Property Broker-Agent and/or Casualty Broker-Agent, Personal Lines Broker-Agent, Life-Only and/or Accident and Health licensees must complete a total of twenty four (24) hours of continuing education for every two-year license term. Limited Lines Automobile Insurance Agent licensees must complete twenty (20) hours of continuing education for every two-year license term.
We suggest that you complete your required continuing education hours at least sixty (60) days prior to the expiration date of your license to allow sufficient time for your provider to submit the necessary information and for the California Department of Insurance to update your records. If hours are completed at the end of your renewal term, the license renewal process may be delayed while your hours are processed.
How can I check to see if the California Department of Insurance has received my continuing education hours and how many hours of credit I have accumulated?
Inquiries should be made 60 days after the course completion date. To check your continuing education hours, you may visit our License Status Inquiry Web page, for on-line license status information.
The continuing education provider has 30 days from the course completion date to submit the student roster to the department. If it has been more than 30 days since you completed the course, contact the provider to verify both your social security and license numbers with the provider and request that they submit the student roster to the California Department of Insurance.
How is the completion date determined for courses that I have taken?
For correspondence courses, the education provider sets their own policies as to how completion dates are determined. They can choose whether it is by postmark date, receipt date, grading date, etc. All students will receive credit based on the policy the provider sets forth, without exceptions. Please verify with the provider's policy for completion dates at the time of purchasing the course.
How often can I repeat a course for continuing education credit?
Courses can only be duplicated for continuing education credit if the completion dates are in a different two-year license term.
Can I get credit for completing any approved course?
No. A licensee can only get credit for approved courses for the license type held.
What is the continuing education requirement if I want to sell long-term care?
Please review the long-term care link.
Can I receive partial credit from a Provider if I complete a portion of a course?
No. When you take a course, the course is approved for a specific number of credit hours. For example, if a prelicensing course is approved for 52 hours, providers should not enroll a student who only needs 12 hours of ethics & code. You should enroll in an ethics & code course that is approved for 12 hours.
My license was renewed late and I completed excess hours. Will they be credited towards my next renewal?
Yes. Education hours completed when a license has expired or is inactive can be used to reinstate an inactive license. Excess hours completed while a license is inactive will be credited towards the appropriate license term.
My license recently renewed and the excess hours I completed (on-time) were not credited (carried-forward).
A new continuing education cycle will begin the day after the expiration date listed on your renewal form. Once the new cycle begins, the excess hours should be reflected in the new license term.
What is the continuing education requirement if I want to sell annuities?
Please review the annuities link.
No, it is the provider's responsibility to submit the credits to the California Department of Insurance. Do not send your certificate, or copies of the certificate, even if your renewal form indicates you are deficient in hours. The certificate is for your records and you should retain it for at least five years. The California Department of Insurance must enter the hours from the providers roster.


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This is our buddy, Sly! Sly is in the market for a new forever family, and our friends at the Virginia German Shepherd Rescue in Centerville tell us that Sly is a really great dog. When he first came to them, they thought he was around eight years old. Well, it turns out that he's only about five years old, so he's still got a lot of life to look forward to.
The bad news is that he is heart worm positive, and he needs to be neutered. He was also out-of-date on all of his shots when he arrived. He is now up-to-date on all his vaccinations. He will begin treatment for HW on May 2, 2017. That will take some time to complete. At the moment, the vets do not have a completion date set. He also has to be neutered and that will take place after his treatment is complete.
This guy is the original Gentle Giant. He gets along great with the other 4 GSDs in my house. He is now taking long walks with the rest of the gang and his breathing has greatly improved due to the exercise he is now getting. He is not a puller at all on his leash, however he is just getting used to being on a leash and occasionally gets tangled up.
He is not food aggressive and takes his treats very gently. He has really shown a lot of improvement in his health and wellbeing in the 6 day he has been my foster. He has had no accidents in the house since he arrived. Sly is just discovering that there are things called "dog beds." He is crate trained and sleeps upstairs in my bedroom with the rest of the gang. Mr. Sly is going to be one great GSDs when he completes his treatments.


Helping people protect what's most dear to them. It's a founding principle that's been at the heart of everything we've done since our very beginning – from the first life insurance policy we wrote (which happened to be Australia's first) in 1833, right through to the current day.
At Asteron Life, we've come a long way in 175 years. We've grown with the times, and changed to meet the developing needs of generations after generations of Australians – but what has made us such a long-lasting, valued company has always been this spirit of service, and our understanding of just how valuable life is.
We work closely with advisers to give you a wide range of options, so you can find the right cover for your life – and be able to protect yourself and your family against the impacts of an injury, sickness or death. We also have a caring approach to claims – and are pleased to say that our clients benefit from the quick services and support of our highly trained claims team, who can assess most claims within 24 hours. Ready to celebrate life? Then you've come to the right place.


In this paper, we reflect on our experiences of implementing a multipronged intervention to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes. The project used family planning as its entry point and was implemented in two high fertility counties—Busia and Siaya in Kenya. The intervention, implemented by a seven-member consortium, involved: family planning services delivery; regular training of service providers to deliver high quality services; monitoring and evaluation; strengthening of commodity chain delivery and forecasting; school-based and out-of-school based sexuality education; and advocacy and stakeholder engagements at the community, county and national levels.
Over a 5-year period, the project contributed to raising demand for family planning considerably, evidenced in fertility decline. It also improved the capacity of family planning services providers, increased commitment and awareness of county government and other community stakeholders on the importance of investments in family planning. Our collaborations with organisations interested in sexual and reproductive health issues substantially enhanced the consortium's ability to increase demand for, and supply of family planning commodities. These collaborations are proving useful in the continuity and sustainability of project achievements.
Family planning (FP) reduces the burden of unplanned pregnancies, promotes smaller families, and improves maternal and child survival, household well-being, and women's participation in development efforts [1, 2]. These benefits notwithstanding, over 225 million women globally who want to avoid pregnancy do not use effective contraception , contributing to 85 million unintended pregnancies . Yet, effective methods to prevent or postpone pregnancy exist.
The drivers of low utilization of family planning services vary across contexts [5, 6]. In sub-Saharan Africa, the major barriers to family planning include pro-natalist values , poor livelihoods , weak health systems and poorly-trained providers , lack of access to quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information , fears of side effects , and weak support by male partners and religious and political authorities [12–15]. In this paper, we briefly describe the triggers to implementing a successful multipronged intervention to improve SRH outcomes, including family planning uptake in two large, generally rural and high-fertility counties in Kenya.
The Reversing the Stall in Fertility Decline in Western Kenya Project was launched in 2009 in Western and Nyanza provinces, which at the time, had the highest average total fertility rate (TFR) of 5.5 against a national TFR of 4.6 in 2008 (see Table 1). Within these two provinces, the project focused on the main districts, Busia and Siaya respectively, both of which became counties following the 2010 Kenyan Constitution.
Description of fertility rates in Kenya: 1989–2009.
The goal of the project was to address the unavailability and inaccessibility of family planning services by (1) improving the supply of family planning services at community and facility levels, and (2) increasing the knowledge and demand for family planning services. The project, was implemented by a consortium of seven carefully selected and strategic partners1 with longstanding expertise and experience in different aspects of family planning, research, capacity building for providers of family planning services, service delivery, and monitoring and evaluation. Additional file 1 provides descriptions of project partners and their responsibilities. After a series of implementation meetings among partners, the following activities were agreed on for execution.
Training of FP service providers: project partners conducted regular training for family planning (FP) service providers in both counties. Topics covered in these sessions included provision of short, long-acting, as well as permanent FP methods, including vasectomy; counselling of clients; referral structures/protocols; and commodity logistics management to prevent stock-outs, which is one of the setbacks of FP programs in developing countries .
Family planning service provision: project partners relied on available government infrastructure to provide SRH services, particularly FP in the communities. Marie Stopes Kenya (MSK) and Family Health Options Kenya (FHOK) were the key service delivery partners and used existing government community health volunteers (CHVs) and health facilities to expand access to FP products through community distribution of short-acting methods and referral to health facilities for long-acting permanent methods.
School-based and out-of-school life-skills education: proven strategies such as edutainment , peer education, and use of trained and skilled SRH providers, were s used to reach both in- and out-of-school adolescents and young persons to dispel myths and misconceptions about FP. Sensitization programs were also conducted among adolescents on sexual and reproductive health rights. The work package was overseen by Center for the Study of Adolescence (CSA).
Community education and mobilization on SRH: MSK and FHOK, working with trained CHVs mobilized community leaders and members furnishing them with information, education and communication on FP. CHVs made presentations on FP at barazas 2, women, men and youth group meetings. Other mobilisation activities included the use of social media platforms (e.g. Facebook), project banners, posters, and talking walls at schools, branded caps and T-shirts, method bags—to increase visibility of services provided by the project.
Advocacy on FP and sexuality education with county health and education policymakers: in order to increase recognition and funding of FP and sexuality education continuous advocacy activities were pursued. These were intended to increase political buy-ins and increased funding at both county and national levels. These engagements occurred at quarterly meetings with county and sub-county health management teams. This was important for sustainability given that the project had relatively short lifespan and funded externally.
This section focuses on key results recorded under the project. Prior to implementation in 2009, contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in Siaya was 33% and in Busia 41% By 2014, CPR for Siaya and Busia stood at 51 and 57% respectively. During the same period, TFR dropped from 5.4 to 4.2 in Siaya, and from 5.6 to 4.7 in Busia. Unmet need for FP also dropped from 32 to 23% and 26 to 21% in Siaya and Busia counties respectively. Table 2 provides a description of the project's contribution by 2014.
The project supported the training of 600 (275 in Busia and 325 in Siaya) CHVs on the FP technical module, counselling, referral, and provision of short acting contraceptive methods. A total of 164 health providers, mostly doctors, nurses, and clinical officers were trained on contraceptive technology update (CTU) and FP commodity management skills. An additional 30 community health extension workers (CHEW) were trained on provision of youth-friendly services (YFSs) and equipped with skills to link FP service seekers at the community level to health facilities.
The project reached 213,758 people within the target age groups with FP information through household visits. In addition, 8085 community meetings were held, reaching 402,068 men and women with FP messages. During these two core outreach activities, 78,887 contraceptive pills, 2240 intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUCDs) and 19,745 implants were offered. Other details are presented in Table 3.
The project made some relevant strides in generating the commitment of government towards FP in the counties. Currently, the two county governments have made budgetary allocations to FP. In Siaya County, Ksh 2,000,000 (US$ 20,000) of the health budget was dedicated to FP in the 2015/16 fiscal year, monthly stipend was committed for the payment of CHVs and medical cover was provided for CHVs under the NHIF by the county government. In Busia County, the County Government made allocations in the 2015/2016 financial year to support CHVs to initiate income-generating activities, and indications were that monthly stipends for CHVs would be captured in the 2016/2017 budget. In 2015, the county also launched an FP/RH strategic plan supported by CSA. In the following paragraphs, we highlight some key learnings and recommendations for similar interventions in comparable contexts.
First, building the capacity of service providers on FP commodities management contributed positively in preventing or minimising stock-outs and ensuring the availability of services/products. Second, the use of CHVs and CHEWs offered an opportunity to cover a wider geographic space, allowing partners to distribute more commodities and to refer more people for services. Also, by building the capacity of CHVs, the quality of routine data generated was appreciably high. CHVs also made it possible to deliver short-acting methods and offer counselling on LAPM to community members.
Another important lesson relates to the benefits of integrating FP services into other reproductive health (RH) services. In the project, we included cervical cancer screening and other services in what we offered which helped to attract people to the project. Similar interventions could benefit by integrating other RH services into family planning demand generation activities.
The long-held view about the importance of male-involvement in FP [18, 19] was demonstrated in the areas where we operated. Men using different modern FP methods or whose partners were using FP methods served as change agents in motivating other men to support or use FP methods particularly vasectomy. In settings such as ours, the role of men is indispensable in FP adoption and they should be constantly engaged in family planning work.
The need to work with, strengthen, and support existing government structures was another key lesson from this intervention. With national MoH serving as external quality assurance team, services delivered were consistent with national FP standards. Thus, similar projects in comparable contexts must be anchored in the existing health management and health financing frameworks for improved sustainability measures.
In conclusion, working with organisations and groups with shared interests substantially enhanced the consortium's ability to engage with government and other gatekeepers in driving the project's goals. Also worth mentioning is the cost-effectiveness and strong in-built accountability mechanisms this approach offers. The consortium approach allowed partners to capitalise on the abilities and strengths of each other, generate trust among community members and ultimately, reaching out to communities, with little duplication of efforts.
The project was externally funded, creating problems of sustainability. Funding is a persistent challenge to sustained FP programming in Kenya  and many other developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa . Despite the immense contributions of CHVs to the project, the low level of education among the majority coupled with multi-tasking and sometimes "fragmented" focus of CHVs  (concurrently involved in other health interventions) constrained their ability to focus on the project.
Myths and misconceptions about FP and SRH services (e.g. likening vasectomy to castration) and fears of contraceptive failure among HIV-infected women who are on anti-retroviral treatment/therapy (ART) still exist in the communities.
High staff turnover due to frequent transfers, especially of those who had been trained on LAPM was a recurrent strain on the project. This created skill-gaps and sometimes led to interruptions in service delivery. Many CHVs also left their employment in pursuit of other interests.
The 2013 devolution which transferred health functions from national to county governments also resulted in new priorities by the county administrations, rather than the priorities previously set by the national MoH. This called for adjustments within project partners in order to align interventions with new county priorities.
African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Great Lakes University of Kisumu (GLUK), Marie Stopes Kenya (MSK), Family Options Kenya (FHOK), center for the study of adolescence (CSA), Forum for African Women Educationalist—Kenya (FAWE-K), Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK).
Swahili word for a deliberation meeting held by a collective group of people. It is often used on public gatherings called by local public administrative officers such as chiefs to address their communities over emerging issues of administrative interest. Many or (some) of these meetings are mandatory and programs implementers find these meetings an easy access to majority of the community, while gaining support and buy-in from the public administration, as well as civic and local political leadership.
AE and CI conceptualized and designed the project. MM and CI participated in the implementation of the project. MM and SA were involved in the day-to-day management of the project. JAA drafted the paper with substantial inputs of CI and MM. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
We are grateful for the generous funding provided by the Packard Foundation (Grants Nos. 2012-38124 and 2015-62350) to the African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya.
Data used in this article are available at African Population and Health Research Centers Microdata Portal http://aphrc.org/catalog/microdata/index.php/catalog.
The Packard Foundation through Grants Nos. 2012-38124 and 2015-62350.
13104_2017_2821_MOESM1_ESM.docx Additional file 1. Title of data: Description of project partners and their roles. Description of data: Project partners and their roles and responsibilities.


Your name remains a homonym for anatomy.
Give us this day extended credit.
We're assertive that the impasse destroys us.
But be a raiser of the ceiling.
Until you make us default.
I am pleased to be featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance #319 over at Dealerity today. There are a lot of other great articles featured today, so it is definitely worth a look.
After detailing some ways to save money in Las Vegas last week, I thought it would only be fair to list one way in which I wasn't prudent with my money in Vegas during my recent trip.
After seeing a show, my family and I were left in Harrah's Casino. In an effort to save money, I had purchased and printed out a coupon (from Restaurant.com) for a restaurant in Vegas for dinner, but after I bought the coupon, I called the restaurant for reservations, but the man on the phone told me that they were closing early that night.
Wah-wuh. A restaurant closing early in Las Vegas? Se ridicule!
Anyways, my family decided just to find a restaurant at Harrah's to eat at. Our choices were a buffet (of which we could not stand another), a prohibitively expensive steakhouse, and a burger place.
How expensive can a hamburger be, right? With this in mind, we opted for the burgers (even though they cost, on average, $14 a piece. For that kind of money, that burger had better be good enough to call me in the morning!).
Still, food is overpriced in Vegas, so eating at KGB (Kerry's Gourmet Burgers) was about as expensive as we might have expected. However, the real tipping point occurred when the waitress upsold us on our drink order.
My dad and I each wanted one beer (at $6 a piece: already a ridiculous price). The waitress told us that we could get a bucket of beer (5 beers) for $25, which would result in a $5 savings (versus paying $30 at the regular rate). I was about to say no, when my dad replied that that sounded good. I was surprised, but I went along with it. To make a long story short, after the meal, when the check arrived, my dad was less than pleased (even though he and I split the bill). I think he just heard the part about saving five bucks.
Still, I want to take a minute to think about the markup that restaurants charge on drinks. I can get a six pack of bottled beer at the grocery store for somewhere between $6 and $12, usually. That means that beer costs me between $1 and $2 a piece. I have to believe that restuarant is getting that same beer at a significant discount as they are purchasing in bulk. However, even if they're paying $2 per beer, they're more than doubling or even tripling their money (by selling at the "deal" rate of $5 or the normal rate of $6).
Even if you're not an alcohol drinker, your drink can have an outrageous markup. If you buy soda from a fountain, it likely costs the restaurant a few cents per soda (the cost of fizzy water and the cost of syrup). I think KGB charged $3 per soda, which, if it costs 3 cents per soda to the restaurant, is a markup of a hundred times the cost.
What a racket. I guess the extra money pays for the ambience?
Now, I don't know if you've gone outside in the last few days, but America is having something of a record heat wave. While it hasn't been as hot here in San Diego as it has been in other parts of the country, it still gets pretty warm. My wife and I are under the impression that buying a new, rooftop a/c unit during the hottest months of year will result in paying the highest price, so we were looking for alternate ways to cool down (underwear in the freezer, anyone?), and my wife suggested that we look into a portable air conditioner as a stopgap measure.
This was a great idea, I thought, and so I started looking at websites, trying to figure out how much that was going to set us back. In researching, it looked like our local Lowe's had two units that would work: a less powerful one (though still probably good for our space - 10,000 Btu) and a more powerful one (12,000 Btu). The price tags were $299 and $399.
$299 was in the ballpark of what I was hoping to pay, so I clicked on the icon to see what stores in my area had that unit. Unfortunately, no stores in San Diego had it. So, I was left "having" to buy the $399 one.
The old bait and switch! Curse you, Lowe's!
A quick Craigslist search revealed an even more powerful unit (14,000 Btu) that had only been slightly used for a price tag of $150. That's an immediate savings of $249 (not to mention the extra 10% or so we'd be paying in sales tax).
I went over, checked out the a/c, found it in good working order, and now my wife and I are going to sleep in sweet, sweet cold comfort. And the best part is, we got a great deal on it.
I'm a lucky, lucky man.
I realize that I'm talking a lot about Vegas on here lately, but I've just come back from a vacation, so who can blame me? It's fresh in my mind.
I've heard people describe Las Vegas as being a Disneyland for adults, and I think that's a pretty fair description. For a lot of people, Vegas is a place to go to indulge and to forget their troubles for a while. These indulgences come with a price tag, and not everyone will have the fortitude to say "no" when they've reached their limit. In a city in which a multitude of businesses that are made to extract money from adults are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it came be difficult to even recognize what that limit is.
In general, I'd say the most important rule in Las Vegas is to set limits for yourself and then stick to them. It's also a good idea to have somebody you're travelling with hold you accountable; it's a very easy thing, for example, to try to chase money that has been lost at the blackjack table. Whether that limit is a dollar amount that you won't lose more than if you gamble, a number of drinks that is too much, or whatever it may be, setting limits is important to maintain your financial, physical, and relational well-being.
Who's the buzz-killer? This guy, right here.
That said, here are a couple of ideas for ways to save money on your next trip to Sin City. Additionally, I'll add at the end of each point how much I estimate that I saved on my recent trip from each of these tips.
1) If you gamble, it's worthwhile to get a player's card: Player's cards are plastic cards, similar to credit cards, by which the casino can monitor how much you're spending. Generally, even by signing up for a card (the Harrah's company give you a fat book of coupons upon signing up for a card), a casino will start to send you promotional mail that can include anything from discounted or free rooms to coupons that can go towards food expenses, gambling, or show tickets. If you plan on making a subsequent trip to Vegas, free rooms especially take a big part of the cost of the trip out of the equation. Also, while you're gambling, your beverages are free.
Savings: $264 -- I got three free nights at the Orleans (@$80/night). This hotel also charges an $8/night service fee which was waived.
2) Take advantage of your hotel's coupons: Frequently, I've noticed, hotels will give out coupon books upon check-in. While these generally only offer reduced rates to amenities within the hotel itself, if there happens to be a restaurant that you'd like to eat at at the hotel or a service (such as a spa service), you may as well take the fifteen or twenty percent off.
Savings: ~$20 -- We got 15% off of two meals at TGI Fridays, free popcorn when we saw a movie, and a free candy apple for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
3) Bring a cooler: My wife and I live in Southern California, and so it's only about a 5 hour drive to get to Las Vegas. If you are driving to Las Vegas (TSA frowns on bottles and cans coming through security checkpoints), it's not a bad idea to take an ice chest full of waters or sodas to drink on the ride as well as in the room at the hotel (vending machines aren't getting any cheaper; in fact, I actually saw a soda machine in Las Vegas this trip that has a place where you could swipe your credit/debit card!). For the more hard-core, you could also pack the fixings for a couple of meals, which would save more money.
Savings: $15 -- I am a thirsty person, and I was glad to have stuff to drink readily available in the room.
4) Don't pay full price for show tickets: As El Guapo might say, there are a plethora of pinatas stage shows available to see in Las Vegas. If you don't like to see shows, then certainly, stay away, and that's more money you'll save. However, every time my family goes to Vegas, we like to see at least one big show. This trip, we decided to go see the Blue Man Group (tickets for which, in the cheaper section we were looking at, go for $105). However, after some internet research from my mom, she found a coupon code through Ticketmaster that gave us 40% off, so each person's seats ended up only being $65. $65 is still a good chunk of change, but as going to a show was something we were planning on doing anyways, I was pretty happy to save that ~$40/person. Even if you aren't able to research online in advance, there are numerous "half-price" ticket selling booths around the city that sell discounted tickets on the day of the show (the rationale being that casinos are making no money for empty seats, so they may as well sell seats for cheaper through these distributors to make up part of the difference). My family actually saw a second show (a singing celebrity impersonator show called Legends) that we had a coupon good for two-for-one tickets, so we saved money we might have spent on that also.
Savings: $280 -- There were five of us who got the discounted Blue Man Group* tickets ($40 x 5), and there were four of us who went to see Legends, two of which got free tickets ($40 x 2).
Grand total trip savings: $579 -- This is pretty much all money that we would have spent if we didn't take advantage of the various items listed above. Sure, we could have saved more money had we not gone to shows at all (or even gone to Vegas for that matter), but it was a family trip, and it was great to spend time with my parents, my brother, and my wife.
What do you think? Is my math fuzzy? Can anybody really ever "save" money by taking a trip to Las Vegas? Let me know in the comments.
*Anybody else really miss "Arrested Development"? Ah, Tobias.
While my wife thoroughly enjoyed her class-time, it is a well-known fact in my household that sitting in a smoke-filled casino is not my wife's idea of an enjoyable vacation. This is what had prompted my question about what sort of vacation she'd like to go on. She thought for a moment, and then replied something along the lines of, "Well, are we going to try to have a great vacation or are we going to try to save money?" While she says that she generally enjoys any vacation that we go on, she really loved our honeymoon where, due to a lot of saving, we had been able to kind of cut loose and do nearly anything we wanted to do. Our honeymoon mentality was one that believed we were only going to get married one time, and so we'd better make the most out of it. We have plenty of fond and funny memories about our trip to Hawaii (there's nothing like getting so sunburned that you can't even really leave the hotel room because it hurts so much to knock a guy down a couple pegs).
This got me to thinking, and us to discussing, about whether the spending of a lot of money on experiences is what makes a vacation superlative and memorable. Something I enjoy is checking out the Priceline Pricebreakers to see what trips are on sale. For our first anniversary, my wife and I went on a three or four day cruise which we paid relatively little for (comparatively), but was still a good time (even though swine flu concerns kept us from our cruise stop in Mexico). Still, both of us dream of taking a grand European vacation, but the price tag daunts and taunts me. It's not so much the travel when we're there as much as the cost of the flights to get there. My wife and I live in San Diego, so it'll probably cost us four or five hundred bucks a piece to get to the East coast, and then another six or seven hundred bucks to get to Europe. All told, it would probably cost us around $2,000 for the two of us to even get to Europe, to say nothing of food, lodging, and so forth once there.
Anyways, this got me to thinking how everybody else thinks about vacations. When planning your trips, do you pay top dollar to take the vacation of your dreams? Or do you seek out deals for less exciting, but not as pricy, vacations? Or do you have some sort of trade-off?
*Responsibly, of course. Each of us had a set spending limit for gambling based on what we knew we could afford. While I believe that gambling, in general, is not a fiscally sound course for personal finance, given that my family is on relatively firm footing with our finances, the occasional gambling trip to Vegas won't throw us too far off course.
**The Orleans is still a nice hotel, in my opinion, and I don't mean to demean it. I only mean to state that, even though The Orleans is nice, it wasn't as nice and new as GVR.
In Zombie Economics: a Guide to Personal Finance (which has the extended title of "How to Slay Your Bills, Decapitate Debt, and Fight the Apocalypse of Financial Doom"), Lisa Desjardins and Rick Emerson make the case that a tenuous monetary situation is not unlike being the protagonist in a zombie horror movie. The authors put forward the notion that having enough money to pay one's bills every month is like staying alive in a post-apocalyptic, zombie-filled world, and that not having enough is like getting devoured.
Quote from the Book: "Zombie Economics is about fighting the horde on its own terms--about coming face-to-face with the unthinking financial menace and giving as good as you get" (167).
The Good: One thing that I particularly enjoyed about this book is that each chapter started with a piece of a short story about a person who was in an imaginary zombie apocalypse, and the second half of each chapter told the lesson to be learned from the story. As an example, one of the early chapters starts with a narrative about how the main character is looking frantically for whatever weapons he can find to fight off the undead, and then the second half of the chapter goes through a workbook that helps the reader figure out how much pay he or she actually brings home (the metaphor being that weapons = money).
The Bad: While there is some good information in here, a lot of it is pretty basic info for people who are in a lot worse financial shape than I am (there is a chapter on whether one should or shouldn't consider bankruptcy), so it wasn't hugely helpful for me. Even so, I hope the clever subject matter draws those who would most benefit from this sort of book.
The Ugly: While the narrative sections aren't especially graphic, I could see how this book would immediately turn off those who have more delicate sensibilities (one of the recurring icons in the book that is meant to denote helpful hints is referred to as the "Headshot" icon [as in, shooting a zombie in the head]). The icon itself is fairly tame, but there are people who would rather not dwell on such things.
Conclusion: I really enjoyed the storytelling portions of this book, and the financial information that was included was definitely a helpful brush up. Still, I think this is likely a book that many people will judge by its cover, and, in this case, rightfully so. If you are entertained by zombies and are interested in personal finance, you'll probably like this book. If zombies gross you out, it might be best to move on.
I'm happy to be featured in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance over at Kitten a Go-Go.
A front page article for the Wall Street Journal this morning states that a 10 mile stretch of the 405 freeway in Los Angeles is going to be shut down from tomorrow night through Sunday. As this highway is so busy (it's one of the main ways to get to LAX airport), the paper claims that L.A. citizens are calling the event "Carmegeddon" as they (rightfully) believe that smaller roads and highways are going to be overwhelmed this weekend, and nobody is going to be able to get to where they need to go.
Still, those aren't the sentences I wanted to comment on. The Journal states that the 405 will be closed "to create a lane for high-occupancy vehicles."
Uhm...do you mean a carpool lane WSJ?
Maybe not. I can't tell you how many times I've told my wife, "Boy, I'm sure glad you're riding with me today so that we can take the high-occupancy vehicle lane."
Looks like somebody's editor missed a line, huh?
If you're like most working people, you probably would like to get paid more for doing the same work. Who wouldn't? Recently, I had the opportunity to re-apply for the full-time office job that I had left two years ago when I went back to school to get my master's. This is an opportunity few people have, and one that I am blessed to have had; even when I left the position, I figured that I would probably never have as good of a job again. So, when I heard that the position was opening up again, I was eager to throw my hat in the ring.
Next, obviously, came the interview. During the interview, I asked for a small raise, and I presented my reasoning for why. The rest of the interview went well, and when I heard back from HR, I was told that my new/old boss had authorized just shy of an effective 10% pay increase from what I had earned before! I was blown away as I had hoped to receive in the neighborhood of 2-3%, so getting 10% was kind of like going to bunt in a baseball game and somehow managing to hit a home run.
While I can't take too much negotiating credit (my boss was outrageously generous, by any stretch of the imagination), I've decided to share some of the issues I was thinking about when I asked for a raise. While my situation was unique, I still think there are some nuggets of truth to be gleaned.
1) I had industry knowledge - Even though I went back to school full-time in the fall of 2009, I still spent over a year working as a temporary worker for the same company (half of which was spent working in the same department in the same position for the same individual who just rehired me). The rate at which I was being paid during my two stints was equal to the rate I had been paid before I left (minus any bonus money). From this perspective, I felt my raise seemed reasonable as I had been working in the same industry, even if it was "only" as a temp, and I had been developing industry knowledge over the last two years that Joe Schmoe with a different work background wouldn't have. This was my key point in asking for a raise.
2) I had position expertise - While my employer could have hired somebody fresh, it would have been at his disadvantage to do. As I've already worked in the position (both salaried and as a temp) for over a year and a half, I have a good feel for how the position runs, what the expectations are, and whom to speak with in the company if I have questions. Joe Schmoe certainly wouldn't have had that. Along the same lines, my boss has the bonus of not losing hours of potential productivity due to a brand new person's learning curve.
3) I had the guts to ask - I'll tell you a secret: I almost didn't ask. I had gone into the interview with guns-a-blazing (in my mind), but, once in that conference room, I found myself quite timid. During a lull in the interview, my boss said something along the lines of, "Do you have any questions? Anything else you'd like to discuss?", and I knew that it was either ask at that point, or be content with the same salary until March (which is when annual reviews are conducted)*. At that point, I squeaked out my raise request, and, fortunately, it was met immediately with a positive response. Had I not brought the issue up, it seems like I likely would have been hired anyways, but I'd still be making the same money I have been making for the last two years (although, it certainly will be nice to now get paid sick days, vacation time, and holidays).
In short, I think the position I was in was particularly advantageous when I asked for the raise. Many of you reading this are almost certainly not in the same place career-wise. Still, I think the above can be useful as negotiating tips in your own annual or semi-annual reviews. Make it a point to say that you have industry knowledge that others might not have. Make it a point to say that you are the best qualified person for your position in the company. And never feel badly about asking; if you don't ask, you could be leaving money on the table.
*That said, I think my wife and I already get paid an obscene amount of money. "Just" getting paid at the same rate would have been very generous in and of itself. Still, it certainly feels like the American way to want more, doesn't it?
The debate over the raising of the debt ceiling has been in the news quite a bit recently, and it has come up for good reason. If the U.S. does not raise the debt ceiling, the government will be unable to take on more debt in order to fund its current financial obligations. This new debt is significant; the monthly budget deficit in February, for example, was 223 billion dollars.
Now, if you're reading this, you are likely fairly financially savvy, and you probably know that it is usually not a good idea to take on debt in order to pay off debt. This action is non-sustainable; you can only push money from one lender to another for so long.
The caveat to the rule of not taking on new debt to pay for the old debt is that if you're able to borrow at a rate lower than your old rate, then you should almost certainly take on the new debt. As an example, if you have $1,000 on a credit card that is charging 14.9% APR, and you receive a 0% balance transfer option from another credit card or lender, you should pretty definitely transfer the money. On the flip side of the coin, if you have that thousand bucks on a credit card with a low interest rate, but you find that you're short on money that month, should you fail to make, at least, the minimum payment?
No, you shouldn't. You should always pay at least the minimum. Any why is that? Because if you don't pay at least the minimum that you owe on a credit card, you will be subject to both late fees and having the APR on your debt raised. This is true of basicaly any and all debt a person, business, or country can take on.
And yet, this is, essentially, the untenable position that politicians who refuse raise the debt ceiling are taking. If the United States defaults, or is late, on any of its current debt obligations, the credit rating of the United States will get worse. Correspondingly, the low interest rates the U.S. has been afforded will likely go up, and so the U.S will effectively be paying more money to pay off its current debts.
Now, don't get me wrong. Speaking in generalities, I lean towards the right politically (though, like many people in my generation, I don't feel that I owe anything to any particular party), and I tend to favor small government. Also, I think much of the federal budget is due for an audit, and I think that certain social programs need to be reined in if not altogether done away with. Further $223 billion dollars is a ridiculous deficit for one month, and I firmly agree that spending needs to be cut. Even so, as it is the political right that is making a big deal out of raising the debt ceiling, I find myself at odds with my background.
To me, the issue of interest rates on the national debt is really what is at stake in the current debate. Is the current level of debt that the government takes on unsustainable? Absolutely. Should spending be cut? Certainly. Should we risk having the trillions of dollars that the U.S. currently has in debt face higher interest rates because one party is attempting to make a political point? Under no circumstances.
It is curious to me that those politicians who don't want to raise the debt ceiling also are insistent on not raising taxes; it is also curious to me that these same politicians did not make a fuss any of the ten times the debt ceiling has been raised since 2001 (or the 74 times since 1962!). What those who are fighting to not raise the debt ceiling seem to fail to recognize is that should we default on parts of our national debt, the debt will only continue to rise anyway. If the debt rises today, more income is going to be needed to pay it off tomorrow. And how does the government raise income? By raising taxes.
Do you think the debt ceiling should be raised? Or are you of the camp that believes that not raising the debt ceiling will send a message to government that they can't spend so much anymore? Let me know in the comments.
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My dad used to keep his spare change in a big, glass water jug that was painted red, white, and blue, which is actually a pretty valid metaphor for the financial system in America if you think about it (full of money, easily broken, vaguely patriotic). One of his favorite expressions was (and still is) whenever my brother and I would bug him about wanting something expensive, he would reply, "Well, we better start saving our nickels."
As a result, I still keep a change jar, and, every few months, I spend some time rolling the coins. Once rolled, I then generally either take them to the bank or use them at a fast food restaurant (I love to see the cashier's expression when I order a #6 and then pull out three rolls of nickels. Big Mac: $1.99; medium fries: $1.49; uncomprehending stare of a sixteen year old: priceless).
For me, it's important to spend the time counting and rolling the coins myself. Sure, I could take them to a Coinstar machine, but them I'm paying them a percentage. While I value my time, I also don't like to throw money away if it's unnecessary.
Still, I understand that other people look down on change jars. Comedian Whitney Cummings even had a joke in her Comedy Central stand up special concerning what the deal is with guys having change jars (Is it their savings account?). Others prefer just to spend the change as they receive it, thereby eliminating the clutter that a change collection can bring.
What do you think? Do you save your change in a special place?
I'm proud to be featured in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance where my post titled Three Personal Finance Lessons from the Dodgers' Bankruptcy Debacle was an editor's pick over at Bucksome Boomer.
I was included with many other thoughtful articles. Take a look when you have have a chance.
If you didn't know, every year, 7/11 stores around the country offer a free 7.11 ounce Slurpee to anyone who comes into their shops on 7/11. That's today!
This is a tradition that I love every year. It's time to head out and get some of that sweet, sweet Slurpee goodness.
Here are some helpful articles that have caught my attention over the past week. Enjoy!
Might Bargain Hunter wrote about taking advantage of financial loopholes (before they get closed down).
Squirrelers makes the case for putting more money in your emergency fund.
Walletpop describes how to simplify your summer finances.
Flexo at Consumerism Commentary questioned whether some students should be discouraged from attending college.
Couple Money listed which government cutbacks will likely affect you.
I love reading, and, as a direct result, I have something of a love affair with books that goes beyond merely reading. I love holding them, touching them, smelling a newly opened book, and, more than anything, I love having them around. As a result, I have developed something of an extensive library (particularly scripts and books about theatre and drama).
If you have been bitten by the book bug (book worm?) as well, then you know that developing a library and/or being surrounded by books can be an expensive past time. However, being a book lover doesn't have to cost a fortune (or cost all the available shelf space in your house). Here are some ways that I've managed to cut down on my own book costs.
1) Develop a book-buying philosophy - In my younger and more vulnerable years, I purchased nearly every book that I wanted to read, which I found left me quite short in the pocketbook. Wanting to be able to save more money and not overflow my condo with books, I have recently more or less decided that I only really need to purchase books if I'm going to need or use them as a reference. As I have been working towards, and recently completed, my M.A. in Drama, most of those reference works have been plays or other books on the theatre. In general, I now only purchase books of this type.
2) The library - Yes, I know this one is the most obvious place to get books on the cheap, but it bears repeating. For a long time, I had a difficult time wanting to get books from the library because I wanted to be able to read them at my leisure, and the three week check-out time (plus an additional three weeks for a one-time renewal) was totally harshing my book-loving buzz, man! Those fascists! Nevertheless, after moving a couple of times in the last few years, I couldn't help thinking that maybe I didn't need so many heavy boxes of books to cart around anymore, particularly for those books that I might only read one time. For example, Tina Fey has written a deeply hilarious book in Bossypants, but after reading it once, will I really need to have it on hand in perpetuity? Probably not.
3) Other free books - Outside of my local public library, there are a couple boxes of free books that people can take home. While these boxes are usually filled with books that no rational person could possibly want nowadays (anyone up for a copy of the Dummies Guide to Windows 95? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?), I have found some choice picks in the past. For example, the other day I looked through the box and found an anthology of plays which included some that I haven't read but that I had been meaning to. There are also some free books on Craigslist if you look under the "free" section, but these are generally not the sorts of books one might want to read (similar to the free boxes at the library).
4) Commercial websites - There is, of course, also a book buying section on Craigslist, which can have some good deals. I recently purchased the beautiful, hard cover, three volume Calvin and Hobbes collection that I've had my eye on for several years after I found a seller on Craigslist who was looking to get rid of it for $25 (which is an absolute steal, especially when you consider that it still goes for around $100 used on Ebay). While I'm on the topic of Ebay, Amazon.com is kind of the obvious choice for books with nearly everything it has in stock having deep discounts off of the cover price, but sometimes Ebay has still manages to have better prices (particularly for used books). I have found that it pays to check both sites. The downside to buying online is that you generally have to pay for shipping; however, if you are a student, you can sign up for Amazon Prime, which offers free two-day shipping. I signed up as a student, and they haven't kicked me out yet, so I still take advantage of that offer from time to time.
5) Non-commercial websites - If the book you're looking for is an older title, then you should be able to find it for free at sites like Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg compiles etexts of books that have fallen into the public domain. Further, you can download the files, and you should be able to upload them onto your ereader (such as a nook or a kindle) if you have one.
6) Used book stores - These are some of my favorite establishments on earth. I really enjoy lingering for an hour or more at a quality used book store with a good collection. If you live in a city that has a university, it may be worthwhile to see if they have a friends of the library book sale room on campus. San Francisco State, for example, has one where all of the softcover books are a dollar and all of the hardcover books are two dollars. While the selection is limited, you can't beat those prices with a stick.
7) New book stores - These stores, like Borders or Barnes and Noble, are usually my last option. Still, Borders has a program that frequently sends out coupons through email that give you 20 to 40 or 50% off the cover price of a book. If you are the sort of person who likes browsing in a bookstore, than it's certainly worthwhile to sign up for the free coupons. As an FYI, for what it's worth, Barnes and Noble tends to be stingier with their coupons. I very seldomly see online coupons for Barnes and Noble, and when I do see them, they are usually only for 10% off.
8) Ereaders - Sure, there is the start up cost of actually buying an ereader (which are still going for better than a hundred bucks for a brand new one), but generally, the books that you are able to purchase for your ereader are going to be less expensive than physical copies of the books. This isn't always the case, however. As a point of reference, I own a Nook from Barnes and Noble, and nearly all of the titles are $9.99.
Those are my ideas of saving money on books. To all of you readers out there, how do you save money on books?
Yesterday was my wife and I's third anniversary. This seems to be a recurring theme among those looking back on periods in their lives, but it is very true for me as well that those days, weeks, months, and years have just flown by.
On a not-immediately-obviously-related note, in Thornton Wilder's play Our Town, one of the main characters passes away between the second and third acts. As she sits among a group of ghosts and looks upon those who have come to her funeral, the idea that the living don't realize how wonderful and amazing life is occurs to her. Only from her vantage point of being beyond the grave does she truly realize how much she has missed, both in terms of opportunities and in terms of details that didn't seem important at the time.
So, I guess a combination of me recently seeing that play and the occasion of my anniversary have put me in something of a thoughtful mood. If life flies by, what marks am I leaving? To paraphrase a quote that I heard frequently as I went to a Christian school as a boy, how exactly am I redeeming my time?
Those questions are what prompted this list. Many people make new year's resolutions, but I have not really seen mid-year resolutions. Some of these are directly in regards to money, while others are more indirectly related, but I think all of them affect my financial situation.
1) Losing weight: if life is short, than I ought not do things that will hasten its end. I carry a significant amount more weight than I should. My concrete goal is to lose thirty pounds by December 31.
2) Writing a play: one of my goals in life is to have another play that I've written professionally produced. My first play met with some success last year, and I am tremendously thankful for that experience. That taste of success, however, has whetted my appetite for more. One promising opportunity is a playwriting contest that is run through UC Santa Barbara. The contest's deadline is December 1, and my concrete goal is to have a play submitted.
3) Fully funding my Roth. This should be a relatively easy goal as I will be unable to put money into a 401(k) for the rest of the year (so contributing should not be too much of a hardship). The company that I am starting my new job with doesn't allow employees to join the 401(k) program until the employees have worked for the company for six months. While that is disappointing news, once I have reached the six month mark, my company fully matches, dollar for dollar, all contributions up to the federal limit. So, my goal for next year will be to also fund my 401(k) fully, but for this year, it's just a matter of finishing off my Roth IRA. I'm better than halfway there already.
4) Start paying back a personal loan. A few years ago, a family member loaned me some money, interest free, in order to pay off some credit card debt. There were no strings attached, and that family member has even said that I don't need to pay the money back, but I still feel that it is important to do so.
5) Applying to a Ph.D. program. I still have some research to do, but I'm planning on applying to at least the Ph.D. program at the UC close to where I live. I believe that I would be able to do the classwork part time, while simultaneously continuing my day job. Earning a Ph.D. is something that is important to me, and, even if I'm not accepted, at least I won't be not going to school because I didn't try.
Looking back on the list, I've realized that those are five very high-minded goals. Now I've got them listed, however, and now that I know the finish line, I just need to plot how I'll get there.
I'll redeem my time yet.
I hope everyone who reads this has a wonderful 4th of July holiday. The mrs. and I will soon be off to a barbecue with a friend's family, followed by watching the night sky erupt with streams of light.
1) I raided an old 401k to pay off some debt (which, I know, is frowned upon in personal finance circles. In one sense, I do regret it, but in another sense, I can't help but be pleased that I pulled it out in early/mid 2008 before the economy fell in the toilet*).
2) I have been working temp jobs for the better part of two years while I was in grad school.
Overall, I am fairly pleased; I'm only 29, and I have a sneaking suspicion that even with the amount I already have, I'm still in a lot better place than a lot of my peers. I've been forcefully putting money into my Roth since I opened it in April, and I'm already better than halfway to the limit for 2011. Further, the market over the last couple of days has really helped. Some of my individual investments in the Roth have grown 3-4% in the last few days alone (the fact that this is just bringing them back close to what I paid for them is a fact that tempers my enthusiasm).
My old 401k is an account that I just remembered that I had as I was talking to the company's HR person. On my to-do list in the coming month(s) is to fill out the paperwork to roll that money over into an IRA (probably through ING Direct, through whom I opened my Roth).
The new 401k that I have isn't great as there is no employer match. Still, I wanted to put some money into to try to make up for some lost time over the last couple of years. This 401k is through the temp agency I have been working through for the last several months (though I only started contributing in May). The good news for me is that I am set to be hired on by the company that the temp agency assignment has had me working for, and their 401k plan is amazing (it's a 100% match up to the federal limit). The only problem with my soon-to-be-employer is that I am ineligible for their 401k until I have been with the company for 6 months, so I won't be able to get that amazing benefit until 2012.
I will probably add more to this month-end review as time goes on, but this is a good starting point, I think. How are you doing for retirement?
*Yes, I am aware that nearly all investments have recovered to pre-Great Recession levels, but still, I remain pleased by the coincidence (it was through no sheer intellect on my part that I knew the market was going to tumble and so I pulled out; it was just dumb luck).
**I am pretty positive that I have ~$5,000 in a rollover account. I will update that portion next month when I get my quarterly statement. I will also, at that time, figure out how to monitor that account on line.


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Life, unedited.
Because the crew isn't going to
(Published today in Business Standard)
Do you sometimes get the feeling that the country is like a passenger boat on the open water, in a huge storm, and the power is gone, and all hell has broken loose on board? Massive swells tossing the sea, thunder and lightning, helm spinning wildly? Passengers running around waving their arms and screaming, the crew reeling about drunk and giggly with their hair on fire, the captain hiding in a cupboard in his cabin, sobbing into his hands?
That's what it feels like somedays, when you read the papers. Kashmir is festering like a wound. Actual people are actually marching around, actually trying to detect beef in biryani. Tamilians and Kannadigas are killing each other over Cauvery River water. Women continue to suffer sexual terrorism. Dalits continue to suffer caste atrocities. The Aam Aadmi Party is steadily losing its MPs and its marbles. Everyone is crawling around on hands and knees from chikungunya and dengue. Officials keep treating dead poor people like a public nuisance.
So it's very reassuring to get out of the hothouse, drive up to the hills, and realise, afresh, that besides the staggeringly stupid beef thing—which really does put a dent in many people's dinners and livelihoods—most of India is just going about its business, whether that's trying to put food on the table, raise kids, beat the traffic, sell something, or make something to sell. Turns out that our boat is going to weather the storm despite the incompetent crew, because of the hundreds of millions of individuals pulling at their individual oars, to move their individual patch of boat forward. It ends up saving the nation and it's good exercise.
Speaking of going about one's own business and good exercise, have you been reading about the Paralympics? Back when the Olympics were all over the news, I got back to exercising regularly, in solidarity with our Olympian athletes who have to fight poverty, lack of infrastructure, official neglect, and organisational disaster. But it turns out that those guys have it really good: they have all their limbs and physical faculties.
You know what's even more inspiring? The Paralympics in Rio in 2016. The world's disabled athletes are setting world records that outclass Olympians by some distance, despite the lack of an arm, or a foot, or vision, despite mental disability, despite shamefully little press coverage. None of this has stopped them from doing their own thing, and doing it blazingly well. Here's the fact that slays: The guy who won gold at the Olympics 1500m run would have made fourth place at the Paralympics 1500m. Our own Paralympians have won several medals—Devendra Jhajharia struck gold by breaking his own world record in the men's javelin throw. He used the derision he faced for his disability, to light the fire in his belly that turned him into a champion.
All of this makes you feel like lightning should strike you dead the next time you complain about anything, but of course, if you aren't the kind of champion who can use adversity to build character, complaining is vital to maintaining your mental health. That's my line, anyway, and I'm sticking to it.
Anyway, I did get out of the hothouse and drove up to the hills, and realised, afresh, that besides the staggeringly stupid beef thing, most of us can really just go about our business and get on with our lives. And that might be the best thing about the newspapers: they remind you that, at the end of the day, despite the maelstrom and the frankly lousy boat personnel, we remain the captains of our own tiny shares of the ship.
Posted by Mitali Saran at Saturday, September 17, 2016 2 comments:
The beat of your own drums
Or, why homeless musicians are a thing
(Published in Business Standard today)
When I was 7 years old, my mother found me at the kitchen table weeping with anxiety because I couldn't see how I'd ever be able to pay rent. She laughed and said that everything would work out. But my dark foreboding came horribly true. At 44 I'm still at her kitchen table, and she isn't laughing anymore.
We have lived happily together for years, in a compact that has called for only a little accommodation of each other and even less logistical dependence. We have survived all kinds of delicate interpersonal situations, including a steady chorus of people strongly encouraging her to throw me out—a suggestion that she put aside with some wistfulness. But we have finally reached an intractable place that requires a shakeup.
The problem is my drum set. It's not going with her sofas.
I know, right? I tucked the thing so far into a corner of the living room that you need to use an ouija board to catch as much as a glimpse of its softly glowing metal and the handsome shine of its black-painted wood. It's completely silent as long as I don't play it, which I don't while she's in the house. Not going with her sofas—pfffft! She can be so unreasonable—especially since she is responsible for my buying the thing. That's right, she's the one who forwarded me the email from someone who was selling an old but excellent kit, in pristine condition, for the price of three or four posh martinis. Her accompanying message read: 'In case someone in your music circle is interested.'
How was I supposed to know that that person would be me? Fate is a wondrous, numinous thingyjig that we should trust and respect.
So anyway, I'm house hunting. Turns out nobody wants to rent a flat to an Indian. "Don't worry, uncle," the broker told one landlord on the phone, "she's Indian, but she's like a foreigner only." This admirably acute and very annoying statement is what got us in the front door everywhere we went.
One rheumy-eyed nonagenarian landlord smiled and smiled and said I could have the flat for whatever I wanted to pay for it, and he would fix it up any which way, and please when was I moving in. I was about to hand him Rs 10,000 and fetch my suitcase, when the broker murmured, "You'll have to speak to aunty also."
Aunty turned out to have a much more investigative streak.
You will live alone? Yes. You have friends? Yes. Girl friends? Friends of both kinds. They will visit? Yes. They will spend the night? Yes, sometimes.
Her smile faded—and we hadn't even gotten to the drums. That elderly couple would have been dreamy landlords in that they would never have detected the sound of the drums. I mentally bid farewell to that utterly charming, breezy, leafy flat.
The broker was apologetic. "These days," he said, "boys go to girls' houses and girls go to boys' houses, but what to do, she is from another time." Listen, I replied, I'm not going to lie, and I won't be questioned after I move in, so don't bother showing me anyplace where the proprietor will have a problem.
I'm a single Indian woman, I have unpredictable hours and overnight guests, I'm stubborn as a mule, and I like practicing the drums. How hard can this be?
So far, the only person who desperately wants to house me on my terms is the broker, but I'm having fun looking. I figure there's nothing like having your own kitchen table at which to sit and weep over paying the rent.
Posted by Mitali Saran at Saturday, September 03, 2016 1 comment:
Mitali Saran
This is where I store my fortnightly column for Business Standard newspaper. Each edition will be updated here after it is published in the newspaper. I'm on Twitter @mitalisaran
My other column archive
Gluttons for punishment


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text:
Find Calendly Comparison – 10 Million Users
Today we are going to be discussing Calendly Comparison…I have actually used Calendly in a handful of various methods. My number of meetings increased when I was using Calendly.
Today comes news from a start-up that has actually belonged of that trend: Calendly, a popular cloud-based service that individuals utilize to set up and confirm meeting times with others, has closed an investment of $350 million from OpenView Venture Partners and Iconiq.
The financing round consists of both main and secondary money (somewhat more of the latter than the previous, from what I understand) and values the Atlanta-based start-up at over $3 billion.
Not bad for a company that before now had actually raised simply $550,000, including the life savings of the creator and CEO, Tope Awotona, to at first get off the ground.
Calendly is a freemium software-as-a-service, developed around what is essentially a really simple piece of performance.
It's a platform that offers a quick method to manage open spaces in your calendar for individuals to book visits with you in those spaces, which then also books out the time in calendars like Google's or Microsoft Outlook– with a growing number of tools to boost that experience, including the capability to spend for a service in the event that your appointment is not an organization meeting however, say, a yoga class. Prices ranges from totally free (one calendar/one user/one event) to premium ($ 8/month) and professional ($ 12/month) for more calendars, features, events and integrations, with larger plans for business also readily available.
Its development, meanwhile, has to date been based primarily around an extremely natural technique: Calendly welcomes ended up being links to Calendly itself, so individuals who use it and like it can (and do) start to utilize it, too.
The wide range of its usage cases, and the virality of that development method, have actually been winners. Calendly is already successful, and it has been for many years. And more recently, it has seen an increase, specifically in the last twelve months, as new Calendly users have emerged, as a result of how we are living.
We may not be doing more standard "organization conferences" each week, but the variety of meetings we now require to establish, has increased.
All of the unscripted and serendipitous encounters we used to have around a workplace, or a neighborhood cafe, or the park? Those are now arranged. Teachers and students satisfying for a remote lesson? Those likewise require invitations for online meetings.
And so do sessions with therapists, virtual supper parties, and even (where they can still take place) in-person meetings, which are typically now occurring with more timed accuracy and more record-keeping, to keep social distancing and possible contact tracing in much better order.
Presently, some 10 countless us are utilizing Calendly for all of this on a monthly basis, with that number growing 1,180% in 2015. The army of business users from companies like Twilio, Zoom, and UCSF has actually been signed up with by instructors, entrepreneurs, specialists, and freelancers, the company states.
The company last year made about $70 million yearly in subscription incomes from its SaaS-based organization model and seems positive that its aggregated revenues will not long from now get to $1 billion.
So while the secondary funding is going towards offering liquidity to existing financiers and early employees, Awotona stated the strategy will be to utilize the main capital to buy the business's company.
That will include constructing out its platform with more tools and combinations– it started with and still has a significant R&D operation in Kiev, Ukraine– broadening its operations with more skill (it currently has around 200 staff members and strategies to double headcount), further company development and more. Calendly Comparison
2 significant moves on that front are likewise being revealed with the funding: Jeff Diana is beginning as primary individuals officer with a mission to double the business's worker base. And Patrick Moran– previously of Quip and New Relic– is joing as Calendly's very first chief revenue officer. Especially, both are based in San Francisco– not Atlanta.
That focus for structure in San Francisco is currently a big modification for Calendly. The startup, which is going on 8 years of ages, has been rather off the radar for years.
That remains in part due to the reality that it raised really little money already (just $550,000 from a handful of investors that consist of OpenView, Atlanta Ventures, IncWell and Greenspring Associates).
It's also based in Atlanta, an increasingly significant city for technology startups and other business but most of the time short on being credited for its heft because department (SalesLoft, Amex-acquired Kabbage, OneTrust, Bakkt, and many others are based there, with others like Mailchimp likewise not too far).
And perhaps most of all, proactively courting publicity did not appear to be part of Calendly's growth playbook.
Calendly might have closed this huge round silently and continued to get on with company, were it not for a short Tweet last autumn that indicated the company raising cash and forming up to be a quiet giant.
" The company's capital performance and what @TopeAwotona has developed deserve way more credit than they get," it read. "Possibly this will begin to change that acknowledgment."
Does Calendly have a free option? Calendly Comparison
After that brief note on Twitter– flagged on TechCrunch's internal message board– I made a guess at Awotona's email, sent out a note presenting myself, and waited to see if I would get a reply.
I eventually did get a response, in the form of a short note consenting to chat, with a Calendly link (naturally) to select a time.
( Thanks, unnamed TC author, for never ever discussing Calendly when Tope initially pitched you years ago: you may have whet his appetite to respond to me.). Calendly Comparison
Find Acuity Scheduling Redirect – 10 Million Users
Find Online Appointment Scheduler Calendly Meetme – 10 Million Users
Today we are going to be discussing Calendly Comparison…I have actually utilized Calendly in a handful of various methods. My number of meetings increased when I was utilizing Calendly.
Today comes news from a startup that has actually belonged of that trend: Calendly, a popular cloud-based service that people use to establish and verify meeting times with others, has closed a financial investment of $350 million from OpenView Venture Partners and Iconiq.
The financing round includes both primary and secondary money (a little more of the latter than the former, from what I understand) and values the Atlanta-based startup at over $3 billion.
Not bad for a company that before now had raised just $550,000, including the life savings of the creator and CEO, Tope Awotona, to initially get off the ground.
Calendly is a freemium software-as-a-service, constructed around what is basically a really simple piece of performance.
It's a platform that provides a fast way to handle open spaces in your calendar for people to book visits with you in those areas, which then likewise books out the time in calendars like Google's or Microsoft Outlook– with a growing number of tools to enhance that experience, consisting of the ability to spend for a service in case your consultation is not a company conference however, say, a yoga class. Pricing ranges from totally free (one calendar/one user/one occasion) to premium ($ 8/month) and professional ($ 12/month) for more calendars, integrations, events and functions, with larger plans for business likewise available.
Its development, meanwhile, has to date been based mostly around a very natural method: Calendly welcomes become links to Calendly itself, so people who use it and like it can (and do) start to use it, too.
The wide variety of its usage cases, and the virality of that growth technique, have actually been winners. Calendly is currently rewarding, and it has been for many years. And more recently, it has actually seen a boost, particularly in the last twelve months, as brand-new Calendly users have emerged, as a result of how we are living.
We may not be doing more standard "service conferences" each week, but the number of conferences we now require to set up, has gone up.
All of the impromptu and serendipitous encounters we used to have around a workplace, or a community coffee store, or the park? Those also require invites for online meetings.
Therefore do sessions with therapists, virtual supper celebrations, and even (where they can still happen) in-person meetings, which are often now occurring with more timed precision and more record-keeping, to keep social distancing and possible contact tracing in better order.
Presently, some 10 countless us are using Calendly for all of this on a monthly basis, with that number growing 1,180% last year. The army of organization users from companies like Twilio, Zoom, and UCSF has been signed up with by teachers, freelancers, professionals, and entrepreneurs, the business says.
The business last year made about $70 million yearly in membership profits from its SaaS-based business design and appears confident that its aggregated incomes will not long from now get to $1 billion.
So while the secondary financing is going towards offering liquidity to existing investors and early employees, Awotona stated the plan will be to use the primary capital to purchase the company's company.
That will include building out its platform with more tools and combinations– it began with and still has a significant R&D operation in Kiev, Ukraine– broadening its operations with more talent (it presently has around 200 workers and strategies to double headcount), further organization development and more. Calendly Comparison
2 noteworthy proceed that front are likewise being revealed with the financing: Jeff Diana is beginning as primary individuals officer with a mission to double the business's staff member base. And Patrick Moran– formerly of Quip and New Relic– is joing as Calendly's very first chief income officer. Especially, both are based in San Francisco– not Atlanta.
That focus for building in San Francisco is currently a big modification for Calendly. The start-up, which is going on eight years of ages, has been rather off the radar for years.
That remains in part due to the reality that it raised extremely little cash already (just $550,000 from a handful of financiers that consist of OpenView, Atlanta Ventures, IncWell and Greenspring Associates).
It's likewise based in Atlanta, a significantly noteworthy city for technology start-ups and other companies but typically brief on being credited for its heft in that department (SalesLoft, Amex-acquired Kabbage, OneTrust, Bakkt, and many others are based there, with others like Mailchimp also not too far).
And possibly most of all, proactively courting publicity did not appear to be part of Calendly's growth playbook.
In fact, Calendly may have closed this huge round silently and continued to get on with organization, were it not for a brief Tweet last autumn that signaled the company raising money and shaping up to be a peaceful giant.
" The company's capital efficiency and what @TopeAwotona has actually developed are worthy of way more credit than they get," it read. "Maybe this will begin to change that acknowledgment."
After that brief note on Twitter– flagged on TechCrunch's internal message board– I made a guess at Awotona's email, sent a note introducing myself, and waited to see if I would get a reply.
I eventually did get a reaction, in the form of a short note agreeing to chat, with a Calendly link (naturally) to pick a time.
( Thanks, unnamed TC writer, for never writing about Calendly when Tope initially pitched you years ago: you may have whet his appetite to respond to me.). Calendly Comparison
Find Calendly With Exchange – 10 Million Users
Find Is There A Way I Can Put Employee Availability In Google Calendar And Calendly – 10 Million Users


text:
Q: Why does TinyMCE in Django admin output HTML tags? I have two apps using the same TinyMCE textarea configurations. However, while an input in an app does output the text properly, the same input in another app does not output the text properly -it outputs the <p> <li> tags, etc.
I have exactly the same Django source code for these two different apps. As I mentioned above, two apps using the same TinyMCE textarea. How come this could happen?

A: Make sure you are using the template filter safe, like this {{ value|safe }} so it doesn't show the HTML code from TinyMCE.
More info safe:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


» On their second full-length album, Chicago's Maps & Atlases defy easy categorization, choosing to walk their own incomparable musical path. Beware and Be Grateful sees the band's trademark experimentalism morphing to suit a more direct--though no less beguiling--songcraft. Fueled by a panoply of sonic influences, the album abounds with novel invention, spanning hymnal harmonies, percolating rhythms, even, in the case of centerpiece track, ''Silver Self,'' a full-on guitar solo (though to be fair, it's unlike any solo previously committed to wax). Songs like ''Remote And Dark Years'' and ''Fever'' are gloriously liquid and lyrical, channeling Maps & Atlases' tightly constructed creativity into a genuinely distinctive brand of boundary-busting, asymmetrical pop. Self-assured and astonishingly ambitious, Beware and Be Grateful is a worthy follow-up to the band's acclaimed Barsuk debut Perch Patchwork. MP3 download card included with the LP.
» In addition to the band, the members of Maps & Atlases have had various side projects.
» Dave Davison created a solo outlet known as Cast Spells, featuring Good Old War, which has released music through Sargent House. Davison also contributes and tours with the collective Hey! Tonal.
» Davison and Chris Hainey created an art-rock project known as Mountain Lion Mountain.
» Erin Elders is a filmmaker. In addition he created a thrash-metal band called Skullzone, along with Johnny Miller and Ryan Duggan. Duggan is a Chicago artist who owns Hated Skateboards and Drug Factory Press and does much of Maps & Atlases poster and t-shirt artwork. Skullzone is currently on hiatus.
» Dada has engineered several records for bands including The Street Brats, and These Guys Are Built.
» Dada and Elders have also been known to DJ at Chicago bar The Burlington on occasion. Elders has a strong obsession with spinning songs by Electric Light Orchestra.
¤ The seven year existence of Maps & Atlases has seen their sound evolve in a way that's been both significant and in keeping with their most signature elements.
After the release of Trees, Swallows, Houses in 2007 – the band's first EP under the wing of a record label – there was rumbled appreciation for the jagged math guitars and yelps. But responses to their more recent material, in the shape of debut full-length Perch Patchwork, have been rather more mixed. The Illinois quartet's steady construction of a sonic identity has been built around a complex map of fretwork, rhythms and lyrical melodies. And while the debut LP might've fallen short of the perfect fit for their busy style of music making, Beware and Be Grateful appears to be a reconciliation of sorts.
¤ This record sees much more of an alignment with artists occupying the north eastern corner of America; Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, tUnE-yArDs. But an underlying preference for math-rhythmed riffs keeps much of the material fresh.
Intelligent layering and soft electronic beats lend a twist to Dave Davison's Justin Vernon-esque (Bon Iver) vocal on Old And Gray. Beauty, sadness and aching melancholy mix among sighing 'oohs', twiddling guitars and a twinkling loop, with a lyric that declares, "When you are old and grey I hope that someone holds you the way I would." A seamless blend leads into Fever – a five minute slice of happiness with an '80s take on African drums and textured guitars. And while this opening duo shrouds Maps & Atlases' math-dotted history, Winter – albeit washed down with one spoonful of sweetness too many – begins to let those taught, plucked strings and double-tapped flurries into the fray.
¤ Many of the album's tracks are really quite beguiling, thanks to a take on the riffs and rhythms of African music that renders them not dissimilar to a Vampire Weekend record. Remote and Dark Years mix tongue-twistingly quick with slow, repeated vocals, which suits Davison's warm baritone and calls to Paul Simon's Zulu musical influences and delivery. Low-toned steel drums and a beat comprised clattering drumsticks and clashing of metal on metal pushes Silver Self even further into African territory – its scratchy sound not dissimilar to tUnE-yArDs, with Merrill Garbus' utterly joyous, unpredictable vocal style.
¤ Yet throughout, the math influences are audible – sometimes directly, sometimes through technique. A dizzying riff punctuates Bugs, whose stripped back layers add a touch of a cappella to the album. Old Ash runs in that same deceptively simple vein, pulling the pace back with a stark bass drum and soft clicks as the metronome.
¤ There are blips. Vampires waters down the captivating layers Beware and Be Grateful has developed towards, with a template rock riff that feels out of place, rather than acting as a natural seague. And like a sobering curtailment of a memorable party, the album finishes with Important; its uphill beat and piano forcing a complete change which hijacks the former frivolity.