JoeTaxpayer

It was time that I got my eyes checked. I’d been squinting more and more when reading or at the computer screen. I went to an eye doctor who wrote a prescription and said it was for bi-focals. In other words, my vision was less than perfect both for reading and for long distance. So I asked if I just wanted single vision, would the glass store be able to fill it either way, for two different pairs of glasses? Sure. So I walk in with my wife and we pick a pair she thought looked good. I asked that it be filled as single vision, reading. After insurance, my co-pay managed to be about $180. I was a bit shocked that glasses cost so much. I asked around and friends and relatives all said they had glasses cost as much as $500. Wow. I picked them up two weeks later, and, viola! It seemed that reading was great, never realized the letters were so sharp on the page. But I sit about two feet from my dual computer monitors and the glasses didn’t work at that distance, still blurry.

I put the issue aside, but was convinced that there must be a source of lower cost glasses out there. A few weeks back, a fellow blogger tweeted about EyeBuyDirect, and as you can see, they sell glasses starting at under $10. I looked at the site, saw that you just enter the prescription details on line, and indicate reading, computer or long distance, the distance between your pupils, and you are all set. I bought a pair of glasses and with the discount from the blogger’s tweet, the glasses cost me $22 with shipping. They work great. In the evening when my eyes start to go and I feel myself squinting, I have them right at my computer. Now, my wife thinks glasses are a fashion statement and she doesn’t care for what I bought. “Joe, they are so big, they cover your eyebrows.” Ah, but that means I can look around, and see my monitors without getting whiplash. And since they are just for when I am at the computer, you will never see me wear them, unless you enter my domain. They gave me the code IFXX123D92 which you can use to get 15% off your first purchase. And the FCC wants me to tell you that I get a credit of $5 towards y next purchase if you use the code. I’m thinking that at $20 (or less in some cases) this is a great way to get an extra pair to keep in the suitcase when traveling or in the car in case you run out of the house. It’s certainly a different approach when spending $20 than $500 a pop for these things. By the way, if you look at their site, I bought Baymak MT3470, and yes, the lenses are big.

How much did you spend on your last pair of glasses?

I’d like to start this week’s roundup by welcoming a new financial blogger to the blogosphere. Stephanie Halligan recently launched The Empowered Dollar, “Saving kids from financial disaster, one conversation at a time.” She graduated College with some serious student loan debt and her posts offer advice to those entering college as well as new grads. Finance isn’t one-size-fits-all, and there’s room for a blog that’s targeted to help the audience Stephanie is trying to help. Welcome to the PF blogging world, Steph.

Evan at My Journey To Millions shared June 2012 Net Worth Update My First Negative Month! and a Housing Update.  With the Dow down 6% in May, it’s no surprise Evan saw a drop as well, but with his strong savings, he was only down 1/2%, not bad. I track the S&P and haven’t yet calculated the carnage.

At Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, Ginger explains Soft Credit Pull vs. Hard Credit Pull: How Do They Affect My Credit? I’ve written quite a bit on credit scoring and how I use Credit Karma to track my score, but I’ve not gone into detail on soft vs hard pulls of your report. Great reading, Ginger.

Bible Money Matters hosted David Bakke’s guest post Why You Should Know The Operating Expenses Of Your Employer-Based 401(k) Plan. I could not agree more. Some 401(k) accounts sport fees so high the tax benefit is wiped out over the years by those fees. The new disclosure rules are due to go into effect soon. We’ll see the fallout soon after.

Darrow Kirkpatrick Guest Posted at Lazy Man and Money with The 80/20 Way to Early Retirement. Darrow explains, “The 80/20 rule is about causes and effects: it tells us that just 20 percent of the effort in any endeavor produces 80 percent of the results.” He then goes on to show how this important rule can be applied to how you invest for retirement.

Let’s wrap up this week with the Mighty Bargain Hunter’s A neat way to see the interest you save by paying extra principal. I don’t want to ruin his punchline, let’s just say he gives a great visual way to see how prepaying puts you ahead. A simple idea, but it explains an awful lot about how mortgages and amortization works, nice post.

New York’s Mayor Bloomberg would like to pass a law banning the sale of cups of soda larger than 16oz. “Nobody is taking away any of your rights,” Bloomberg said, “This way, we’re just telling you ‘That’s a lot of soda.'” There’s so much wrong with this it’s tough to know where to start. I’m not a soda drinker, and I understand it’s not a healthy drink, but is it the State’s place to put this kind of restriction on the sale of legal food or drink? Should the sale of double cheese burgers be restricted? How about that deep fried blooming onion? Where does it end?

On a Personal Finance and Money board within the Stack Exchange Network, I’m a frequent poster, answering questions as they come up. On occasion, I’m struck by a question that’s so well thought out, it’s worthy reading in its own right. The question asked was “One should save about 15% of their income for retirement.” What assumptions are tacit in that statement? and the clarification follows:

What assumptions are tacit in the statement that “saving and properly investing 15% of one’s income over a lifetime is a pathway to a successful retirement?”

By this, I mean items along the lines of:

• Single, married, or single and dating at time of retirement?
• Retire at 55, 60, 65, 80?
• 25K/yr income, 50K/yr income, 150K/yr income?
• That 15% goes to a tax advantaged account? (i.e. 401k, IRA, Roth, your nephew’s 529?)
• Kids or no kids?
• Paying for said kids’ college or not paying?
• 2003 to 2007 returns, 2008 to 2009 returns, or “I averaged the whole S&P500 over 2 world wars and order of magnitude technology advances” returns?
• Dual incomes the whole time?
• Making a lot more money at time of retirement, or making about the same money as early to mid career at or about the time of retirement?
• Renting a house the whole time, or owning a house as early as possible?
• Obscene ROR’s on that house, or assuming it loses money?
• Your expenses go down at retirement, stay the same, or go up?
• Medicare exists? Social security exists? Tax rates go up, down, stay the same?
• You’ll never get laid off, you might get laid off, you get laid off often?
• Family helps you out with major purchases, or does not?
• No, big, or modest inheritance?
• Live in a cheap area, or live in a “statistically average for costs, land, CPI, wages” area of the US?
• Taxes go up, taxes go down, taxes stay about the same?
• Leaving a nest egg when you die? Or, dying broke?
• Living to the statistical average age of men and women in the US, or, living to be 101.2?
• Inflation under control? Inflation to the moon? Has it considered deleveraging and deflation?
• State with an income tax? Or only a state with sales tax?

The truth is that no answer could really address this list. 22 items to consider, each of which might greatly impact the money you’ll need to retire in the manner you’d like. In general, I think many people will prefer a downsize, if they hadn’t done it soon after the kids took off for college. In which case, money for housing expenses might drop and can be used for travel or other things that the retiree might want to do.

What do you think of this list? What’s missing? Is it possible to plan for every variable decades away or does the picture only get clear as retirement gets closer?