Frugal Frank OTBS where have you been?

Hello my Peoples,

Frugal Frank on the black side back for 2017. What a year, Dow at 22000. So, for those of you who listened to my previous blogs and stayed in the market you should be closer to that million or two. I am in the liberal land of New England with high minimum wages and good health insurance plus excellent public schools. In this blog, I will share a few things I learned over the first half of this year.

First GEICO is now my favorite car insurance company. I dropped my independent agent with the M-F 8-5 hours and got 24hr quick response service. My last add on vehicle  was done at 3am in the morning and was approved in less than 1 hour with the policy emailed to me. No lie, I saved $2000 a year for 3 vehicles with a teenage driver.

2nd lesson learned for 2017;  I have gone back to car dealerships to service my vehicles. Because dealerships are really going after the auto maintenance and repair business, dealerships have lowered repair prices and increased quality and customer service. With the new technology in todays cars, old repair shops can't keep pace on diagnostics and tend to waste your dollars fishing for solutions. I have to give credit to my wife, after a few repairs from our previous mechanic where the Honda was returned with grease smudges and high cost, she checked Yelp for a dealer. After months of reviewing repairs and comparing bills for similar work, we switched all vehicles and are very pleased. The plus is that the dealers are linked into the same systems, so if you need a repair in another state your records are accessible.

3rd lesson; Hisense  makes a better and cheaper flat screen than Vizio. I paid $398 for my 50 inch and after 3 years it is still showing a great picture. So for those of you who are still waiting to buy that flat screen, go ahead and take that plunge.  If you are nervous about reliability, buy it at Costco(they add a 1 year additional warranty), buy it with a credit card(add another 1year additional warranty). (Amex and Visa for sure).

4th lesson; Cut your cable and stop watching all that news babble talk. You can get a balance from PBS Newshour and you can spend the rest of your time reading, biking or playing tennis and golf. Some summer reading books I suggest: The Black Count, The Capitol Men, Hidden Figures and the Miseducation of the Negro.

Well my time is up but I promise to stay connected this time.
Stay Frugal my friend

Frugal Frank OTBS