Science Experiment Sunday
Our local science fair will be happening this February, and my children are excited. How excited? It’s November, and today my 8 year old designed her own experiment, conducted her experiment, and documented her experiment. And reminded me several times that we need to buy the tri-fold board, so she…
Dinner time conversations, winning the lottery, and compound interest
I love family dinner. Family dinner and family driving are the times we have the BEST conversations. We aren’t chasing off in multiple simultaneous directions to cross another item from the overly-long chore list; we’re together, we’re talking, and nobody gets to be distracted. This weekend one dinner conversation included…
Planning ahead
Thanksgiving is coming. With it, ideally, we’d be hosting and attending various gatherings with family and friends. Planning a meal for the immediate family. Developing a meal plan, making a grocery list, hitting the grocery store. Planning out my cooking timelines, making shelf-stable items in advance, making freezable items in…
Water, water, everywhere
As I’ve often told my two kiddos, as we talk about evolutionary biology and anthropology, indoor plumbing is a wonderful thing. Until it’s not. Two weekends ago we had water in our basement. It was a multi-faceted problem: A basement toilet that has had many problems with its flapper valve….
Should I refinance my mortgage?
*whew* We’re finally on the other side of open enrollment, and can focus on the rest of our financial picture again. I had a question come up recently, when someone with a relatively new mortgage on their first home asked if they should refinance. After all, the interest rates had…
Open Enrollment ends soon!
Many businesses are on a November 1st through November 15th open enrollment cycle. If that’s you, you’ve only got 1 day left of open enrollment, make your final selections. If you don’t go make selections proactively, the system will make some assumptions for you. But you may not be happy…
Coordination of benefits
You work, and are benefits eligible. Your spouse works, and is also benefit eligible. Your open enrollment periods, and benefit plan years, may or may not align with either. Never the less, to be efficient with your money (to avoid wasting it on premiums and to avoid having coverage gaps…
How to assess an employer benefit: Legal Insurance
What do I do if my employer just started offering legal insurance as a benefit for this year’s Open Enrollment? How do I decide if I should use this service? First, remember that insurance is to cover events that you cannot. The company offering insurance products are in it to…
Dependent care flexible spending accounts
This post had “Coming soon” as its text for way longer than I’d intended. Why? Because with kids in the picture, things never go as planned. Fortunately for the part of this that was due to a kiddo being home sick for 4 days in a row, from a child…
Savings planning 2020
I like planning ahead (financial planning, you never would have guessed would you 😛 ). I like being prepared. So when my big vacuum insulated tea thermos was warm on the outside this morning, it messed with my planning. The vacuum seal had broken, and my “holds perfectly in my…