Don't Forget to Pay Your Future Self

I took a few moments today to play around with this app on my iPhone that let's you age yourself. It wasn't the best app, but here are the results.

I don't know about you, but I think I have a Zombie apocalypse in my future.

Seriously, I got to thinking about getting older and planning for retirement.

A lot of people are getting or waiting for a nice rosy check from Uncle Sam in the form of an income tax refund.

Most of these folks have visions of sugar-plums dancing in their heads. Should they buy a new flat screen TV? Maybe an iPad? A new grill for the back yard? Or maybe a down payment on a new car?

Rather than making a major purchase on something today, many of us should be thinking about paying ourselves in retirement.

Most households do not have enough money socked away for retirement. Many aren't even saving. We are an instant gratification society and we'd rather buy the toys now, and not think about the day we may  be looking like my pasty friend above and to the right.

Many of us think that Social Security will take care of our retirement needs and that Medicare will pay for our health care. Anyone my age (early 40's) should not be banking on Social Security or Medicare to be around when we retire. I mean, seriously, Congress has cut our contributions to these funds to help stimulate the economy. And there's not plan to recoup that lost revenue. That means there is a good chance Social Security and Medicare won't be able to pay for us. In essence, we're paying for today's retiree.

But time passes quickly. We should all be thinking about stashing at least a portion of that refund in an investment appropriate for our risk tolerance.  We may not think we're rich, but every penny is going to count in those years far out.

Start saving now. Consider finding a fee-based financial advisor you can trust. Fee-based advisors don't work on commission. They charge a fee for services provided, therefore they aren't just motivated to sell you stuff they from which they can make a buck.

If saving makes you chafe, consider it a paycheck for yourself that you'll cash in 30 to 40 years from now.

You won't regret it.

If you are getting one are you going to spend your refund now? Or sock it away in a savings account for the future?

Taking the Punge with iPhone 4S

I've made my choice.

On impulse, I have taken the plunge with iPhone 4S.

I did not pre-order as millions did. I did not get up early and stand in line.

Nope. I got home from work Friday evening at 5:30. I ate dinner. I decided to drop by McDonalds for a sweet iced tea, and there was the Verizon store.

On a whim, I decided to go inside and see how long it would take receive delivery of an iPhone on order. Of course they'd have sold out by now.

But to my surprise, they still had phones in stock. It was 6:05 p.m  After picking the white 32GB model, I was out the door with within 30 minutes (it took a little longer than expected to transfer my contacts).

All I can say is, "Wow, what a great phone."  It was definitely one of the smoothest upgrades I've encountered...and I've upgraded many times (Let's face it, my Verizon buddy Kailyn knows me by name! :-) )

After bringing the phone home and doing an initial tether sync with my Macbook Pro, I was set to go.

Super Speed
So far, this phone is FAST. It is faster and smoother than any smartphone I have ever owned. My wife has an iPhone 4 and this phone is noticeably smoother and faster than hers.

Camera
The camera on the phone produces super fine pictures. I'll take some video and share soon.

Battery
The battery life blows my Samsung Fascinate away. The Fascinate with Froyo was a power suck. You could watch the battery charge go down as soon as you turn on GPS or BlueTooth. Not so with the iPhone 4S. I'll keep you posted on battery life.

Siri
The "cool" factor for iPhone 4S is Siri. Like the demonstrations and the reviews, Siri is pretty convenient to check the weather or to find a nearby restaurant. But beyond that, I haven't found additional uses. I hope that changes over time.  I didn't buy the phone for Siri, and I'm glad I didn't because it feels kind of overblown.

Twitter Integration
The other thing I want to explore a little bit more is the "deep Twitter" integration built into iPhone's iOS5. I own an iPad, and iPad2 and a MacBook Pro. So far, I'm not seeing the value of the "deep Twitter integration", but I'm willing to give it time.

Retina Display
The Retina display on iPhone 4s (like iPhone 4) is spectacular. I was reading a book on the Kindle app while waiting to get my hair cut this morning and the letters on the screen were as rich and clear as on my wife's Kindle app. When the iPad get's Retina display, it will be like going from regular to HD TV.

Phone Call Quality
I've made a few brief phone calls on the iPhone 4S. Funny, you don't hear much about phone call quality in the reviews. It's OK, but I'll have to admit that the Fascinate is on par, maybe better. The iPhone 4S has a better speaker phone than the Fascinate.

Speakers
The speakers built in to iPhone 4S provide rich sound. They are located on the bottom of the phone and it actually has better sound quality than the iPad 2. I don't like the speaker on the back of the beveled side of the iPad 2. You have to cup your hand around the speaker or set it next to a solid backdrop to get rich sound while watching the screen (but that's a different review, right?).

My one bit of advice for anyone considering a purchase of the iPhone 4S: if you can afford it, go for the 32GB version. My experience with iPod Touch, and iPad is that 16GB is just not enough when you load apps, video, music and photos together. Go bigger. You will be disappointed if you don't.

So far so good on iPhone 4S. I'm simply delighted by the speed and responsiveness of the device. I'm also delighted to be entirely on the Apple platform with my devices. iCloud and wireless synching seem to be very natural. More on both of these coming soon.

Update: Here are some pictures I took with the iPhone 4S camera:

iPhone 4S: The Choice

So, here we are.

Tim Cook announces the iPhone 4S to the world today and I've got a decision to make. Do I dive in and take the iPhone plunge? Or should I stick with my Samsung Fascinate and save my pennies for  the iPhone 5?

From reviewing the stories posted on blogs and across the internet, it appears that most of the folks anticipating Apple's big announcement today were not impressed. All of the rumor mills were predicting a new iPhone 5 and Apple didn't deliver.

Should we blame Apple? Not really. Today they delivered another fabulous product (probably the best smart phone on the market).

We have blame the gadflies who gin up bogus rumors and get the market so excited that it actually impacts the mindsets of investors. Fortunately, most analysts believe that while Apple under-impressed with iPhone 4S that the company will still sell millions of units of the updated device.

So that brings me to my choice? Take the dive on 4S? Or stick with the Fascinate for another year?

iPhone 4S looks pretty impressive, especially with iCloud and iOS update. I'll have to sleep on this one.

Choices, choices.....

What are you going to do?

Why this Verizon Wireless customer will wait to buy an iPhone

The day has finally come.

Of course, it didn't hold the drama of last winter's announcement of the iPad by Apple CEO Steve Jobs--but it's still a pretty big deal.

iPhone is coming to Verizon Wireless.

My excitement level isn't nearly has high as it was for iPad and here are a few reasons why....

1.   I'm not eligible for an upgrade on my Verizon account until May. More accurately, my 15 year old son's phone will be eligible for an upgrade and I will plan on hijacking that opening to make the switch. Poor kid (heh heh).

2.  I'm really interested to see how Verizon's network performs under the demands of all those new iPhone users.  I'm assuming all of us Android phoners will be able to tell if/when all those new iPhones start dragging Verizon's network. Of course Verizon says it has this covered, but the jury is still out. It will be worth the wait.

3.  I'm actually pretty satisfied with my current smartphone. I'm carrying a Samsung Fascinate that provides a very slick user experience. I'm an Apple fan and one of the original iPod Touch and iPad adopters. I love the Apple interface, but I have to say that Google's Android platform, especially since the 2.1 upgrade delivers an experience that rival's Apple on the smartphone platform.  The app developers have become more sophisticated and the hardware (the Fascinate is an excellent phone) is pretty snazzy.

I'm set up for now with my current phone. Time to sit back, relax and watch this all unfold.

And who knows? Maybe by the time my son's phone comes eligible for an upgrade all the buzz will be about iPhone5.

That, my friends, will make it worth the wait.