Archive for May, 2006
If you went for the Sharebuilder bonus I posted a while ago, your bonuses should be coming in now. I just got my second $50 bonus from Sharebuilder from opening up a second account (Joint this time). Those codes are expired, but you can still get a $50 bonus after your first trade with one of these codes:
ENTERTAIN50 - expires 12/31/2006
ENT50 - expires 12/31/2006
HH50LOGIN - expiration unknown
I really like how Sharebuilder keeps you constantly informed on the progress of the offer and helps you make sure you’ve qualified for it. Here’s the well-organized timeline:
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Deals & Offers | 18 Comments »
If you require prescription medication, and are like me and have lots of pharmacies around, you should really check out your next Sunday newspaper. Almost every pharmacy around here regularly has a $15-$20 coupon if you switch your prescription to them from an outside company. I’ve almost gone through them all now - Safeway, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and even Target Pharmacy. If you time it right you can just go to a new one every month. Time to see if we can make another complete roundtrip!
All you need to do is bring in your old prescription label, and they do the rest. This way, we are actually making money off of our meds since we only pay a $10 copay each time.
Posted in Frugal Living | 13 Comments »
In my previous post on Calculating and Comparing Treasury Bill Returns, it was pointed out that my APY calculation was incorrect because the way T-Bills work, you can’t actually reinvest all the interest into the next T-Bill. That is true, but what you can do is set your T-Bill to fund and deposit via another interest-bearing account like ING Direct, Emigrant Direct, or HSBC Direct. This way, you can still invest in consecutive 28-day T-Bills, and anything not rolled over to the next T-Bill is still earning decent interest.
But, we still want to compare APYs! So, what was needed was a calculator that would take all this into account. So here it is:
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Tools & Calculators, Treasury Bills and Bonds | 16 Comments »
These days you usually get APY (annual percentage yield) from banks, but there are some times when you want the APR (annual percentage rate), which does not take into the compounding of interest as it is earned. For some reason I could not find an APY to APR calculator online, so… I made one myself. Here are the definitions that the calculator is based on:
APR = PeriodicRate x Periods in a Year
APY = (1 + PeriodicRate)^(Periods in a Year) - 1
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Banking, Tools & Calculators | 16 Comments »
MBNA is offering a free iPod Nano (1 GB version) when you get their New York Jets Extra Points Mastercard. It comes with Jets engraving on the back, but if you’re a Giants fan I’m sure you can scratch that right off ;).
The card also comes with an introductory 0% APR on balance transfers, but has a 3% balance transfer fee, so I really don’t think it would be worth it even if you could eek out a slight gain after taxes. There are definitely better no-fee 0% APR offers out there.
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Deals & Offers | 18 Comments »
After we moved, I didn’t sign up for Cable TV as I couldn’t find a good deal and was morally against paying the full price of over $50 a month again. So, we decided to try life without television. We don’t watch that much TV, but we are definitely used to having it around. The only show I watch religiously is PTI. I’d like to not have cable when we have kids, but I’m not sure we can pull it off.
So far, it’s been pretty bland. Contrary to what some may say, we did not spontaneously start to read Shakespeare or become triathletes. Our IQs did not mysteriously double. On the other hand, we do actually talk to each other over dinner now. I do miss PTI, or what my wife calls “the two loud guys”. We’ll see how the rest of the month goes…
Posted in Frugal Living | 34 Comments »
Being my money blog and all, I inherently have a biased focus on the best places to keep own my money based on my own personal tax situation, time horizons, and existing accounts. So far I’ve mostly talked about the banks in my online savings accounts comparison, savings bonds, and Treasury bills. However, I do feel like I should point out that there are definitely some alternative options to safely ’stash your cash’ that also offer good if not better interest rates depending on your own preferences. They include other online banks, bank CDs, brokerage taxable and tax-exempt money market funds:
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Banking | 25 Comments »
Another nice feature of my Scottrade account [Review/Bonus] that I noticed recently is that they offer GainsKeeper free with every account. GainsKeeper is an add-on program available for all brokers that offers a lot of useful tax-related features such as:
- Track your cost basis and realized and unrealized gains/losses
- Tax lot accounting
- Generate your IRS Schedule D
- Export data into tax software, Excel or text file
- Tracks stock splits, mergers, and wash sales
You can do all this stuff manually pretty easily, but it’s definitely a nice time saver if you trade regularly. I plan on dollar-cost-averaging into ETFs and then harvesting tax losses, so keeping track of tax lots would probably get to be a pain in the butt after a while. Retail cost is $49/year (<100 trades).
Posted in Investing | 8 Comments »
Hmm… the media seems to be addressing all my questions today. This Wall Street Journal column addresses the taxation of credit card rebates:
The IRS hasn’t issued any specific public guidance on whether cash-back card rebates are subject to income tax, says an agency spokesman. But the IRS did issue a private-letter ruling in 2002 that said certain card rebates aren’t included in a taxpayer’s gross income. Although a private-letter ruling applies only to the taxpayer that applied for it, such rulings are considered to be a gauge of the agency’s thinking on a particular issue. Tax advisers say rebates are generally considered to be a reduction in purchase price, and not likely to be taxed. Rebates on purchases made for business or investment may have more complex treatment, so consult a tax adviser.
In short, the IRS hasn’t said anything specific either way, but has ruled in specific cases that they are not taxable. Although certainly not concrete, this is still reassuring as I personally have never reported any of my cashback as income.
I would estimate I pull in well over $1,000 a year in free money from credit cards, with my 2 to 5% back on all my purchases as well as signing up for $100 to $250 in upfront incentives. The great thing is that anyone with decent credit can get in on these offers. Article via Boston Gal’s Open Wallet.
Posted in Credit Cards, Taxes | 13 Comments »
Thanks to David for sending me this New York Times article about online savings accounts. I really think this market is maturing, especially since Citibank is entering the fold. Here’s an interesting quote:
Unlike credit card users, who freely hop from one product to the next to get a better rate, savings account holders tend to be more loyal, Mr. Newman said. Thus, he said, HSBC Direct does not feel compelled to offer the very highest yield.
This inertia explains HSBC’s drop back to 4.5% and ING’s recent lagging rates. But with no minimums, I’ll be working hard to keep them honest.
Posted in Banking | 13 Comments »
I love Vanguard, but it seems all their funds require $3,000 to open, except for the STAR fund, which really doesn’t interest me. Unfortunately, I could only contribute $2,500 to my SEP-IRA for 2005. Arrgh. The good thing is that, if you have a regular Traditional IRA with them, you can simply have them transfer the funds from your SEP-IRA or Rollover IRA into your Traditional IRA. There are no tax consequences and it doesn’t affect your IRA contribution limits. That way, you have a bigger chunk of money that is easier to work with, and can help you avoid low-balance fees and minimum balance requirements.
Now, instead of having three IRAs ($8.7k Traditional, $16k 401k Rollover, and $2.5k SEP), I just have one with $27k that is invested as I like. I don’t know if I’ll do a SEP-IRA again this year, I just didn’t have the option before of an individual 401ks since I had to open one up by the end of the year. I wish these financial companies would step it up and start offering Roth Individual 401ks already!
Posted in Retirement | 6 Comments »
I’m currently finishing up All About Asset Allocation by Richard Ferri and I think I’ve had my fill of books about index funds. Now that my primary portfolio is set up (I’m fighting the urge to tinker already), I’m considering splashing around with individual stocks again! So I’m looking for some book suggestions. Here are some I’ve heard good things about:
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Investing | 24 Comments »
I’ve been feeling very unsatisfied with myself recently. Initially I thought it was pure laziness (which I’m sure still plays a part), but in fact I think it is the fear of failure. There are so many ideas that I haven’t tried or put off because ‘I wasn’t ready’ or ‘It probably wouldn’t have worked’. Screw that. All successful people have had spectacular failures and are not ashamed of them at all.
This realization was partially inspired by listening to Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford. You can see the entire transcript here, the iTunes audio here, and a partial video here. No matter what your feelings on Apple (or Stanfurd ;P), Jobs is a great speaker and I think listening to the whole thing is the best way to experience it.
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Goals | 20 Comments »
I just got a phone call from HSBC notifying me that they are offering a $25 SuperCertificate for paying 3 bills online (offer code billpay) by May 26th (although the site currently says 4/23) through their Online BillPay service. You’ll need an HSBC Checking account. I plan on just sending $1 to three utilities, so I don’t have to actually break my usual billpay routine. If I overpay now I’ll just pay less next month. Already got $25 and $50 from HSBC, time for more free money!
Posted in Deals & Offers | 12 Comments »
I’ve done it! I got tired of my market-timing foolishness and bought IVV anyways today. I also put in orders to exchange all my Vanguard funds to try and match the asset allocation I decided on previously. Here’s what my actual portfolio looks like now:
16% iShares S&P 500 Index ETF (IVV)
19% Vanguard [Large Cap] Value Index Fund (VIVAX)
20% Vanguard Small-Cap Value Index Fund (VISVX)
11% Vanguard REIT Index Fund (VGSIX)
11% Vanguard International Value Fund (VTRIX)
11% Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund (VEIEX)
11% Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Bond Fund (VFICX)
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Retirement | 16 Comments »
