>> The Simple Living Newsletter for May-June 2007 <<
The Simple Living Network is an excellent source for information on voluntary simplicity. Bill Mize wrote to tell me that SLN publishes a bi-monthly newsletter. The latest issue is out. It contains articles on how to survive a layoff, gardening, Hugh Chou’s free financial calculators. (Last summer I purchased all of Chou’s calculators for use at GRS, though I haven’t actually implemented them.)
>> What is the war in Iraq costing you? <<
Grad Money Matters looks at the cost of war for us, as individual taxpayers, pointing to this interactive tax chart. Enter the amount you paid in taxes, and it tells you how much you contributed to various programs. The part that bugs me most is the 19% spent servicing the debt.
>> The secret to beating the postage increase <<
In light of next week’s rate increase, Dan has posted an amusing look at how to save money on postage: purchase old uncollectable stamps from a dealer. Though this suggestion is impractical for most people, it is a viable legal option. I asked my cousin, a former stamp collector, what he thought of the idea. He said the concept is sound — stamp dealers will sell undesirable stamps below face value — but that there are a lot of head-aches to go along with the few pennies you save: large stamps, stamps with gummed backs that have lost their “gumminess”, stamps with small denominations (meaning you’d need to use fourteen 3-cent stamps to mail a letter), etc. So, if you live next door to a stamp dealer, or just want to have fun with your mail, you might have fun with this.
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Thanks for the mention, J.D. Yes, the proportion spent on the interest on debt bothers me too! I don’t even want to know what the interest rate must be like!!!
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Sure you do. If you make money on treasury bonds, either by holding them directly or as part of a bond fund or mixed stock/bond fund, some of that interest money is going to you.
Remember during the Clinton administration there was a budget surplus? Some of that money was used to pay down debt–and some forms of bonds stopped being issued. As soon as Bush got back into office and credit-card Republican fiscal policy blew the surplus, bang, those bonds were back again. Good news for big investors; crappy news for Joe Sixpack, who has to pay back the interest.
There’s a reason why the ultrarich don’t want Democrats in office….that makes it harder for them to feed at the public trough.
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Would you mind saying something to help those of us in
our late 70′s and early 80′s? We did not expect to live this long! How can we make our savings last?
Thank you.
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