The Real Charlie

My Morning Wrecked Car Spotting

Winding things down at my job this week, I was pleased to see that Universal Hub featured something I've been noticing for five and a half years: the ugly, rusting wrecked car in some guy's driveway on VFW Parkway in Roslindale/West Roxbury. You can see my comment on UHub, and or drive by to gawk at this decaying vehicle, which is becoming one with the earth even as we speak. Do note, however, that this area is speed trap central, and watch the posted limits. I've discussed this before, in this forum, on Universal Hub, and, once, in the Boston Globe.

Universal Hub also has me all anxious about my forthcoming move to the commuter rail. I'll be riding the rails from Wellesley Square to South Station most days, and apparently the Framingham-Worcester Line is just terrible. Hopefully, it won't be any worse than Route 9 traffic. It can't be, right?

On A First Name Basis?

So I took Roxanne to "Early Arrival" at nursery school on Monday (really called Early Drop Off, but we re-branded it Early Arrival in our house after it became apparent that Roxanne thought we were going to simply drop her off on the corner and speed off), a task that I enjoy, as we get some nice daddy-daughter time together, and that I will soon miss, as my new commute will not allow me to drop her off. She had on a new all black ensemble (thanks to my Mom and Dad) on which she was effusively complimented by her teachers. I chatted with the teacher and then shouted goodbye to Roxanne, who was already ensconced in some drawing. "Bye, Charlie!," she shouted back. The teachers cracked up and I gave her a kiss, and a gentle reminder that, hipster wardrobe or not, I am still daddy to her.

I am winding things up at the old job now, among them my retirement savings accounts (a 401k and a 403b). The fund choices at my current gig are just adequate, at the new job not much better, so I am rolling the nice little pile of cash that I've accumulated, and in which I am fully vested, into an IRA that I established previously with rollovers from prior accounts. Right now that small IRA is 10% in cash and 90% in Blackrock Global Allocation (MDLOX), a nice fund in the "tactical asset allocation" model that has done well in recent years. MDLOX has a nice track record going back a decade or more and I'll keep it.

But for the new money, I am actually going to pick up a new asset class - Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, TIPS. These are US Treasury bonds that pay a lower coupon but adjust the principal value up each year to keep pace with CPI inflation. The breakeven CPI rate is around 2.5% -  an easy hurdle to beat, especially at this point in the economic cycle.  The problem with TIPS is that the principal adjustment is taxed as ordinary "phantom income," which is not great in a taxable account. But in an IRA, that is no problem. So this is step one in my process of picking up some "alternative assets" - some real return securities, in a tax sheltered account. The next step is picking how the TIPS exposure will be executed - ETF, fund, etc. Stay tuned, if you care.

Speaking of retirement funds at work, here is a neat trick, not original to me. Every year, increase your deferral rate by at least 1% until you hit the maximum dollar deferral ($15,500 in 2008 if you are under 50), especially if you get a raise. I've been doing this for a few years. I don't miss the 1% of my salary, and it helps that retirement fund grow a little quicker. And yes, when I start the new job I'll bump the rate up 1%, just as if I'd stayed put, regardless of how much of a raise I am getting.

I Have A Family To Feed

I actually used that cliche last week in the final chapter of a strange, scotch scented, oddly retrograde, transitional moment in my life, one that came quickly in the end, but has been months in the making.

The end result of which is: I am leaving my current job for another one with almost exactly the same title (delete "of," replace with ",") but very different responsibilities. At an employer I last worked for in the Clinton era, when I was single and foolish and brown haired. Ground Rule #2 remains in effect for both my new and soon to be former employers, so forgive my discretion. But yes, I did throw fatherhood out there as a justification for not accepting a job offer on the spot, rather wanting to know the salary first (they gave me 90% of what I actually wanted, so Roxanne doesn't need to get a night job yet). So an end of one era, a beginning of another. There'll be some good posts out of this new world, I wager, especially as I plan to give up the car commute for the commuter rail. And, as always, I blessed to have Abby along for the journey. Thanks for the support, my love.

In unrelated news, Roxanne came and voted with me in the primary election today. Oh, trying to explain American electoral politics to a nearly four year old. She was nervous about coming, but did a good job. I always get a little anxious voting, too, thinking of my grandfather, who left his home in Minsk and worked so hard so I could, as Roxanne understands it, pick the grown ups in charge of the other grown ups. And I think of my friend Evan, on his way to Iraq soon, of my father, alone in his watchtower in the ruins of Yokohama in 1946, and of the hundreds of graves of African-American Civil War dead ("US Colored Troops," as their stones said) that I saw on Memorial Day a few years ago in Arlington National Cemetery.

I voted for John McCain, with pride and confidence, as I did in 2000. I won't suggest how you should vote, but if Republican primaries are open to you, please give Senator McCain a look.