compared to the average american

Sorry my chart doesn't follow the same format. I made mine first.

(source: NPR)

Given that the typical American saves next to nothing, that isn't really a fair comparison. All my figures "should" be doubled - "should" being in quotes because they really shouldn't be doubled except for comparison purposes.

Proportionally, I spend about the same as the typical American on housing and food - the two biggest items.

The biggest differences:

• Education (+29pt): I spend about 10x on education (32%, although averaged out throughout my life, it's probably not so bad.
• Travel (+10pt): I spent 10% on travel. It looks like typical people don't travel at all?
• Entertainment (+2pt): The big difference is that my main entertainment cost is skiing, whereas most people enjoy movies, TV, etc.
• Transportation (-8pt): The typical American spent 14% on transport. I spent 6%. Breaking that down further, my car expenses were 4%, compared to 12.6% for the typical American. That's a pretty huge difference.
• Healthcare (-6pt): I had a "Cadillac" health insurance plan so I basically spent zero instead of 6%.
• Housing (-2pt): Surprisingly, despite living in a city that's believed to have a higher cost of living, my housing costs aren't too crazy.
• Utilities (-1pt): Yay for low electricity rates in Seattle!~
• Other (-16pt): For some reason this data only sums up to 84%. Where the other 16% goes? I have no idea.

spending habits

customer feedback - gloves

I just shot this email off to Gordini. Too bad my dad destroyed the awesome pair I had from the 1990's.

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I purchased a set of Gordini Gore II gloves a few years ago and I've been having a recurring problem with them. I've only used these gloves about 10-15 times. The stitching on the fingers comes apart very easily.

This first happened on the ring finger after using the gloves about 3 times. I repaired it myself and that finger has been problem free.

This happened again after a few more uses on the ring finger on the other glove. Again, I repaired it myself and it has been problem free.

Now this happened yet again on the little finger.

If I didn't have a fantastic experience with my last set of Gordini gloves (which had a similar design sans Gore-Tex and lasted well beyond fashion), I probably would have been immediately upset and returned the gloves right away. However, I had faith that the gloves weren't poorly made. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I tried returning the gloves to REI today, but apparently that wasn't where I bought them because it wasn't in their system. They suggested that I contact you directly, so here I am.

I am primarily writing to give you some late feedback about the build quality of these gloves. It's terrible. Hopefully you've fixed this. On the other hand, the gloves were very waterproof and have kept my hands warm despite the bad stitching. Keep that up! I'm not sure what I'll get for my next set of gloves. I get constant recommendations from friends.

I for years used to be the one raving about how awesome my Gordini gloves were, but sadly for the past year most of my glove interactions have been people offering to help my mend my gloves while at Mt. Baker, Whistler or some other group outing. I suppose in a way it fits my personality, but it's probably not the brand image you want to portray.

For your reference:

RN# 56385

CA# 00281

4G860