Sweeeeeet. Got my $250 from AmEx.
Sunday, April 9th, 2006
Too bad this $250 offer looks expired. How about $100 + $100 instead?
Archive for April, 2006
Sweeeeeet. Got my $250 from AmEx.
Sunday, April 9th, 2006
Carnival of Personal Finance Sunday, April 9th, 2006
I had a tough time deciding on how to host this week’s Carnival. Honestly, I haven’t read (or submitted to) one in weeks. As Carnivals get larger, the host tends to get overwhelmed and all you really get is a long list of links. If you’re lucky you get an asterick by the ones they like. If a list is what we want, then why don’t we just write a nice little computer script that churns out them out for us?
What I would like to see is Carnival hosts get back to being hosts and not just spend hours and hours copy-and-pasting HTML. Show us interesting new blogs and their posts. Tell us why you like them.
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WaMu Free Checking Account Opening Review Saturday, April 8th, 2006
I opened a WaMu Free Checking account today at my local Washington Mutual branch today, and it was pretty easy. If I like it, I might move all my local banking there from BofA. All I needed to apply in-person was $1 (it’s $100 online), driver’s license, and a credit card. The bank officer then basically led me through all the features:
No minimums, no direct deposit requirements - You can even have two free checking accounts if you want. She tried to upsell me the savings account, which does have minimum balance requirements or other catches. I declined, but she said something about not being able to remove it, so instead she set it to waive all fees forever. Let’s hope so.
Free checks for life - Got some starter checks and also ordered my free checks from a limited selection of free check designs, not too bad. Went for the puppies =)
Free ATM Cash Withdrawals - This really just means they don’t charge you for using other ATMs, but the ATMs themselves may charge you a fee. It does not mean they give you ATM rebates. WaMu has good coverage in my area, so it’s not a big deal for me.
Free Debit MasterCard with Rewards - You get 3 cents per purchase, paid out annually (max $250). Wee. Definitely not interested in this feature. The only nice thing is that you can actually track how many pennies you’ve racked up online. Maybe if you want to buy stamps individually at the PO and get 3 cents off each…
Free Overdraft Fee - You get one free check-bounce per year. The neat thing is that if you don’t use it, it rolls over to the next year.
Free Outgoing Wire Transfers - This is pretty cool, I don’t know of any other bank that does this. Wires mean almost instant transfers of money, and are useful for funding brokerage accounts or sending money overseas. (For some reason it makes me want to open up an offshore bank account in the Caymans…)
Free ID Theft Services -
* Toll-free access to Identity Theft Recovery Specialists if you become a victim of identity theft.
* Identity Theft insurance up to $5,000 (with no deductible) to help offset certain recovery costs, including legal fees, lost wages and expenses paid out of pocket in connection with the theft of your identity. (See program materials for details)
The way she described it seems like they will help you work with the credit bureaus to clear up your credit reports in the event of ID theft, and also pay you for the time you spent doing so (up to the limit). Not bad for a free feature.
Initial Impressions
After logging into my account online, I see that they don’t have any way to transfer funds to external accounts. I’ll probably just link it up to my HSBCDirect account and transfer funds that way.
Their Online BillPay does not seem as robust as Presidential Bank or Bank of America, with no automatic recognition of popular payees like American Express. That’s a bummer.
Saving Money on Printer Ink with eBay and Staples Saturday, April 8th, 2006
If you’ve been printing up a storm during tax season like me, you’re probably also running low on ink. I just saw on TV that Staples is giving out $3 coupons for turning in any used ink or toner cartridge. The coupon can be used on anything in Staples, not necessarily another ink cartridge. This is great, because ink cartridges have huge markups.
Let’s take the HP #45 cartridge that I use. Retail = $29.99. Staples Refilled Brand = $21.66. eBay Refilled = $8.50 shipped to my door. When it’s empty, drop it off for a $3 coupon, that’s less than $6 each in the end! I’d turn in your empties now, because who knows when this will expire…
Paying Estimated Taxes Online Friday, April 7th, 2006
Since I have self-employment income and thus no automatic withholding, I need to make it up with extra payments to the IRS. Although I could just do this by adjusting my wife’s withholding like last year, I decided to start keeping it separate and just pay quarterly estimated taxes. TurboTax was nice enough to help figure out how much I needed to send in for 2006, but you can also use the worksheet on Form 1040-ES.
You can pay by check, but I found it easier just to do it via electronic bank transfer at EFTPS.gov (Electronic Federal Tax Payment System). It took a couple weeks to get my login information by mail after signing up online, but scheduling my e-payment was easy enough.
Discover Platinum Gas Card: 0% APR + 5% Back on Gas Wednesday, April 5th, 2006
The Discover Platinum Gas Card is currently offering no-fee 0% APR balance transfers and 0% APR on purchases for 12 months. The fine print clearly says “If you make a balance transfer with this application, there is no balance transfer transaction fee.” I remember looking at this card before, and there was a fee back then.
On top of that you can get 5% cash back on gas and auto maintenance purchases for the first $1,200 of gas you buy in the first year. The beauty of this card is that you can actually take advantage of both the balance transfer and the cashback at the same time since both purchases and balance transfers are at 0% APR. Just wait until after your first minimum balance payment, and you should have room under the credit limit to buy that gas. Finally, even after the 0% promotional period is over, you’ll still have a useable 5% back gas card.
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Choosing a Discount Stock Broker Tuesday, April 4th, 2006
Is it weird that I’m excited to switch into my new portfolio? I just have to settle on a brokerage. Now, you are not going to find an exhaustive broker comparison here. I’m just one guy and I just want to find the best broker for me. I’m just selfish like that 
First, let’s start with all the discount brokers I can think of: TradeKing, ChoiceTrade, CyberTrader, Etrade, Interactive Brokers, MB Trading, OptionsExpress, Scottrade, ThinkOrSwim, Schwab, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, Ameritrade I-Zone, Harrisdirect, Muriel Siebert, Firstrade, WallStreetE, Vanguard Brokerage, Bank of America.
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Finding Inspiration In Others Tuesday, April 4th, 2006
As a follow-up to my Thinking Big post, sometimes my biggest problem is motivation. When you don’t have a boss or deadlines breathing down your neck, it’s easy just to sit back and slack off. As all the gurus say, you should surround yourself with inspirational and like-minded people.
My main inspiration is my wife. She has a respected job she likes, and works very hard at it. She supported me when I decided to go back to school, even though I’m sure it brought her no small amount of anxiety. Other inspirations include my parents and all the self-made people I know that made a great life out of very little.
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Thinking Big Tuesday, April 4th, 2006
Not only do I want to retire early, I want to have a great life on the way there. Duh, right? What I’m trying to say is that I don’t really worry about money in the long-term anymore. My wife and I are educated, hard-working (well, I can be…), and aren’t too materialistic. I’m already unhealthily obsessed with money matters. We’ll be fine.
The key is to avoid complacency. To be totally clich?, I want to Think Big. I’ve been toying with the idea of not looking for a ‘real’ job when I graduate. No annual performance reviews. No paltry two weeks of vacation a year. No more ‘Casual Fridays’. Be completely self-employed. This begs the questions - How much do I need to make to go solo? And where am I at right now?
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Hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance Monday, April 3rd, 2006
I’m hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance next week. Go submit! I plan on taking a more active role in highlighting my favorite posts this time.
Presidential Bank Raises Rates to 4.37% and 4.62% APY Monday, April 3rd, 2006
Presidential Bank has raised the rate on their Internet Checking Plus account (review) to 4.37% APY and their Premier Savings (review) to 4.62% APY. I still consider this my main checking account, but recently I’ve been considering a switch to HSBC Checking with HSBC Direct instead.
Final Draft Portfolio: Both ETFs and Mutual Funds Sunday, April 2nd, 2006
Ok, so here’s my final draft for my new retirement portfolio. I’ve decided to go with a portfolio based closely on my Keep It Simple Portfolio. The twist is that I’ve decided to keep all my taxable funds in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), while keeping my tax-deferred IRA funds in conventional mutual funds. Hopefully this will allow me to take advantage of the tax benefits of ETFs where they matter, while at the same time keeping the simplicity and automatic dividend reinvestments of mutual funds. First, my overall target asset allocation:
90% Stocks / 10% Bonds
(40% Large Cap / 20% Small Cap / 20% Int’l / 10% REIT / 10% Bonds)
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April 2006 Financial Status / Net Worth Update
Saturday, April 1st, 2006
Taxes Are Done + Some Useful Links Saturday, April 1st, 2006
What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday! Ugh. At least now I’ve figured out that I can contribute $2,500 to my 2005 SEP-IRA. I plan to open one up at Vanguard by the April 17th deadline and then merge it with the rest of my Traditional IRA funds. Am I supposed to mail my returns via Certified Mail? I’m not - If they cash my check then that should be proof enough.
Here is a useful SEP-IRA contribution calculator (Thanks Wes). If you had Google Adsense revenue in 2005, don’t forget that it’s taxable income! Check out Adsense Taxes for more information and tax-minimizing ideas.
