Biden vs. Palin

And to think this folksy "hockey Mom" could actually be a heartbeat away from the Presidency...

McCain and Obama's tax plans compared

Free 10-year Term Life Insurance

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance is giving away $1 billion worth of life insurance coverage in 2008. Through a program called LifeBridge, MassMutual is offering a free $50,000 term life insurance policy (10-year term) for those individuals who are:

- age 19-42
- parent or legal guardian of a dependent child under the age of 18
- permanent, legal resident of the U.S.
- employed full or part time with annual family income between $10,000 and $40,000 per year
- in good health (as determined by their underwriting guidelines)

Only one policy per household is allowed. Death benefits are paid into a trust for the educational benefit of the insured's children.

A FAQ on this program is available by clicking here, and the LifeBridge eligibility form is here.

For those living in metro Atlanta, MassMutual will be taking applications in person on September 28 between 10am and 2pm at the Ben Hill United Methodist Church in Atlanta.

Green lodging in Georgia

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Arthur Frommer has nothing on me. There are few destinations where people can travel, stay at a beautiful mountain retreat, enjoy a hearty family-style dinner and breakfast, and do so for less than $90. The Len Foote Hike Inn is an hour and a half drive from downtown Atlanta and located in the Amicalola Falls State Park. There is also a 5-mile hike to get to the Hike Inn--there are no roads leading to this property. And they ask that guests bring no cell phones, pagers, or radios... so I'm guessing that also excludes my Blackberry and iPod.

The Hike Inn is the first lodging property in the country to receive the Gold Level Certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for an Existing Building (Gold LEED - EB) by the United States Green Building Council. Given its remote location, the Hike Inn is all about conservation, from the composting toilets and solar panels to its policy of "pack it in, pack it out" since there are no trash cans at the Hike Inn!

This weekend will be my first stay at the Hike Inn, and I have but one concern: my 4 1/2 year old daughter I'm taking with me. I'm scheduling two hours for the 5-mile hike and am planning on packing as light as possible in the event I have to carry her on my shoulders part of the way. Once we get there, I know she'll have a blast. Each of the 20 guest rooms have bunk beds, and she's already claimed the top bunk.

Become a Friend of the Hike Inn for just $15, and you'll recoup this fee through the end of August as the Hike Inn is running a 30% discount for members. Other benefits of joining Friends of the Hike Inn are discounts on merchandise (only available at the Hike Inn) as well as the ability to serve as a volunteer at the Hike Inn.

It's a Landlord's Market

In any economic downturn, there are always opportunities. One such opportunity is the result of higher lending standards, which makes it more difficult for people to purchase homes, as well as a doubling in the number of home foreclosures in the 2nd quarter of this year: higher demand for good quality single family rental homes.

This was my hunch, but it was confirmed this week after receiving a signed lease agreement for a rental property being vacated today. The new lease includes a 5% increase in rent over the previous one and will be the first time I've had no lapse in vacancy upon a tenant's move-out, quite a relief. I've been considering the purchase of another rental property, and after this experience I plan to start researching prospective investment homes.

And watch this to see a disturbing encounter between Will Ferrell and his landlord:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Mid-year review

This entry is more for me than anyone who stumbles upon it, as I wanted to do a mid-year review of some life resolutions which will some day become habit. I'd give myself an arbitrary grade of B-, as good progress has been made in some areas while others are untouched. Below is each area with its respective grade:

- Pare down: F. I'm preparing for an October and November barrage of eBay activity, but that doesn't help in the interim.

- Make running a habit: A. The real evidence is that when I pack running gear on a business trip, it gets used; I now run at least twice a week and more if the schedule allows. I've shed over 15 pounds and moved from "Overweight" to "In Normal Range" according to the WHO and CDC, which defines overweight as having a body-mass-index/BMI of 25 or more. A good BMI calculator can be found here.

- Travel more for leisure: B. Gasoline over $4 a gallon doesn't help, but we've been on three trips so far this year with a big vacation scheduled in early December.

- Reduce exposure to media/news: B. I'm a political news junkie, but you won't find me at a methadone clinic as long as I can get my fix of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.

- Invest more in community: D. It's not what I originally had in mind, but right now this investment in community is through time and money directed at helping to get Senator Obama elected President.

- Manage ADHD rather than having it manage me: A. Just after the first of the year I switched from Dexedrine to Vyvanse, and it's much more effective with zero side effects.

- Simplify investments: B. I'm down to just four individual stocks considered long-term holds (DIS, MRK, SHPGY, and MSFT). All other holdings are in the form of exchange-traded funds. Unfortunately I'm still down 14% since the first of the year compared to a 12.7% decline in the Dow Jones and a 13% decline in the S&P 500. Fortunately the rental properties are all occupied and throwing off good cash flow.

Revisiting the past

I enjoyed attending my 10-year high school class reunion, and that didn't seem so long ago. But it was. Now even further removed from those awkward and painful high school days, I just attended my 20-year class reunion last weekend.

There were hints of this 10 years ago, but even more obvious today is that:

• academic and athletic success does not translate into success in life
• beauty is fleeting
• people are resourceful--even idiots find a way to earn a living
• if opportunities exist, people don't move far from home
  
• the relationship between money and happiness is not linear
• extreme social retardation does not wane over time

Our reunion committee did a great job finding and contacting the nearly 700 alumni in a rather short period of time, but unfortunately turnout was rather low. There were only a half-dozen people I really wanted to see, and only a few of them attended. Fortunately there were others I didn't know in high school who I got to meet and live pretty interesting lives.

Like many reunions, there was a 20-question survey to be filled out prior to attending. As someone who didn't participate in extracurricular sports, I was annoyed that 3 of the 20 questions asked about high school, college, and pro sports involvement. Somewhat in protest I left a snarky response detailing how I trained and then walked on and made the roster as a linebacker with the Atlanta Falcons from 1997 to 1999. At 5'7" and weighing 150 pounds soaking wet in high school, anyone who knew me would have immediately identified this as a ruse. But walking around the room Saturday night reading the "Did you know..." posters about my classmates, I was amused to see that my "success" with the Falcons had made the cut.

Segway tours in Atlanta

My family loves living in metro Atlanta and are always up for learning more about out adopted home. Early this spring I was excited to learn that City Segway Tours had an Atlanta office, offering 3-hour tours of downtown. For once I knew had the perfect birthday for my wife!

Purchasing a birthday gift for one's spouse gets more and more complicated once kids are in the picture, however, especially when the gift is an activity and a babysitter needs to be scheduled. It was for this reason that my wife's birthday gift was two months late...

We booked our tour a couple of weeks out because the tours often sell out. The 3-hour tour is $70, but if you book through Viator, enter FAB7 for a 7% discount. Tours run twice a day at 10am and 2pm, 7 days a week.

My wife and I arrived 15 minutes before our 2pm tour at the City Segway Tours' office on the top level of Underground Atlanta at 50 Upper Alabama St SW, Suite 256. After signing away our lives we watched a brief video on how to operate the Segway. Afterwards we made our way outside to Upper Alabama Street which is open to pedestrian traffic only, making it a perfect place to learn how to use a Segway.

While tours can have up to 8 clients with a guide, there were only four of us paired with our guide and six in the other group. With help from our guide, we individually learned how to mount, move, turn, and dismount the Segway. Each of us spent about 10 minutes practicing, and then we were off!

The tour took us past the former World of Coca Cola museum to the Georgia State Capitol. From there we went through the campus of Georgia State University, past Grady Hospital, to the Sweet Auburn Historic District. Along Auburn Avenue we saw the Soul Food Museum, Wheat Street Baptist Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. After a brief stop, we headed northwest past Woodruff Park to Centennial Olympic Park, where one of the few fountains in Atlanta is currently running due of the drought. After a photo op, we circled the park and then made our way back to Atlanta Underground.

Fortunately my wife loved it and says it was worth the wait.