Sweet Corn Chalenge

What is the Sweet Corn Challenge? It's a bicycle ride that starts in Richfield Ohio and weaves in and out of the Cleveland Metroparks. This is the 4th time I did this ride and it was the hardest. My Buddy's Bill G., Kevin B., and Bud K., and I tackled the 55 miles of hill after hill. (We missed you Scott)

There were more than 2,000 riders in total.

Here are a few pictures I took and our new van in all it's glory. My wife Cindy wasn't crazy about all the bikes on the van. I thought it was way cool.


Arrival at Sweet Corn. Kevin's helping to get the bikes ready.



Bud, looking for the port-a-pots before we take off. (Bud's on the left of the picture walking away from the camera.)


Our fist pit of the day. 20+ miles into the ride. Two optional hills under our belts. (Pain!!) Kevin, (White & Black) and Bill (Sleeveless jersey) are enjoying the shade and the rest.


The Ride's over (3hrs 20 min of ride time). We've finished off our lunch, picked up our bags of sweet corn and are ready for the drive home. Don't ask how we got out of our bike cloths into street cloths. (It not a pretty site.)

No pictures of me. I was the camera man.

Blogger Tag

Tag, I'm it. There is a game going around the blogging world right now and it's my turn to play. Thanks Double D.

The Rules:

1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
   

8 Random (cool) Facts about me:

1. When I'm deep in thought, I take one shoe off as I work. If I'm alone the sock comes off as well.)
2. I love live musicals / operas. (I've seen Phantom of the Opera 3 times)
3. I sat for the CPA exam while still in college.
4. I've had 13 broken bones (1 in a youth fist fight)
5. I worked in a coal mine 3 out of my 4 college summers. (The other summer I worked in a slaughter house. . . . Don't ask what I did, it involved animal guts.)
6. I taught 3 semesters of accounting at Kent State University - Tuscarawas
7. I love public radio. . . Any Prairie Home Companion fans out there?
8. I have a relative who is a Secret Service agent on President Bush's detail. I'm looking at Mike's (the Secret Service agent's) business card right now. He was home this weekend for my grandmothers 90th birthday party.

Ok, now it's my turn to tag 8 people. Here we go.

1. Joe Sangl
2. Jennifer Bartlett
3. Dr. Scott Matthews
4. Dave Mast
5. Tony Morgan
6. Tom Troyer
7. Tina Lawver
8. Rita Hershberber
   

Credit Report take 2

As a follow-up to my post yesterday, I received a great email from my good friend K. (Yes, here fist name is the letter"K",) Here's what she had to say.

Hi Todd,

Be sure people use the www.annualcreditreport.com to get the free report ( you can buy the credit score form them for about $7.00) do not use the www.freecreditreport.com scam site . One woman wrote Dave Ramsey that she paid almost $300.00 in stupid tax before she got free of the scam site. They advertise on TV all the time but I see now that they print a very small disclaimer at the bottom of the screen. Consumer Reports is also running warnings about the site in their magazine.

Have a great day,
K

Thanks for the great info.

Credit Reports

I was cleaning out our some files this weekend and came across my Equifax credit report from June of 2006. That made me realize I hadn't pulled a credit report on myself in some time.

Did you know that each credit reporting agency is now required by law to give you one free credit report per year? If you work it right, that allows you to look at your credit report 3 times a year for free. Let me explain.

I'll run an Equifax credit report on myself tonight. It will be free since the last time I did this was over a year ago. In November, I'll run a credit report from Experian. Then in March, I'll run one from Transunion. Then I'll start all over again.

Each reporting agency reports the information a little bit differently. None of them will give you your "famous" credit score for free. All three agencies charge for this. I'd consider paying for this once a year.

This goes without saying but I will say it.

1. Keep your credit reports in a safe and locked location.
   
2. Take action on anything in your report that looks funny.
   
3. Close those old dormant credit card and department store accounts.
4. Don't add more debt you your life. (I listed this one for good measure.)
   

Goal accomplished!

I'm posting this to encourage and to let others know it can be done. In no way am I sharing this to boast or brag.

My wife and I are the proud owners of a 2004 Honda Odyssey. Here's the best part, we paid cash for it. That's the accomplished goal. When we started our savings plan years ago, I really didn't think paying cash for a vehicle was possible. I'm happy to say it is possible with steady plodding.

So what's the alternative to paying cash? Debt. According to the latest figures I could find on the internet, the average car payment is $378 per month over 63 months. (Just over 5 years) Car dealers are now offering loans over 72 months (6 years).

If you do borrow for you next vehicle, and I'm living proof that it's possible to pay cash for it, remember to take all the costs of ownership into account and your car debt & insurance shouldn't be more than 12% - 15% of your monthly take home pay.

PS - The car we sold as part of this cash transaction was a 1998 Honda Accord. In 7 years of ownership of this car, we put 112,000 mile on it.

What is your TV costing you?

It seems I'm constantly on one of my kids, I won't tell you which one, to turn off the TV and get outside. That conversation usually gets me thinking about how much time I spend in front of the TV. It's not a lot but probably more than I realize.

Consider this,the average adult watches 31.5 hours of TV each week. Let's put a value of minimum wage of $5.85 an hour to this. That equates to nearly $800 a month ($9,600 a year) to watch TV. If you value your time more than minimum wage, then this figure goes way up.

I'm not suggesting everyone give up all their TV time. What I would suggest is you consider reducing the time spent watching TV and do something you believe is more valuable with your time, like blogging. . .

How many steps does it take to . . .

This past Sunday, we kicked off our staff wellness program here at NewPointe. Over the next 11 weeks, 78 days, our staff is keeping track with pedometers of how many steps they take each day. I mentioned this in a prior post.

We are posting daily steps taken in our staff break room. I'm very proud to say that I walked the most steps on the first day of the competition.

36,269 steps taken by me Sunday.

I checked out some web sites on walking and it's around 2,000 steps equal one mile. So I walked an equivalent of 18 miles Sunday. Way cool.

Just so you know this is not a fluke, yesterday I walked over 22,000 steps. My wife says I never stop moving until I lay down in bed for the night. I think she's right.

It's official . . . I'm addicted & rated "G"

I was over at John's blog reading up on his great post. Recently he's had a lot of quizzes on his blog posts. I came across one I couldn't resist.

Are you addicted to coffee? Take the test yourself. I'm very please with my high score.

I am 92% Addicted to Coffee

Also thanks to John, I found out my blog was rated G. So everyone is welcome. . . read on.

The Power of Cash continues to work. . . .

Opening my email this a.m., there was one from my buddy Tom Toyer. Tom attends NewPointe and has recently joined the blogging world.

He shared with me his furniture purchase from last night and how he used cash to get a good deal (Stewardship). I've copied his blog post here. It's worth the read....

This evening we made a purchase ... with cash and got a good deal. We have been shopping for living room furniture for the house we are buying. We have two chairs so we decided that would buy a sofa or a sectional. Last week we found a sectional at one of the furniture stores in New Philadelphia, it had a small hole in the back and was marked down considerably. We liked it and had decided that we would get cash and go down again this week and offer them less and use the cash as a bargaining chip. Well, tonight we went with our cash & our game plan to get the sectional, they were closed. Ugh now what, Elsie says: "do you want to stop at this other place just up the road". "Sure" I said: "why not". So we stopped and guess what, God literally closed & locked a door and opened another. Make a long story short ... we ended up buying a couch - no damage, more features & much nicer.

Here is the deal: $999 regular price, on sale for $759, we got it for $700 cash delivered & tax included. We paid about 63% of the original price or saved $131 off the sale price. I'm pumped. Todd it works. The guy jumped all over that offer I think he may have come down even more.

Check that thing out, isn't it sweet!

Stewardship is personal responsibility for taking care of another person's property or financial affairs.

- In our case this money is God's and we are trying to be good stewards of it

Wellness at work

Today we kick-off a wellness program for the staff here at NewPointe. I'm excited for the events of the day and what this "should" mean for each staff member as the program gets going.

A month ago, our staff participated in a health screening held here a the church. We each gave blood, had our blood pressure checked, was weighted, ( I'm weighted in at 177) and filled out a questionnaire. (There was no filling of cups. Think on this for a minute, it will come to you.)

As part of the program today, we'll each get our screening results back from Dr. Browning. In addition to that, we'll be divided into three teams and the competitions will begin. The team names are:

1. Fatty Acids
2. Protein Shakers
3. Triple Bypasses

Our first completion is 10,000 steps a day for the next 12 weeks. We have pedometers for each team member and we'll be putting up a chart in the break room to track progress.

Wish us good will and root on the Fatty Acids as I'm the team captain.

Personal Check ordering tips

These day's I don't write many checks any more. It's usually cash, debit card, or online bill payment. Today however, I did put the last set of 50 checks into our checkbook. ( I'm hoping they will last 6 months or more.)

My next task was onto the net to find the best price on checks. I ended up ordering 3 boxes of 200 checks in each box from Super Value Checks The total with shipping was $20.70. ($0.0345 per check)

Here are a two things I did to help guard my identity on the checks.

1. I didn't put my wife's or my first name on the check. I used our initials from our fist name. T or C Colucy. This way no one other than us and the bank know how we sign our checks. This will be a big plus if your checks are stolen and you try and prove to the electronics store that you didn't write a check for that big screen TV.
   
   
2. I put my work phone number on the checks not my home number. If someone tries to use your personal information from your check to open up a bogus account somewhere in your name, they will not have your home phone number. When they use your work number as your home number, this should send up a red flag where the account is being opened.
   

Next time you order checks, let me know if you find a better deal and if you used your initials and work phone number.

4th of July and my personal best

The 4th has been great for me so far today. I enjoyed reading the newspaper on my back porch as the sun was coming up. With my newspaper I had two cups of my fresh home roasted coffee made in my press pot. (Coffee doesn't get any better that that.)

At 9 a.m. it was off to the meeting point for our annual 4th of July bike ride. We had 10 riders today. I knew I was in trouble as I looked over the field of rides. All speed guys and a tandem . When it was all said and done today, I'm was jacked.

Ride distance: 50 miles on the nose

Average speed for the entire 50 miles. . . . 19.5 mph. (My new personal best)
We had miles of speeds around 25 mph. That allowed us to average 19.5.

Now I'm tired and my legs ache. It's time for some vitamin "I" (ibuprofren) and a nap.

Happy 4th to you.

5.36%

In my continuous pursuit of high savings rates, I came across AmTrust Direct. This is a bank located right here in Ohio. Cleveland to be exact.

I applied for my account with AmTrust on line over the weekend. The application process took less than 10 minutes. I'll be moving some of my savings from Emigrant Direct (Paying 5.05%) to AmTrust (Paying 5.36%)

I'm looking forward to comparing the two web sites head-to-head and to see how long it takes to transfer funds in and out of these accounts.

I've been asked many times, "Is it worth switching savings accounts from my local bank because of higher interest rates on the web?" My answer. . . You bet. With the internet, it's easy and fast to open a new savings account and in this case, and extra .31% in interest for the 10 minutes it took to set up the account will be time well spent and money well earned.