Week 10

Getting a little bit bigger, but not too noticeable. This is current as of this week.

Week 9

Not much change since Week 8.

Week 8

We're going to try to do this in the same outfit every week.

Taste of Lexus

This past Saturday we checked out Taste of Lexus at El Toro. Taste of Lexus is an opportunity to check out fine cars and the chance to test drive them without the pressure of a salesman. The great thing about the event is that you get to drive the cars essentially without restraint (staying within the driving course is required, though). But, best of all, they provide you with free gourmet catered food and a parting gift as well. This is our second year in a row attending Taste of Lexus.

The cars we drove this time were the new GS450h (hybrid version), an IS250 sport, an RX350 SUV (which Lediya disliked because of its unsure handling, most likely due to its FWD), an SC430 convertible coupe with the top down, and the all-new Lexus flagship, the LS460. All great cars. My personal favorite is the GS450h. That thing is a monster.

While we are currently not in the market for a new car, we are starting to look for a replacement to my beloved 1992 Nissan Pathfinder (because of the baby, of course). But Taste of Lexus is an awesome marketing tool, and Lexus pulled it off very successfully. It probably convinced a lot of folks who are on the fence regarding Lexus.

Baby Beltran - Coming April 2007!

That's right, Lediya and I are going to be parents! We just told the folks last week and now we're telling everyone else. She's on the 10th week, and we've already got a sonogram of Baby Beltran.

Stay tuned to this blog as we will continually update everyone on the status!

Portfolio Doctor

Lediya and I were recently featured in the September 2006 issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's monthly feature The Portfolio Doctor. We had some personal finance questions that we wanted to address (rent vs. buy, stay at home vs. work, retirement allocations, etc), so I decided to e-mail the feature's author to see his take. He selected our situation (among the many e-mails he had received) and put us in touch with a couple of certified financial planners. The planners looked at our finances and our questions and gave us their responses, one of which is reflected in the article.

We attended a photoshoot (the photographer actually took 10 rolls of film to get the "perfect" shot). It was an interesting experience in that we opened up our finances to the world for everyone to see. But my take is that if this article helps others out in their situations then it's worth it. Plus, we got a couple of free consultations with top-notch CFPs.

What's In Your Wallet?

There are many credit card rewards programs out there, from frequent flier miles to gift cards to cash back. Credit card rewards have been good to me - for my honeymoon I used my 100,000 Delta SkyMiles hoard to score two roundtrip economy tickets to Europe, saving us $1,000. I accumulated 90% of those miles using Amex's Delta SkyMiles credit card, over the course of two or three years.

However, even though I was successful at scoring free airline tickets, it wasn't an easy process. I had to deal with blackout dates, limited flights, and crazy itineraries. I finally decided it wasn't worth it so I decided to change my credit card rewards to pure cash back. Many experts agree that getting cash back is probably the best form of credit card rewards.

So what it's in our wallet? Last fiscal year, we used Amex's Blue Cash, which is a tiered rewards card that awards 1% for gas/groceries/drugstore purchases (g/g/d) and 0.5% for everything else for the first $6,500 in spending, 5% g/g/d and 1.5% for everything else beyond $6,500. We used the card for nearly every purchase last year, racking up $24,000 in charges, which netted us nearly $460 in cash back (1.9% average payout). Not bad just for using a credit card (note: you must pay off the balance in full each month or the finance charges will cancel your cash back and defeat the whole purpose).

This year though we switched to Citibank's Dividend Platinum Select, which is not tiered. It awards 5% for g/g/d and 1% for everything else, with rewards capped at $300 per year. I got in on a promotion that bumped up the 1% to 2% for me for three months, so that's what we're using currently. We're also using Costco's Amex card for dining out, which gives back 3%. This fiscal year we've received $140 already in cash back.

My personal finance tip of the day: if you're disciplined about paying your credit card balances in full each month I would suggest to apply for these cash back cards. Might as well get paid back for spending money!

Havasupai

This past Labor Day weekend we set out to cross out an item on our life to-do list: visiting the Havasupai Indian nation to see its famed aquamarine waterfalls. It was an arduous task: 8 hours of driving to Arizona, followed by a 10.2 mile hike through rocky canyon trails. Supai has got to be one of the most inaccessible towns in the nation. But it was all worth it.

We left Friday night, drove 8 hours across the border to Arizona, then arrived at 7:00 a.m. Saturday to begin our hike. Since we were camping, we had to pack everything with us: food, tent, sleeping bags, clothes, and supplies. We each ended up carrying around 30 lbs. each in our packs. We started our hike at 7:42 a.m. This hike was definitely the most physically challenging task that each of us has done. We arrived at the campground nearly 8 hours later at 3:30 p.m. But, as you arrive at the campground you see why you visited in the first place: Havasu Falls. The limestone and travertine that gives the falls its unique skyblue color is just amazing. The best part is the very refreshing 70 degree ultrapure and ultraclear water. It just felt awesome swimming by the falls after such a punishing journey. We all ended up hitting the sack at 7:00 p.m. after a hot MRE (meal-ready-to-eat).

The next day we hiked another mile to Mooney Falls. The falls are amazing as well, the unique part about Mooney is the treacherous hike to get there. The last tenth of a mile requires hikers to essentially climb down the face of the cliff with nothing more than chains and ladders to help. It is a long way down.

The third waterfall is Navajo Falls, and this one was our favorite. It's approachable unlike the other two because it's not as tall, and it's also like being in a constant deluge of mountain showers.

On the way out we hired a mule to take our packs back to the top, but because we were all still tired we took almost 8 hours to hike back. But again, it was all worth it. More pictures here.