Sarah Gilbert
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Sarah Gilbert
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Filed under: Credit, Career, Credit Reports
The state of Oregon is considering a bill I think is a fabulous idea. SB 1045 is titled "Limits use of credit history for employment purposes to certain circumstances," and it does just that: prevents employers from requesting credit checks to use as a screening tool for potential employees, unless the credit history provides a substantial relation to the employee's job (for instance, a bank teller or mortgage broker position). Filed under: Home, Family Money, Green
For the past two years, I've been chasing down a crazy goal: to reduce my family's trash enough that I could call the company which collects our garbage and tell it that, instead of picking up our one 32-gallon can every week, we'd need the service only once a month. Even though we've always been obsessive about recycling, it had taken our family of five a long time to reach this place.Filed under: Food, In the News
In the second legal challenge to a Starbucks store's fair treatment last week, a Florida man is suing the Starbucks on Powerline Road west of Boca Raton. Robert Friedman suffers from Tourette's syndrome, a genetic disorder which is characterized by uncontrollable outbursts, often laced with obscenities. Last year, he was visiting the Starbucks and suffered from such a flare-up; customers said he banged on the wall and shouted curse words.Filed under: Debt, Real Estate, Investing
The house sits behind an upholstery shop on the corner, and while I'm too young to know for sure, I'll bet the upholstery shop has thrived since the streetcar ran down Gladstone Street in the 1950s. The house, like mine, was built in the first few decades of the 20th century. An old grande dame, she is, brilliant with leaded glass windows and gingerbread detailing and a formal dining room and built-ins that must have had the real estate agents in a tizzy four years ago when the market was so hot she was flipped twice in a season, sold last for $417,000 -- nearly three times what we'd paid for our house, a block away, in 2002.Filed under: Extracurriculars, Career
He'd worked in the Starbucks in Sherman, Texas -- an hour due north of Dallas -- for seven years, and shift-manager Benjamin Amos wouldn't have been blamed for thinking that his tattoos were a non-issue. It hadn't just been the cultural mainstreaming of tattoos in the past decade; the popularity of the A&E television series Inked in 2005 and 2006 was just one indication; but he was hired with the tattoos firmly in place and he says he'd worked, covering them per dress code, for so many years.Filed under: Budgets, Home, Real Estate, Transportation
If you're a homeowner, go outside after dinner and count the cars parked in driveways, on the street and in garages. Divide that number by the number of households on your walk. Got a number close to two, or more? You've got a situation ripe for foreclosure, according to a statistical analysis conducted by the National Resources Defense Council. What's more, car ownership is a better predictor of foreclosure than average credit scores, income or a host of demographic factors; it's the best predictor of all, the NRDC concludes.Filed under: Family Money, Tax
I didn't need any time for deliberation when I received my ballot for this month's special state vote in Oregon: I filled in the bubbles for "yes," as did a majority of voters, next to Measures 66 and 67 and took it with all speediness to the nearest library drop-off. Measure 66 raises taxes on individuals making more than $125,000 (and couples making more than $250,000)Filed under: Shopping
Free listings on eBay -- up to 100 a month for sellers who start auctions at 99 cents -- could change the online selling world as we know it: back to the way it used to be. (The company will still take a "final value fee," 9% of the selling price or $50, whichever is less.)Filed under: Family Money, Career, School
Last night, I had a devastating conversation with one of my favorite dads, about kindergarten. It started innocently enough. "Do you think test scores matter?" he asked. He has a little boy -- friend since (practically) conception to my second son -- entering kindergarten in the fall. This is the man who'd just as soon passionately argue the evils of our fossil-fuel dependent society, or why he built a 325-square-foot house, as fret over his kid's eventual career. And yet here he is, attending his first kindergarten roundup session and trying to figure out where his not-yet-five-year-old will be most "challenged." Filed under: Family Money, Recession
Wednesday, I had told more than a few people who'd asked, would be the day, or thereabouts: the one when my biggest and most regular freelance check would arrive in my bank account. I needed to pay my mortgage payment (just past the grace period, again); my gas bill, my student loans, the cost of a dozen pounds of butter through a friend's buying club (I bake nearly all of my family's breakfasts and treats). I told my husband he could pay his great-uncle back for some money he'd borrowed; I told my son I'd buy him the full version of an iPod skater game (if he did his chores, of course). I had a list in my head: diapers, a big bag of flour, a new pair of shoes for the youngest.

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