Toyota is Trying to Sell a Car to Us

We are beginning the process of looking for a new car. We started off by setting a few standards on what we wanted in a new car.

1. It has to be $18,000 or less
2. It has to be a 4 door
3. It needs to have ABS or AWD
4. It needs to be rated for at least 35mpg on the highway and 25mpg in the city
5. Automatic transmission

The next step was to go to all the automotive manufacturer web sites and start looking at their cars finding the ones that meet our criteria.

GM, Ford, Chrysler, Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Suzuki, Subaru, Volkswagen, Isuzu, and Nissan are the companies I looked at. Here's what I came up with.

1. Chevy has a little car called the Aveo that you can get in either a 4 door or 5 door. Loaded down with ABS on all four wheels it is only $13,990. It's rated at 35mpg. Margaret isn't to keen on the looks of the 5 door.

2. Pontiac has the Vibe. It's a little bit above the price range priced with ABS and probably below the MPG with automatic transmission. But still it's a pretty big car and the extra storage would be nice for $18,365.

3. Honda has two cars that meet our requirements. The Civic and the new Fit. I have to say we're intrigued by the Fit and will definitely be checking it out. Both cars come pretty loaded down and both have excellent MPG ratings 40 for the civic and 38 for the Fit. The Civic is $16,519 and the Fit $14,650.

4. The Mazda 3 is a nice looking car but it is really on the edge of our criteria only rated at 34mpg and costing $17,450 and that's without ABS.

5. Kia like Chevy has a car that you can get in both a 4 door or 5 door configuration that meets our requirements, the Rio. Of course Kia's come with a great warranty and the two options cost $14,835 for the 4 door and $15,960 for the 5 door. Margaret really doesn't like the way this car looks with the trim going down the side.

6. Hyundai has one choice the Accent which comes in at $14,345 and is pretty loaded down.

7. Nissan comes in with the Sentra, though like the Mazda it is right on the bubble at $17,205 and 34mpg.

8. Neither Ford, Chrysler, Suzuki, Subaru, Volkswagen, or Isuzu have automobiles that fit our requirements.

9. Toyota though is the king with 5 automobiles that meet our criteria. 5 is amazing to be coming from one manufacturer, and it made me think that I guess Toyota is trying to sell us a car. I'm assuming we are the demographic they are going after. So the vehicles are the new Yaris (39mpg $15,635), the Corolla (41mpg, $16,654), the Matrix (36mpg, $17,730), the Scion xA (37mpg, $15,255), and the Scion xB (34mpg, $15,370). As ugly as the Scions are I'm intrigued by them although I believe Margaret has no interest.

So now that we have all of this information what next? Well I guess we'll actually start to go and look at these vehicles and see which ones we like. We're in no rush to buy so we can take our time and be really be picky and it should be fun.

The NC Democrat Base is Crumbling

In the last election the Republicans made their first major inroads into the administrative offices of the Capitol in many years. Since then the Democrats in North Carolina have done nothing to shore up their crumbling base, instead things have gotten much worse. Right now the speaker of the house, Jim Black, is under investigation for a million things and everyone in the party is choosing to stand behind him. They also forced through the lottery in a very questionable manner, something that is not going to sit too well with a large group of voters in this state. North Carolina is one state the Republicans don't have to worry about.

Now I must say I played a part in giving the Republicans a chance in North Carolina. Tired of the Governor's office raiding the state pension plan to pay for new programs that we can't afford, I decided it was time for some of the people in the Capitol to go packing. I have to say that they have done absolutely nothing to regain my trust in their ability to run the state, and in fact now I don't even believe that they can run it without doing it ilegally.

The point of all this is really to think of NC as a small part of the whole United States. If the Democratic party is doing no better in other states then I don't think things look to good for their chances nationally in 2006.

Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill (Top 500 Countdown Update)

Well I have to say that this album is much better than I gave it credit for. I bought it when it was out for the song You Oughta Know and enjoyed the album, but it had so many singles, and received so much air play I got completely sick of it. Now listening to it years later I have to say it is a very good album. The songs have held up well over the past 10 years and I'm surprised to find how consistently good the writing and production are. It's funny at some point it became so popular I really dismissed the album from having any value, but that was a mistake. I'm not saying it will become a regular on my playlist, it's still a bit burned out for me, but I have to admit that it's a good album.

I am in general a fan of pop music, and I would say this album fits the requirements for a good pop album. It has a unique sound to itself and seems a bit off the mainstream, but it has catchy melodies, easy lyrics, and no throw away songs. All in all that makes for a solid pop album.

I Remember "Rumsfeld's War"

With all this talk of Rumsfeld lately and of course the continuing problems in Iraq I've been thinking about a Frontline episode called Rumsfeld's War. If you haven't seen it you can follow this link to go watch it online http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/pentagon/, and read accompanying material. This show isn't about the war in Iraq as much as about his war to take control of the pentagon. It is very interesting and brings up a lot of questions about the war in Iraq.

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville (Top 500 Countdown Update)

I was introduced to this album when it came out by a really good friend. It's funny I don't really know what he liked so much about it, but there was about a month there where it was all he ever played in his car. Even though I spent a lot of time riding around Lexington KY in his car I never really listened to the lyrics or thought one way or another of the album except that it had a very raw sound to it.

Years later I was reintroduced to the album when I got a copy of it for my wife who it turned out was a big fan. Again I was struck by the raw sound of the album and the vocals that seem to live in the minor key. Like my friend before, my wife got hooked on it for about a month till she had burned it out, and now maybe once every other year or so she'll do the same.

It's funny but I still have never really sat down and listened to the lyrics and thought of the album as a unit and I didn't listening again this time. To me her voice and the music are infectious, and that's what draws me to the album. I like the fact that you can hear the words and so snipets here and there jump out that catch my ear and keep me tuned in. The beats are nice and the music vibrant though very simplistic in presentation.

Of course this album gets a boost from the fact that I've heard it so many times I'm comfortable with it, but still it is a very solid album and I can easily see why people are so drawn to it. The sad part to me about an album like this is that it can never really be followed up. Liz Phair could have followed it with something similar but it wouldn't have that freshness or rawness of this album. But she also couldn't change her sound or approach too much without angering her fans, well in fact that's what happened with her later album Liz Phair. It is rare that someone can actually follow up on an album like this and actually please their fans and critics while still growing their sound and art.

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (Top 500 Countdown Update)

As part of my continuing down the Rolling Stone top 500 albums of all time I just finished listening to Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth #329 on their list.

What can I say other than it is a Sonic Youth album. I have never really listened to them much. I owned one of their albums, Sister, which I liked better than this one, but it was never an album I was crazy about either. This one currently falls into the 40's for me with albums like Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins and Between the Buttons by the Rolling Stones.

If you've never listened to Sonic Youth this is very reprsentational of what I know of their stuff and allmusic.com picks it as their best album, but personally besides the song Kool Thing there is nothing in their stuff that really jumps out to me.

Which IRA is right for me

OK so my wife and I have been talking about our money situation, not an uncommon topic, and we're trying to think about long term goals. One of them is to take advantage of IRAs. Now we've used a standard IRA in the past for tax purposes, but now that we both have jobs with a pension plan the tax break is broke. So for years we've had our traditional IRA just sitting there making money on its own with no new contributions. It seemed to both of us that IRAs had to exist for some reason and we were missing out by not using one. So here is what I've learned in studying all of this.

The first thing to address is why the standard IRA doesn't really work for us. Since we are both on a pension plan with our jobs, we cannot deduct the money we put into a standard IRA. This means basically there has been no incentive for us to put any money into the IRA because we get no tax break from it.

Now I've heard of Roth IRAs for a long time but never really understood what they were or how we might be able to take advantage of their tax breaks. So this week I sat down and did some reading. It is very simple actually. The money that you put into a Roth IRA gives you no deduction from your taxes, but the beauty is that any money it earns is tax free. For example let's say I bought 100 shares of RBC at $32 per share in 1999 then sold it today for $89 per share. That would be a profit of $5,700. Now if it were in a standard brokerage account I would have to pay capital gains tax on that money, but in a Roth IRA I would not.

So what are the catches. Like a standard IRA there is an annual contribution limit. You can pay penalties if you remove earnings from your Roth IRA prior to turning 59 1/2 or you've had the account for less than 5 years.

But there are other upsides that I didn't know about. You can remove your contributions to a Roth IRA tax and penalty free at any time. After 5 years you can also withdraw earnings tax and penalty free for home purchase, college, or major medical expenses.

A pretty sweet deal it seems to me and something my wife and I agreed we should be taking advantage of. Now the trick with this stuff is how do you get started since it always takes a chunk of cash to get started. Well this isn't really true it turns out and here's why.

We could for instance start a Roth IRA with out credit union for a mere $25 startup. There is no charge for startup and no fee. This account is basically a variable rate money market account.

But what if we want more control over the money, something similar to a brokerage account. Well I looked at a few companies (Schwab, Fidelity, ETrade, Ameritrade, and Vanguard) and here is the one I found. At ETrade you can start up a Roth IRA with no minimum startup investment and no fees as long as you choose to get all statements electronically. No minimum completely blew my mind.

OK and one other thing. A cool thing about a Roth IRA is that you and your spouse can share it jointly. You cannot do this with a standard IRA. That means that you can put up to $8,000 a year into this account and really build up your earning potential much quicker.