Frog Legs

Lately I’ve been using Google Voice. I signed up for it a few months ago and got an invite a few weeks later. Since the invite I have been sort of figuring out how (or even if) I can incorporate it into my life.

At first I didn’t fully understand why I would want to use it. As I understood, it allowed you to have a phone number which could be called and the calls would then be forwarded to your “normal” phone. As a first attempt of describing the tool, that’s a pretty good start but it leaves out a lot of details.

When you sign up for Google Voice, you get to choose a phone number. They give you a prefix (or list you can choose from) based on a zip code and you have the option of choosing the last-four. During that phase, they also have a tool that searches available numbers for strings. For example if you searched for DOG it would show you the available numbers that had “Dog” embedded in the number. So I chose a number that included my last name. That was kind of cool.

But why use google voice? First, voicemail left on Google Voice is transcribed. It can be configured to then email you the transcribed voicemail or send as a text message to your phone (or neither if you prefer). This is a pretty neat feature in my opinion.

Second, Google Voice can be configured to ring multiple phones when called. For example, I have it set up to ring my cell and my work phones. One issue which I have not yet resolved is that in some cases my work voicemail system picks up before the call rolls to Google Voice voicemail. This means those calls are then on my work voicemail, which is less accessible to me. Otherwise, the ability to ring multiple phones is, in my opinion, pretty neat.

Incoming numbers can be set into groups. If you organize your contacts into say “Friends” and “Family”, you can change the behavior of each group. Perhaps when family calls it rings all phones but when friends call it only rings your cell phone. You can also have a “default” behavior for unknown numbers. Additionally, different groups can have different voicemail greetings. Perhaps a friendly greeting for family and friends and a more formal greeting for other numbers.

With the new addition to my family, I plan to include my wife’s cell and work phone in my google voice numbers and have all phones (my work, my cell, her work and her cell) ring when the call is coming from the daycare/babysitter. This will ensure the phone gets answered in case of an emergency.

There are some other neat features with Google Voice. There is a widget such as on my “About” page that allows people to call me, without revealing my number. I can also send text messages from Google Voice online or initiate calls, such as have Google Voice call me then call my friend and connect us. Overall I feel this is a valuable addition to my life and I plan to continue to use this tool more extensively.

According to this article, Arizona is considering selling capital buildings to fund immediate cash needs. The report is they are considering a sale-leasback where they will lease the buildings back from the buyer for a period of time after which they will own the property again.

Basically this is a loan. They are borrowing to cover today’s cash-flow problems. The problem with this is that in the future they will still have to cover the same expenses PLUS the additional cost of the borrowed money they spent today. The counter-argument on their part would be that “when the economy recovers” tax revenues will increase and cover the regular costs plus the additional interest expense.

This is, of course, not a healthy way to manage finances. If your income today decreases, then it is proper to modify your spending today. When/If your income increases in the future then at that time it is proper to increase spending (if you so choose, although saving may still be a better option). Many people make the mistake of thinking it is ok to borrow and spend now on the premise that future income will be sufficient to not only cover future expenses but also pay interest on those borrowed dollars. Apparently the Arizona government is run by exactly these sorts of people.

What those people often don’t understand is that regardless of future or present income it is always the case that when you borrow to spend in the present your total consumption (present and future) will have to decrease by at least the amount of interest paid. This doesn’t take into consideration opportunity cost of lost potential earnings on dollars saved (i.e. interest earned from savings or investments).

If the hypothetical person would instead delay spending until such time that the expected income increase happened, then his total capacity for consumption (present + future) will be increased by the amount of interest saved. An additional benefit to this way of thinking is that in the event the expected income increase doesn’t happen, you aren’t stuck with a bunch of debt you can’t handle.

Credit transactions are in fact nothing but the exchange of present goods against future goods. — Ludwig von Mises