Archive for January, 2006
Reader Scott has given me the honor of being a part of his new interview series - Money Blogger Podcast. It looks very promising. I’ll be perfectly honest - I haven’t yet figured out how to listen to the podcast (iPod is now charging). I’m creeped out when hearing myself anyways, but I would like to listen to his interview of fellow blogger Dawn of FrugalForLife.
While in the interview I babbled truthfully that I don’t have a favorite post, in retrospect I would say I am most often referred to for my zeal in giving detailed instructions on how to extract money from credit card companies. Also, I stated I don’t have a favorite blog. Another truth. I read every single blog on my links list, and like them all. I’m all about personal experiences.
Posted in General | 7 Comments »
Update: I made a new and improved version of this calculator.
Using the rate-chasing breakeven time formula posted previously, here is the easy-to-use JavaScript Calculator version to help you decide whether you should move your money and chase the higher rate.
Note that it uses APR. Only know APY? Then please see my APY to APR calculator first. If that’s too much trouble, note that if you use APYs for both rates your final answer will be very close anyways.
Calculator:
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Posted in Banking, Tools & Calculators | 13 Comments »
With the proliferation of new high-yield savings accounts and them leapfrogging each other’s rates, we come to the all-important question - Should I move my money to the higher rate? Well, with the data from my transfer-time experiment, I can better gauge the answer.
First, let’s find the formula for figuring out how long you must keep the money at the new higher rate account to counteract any interest lost during the transfer. I’m not the inventor of this simple formula, I just derived it right now with good ole’ pencil and paper.
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Posted in Banking | 7 Comments »
Here are the results of my bank transfer timing experiment to help estimate the lost interest when transfering money from one online bank to another. I scheduled transfers very late on Monday (~9pm Pacific) to and from various online banks and recorded when the money was taken out of the originating bank, and when the money was noted as deposited in the destination bank.
I would have posted the data earlier, but I’ve been trying to pore through all the fine print to figure out exactly when the banks stop and start paying interest during withdrawals and deposits. I’m still fuzzy on several things, but I just made some assumptions and ran with them for now. Here are the (I think reasonable) assumptions I made:
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Posted in Banking | 17 Comments »
It looks like HSBC is offering a $50 bonus for opening their Smart Package, which includes their Interest Checking, a Mastercard Debit Card, and their money market account. Credit goes to user DaloSony of Fatwallet, who has also generously posted a scan of the offer. This may be a good deal for those with HSBC Direct accounts and want to be able have checks to link accounts like ING Direct and Emigrant Direct, and also avoid some lost interest from HSBC’s Bank-to-Bank transfers.
You must have either a $3,000 minimum balance or direct deposit to waive a $8 monthly fee according to their terms. Other people have reported that a transfer via ING is treated as a direct deposit.
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Posted in Deals & Offers | 12 Comments »
Every time there is an issue with a bank, I have to go digging to find their fine print again. No more! I have tracked down the direct links to the Terms & Disclosures for each of the banks on my high-yield savings account comparison page - ING, Emigrant, HSBC, and VirtualBank. I’ve also highlighted some of the useful information from each. Hopefully it will serve as a good reference.
ING Direct - Terms & Disclosures
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Posted in Banking | 5 Comments »
I got my first round of $100 in free Target gift cards from Citibank today, only 12 days after ordering them online from the ThankYou website. Not bad! Much faster than the 4-6 weeks mentioned.
Posted in Deals & Offers | 7 Comments »
What do I think? Pretty much what Caitlin of Clutter2Cash thinks. Pass.
Posted in Credit Cards | 5 Comments »
Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People. Whew, what a long title. I was putting off reading this book because it seems like ‘just another personal finance book’ by another so-called Money Guru. (I’d never heard of Ms. Quinn before getting this book from the publisher.) And in many ways it was. But I also learned a couple of new things.
I found it amusing that she makes fun of David Bach’s “latte factor”, while the rest of her book is so similar to his Automatic Millionaire book. Save a certain percentage of your money automatically every month. Invest it into diversified index funds. Let it compound happily. Sound familiar?
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Posted in Book Reviews | 18 Comments »
Here’s a little secret - I’ve been out of ING referrals for months. Since I couldn’t profit anymore, I decided the second best thing would be for the people that allowed me to refer them to profit! So far only a few lucky people have been reaping the rewards. But I think I’ve figured out a better way to evenly spread the referral love.
So if you’ve given me the honor of referring to you to
ING Direct before 4/06
VirtualBank before 4/06
- Emigrant Direct Bonus between 1/1/06 and before 2/5/06 (The directions are different afterwards, check your referral form e-mails for details.)
Unwired Buyer before 8/06
- TradeKing after 6/5/07 and before 8/1/07
and also have extra ING Direct referrals to spare, please read on for a way to get some more free money!
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Posted in Deals & Offers | 20 Comments »
ING Direct has finally revealed its Winter Save Up Sale, which promises a high 4.75% APY from today (January 19th) until April 15th on all new deposits only. Current balances stay at 3.80% APY.
New deposits basically means anything above your account balance on 1/19. No, you can’t just transfer money out and then back in the same account, they already thought of that. Now if you had a wife… shhh. 
Both new and existing accounts are eligible. I wish ING would just plain raise their rates, but if they want to play little promo games that’s fine too. They can have my money for 3 months. For new accounts get your $25 opening bonus first, then deposit away.
Posted in Banking | 26 Comments »
Right now I’m reading Yes, You Can Still Retirement Comfortably! by Ben Stein and Phil Demuth, at the recommendation of my friend Trip of Musing Money. So far it’s pretty good. I’m not quite done, but as part of the book it gives you a step-by-step procedure to estimate the nest egg that you’ll need when you reach your desired retirement age. It’s all based on historical market returns and life expectancy charts which I’ll leave to those who buy the book, but here are the rough results for my wife and I together:
1) Estimate Post-Retirement Income Needed. A suggested estimate is 80% of your (expected) final salary when you retire. I’m going to estimate this at 80% of $120,000, or $96,000.
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Posted in Retirement | 19 Comments »
I am trying to separate my personal and business finances, so my first step was to get an Employer Identification Number (EIN), sometimes called a Tax ID. An EIN is used by the IRS to track businesses and takes the place of a Social Security Number in many areas. They are free, you can either apply online or over the phone. I chose the latter because that way you get it instantly.
I technically don’t need one, since I am not incorporated and currently don’t have any employees, but it allows me to separate my business finances by using it to open business bank accounts, business credit cards, and so forth. Also, now whenever I get paid via 1099s it will be through my new EIN.
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 15 Comments »
Time flies when you’re havin’ fun. Continued from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Quarter flashbacks. Here are what I feel are the more worthwhile posts to read from my blog from September to November 2005.
September
» Brainstormed options for keeping an Emergency Money Fund.
» Worked out How To Predict I-Bond Savings Bond Rates, even before the official rate announcements.
» Started my very popular $10 Sign-up bonus for EmigrantDirect, a no-fees no-minimums savings account currently offering a 4% interest.
» Revealed that, once again, I am just a simple college student, trying to get by.
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Posted in Best of MMB | 3 Comments »
