Archive for November, 2005
Hallelujah! I finally got paid for the first wave of Emigrant Direct referrals, as part of my Emigrant Direct Bonus program. I’ve been trying my best, and I thank everyone for their patience. Everyone who sent me their 2nd e-mail in October should have an e-mail with instructions on getting your $10 bonus. If not, e-mail me. If you sent it in November, ED’s reps seem to take about a month to process after I invoice them at the end of each month, but it will come eventually. I have already sent out several payments.
If you are interested in opening an Emigrant Direct Savings account paying 4.0% APY and would like a $10 bonus for doing so, please click here.
[Also: Emigrant Direct Information Page / Emigrant Direct Review]
Posted in Deals & Offers | 6 Comments »
Looks like HSBC is offering another limited-time bonus for opening one of their 4.00% APY Online Savings Accounts. This time it is for $25, you must use this HSBC Direct $25 Bonus Link and the promo code ‘start‘. I managed to miss the last promotion, and am definitely going to open one this time, if only to compare with all the other online banks. Is it me or is the ‘Direct’ part of the name new?
Similar to other no-fee bank accounts, you must open with $1. One neat feature of this account is that you can link up unlimited other accounts without having to send in a voided check.
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Posted in Deals & Offers | 26 Comments »
After my parents learned of my interest in personal finance topics over Thanksgiving, my mom just sent me her last 401k statement and asked me what I thought. She is 55, and works for a small firm and therefore her 401k is serviced by a small company with limited fund choices. I won’t reveal total amounts, but here is the breakdown:
Dodge & Cox Income Fund (DODIX) [Bonds]- 26%
Amer Funds Washington Mutual (RWMEX) [Lg Cap Value]- 18%
American Funds Growth Fund (RGAEX) [Lg Cap Growth] - 18%
Royce Total Return (RYTRX) [Sm Cap Value]- 9%
Columbia Acorn (LACAX) [Sm Cap Growth]- 9%
Amer Funds EuroPacific Growth (REREX) [Lg Cap Int’l]- 13%
AIM Real Estate (IARAX) [Real Estate]- 7%
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Posted in Retirement | 17 Comments »
(Please also see the previous discussion of Savings Bonds)
The end of November has snuck up on me, and I’ve been putting off until now deciding whether to buy more I-Type Savings Bonds. I already did the math to see the rates for the worst case scenario (deflation), but that is pretty unlikely. The CPI-U, which is what the inflation component of I-Bonds is based on, only rose 0.2% in October. Instead of trying to predict inflation rates, let’s just see what the overall rate will be for different rates of inflation. I will compare rates for holding the I-Bond for 12 months and then redeeming them with the associated penalties, in order to compare it with a 1-Year Bank CD. I will also assume that you can buy at the end of the month to shorten the actual hold time to 11 months.
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Posted in Savings Bonds | 14 Comments »
Not sure if this is at all locations, but at my local Ikea they are offering (real) Christmas tree ‘rentals’ (forget the type, I think 5-7 ft high) for only $25. If you bring it back within a certain window in January, you’ll get a $10 Ikea Gift Card back too. 15 bucks for a Christmas tree! I’m still trying to convince the missus not to get one because it’ll just be us two this Christmas. Also, we don’t have any of the trimmings like a stand, lights, tinsel, ornaments, stars… Not sure if I’ll win this battle, though.
Posted in Deals & Offers | 8 Comments »
Most people have seen the notices online or in your physical bank that your deposits in an FDIC Insured bank account are insured up to $100,000. But what if you find yourself with more than $100,000 in cash? Say, in between home selling and buying? Well, one easy way is to simply open another account at another bank (You can verify that they are indeed FDIC Insured at this FDIC webpage.)
You can also get around those limits all at one bank if you notice that accounts in different ownership categories, like individual and joint accounts, are insured separately. I found a handy chart [pdf] explaining this from Emigrant Direct’s FAQ Page:
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Posted in Banking | 5 Comments »
I haven’t eaten out and shopped this much in a 4-day span in my life. Multiple Outlet Malls. Multiple fancy seafood restaurants. I don’t know the totals, but I’m sure it’s over $500. According to this IBD article ‘Thanksgiving take totals $28 billion‘, we are above average (not sure about per-person though):
The average amount spent over the long weekend was $302.81, up from $265.15 last year, and accounted for almost 36% of buyers’ holiday shopping. In addition, one in 13 people already finished shopping for the holidays.
So, I made a little poll to see how you all compared:
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Posted in Frugal Living | 11 Comments »
Sorry
Saturday, November 26th, 2005
To all the people being dragged to all the outlet stores and shopping malls within a 100 mile radius this weekend… Sorry. I’ll be the guy keeping a spot in line while various women pile items in my sore arms.
Posted in General | 4 Comments »
Thanks
Thursday, November 24th, 2005
I have countless things to be thankful for today. One of them is you - the readers. Not only have I learned a lot from y’all, but having readers helps me blog, and blogging has helped push me towards my new career path. And then there’s the bloggers, from whom I’ve also gained knowledge and inspiration. Finally, I am thankful I’m not a turkey. So… Thanks! =)
If you haven’t seen it already - Black Friday Ads 2005.
Posted in General | 2 Comments »
(Typing quietly while the parents are still asleep, shh…) I’ve decided to take advantage of two recent credit card offers:
1) The Citi Professional Card for it’s 3% back on restaurants, $100 bonus, and save-able 0% balance transfer, and
2) The Discover Miles Card for it’s no-fee 0% balance transfer for 12 months.
I was going to apply for another Citi Card, but I decided that would be redundant since you can move credit limits around with Citi and simply put all your credit limit onto the one card you are using for 0%. I am going to apply for both at the same today, hopefully today. I’ll post more on why later, but it’s basically so the credit agencies won’t be able to see I applied for the other card, maximizing my credit limit and chance at acceptance for both cards. Now to figure out exactly how to cook a turkey.
Posted in Credit Cards | 8 Comments »
One bad thing about purchasing Treasury Bills at TreasuryDirect is that you don’t know the exact return of the T-Bill before you buy it. An interesting idea around this was presented by commenter Dan when I first posted about buying T-Bills:
You don’t have to commit until you know the price. 1. Schedule the transaction. 2. The auction will be on Monday for 3- or 6- month T-bills and Tuesday for 1-month T-Bills. 3. On Wednesday, look at your pending transactions. … At the bottom of the page, you have two button options. … “Delete” (which I assume means cancel the transaction, though I haven’t done it myself).
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Posted in Treasury Bills and Bonds | 10 Comments »
I failed in my Xbox 360 flipping mission. Apparently people are just crazy over this Xbox thing. I went at 6:45am (store opened at 7), and the people who camped out had already gotten the vouchers and wanted to sell me one for $1,000. Madness. Prices are still mega-inflated on eBay, but you can find the occassional auction for $500 or so if you are lucky. Although I wouldn’t get this thing for my kid anyways.
Microsoft is wicked. Wicked smart! Dec 26th and these things will be on every shelf.
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 14 Comments »
This week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction #10 is up at Boston Gal’s Open Wallet, and the Carnival of Personal Finance #23 is up at Frugal For Life!
Posted in General | No Comments »
Oh, the smell of wallets opening is in the air. My parents have already directed me to find the most direct route to the nearest outlet malls. I’m so sad that I will be forced into the writhing frantic mass that is Black Friday shoppers. I like shopping online so much better.
If you’re gonna shop online, don’t forget to use Cash Back portals like Ebates and FatCash. If you carefully click through their link and then buy something, they’ll give you a percentage back as a rebate on your purchase somewhere down the line. This is in addition using a properly chosen cashback credit card. I always manage to forget to use them, so I’ve actually put a Post-it on my monitor with EBATES written on it. Check both to see which is offering the best cash back rate.
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Posted in Frugal Living | 8 Comments »
My daunting task for today is to tally up my FSA receipts. I’ve been rather lazy and haven’t sent in any reimbursement requests at all. I have a manila folder stuffed with prescription medicine receipts, eyeglass receipts, doctor bills, dentist bills, you name it. I have this fuzzy total in my head that says we’re very close to the $500 we allotted for the account, but I need to make sure so we don’t waste any money.
For those of you who signed up for a Flex Spending Account but haven’t use it all yet, now would be a good time to do last-minute planning. It’s not too late to get a vision exam, eyeglasses, prescription sunglasses, or even some dental work to charge off on the plan. Other ideas for using it up include:
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Posted in Taxes | 8 Comments »
