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1.18.12

Driver on a Dime

Source for affordable BMW parts

BMW uses the slogan "The Ultimate Driving Machine", and for good reason. Combining luxurious interiors with the precision of German-engineered mechanicals, BMW is crafting some of the best-driving vehicles available. This level of quality means that BMWs cost more than the average economy car, and so does the maintenance. However, for an owner interested in maintaining his own car, Parts Geek can lessen the cost of typical repairs by providing a great selection of affordable BMW parts. Whether you need a water pump to complete the restoration of a 1967 2000ti sedan, or already need to replace the brake pads on your brand new 2012 M3, you can find it at Partsgeek.com.

While Parts Geek has an inventory of over 10 million parts available, finding the item you need is as simple as picking the year, make and model of your vehicle from a pull-down menu. BMW parts can command a premium at the dealership or local auto parts store, but Parts Geek guarantees their prices are the lowest on the web. Need to fix your Beemer quickly? Their database is updated daily to provide accurate inventory, and orders placed by 3PM EST are shipped the same day, and many parts can be shipped overnight. All items are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee, so any parts that aren't needed for a job can be easily returned. Whatever BMW parts you need, Parts Geek has them at prices that won't make you wish you'd bought a Hyundai.

Site to find discounted Volvo auto parts

Volvo parts, and perhaps for that matter, genuine Volvo parts, may indeed prove hard to find for the ill-fortuned owner. True to form, it's not an uncommon sight to find a Volvo owner skipping from shop to shop, only to be dismayed that the particular piece is not in store or that it is at a price that would discourage any buyer.

Answering this call, Parts Geek emerges as the decisive hero among the heartbroken to bring a wide variety of spare parts, both OEM and aftermarket, to the interested party to choose from. Also offering an easy-to-use purchasing and payment system, the interested party may well complete his search in a record two minutes, should he so wish.

But as the party in question continues to survey the Parts Geek website, he's pleasantly surprised to find a discount section, where all his parts may be purchased at wholesale prices. Truly, if the math were done on some of the offers, it shows the happy client that some of the products could be gotten at an 80% discount off the retail price.

That's when Parts Geek's online setting comes to play, making such prices available to the auto parts franchise. An unbeatable auto parts distribution network then completes the synergy, making Parts Geek probably the number one supplier of spare parts, including discount Volvo parts.

Volvo owners may therefore rest at ease, knowing their mechanical interests are well taken care of.

2.15.11

Carnival Love

My first Money In Polite Company post was featured in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance. I am hoping this will be an occasional series where I can spout off about money and etiquette. Send me your questions, y'all.

And I'm late on these two, since both of these were posted a day or two after we left for vacation, but heads up on two Carnivals I participated in at the end of February.

The Dratted Engagement Ring was selected as an Editor's Pick for the Carnival of Twenty-Something Personal Finances, graciously hosted by The Frugal Law Student.

Over at the Carnival of Personal Finace #141, hosted by Broke Grad Student, my post Wedding As Status Symbol also got an Editor's Pick nod.

2.13.11

New Retirement Plan Options

So my employer's 401(k) plan is changing administrators and changing fund offerings. This is good, in my opinion, as many of the new offerings are Vanguard funds. But since several of the funds I'm currently shoveling money into will be liquidated with any existing assets re-mapped to new funds, I've got to put a little thought into the new offerings before my next paycheck at the end of the month.

I am feeling crunched for time with work (we haven't even fully unpacked from the trip yet!) so I suspect I'll swap everything into the new Vanguard target fund option. But to make sure I'm not committing some gross retirement foul, bear with me while I talk this through a little. About half my money is in a Roth 401(k) and the other half is in a traditional pre-tax 401(k), since the Roth option wasn't available for the first fifteen months after I became eligible to participate. But the changes I make will apply to both types of funds, so I am going to ignore the tax status of the money, and talk about them all as part of one big pot.

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1.30.11

Do You Feel Guilty Spending Money In Today's Economy?

Yesterday I found a china cabinet and liquor cabinet that would work great in our dining room. I have been looking for a china cabinet casually for about two years--it is one of those pieces of furniture I knew I would eventually (there is very little cabinet space in the kitchen), but I couldn't find one in the right dimensions that was the right finish and the right price and the right Arts And Crafts Meets Modernism style. And when Shiner moved in a year ago he brought a lot of wine and liquor that is being stored mostly on the floor in a corner of the dining room.

So these furniture purchases have been a long time coming, and through juducious use of my tax refund I can afford them without dipping into my "slush fund" or seriously impeding my ability to meet my 2008 goals. The furniture will be about $1800 including shipping and I will need to "find" $1400 to hit my 2008 non-retirement savings goals. That's an amount I can do, though of course it will be more of a stretch.

Then I wake up to NPR reporting that Bear Stearns got bought by JP Morgan Chase and I started thinking, "Oh no! We just went on vacation! The economy is in the toilet! This is no time to go on a spending rampage, buying frivolous things like furniture! My God, woman, you just bought groceries yesterday, do you think you're made of money? The only reason you want a china cabinet is so you have somewhere to put fancy wedding china, but no one can afford to buy you fancy wedding china! We're all going to be eating catfood before the years is out! And my god, what will the cats eat then?"

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1.21.11

We're Baa-aaack

...from vacation, that is. Shiner and I are digging out, and are slowly reintegrating into our normal lives. And slowly catching up with skimming my Google reader. I have a February wrap-up to do, and some thoughts about vacation money, and an update on my Lenten Compact resolution, and questions about Eliot Spitzer ($5,000 for a night with a prostitute? Am I that sheltered? Did she do his taxes and tailor his suits as well?).. and, oh my! But I'm exhausted, and I have to watch the season finale of Project Runway, so these things will wait.

However, I do have some news that absolutely cannot wait. Shiner got a new job! I have posted about him looking for a new job in the private sector, but while we were on vacation he got an email offer with a firm he's really excited about. This means more pay, more experience, more action. It also means a whole new benefits package to navigate. Hooray, my favorite junior-varsity sport.

1.11.11

Net Worth Not Impressive: My Coping Strategy

My net worth numbers have been sucking since the end of 2007. Completely crappy. I was getting a fair amount of motivation every month by watching that number grow, and now for reasons mostly not within my control (Hello, stock market! Meet the housing market!), that number has gone haywire, and I don't know when it will right itself. If I can't use net worth progress to track the incremental improvement that I know I'm making, what sort of benchmark am I going to use?

From November 2007, when I started tracking my net worth, until December 2009, I was a freight train, a tigress, a perpetual motion machine, a number of really impressive metaphors. I increased my net worth by $107,822. I don't even know how to calculate the percentage increase because I started $46k in the hole, and high school algebra rules about multiplying and dividing negative numbers were a long time ago. But I know that's not shabby, considering that even at my most indebted that number includes home ownership and law school loans.

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12.30.10

Money In Polite Company: The Gift That Doesn't Keep On Giving

I love advice columns, and I love giving advice. I also love personal finance, and you might be surprised how frequently these loves of mine intersect. If you've got any money-related etiquette questions, sling 'em this way. But in the meantime, check out the following question from this week's Dear Prudie column at Slate:

Dear Prudence,
I spend a good amount of money on things (clothes, books, toys) for my niece and nephew. My intention was that they use them until they grow out of them, and then I would get them back for my future kids. Every time I give new items, I politely remind my sister-in-law that I would "please like this back." Since my niece was born three years ago, I have been given only one item back. I have since discovered that she sells most of the things her kids outgrow. I understand they need to sell them to afford new clothes, but I am not made of money, either. How do I remind her that I want things returned, other than writing "Aunty wants this" on each piece?

- Not Made of Money

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