Archive for the 'General' Category
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
The Accidental Slumlord
A writer whose lives in Massachusetts buys a two-unit rental property in Pocatello, Idaho for $62,750 during the housing boom. Read what happens when he actually visits his house and deals with his tenants.
OptionsHouse Brokerage - $2.95 Stock Trades
Another new discount online brokerage with cheap trades, but actually won #1 in Trade Experience in recent Barron’s Broker Survey, beating out E-Trade. Offers flat-rate pricing at $2.95 for stock trades regardless of number of shares, and $9.95 flat for options (no per-contract fee). $1,000 to open, $100 balance needed to trade. Anyone try them?
New research sheds light on the habits of successful savers
Includes a lot of expected characteristics, but worth a skim to see how you compare.
AMC Theatres A.M. Cinema
“A.M.Cinema, a new program providing early-morning guests the opportunity to see first-run movies at the best ticket price of the day. The program invites moviegoers to visit their local AMC theatre before noon Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays to enjoy ticket prices of $4, $5 or $6 depending on the theatre and market.”
F*** my job, Selling Everything!
Found in the Best of Craigslist section. Have you ever had the urge to simply sell everything you own, cash out your investments, quit your job, and just travel the world until the money runs out? This guy did.
Credit Bailout: Issuers Slashing Card Balances
People are haggling directly with credit card companies to lower their amount owed. However, the articles neglects to go into detail about the impact on credit scores. I suspect that there will still be significant damage to your credit if you “settle” in this way.
Tuesday 10: Good stuff from other personal finance blogs
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Friday, May 29th, 2009
Here are some neat links from readers and interweb wanderings. I want to expand on them later as well.
Petrofix: Hedge and cap gas prices
A website that will let you control your cost of gasoline in the near future - for a price. If gas prices rise, they pay you the difference. If they fall, you are out the hedge price. The risk? Well, first I haven’t checked out the prices. Also you pay now, but who knows if the company will be around to fulfill their promises in the future. I’d rather hedge against higher gas by buying an oil ETF or use real options with better liquidity. (Disclosure: I did buy some OIL in my fun portfolio at end of 2008.)
The Great Commodities Debate with Larry Swedroe and Rick Ferri
A long multi-part series on HardAssetsInvestor about the role of commodities within a portfolio. Should you add them to your asset allocation? Swedroe and Ferri flesh out their arguments in a moderated battle, and I still don’t know who wins. However, I am glad I didn’t buy commodities the last two years or so when they were in vogue.
Jeremy Grantham / GMO 7-Year Asset Class Forecasts
Each month, Jeremy Grantham and GMO publishes on the web its predictions of the future return for various asset styles over the next seven years. You must register for free on his site to download them. Grantham has gotten increased publicity recently due to how accurate his previous predictions have been. You can read his 2009 Q1 newsletter “The Last Hurrah and Seven Lean Years” without registration. In the end, he’s just another guy with an opinion, but at least he is forthright about it.
Breakdown: The Credit CARD Act of 2009
Cap of StopBuyingCrap has a nice concise list of the changes to credit card laws coming in February 2010, in case you didn’t feel like reading the entire thing. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. I think that rumors of annual fees or eliminating grace periods for people who don’t carry balances are just scare tactics by credit card lobbyists. They’ll continue to make money from merchant transaction fees, as always.
Google PowerMeter
An online tool that monitors your home’s power usage in real time. Currently only available in very limited areas where people have the right “smart meters” already installed. Sounds even cooler than my Kill-a-Watt energy meter.
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Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Do you have an ING Direct savings account with unused referrals? I usually have lots of $25 bonus links available, but have been falling behind again. The first 25* people who comment below tonight and leave a working contact e-mail (real name not required, e-mail will not be shared publicly) will get one filled by me for free, which is $10 for you. Gone in 15 minutes, wow! Will do it again later.
Due to comment moderation, your comment may not show up right away. One referral per person. You cannot have had a “freebie” before. Look for a message from me to your e-mail address with further instructions later on.
Posted in General | 31 Comments »
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
Kind of short notice, but as I mentioned before in my Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha book review, Berkshire Hathaway is now selling tickets to their 2009 annual meeting directly on eBay. You get two tickets for only $5 in Buy It Now format, including free shipping.
All buyers receive two (2) Berkshire Hathaway 2009 Annual Shareholder Meeting Tickets and Visitor’s Guide. Please provide a mailing address when you checkout.
These tickets are being offered directly by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in response to others who are selling tickets on Ebay.
The meeting is on Saturday, May 2nd at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska. There are some additional activities on Friday and Sunday as well. If you are a BRK shareholder, you should have gotten your 2009 annual report in March, which had a postcard to mail back in order to get tickets. Hmm… maybe I’ll get to see Warren Buffett next year.
Posted in General | 10 Comments »
Monday, March 16th, 2009
The overall theme of this links roundup is dealing with unexpected events and the resulting expenses. If it can go wrong, it probably will, and most likely at an inconvenient time. Here are some fellow bloggers who have also had a not-so-great time recently.
Posted in General | 7 Comments »
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
Maybe I was just hungry this week, but a lot of my financially related links happened to be about food!
CNN reporter lives on food stamps for a month
What’s it like to eat with a food budget of $176 a month? Some frugal families may find that plenty for one person, others can’t even imagine it. What about nutrition? Too many carbs, too few fruits and vegetables. Reminds me of this breakdown of foods by how much 200 calories costs.
Who moved my Parmigiano?
Banks in Italy are buying and storing Parmigiano Reggiano as a hedge against “the expected future devaluation of other assets and defaults in their portfolio.” This wouldn’t work in my house… because I’d eat my hedge.
How Much Water Does Pasta Really Need?
It is a surely the sign of the times when the NY Times is asking if we really need the entire recommended 4-6 quarts of water to properly boil a pound of pasta. But I was interested anyways, since I’ve been boiling pasta in a lot less water for years, with the primary reason being to save time with my slow stove.
Think Global. Drink Local.
A website supporting the drinking of tap water instead of bottled water. I’ve only recently learned about health concerns from the BPA found in many plastic water bottles.
Guide to Buying TIPS on the Secondary Market
The Finance Buff has a guide on buying individual inflation-protection bonds on the secondary market. It’s kind of like buying individual stocks as you can make market or limit orders, but with different variables like yield-to-maturity. For more advanced investors.
Card Issuers: How Can We Make You Go Away?
For specifically targeted customers, credit card companies are offering $300 or 10% of your balance if you pay your debt off and close your account. Dang, where’s my offer Citibank?
2008 Berkshire Hathaway Letter to Shareholders
Buffett’s annual letter to BRK shareholders, which is always a good read. Pal Carol Loomis of Fortune (editor of the letter) has a summary.
Posted in General | 15 Comments »
Monday, February 16th, 2009
There are many forms of capital. Besides the usual definition of business capital (money), there is physical capital (a car, house, or other useful tool), human capital (your skills and education), and also social capital. According to Wikipedia, this describes the value held within our relationships with other individuals and larger social networks.
One of the books I am currently reading is Simple Prosperity by David Wann (co-author of Affluenza). Inside, there is a nice quote about social capital:
It is inevitable that our society will once again give higher priority to belonging and lower priority to belongings.
Look at the results of a study by the National Science Foundation, which found that one-fourth of all Americans say that they have no one that they can discuss personal problems with. Not one person. This number has doubled since 1985. One in 32 people is either in prison or on parole. If our ultimate goal is to be happy and fulfilled, then this can’t be a good trend.
Sociologist Robert Putnam believes the following are indicators of social capital:
- How many of your neighbor’s first names do you know?
- How often do you attend parades or festivals?
- Do you volunteer at your kid’s school? Or help out senior citizens?
- Do you trust your local police?
- Do you know who your U.S. senators are?
- Do you attend religious services? Or go to the theater?
- Do you sign petitions? Or attend neighborhood meetings?
- Do you think the people running your community care about you?
- Can you make a difference?
- How often do you visit with friends or family?
It has been argued that growing social capital can keep you healthy, make schools more productive, reduce crime, and even raise home prices in a neighborhood. Perhaps the best thing about social capital is that “the more you spend, the more you have”.
Posted in General | 20 Comments »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
Here are some more assorted links from my recent online wanderings…
Lessons We Should Have Learned before the Bear Market Arrived
This is a presentation by Jack Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, back in April 2001 after the last big stock market drop. There is a lot of stuff in there, so I would treat it as a mini-investing book and bookmark it to digest it all over time.
OpenYale Course on Financial Markets
You can view the lectures and materials for the “Financial Markets” class taught by Professor Robert Shiller (possibly best know for his book Irrational Exuberance) at Yale University.
The course strives to offer understanding of the theory of finance and its relation to the history, strengths and imperfections of such institutions as banking, insurance, securities, futures, and other derivatives markets, and the future of these institutions over the next century.
Fresh Start for a New Year? Let’s Begin in the Kitchen
From the Minimalist blog of the NY Times, this article is about updating and refreshing your pantry items so that you can more easily cook better food at home. He lists things to throw out, and suggests substitutes to replace them with. Reminded me of when my mom used to make chicken stock from scratch and freeze them in old margarine containers. I should start doing that.
52 ways to make extra money
Prime Time Money did a guest post on the MSN SmartSpending Blog that compiled 52 ways to make some extra money. You’ve probably heard of most the part-time jobs before, but perhaps you’ll pick up something new.
Awesomest Compilation of Weird & Crazy Jobs Ever
Something more on the fun end of the money-making spectrum. Some of y’all have had some funky jobs!
Posted in General | 4 Comments »
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
Sorry for the lack of posting, I am actually at a conference in Park City, Utah this week. Add in that fact that my computer is now giving me the blue-screen-of-death, and I’ve been somewhat disabled. Looks like it’s time for a fresh Windows install. The good thing is that I’ve been able to tune out all the Obama stimulus talk until they finally pass something, and instead catch up on a bunch of financial books and magazines that I’ve been meaning to read.
While flipping through a Money magazine, I ran across a often-repeated piece of advice about buying an HDTV: that the size of the TV you should buy is determined by how far you plan on sitting from it, not just bigger is better:
Which always begs the question - why not just put your couch closer to your TV? 
You could buy a much smaller set and save hundreds of dollars. I guess it’s just another by-product of buying a house that’s too big. You need more furniture to fill it, and now also a bigger TV to see from across the room.
In addition, doctors now say that sitting too close to the TV is not bad for your eyes. Well, I guess it can’t be worse than most of us sitting inches away from an LCD screen all day long already.
Posted in General | 22 Comments »
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
I wasted last night trying to deal with a pretty nasty virus/spyware/malware/trojan or whatever they are calling it these days on my computer. I watched it shut down my computer right in front of my eyes without any input from me. Upon restart, I could no longer open any web browsers. On top of that, a (fake) Windows Firewall warning came up, which directed me to buy some (fake) anti-spyware software. Who knows what private information was sent out. Sigh, if only such powers were used for good instead of evil…
I usually use AVG Free but it didn’t catch anything, even after a safe reboot and complete computer scan. Anyway, it forced me to update my knowledge of the best freeanti-virus software out there. Here’s what I found, let me know if you know of something better.
Anti-Spyware Freeware
The three most popular seemed to be SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware Basic, and Ad-Aware Free.
I basically just downloaded them all and had them all scan my computer. MalwareBytes and SuperAnti both detected different malwares, and helped me regain control of my computer. By the time I ran Ad-Aware, there was nothing left to detect. Most of the free versions are “on-demand” only, which means you have to manually run them when you need them.
Anti-Virus Freeware
The three that I tried were Avast! Home, Avira Antivir Personal, and AVG Free.
I don’t like the Avast! interface, but Avira and AVG seem to be decent free options, even though AVG didn’t save me initially. Avira crashed my computer while running the full scan, but I suspect it was because AVG was running at the same time. I think I’ll keep Avira and AVG running on my computer.
For more details and opinions, I found page at Gizmo’s to be the best compilation of freeware options.
Posted in General | 73 Comments »
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
I still get a regular stream of comments on my old post on handling a bank error in your favor. Many are people who also got some money by accident and are looking for advice. Then I saw this AP article “Pa. couple spent windfall from bank error” posted at FW, which is a good lesson on what not to do:
A Pennsylvania couple is behind bars after police say they failed to call the bank when a glitch put an extra $175,000 in their account. Authorities say 50-year-old Randy Pratt and 36-year-old Melissa Pratt instead withdrew the money, quit their jobs and moved to Florida. They were buying a house in the Orlando area when the mistake was traced.
The two were arraigned Tuesday on theft and other charges and jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail. A public defender was being assigned.
A $1,772.50 deposit showed up in their FNB Bank account last summer as $177,250. Police say Melissa Pratt said her husband, a roofing installer, often got large checks and she wasn’t aware of any error.
Gotta love their excuse. Did he think he re-roofed the White House in his sleep or something?
Posted in General | 19 Comments »
Monday, January 12th, 2009
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Monday, January 12th, 2009
Some quick links from my weekend reading:
Cutbacks and the Value of Time
OverTheCubicleWall is being offered a voluntary work reduction to 32 hours per week. Would you take such an offer if presented to you? It’s an interesting question. I would seriously consider it. I’d probably rather have an extra month of unpaid vacation to allocate as I wish.
Where, oh where, does our $exy money go?!
J also did the dirty work and figured out how much they spend: about $4,700 per month if you don’t count savings as an expense. A worthy exercise for all.
Quiz: Are You the Entrepreneurial “Type”?
A very insightful quiz about entrepreneurs. Spoiler alert: My favorite part was that the most common reason for becoming an entrepreneur is the wish to avoid working for others, and not to make the most money. I agree with that.
Fama/French Blog
If you are a passive investing geek, you should know the names of Drs. Fama and French. And now they have a blog, where they answer some timely questions in the current market. Ex. Is the market turmoil a sign that markets are not efficient?
Sam the Cooking Guy: Cooking Videos
Cut out cable TV and miss Food Network? Here are some simple recipes with videos. I like the layout and use it for ideas. Less overwhelming than AllRecipes.
Posted in General | 4 Comments »
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Suze Orman is still offering her “Save Yourself Plan” in conjunction with TD Ameritrade, although the offer is not as good as it was before. Previously, you had to open a new account at TD Ameritrade and put in $50 per month for 12 consecutive months. The default FDIC-insured interest rate also started a 2.78% APY. You were effectively making over 35% interest annualized, albeit on a limited amount of money.
With the current offer, you must now deposit $100 a month for 12 consecutive months, and the FDIC-insured interest rate on cash is only 1%. This works out earning about a 16% annual interest rate. Still not bad, if you have never had an Ameritrade account. As compared to keeping your money in an online savings account at 3%, after a year you’ll be ahead by about $80 in extra interest.
Plus, once we receive your first deposit, you will receive free online access to Women & Money—the book that launched Suze’s Save Yourself movement. And that’s not all. You will receive emails of support and encouragement from Suze…
I wouldn’t trade there, though. Just take the bonus. For more value, here are the brokers that I would recommend for starting an IRA.
Posted in General | 16 Comments »
Monday, December 29th, 2008
The $100 bonus promotion from the Discover Business Card is going away on December 31st. You can earn a $100 Cashback Bonus when you make $1000 in purchases within 3 months after your account is opened.
In addition, there is 0% APR on purchases for 12 months, so there is no hurry to pay the whole balance off right away. Just keep in your bank account earning interest. Finally, you can get 5% back on office supplies, 2% on gas, up to 1% on all other purchases.
As with all these business cards, individuals can apply as sole proprietors by simply using their name as the business name. You just need to put your Social Security number as requested, and leave the Federal Tax ID blank for this application (it will use your SSN). More details here. More $100 bonuses listed here.
Posted in General | 5 Comments »
