The more sunscreen I use, the more I know I’m properly enjoying summertime.

The June 2012 issue of Consumer Reports magazine (subscription required) tested a variety of sunscreens, as they do nearly every year. This is actually important, as the labels on sunscreens tend to be misleading and make it look like they all do everything. For example, one important thing that CR tested for was protection against both UVA and UVB rays. UVB causes sunburn, but UVA damages and ages skin on a deeper level. Some major brands are notably weaker in protecting the UVA part of the spectrum. Water-resistance was also tested, as there really is no such thing as “water proof” or “sweat proof”.

Along the same lines, the FDA has been fighting with the sunscreen manufacturing lobby to get better labeling regarding these important sunscreen characteristics. Soon, sunscreens must meet higher requirements before claiming they block both UVA and UVB rays.

In general, going above SPF 30 doesn’t get you much extra protection, as it will likely wear off before it makes any difference. It’s better to reapply instead every 2 hours and after swimming or sweating.

2012 CR Best Buys
No-Ad Lotion (SPF 45, $0.59 per ounce)
Walgreens Continuous Spray Sport (SPF 50, $1.30 per ounce)

2011 CR Best Buy Left Out?
However, I remember doing my research on this topic before, and the top rated sunscreen used to be the Target Up & Up spray (SPF 30). Indeed, I found this old press release that showed that the Target spray was their CR Best Buy in 2011, with good protection against both UVA/UVB. However, it wasn’t tested at all in the 2012 issue. Why not?

I’ve tested a bunch of other sprays myself, including Neutrogena, Coppertone, and Banana Boat. Target was indeed the best value, with just-as-good performance and a great price compared to the big brands. $8.74 for 12 oz. (two 6 oz. bottles) = $0.73 per ounce, making it the cheapest spray by far. Neutrogena was my overall favorite as it was the least greasy, but it also cost more than twice as much. All of them tend to stain white clothing. (I use the Neutrogena lotion despite the higher cost for the face due to the non-greasiness.)

If you’re pregnant, you should check your sunscreen for retinyl palmitate, a common inactive ingredient in suncreens which has been linked to birth defects and thus should be avoided by pregnant women. The 2011 press release said the Target Up & Up had no retinyl palmitate, but I just checked my bottle and it actually was listed as an inactive ingredient. So heads up.

Find more in Frugal Living | 6/1 | 4 Comments »

Rewardsgold is offering a free 2-year subscription to SmartMoney magazine for a limited time. You have to fill out a brief one-page survey as well as “tell” two friends about the offer. Your friends don’t actually have to sign up for the offer or actually do anything at all. No credit card required. Arrives in 8-10 weeks.

These free subscription promos are usually done to boost subscriber counts for the magazines so they can sell more ads, and most times actually do arrive in my experience.

Find more in Deals & Offers | 5/31 | 2 Comments »

A helpful reader sent me a WSJ article with the provocative theme that all this investment advice about asset allocation doesn’t matter for most people. Why?

For the vast majority of savers, improved investment returns won’t materially extend how long retirement money lasts. That’s, in large part, because few investors have enough money in their retirement account to tilt the balance.

Far more important, says the paper from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, are three variables that don’t require a brokerage account: how long you work, controlling spending and tapping the value of your home.

Briefly, the study found that 47% of households would fall short of their income needs in retirement at age 67, when Social Security kicks in for those born after 1960. However, even if investors were able to theoretically earn a guaranteed 6.5% above inflation annually in a riskless investment, 44% would still be short.

How little are people saving? The WSJ article notes that having $500,000 in financial assets by retirement age would put in you in the top 10% of savers. The CRR working paper itself mentions that “the typical 401(k)/IRA balance of households approaching retirement is less than $100,000″ but I didn’t see a source.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found that in 2010 the average IRA individual balance (all accounts from the same person combined) was $91,864, while the median balance was $25,296. EBRI also found that at year-end 2010, the average 401(k) account balance was $60,329 and the median account balance was $17,686. But that’s for all folks, not just people of retirement age.

This shouldn’t be too surprising. Your savings rate is the most important factor in determining if you can retire comfortably. Working longer is the same as saving more and spending less (for a while). Getting used to spending less now would aallows you to need less in retirement. Doing a reverse mortgage is just another word for cashing in your savings, isn’t it?

Why asset allocation is still important. The paper concludes that financial advisors should focus more on savings rates and less about the complex ETF portfolio they just designed for you. Probably true. However, asset allocation has always been something that we did to help our situation without actually doing the hard work of having to save more. Imagine a pill that we could take to lose weight, while not actually eating less or exercising more.

I suppose we should view designing an asset allocation more as a potential “boost” to our nest egg than the driving force, and realize that earning an extra 1% or 2% a year won’t help if you’re just compounding a small chunk of your income. How much is enough? Studies have found that a savings rate of 16.62% would have worked out well historically.

Find more in Frugal Living, Investing, Retirement | 5/31 | 7 Comments »

Most people still elect to receive paper bills, even though almost every vendor is pushing paperless. Why? Personally, my e-mail inbox is so much more cluttered with crap compared to my post office mailbox. It’s very easy for me to forget about a short e-mail saying “you have a bill waiting” with 86 other unread e-mails shouting at me. But then again, I do end up paying the bills online, so perhaps there is a better way? This is where Manilla.com comes in.

Making Paperless Billing Better

All your bills are organized in one central place. You give Manilla your login information*, and they handle the rest. If you need to look up an old bill, you don’t need to open the filing cabinet or reset your password (again) to that archaic water department website designed in 1995. You can just view or print out the .PDF from Manilla. They promise to store your bills for free, forever. I do wish there was a way to download all your stored bills at once, perhaps in a .zip file.

You may find that Manilla may not list some of your local vendors, although you can suggest future account providers for them to add. I couldn’t find my local water utility. You can also add magazine subscriptions, frequent flier mileage programs, and hotel rewards programs.

Easy-to-manage bill reminders. You can request e-mail or text message reminders to 7 days, 3 days, and/or 1 day before the due date. I need these repeated reminders, and it’s nice that they turn off automatically after they see that the bill has been paid.
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Find more in Budgeting, Time Management | 5/30 | 14 Comments »

Mortgage rates are still setting record lows! Qualification is still very difficult to refinance for those with little home equity, but there’s still many people out there that are eligible (maximize your appraisal). Don’t miss your opportunity to lower your interest costs and own your home faster by believing in one of these common mortgage refinance myths:

#1 I don’t want to pay the high closing costs again.

It’s true, when you refinance there will be additional costs. The mortgage broker has to eat! However, that doesn’t mean you actually need to pay anything extra.

First of all, you can get paid for negative points. Depending on the interest rate, the originator/lender will actually pay you a credit each 1 point = 1% of the loan principal. The lower the rate, the less points you’ll get. But if the credit is high enough, that may cover all your costs, making it a “no-cost” refi. Alternatively, they may simply advertise “no closing costs” which means they cover a certain list of fees.

When you apply for a refi, you’ll get a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) with a total closing costs amount listed at the bottom. However, you should separate the true costs from the stuff that you’d otherwise have to pay anyway, including:

• Prepaid or partial month interest
• Homeowner’s insurance to escrow
• Property Taxes to escrow

The remaining amount (origination fees, doc fees, application fees, appraisal fees, title insurance, credit report fees, etc.) is what I would just call the true cost of refinancing. Some “no closing cost” lenders still make you pay the title insurance fee.

#2. I can’t refinance because it’s been too soon since my last financing.

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Find more in Real Estate | 5/29 | 11 Comments »

It’s now mid-2012, time for another financial checkup. I took the time this weekend to re-check all my credit scores from all 3 bureaus for free. You probably know about AnnualCreditReport.com for free credit reports. But what about your credit score? If you want some relative comparison of your creditworthiness, here is a compilation of five different ways to grab a free credit score for without the hassle of annoying trial offers. I repeat: No free trial membership required, no credit card number required, nothing to cancel.

Remember, everyone has three credit scores, one from each of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion.

Credit Sesame

Every month, Credit Sesame can offer you a credit score based on your Experian credit report. They also offer tips to improve your score and qualify for a mortgage. Here’s a screenshot of my current credit score.

CreditKarma

CreditKarma.com is an ad-supported site that offers you the ability to check your credit score daily, called a Transrisk score, based on your TransUnion credit report. The score range is the same as FICO, from 300-850. You don’t get your credit report details, but you do get a few tips on what recent changes to your credit report have impacted your score.

Equifax Credit Score Card

The Equifax Credit Score Card comes directly from Equifax and provides a free credit score range of Low (280-559), Below Average (560-659), Average (660-724), Above Average (725-759), and High (760-850). It’s called the Equifax Risk Score. FICO has a range of 300-850, and this range is 280-850 so you don’t really have to do any scaling. It doesn’t provide any specific data from your Equifax credit report, but it does include a short summary of any negative factors that you may have on your report.

Prosper Person-to-Person Lending

Prosper Lending provides a free credit grade for prospective borrowers, based on your Experian credit data. If you don’t actually finalize the application for the loan, they will not check your credit. They do offer some good rates on personal loans, if you are looking to consolidate credit card debts. Here’s a partial screenshot of my profile:

LendingClub Person-to-Person Lending

Similar to Prosper, if you start an application to become a borrower at LendingClub.com they will check your credit on your behalf (again, this means it doesn’t hurt your credit score) to find out what rate they will charge you. Instead of a numerical score, you will get a grade like “A2″ or “B3″. Then you can use the table below to determine your credit score range. For example, A2 would indicate a score range of 747-769. It is also based on your TransUnion credit report.

You will need to provide your personal information and Social Security number to these companies, naturally, so be comfortable with that. None of these methods by themselves will affect your credit score as you are requesting them for yourself.

Find more in Credit Cards, Debt | 5/28 | 77 Comments »

Citi is trying to learn more about the needs of small business owners and believes that many MyMoneyBlog.com readers might fit their desired profile. They are looking for primary banking decision-makers of small businesses (titles will include but not limited to: owner, principal, partner, CFO) to join the Business Advisory Board for Citibank.

In the Business Advisory Board for Citibank, an online community created by Citibank, you will have the rare opportunity to “Learn, Do, and Connect” with other business owners and decision-makers who share your goals and challenges, as well as get an advance look into and impact the creation of new products and services aimed at businesses like yours, as well as the chance to impact the development process.

Community members will receive a $10 welcome gift as well as around $20/month for participating an average of 5-15 minutes per week at a time of your convenience. The sign-up period and the spots are limited (update 5/30 still live), so please apply promptly below if interested.

Citibank Business Advisory Board application page

Find more in Deals & Offers | 5/25 | 6 Comments »

Here’s another potentially useful bookmark. MySettlementClaims.com is a database of class action settlements so that you can quickly determine if you’re are eligible for a claim. It appears to be run privately by an individual, so I don’t know how extensive or well-updated it will be in the future, but for now it does include a lot of settlements that I wasn’t aware of. AT&T DSL, Apple iTunes gift cards, Skechers shoes, Vita Coco water, etc. In the end, you’re given the link to the appropriate official claim form.

It reminds me of sites that help you find unclaimed money, which I never really trusted until it actually worked for me. There are still many scammy unclaimed money sites, though, so I’d never pay money for any such services.

Find more in Deals & Offers | 5/25 | 3 Comments »

Offer is back for 2012. Every Friday this summer from now until August 17th, you can get 2-for-1 movie tickets from Fandango.com if you have a Visa Signature card and use it to buy the tickets. You can also get $5 off $25 in Fandango Bucks gift cards for the rest of the week.

Tickets must be purchased on a Friday for a Friday show time. Limit 1 movie ticket per Visa Signature card purchase, per 30 day period following the date of a purchase in connection with this offer.

Check out your credit cards, you may be surprised to have one and not know it. If you’ve gone after some of the juicy $500+ sign-up bonuses this year, you probably have one of these cards.

• Chase Sapphire Preferred with $500 in travel bonus = Visa Signature card
• British Airways card offering 100,000 bonus Avios points = Visa Signature
• Hyatt Credit Card with 2 free hotel nights at any Hyatt in the world = Visa Signature

If you are a member of AMC Stubs, you can get the Fandango service fee waived as well at those theaters (membership costs $12 a year). The Avengers was a fun summer blockbuster!

Find more in Frugal Living | 5/24 | 8 Comments »

Here’s a promo that would work great together with the the ChargeSmart fee waiver for utilities purchases. The Miles by Discover Card has upped their sign-up bonus so that you can get 10,000 Bonus Miles with every $2,000 in purchases within the first 6 months – up to 20,000 Bonus Miles. To confirm, look for the following in the Terms & Conditions on the application:

TERMS OF 20,000 BONUS MILES OFFER: Earn 10,000 Bonus Miles for every $2,000 you spend, up to 20,000 Bonus Miles. Purchases must be made within 6 months from the date your account is opened. We are not responsible for merchant delays in processing transactions. This promotional offer is in addition to the Standard Miles earned on purchases. Promotional Miles will be applied within 8 weeks of reaching $2,000 and $4,000 spend amounts.

The $2000 spending requirement over six months works out to $333 per month. What you’d be looking for is $350 per month in utilities (electric, gas, sewer, water) that previously didn’t accept credit cards for payment (at least without a big fee), which now you can pay Discover via ChargeSmart.com with no fees. If you don’t reach that, I would even prepay some utilities and let it apply to future bills. There is also double miles (2 miles/$ spent) on the first $3,000 spent combined on restaurant and travel purchases. If you can charge $4,000 in 6 months, you’d get the max 20,000 bonus miles.

In addition to the bonus miles, you’ll still get the standard 1 mile per $1 spent on the utilities charges. 10,000 miles can be redeemed for $100 towards any travel from any vendor. You just have to put a travel purchase (airfare, hotel, car rental) on the card and then go online and redeem your “miles” for a travel credit. So buy any $150 airfare from any website on the Miles card and redeem 10,000 miles for a $100 statement credit.

No annual fee. Rewards do not expire as long as your account is in good standing and the card is not inactive for 18 consecutive months.

Miles by Discover Card application link

Find more in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 5/23 | 6 Comments »

This is pretty cool. New York City is launching a bike-share program called Citi Bike this summer (supposedly late July 2012), with 10,000 bikes and 600 stations for pick-up and drop-off. I’ve seen and used similar bike-sharing programs in Europe, and they seemed to be very practical and moderately popular. I’ve never ridden a bike in NYC, are there many bike lanes or will you be busy avoiding taxis? Combined with the subway, this makes it even easier to get around without a car.

A 24-hour membership will cost $9.95, but an annual membership is only $95 a year and will allow you unlimited trips of up to 45 minutes. A small fee applies after that to encourage you to return the bike quickly for other people to use.

Citi is the primary sponsor to the tune of $41 million and Mastercard is handling the payment infrastructure in addition to contributing $6.5 million. The program is run privately, with no public funding. I hope it works out.

Find more in Frugal Living | 5/23 | 15 Comments »

Update: There is now an official website at grouponvouchersettlement.com. The court hasn’t approved an official settlement breakdown yet, the claim form is available to submit by e-mail.

What, Groupon already has a class action settlement? Yup. Bloomberg reports that Groupon has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging the expiration dates on its coupons are illegal. Part of the lawsuit alleged that Groupon should be treated like gift cards, which in many states are not allowed to expire. However, like with most settlements, Groupon denies that and doesn’t admit any fault, yada, yada.
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Find more in Deals & Offers | 5/23 | 15 Comments »