Archive for December, 2009
Monday, December 21st, 2009
I mentioned before that I am shopping for a new car. I’ve been to multiple dealerships since this is the first new car I’ve ever bought, and (for some odd reason) wanted to experience the new car buying experience complete with high-pressure sales tactics. Here are some examples of lies and deceptions that I’ve run across so far from different folks.
MSRP “Market Value Adjustment”
Apparently, MSRP isn’t good enough for some cars. I like the Honda Fit, which is a relatively popular car in my area and one in which the MSRP isn’t that much higher than invoiced (as confirmed by TrueCar.com) and thus doesn’t have that much built-in profit.
So, they add another $1,000 to $2,000 and tell customers that this makes the price “market value”. Of course, as I finish negotiating back down a bit below MSRP they admit “oh, the first price I said is only for folks who don’t know how to buy a car. But one person every week walks in and pays it!”.
And people wonder why car-buying isn’t a fun experience.
Options That Aren’t Optional
Another way to boost profit is to package a bunch of options like floor mats, wheel locks, or keyless entry and make a non-official $600 options package and put it on all the cars. When you don’t actually want something, say, wheel locks, they just say “oh, it’s already installed, sorry”. I can remove the floor mats in about 30 seconds, pal. If you push, they’ll let you buy one without options only if you commit to one that hasn’t arrived yet but is on their shipping list.
Jacked Up Options Prices
If you’ve already artificially tried to raise the price of the car, and then tack on default accessories, what is left? Make the price of the accessories above MSRP.
I wanted to buy a cargo cover for the back, and was told it was $225. When trying to negotiate, I got the sob story “oh, I only make $20 on this anyway”. Really, then why can I go online to another genuine Honda Dealer at College Hills Honda for only $119 plus shipping? And the retail price is shown as $165??
Always look online for a dealer that has fair prices on direct accessories, and either use that price to haggle or buy the accessories separately if you’re willing!
The Magically Disappearing Newspaper Ad Car
Finally, they even whipped out the magic for me. I saw a dealer with a newspaper ad for a 2009 model car at a great price, only $150 over invoice. I called them, and they said it was in stock. I drove over, and they said to take a seat and they’d bring it over. “Oh! I’m sorry, that car has just been sold. Can I interest you in something else?” I was pissed and started walking out the door. “Okay, okay! What if I offered you a 2010 car that had identical features or better at the same price!” Fine, show me. Now. After we look for a 2010 that was similar for about 10 minutes, the 2009 was miraculously available again!
That’s it for now, I’ve got to catch another flight, but I’ve got more salesman deceptions to share later…
Posted in Frugal Living | 56 Comments »
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Pabst Brewing Company, makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon, is currently owned by a charitable trust that must sell it by 2010. Forza Migliozzi and The Ad Store want to use crowdsourcing to buy the company for $300 million through their website BuyaBeerCompany.com.
From this CNN article:
Anyone over 21 can go to the site and pledge a minimum of $5 toward the reported $300 million sales price for Pabst. So far, would-be beer moguls have pledged more than $20 million in about a month. If the collective raises enough money, Migliozzi says contributors will get enough beer to match their pledges and ownership in the company.
While living in Portland, I definitely noticed the rising popularity of PBR. Shrug, I pledged $25. You don’t actually pay upfront, so we’ll see what happens.
Posted in Funny | 17 Comments »
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
‘Tis the season for some haggling with your internet service provider! Let them know you have other options, and you should be able to get a lower bill for at least a few months that can add up to some big savings. Below are some new customer offers – you might not get them to match completely, but anything is good in my book. (Also handy for those that recently moved – try using the name of another household member – or just want to start up new service.)
ComcastOffers
$19.99 per month for 6 months, with free wireless modem and $100 cash back
Broadband National
Click on “promotions” in the upper right corner for several offers including:
AT&T – $19.99/month for 6 months, free modem/router, and $100 cash back
Charter
$19.99/mo. for 6 months, free modem, free wireless router, no contract
Cox High-Speed Internet
$19.99/mo. for 3 months, free modem, free self-install kit.
Oh, and don’t forget to check out some of the haggling tips in this DirecTV haggle post.
Posted in Frugal Living | 9 Comments »
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
There a regular poster on the Bogleheads forum called Adrian Nenu who always posts the following, which is said to have origins with author Larry Swedroe.
Tolerable Loss x 2 = Equity Allocation < 50%
I don’t know if I agree with the last part that says that your equity position should always be less than 50%. However, the first part seems to offer a good rule of thumb when it comes to investing in a target date retirement fund.
Let’s say you have the Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund (VFIFX) and it currently contains 90% stocks. Using this rule of thumb would mean that a possible one-year loss for such a fund is 45%. You should ask yourself – can you handle a 45% drop in the value of your retirement assets, even if you have 40 years before you need it? The good thing about living through 2008/2009 is that you probably have a better idea of the truth. If you’re going to run for cover in cash, only to buy back in later (like now) when prices are 50% higher, then that’s something to avoid.
One thing that I recommend to my more conservative friends who still want a simple investment is to simply buy a different “date”. For example, if you could purchase the Vanguard 2025 Fund (VTHRX) which has 75% in stocks. Who cares if the label is 2025. Meanwhile, I encourage them to continue to learn more about investing so that the can understand the risks trade-offs better and adjust their tolerances accordingly (up or down).
Posted in Investing | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
For those that missed out, I just got an e-mail that the CollegeAdvantage 529 $25/$50 referral offer deadline has been extended to December 18th, 2009.
Deadline for Refer a Friend program is extended to December 18, 2009! Earn $50 for you and $25 for your friends and family!
You now have a few more days to earn a $50 referral bonus for your CollegeAdvantage account. You can earn a referral bonus when your friends and family open a CollegeAdvantage direct account by December 18, 2009. And they’ll earn $25 just for opening the account! All they need is your CollegeAdvantage referral number (which is your account number) and they can easily enroll online at www.collegeadvantage.com to receive the bonus. New accounts must be opened by December 18, 2009 in order to receive the referral bonus.
Under this promotion, college savers can get $25 for signing up (w/ my review), $50 for referring others, and $25 for starting up automatic deposits. Altogether, a couple could earn $150 free for their kid’s education this way. If you need it, my CollegeAdvantage referral code is 2439350.
Posted in Deals & Offers | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Been thinking about that perfect website idea? GoDaddy.com is offering a 1-year domain name registration for only 99 cents with coupon code BUYCOM99. This is valid for new domain registrations and transfers from other registars only, and not renewals of domains already at GoDaddy.
Register or transfer any available .COM, .US, .MOBI, .BIZ, .NET, .ORG, .CA, .CO.UK and .IN domain for just $0.99!*
Applies to the first year only of new or transfer registrations. This offer may not be used for renewals, bulk registrations, premium domains or Sunrise/Landrush domain registrations. Limited to one order per customer, expiring after 7,500 redemptions or on December 29, 2009 (whichever comes first).
Posted in Deals & Offers | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Inside this recent Morningstar article about the pros and cons of Fidelity’s Freedom Funds was an interesting chart that incorporated data from all of the target-date retirement funds. These funds were getting really popular as a set-and-forget type of investment, until many people found found out in 2009 that their risk tolerance didn’t necessarily mesh with the what the investment company thought it would be.
A fund’s “glide path” is how they shift their asset allocation to be more conservative as time goes on and they near the retirement target date. A very general way to measure this is to take the percentage of the fund invested in equities (stocks).
As you can see, there can be a significant variation between the industry maximums and minimums for each year. Fidelity’s fund tend to be near the average, perhaps a tiny bit below most of the time. I looked at Vanguard’s funds, and they are also very close to the average. TRP’s glide path is almost always above the average, but not by more than 5-10%.
You can see the specific glide path chart of other funds with a Morningstar Premium membership (see below). However, you can always use the free Instant X-Ray tool with the ticker symbols from your own series of funds and plot it yourself. How does yours compare?
This is just one component of what you should be looking at when choosing between fund choices, with other examples being cost (expense ratio?), equity breakdown (international exposure?), and bond breakdown (quality?). Of course, some of us are just stuck with one choice in our 401k/403b plans.
List of the 20 most popular target date funds:
* AllianceBernstein Retirement Strategies Target-Date Fund Series
* American Century LIVESTRONG Target-Date Fund Series
* American Funds Target Date Retirement Target-Date Fund Series
* DWS LifeCompass Target-Date Fund Series
* Fidelity Advisor Freedom Target-Date Fund Series
* Fidelity Freedom Target-Date Fund Series
* ING Solution Target-Date Fund Series
* John Hancock Lifecycle Target-Date Fund Series
* JPMorgan SmartRetirement Target-Date Fund Series
* MassMutual Select Destination Rtmt Target-Date Fund Series
* MFS Lifetime Target-Date Fund Series
* Oppenheimer Transition Target-Date Fund Series
* Principal LifeTime Series Target-Date Fund Series
* Putnam RetirementReady Target-Date Fund Series
* Schwab Target Target-Date Fund Series
* TIAA-CREF Lifecycle Target-Date Fund Series
* T. Rowe Price Retirement Target-Date Fund Series
* Vanguard Target Retirement Target-Date Fund Series
* Vantagepoint Milestone Target-Date Fund Series
* Wells Fargo Advantage DJ Target-Date Fund Series
Posted in Investing, Retirement | 6 Comments »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
With the holiday flying season underway and me flying out today as well, and wanted to see if I could try out some internet at 30,000 feet. Gogo Inflight Internet is now offering WiFi internet on select Air Canada, Airtran, American, Delta, United, and Virgin America flights. See here for participating aircraft.
Here are some promotional codes that will provide you with one free session of GoGo. They are good once per account. However, supposedly you can sign up with any name and any e-mail address with no confirmation system (no credit card needed either with the code), it seems like they are pretty much offering unlimited free internet until these expire. I hope I can get it to work! Via FlyerTalk.
Expire 12/31/2009
DELTATRYGOGO
AIRTRANTRYGOGO
AATRYGOGO
Expire 1/7/2010
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2472564126dvu
2285632980tlk
Posted in Deals & Offers | 8 Comments »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
I’ve been a bit distracted lately, and was a surprised when I got this e-mail this morning about my new OptionsHouse brokerage account:
Our new pricing structure is now active, so please log in and choose your new rate. If you have multiple accounts, you will need to select the rate for each account individually.
If you do not choose a new rate by 4:30 pm CT on December 15, 2009, your account will automatically default to the $8.50 +.15/contract rate.
$8.50 per trade? I didn’t just open an account with them for that! I went to quickly see what was happening. It turns out they are changing the pricing structure for their options trades. Stock trades are still $2.95. Here are the two options choices:
They used to offer options for $9.95 flat, up to 4,000 contracts in a single order. This must be a disappointment for high-volume options traders. As for me, I’m just there for the $2.95 stock trades. From their FAQ:
A general rule of thumb is that our “up to 5 for $5″ plan is most suitable for our customers who trade 10 or fewer contracts per trade while our “$8.50+” plan works better for customers who trade 10 or more contracts per trade. Both plans offer the same flat rate of $2.95 for stock trades. (plus $0.005 per share if the stock price is $2.00 or less and the stock is not options eligible).
Posted in Investing | 2 Comments »
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
Here’s a good last-minute gift idea for socially conscious friends – a $20 gift certificate to MicroPlace, which provides loans to low-income entrepreneurs. They have a B1G1 holiday promotion where if you buy a $20 GC, you get another $20 to send to the person of your choice for free (could be you if you wanted). Ends December 31st.
The cool thing about this gift is that you’re not just giving $20 to some charity “in their name” that they’ll never see. They get to help out a poor borrower, then then when the loan matures they get $20 + any interest! Your friend can then spend it however they wish (thus making it better than some Best Buy gift card), or reinvest in another microcredit fund. Thus the whole “gifts that keeps on giving” slogan. And you get $40 for spending $20!
Give a Gift that Keeps on Giving
Give a unique and special gift this holiday season. It is a gift of connection, a gift of hope, and a gift that believes that poor people can use their ingenuity and hard work to break out of the cycle of poverty.
Your gift can help fund loans to poor people who could start a business, save, and work their way out of poverty. And when you purchase a gift certificate of $20 or more on MicroPlace, we’ll give you a free gift certificate of $20 to send to someone else on your shopping list!
I now have over $2,000 invested at MicroPlace and also $2,000 invested at LendingClub (P2P Lending).
Posted in Deals & Offers, Giving Back | 3 Comments »
Friday, December 11th, 2009
File-sharing and online collaboration site Box.net also has a handy feature that other similar services don’t have – 100 pages of free outgoing faxes per month via eFax. Their free Lite plan includes 1 GB of online storage with a per-file size limit of 25 MB. Simply upload the file you wish to fax (PDF files work well), right-click, and select “Send with eFax.” If you don’t see that option, click on “Add Applications” and find eFax.
There are no ads, and if you need a cover sheet you’ll have to include that in the .PDF file you upload. The fax is sent immediately after you initiate it, and it was received by my fax machine without errors and with good print quality (for a fax). You do get a confirmation e-mail from eFax that it was sent successfully. Not bad at all for free!
As a reminder, you can also sign up for a free fax number to receive incoming faxes at eFax or K7.net and have it sent to your e-mail. Together, I would imagine these services can cover most casual fax usage (assuming you have a scanner to convert things to PDF format).
Posted in Frugal Living | 19 Comments »
Friday, December 11th, 2009
In testing out my Ooma, I used the free fax website FaxZero.com to send a fax over to myself. I thought I’d share a quick review.
- The free service has certain restrictions. You must have it converted to Word/PDF format, up to 2 faxes a day, and a maximum of 3 pages (6 pages total a day).
- There is an ad on the provided cover page, but thankfully it is just a simple FaxZero ad and not some random company. Here is a scan of what it looks like.
- You must provide a working e-mail address, as you need to click on a confirmation links sent via e-mail to send your fax. Some users report increased spam, so be careful which e-mail you use.
- The fax is not sent immediately. It says it might take anywhere from 5-30 minutes depending on how busy they are. It took about 5 minutes for me for my fax to ring.
- The fax did come through successfully, and the quality was acceptable.
- You do get a confirmation e-mail with the subject “Your fax to XXX has been sent successfully”.
Overall, I have no complaints about FaxZero since it was a free service that performed as promised. However, I did find a better free fax alternative recently at Box.net, which I hope sticks around for a while. See my Box.net Free Fax review.
Posted in Frugal Living | 11 Comments »
