Q: How do you know when you’ve been at this too long?
A: When you you are halfway done on a post about how to underwitholding taxes without paying a penalty, only to find out you’ve already done it! Check out my post on April 23rd of last year – Maximizing My Tax… Bill? Underwithholding On Purpose. Let’s see if I can add to what I wrote already without too much overlap…
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This is on the eve of the end of their Winter Save Up Sale. Chart updated.
April is almost here, and I haven’t finished doing my taxes yet. Tsk, tsk. I’m actually about 90% done with my return, but I am still trying to track down every single receipt possible in order to reduce my tax liability. They are legit business expenses, but I really need to work on my bookkeeping skills. After reading up on the rules I am not messing with the home office deduction for 2005.
I would just file a tax extension to October 16th, but I underwitheld on purpose this year and will be owing taxes (without penalty). That means I have to pay what I owe by April 17th even with an extension. If you followed some of the deals from my blog this past year, here are some things you may want to note:
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This is interesting – Citibank finally fully rolled out its e-Savings Account, which has no minimum balance requirement and currently pays 4.50% APY. Why not just call it CitiDirect? It’s not the highest rate for a no-minimums online saving account, but it’s still really good for a bank with such a wide physical branch network.
What’s the catch? “To open a Citibank e-Savings Account you must have or open a checking account in the Citibank EZ Checking, Citibank Account, Citibank Everything Counts Account or CitiGold Account relationship package.” The EZ Checking looks like the easiest option:
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Well, it is quite apparent that saving money is a personal issue, as was shown when I explored buying generic brands or shared about my free haircuts. I certainly didn’t expect so much reaction from that! On the flip side, I’m sure even the most frugal among us have their indulgences. Maybe it’s $40 haircuts, or their wall-to-wall DVD collection. Or maybe it’s just ordering extra toppings on your pizza. Here’s a little list of things are that are worth the extra money for me:
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The American Express Platinum Business Premium Cash Rebate Card (how’s that for a mouthful?!) is offering a $250 statement credit (removed) after your first purchase. I have no idea what their application requirements are, like if they verify if you actually run a business or not, but it seems like technically you can just apply with your usual SSN and put your own name down as the business name. Might be worth a shot – $250 is a healthy bonus, I thought Citi’s $100 bonus was good. Link via Bargainshare.
Obviously, whenever you apply for a credit card you expect them to perform a credit check, which will ding your credit score a bit temporarily. But sometimes even opening a savings account can cause a hard inquiry. I figured I’d share based on my 3 free credit reports what banks did and did not pull my credit, partially for my own memory.
Banks with Credit Check
Bank of America Checking (none for subsequent accounts)
Presidential Bank Checking (none for subsequent accounts)
Pentagon Federal CU Checking (signed up for overdraft protection)
Citibank Checking
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For some reason, I felt like I should check all of my credit reports today. I think it was because I knew my new landlord had run our credit, and I also haven’t checked them in a while. Remember, the government mandates that everyone gets 1 free credit report (but not score) every year from each of the 3 credit bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com. You can get all three at once, or space it out. I requested all three so I could compare them all side-by-side.
Besides, if I want my credit report again I can always go to sites like Credit.com and get one free with a trial subscription. I’ll have to cancel within 30 days or get charged something, but you get the credit report instantly, so why wait 30 days? I usually cancel the same or very next day! Another bonus is that you can also get your credit score for free as well, which is usually $8 everywhere else.
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Well, after enduring what felt like a decade of yanking us around, we found another rental we like in the same neighborhood and put in our 30-day notice instead of waiting to be kicked out. The new house and rent are very similar. We made sure to make the new lease long enough so we won’t have to move again until we leave this area permanently in a little over a year. We’ll be hiring hourly movers for the big stuff and moving the small stuff ourselves.
Hopefully, this will be a blessing in disguise if we can get rid of some of our accumulated junk! Off to the grocery store to get some free boxes…
Everyone who sent me their Form #2 in February for my Emigrant Direct Referral Bonus should have been paid last week. If not, please e-mail me. Thanks to all who participated, I paid out over $100 again this month.
It’s been about 8 months since I parlayed my $50 Sharebuilder bonus into $42 of EEM (and $4 cash, oops), which is now worth a whopping $52.70! I figure there are probably a few new readers since then who may have missed out on the fun. Here’s the basic deal:
Sharebuilder has some decent sign-up bonuses if you make one trade. Costco members can get a $65-85 Bonus. Everyone else can still get a $50 Bonus + Book. The bland version of is this deal is to open your account, buy a stock for $1 + $4 commission, get the $50+ bonus, and take out $45. But that’s no fun! Why not join Warren Buffett instead?
This is basically the same deal I did last time, with only tiny tweaks. If you are a Costco member, replace the $50 with $65/$85 if you want.
1. Go to the ShareBuilder website and start the application.
2. Be sure to enter the correct promotional code.
3. Deposit $50 of your own money (to make the 1st trade).
4. Pick the Basic Plan with no monthly maintenance fees and $4 trade.
5. Buy $46 of BRKB.*
6. Wait the 4-6 weeks for the $50 bonus.
7. Withdraw the $50 bonus. Net cost: Nothing!**
8. Don’t touch the account or make any more trades for 20-30 years.
* In Sharebuilder, you should put down your purchase amount as $50. They will take out the $4 commisson from that, and buy $46 of your stock.
** Well, that’s not technically correct. You will need to report your $50 as taxable income. If you want it to be truly free you could buy a smaller amount, say $40.
Why not just take the $45 and run? You could, perfectly good idea. But this is free money, they don’t even run a credit check when you open the account. If you invest it now, with Sharebuilder’s lack of inactivity fees and free dividend reinvestment, you could let it grow instead. Why not buy something fun and withdraw $1,000 when you retire or something? It’s like planting a little stock seed.
Why BRKB? With BRKB, you get to walk around knowing you own a piece of Berkshire Hathaway, the famed company run by the virtual deity Warren Buffett. If it keeps outperforming the overall U.S. market like it has been, that itty bitty share could pay for that flight to the Caymans in your early retirement.
BRKB is a Class B share, and is worth 1/30th of a Class A share (BRKA), but has no voting rights. Still, now you can feel obligated to read those Buffett letters to shareholders everyone is always talking about.
Alternatively, you could buy any other stock you like, I would suggest picking something like an ETF that is diversified and likely to go up over the long run, like my EEM. Any single company is more of a bet, but hey, Apple (AAPL) or Google (GOOG) might be fun.
This ain’t going to to make you rich, but so far I’ve gotten a 15% return on my EEM in less than 8 months, so I’m on my way to a free vacation someday courtesy of Sharebuilder! I might even try to get another bonus, and see if I get away with it…
I am still doing some part-time website consulting on the side, and it is simply amazing how many people are interested in hiring me. Almost every new person I casually meet with a small business, when I say what I do, I get “Hmm.. you do websites? Do you do <insert their business niche here> sites?” What is nice is that for some clients I can build up a nice steady stream of income after I set up the initial site, where I charge them a certain amount each month for hosting, site updates, and occasional support. I honestly think I could do very well with this, the only thing stopping me is my mediocre time management skills.
One thing I have learned that since I lose 50% to self-employment taxes, I have to make sure to make it worth my time. For example, say I charge $50 a month. If I end up spending an hour a week on that client, that’s 4 hours of work for only $25 take-home. Working for yourself is fun though.
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