The Insuring of Things

In this country, insurance is as much a part of life as taxation. Almost every major aspect of life is insurable, including life itself, whether required by law or voluntary. So we comply if we want to drive (auto insurance) or want to live in this apartment (renters insurance). And every year, we review our insurance plans to make sure we are adequately covered at the best possible price.

For a family our size (2 people living in an apartment and owning 2 vehicles), these standard features and coverages are considered "good" coverage. You can get by with less or more, obviously, but the crux is getting what would be realistically "adequate" should catastrophe come.

AUTO INSURANCE
Bodily injury liability	$100,000 ind./$300,000 acc.
Property damage liability	$100,000
Uninsured/underinsured motorist	$100,000 ind./$300,000 acc.
Medical coverage	$10,000
Comprehensive deduction	$500
Collision deductible	$500
Glass coverage	Yes
Roadside emergency/towing	Yes
Loss of vehicle	Market value less deductible

RENTERS INSURANCE
Property damage liability	$45,000
Personal liability	$300,000
Guest medical cover	$10,000
Deductible	$500
Content replacement	Cost value with evidence
Loss of use	Up to 2 years, or until recovered
Other	Sewage backup. Flooding.

Conventional practice says bundling policies under the same insurer should deliver some savings. But this year, that did not pan out true. GEICO offered the best overall rate for auto insurance ($540 every 6 months for both vehicles and 2 drivers), while State Farm offered the best package for renters insurance ($125/year) at said coverages. It would have been $30 to $60 more expensive if bundled under either insurer. I checked out the top 10 big insurers, who offer web-based estimators and various discounts. I'm sure some insiders can beat these rates, but think they are competitive rates.

With that, we bid farewell to Farmers Insurance, which would have renewed with lesser coverages (half the limits, double the deductibles) at $870 every 6 months (auto) and $167/year (renters)! I'd asked why the rates were comparatively high and was told the 2 big fires that beseiged our city had forced risk and prices up. But I found it curious that no other major insurer was increasing their rates as much as Farmers was. I'm for shopping around and options, and will gladly do it every year.

Next up: life insurance and business insurance. We already have life assurance!

A PCOS Diagnosis

We pride ourselves in having self-diagnosed our infertility, but while FAM can point you a certain direction, it doesn't provide a diagnosis. We needed expert opinion on what kind of infertility we are facing so we visited a fertility specialist, who eventually informed us that from his initial observations it looks like Polycystic Ovarian Syndrom (PCOS). The thing with PCOS is that it is a spectrum of fertility issues that may or may not have anything to do with ovarian cysts. In fact for a lot of women, a hormonal imbalance perhaps due to a malfunctioning thyroid can be diagnosed as PCOS, as would a pre-cancerous cyst. So we needed to find the specific infertility affecting us.

From FAM, we can see the interplay of three reproductive hormones: estrogen (obviously), luteinizing hormone (LH), and progesterone. BBT charts show lower temps because estrogen rules pre-ovulation. The temps rise after ovulation because of progesterone. Ovulation tests work by detecting the presence of LH. But there is another important hormone is this interplay: Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH). It is responsible for arbitrating follicle competition and nurturing an egg to maturation in ovarian follicles, and for releasing the egg during a so-called "LH surge" (what we collectively call ovulation). By a process of elimination, FSH became the culprit that was later confirmed by labs (blood panels). Ultrasounds around the time of ovulation revealed a pattern of anovulation (no mature follicles were observed 1-2 days before ovulation). So we moved from a general diagnosis of PCOS to a more specific "anovulation due to FSH deficiency". With that, two more questions arose: (1) what causes FSH deficiency? (2) How is this hormone imbalance treated?

The cause is not as easy to pin down because of the complexity of the endocrine system. We learned that a deficiency in some gland (say the thyroid or the pituitary glands) can affect the production of hormones elsewhere in the body, and this is what was likely happening in our case. The doctor thinks there is actually an estrogen imbalance that is affecting FSH. More specific blood panels and two possible causes emerge: vitamin D deficiency and insulin resistance. It is amazing how lifestyle and diet now tie into fertility, so we know treatment will not be singular.

The treatments start with Letrozole (as an alternative to Clomid) to help regulate estrogen and restore ovulation. Daily supplementation with vitamin D is recommended, and Metformin is prescribed for insulin resistance, even as diabetes is not diagnosed. We institute a low-sugar diet ("The Sugar Solution" is an excellent resource) and continue daily exercise. We also started seeing a doctor that specializes in PCOS treatment, who helped with the specification of said diet. We know the diet and exercise are working already just a couple of months in.

Even as we do infertility treatment, we are aware of the possibility that it may not work. After some heavy discussions, we decided that we would try any options (clinical or alternative) that are reasonably available, but would not do surrogacy or IUIs and beyond. At that point, we would take a break and eventually turn to adoption. But we do what we can while we still can (insurance, etc).

It is emotionally draining and stressful to deal with such a diagnosis, the medications, the doctor visits, and the numerous clinical procedures you undergo. I applaud my dear wife for the courage and strength she has shown in this journey. As long as there is visibility into the condition (we know what is going on), great chances are that there is a specific treatment plan for it. If you have been here, I encourage you to do your research and understand the condition yourself so that you can contribute to the doctor's prognosis. You know yourself better than a doctor does, and many doctors appreciate informed patients and working as a team. It is not an easy journey and it requires persistence and diligence.

I should also say that no one treatment plan works for everyone precisely because infertility is variable in different people, even under the same diagnosis. Fertility is one of the few areas where treatment must be quite specific and exact for a given degree of diagnosis.

Our Company Sold

A big surprise early Monday morning: that our company had been sold to Avago Corporation, which is expanding into the storage and networking space. An even bigger surprise is that many of us on the the inside had no idea whatsoever that such a big transaction was in the works. Many of my co-workers seem upbeat about the news nonetheless, especially that our stock price has finally broken the $10 barrier. Our company stock, earned over the years through the ESPP or as RSU grants, is suddenly worth a whole lot more. I'll give myself a couple of weeks before I sell some of it.

The question on everyone's mind has been whether people would lose their jobs. Traditionally, the absorbed company sheds some positions as they get assimilated into the owning company. We did that when we acquired Agere Systems and MegaRAID. But in this week's employee conferences (3 by week's end) with both CEOs, the message has been that this is more like a merger, a combining of specialties to create a larger company, and so business should proceed as usual albeit under a new name on our side. If any jobs will be shed, it will be in departments that do similar work in both companies, and such decisions will be made in the 3rd or 4th quarters of 2014 after the acquisition gets approved in in March or April.

What does this acquisition mean for our family though? For the time being, we will proceed with our lives as originally planned. If I were to lose my job, three things would be at stake: our plans to buy a house next year, our healthcare insurance, and a sabbatical I have been delaying. The slight uncertainty has caused us to look more critically at our finances, and to begin considering alternatives (part-time work or contracts through my business STRIVE). It's definitely a sterner dynamic.

So we covet your prayers that we may find peace and not be thrown off course by uncertainties that would befall us. In times like this, we are glad that we still have two incomes, and that our emergency plans account for one of us losing their job. It's comforting and helps us avoid panic.

Couponing Reboot: 10 Observations

Back in August, we started a couponing habit to try and fill up our pantry with non-perishable foods. It didn't quite work out as we had planned, and instead became a savings strategy for groceries and other household items. Along the way though, we learned a few things that we'll apply in the second phase of couponing.

(1) We obtained all our coupons from the local Sunday paper in addition to what King Soopers offers (online). The next phase will see us diversifying our sources, going more online and utilizing couponing mobile apps.

(2) We realized that coupons were giving us ideas of what to buy, and causing us to routinely spend beyond our budget. Rather, we should go about our purchase decisions normally and only use coupons if they are available for what we need. In fact, we should either get more stuff or spend less without ever going over-budget.

(3) We saw some great savings nonetheless: over the 17 weeks that we couponed, we've saved an average of 26% off weekly groceries (about $392 total or $23/week). Not bad, considering we are not even that hardcore about the habit.

(4) Of the $392 in savings, $286 (or 73%) was from King Soopers discounts and offers alone. This means that manufacturer coupons really do not contribute much to the overall picture. It helps to shop at a store that offers regular rewards and discounts.

(5) Speaking of King Soopers and rewards, gasoline points are awarded based on the full pre-savings shopping amount. So to maximize savings on gasoline, we fill up both our cars at the same time (off the same pump) and have seen $0.25 off the price.

(6) We hate manufacturer coupons that require you to buy two or more items or that explicitly disallow doubling up. Too stingy, so we've been discarding these coupons unless we really need two of said items or there is sufficient long-term benefit to buy multiple stuff now.

(7) It seems to us that a majority of coupons are for beauty products. Other categories you might expect are snacks, supplements, household cleaning products, personal care products, OTC medications, and of course some non-perishable food items. Not much of what we were looking for in this experiment.

(8) We wish the prices of items were included on the coupons so you know about how much savings you are really getting. It's disappointing later find out you are only saving pennies on an expensive item. I suppose we ought to always be mindful of what things cost, a sort of "The Price Is Right", in order to discern which coupons are great deals.

(9) Couponing requires time, diligence, and organization. In the beginning, we had different ideas of how to organize and use the coupons. Eventually we settled on a simple system of keeping them sorted by expiration in a few specific categories. Sunday afternoon became coupon-clipping time, replacing the time we used for napping busy weekends away.

(10) We now know that the Sunday papers do not carry that many useful coupons. The two major papers (Denver Post and Gazette) in fact have the same coupons any given Sunday. The big differences are the deals and discounts offered by local businesses, useless for our experiment.

Fertility Awareness, As It Were

It seems to me that fertility is a rarely-discussed subject even among couples, perhaps because it is a deeply personal matter or because it is taken for granted by most people as a fact of life. Or both. There is no species on this earth that does not reproduce somehow, so it is no surprise that for most of us, the question has always been "when" rather than "how". After all, the "how" was sufficiently covered in 6th grade and is the theme of many a television show. But I contend that what lies beyond the "when" is the most interesting part of the story.

Enter the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" (Toni Weschler) back in June, and we learn about the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM), the all-natural family planning method. We realized that conception is a carefully designed process but with lots of opportunities to fail. In fact, I am impressed at how simultaneously simple and intricate it is (engineering perspective) that I marveled at how awesome God works (still). I also realize that I knew very little about the physiology of conception, the avalanche of events that must happen predictably for anyone to get pregnant. It's actually quite a beautiful story, one short of a miracle.

So we become FAM converts and started the usual rituals: BBT charting and observation of other fertility signs. It is actually quite fun understanding how our particular situation works, but after 3 months the observations indicated possible fertility problems. This is how we initially discovered our infertility, and it prompted us to seek professional diagnosis right away. The clinical definition of infertility would have required us to wait a year before visiting a specialist for diagnosis, but we didn't see the point of that. Had we not been practicing FAM, I believe we would never have discovered that we will face infertility. From what we had learned, we also know that the majority of infertility causes are treatable. Hope!

Until you've experienced infertility, you won't know that 11% of women 15-44 are chronically infertile or not able to carry a pregnancy to term. You won't know that 1 in 8 couples struggle with fertility issues, according to Resolve. You won't know the personal and emotional toll it takes on a marriage. You might not even notice how many women out there are pregnant, or that there seems to be so many babies everywhere you go. An apparent prejudice will cross your mind: how is it that people who don't want kids get them (easily) anyway, and those who really want them must move mountains first?  You also won't know about the billion-dollar industry around infertility, complete with physician portals and big pharma, supplements and medications, various unmentionable aids and tests, websites and software, books and guides, and classes. There are numerous support and discussion communities for whatever your flavor of infertility is.

But it will expose you to three important topics: surrogacy, medical interventions (IVFs, etc) and adoption, should your treatments not work. These are perhaps the first big discussions we have had in our marriage, and I am glad we have had the opportunity to consider them.

To Practice Patience

We've always talked about expanding our family, and on our second wedding anniversary we finally commited to the idea. We thought it would happen in the next couple of months, as easily as everything else we had set our minds to achieve. But a few months later, it became clear that in fact we were facing some kind of infertility. We were obviously disappointed and in disbelief; our plans were being derailed and we had no control over the situation.

In the dispair of that realization, two things echoed in my mind: hard decisions, and patience. I could handle challenging decisions anytime but could not just "be" patient. Contrary to what everyone believes, I think patience is only the final state of a deliberate process -- that you can't just go there. So I resolved to pursue patience as a means of dealing not only with infertility, but with other challenges that will come my way.

So how do you actually practice patience? The list below isn't the gold standard or comprehensive, but it has been tremendous in helping me achieving patience.

1. Learn God's truth. I find Matt.6:25-34 helpful in dealing with worry. Hab.2:3, Psa.24:17, Eccl.8:6, and the discourse in Gen.18:14 show me that there is a time for everything and that God is in control. Thus the anthems of my prayers have been to not be anxious and to trust in God's timing. Really, whatever His will, it will happen.
   
2. Be patient with yourself. I am used to getting things done in a predictable manner and able to compensate for reasonable deviations. For this situation though, I cannot beat myself up for somehow having missed the mark. So I resist urges to quickly develop or implement plan B or plan C or plan D (which I usually have, by the way). I literally never start doing anything big without a couple of backup plans.
   
3. Be patient with your spouse. There will be the temptation to blame your spouse, but you can always see this coming from a mile away. So the attitude to adopt right away is: infertility is our problem together, no matter who it is manifesting itself in. I now understand why some couples would rather not know who between them is responsible for their infertility.
   
4. Have hope. Faith without hope is a miserable state of being. You gain faith by knowledge, which in turn increases your faith. But an interesting by-product of the faith-knowledge cycle is hope. With hope derived from a strong and credible foundation, you can make it through anything.
   
5. Educate yourself. How do you actually "have hope"? Learn the truths of God's Word in your situation, and let them increase your faith (combines #1 and #4 above). But also learn as much as you can about your situation. I started with a simple "human infertility" Google search and read medical articles and research papers, as well as other people's experiences and opinions, on what can possibly lead to infertility. All that knowledge amounted to the hope that there is a way out of our situation, and that it is not as bad as we were imagining.
   
6. Isolate your laundry. Beware that the smallest of challenges can spill all over and stain the rest of your life. So we made deliberate efforts to keep fertility problems in their place and proceed with the rest of our marriage normally. Otherwise it was emotionally draining and beginning affecting our day-to-day life.

To achieve patience, you therefore must tame your worry and anxiety, exercise patience with yourself and your spouse, and foster hope from faith and knowledge of God's truths and the particulars of your situation. Surprisingly, I've also felt a certain peace and calm while I have practiced patience.

Netflix Buffering Problems

If your Netflix experience has been disappointing due to "Please Wait ... Buffering" problems -- sometimes several times during the same video, the fix might involve replacing your streaming device altogether. Before you take the plunge though:

(1) Make sure you are getting the speeds your ISP promised you. We get close to 50Mbps down/20Mbps up bandwidth, plenty for a great HD streaming experience. Test the speeds on wired devices (LAN), wireless devices (laptops), and smart phones for a more comprehensive result.

(2) Make sure your HSI modem and router are up to task. I found out I needed to update the firmware on my wireless router, and that I have a slightly older model of modem from Comcast. Even so, these impediments should not mean a poor streaming experience, but it helps to have them fixed.

(3) If you have a Sony Blueray/DVD player, dump it! The Internet is full of bad reviews of these devices in serving Netflix content. I've learned that Netflix content is routed via your streaming device's manufacturer's servers, and that Sony's servers are the bottleneck. On replacing this set-top with a Samsung variety, I no longer see the buffering problems, and the picture quality is better, even at peak times.