Weatherization incentives

Posted by Matt

I just wanted to post a quick follow-up on my weatherization project and let everyone know that it all worked out. I received the incentive check today for the full amount promised: $1150!

Thanks Energy Trust!

Emergency fund....I'm open to suggestions

Posted by Matt

Didn't I JUST get one of these rate drop notices from HSBC? Sheesh, they're at it again.

Dear MATTHEW, We are writing to inform you that based on the recent drop by the Federal Reserve, HSBC Direct has adjusted your Online Savings Account rate to 3.80% APY*. At 8x the national savings average**, you are still earning one of America’s highest savings rates.

And there's likely to be ANOTHER Fed rate drop soon (today!), so I'm going to start shopping around for new places to put my emergency savings account. I want it somewhere where I can get relatively quick and easy access to it (Paul recommended safety and liquidity in one of his previous posts about savings), but it would be nice to get at least a little bit of return (i.e., I'd like to outpace inflation).

I'm meeting with a financial advisor this afternoon, so I'll let you know what he recommends. If any of you have any good ideas, let me know!

Laid Off: Day 7

Posted By Paul

I'm sorry I haven't been posting more, but I've been busy revving up the job hunting machine. Here are some things that I have done so far:

-Updated my resume. This for me was top priority. You never know when you're going to make a contact that has job lead potential and the first step in the job lead process is almost always a resume. I updated mine as soon as possible (not only did it get me thinking towards the future but I was able to update it while my work at my old job was still fresh in my mind), and I had the luxury of having a couple of good friends review it for me for feedback. Updating a resume seems like such a simple task but it can easily take a day or two to get it really polished. Also since you're never sure when you're going to find a job lead I try to carry a few nicely printed copies of my resume in my car. One of my proudest job hunt moments was back in 2001. I was having lunch with a friend and they had brought a friend of theirs along. Turns out this friend of a friend worked for a company that was hiring. I gladly took their business card and was able to reach into my bag and give them a copy of my resume that we were able to talk about right at the table.


-Got references lined up. This was step two. Several people at my old company gave me their contact info and said I could use them as a reference. I made sure to get in touch with them and get their contact info and confirm that they were willing to be a reference. In addition I try to give my references some lead time every time I expect that they will be contacted (essentially every time a potential employer asks for my references). The idea is that a professional reference is someone acting on YOUR behalf as part of YOUR job hunt, so you should give them every opportunity to do it well. I once got a call from a company asking me to be a reference for an old colleague of mine (I'll call him John Doe). I'd worked with John, but it had been a few months and I've never been particularly good with names. When they told me the name it actually took me a few moments to remember who they were talking about. Once I remembered I was able to give the best reference I could, but those few awkward moments where I was struggling to remember who John Doe was probably didn't reflect well on John Doe. Cases like that are not only impolite, but if I am totally surprised by a call from some company asking for a reference for someone, then I simply can't give as good of a reference as I could have if I had been given some warning. Also, I suspect it's annoying for companies to ask for references and be told something like "I can get them to you in a day or two while I line them up". If a company goes to the trouble of checking your references it probably means you have a good chance of getting a job, don't give them any reason to hesitate, have those references ready to go.


-Wrote a "basic" cover letter. Fairly often you are asked to write a cover letter (even with resumes sent via email). I try to include a cover letter whenever possible, but I try to make sure it's a GOOD cover letter. I don't just have one cover letter that I use for every job I apply for. I think that a hiring manager can smell a form-cover letter a mile away, and I think it sort of makes your whole application feel like junk mail. Instead I keep a general outline for a cover letter that I try to personalize for each company I apply for. I think that makes a MUCH better impact to whoever reads it.

-Kept in touch with my colleagues. I really like to keep in touch with the people I worked with. Not only is it nice to have a group of people to encourage each other and share the experience with, but it can often be a great opportunity to share leads. The obvious thought is that these people are competing with me for the same jobs, and that's probably true, but the way I see it, there are enough jobs to go around, and usually the benefit far outweighs the potential risk. For example I came across a job lead where I didn't have all of the skills required, but I knew an ex-coworker who did. It was easy for me to send the job lead to them. Not only do I help them out, but if they end up getting the job, that's one less person looking for jobs in competition with me. Perhaps I find a job that requires relocation that I don't want to do, but maybe one of my colleagues is willing to do that. I can send it to them and help them out and maybe they'll return the favor. Also, let's say I get a job. It's common to still be contacted with job leads for days and maybe even weeks after (simply because a lot of people with your resume think you're still looking), and what a great opportunity to say: "I'm no longer looking, but I have colleagues that would be perfect for this job."


-Claimed unemployment. Not much to say here, it's nice that you can now file your claims online.

-Took a good look at my finances. This is an important step. Thanks to our emergency fund my wife and I can weather this storm for a long time if we have to. Our hope is that between my company severance and unemployment we won't even have to touch our emergency fund, but boy it sure is nice to have it there.

-Made plans for health insurance. As part of my severance my company is covering my health insurance for a couple more months. That's great but I've already started looking into health insurance options. I know people who will let their health insurance lapse as a way to save money while job hunting, but I REALLY think this is a terrible risk to take. If you go without dental or vision for a while to save a few bucks I think that's fine, but to go without basic medical insurance...just don't do it if you can possibly avoid it.

-Made some goals. I try to find and apply for 2-4 new jobs every day. That may not sound like much, but it's actually a pretty good pace. I've found that by trying to find a minimum of two new job opportunities each day (and I mean realistic job opportunities, I'm not trying to apply to be a pharmacist or some other job that I'm totally unqualified for) it forces me to keep hunting around for leads, and it keeps me from burning out on the job hunt.

-Kept a positive attitude. There are lots of jobs out there for someone who is willing to learn and work hard. I believe that keeping a positive attitude not only makes your "forced vacation" more pleasant, but it also keeps you from appearing burned out or desperate when you interview with someone.

-Been patient. I've submitted my resume to several places already but I have to remember that it could easily be a week or two before I am contacted by a company that's interested in me. Though companies are often eager to fill spots, many places only evaluate submitted resumes once or twice a week, so depending on when your submitted your resume it might be a week before someone even looks at it.

Well, that's about all that's going on here. Hopefully soon I'll be able to post some stories that are about preparing for and going on interviews.


Wish me luck!

Stimulus plan

Posted by Matt

So, what does everyone think of the proposed economic stimulus plan? I'm torn.

On one hand, I'm certainly excited at the prospect of receiving a big, fat $1500 check later this year.

On the other hand, I find the idea very troubling. First of all, where is the government going to get all this money? Oh, right, we can just tack it on to the deficit, pushing it to nearly record-levels. I'm not an economist, so I can't really say whether that trying to forestall a possible recession is worth such drastic measures. But I do have an even more fundamental concern.

The benefit of the stimulus package is predicated on the assumption that Americans are going to run right out and spend most of the money. From the first article I linked to above:

Q: How likely are consumers to spend the money and help the economy?
A: Some will spend every penny and then some. Some will save it all. In 1975, people spent about 40 percent and saved the rest, according to the Federal Reserve. In 2001, people spent about 70 percent.

Also from the article:

Q: What's a smart financial move to make with this money?
A: Either pay down any credit card debt or save it for an emergency, said Ken Robinson, a Cleveland certified financial planner. "Most people don't have nearly enough saved for a rainy day."

Frugalizers know that planning ahead beats short-term fixes; now we just need to demonstrate that we know it to our government and hope that they pick up the lesson.

The perfect (credit) score

Posted by Matt

You've seen the ads with the annoyingly smug guy who asks, "Do you know your FICO score?" right?

So, do you? Most people probably have a general idea of whether they have a relatively good or bad credit rating, but knowing your score is even better. If you are applying for a car loan or mortgage, the lender will probably have to access the information and can let you know, or you can buy a report.

Even more important than getting that number, though, is understanding how it is determined and structuring your financial activities accordingly. The exact algorithm has long been a closely guarded secret, but I read an article in the local paper that describes the factors that influence scores.

• Payment history
• Amounts owed and relationship to credit limits
• How many years you have used credit
• How often you apply for credit and open new accounts
• Types of credit, such as a mortgage, auto loan, finance company accounts or retail accounts. Bank cards can help your score more than those from a department store or gas station. Some consumers try to help their score by closing unused accounts. But that can backfire because reducing credit lines and eliminating a long-term account can be seen as negatives.

The second point is the most interesting point to me. I remember that when I first started to make a little money, I got to the point where I could stop using the credit line at my bank. I think I had only been using it as a very poor type of emergency fund, transferring a little money to my checking account when it got low to avoid overdrafts. Once I built up a savings account, I closed the credit line. I didn't realize it at the time, but that action probably really hurt my credit score. That was the only credit I was using at the time, so what I should have done is kept the line open in order to keep my ratio of debt to available credit low. Live and learn; I just wish I had learned in time for the information to be more useful.

One last good quote from the article:

What's the profile of a person with a near-perfect credit score?
"If we're talking about predicted credit risk, the ideal consumer is a very conservative money manager...It's somebody who has two or three accounts that have been open as long as the U.S. has been a country, they have never, ever been late, they do use the credit occasionally, but they always pay it down to zero or to low balances."

Laid Off: Day 1

Posted By Paul

So did anyone out there read my article:

You've Been Laid Off Now What

Well I'm re-reading my own article because just yesterday my company laid off everyone in my department.

If you had told me a week ago (or heck two days ago) that I was going to be laid off I would have said you were crazy. It was THAT much of a surprise for me.

So I thought I might as well blog about the experience in the hope that my experiences might be of help to someone out there.

So here goes:

I was pretty shocked yesterday. I've been laid off before, but this one really was a big surprise to me. I was literally working right up until they told me (and my colleagues) that we didn't have jobs anymore. Most of us were in such a daze that we just wanted to clean out or desks and go home, so I did just that. I was home by 1PM. I had lunch with my wife and my friend Matt and then just sort of moped for a while.

By 3PM I was bored with moping so I decided to go back to work and drop off the last couple work-owned items that I needed to bring in and make sure I hadn't left anything behind in my desk. I then ran a couple of errands and came home.

My wife was gone that evening (she teaches at a community college) so I had the house to myself. It really gave me some time to process all this. I was certainly surprised but that wore off quickly. Of course there was also anxiety, but there was also a new feeling that it took me a while to identify.

It was guilt. Even though my wife works I still make most of the income for our household (or at least I did before I got laid off), and I was feeling guilty about the fact that I wasn't bringing home a paycheck anymore. The last time I got laid off I was single, so this feeling was new to me.

Now all of this guilt was just of my own creation. You couldn't ask for a more supportive spouse than my wife. She's been sympathetic, optimistic and encouraging, and not once did it even enter her mind that in a way I was letting her down.

I know this because I talked to her about it. I didn't think that my guilt had any basis, but it felt good to talk about it with her. I still feel bad that we're going to cancel a weekend trip to the coast and that our upcoming anniversary celebration probably won't be the fancy dinner out that we originally planned, but we both realize these are just some of the things you have to do try to save your pennies when household income is down.

So that said I've been facing forward and diving into the job hunt. I'm updating my resume, and I've already applied for unemployment. I plan on sending out resumes hopefully tomorrow.

I've also been keeping in contact with my colleagues who were laid off (we created a google group for "alumni" of our company). Not only has it been nice to have a sort of email support group, but we can all help each other network as we try to find jobs.

I've started a t0-do list so that I'll stay on top of things, and I am also planning on adding a few "personal improvement" items to the list as a way to make my time off not just all job hunting and anxiety. For example I plan on taking a CPR class (something I've always wanted to do but never had the time) and do a few projects around the house.

Okay, I'm off to work on my resume. Stay tuned for more updates as the days go by.

Energy audit and weatherization followup

Posted by Matt

Does anyone remember my post about energy audits? I can't believe that it has been three months already, but I finally have enough information to report out on the results of our audit and what we did about them. I anticipate this will be a long post, but I'm going to spell out the details of:

• how we went about getting the audit done


• what energy-saving measures we decided to implement


• how we got INCENTIVE CHECKS from the government


• and how much energy we are saving so far

...so I hope that the long read will be worthwhile.

Step 1: Set up the energy audit

The best place to start is probably your local gas and/or electric company. We contacted a local non-profit called Energy Trust and scheduled with them.

Step 2: The audit itself

On the morning of our scheduled audit day, I was surprised to see several huge electric utility trucks (with bucket cranes) pull up outside our house. It turned out that they were NOT part of the audit, but were just coincidentally there to work on some power lines. Whew. Our auditor showed up on time in her own car. She worked independently and it only took a few hours for her to go through the whole house. In addition to energy auditing, she also did some tests on our water system because Energy Trust has a partnership with our local water company. Before I tell you the results, I just want to point out again that there was NO charge for any of this.

The water audit:

• We received several new (free) sink faucet aerators to save water.
• The auditor found a leaky toilet tank flapper (using dye pellets) in our hall bathroom and replaced it.

The energy audit:

• The rooms that we reported the coldest were (surprise) the ones that had the least insulation above them in the attic.
• The crawlspace was completely uninsulated except for under the addition.
• At least one exterior wall at the front of the house lacked insulation.
• Some of the older heating ducts were not sealed at the joints and were not insulated. I learned that as much as 25 percent of the heat from a forced-air heating system may be lost through leaks in the ducts.
• Our laundry room is especially cold and we discovered that it is completely uninsulated, open to the crawlspace (via the washer pipe runs), and open to the outside via an open dryer vent.
• Our hall bathroom was being vented to the attic instead of the roof (which can lead to rotting wood from the moisture).
• We could save money by installing CFL bulbs and received 6 for free. They start off very dim unfortunately, but then get brighter the hotter they get. The bulbs in enclosed cans in the ceiling got especially bright, but we learned they would probably burn out more quickly as a result. The bad news is that we will have to take them to a local recycling center for recycling because of the enclosed mercury. I also asked about LED lights, and was told they are still a bit too expensive to be worthwhile. (Read my "In Search of the Frugal Bulb" post for my report on that.)

Step 3: Determine which recommendations to implement

Insulate crawlspace - This was the biggest no-brainer. It has one of the highest payback rates and we could expect a good gain considering that we didn't have any insulation under the floor. Also, most of our uninsulated plumbing was installed close enough to the flooring that it would be covered by the insulation, too.

The only bad part of this was that one of previous owners had left almost three hundred glass bottles of water in the crawlspace (don't ask me why) and we had to spend several hours hauling them out before the contractors would work down there.

Insulate attic - The areas of the attic above the additions were already fully insulated, but we had some other areas with only a little bit of insulation and some areas with none at all. We decided to bring it all up to an even level. Two separate contractors both told us that that they would have to route the bathroom vent to the roof to meet code requirements, so we threw that in also.

Air and Duct sealing - there are expensive tests that can be done that involve hooking a blower fan up to the house and the duct system to determine how much of your heated or cooled air they are allowing to escape, but we elected against having these done. The maximum rebates would not pay for the test itself and the insulation contractors were going to do all the patching work anyway (seal the penetrations in the floor and ceiling and seal the duct joints with mastic and tape).

The process of insulating the walls involves cutting a hole in the interior drywall between every pair of studs and blowing insulation in, so we elected NOT to have that done until we are ready to repaint.

I also thought we should invest in some heavy drapes, which the auditor said would reduce heat loss from our large windows, but my wife felt that the house would be too dark and depressing.

I did a few other easy jobs myself. I put some weatherstripping ($3) on the bottom of the door between the laundry and family rooms, which blocked the cold draft coming through. I also replaced the external dryer vent with one that has a valve to keep cold air from coming in that way ($8).

Step 4: Locate a contractor and have the work done

This was pretty easy. Energy Trust provided a "trusted ally" list, so we had a few come out to the house. Their estimates were close, so we picked the one that could get the work done the most quickly: All Weatherization. They had two teams come in (one in the attic, one under the house) and got the whole job done in a day. The total cost was just over $2500.

My only complaints were that their compressor kept tripping a breaker on the circuit that our router was plugged into and that their was a terrible smell after they left. I think it was from the mastic they used to seal the ducts. I'd recommend having this work done in the spring or fall, if possible, so that you can leave the doors and windows open.

Step 5: Submit incentive requests

Energy Trust offers several rebates and all we had to do was fill out and fax in a single form (Form 300A) along with a copy of our contractor's invoice within 120 days of installation. I spoke with an Energy Trust rep yesterday who gave me the breakdown of what we will actually receive.

• Duct insulation: $100 (50% of installation cost up to $100)
• Attic insulation: $375 ($.25 per square foot)
• Crawlspace insulation: $675 ($.45 per square foot)

Grand total: $1150 or about 45% of the total cost!

The check should arrive in mid-February, which works out to about 6 weeks from submission time and included a brief delay in getting our contractor to confirm that he had been (promptly) paid.

Note: We didn't apply for the duct sealing rebate because it required the expensive testing I mentioned above, but if you're interested, the incentive is $1 per CubicFeetMinute reduction (max $400).

Step 6: File for tax credits

Not surprisingly, figuring out the tax rules was one of the more complicated parts of the process. After several phones calls and visits to the IRS website, I determined that we could receive a federal tax credit for 10% of cost of materials ($140 for us) by submitting IRS Form 5695. I've added that in to the pile for our accountant to deal with.

There is an Oregon state tax credit (25 percent of the eligible cost, up to $250) available for duct sealing, also. The process is to submit an Oregon Department of Energy application form (provided by the contractor) and we then get a certificate that shows our credit amount. We claim that and just retain the certificate for audit documentation. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the contractor had to be certified by the Oregon Department of Energy, so we won't claim this on our return.

Step 7: Monitor ongoing savings

Of course we are hoping that this project will pay off in the long run, so we're keeping an eye on the bills. I called the gas company and was able to convince them to at least tell me that the previous owners' highest bill in 2007 was $247.18 (184 gas units) in January. We just received the January 2008 bill and it was $184.27 for 129 gas units. We used almost 30% less gas than previous owners, so I hope that at least some of that was because of the insulation and not just because they ran the gas fireplace constantly or kept the thermostat at 72.

I'll have to check the electric bill in the summer also, to see how much we save on AC.

Step 8: Enjoy a cozier home

We were really hoping to make a big difference in this area, but unfortunately we still have a few cold rooms. We've since discovered that our relatively new furnace is undersized for size of the house. My only guess is that it was installed just prior to the remodel that added several hundred square feet, but I haven't confirmed that yet. We're still working on this one, so if you want to read a REALLY happy ending, let me refer you to Clark Howard's write-up of his weatherization project.

The final test is for me to ask myself "Am I glad I went through this process?" I would say yes, with the caveat that anyone else considering it should be willing to put in a fair bit of effort and really run the numbers to determine which weatherization measures make the most sense for their individual situation.

Hopefully this post will help you through the process.