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Won’t be getting much blogging done today. I have to be at the campus by 2:00 (meaning I have to leave here by 1:00) for a memorial service for the Grand Old Man of the history department, who passed a month ago under difficult circumstances. Quite some time ago, before I realized I would be hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance on Monday, I also promised to have dinner with an out-of-state colleague who spent the fall semester as interim director of a program in that department, she having come back to town for the service. So that will keep me in lovely downtown Tempe all afternoon and into the night.

It also hugely truncates the time available to work on the carnival and do all the weekend chores. So, if I don’t have much to say today and tomorrow, don’t go away. It’s not that I’ve forgotten you.
🙂

Next Monday, Funny about Money gets to host its first Carnival of Personal Finance! I’m reading submissions now and getting a big boot out of them.

I love hosting carnivals. It always introduces me to sites that I didn’t know about, and it allows you to read a lot of posts you might not have come across. And to review some that you have.

So. If you blog on personal finance, be sure to send a submission by the Sunday deadline. Here’s the link to the C of PF.

So I called the state’s General Accounting Office, by some miracle reaching the woman who manages RASL, the state benefit whereby employees get paid a portion of their hourly wage for each hour of accrued sick leave they’ve accumulated. You could hear her hair rising off her head to stand straight on end as I described the story I’d been told: that a layoff means you lose all your RASL.

Nay. Nay verily. She told me that was absolutely, positively not true.

Termination, as it develops, is separate from retirement. You may be canned for any reason ranging from budget-driven layoffs to being caught with your fingers in the till while screwing little boys. That is irrelevant to retirement. Retiring is a different process. To get your RASL, all you have to do is arrange to start your retirement within 14 days after your last day on the job.

Layoffs, she declared in every way she could think of, do not, do not, do not affect your earned retirement benefit.

Thank God!

Nice, eh? This factoid came to me first through the rumor mill, which you would expect to be inaccurate. But then it was confirmed by HR! There’s where the strategy to declare fake retirement plans was actually hatched.

Now all I have to do is perch up here like a sitting duck and wait to be laid off. At least I don’t have to cook up any schemes to make it look like I intend to retire when I most certainly do not.

Not that I wouldn’t like to.

The 162nd Festival of Frugality is online at Gather Little by Little. Funny’s post on the perqs of pinching penniesmade editor’s pick! ?Let’s hope I don’t have to use those pennies anytime soon in a forced early retirement. Money Theory has one of the nicest essays I’ve seen on how frugality can lead to contentment and even fun. Military Finance Network revisits the issue of whether one should invest savings or use them to pay off loans. And Wenchy Poo has some creative money-saving ideas.

The Make It from Scratch Carnival celebrates its 100th edition at Stephanie’s Make It from Scratch site. Funny’s post on the low-budget landscaping project appears here.Jason explains why it’s better to buy a whole chicken and butcher it yourself than to buy precut chicken parts. Check out Grandmother Wren’s clever and easy idea for making an easel and paint box for the little one’s artwork! And I was highly entertained by Timbuk2 Mom’s tale of her experiments with DIY dishwasher detergent. She’s braver than I am!

The Carnival of Money Stories is up at The Sun’s Financial Diary, where Funny’s rant about our legislators’ attack on the state’s educational system appears. Darwin’s Finance reports on 3.99% mortgage rates being offered by Toll Brothers. At Living Almost Large, you can join the conversation about why you’re saving for retirement. Harvesting Dollars contemplates (with horror!) the cost of independent health insurance.

Great carnivals, all. Be sure to visit each and check out the other excellent posts!

We have a new President. Thank God!

I am not easily moved to tears by public events, but when this superb man stepped forward to take our country’s reins with tens of thousands of people cheering him on, my eyes were smarting. What a phenomenal historic moment. Never did I expect to live long enough to see a Black man in the White House. Nor, I might add, did I expect ever to see another American President who bears the promise of greatness within him.

What a speaker! That he called for integrity, a return to American values, and cohesive responsibility was, for me, the most stirring message of his speech:”For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. What is required of us is a new era of responsibility.”

The challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America—they will be met!

Yes! Yes, we can.

This is neat: Pecuniarities is running the site’s first blog contest, and the prize is nifty: a six-month subscription to the Wall Street Journal. This is worth, in pecuniary terms, $129…and a lot more in connect-to-the-world terms. Check it out!