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Joe Biden (not really): “So there I was on the Amtrak, and I was thinking Dick Cheney, God love him, my friend Dick Cheney, he is probably worse than Pol Pot. It was because Democrats opposed the surge that the surge worked. If we had gotten behind the winning strategy, the enemy would have known it was too soft. We needed to oppose it in order for it to succeed.”

The real Joe Biden now says he is happy to thank George W. Bush on Iraq policy. Yes, good thing indeed that Bush was wise enough to ignore everything Biden ever said on the subject.

The real Dick Cheney on the Obami’s claiming credit for Iraq: “If they are going to take credit for , fair enough, for what they’ve done while they are there. But it ought to go with a healthy dose of ‘thank you George Bush’ up front.” Then he plays Darth Vader mind games with them — praising the surge in Afghanistan and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The real Liz Cheney asks, “Bipartisanship to what end?” As she notes, there should be little to praise in “bipartisanship” if the goal is to pass a health-care bill that everyone hates. Ceci Connolly notes that what is interesting is the “bad blood” between the White House and Democratic congressional leaders, as well as between the House and Senate. Bill Kristol remarks that the Obami “can’t resist” making partisan digs. And to prove their point, Juan William says Dick Cheney is helping al-Qaeda by criticizing the Obami’s handling of the war against Islamic fascists.

The unfortunately all too real antics of the Congressional Black Caucus: “From 2004 to 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus’s political and charitable wings took in at least $55 million in corporate and union contributions, according to an analysis by the New York Times, an impressive amount even by the standards of a Washington awash in cash. Only $1 million of that went to the caucus’s political action committee; the rest poured into the largely unregulated nonprofit network. . . . But the bulk of the money has been spent on elaborate conventions that have become a high point of the Washington social season, as well as the headquarters building, golf outings by members of Congress and an annual visit to a Mississippi casino resort.” Among the CBC’s pals: “cigarette companies, Internet poker operators, beer brewers and the rent-to-own industry, which has become a particular focus of consumer advocates for its practice of charging high monthly fees for appliances, televisions and computers.”

Flynt Leverett, who was canned by the Bush administration (”Leverett continually missed deadlines and misplaced documents, and the NSC Records office had a long list of his delinquencies. His office was notoriously messy—documents were strewn over chairs, windowsills, the floor, and piled high on his desk … repeatedly missing deadlines and losing important letters was simply not tolerable behavior for an NSC officer, and Leverett was told to leave”), has now become the favorite flack for the mullahs. “The curious dance between Washington’s Iran experts and the foreign government whose actions they are supposedly analyzing has parallels in the ways that totalitarian governments like the Soviet Union and Mao’s China manipulated Western public opinion by only granting access to scholars and policy hands who would toe the party line. Similarly, the Iranian government today decides who in the West will be granted the kind of access that will allow them to speak with authority about the regime to Washington.” (h/t Jeffrey Goldberg)

James Carafano says that he is not surprised that “there would be more killing of high level terrorists than capture for interrogation and trial. That’s because the administration has botched efforts to come up with a coherent program for detention, interrogation, and trial.”

Matt Welch confirms my suspicion that libertarians have principles inconsistent with big-government liberals: “What I do care about, regardless of who’s president, is human freedom and prosperity. And I strongly and consistently suspect that when the government accumulates more power, I and everyone else (except those wielding it) have less of which I seek.” That said, if Republicans gain power and continue the spending jag, libertarians will turn their ire on them too.

Tim Lincecum has one man to thank for his recent contract dispute with the San Francisco Giants: Barry Zito.

Prior to the 2007 season, the Giants were able to lure Zito away from cross-town rival Oakland by offering him the richest contract for a pitcher in baseball history, a seven-year deal worth a staggering $126 million, plus an $18 million option for 2014.

At the time, there were few who scoffed at the acquisition. Zito, a dominating force for the Athletics who made a name for himself with one of the most devastating curveballs anyone had ever seen, had won the 2002 AL Cy Young Award and had been the backbone of an Athletics team that had made the playoffs in four of the previous six seasons.

Not realizing the freak of nature that lay lurking in the depths of their roster, and needing an ace to lead their rotation, the Giants seemed rational with the offer they made to Zito. After all, the bigger budgeted teams were proving that you needed to spend money in order to win. Fans applauded the team’s willingness to spend, eager to bask in the glory of a World Series Championship.

Flash forward three years, and those same fans that were cheering the Zito signing are now cursing the baseball gods. If only they had known the Freak that is Tim Lincecum and what he would accomplish, there’s a very good chance that Zito would be in pinstripes, swindling the dollars from the pockets of the Steinbrenners.

Instead, he might just end up costing the Giants not just the $126 million, but he might blow their chance at reaching an agreement with Lincecum as well.

The Giant’s faith in Zito has resulted in less than stellar results. Over the past three seasons, Zito has compiled a 31-47 record (he was 102-59 with the A’s), a 4.57 ERA (after having never topped that mark in his seven seasons with the Athletics), and he’s yet to top 200 innings with the Giants (after having topped the mark in all of his years with the A’s, save his rookie season).

These are hardly numbers worthy of a record contract, and yet, there is nothing the Giants can do except pay Zito.

At the same time, you’ve got Lincecum putting up unfathomable numbers. He’s been arguably the best pitcher in baseball over the last two years, earning the NL Cy Young Award in both 2008 and 2009. He’s compiled a 40-17 record (which some say should be even better provided he had more run support), he’s led the league in strikeouts over the last two seasons, and just last year he ranked third in the MLB with a 2.48 ERA.

All the while, he’s barely earned over $1 million.

Sure, his signing bonus as a rookie was a pretty $2 million, but his pay over the last two seasons has been $405,000 and $650,000. Quite the bargain considering he’s become one of the most dominating, and popular, figures in baseball, let alone the Giants organization.

So enter 2010, the year Lincecum becomes eligible for arbitration. Now if there is one guy on that team that should be able to dictate the numbers of his contract, it’s Lincecum.

He’s earned the right to ask for whatever he wants, and the Giants should simply hand him a blank check considering all he’s done for the organization and all the potential that he still has to grow and evolve, becoming an even better pitcher, if that’s even possible.

But the Giants can’t do that. And why not? Because of Zito and his monstrosity of a contract.

The Giants learned the hard way about offering mega-million contracts to pitchers, guys who have an impact on just one in every five games. Zito basically self-destructed after signing on the dotted line, but the Giants have no choice but to continue paying him for the next four years.

Which is why they haven’t jumped the gun to sign Lincecum, even though every Giants fan is pulling their hair out as the two sides edge closer to an arbitration court date, something that could soil the good-will between the two, making Lincecum’s presence within the organization on a long-term basis seem unlikely.

For someone who’s been nicknamed “The Franchise”, not being a big part of the franchise’s future sure seems like a problem.

But the Giants aren’t eager to get coaxed into securing another $100 million into a pitcher, even one as good as Lincecum. Reports are suggesting that the Giants are offering somewhere in the three-year/$37 million range, while Lincecum’s party has countered with upwards of $40 million.

Considering the mammoth contracts that are given to players who, let’s be honest, don’t justify them, either of these numbers are an absolute steal for the Giants.

Considering what Lincecum means to that team, the fans, and the future of the organization, he could throw out any number that he wanted and it’s probably safe to say he would have earned it. The only thing keeping him from a mountain of cash, and the fans from a decade of security, is Barry Zito.

Unfortunately, the damage has already been done.

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I'm a big fan of Xero!

I also use another great web tool http://www.streetfolio.com.

I use Streetfolio to manage my real estate finances (mortgage, rent and property expenses).

Both Xero and streetfolio are cloud based and simple to use!

Posted by: StreetfolioFan |
January 18, 2010 4:17 PM
The excellent British-based (with coverage of all the relevant UK taxes, whether you're a sole trader, partnership or limited company with employees etc.) alternative to Xero is FreeAgent – sign up for a free trial then get 10% off if you subscribe here: http://www.freeagentcentral.com/?referrer=2jo837qt

Posted by: Dave Nattriss |
January 18, 2010 4:43 PM
Definitely check out MinuteDock if you like Xero – it's a slick time tracker that plugs right into Xero. It automagically creates invoices based on your time entries, and lays them out in a coherent way that won't leave your customers asking questions! http://minutedock.com

Posted by: James |
January 18, 2010 5:52 PM
This is a good idea for start-up business.

Posted by: Jane Williams |
January 19, 2010 4:28 AM
The people at XERO have created their Network API that allows partners to integrate smoothly without any problems. It basically requires a simple line of code to transfer to and from XERO. Out of all my experience in integration with outside applications, XERO is one of my favourites!

Posted by: Pete |
January 19, 2010 11:07 AM
12,000 companies with Xero as of Sep 31st 2009. 15,000 today!

Posted by: Elliot |
January 19, 2010 1:28 PM
When we're talking business accounting and doing it online…QuickBooks has a stellar app. (Quickbooks online)

To your point in the article, managing that multi user access and sharing the right information is critical. QuickBooks Online makes it effortless to connect with other users…setting someone up to share your books real time or to access time tracking is as easy as e-mailing them an invitation. Away with the complicated set up or IT specialist.

Kristen Berman
QuickBooks Online Product Manager

Posted by: Kristen |
January 20, 2010 1:04 PM
Kristen – correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Quicken Online is being phased out? Not so steller perhaps?
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2010/tc2010018_451437.htm
“Four months after Intuit (INTU) bought personal finance Web site Mint.com, the company is preparing to phase out its Quicken Online software, moving Intuit's Web users to Mint.”

Posted by: Justin |
January 22, 2010 2:10 AM
Is it not irresponsible for Quicken to be generating this product at it is being phased out?

Posted by: Daniel |
January 24, 2010 4:08 PM
I use saasu.com for a fair few businesses now, as a business owner and angel investor it makes it very easy since it is all online and I can switch between businesses easily and you don't have to pay a ridiculous amount to get all the real features like payroll/salaries and inventory plus all the usual stuff like multi-currency and cool sales analysis reports. Cheers, Pete.

Posted by: Peter J Cooper |
January 24, 2010 6:36 PM
Oh, I forgot to mention, saasu integrates with heaps of banks, has had salesforce integration for years plus timesheets inside and via integrated partners like 88miles. There are also point of sale integrations like touch cashier and content management systems integrations, payment systems and hundreds of partners. – Pete.

Posted by: Peter J Cooper |
January 24, 2010 6:38 PM
@peter and Daniel…Quicken Online is being phased out, you are correct. Quicken focuses on helping manage personal finance.

I was/am referring to QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online is Intuit's web accounting product for small businesses. We're not phasing out this at all! In fact, we're completely energized around helping solve small business accounting with a QuickBooks online solution. LMK if you have questions on this. Thanks for seeking the clarification.

Posted by: Kristen |
February 1, 2010 9:02 AM

I did it!

I finally finished the manuscript for Your Money: The Missing Manual; I e-mailed the last chapter to my editor at 9:10 this morning.

This book was a lot of work. I started writing it on 23 September 2009 at 12:27 p.m. Over the next 115 days, I gained fifteen pounds. (I actually gained eighteen, but I’ve lost three since the start of the year.) The final manuscript contains 125,244 words and 269 pages in Microsoft Word, which would be about 400 printed pages. That’s too long, so we’ll spend the next month whittling it down to something more manageable.

During the past few months, I’ve been a virtual hermit, cloistered in my office (”deep in the word mines”, as I like to say), working 8-10 hours every day — and sometimes many more. Now that the book is nearly finished (aside from editing and printing), I calculate that my hourly wage for this project is…drumroll please…less than minimum wage!

Still, I’m not doing this for the money. I’m doing it because I want to help people turn their financial lives around. I’m doing it because I wish I’d had a book like this twenty years ago. If Your Money: The Missing Manual sells enough copies to earn back its advance, that’s great. But if it helps even a handful of people get out of debt and start saving for the future, I’ve done my job.

Chock full of goodness
What’s in the book? Plenty of the stuff you see at Get Rich Slowly — but also lots of new topics, too. Here’s a chapter-by-chapter breakdown:

Introduction — I give a brief summary of my background and share the fourteen tenets of Get Rich Slowly. (2304 words, 5 pages, completed 09 January 2010)
Chapter 1: Happiness — I survey current happiness research. I explain how money is important but it isn’t everything. I also discuss the notion of lifestyle inflation (though we’re calling it “the hedonic treadmill” for the book). (6800 words, 15 pages, completed 05 October 2009)
Chapter 2: Goals — I discuss the importance of setting goals. Without goals, you have no reason to save. (6090 words, 13 pages, completed 12 October 2009)
Chapter 3: Budgeting — If goals are your destination, then a budget’s your map. But as most of you know, I’m not a fan of detailed budgets. Instead, I focus on looking at the Big Picture (including my favorite, the balanced money formula), suggesting readers can add detail as needed. (6975 words, 15 pages, completed 19 October 2009)
Chapter 4: Debt — I lived with debt for fifteen years. This chapter shares a bit about how I overcame my own debt, and then shares some of my favorite resources. My goal is to give readers the tools they need to kick debt to the curb. (7163 words, 16 pages, completed 16 October 2009)
Chapter 5: Frugality — This chapter got out of control! How can you compress this topic into just 25 pages? You can’t. I know some folks think frugality is pointless, but I’m not one of them. I sing its praises here. (11676 words, 26 pages, completed 04 November 2009)
Chapter 6: Income — The most overlooked topic in personal finance: how to make more money. You guys know I’m a passionate believer in boosting your income in whatever way you can. This chapter suggests some ways to do it. (11081 words, 24 pages, 10 November 2009)
Chapter 7: Banking — Banking’s not a very sexy topic, but there’s still some important stuff to cover, like how to find the best checking and savings accounts. (7836 words, 18 pages, completed 17 November 2009)
Chapter 8: Credit — Credit can be dangerous…but it doesn’t have to be. Here I go over credit scores and credit reports and offer some tips for using credit cards responsibly. (6350 words, 14 pages, completed 25 November 2009)
Chapter 9: Big Stuff — As great as it is to save money through frugality, it’s even more important to save on big things, such as cars, furniture, and vacations. This chapter tells you how. (13085 words, 26 pages, completed 03 December 2009)
Chapter 10: Housing — Yikes, this chapter was tough to write. I’m not sure why, but it got away from me. I had so much I wanted to say! In the end, I had to cut the info on “cost of living”, and I may have even had to cut the stuff on selling a house. There’s still plenty of meat here, though. (9906 words, 20 pages, completed 22 December 2009)
Chapter 11: Death and Taxes — When I started writing, I told my editor this chapter would suck. I didn’t feel confident about the subject. In the end, it was fun to write — and it turned out well. It’s tough to make taxes, insurance, and estate planning interesting, but I did my best. (10000 words, 21 pages, completed 16 December 2009)
Chapter 12: Investing — I outline the basics of investing, including some of the psychological pitfalls investors face. I encourage readers to look at index funds, but point them to good resources for other strategies if they simply must try to beat the market. (10684 words, 24 pages, 05 January 2010)
Chapter 13: Retirement — The chapter I completed this morning! I talk about the power of compounding and the importance of saving early. I also go on a rant about how much I hate retirement planning based around “replacement income”. (It’s so stupid!) (7872 words, 17 pages, completed 15 January 2010)
Chapter 14: Relationships — I close the book with a look at how money affects our relationships with family and friends. (The book is dedicated to my friend Sparky, who died a year ago today.) I also spend a little time exploring the notion of social capital, which is something I haven’t written about much here, but that I think is very very important. (7422 words, 15 pages, completed 11 January 2010)

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