only) podcast source is the ever-friendly NPR.org. They have over 604 podcasts available including shows such as Fresh Air, Car Talk, Talk of the Nation, This American Life, and all the other "good" shows (a.k.a. ones I actually liked to listen to as a child on family road trips). My favorite? All Songs Considered - a great way to learn about new artists and old favorites, and Bob Boylan's voice is like a soothing melody. The best part is you can sign up for a free "subscription" for most shows and they just update your iTunes, Yahoo or Zune playlist with each new show. If you don't have an MP3 player, listen to the shows online.

Craigslist Gem

Does any know a good match for Rodger? He and I met for a "friendly" coffee this week and we aren't a match but he is something special. Can you say Scrabble wizard?!
Joking but seriously - doesn't he sound slike a little lamb?
Check it out!

Intelligent atheist white man seeks sweetie
Date: 2008-01-08, 11:45PM EST

I'm a single atheist white man, 54, reputedly intelligent, with unusual interests in politics, science, music and dance. I'd like to meet a woman with varied interests, curious about the world, comfortable expressing her likes and dislikes (I hate struggling to guess), delighting in her ability to fascinate a man and in being loved tenderly, who values joy, truth, beauty and justice more than "success"--so we can share bouts of intense, passionately kind awareness of each other, alternating with tolerant warmth while we're absorbed in other aspects of life. My 23-year-old child, the Free Software Movement, occupies most of my life, leaving no room for more children, but I still have room to love a sweetheart if she doesn't need to spend time with me every day. I spend a lot of my time traveling to give speeches, often to Europe, Asia and Latin America; it would be nice if you were free to travel with me some of the time. Reply and we'll see where it leads.

Best 9 seconds of my day

Check it out

Call it a Spring Awakening

I want to let all our readers (Marshall) know that I realize I haven't been writing about being cheap lately and it's not right. I'm going to start blogging again 'bout being poor and ways to cheat people/the system.

Love,

iSpend

The author of the book I am reading was nearly murdered!

I am reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk. It is amazing. 7 people were arrested for trying to kill him. That is messed! Read more.

Ron Paul Top 10 Donors

Ron Paul gets all his dough from individuals. This list shows where most of his backers work. He's kind of the cool kid, isn't he? Google, Microsoft, Cisco...and check out the armed forces rallying around the Man who wants to time travel to pre-FDR days in terms of gov't spending and has always been against the war in Iraq.
The weird one is General Dynamics -
General Dynamics is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat vehicles and systems, armaments, and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and mission-critical information systems and technologies.
Why is anti-war Ron Paul being backed by both sides of the military industrial complex, albeit individuals? Hmmm..maybe GD is transitioning to non-combat self-described "business machines?"

Google Inc
$22,250
US Army
$21,018
US Navy
$14,105
Microsoft Corp
$12,863
Huffines Communities
$11,850
US Air Force
$10,950
Cisco Systems
$8,900
Verizon Communications
$8,351
Ford Motor Co
$7,650
General Dynamics
$7,100

thanks opensecrets.org

Hell Yeah! we have the same presidential picks as TechCrunch!

Barack & McCain! I'd be happy with either. (well, the VP's do come into play at some point)

Go Michael Arrington! TechCrunch is my favorite tech news source and often non-tech news source and they've announced who they back. Granted, it was fun reading the New York Times and finding out "Why Rudy sucks," but TC outlines why these candidates are good for technology and entrepeneurs which may prove an important endorsement. It's cute that all the TC readers voted for Ron Paul. He is pretty lovable.

"Senator Obama talks about the future with a sense of optimism that the other candidates seem to lack. America has done great things in the past, and we can do great things in the future, so long as our leaders support our home-grown and immigrant entrepreneurs, or at least get out of the way. "

"[TechCrunch is] endorsing Senator McCain as the best candidate from that side of the aisle. Senator McCain, more so than any other Republican candidate, is at least willing to go on record on any issue we brought up in our interview with him... he’s made it clear that he’ll address inequities that arise from his hands-off policies on net neutrality and mobile allocations, which other Republican candidates refuse to do. And his positions on Internet Taxes, H1-B visas, China/human rights violations and other issues are strongly pro-technology. Romney and, to a lesser extent Huckabee, by contrast, have shown little inclination to even discuss their position on these issues."
Check out the article.

Don't get Burned, Buy Renter's Insurance

I know some of you don't even have health insurance, but you really should consider buying renter's insurance. My roommates and I have ours through State Farm Insurance. It takes about 15 minutes of our time over the phone and costs only about $120 for a full year. This, of course, is with the lowest deductible and "economy" possessions. (Yes, the rate your crap like they do plane seats). But while us New Yorkers don't have to worry as much about earthquakes and hurricanes, you never know when you'll come home to realize your neighbor's pipe broke and flooded your entire bed room, or a robber has just jacked all your clothing and jewelry. Go here on the website, take 5 minutes to fill out this from and an agent will contact you with an estimate. The insurance covers just you, not your roommates, so there are no awkward "money" discussions necessary. Use that 100 bucks for something useful - you can live without that knock-off Marc Jacobs purse.

More on this topic at ohmyapt.com's: Challenging Myths: Renters Insurance Edition

A Quiet Place to Get Away - for only $40 a Year

If sharing the grass in Central or Prospect Park isn't enough solitude for you, think about joining the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. A single membership is only $40 a year (admission is $8), and it's the perfect place to sit alone or go for a run, especially for you Brooklynites. The card also has great benefits such as access to Wednesday's summer hours, when the gardens are open an extra two hours for members to watch the sun set, or have dinner in the Garden's Terrace Cafe. There are receptions for members only, two free guest passes, discounts on classes like bird-watching, and summer watercolors, not to mention discounts at many plant stores in Brooklyn, restaurants such as Lobo and Tom's Diner, as well as Brooklyn beauty salons and pilates classes. So, really, take a look at that picture and ask yourself, is there any reason not to throw down the 40 bucks? (And of course it's tax deductible!)

Save Money on Drugs

Well, legal drugs. (Tips on saving money on illegal drugs is still TK...we are in the middle of doing some major investigative journalism at the time.) America's favorite whipping boy, Wal-Mart, really, truly, honestly offers $4 prescriptions - just as the ads say! Now, may New Yorkers have not experienced the true savings of Wal-Mart since, well, we don't have one. But you can order online from the pharmacy here and get drugs with really long names such as Fluoxetine, for, yes, $4. I know many of you liberal hipsters out there who don't have health insurance may refuse to pay the man, but just wait until you come down with a nasty infection and realize just how much you'll really save to get all fixed up.

Politicians Can Make Jokes

Check out this Letterman sketch with Barack Obama. If politicians be continue being this funny (well, intentionally) who needs writers? Barack on Letterman

I Registered to Vote!

It was so easy and satisfying I want to do it again and again and again. All I did was google: vote, NYC and there it was - a downloadable registration form. I mailed it in. No postage required.

It seems a bit too easy...How do they stop people from registering as people who are too lazy to register and then make a fake ID or something? A little ring like that couldn't be too hard to put together... -Sidejobs! The possibilities are endless!

I felt so excited after mailing it in I wanted to make a sign or something that said, "Vote!" Then I calmed down and read Techcrunch instead.

My Roommate has this shirt and I think I'm going to buy it.

Because it rocks. And because it's the same pattern as my pleated school uniform skirt from back in the day. It's on sale for $32.99 at Gap.com. Get it. I also recommend this charcoal wool 3/4 length wrap. It's $29.99 marked down from $99. Get it.

Cloverfield: To see it or not to see it?

This Forgainst it article on movieweb offers 2 opposing reviews of the film. Very helpful when I'm deciding if i want to spend 11 bucks or not. I won't see it but maybe you should!
Also check out the trailer

BET founder disses Obama - Loves Clintons

"In defending the civil rights record of the former first lady and President Clinton, Johnson said, "As an African-American, I'm frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Bill and Hillary Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that -- and I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book -- when they have been involved."

Read more on cnn

Study Released on Reporter Burnout

Thanks for the timely headsup Ash.

It turns out that being a reporter is stressful, time-consuming and doesn't pay well. For some reason, not many news outlets are covering the groundbreaking story except Gawker. Maybe they didn't know that journalism pays crap and that journalistic integrity can be a heavy yolk. Maybe most journalists found the study a tad obvious when they read it at ten o'clock, at work, eating chinese take-out with a deadline in 10 hours and a source that won't return their call.

US team makes embryo clone of men

Hey - I thought that was frowned upon!

"Researchers removed DNA from donated human eggs, and replaced it with DNA from the skin cells of two volunteers. "

read more on the BBC

"There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means." - Calvin Coolidge

There's a new Raisan on the small screen

Raisan Zoe just got her own show on Bravo. With all her clients in rehab and her phone a-not ringing I bet she's got the time for it. Looking forward to the debut episode.

Microsoft files Patent for Corporate Spy System

What if your boss knew your mood and how fast you're typing and whether you're heart rate would suggest that your significantly more sluggish on Friday mornings than any other day of the week? You'd be busted. Microsoft has filed for a patent that would allow companies to closely monitor their employees' physicality "via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer’s assessment of their physiological state. " Read more

Your cereal is made by a Tobacco company

Phillip Morris owns all these not-so-delicious brands. Talk about diversified. Raisin Bran and Miracle Whip? Velveeta and Jell-o? It's nuts.

It's nice to know that until Marijauna cigarrettes are totally legal and PM switches from tobacco to recreational, medical and "help you get off nicotine" cigarettes, they have a healthy portfolio of food products to keep their investors from getting squirelly.

Because a few readers are unbelieving - check out history/aquisitions under wikipedia . Their startegy is vice brands and since they also own Miller breweries - they've got booze, munchies & smokes on lockdown.

Annoying Frog Intl Superstar?

Annoying Frog is a bizarre little cartoon animal that yields crazy money in merch internationally. It made $79 million in 2005 on ringtones alone. If you check out the video at the link you'll see what a wild fusion of anime and dreamworks (the look not the comp.) can produce. While I watched I was thinking the frog was probably inspired by a friend of the guy who came up with the idea. Can't you see some annoying person with bad posture, a cheery disposition and wandering eyes inspiring annoying frog? Actually it was inspired by a viral youtube video of a Swedih teen impersonating a 2 stroke engine.
Let us know if you know any annoying frog fans. Maybe you'll embrace the frog if you check more footage of this intl phenomenon in action.
Read more at TechCrunch

One Golden Site Compliments of NY Tech meetup

Tuesday night iSave and I wandered over to Barry Diller's new digs on the westside highway to attend the New York Tech Meetup event. There were about 350 brains in attendance. We created a bit of a flurry when we came in because we represented about one-fifth of all females present. After settling in the demos began. With 5 minutes to present, tech entrepeneurs are allowed to pitch their concept to venture capitalists, journalists and other entrepenuers.

Here's my favorite:

Gilt.com allows you to shop high-end sample sales online. They photograph all their merch so the site looks as elegant as the lines they carry: Derek Lim, Le Perle etc. Catch: It's invite only. If you can get an invite the brands are pretty amazing and so are the prices.

Next Stop - NY Dungeons & Dragons meetup event members 497

Actual posting: Our old gaming group moved/retired/etc and I?m sick of DMing. Itching to play again. I?ve got 25+ years experience but little recently particularly with 3rd Edition. Looking to play with fairly normal people/campaign not silly 30th level stuff.

Save on a Home Make Beer Pong Table

I thought I would add something to iSpend's little post below. There is no better way to save than by starting with party expenses. I have been to several house parties in New York (they do exist!) in which the host has obviously spend hundreds of dollars on building materials from Home Depot to make the infamous beer pong table. This is a waste. Simply take your door off the hinges and lay is accross the table you never use for actually eating. Your table might not look like this, but when your 6 beers deep who really cares, anyway?

Note to self: 1) Dramatically report the obvious 2) Participate in more at home "research"

When one little pin-striped editor at the Washington Post sadly nodded his shiny head to okay, "College Drinking Games Lead to Higher Blood Alcohol Levels," he knew his unique traffic quota would be met for the week. That story has been #1 in Google "health" news for an hour. Perhaps Post editors were comforted to see just below the New York Times', "The Science of Toga Parties." Maybe not, this NYT blog's dry retelling was actually kind of awesome.

The Post story was attributed to HealthDay News so I visit its website to discover it's a self-generating news service for media outlets, hospitals, street peddlers etc. It publishes " 12+ hard health news stories a day, with seven daily news feed updates." Hard news guys? Hardly.

Here's a gem from HDN's homerun of the day:

"The researchers found that playing drinking games, having a personal history of binge drinking, attending a party with many other intoxicated people, and attending a themed event all predicted higher blood alcohol levels."

Upcoming HealthDay News Story: Zoo animals are more depressed than their couterparts in the wild!

MY FAVORITE part is that the study was conducted at San Diego State University, "an urban public university in southern California." At least they went to the nation's drunkest, most ru-pheed campus in the country (world?) to do some hardcore drinking game research. Picking the un-soberest campus might have been the only intelligent analysis required.

iSpend '08 Prediction

• McCain wins 2008 Republican nomination.
• - He only lost the South Carolina caucus in 2004 because G-Dub's team was actin' sleazy.
• "Anonymous opponents used "push polling" to suggest that McCain's Bangladeshi born daughter was his own, illegitimate black child." Boston Globe 2004
• - Running mate? - no idea. Will guess later.
• Obama wins the 2008 Dem nomination.
• - Bloomie will be his running mate. They're a perfect team. A young cool black senator and the ultimate white male suit. Junior senator/senior citizen.

Ron Paul wins carnival Raffle.

more to come...