Still got a few resolutions left to do? Here’s a current coupon for real FICO scores and all other credit products at myFico.com. Use the promotional code MYPOINTS30 to get a FICO score for only $11 (~31% off), the best discount I could find right now:

You can still use CPPSAVINGS for 20% off if this expires.

Experian no longer allows Fair Isaac to sell FICO scores to consumers, even though lenders can still buy and use them. Instead, they join a bunch of other outfits selling their own FAKO (”FAKE-O”) version. But since lenders almost always use real FICO scores in their decisions, those are the only ones you should pay for - if at all - in my opinion.

For the diligent, a cheaper alternative is to sign up for a free 30-day trial of Scorewatch, which includes two free Equifax scores and reports. Just remember to cancel as soon as you grab those scores. It is easy to cancel online, without having to even call in. As always, you can always request your credit reports (not scores) once every 12 months at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Find more in Credit Cards | 2/9 | 1 Comment »

Online broker OptionsXpress is offering new customers a $100 bonus if they open an account with at least $500 and make 3 trades. You can also transfer in at least $500 of securities from another broker.

Stock trades cost $14.95 if you makes less than 8 trades/quarter, and options cost $15 for 10 contracts. There are no extra fees for broker-assisted trades, as well as no minimum account balances, no account maintenance fees, and no inactivity fees. It’s not that great if you just want the bonus, but a nice incentive if you want to try them out. The strong points of OptionsXpress are their options and futures trading tools, usability, and customer service.

Selected fine print:

Offer is valid for one new Individual or Joint optionsXpress account opened and funded with at least $500 by US residents on or before December 31, 2011 at 11:59 CST, and having executed 3 trades within twelve months of account opening. To receive $100 bonus, account must be funded with at least $500 cash or securities transferred from a brokerage firm other than optionsXpress. The $100 bonus will be deposited into the new optionsXpress account within one month after meeting the terms and conditions of this offer. optionsXpress may charge the account for the cost of the $100 bonus should account fail to remain open with minimum funding (excluding trading losses) 6 months from the account open date. IRAs, other tax-exempt, linked, or shared accounts are not eligible to receive the $100 bonus offer.

Find more in Deals & Offers | 2/8 | 1 Comment »

Did you as a small business pay another person or business more than $600 total in 2009 for services rendered? You may have to provide them a 1099-MISC form. There are lots of rules, see the 1099-MISC Instructions for complete details. Here’s a summary:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires businesses (including not-for-profit organizations) to issue a Form 1099 to any individual or unincorporated business paid in excess of $600 per calendar year for services rendered. This is required whether these payments are spread out over the course of the year or are paid in one lump sum payment. The most effective way to obtain the information needed to prepare the Form 1099 is by requiring that an IRS Form W-9 be completed prior to any payment being made. The penalty for failure to file Form 1099 can be as much as 50% of the amount paid for services.

If you’ve got your own accountant or payroll service, then you can pay them to generate the proper forms and send out these 1099s. (They are supposed to be sent out to independent contractors by January 31st following the end of the tax year in which you made the payments.) But if you’re a micro-business or a one-person show and still do all your own taxes, you can easily generate a few 1099-MISCs yourself.

You can get blank forms sent to you for free from this IRS order form. You’ll need at a minimum, Form 1099-MISC and Form 1096. You cannot use the PDFs that you find online; they are only examples. The page says it may take 4-6 weeks, but I got mine in less than two weeks. If you need them faster, you can buy them from any office supply store like Staples or OfficeMax. As noted above, get a W-9 form filled out by the person you paid, and follow the directions.

Find more in Self-Employment, Taxes | 2/8 | 1 Comment »

The online checking account from ING Direct, called Electric Orange, is offered new customers a $50 bonus if they open a new account and use the debit card for signature transactions 3 times within 45 days. Use Reference Code EM428 on your online application. Expires 2/28/2010.

Open an Electric Orange by February 28, 2010, and use the free Debit Card to make 3 signature transactions (you know, the ones you have to actually sign) within the first 45 days. On day 50, we’ll put $50 in your account.

Find more in Banking, Deals & Offers | 2/6 | 2 Comments »

ING Direct has an business version of their popular online savings account, called Orange for Business. It has no minimum balance requirements and no maintenance fees, while currently paying 1.05% APY. As with their personal account, you’ll need to link this account with a business account under the same legal name.

You can also get a $100 bonus upon opening an account by using the Reference Code BSA298 on your online application. Expires 2/28/2010.

Find more in Banking, Deals & Offers | 2/6 | 1 Comment »

Chase has an online coupon for a $100 cash bonus for people opening a new Chase Free Business Checking account with a least $500. Offers expires 3/15/10. Thanks to reader Tom. Selected fine print below:

Offer valid 2/1/10- 3/15/10. To qualify for this offer, open a Chase BusinessClassicSM Checking, BusinessClassicSM Checking with Interest, Chase Advanced BusinessCheckingSM, Advanced Business CheckingSM with Interest, Commercial Checking, Commercial Checking with Interest, or Chase BusinessPlus® Extra Checking account and deposit a minimum of $500 or more into your new business checking account within 30 days of account opening with funds not currently on deposit with Chase or any of its affiliates. Offer not available to existing Chase checking customers. Coupon must be presented at time of account opening. Cash premium will be deposited automatically into your checking account within 10 business days after the minimum deposit requirement is met.

Find more in Banking, Deals & Offers | 2/6 | 5 Comments »

In the process of trying to minimize junk, I sold off some pretty old textbooks this week. It’s been over ten years since I first bought any of these books, and the last time I used them was probably about 7 years ago. I had saved them initially for the qualifying exams that PhD students must take early on in graduate school, and then later thought I might go back to school or use them as references at work. They also looked nice on my bookshelf and made me feel smart.

I was about to throw them out since I figured they’d be five editions behind by now and wouldn’t be worth anything, but a quick search ended getting me about $10 per book.

Compare Offer Prices
After looking around, the easiest place to start seemed to be the price comparison engine at BigWords.com. You simply enter all the ISBN numbers at once to your virtual “bookbag”, and then click “Start Price Comparison”. The site then looks up the price offered by buyback sites like TextbooksRus, SellBackYourBook.com, Bookstores.com, Cash4Books.net, FirstClassBooks, Valore Books, and eCampus.

They also look up current lowest asking prices at sites where you can sell it yourself, like TextbookX Marketplace, Amazon.com, Half.com, and TextbooksRus. In some cases like the one below, a buyback site actually offered more than these middlemen before their commissions.

Another option I considered was to drive to the nearest college campus bookstore and run the books through each of their databases, but I decided it wasn’t worth the time and gas for me. This would obviously be much easier for current students.

Book Buyback Online
I just wanted to get rid of them in bulk and didn’t feel like maximizing my price for something that might never sell, so I just went with the highest offers from each of the buyback sites. In some cases, I had to group purchases because some sites had a minimum purchase amount (i.e. they won’t buy less than $15 of books from you).

All the sites had a similar process, and were very simple to deal with. You add the books you want to sell, and then print out a packing slip and prepaid mailing label. Most pay for USPS media mail, although some offer FedEx or other faster service. I just had to drop them off at the post office since they weighed more than a pound. Once they receive and process the books, they then cut you a check (some offer bank direct deposit or PayPal). I haven’t received my checks yet, but the sites listed appear to be reputable.

Let me know if you know of a better way to offload your unwanted old textbooks.

Find more in Simple Living | 2/4 | 21 Comments »

In addition to their new $7.95 per trade price structure, Fidelity is also waiving commissions completely for 25 iShares ETFs. This appears to be a partnership where iShares partially compensates Fidelity themselves for promoting their ETFs.

Fidelity receives compensation from the ETF sponsor and/or its affiliates in connection with a marketing program that includes promotion of iShares ETFs and certain commission waivers. Additional information about the sources, amounts, and terms of compensation is described in the ETF’s prospectus and related documents. Fidelity may add or waive commissions on ETFs without prior notice.

Technically, you could make a relatively complete passive portfolio consisting entirely of these iShares ETFs. For example, if you wanted a stock portfolio encompassing the entire world in proportion to their current market capitalization share, you could go with

45% IWV (Broad United States)
40% EFA (Broad Developed Europe & Pacific)
15% EEM (Emerging Markets)

Since these ETFs have pretty good trading volume, the bid-ask spreads should also be reasonably small. For the bond portion, one possibility would be

50% AGG (Broad, Investment Grade Taxable US Bonds) and
50% TIP (US Treasury Inflation-Protected Bonds)

assuming you had room in a tax-advantaged account like an IRA. Not a recommendation, just what I might buy for myself. Here’s the entire list:

US Equity
Russell 1000 Growth (IWF)
Russell 1000 (IWB)
Russell 1000 Value (IWD)
Russell 2000 Growth (IWO)
Russell 2000 (IWM)
Russell 2000 Value (IWN)
Russell 3000 (IWV)
S&P 500 Growth (IVW)
S&P 500 (IVV)
S&P 500 Value (IVE)
S&P Mid Cap 400 Growth (IJK)
S&P Mid Cap 400 (IJH)
S&P Mid Cap 400 Value (IJJ)
S&P Small Cap 600 Growth (IJT)
S&P Small Cap 600 (IJR)
S&P Small Cap 600 Value (IJS)

International Equity
MSCI ACWI (ACWI)
MSCI EAFE (EFA)
MSCI EAFE Small Cap (SCZ)
MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM)

Bonds
Barclays Aggregate (AGG)
Barclays TIPS (TIP)
iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate (LQD)
JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets (EMB)
S&P National AMT-Free Municipal (MUB)

Vanguard, it’s your move… how about commission-free ETFs for Vanguard Brokerage Service customers?

Find more in Investing | 2/2 | 18 Comments »

Fidelity announced today that starting February 3rd, 2010, the price of all online equity trades through their brokerage would cost $7.95, with no limit on the number of shares. Previously, the commissions ranged from $8 to $19.95 per trade depending on asset value and trading volume. This is great news for my Self-Employed 401k at Fidelity. Phone and broker-assisted trades cost a little more:

Customers placing trades through Fidelity’s Automated Service Telephone (FAST) will pay an additional $5 per trade ($12.95 total), and those placing trades through a representative will pay an additional $25 ($32.95 total) per trade.

This move makes Fidelity more competitive with the other discount brokers out there, for example I have an account with OptionsHouse which charges only $2.95 per trade.

They also announced commission-free trades for 25 iShares ETFs, which seems like a direct response to Schwab’s commission-free ETFs.

Find more in Investing | 2/2 | 1 Comment »

I applied for the Chase Sapphire card primarily - okay, solely - for the $100 sign-up bonus. But when I called with a question about how to redeem, I was actually startled that a human being picked on the second ring. No phone tree to navigate, no punching in my dang 16 digit number first… I didn’t even have to press 0 several times.

Now that I read their website again, I do see the sentence mentioning “direct access to dedicated live advisors”. It appears I’m not the only one to notice this:

When a Sapphire cardholder calls Chase, “a specially trained advisor picks up the phone – with no need to navigate a voice-response system.” These specially trained advisors have the goal of resolving the customer’s need on the first call. (Chase didn’t say anything about the empowerment to do so, but perhaps that’s a picayune quibble). No phone tree has to be worth at least a ten point reduction in blood pressure. Can one really put a price on health? Perhaps not, but Sapphire seems to have given it an annual fee…

Actually, that last part is true for the Sapphire Preferred, but the regular Sapphire has no annual fee, and I still get zero hold times. Hey, a new feature that’s actually useful. If only the rewards structure were better.

Find more in Credit Cards | 2/1 | 17 Comments »

A company contacted me to see if I wanted six free coupon codes for their compound interest calculator iPhone app. It seemed like a win-win, they get publicity and readers get some free stuff. Also, I could actually try it out since I have an iPod Touch. (I got nothing else.) If you have iTunes, read about the app here.

Quickie Review
The calculator does what it says, it calculates compound interest for you based on your inputs of starting amounts, additional deposits, time, interest rates, and compounding frequency. You can find out how much you’ll save by putting away $50 a month for 20 years, or make sure your online savings account is paying you the right amount of interest.

Honestly, I thought that something like this would be free, as you can find something equivalent for free on the internet at hundreds of sites. However, I know it does take time and effort to make a pleasant-looking and bug-free iPhone app. It does have that iPhone “slick” feel. Some pretty graphs would have made it a more complete package.

The retail cost is $2.99. I would never pay that much money for this, but then again I’ve never paid for any iPhone/iPod Touch app so far. I looked, and there was no equivalent app that was free. There were a few for 99 cents that were close but still lacked a few of the features on this app.

Giveaway
If this sounds interesting to you, just leave a comment with a valid e-mail below by Noon Pacific on February 2nd. Name not necessary. I’ll randomly pick 6 winners to get a promo code that will let you download it from the Apple App Store for free.

(Udpate: The 6 winners have been contacted. If there are some no-shows, I’ll redraw in a week.)

Find more in Deals & Offers | 2/1 | 92 Comments »

If you’re considering starting a new Costco membership, you should buy it through this special offer page. This looks to be the same program I sold certificates for in the past through a marketing vendor, but now Costco sells them directly. Again, you pay the same price as everyone else ($50 a year for Gold, $100 for Executive), but you will also receive a coupon booklet with $50+ in goodies (see below). Use code smartsave for Gold and smartsaveEX for Executive.

Gold Star Membership is $50 a year including a free Household Card. Offer expires June 30, 2010, and is valid only for non-members for their first year of membership. Limit one offer per household. You must apply in person at any U.S. Costco location or online at www.costco.com. Offer is nontransferable and may not be combined with any other offer or coupon. Coupons will be mailed to you within 2 3 weeks of processing your membership application.

I am not sure if the coupons are the same every time, but the following are coupons received by one reader a few months ago:

Free 2 lb bag of Kirkland Coffee
Free Rotisserie Chicken
Free 100 photos digital printing
Free 48 pack “AA” batteries 9.99 value
$3 off fresh bakery cookies
$3 off albacore tuna 8 pack
$3 off case of spring water
$3 off fresh baked 18? pizza
$3 off fresh meat
$2 off salad mix
$5 off premium floral bouquet
$3 off white meat canned chicken breast

Also see Is Costco Executive Membership worth it? (Yes, because if it isn’t they’ll refund you the difference.)

Find more in Deals & Offers | 2/1 | 3 Comments »

Since I am expanding my portfolio to beyond just IRAs and 401ks, I will need to move my more tax-inefficient investments like bonds into those tax-deferred accounts. This way, I’ll put more of my stocks in a plain taxable account which is taxed at the more favorable long-term capital gains rates.

Fidelity is my Solo 401k provider, so I was looking through their bond offerings. Their only bond index funds are the Fidelity U.S. Bond Index Fund (FBIDX) and essentially a US Treasury bond index fund with different maturity lengths. Looking at FBIDX, its benchmark is the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. This index covers the all US bonds on the market that are investment grade and taxable, including Treasuries, corporate bonds, and mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities.

This is basically the same benchmark index as the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index fund (VBMFX), which follows the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Bond Index. (ETF version is ticker BND.) The “float-adjusted” part just accounts for all those Fannie Mae bonds that are now owned by the government and thus not actually available on the market anymore. They should be the same, right? Nope.

A perk of being a financial blogger is companies give you free stuff to try, and Morningstar offered me a free 1-year subscription to their paid Morningstar Premium service which offers stock and mutual fund research. Being a mostly a low-cost index fund investor, most of their content didn’t really interest me. However, I started reading the FBIDX Analyst Report and was surprised. The teaser line was:

Although this fund is designed to track the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, it lagged that bogy by more than 3 percentage points from mid-2007 through the end of 2008.

Lagging a benchmark by 3 full percentage points is a lot in the index world. Passive investors want low costs and low tracking error from the target benchmark! That’s how we get our greater-than-average return over the long run. It turns out that Fidelity had been making “modest” bets outside of the index in order to juice their returns, including minor exposure to subprime mortgages through an “ultra-short” bond portfolio*. FBIDX costs more than VBMFX by about 0.12% a year, so they would always lag if all other things were equal, and needed to take such additional risks in order to have better performance numbers.

The report goes on to report that the fund hired a new manager in February 2009, who says he’ll run a tighter ship:

Since joining the fund in February 2009, he [lead manager Curt Hollingsworth] has taken steps to ensure that it will closely track its benchmark from month to month. He thinks actively run internal bond portfolios have no place in this passively run offering, which should reduce the chance of things going awry. He also pared the fund’s exposure to out-of-index bonds from 8% to just 2% of assets lately.

Well, that’s nice to hear, but too late for me. When I see “index” in the fund name, I expect it to match the benchmark, not try to beat it like everyone else. Thus, I’m most likely going to construct my portfolio out of Vanguard bond ETFs instead. My transaction size should be great enough to counteract the hit from each individual stock trade. (Read about the Vanguard ETF vs. mutual fund cost comparison tool.)

Find more in Investing | 1/28 | 22 Comments »

24 Hour Fitness has some promotions right now for those interested. You can get $0 Initiation Fee and $29.99 Monthly Dues on All-Club Sport Memberships. Expires 1/31/10.

Offer not valid in Reno, Northern CA, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and other select locations or at Super/Ultra Sport Clubs. Membership dues are $29.99 per month. All-Club access depends on membership purchased; All-Club Sport memberships do not include access to Super/Ultra Sport clubs. Taxes may apply. Not valid for current members. Dues must be paid by pre-authorized payment (eft).

Alternatively, you can get a One-Club membership for $199 a year upfront. Costco members can also get a 2-year All-Club membership for $299.

Find more in Deals & Offers | 1/27 | 13 Comments »

Ever heard the term “Keynesian economics” and wanted to learn more? Here’s a new rap video that explores the competing theories from the Austrian business cycles of Friedrich von Hayek and the interventionist theories of John Maynard Keynes. Yes, I said rap… and it’s actually pretty good! I like the quotes at the end.

We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle, and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No … it’s the animal spirits

Full lyrics and song download available at EconStories.tv. Via NPR, thanks to reader Tim.

Find more in General | 1/27 | 17 Comments »