What It Ran Me What things cost, and where the figures came from.

Five letters a week · Free

What It Ran Me

What things cost, and where the figures came from.

I spent twenty-two years buying parts for a shop that supplies the shipyard. Now I write down what things actually cost me and the people who write in, and I name the source for every figure. Five letters a week. Free.

— Dale Sowards, Newport News, Virginia

Why I started

Seventeen months at 0.4%

Our savings sat at my own bank for seventeen months. A bank two miles away was paying 4.5% the whole time. Nobody had said so. By my count, it ran me $4,647.

That is the kind of thing I write down. Put in your own figures and check them yourself.

What it ran meSavings, simple interest
Difference$4,647

My own figures: $80,000 for 17 months, 0.4% at my bank against 4.5% two miles away.

The week

Monday to Friday. Five letters a week.

  • Monday
    The open decision
    A decision I am still making, written down before I decide.
  • Tuesday
    One number
    One figure for the week: a rate, a price or a date. Where it came from and what it means for you. A short one.
  • Wednesday
    The finding
    What I checked this week, with the numbers, plus the rates and dates that changed.
  • Thursday
    The long one
    One purchase, taken apart line by line.
  • Friday
    Your numbers
    Figures readers sent in, with the state they live in.

What the letters cover

  • Medicare and prescriptions
  • Homeowners insurance
  • Savings and Treasury bills
  • Social Security
  • Gold and silver
  • Solar systems
  • Wills and care

How the letters work

Plain rules, kept every time

  1. Every figure has a source

    I name where each number came from, so you can check it.

  2. Mistakes get corrected

    When I get a number wrong, I say so in the next letter and print the right one.

  3. Ads are marked

    Paid advertising is labeled and set apart. I do not write it.

  4. Easy to leave

    Every letter has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. One click.

On the record
Name
Dale Sowards, 63
Home
Newport News, Virginia. Same house since 1994
Work
22 years buying parts for a shipyard supplier, 11 running the desk
Licenses
None. Not a licensed advisor

Who writes it

I count every dollar out loud

My job was getting three prices on the same thing, reading what each one actually covered, and writing down where every number came from. I still do that, now with our own bills.

I do not tell anyone what to buy. I show what I paid and what I found, and you check it against your own figures.

More about Dale

Get the letters

Five letters a week, Monday to Friday. Free. You can leave any time.

What things cost, and where the figures came from.