Archives for October 2012

LevelUp Mobile Pay: $5 Referral Bonus + Free Store Credits

October 11, 2012 By Jonathan Ping 1 Comment

Mobile payments are hot, and start-up LevelUp let’s you pay by scanning a QR code from your smartphone that is linked to your existing credit or debit card. You know what that means… venture capital spent on customer acquisition! New users can get a free $5 credit by signing up through a referral link or with code JL8U06. The referrer also gets $5, but only if the user spends $5 on their own credit card. Nice detail: The app lets you use your camera to grab your credit card number instead of typing it in.

In addition to the referral bonus, you’ll also get a few bucks of free starter credit at each of thousands of participating merchants (mostly restaurants). For example, in San Francisco you can get $1 a Adam’s Grub Truck, $2 at Slider Shack and Quiznos, and $4 at Asa Sushi. In New York City you can get $2 for Big D’s Grub Truck. Neat feature to encourage trying out a new place. There are also loyalty promos, for example you may get $5 after spending $50 at a store over time. They seem to have many major metro areas covered, but there are holes.

Overall, another mobile payment app based on the idea that whipping out a credit card is just too much trouble. I do think there will be a big winner in this arena, but competitor Square is already moving towards the concept of leaving both your wallet and phone in your pocket entirely and essentially paying by saying your name once your phone is nearby. One interesting feature is that they offer zero merchant fees for businesses, which sounds great but I’m not quite sure how they pull that off. In the meantime, I like checking out new startups and will enjoy my free lunch.

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Filed Under: Deals & Offers

Last updated: July 11, 2014

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FreedomPop Review: Unboxing, Download Speeds, Size Comparisons

October 11, 2012 By Jonathan Ping 46 Comments

I ended up ordering a FreedomPop mobile hotspot last week for the 500 mb in free wireless internet each money, and have been playing with it for a couple of days. Here’s a review including what came in the box, hotspot size comparison, download speed test results, and my overall initial impressions of the service.

Unboxing. The mobile hotspot “hockey puck” shipped the next day after ordering, and arrived a few days after that. Inside the box was the hotspot, a USB charging cable, and a USB AC adapter. The charging cable port appears to be the micro-USB standard size. I included a credit card for size comparison.

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Filed Under: Reviews

Last updated: August 1, 2014

What’s Inside the Vanguard Total Bond Index Fund?

October 10, 2012 By Jonathan Ping 10 Comments

The Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund is designed to track the entire spectrum of US bonds (well, those that are publicly-traded, taxable, and investment-grade). It is the second-largest bond fund out there, with $160 billion in assets and behind only the PIMCO Total Return Fund. It is available to retail investors as a mutual fund (VBMFX/VBTLX) or ETF (BND). If you own a Vanguard Target Retirement or LifeStrategy fund, you own some version of this fund. Let’s take a closer look.

Vanguard founder Jack Bogle wrote an article called The Bond Index Fund which talks about how the Vanguard Total Bond Index fund got started and its subsequent performance:

It’s now 25-year lifetime rate of annual return averaged 6.9 percent, a nice margin of 1.2 percentage points over the average 5.7 percent rate of return of its taxable peers. That superiority comes despite the Fund’s assuming far less credit risk, for the fund (and the bond market index itself) typically hold more than 70 percent of assets in securities backed by the U.S. Treasury and its agencies, including mortgage pass-through certificates. Compounded, the appreciation of a $10,000 investment made at the close of 1986 was remarkable: average actively-managed bond fund $29,900; Vanguard’s passively-managed bond index fund, $42,600—an enhancement in profit of more than 40 percent. This stunning advantage once again reaffirms the timeless truism: Never forget either the magic of long-term compounding of returns, nor the tyranny of long-term compounding of costs.

You have to admit, this historical growth chart looks pretty good:

So, what’s inside this bond juggernaut? For that, we look at the popular benchmark Barclays US Aggregate index, which started in 1986. As it is a market-cap weighted index, the composition shifts constantly over time. The iShares blog has an illustrative chart:

What do all those acronyms mean?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Investing

Last updated: February 9, 2017

Best Small Business Credit Cards of 2018

October 5, 2012 By Jonathan Ping 3 Comments

Whether you have a small business with just one employee or over 100, it’s critical to track your your business expenses and keep them separate from your personal finances. Business credit cards help you do that, along with other perks like giving you some additional float time to pay off the balance, easy expense accounting and categorization, employee cards, business discounts, and my favorite: rewards and/or cash back. Here are the best small business charge and credit cards out there, I’ve included a few options depending on what best suits your needs.

Best Small Business Credit Cards of 2018

Capital One Business Cash Image Capital One® Spark® Cash for Business – A simple idea; 2% cash back on all purchases. No tiers that run out each year and no categories, the Capital One® Spark® Cash for business is as straight forward as it gets. As a BIG added bonus, new cardholders will earn a one-time $500 cash bonus after spending $4,500 in the first three months. Cash rewards never expire and the $59 annual fee is waived in the first year.

Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card is the small business version of one of my favorite personal credit cards. The sign-up bonus is up to 25,000 Starpoints: Earn 10,000 Starpoints after your first purchase on the Card and another 15,000 after you spend $5,000 in purchases on the Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership. $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $65. Starpoints from the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program are very flexible with multiple redemption options towards free hotel stays, frequent flier miles, and Amazon.com gift cards. I use them primarily for free hotel stays or topping up my miles accounts for awards, and actually value them at 2 cents a point or more.

Ink Business Cash(SM) Credit Card is a nice combination of upfront bonus and ongoing rewards utility. The sign-up bonus offer is $300 cash back after you spend $3,000 within the first 3 months. No annual fee. It’s a credit card with a 0% Introductory APR offer for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers. Here’s the cash back rewards:

Earn 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on cellular phone, landline, internet and cable TV services each account anniversary year
Earn 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year
Earn 1% cash back on all other card purchases with no limit to the amount you can earn

“Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the issuer. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the issuer. This site is compensated through the issuer’s Affiliate Program. “The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.”

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Deals & Offers

Last updated: April 30, 2018

FreedomPop: Free 4G Mobile Wireless Data, 500 MB Every Month

October 4, 2012 By Jonathan Ping 17 Comments

Here’s another potential way to cut those monthly expenses. FreedomPop is a start-up offering wireless 4G data service with a free basic plan including 500 megabytes data per month. You can earn more free data by referring your friends or doing things like product surveys or trials. No contracts, no cancellation fees, no ads. Otherwise, small overages will cost $0.02 per MB and bulk plans start from 1 GB for $10 per month. More details:

4G Coverage details. The service is currently based on being an MVNO of the Clearwire WiMAX 4G network which has a coverage area of about 1/3rd of the US. There are stated plans to use Sprint’s 4G LTE network plus their 3G network as a fallback in 2013.
You’ll need a WiMAX modem, currently available as a USB modem stick or mobile WiFi hotspot “hockey puck”. The modems are “free” with a $49/$89 refundable security deposit and $5 shipping. Alternatively, you can pre-order a iPhone 4/4S or iPod Touch sleeve for $99 which won’t add much bulk.
No per-household limit. Based on media interviews, they are okay with households getting multiple devices each with their own free 500 MB allotment.
Fees and Upsells. They say no gotchas, but… they want $3 a month for “Speed Plus” which removes any data throttling. Usage alerts? Another $2 a month. If your account balance falls below $2 and you’re within 100 MB of your limit, it will automatically “top-up” with a $10 charge (you can turn this off in your billing settings). If you don’t use the service that month (less than 5 megabytes) they will charge you a $0.99 inactivity fee.

500 MB per month likely isn’t enough to replace your broadband internet connection, but it could definitely improve your cell phone bill. Brainstorming the various ways you could use FreedomPop to lower your monthly phone costs…

If you already pay for data, you could use this service and downgrade your current plan. If you only have a cheap basic cell phone plan for under $10 a month, now you can supplement any smartphone with free data. You could even turn an iPod Touch into a smartphone with no monthly costs at all by using Facetime, Skype, Google Voice, or other free VoIP services like the Vonage Mobile app. There are even rumors FreedomPop may start their own VoIP client. As a rough rule-of-thumb, a Skype-to-mobile/landline runs about 1 MB per minute. I’d still try and use WiFi or text messages when possible.

Looking at our billing history, I use around 1 GB a month and my wife uses only 300 MB a month. I think if I actually paid attention, I could stay under the free limits. However, I’m not sure I like the vibe of this company as their business model seems to be to advertise a completely free service but nickel-and-dime you into paying at least a few bucks per month. Once our contract is over, I don’t know if I’d rather deal with this or just switch to a Straight Talk $45 Unlimited prepaid plan with a used iPhone. But the upfront commitment is small, so I may try it out.

More: Businessweek, TechCrunch, GigaOM

Filed Under: Frugal Living

Last updated: October 11, 2012

Fix Your Stuff: Repair Cafes, Fix-It Collectives, and Free Online Repair Manuals

October 3, 2012 By Jonathan Ping 4 Comments

These days when you inquire about repairing something, you’re often confronted with a $50-$100 minimum diagnostic charge with no guarantee that it’ll be fixed. Combine this with carefully planned obsolescence by the manufacturers, and it’s no wonder that people tend to throw things away rather than fix them.

I was reading an AARP magazine article (yes, I read AARP magazine) about a growing chain of Repair Cafes in Amsterdam, where volunteers gather and help you repair your things from appliances to furniture to mending clothing. I think it’s a great idea for people to share their skills and help each other out in the community. Also profiled recently in the NY Times. My skilled 4-Her wife mends my clothing all the time, albeit reluctantly as she’d rather me look like I fell out of a J. Crew catalog…

I was also happy to find out that there are some local groups in the US doing similar things. It might be cool to volunteer at one, even if just to learn how to fix various things.

Fixit Clinic in the San Francisco CA Bay Area
Fix-it Clinic in Hennepin County, Minnesota
West Seattle Fixers Collective
Fixers’ Collective in Brooklyn, New York

There are also many online guides to fixing your own stuff. Check out iFixit.com, their Self-Repair Manifesto, and their goal to make a free repair manual for every device out there from cars to iPhones.

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Filed Under: Frugal Living, Simple Living

Last updated: August 9, 2018

Your Job Search Expenses May Be Tax-Deductible

October 2, 2012 By Jonathan Ping 8 Comments

Help Wanted Sign; image credit: underbid.com Here’s a friendly reminder for those on the hunt for a new job. Many job-search expenses may be tax-deductible, so knowing the rules can save you money at tax time. As you might expect from the IRS, the rules aren’t straightforward:

You have to be looking for a new job in your present occupation, even if you never get one.
There cannot be a “substantial break” between the ending of your last job and your looking for a new one. Vague? Yep.
You cannot be looking for a job for the first time. Sorry, recent graduates.
Job search expenses are lumped in with many other “miscellaneous deductions”, such as the home-office deduction, union dues, work-related education expenses, bad business debt, tax prep fees. These are only deductible from your income if you itemize deductions and only to the extent that taken together they exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income. But if you’re out of work, 2% may not be a very high hurdle.
If you get reimbursed for any your expenses, then it’s no longer deductible. At least that one makes sense.

What qualifies as an expense?

Employment and outplacement agency fees. This includes “career consultants” and the like. I don’t know if paying these are necessarily a good idea in the first place, but they can be deducted.
Resume preparation costs.. You can deduct amounts you spend for preparing and mailing copies of your resume to prospective employers. These include paper, postage, envelopes, and printing/copying costs.
Travel and transportation expenses. If you travel to an area to look for a new job in your present occupation, you may be able to deduct travel expenses to and from the area if the trip is “primarily” to look for a new job. In other words, you need to spend more time looking for work than doing any personal activities. Roundtrip airfare, car rental, and hotel stays can add up quickly. If you drive, you can deduct the standard mileage amount (55.5 cents per mile in 2012).
Keep good records of your efforts and any meetings and/or interviews with prospective employers. Write down the time, date, and place of any event, and keep business cards and food receipts.

Things you can’t deduct include services like residential home phone service, cell phone plans, and high-speed internet.

This is all taken from the notoriously vague IRS Publication 529 – Miscellaneous Deductions. Look under Unreimbursed Employee Expenses > Job Search Expenses. Keeping great records for everything is key. If you have an accountant, be sure to ask them how to best take advantage of this area. Finally, if you do land a new job, don’t forget that you can also deduct moving expenses:

To qualify for the moving expense deduction, you must satisfy two tests. Under the first test, the “distance test”, your new workplace must be at least 50 miles farther from your old home than your old job location was from your old home. If you had no previous workplace, your new job location must be at least 50 miles from your old home.

Filed Under: Taxes

Last updated: October 2, 2012

Recent Investment Returns By Asset Class – September 2012

October 1, 2012 By Jonathan Ping 8 Comments

Here is my monthly update of the trailing total returns for the major asset classes that I find useful. I am using passive ETFs to track asset classes, as they represent “real” investments that you can buy and sell. See August 2012 asset class returns for additional background and comparison.

Asset Class Representative ETF Benchmark Index	1-Mo	1-Year	5-Year	10-Year
Broad US Stock Market Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTI) MSCI US Broad Market Index	2.58%	30.26%	1.57%	8.73%
Broad International Stock Market Vanguard Total International Stock (VXUS) MSCI All Country World ex USA Investable Market Index	1.93%	13.58%	-4.52%	9.44%
Emerging Markets Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) MSCI Emerging Markets Index	5.32%	17.74%	-1.73	16.58
REIT (Real Estate) Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ) MSCI US REIT Index	-1.84%	32.32%	2.68%	11.42%
Broad US Bond Market Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) Barclays U.S. Aggregate Float Adj. Bond Index	0.09%	5.00%	6.52%	5.31%
US Treasury Bonds – Short-Term iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (SHY) Barclays U.S. 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Index	0.02%	0.40%	2.69%	2.69%
US Treasury Bonds – Long-Term iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) Barclays U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Bond Index	-2.32%	6.10%	11.19%	7.82%
TIPS / Inflation-Linked Bonds iShares TIPS Bond ETF (TIP) Barclays U.S. TIPS Index	0.50%	8.87%	7.79%	n/a
Gold SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) Price of Gold Bullion	7.70%	9.20%	18.57%	n/a

Here is a chart of the 1-year trailing returns for the major asset classes above, which I use for rebalancing. Note that I do not necessarily invest in all the listed asset classes, see my personal portfolio for more details.

Looks like nearly all asset classes are up from a year ago. Indeed, the US stock market is up over 30% from a year ago… find a guru or economist that predicted that! Over the past 10 years, the US stock market had an a 8.59% annualized return. The hyped “lost decade” looks a lot different once you simply move your timeframe a few years. The longer I invest, the less I pay attention to short-term market predictions from anyone.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Investing, Monthly Updates

Last updated: August 9, 2018

Archives for October 2012

LevelUp Mobile Pay: $5 Referral Bonus + Free Store Credits

FreedomPop Review: Unboxing, Download Speeds, Size Comparisons

What’s Inside the Vanguard Total Bond Index Fund?

Best Small Business Credit Cards of 2018

Best Small Business Credit Cards of 2018

FreedomPop: Free 4G Mobile Wireless Data, 500 MB Every Month

Fix Your Stuff: Repair Cafes, Fix-It Collectives, and Free Online Repair Manuals

Your Job Search Expenses May Be Tax-Deductible

Recent Investment Returns By Asset Class – September 2012

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