Kennedy's A Star

Kennedy surprised us all when she made it on stage and performed flawlessly for all of us. We all enjoyed the 'good job' party with some ice cream!

We sold

Our big announcement is that we sold our The UPS Store!!! Yes we are excited!

Mary will be transitioning this week with the new owner and then working for him for a month or two. This will give the new owner expert training and transition & give us assurance that he will succeed.

April 15: More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Tax Day

Were tax returns always due on April 15?

No. Until 1955, returns were due on March15. From 1913 to 1918, they were due even earlier, with taxpayers scrambling to meet a March 1 deadline.

In 1954, Congress changed the date to give IRS employees a break. Most returns were filed near the deadline, swamping agency employees. Lawmakers hoped a later deadline would encourage taxpayers to file earlier. Human nature being what it is, returns continued to flood the agency just before the new deadline. In recent years, about 20 percent of returns have been filed in the last week of the filing season.

For millions of Americans, April 15 is a day of dread, replete with a last-minute dash to the post office. But until 1955, the day of reckoning fell a month earlier. Indeed, Julius Caesar wasn't the only one warned about the ides of March; during World War II, the Treasury Department vigorously reminded Americans that they too had better watch the calendar (see poster reproduction below).

Opening D'Backs Game

Mark's boss gave him four tickets to the opening game last minute and we invited one of our employees, Alli and her boyfriend Curtis to go with us. D'backs won 9 to 3 and it was a great game.

Mary is posting!!

Can you believe it? Mary is actually posting to our blog and I am excited. Please see the last few posts below. Yes, I was the one to post the Tax Freedom Day entry. I will show Mary how to add titles to each posts, so keep your eyes out on updates (Mary never types a subject in emails, so I do understand why she does not type in a title).


In addition, we have some big, exciting news to announce on April 22nd (no, Mary is not pregnant). Stay tuned....

Family Dinner at Our House

Pearl shares her pad with Kennedy.

Family dinner at our house! We enjoyed good food, Family Home Evening, Disney movies, playtime in the backyard and the boys play cards as usual. We love entertaining.

Tax Freedom Day

Tax Freedom Day, the day on which Americans have earned enough money to pay all their federal, state and local taxes for the year, will fall on April 23 this year, according to the Tax Foundation's annual calculation using the latest government data on income and taxes.

Tax Freedom Day is calculated by dividing the official government tally of all taxes collected in each year by the official government tally of all income earned in each year. Governments—federal, state and local—took 29.6% of income in 1970, 30.4% of income in 1980, 33.6% in 2000, and so on. This percentage is the nation's total tax burden. We then use the historical trend and the most recent economic data to make a projection of what the tax burden will be in the current year and we convert that burden into a date—a percentage of the year—on which Americans will have earned enough income to pay their total tax bill for the year.

This year’s Tax Freedom Day falls three days earlier than in 2007. Fiscal stimulus rebates and a projection of slow growth in 2008 are the principal reasons for the earlier celebration. However, if the large projected deficit for 2008 were counted as a tax in the current year, Tax Freedom Day would fall on May 3.

Check out your state:

The UPS Store Awards Banquet

We were invited to a banquet for The UPS Store and received an award for the second year in a row for our total sales. Then we got to race a couple of times and play pool.

John Ralston

Had the chance to see John Ralston and his band (Dan and Nate) in Tucson on Tuesday night and then again on Thursday night in Phoenix. Fantastic both shows!

The Mystery Castle

After living only miles from it for years we finally made it to the Mystery Castle. The architecture was strange but the current resident's (builder's daughter) eclectic style was beyond creepy.

Nashville

The Grinch Ice in Nashville

Christmas

Skipper

Skipper found us and now we have a new dog.

Merry Christmas (from Congress)

Most Memorable Quotes of 2007

According to Yale Book of Quotations for 2007:

1. "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" -- a phrase that swept the nation after a U.S. college student used it seeking to stop campus police from throwing him out of a speech by Sen. John Kerry. The plea made by University of Florida student Andrew Meyer on September 17, accompanied by Meyer's screams as he was tased. Meyer's quote was a symbol of pop culture success. Within two days it was one of the most popular phrases on Google and one of the most viewed videos. It also showed up on ringtones and T-shirts.
   
   
2. "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us."
   
   Lauren Upton, the South Carolina contestant in the Miss Teen America contest in August. Upton had been asked why one-fifth of Americans are unable to locate the United States on a map and later apologized for her answer not making a lot of sense.
   
   

3. "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country." -- Iranian's President Mahmoud Ahmadineja's October comment at Columbia University in New York.

4. "That's some nappy-headed hos there." -- Shock jock Don Imus comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
   
   
5. "I don't recall." -- Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' repeated response to questioning at a congressional hearing about the firing of U.S. attorneys.
   
   
6. "There's only three things he (Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11." -- Sen. Joseph Biden, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate.
   
   
7. "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody (Vice President Dick Cheney) who has a 9 percent approval rating." -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.
   
   
8. "(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom." -- Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig's explanation of why his foot touched that of an undercover policeman in a men's room.
   
   
9. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." -- Biden describing rival Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
   
   
10. "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history." -- Former President Jimmy Carter in an interview in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper.

Oregon for birthday party

Mary's Grandparents in Salem, OR had a big birthday celebration Thanksgiving weekend. Grandpa turns 90 & Grandma turns 75. Mary's parents, Misty, Levi, and Steven all were lucky to fly there and back on standby. It was very cold and cloudy, no rain.

Moving from Benson

Mary's parents finally move out of Benson, AZ to Mesa. It was bitter sweet for Mary because the trailer was the first home in San Diego then it was moved to Benson.

For Gen X, it's time to grow up and get a broker

Last week MSNBC had an interesting article titled For Gen X, Time to Grow Up and Get a Broker. This generation had a somewhat negative image when we were kids, but as the article points out, most of us in this generation have outgrown that image and moved on to be at successful points in life. Even so, many people in their 30s are still behind when it comes to retirement savings.

Melanie Keller, 35, admits that fact. She worries about retirement because she only has $3,000 put away in a 401(k) plan and has no other investments. But instead of socking away money for retirement, the pharmaceutical saleswoman is trying to save $60,000 so she can buy a starter home where she lives in San Jose, Calif.

Melanie is a very typical example. She has an established career, is trying to save money to buy a house, and is probably already married, or planning on getting married and starting a family soon. With so much going on as it is, saving for retirement has taken a back seat.

One reason that many Gen Xers have trouble getting started early with retirement savings is because of debt, usually student loans:

Even if they are not supersizing their lives and living beyond their means, she said, many Gen Xers — generally defined as those born from 1965 to 1980 — carry significant debt due to college alone. Once they have kids, they begin to worry about saving for their college educations, and retirement planning often drops in priority.

This is very prevalent with people I meet with who are in their late-20s or 30s. In some cases, these individuals have upwards of $75,000 in student loan debt still, and if they are married to someone who also has student loan debt, this can be a huge burden. Factor in some regular credit card debt, trying to buy a house, and all of the other financial issues in life and it is easy to see how retirement can get overlooked.

Oppenheimer Funds also did a survey and found:

• 62 percent say they live paycheck to paycheck
• 56 percent have an outstanding credit-card balance of $3,000 or more.
• 62 percent of women say they have not bought any investment products.
• 45 percent of women would buy 30 pairs of shoes before saving $30,000 in retirement assets.
• 65 percent of women and 48 percent of men said they do not know how a mutual fund works.
• Nearly 65 percent did not know that when interest rates go up bond prices typically go down.
• 38 percent of women have not started saving for retirement.

Improving These Statistics

The only way to improve these statistics is through education and a willingness to learn. You don’t have to read a bunch of books on finance or create complicated investment strategies to reach your goals, but you do have to pay attention to your situation and take action. We all have bills to pay, debt, housing costs, a vehicle, and so on. These are all very important, but so is saving for the future. It doesn’t have to be an issue of sacrifice, but understanding how a little bit as soon as possible can go a long way towards funding your future.

Yellowcard / Blue October

We saw a great Yellowcard / Blue October concert at the Celebrity Theatre (any show at this venue is great). It was interesting seeing a violinist in the both bands. Mary was able to met Yellowcard / I was taking the pictures. Coincidently, we met Jason & Kristen from Mary's college days. We had a great time at the Whaffle House, which was my first time there and was impressed with how cheap the food was.

Car Milestone

My 2002 Honda Civic that I have owned for almost six years now, just hit 100,000. I wanted Mary to celebrate with me when it turned over and ran out miles before I got home. So, I called her to meet me at the gas station to be in the car as it hits this landmark. My calculation is this car costs me about $3,000 per year ($2,000 per year, if you include salvage value). I look forward to the next 100,000 miles!