Initially, I had intended this to be review of Suze Orman’s newest book Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny to be done by my wife. However, she expresses no interest in doing so. So I read it myself, and found out that her reaction was actually a bit ironic. Here is my review of this book both from the perspective of a male and the husband of a smart, capable woman who doesn’t like dealing with money.

The first half of this book deals primarily with the question of Women can handle money as well as any man… So why don’t they? It’s tough to deal with this subject obviously, because not all women are the same and you don’t want to be accused of stereotyping. But at the same time I’m glad that Suze tried. Here are a few ideas.

Women feel like coveting money is wrong. For some reason, it is okay to be proud to have a good job and a good family, but it’s wrong to openly admit you want lots of money. It could be that women tend to be more nurturing and taking care of others versus themselves. They don’t want to be considered selfish.

But at the same time that they try not to focus on money, they still worry about being broke. The book quotes a study that showed 90% of women describing themselves as feeling insecure when it came to their finances. In the same survey, nearly half the respondents said that the prospect of ending up a bag lady has crossed their minds.

Women are more team-oriented, as opposed to individually oriented. When a man thinks about money, they are at war - it’s a competitive battle. Me, me, me. When a woman thinks about money, she wants to make sure the whole team is treated fairly, and wants everyone to get along without hurting anyone else’s feelings.

An example of this is during salary negotiations. The book states that research has shown that women are 2.5 times more likely to say they feel “a great deal of apprehension” about negotiating. In one study, men used the metaphor of “winning a ballgame” to describe negotiating, while women picked the metaphor of “going to the dentist.”

I have personally experienced this with my wife. Although her performance reviews are always great, she has always been very passive when it comes to salary negotiations. Despite my suggestions, she has never asked for an higher raise than offered, and never put in a counter-offer when accepting a new job. Suze puts it this way - “You are not on sale. Do not undervalue yourself.”

Save Yourself Plan
The second half of the book is a condensed version of all her personal finance tips, broken down into 5 steps. The idea is that a woman should finish one manageable step per month. The advice is solid and straightforward, if a bit one-size-fits-all. Here’s a brief summary of each step:

1. Checking and savings accounts. Get organized, get a free checking account, open up a higher-yield savings account, etc.
2. Credit cards and FICO scores. Check your credit score, build up your credit if you don’t have any, pay down bills, pay less fees, etc.
3. Retirement Investing. Start putting something away, invest in 401ks and Roth IRAs, buy low-cost index funds, etc.
4. Must-Have Documents. Wills, living revocable trusts, advanced directives, etc.
5. Protecting Your Family and Home. Life insurance, renters or homeowner’s insurance, personal liability insurance, etc.

Overall Review
I would read this book if you (or someone important you know) feels like they should learn more about money, but for whatever reason haven’t been able to do so. This books tries to find the right buttons to push, and if it works then it will be worth it. It’s pretty popular so I’m sure most libraries have a copy. The advice at the end is good enough as starter material.

As for me, this book has caused me to want to involve my wife more in the day-to-day activities, if only to get her more familiar with things. I will continue to encourage my wife to read this book, and will probably include it in my Financial Will. Any thoughts from the women who’ve read this book?

Find more in Book Reviews | 5/9 | No Comments »

My wife got to ride in a single-engine Piper airplane for the first time a couple of days ago, which was exciting for her and scary for me. She even got to fly a little bit. I was surprised she agreed to go since usually I am banned from such “extreme” activities.

This, along with a recent Vanguard article about estate planning, got me thinking. Many of you reading this are the Chief Financial Officers of your households, but would your spouse or partner be able to run things well without you?

It’s funny, right now I don’t feel an urge to buy life insurance (my wife is paid well and does not depend on me for financial support), nor do I feel like I need a will (we are married, so most things would just shift to her naturally), but I do feel like I need to compose some sort of “Financial Will” because currently I take care of most of the finances. In fact, my wife hasn’t paid a single bill since we’ve gotten married! That leaves a lot of instructions to compile…

Where is all the money?
Although she knows where all our major accounts are, I have a lot of smaller accounts. I need to create a list of all financial institutions where I have accounts, what the approximate balances are, as well as a secure system to show her the account numbers as well as usernames/passwords. She already knows where all the bank statements and important legal documents are.

I should also write down all the bills, although this is another reason why I still like receiving paper statements. If a credit card or utility company wants money, she’ll get a letter.

Where do I learn about money?
As for the whole spending less than you earn thing, I think she can handle that just fine. She’s much less familiar with investing, so I would leave her this list of books to start her education. I might change this list later, but I think it offers a decent mix of basic advice and some more slightly advanced concepts.

• Suze Orman: Women & Money
• The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing
• The Four Pillars of Investing

What if I would prefer professional help?
Let’s say she feels overwhelmed and would prefer to hire a professional. I would encourage her to hire a fee-only advisor who does not work on commissions, and preferably one with a simple passive investment philosophy. I would tell her specifically to avoid names like Merrill Lynch, Ameriprise, and Edward Jones. (There are fine employees at these companies, but the conflicts of interest that exist greatly decrease the chances at finding one at random.)

Although I’ve never met with any of these firms, based on my limited knowledge of their philosophies and reputations, I would give them a shot:

• Portfolio Solutions
• Buckingham Asset Management
• AssetBuilder
• Altruist Financial Advisors

However, these advisors can be very expensive for smaller portfolios, so I would definitely prefer for her learn on her own first. Maybe I would suggest a simple Vanguard Target Retirement fund as an auto-pilot option in the meantime.

How do I keep any passive income flowing in?
Some people may have rental properties, or royalty income, or some other sort of settlement income to preserve. For me, if I die then my day job and freelance income will stop, but this website has the potential to keep earning advertising money for many additional months if not years. I would need a brief manual on how to keep this site up and running (pay the hosting bill!) and who to call if something breaks. Also I would need a list of important contacts to maintain relationships with.

Of course, I would also tell her to read the contents of this site and other sites I link to for more support and advice!

I would also write down a trusted accountant and lawyer, although we already have those within the family. Hmm… anything else?

Find more in Family | 5/8 | 33 Comments »

I am trying to gain more control over my diet, while also compiling more easy (preferably really easy) yet tasty recipes. First up is making my own lunch. I think it’s important when brown-bagging to make it tasty and attractive, so you don’t actually feel like your depriving yourself. Don’t just slap a sliver of cheap meat on some Wonderbread. Instead, you should take advantage that you are making the meal yourself. Put anchovies on the thing if you want.

In order to minimize the overall prep time, I bought all the ingredients at our usual grocery store (Safeway) during our usual shopping trip. Prices are actual prices, I bought regardless of if it was on sale or not. I also took into account the inevitable bit of extra waste from perishable ingredients like wilted lettuce or moldy bread, by including total package costs.

Shopping List

Sandwich
$2.50 for 1 loaf of 12-grain Oroweat bread (18 slices)
$5.25 for 3/4 lb of Black Forest Ham, thinly shaved from deli*
$1.75 for 1/4 pound of pepper jack cheese, thinly sliced
$1.75 for 1 large tomato, cut into 10 thin slices
$1.49 for 1 head of iceberg lettuce
$0.25 (est.) for pantry item Honey Mustard (1 bottle is $2.25)
—————-
$12.99 total, $2.60 per day

* You could buy smaller amounts of different meats like turkey breast, if you wanted to mix it up. When I feel like eating vegetarian, I buy a tub of hummus instead of meat.

Snack
This is estimated at $.30 cents per day. You could make it less by buying in bulk and packaging yourself, but the savings started getting small so I just went for simplicity. Examples:

$0.27 for single-serving assorted potato/tortilla chips ($6.49/24 bags)
$0.30 for baby carrots (split a 1 pound bag 5 ways, $1.50/lb)
$0.42 for a 100-calorie-pack of crackers. ($2.50/6 bag box)

Drink
Tap water is free, but I like drinking a Diet Coke for both leaving a sweet aftertaste and the extra bit of caffeine. If I didn’t already buy it previously on sale, this would have cost $.50 per can.

Preparation and Time Spent
Not much prep for the sandwiches. I just had to cut the tomato, peel off the lettuce, and then portion everything out into 10 reusable plastic containers (2 per weekday). I have one container for the bread, and one container for all the wet ingredients. I put a dab of mustard in between the ham and cheese. The separation keeps the bread from being soggy before eating. If I’m not lazy I toast the bread.

Packing all the materials for the entire week took less than half an hour. Actual photo of final product at the top of this post. Doesn’t it look like something worth eating for lunch?

Total Cost
The sandwich and snack combo costs a little under $3. This is actually more than I thought it would cost, although I think it’s relatively healthy when I eat it with carrot sticks (which I usually do with a dab of fat-free salad dressing). If eating out for lunch would have cost $6 per day, then that half hour on Sunday saved me $3 x 5 days = $15. $30 an hour post-tax is like earning $60 an hour pre-tax, so that’s pretty good. On top of that, I have the power to eat healthier and control what I consume.

Sure, if I consciously chose to work an extra 2 hours a month to “pay” for eating out, I could use my time that way instead. But if I’m honest with myself, lunch-making just takes a half hour that would have been spent goofing around on the internet before bed.

Clever Dudette has more frugal lunch ideas. Do you have your own tasty buy convenient lunch routines? For next week, I am thinking of making it the Fried Rice edition.

Find more in Frugal Living | 5/6 | 53 Comments »

529 plans have become a very popular tool for saving for college for those that choose to help out their kids (or simply funding some continuing education for yourself). Most states have their own 529 plans, sometimes even multiple choices within those plans. They are very flexible - anybody can invest in any state’s 529 plan, and that money can pay for college expenses in any other state. Beneficiaries are also easily changed between relatives.

Conventional Advice
The standard advice for picking a plan is to first check if your state has a good tax deduction for using your state’s plan. Something like 32 states offer some sort of benefit. If so, then consider going with that plan. If not, then go with the “best” out of state plan since many state plans have poor investment choices and higher fees. If somehow you have a really horrendous state plan with high fees, then you might even forgo the tax deduction and go with an out-of-state plan.

But… Why not do both?
Most 529 plans allow both partial and complete rollovers into another state’s 529 plan. So, why not first take any tax breaks available to you by contributing to the in-state 529, and then see if you are able to quickly roll over those funds into a better out-of-state plan. Keep the in-state plan open if you intend to make future contributions. I checked out a sampling of various state plans and they all offered partial rollovers.

This way, you get both the upfront tax benefit, and the long-term low-fee benefit. Seems plausible, no?

Some states might have a tax-deduction recapture rule. In that case, I might consider contributing only up to the tax deduction and then opening up another better 529 for additional contributions. You can have multiple 529s.

My Experience - Oregon, New Hampshire, and California 529s
You may be wondering why I have a 529 plan listed in my net worth, even though I don’t even have any kids. In fact, I have opened 529 plans from three different states! About five years ago, the California 529 was giving away $50-$100 gift cards for opening a plan and depositing $100. I figured, why not, that’s a pretty nice return on investment. We might use it, and if not you can always withdraw principal without penalty. So I opened up an account for me and one for my wife, with us as the beneficiaries.

Then, while in Oregon, they offered a state tax deduction on $2,000 of contributions each year (now $4,000 for a married couple). So I contributed to that. Finally, there was a Fidelity College Rewards 529 credit card that paid 2% back into a Fidelity 529 plan (it now only pays 1.5% back to new applicants). 2% back on everything was great, so I opened up a 529 from New Hampshire that Fidelity ran.

Long story short, I have since rolled everything into the New Hampshire 529 plan with no fees from anyone. The paperwork was easy, although you do want to track your contributions in case you make a non-qualified withdrawal. The New Hampshire plan is not bad, with a 0.50% expense ratio for their index fund portfolios including all management fees, and no maintenance fee, and only a $50 minimum to start.

Best Out-of-State Plans To Consider
I haven’t done exhaustive research on this topic, but if you believe in low-cost index funds then one of the best plans is definitely the Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 plan. The have Vanguard mutual funds with a 0.18-0.23% management fee on top of fund expenses. The total annual asset-based fees can be as low as 0.21%, but the age-based portfolios are about 0.30%-0.35%. No maintenance fees.

If you believe there is a performance benefit to investing in several asset classes, there is also the more-expensive West Virginia SMART529 Select plan which offers mutual funds from Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). Total asset-based fees are 0.65% - 0.88%, plus a possible $25 maintenance fee for non-WV residents.

Since I still have my credit card relationship and my balances are low, I don’t bother moving away myself. I don’t actively contribute anything except my credit card rebates, so saving 0.15% in fees on my $3,000 would be less than $5 a year. But for folks with larger balances and held over longer periods of time, the performance advantage of lower fees can definitely be significant.

Find more in Investing | 5/6 | 8 Comments »

Credit Card Debt
If you’re a new reader, let me start out as usual by explaining the credit card debt. I’m actually taking money from 0% APR balance transfer offers and instead of spending it, I am placing it in high-yield savings accounts that actually earn me 4% interest or more, and keeping the difference as profit. Along with other deals that I blog about, this boring activity helps me earn extra side income of thousands of dollars a year. Recently I put together a series of step-by-step posts on how I do this. Please check it out first if you have any questions. This is why, although I have the ability to pay the balances off, I choose not to.

Retirement and Brokerage accounts
There were three paydays in April for us based on a biweekly pay schedule. In addition stock prices are up about 6% from my last update on April 1st, making this month extra juicy. I estimate that capital gains accounted for ~$6,000 of the net worth increase. We also made our IRA contributions for 2007 before the April 15th deadline ($4,000 x 2), as well as $4,451 in 401k contributions in order to be on track to max out this year. All these things together made the value of our portfolio jump a lot.

Cash Savings and Emergency Funds
We did a bad job on increasing our cash savings, due to a big hardwood flooring purchase on top of the late decision to contribute to non-deductible IRAs. Taking into account the increased credit card balances, our net cash actually shrank. Need to fix this next month.

Home Equity
I’ve decided to switch to a simpler way to track home equity, as the previous method was a bit confusing. I have my estimated home value in the asset column, and my remaining loan balance in the liabilities column. The difference is home equity. I don’t use a Zillow estimate because that would put my house at nearly $700,000 in value, and although that sounds nice it’s not very accurate.

You can see our previous net worth updates here.

Find more in Goals | 5/5 | 21 Comments »

I spent most of today going through all our stuff to see what would go in the house. The one negative of having your employer pay for relocation costs is that you are less motivated to fully purge all of your belongings…

As I went through all our things, I wondered - What if we were forced to toss anything that we hadn’t used in one year? Clothes, sports gear, electronics, books, magazines, trinkets. Either sell, donate, freecycle, or throw it away. Critical things like birth certificates or anything that would fit on a hard drive would be exempt. Imagine what your home would look like if you did this…

I don’t know if I could pull off that “One Year Rule”, so instead I made up an alternate one for myself: Once every May I will unpack every single item in storage, consciously make the decision to keep it, and inventory it. Theoretically this would be for insurance records in case of loss, but realistically I am hoping this actual process of having to go through 10 boxes of stuff annually will make me less sentimental about things like my old textbooks.

A few years I ago banned all travel souvenirs except for photos and one postcard from each place I visit - instead of those odds and ends I used to keep accumulating - and it’s been very liberating.

Forget carbon footprint… What kind of tips or tricks do you have for convincing yourself to reduce your stuff imprint?

Find more in Simple Living | 5/4 | 28 Comments »

Sound a bit bleak, but this lecture by Professor Elizabeth Warren explores how a middle class family in 1970 differs financially from one in 2005. The full title is The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class: Higher Risks, Lower Rewards, and a Shrinking Safety Net. The actual talk starts at 4:45 in, and lasts about 45 minutes. Via Economist’s View and gbs at Diehards. My notes below.

Earning More
Starting around 1970, more and more mothers started working full-time. How did this affect finances? Household income indeed went up from 1970-2000 from ~$40,000 to ~$65,000. However, the inflation-adjusted income for employed males actually went down slightly. So the increase was entirely due to the additional women working.

But hey, households are still earning more. Good, right? Next, she crunched some data on what a dual-income, 2-kid family spent their money on in 1970 vs. 2000.

Spending Less
We actually spend less on an inflation-adjusted basis on many things nowadays:

• 32% less on clothing
• 18% less on food - including groceries, eating out, and yes, even Starbucks
• 52% less on appliances
• 24% less on car expenses, per car

Spending More
Not so fast, we also spend more in many areas:

• 76% increase in home mortgage payments . Surprising, the actual house size didn’t grow that much based on number of rooms (5.8 vs. 6.1). I wonder if this would hold true if it was based on square footage, however, as my research on that indicates a big increase in size.
• 74% more for health insurance, even adjusted for healthy family with employer-sponsored health plans.
• 52% more for cars, since now we have more cars per household. We gotta get to work, right?
• Infinite% more for childcare
• 25% more in effective tax rates, due to higher income

In 1970, credit card debt was 1.4% of annual income for the median household. In 2005, it is 15%.

Education
Finally, we spend a lot more on education. In 1970, you needed a high school diploma to get a good job, which took 12 years of government-provided schooling. Nowadays, the average family pays for 2 more years of pre-school, plus 4 more years of college, all out of pocket.

Net Result: Not Good
Note that the cheaper things are the smaller, more flexible expenses… while the more expensive things are the larger, more fixed expenses. So a family now earns a bit more, but also spends a much, much larger percentage of their income. So much, in fact, that now we need both of those incomes to afford everything we buy. If either spouse loses a job, the family falls behind. Studies show that a family with children has between double and triple the bankruptcy rate of childless households.

I was kind of hoping for some solutions at the end… but none came!

Find more in Family, Frugal Living | 5/2 | 59 Comments »

Wow, harsh. No wonder they finally started to enforce the buying limits recently. Hope people bought what they could in April.

Find more in Savings Bonds | 5/1 | 29 Comments »

Maybe I just didn’t get enough sleep last night, but the media really has to do a better job to find people with problems that I can sympathize with. The title of this Fortune article is Good credit can’t protect borrowers from bad loans - “More and more home owners with high credit scores are falling behind on their mortgage payments. Here’s why.”

Trish Phillips had enough income to pay about $1,300, perhaps $1,400 a month for her home, which cost $279,900. The minimum payment on her option ARM was $1,276, but she was incurring interest of more than $2,000 a month. The difference of about $800 was added to her mortgage balance every month. […]

According to Phillips, who was making the minimum payments, that meant her monthly bill would jump to $2,300 after just a couple of years and then to more than $3,000 a year after that. She knew she couldn’t afford it and went for help.

Phillips admits that she didn’t clearly understand the loan terms before she closed on the house and says her mortgage broker didn’t explain them. She had misgivings but, “I was afraid of losing the down payment,” she said.

Okay, so why are people with good credit falling behind? Because they are also buying $300,000 homes without even understanding the basics of how their mortgage works. Even if you assume you can refinance, how are you going to do so if you can’t even afford the payment on an interest-only loan? She was actually increasing her loan amount each month.

As for Phillips, she managed to get her loan modified, with Sichenzia’s help. Her payment is now frozen for three years at $1,281 a month and her balance will not increase during that time.

Pretty nice. Wish I could freeze my loan balance for three 3 years while paying less than the interest accruing.

I have nothing personal against Trish Philips. If I were her, I’d be happy to save a ton of interest and have frozen payments for 3 years. Score for her, the crazy lenders should share the pain. But seriously, is this the best you can do? Aren’t there stories out there of people overcoming real problems which weren’t self-imposed? (Although it has since been removed, the original article showed her posing by her Harley Davidson.)

My problem with these stories is that if the house had appreciated in value, these homeowners would be perfectly happy with their risky loans. I don’t like that they get the upside, but no downside.

Question… If I sell you a Hummer and don’t tell you it only gets 10 miles per gallon, and shortly after buying it you can’t afford the gas to drive the Hummer anymore, is that my fault or yours?

Find more in Real Estate | 5/1 | 47 Comments »

For those of you who have been using Zecco and their free stock trades, no longer will you have to endure a paper trade confirmation being mailed to your home for every single trade. Here’s how to switch:

How do I sign up for Paperless?
Just sign into the trading center with your trading key. Select the “Account Statements” link in the “Account Records” section on the left-hand menu. Then click on the corresponding button for electronic confirmations or statements (or both). When signing up for Paperless, please check “myInfo” in your account to make sure you have a valid email address in our records. Click on “Submit” and you’re done! Your next account statement and/or trade confirmation will be available for viewing online. You will be notified of new documents available for viewing via email.

Even if you aren’t as excited about this as I am, be sure to switch over to electronic statements anyway by May 30th. Because after that, they are going to start charging $1.50 per paper trade confirmation and $2 per paper statement mailed to you.

Active Trading Confessions…
Why do I care? Well, despite my belief in passive investing for the vast part of my portfolio, I’ve continued to dink around with my free trades from Zecco for the last several months, and have actually been “beating the market” and am currently up over 10% this year - ha! Of course, I’ve also been down as much as -20%. Let me tell you, this sadly generated a lot of paper!

But don’t worry, we’re only talking about $500 worth of stocks or so - I don’t consider this really part of my investing portfolio. Instead, I consider it entertainment that is cheaper than buying video games or playing online poker. I’m looking to learn more about options trading next.

For those unfamiliar with Zecco, here’s the quick rundown. You can get 10 free trades per month if you reach $2,500 in account equity. Otherwise, it is $4.50 per trade. “Account equity” means value of stocks + cash. So $1,500 in cash and $1,000 in stock positions would qualify. As long as you reach $2,500 total any time during the month, you will get 10 free trades for the rest of that month.

Although they have improved their customer service (toll-free phone number, shorter hold times) and stock quote systems since their beginnings, at the heart this is still a discount brokerage firm. (Duh.) Don’t expect too much hand-holding. No minimum balances or account fees for regular taxable accounts. $30 annual fee for IRAs. For more details, see my Zecco Review.

Find more in Investing | 5/1 | 12 Comments »

I’ve been getting back into reading financial books, but am really behind in writing reviews for them. One book I finished last month was Wise Investing Made Simple by Larry Swedroe, which promises “Tales to Enrich Your Future”.

The key word is “tales”, because this is not a book with complex mathematical formulas or lots of charts and statistics. (Although I love charts…) It contains 27 short stories using simple concepts like sports analogies to explain the benefits of a long-term, passive approach to investing. Each story includes a quick “Moral of the Tale” summary.

I’ve already written about my favorite tale in Why Sports Betting and Stock Picking Are Similar. But here is my paraphrasing of another good chapter:

The $20 Bill
Here’s is a common story used to poke fun at the Efficient Market Hypothesis. An economist who believes in efficient markets walks down the street with a friend. The friend says “Look, there’s a $20 bill on the ground!” The economist says “No way. If there was a $20 bill on the ground somebody would have already picked it up”, and continues to walk away. This supposedly counters the idea that in a truly efficient market it would be impossible to find an under-priced stock (similar to a $20 bill priced at $10 or even free).

However, this argument is not really correct. What the story eventually explains is that while many passive investors believe that the occasional $20 bill on the ground may exist, spending your time looking for them may not be the most effective way to make money. The same could be said about stock-picking or market timing. Persistence in beating the market (finding $20 bills) beyond the randomly expected is very difficult to find.

Summary
For the investor that is already committed to passive investing and fully understands the underlying reasons why they believe that is the best strategy for them, this book probably won’t bring that much new to the table. It won’t help you decide whether to hold 20% International or 45% International stocks, or if you should include exposure to commodities or precious metals. If you are a full-time trader who is adamantly against passive investing, this book probably won’t contain enough hard facts to sway you either.

Instead, I think the sweet spot for this book are those investors that have been told “index funds are great” and may even invest in them but don’t really know why they are so great and don’t have the interest level to read some dry investing book about correlations and standard deviations. The problem with this level of understanding is that when things get tough it can be easy to bail out if you don’t really know why you’re doing something. This book breaks things down into simple, bite-size pieces without being patronizing.

On a personal level, this book might not be the very first book on saving money I’d give someone, or my favorite book about investing, but I am going to keep it in my library because it provided some different ways to explain to others (and myself at times) why I invest the way I do.

Overall Rating: (ratings explained)

Find more in Book Reviews | 4/30 | 8 Comments »

I have organized all of my experiences as a first-time homebuyer to one central page. It’s huge, sometimes I can’t believe I wrote all that stuff. Hopefully it can be of some help so other folks. Although I have few things left, I seem to be close to wrapping things up.

Do you have any other questions about buying a home you’d like to see answered? Please leave a comment below. I’m sure I’ve missed some things. I continue to be amazed by how confusing and complicated the home-buying process can be. No wonder so many people simply make inflated offers and sign their mortgages without even reading them…

Find more in Real Estate | 4/30 | 17 Comments »

While on my lunch break, I went over and bought some Series I Savings bonds, due to their high interest rates described here. Technically I had two more days until the 30th to get an April 2008 issue date, but I didn’t want to cut it too close in case there were any problems. I was also fueled by the news that interest rates will probably dropped yet again soon by Bernanke and Co.

Here’s how to do it:

1) Find a bank near you that sells paper savings bonds. Although the TreasuryDirect website says “any financial institution”, not all banks participate. I asked a few smaller ones near work and they did not carry them. The big boys like Bank of America, Washington Mutual, Chase, or Wachovia should all have them. If you don’t have one of these megabanks, just call the biggest banks in your region.

2) Either move funds into an account there, or bring cash. You can’t write a check from another institution, because they need to have the funds immediately. Although I didn’t try, a cashier’s check should work, assuming the bank can simply turn that into cash. I just had them withdraw the funds out of my bank account.

3) Ask for the Series I Savings bonds order form. Don’t be surprised if the teller looks confused, as this isn’t a popular request. Have them ask a supervisor, it should be Form 5374. I had one left over, so here is a scan of what it should look like:

Remember, the limit for paper bonds is $5,000 per Social Security number per year. So you can put down $5k for you and $5k for your spouse if you have one, and simply pay $10,000 by yourself. You may also wish to buy something like five $1,000 bonds instead of one $5,000 bond for ease of paper redemption.

The issue date of the savings bond will be the same day that the bank accepts payment. This date will be noted on the application, and the bank should also stamp it to confirm.

4) Wait. The forms says that processing will take 3 weeks, and then it will be mailed to you. You can have it sent to a P.O. Box if you have one, for more security. The processing time won’t affect your interest earned because again as long as you paid in April it will be stamped as issued in April 2008. Also, you can’t cash out until after 12 months, so there is no hurry.

How do I redeem them?
You can either convert these paper bonds to electronic format at TreasuryDirect and redeem online, or cash them in at the same place you bought them (or any other financial institution that sells them). The cool thing about electronic format is that you can do partial redemptions.

Find more in Savings Bonds | 4/28 | 41 Comments »

Here’s an updated list of companies willing to pay you to try out their services. None of these listed require a credit check. See links for more info.

RevolutionMoneyExchange $25 Bonus. Offer extended to May 15th, so get in by then if you haven’t already. Just sign-up with this PayPal alternative and grab your $25. You don’t even have to make a deposit or buy anything. More details here.

eBates $10 Bonus (+$18 possible). eBates offers rebates on online store purchases. After your first transactoin, you’ll get a $10 bonus. Just sign-up with your e-mail and you’ll see the $10 in your account. One suggestion: sign-up for a free trial of Netflix through eBates and get another $18, and they’ll send you $28 during their next cycle. (Looks like you have to become a paying member, cheapest plan is $4.99/month.) Just remember to cancel in time. More details here.

Prosper $25 Bonus. Peer-to-peer lending means you get to earn interest by lending to people you choose. Make a loan of $50, and you’ll receive a $25 bonus on top of your interest rate. More details here.

ING Direct $25 Bonus. One of the earliest online-only savings accounts, ING Direct will pay you $25 immediately if your initial deposit is at least $250. The account currently earns 3.0% APY.

ShareBuilder $50 Bonus. If you open an account with this brokerage and make any one trade, you will earn $50. In the application, say you are responding to a promotion and use the promo code “50GO28“. More info based on a previous similar offer.

I have applied and received all of the bonuses above successfully except for the Prosper one, as I had signed up before the promotion started. You can also get $100 all at once by applying for one of these credit cards, although applying will require a credit check (and some spending restraint, I suppose).

Find more in Banking, Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 4/27 | 14 Comments »

The economic stimulus checks are coming! Before depositing your tax rebate at the bank, it might be a good idea to see what retailers will offer you for it. While I don’t necessarily like the idea of treating this extra money as different from any other money (a dollar is a dollar), you might as well take advantage of the promotions if it doesn’t change your intended spending patterns. Although some of these require an economic stimulus check, others work with any tax refund check.

Even if the big names like Kroger and Albertson’s don’t ring a bell, read the lists below carefully for a store that is near you. For example, in Portland, Oregon there is the popular Fred Meyer chain, which I didn’t know was part of the Kroger family.

Supervalue Inc. Supermarkets - 10% Bonus
Including Acme, Albertsons, bigg’s, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Jewel-Osco, Lucky, Shaw’s/Star Market, Shop ‘n Save and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy. From their press release:

Customers who are interested in growing their refunds should bring their government-issued economic stimulus or tax refund checks, along with government-issued identification, to customer service counters at their local stores between May 2 and July 31, 2008, to purchase store gift cards in $300 increments, not to exceed $1,200 per household. Each gift card will be loaded with an additional $30, to bring each gift card total to $330.

Kroger Co. Supermarkets - 10% Bonus
Including Kroger, Baker’s, City Market, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Food 4 Less, Fry’s, Gerbes, Hilander, Jay C, King Soopers, Owen’s, Pay Less, Ralphs, Smith’s and QFC stores. From their press release:

Kroger customers who are interested in exchanging their refunds or economic stimulus checks should present their check and customer loyalty card at their local store’s Customer Service center from May 2, 2008 through July 31, 2008. The program is limited to one offer per household with a limit of $1,200.00.

Sears, K-Mart, and Land’s End - 10% Bonus
I was going to buy a Martha Stewart futon from K-mart just last week… From their press release:

When customers bring their stimulus checks to a Sears or Kmart cash register, they can convert the amount of the check into gift cards, plus receive a bonus gift card worth an additional 10 percent. To be eligible, the amount of gift cards purchased must be equal to the full value of the stimulus check. The gift cards can be redeemed at any Sears, Kmart or Lands’ End retail stores or online at sears.com or landsend.com. The promotion is scheduled to last from May 14 to July 19, 2008.

Radio Shack - 10% off $50+ Purchase
Targeted at the “underbanked”, but if by chance you want something from there… Personally, I’ve only bought a headphone splitter from there in the last 5 years. Their press release.

Customers who use their checks to pay for purchases above $50 between May 4 and July 12, 2008, will receive a 10 percent discount on their purchases. Any amount left over from the purchase will be placed on a Vision Silver Prepaid MasterCard, which can be used at any place that accepts MasterCard.

Via Reuters, Fatwallet, and Consumerist. Oh, Staples has a page of special offers like $50 off $500 spent on computers, but nothing specifically tied to a stimulus check. Anyone else?

Don’t lose those $660 gift cards!!

Find more in Deals & Offers, Taxes | 4/27 | 33 Comments »