LotharBot's Xanga

migrating to Facebook

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:57:22 GMT

look me up on facebook... Tom Darrow in Seattle, WA. (Don't confuse me with the guy from Port Orchard, WA with the same name.)

I'm old...

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:38:22 GMT

I'm the same age as grandpa Cutforth... well, give or take some* months.

* 756

(For those who don't get the joke, Grandpa decided 30 was too old, so he's 29 and some months.)

Summer Trip Itinerary

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:40:49 GMT

Wed Aug 19

3231

Depart SEATTLE TACOMA WA (SEA) at 6:00 PM
Arrive in DENVER CO (DEN) at 9:40 PM

Sat Aug 22

0782

Depart DENVER CO (DEN) at 2:20 PM
Arrive in SALT LAKE CITY UT (SLC) at 3:45 PM

Tue Aug 25

1931

Depart SALT LAKE CITY UT (SLC) at 5:30 PM
Arrive in SEATTLE TACOMA WA (SEA) at 6:45 PM

Epic Beatdown Highlights

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:20:49 GMT

Nuggets 121 at Hornets 63 (ties the largest margin in an NBA playoff game EVER.)

A completely different musical piece

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:26:38 GMT

Can You Feel It (Denver Nuggets 08/09 song by T.R.E.)

A great musical piece...

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:24:48 GMT

Introducing: Transformed Thoughts

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:11:32 GMT

Transformed Thoughts: a new theology blog by Tom and Catherine.

Stop by, read, and leave your comments.

Looking for investing advice

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:32:48 GMT

Catherine and I started saving for the Grand Master Plan (TM) about 3 years ago, and we still spend about the same amount as we did in grad school, but with a higher income, so our savings has grown quite a bit. Since the GMP has been put on hold, we now have our down payment and lots of extra. I'm looking for advice on investing it.

Right now, we have most of the money in a Money Market account at our credit union (BECU). Here's what I was thinking:

- keep 3 months of emergency fund in the money market account at BECU
- start a CD ladder of 12 month CDs on 3 month intervals, each of which is about 3 months' expenses, on Vanguard

Between the two of these, we'll have enough to cover an emergency and have one year of interest-earning funds that we can access if needed. Then comes the investment part:

- put a small amount, perhaps 5% of what's left, into a Lending Club account. This is the "high risk" portion of our investments.
- put 30% into Vanguard's "Wellesley Income Fund". This is mostly bonds and dividend-bearing stocks.
- put 65% into Vanguard's "Total Stock Market Index". This is fairly high risk, but I think it's at a great price right now, with the market tanking.

I don't want to dump all of the money in right away, though. I was thinking of making a once-per-month, 1/6 investment into the Vanguard funds so that we'd be fully invested in 6 months. Is that too fast or too slow? As for even longer-term investing, here are some things I'm not so sure about:

- possibly fund IRAs. I don't know much about this, though. Should I go with Roth IRA's, and should I get them through BECU or Vanguard or somewhere else? Are they even worthwhile?
- possibly increase 401k contributions. Right now, Catherine contributes up to the matching limit, but not up to the total contribution limit. Would it make sense to increase that?

Finally, we'll continue to save, and when we have work in Denver and move on with the GMP, we'll build up a down payment in our Money Market account, possibly pulling a CD out of the ladder to help cover some costs.

So, does anyone have advice for me? (My question is also due to appear on a more widely-read finance-focused blog.)

modified NBA stats

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:34:08 GMT

EDITED - now with a legend and everything!

NBA team records: a visual approach

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:05:43 GMT

This is the output from a script I had Catherine write for me. It tracks team records for NBA basketball teams, sorted by winning percentage in both directions. Read each line across. Capital letters are home games; lowercase are road games. So, for example, the Wl in the first cell on the SAS line shows they've beat the Lakers in San Antonio but lost to the Lakers in LA.

From this, you can see how certain teams have performed against "good" or "bad" teams, and you can see if a team has played a lot of good or bad teams. For example, San Antonio hasn't played very many good teams, and they've played a ton of games against bad teams. Portland has played a lot of good teams and very few medium-bad teams.

pct

LAL

CLE

BOS

ORL

SAS

DEN

NOR

HOU

POR

ATL

PHO

DAL

DET

UTH

MIA

PHI

MIL

NJN

NYK

CHA

CHI

TOR

IND

MIN

GSW

MEM

LAC

SAC

WAS

OKC

LAL

814

wwL

wWw

WlW

CLE

810

WwW

WwWl

BOS

804

WWl

WwwW

lWw

ORL

767

LwW

WwW

SAS

674

wwW

wWWw

DEN

659

Wll

WwW

NOR

650

LLw

Wlw

HOU

622

lWW

wWl

Www

POR

605

lWL

llW

wWW

ATL

605

wLl

lLl

wWw

WlW

PHO

571

WWl

DAL

568

lLl

WWl

lWwW

DET

558

wwL

WWl

WlW

UTH

556

wWw

MIA

548

WwW

PHI

500

WwW

MIL

468

wWw

wWWl

NJN

455

WwW

lLl

wLw

lLw

NYK

419

llW

lLl

LlL

wWWl

CHA

409

lLl

LLw

LllW

CHI

400

lLlW

LlL

TOR

391

lLLl

lWl

LwL

IND

372

WlL

llW

WwL

MIN

357

LLl

lLl

Wll

lwW

GSW

295

wlL

MEM

256

LllL

llW

LlL

LAC

233

LlL

LlW

WlLl

wwW

SAC

222

lWl

Lll

lWW

WAS

209

lLl

lWl

LllW

OKC

205

lLL

WLl

LWw

LLl