http://www.mymoneyblog.com Personal Finance and Investing Blog Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:30:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Just got an e-mail from MicroPlace that they are running a gift certificate promotion where if you buy a $20 GC, you get another $20 GC free. The gift recipient can then lend out the money to a poor entrepreneur and receive interest + $20 back later. ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/11/microplace-buy-a-20-gift-certificate-get-one-free.html Here's a nice credit card offer for those interested in international travel. The Chase British Airways Visa Signature card is offering 50,000 BA Executive Club miles for new cardmembers with first purchase, and another 50,000 BA miles after spending $2,000 within 3 months, for 100,000 miles total. ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/11/british-airways-credit-card-100000-miles-offer.html I recently watched the film Story of Stuff, which is a film about the lifecycle of material goods. While the video has its biases and has thus become politically controversial, I still think the video is worth viewing with a critical mind. There is some good debate on ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/11/planned-vs-perceived-obsolescence.html Click below or on the thumbnail above to see the whole thing. Credit to Scordit. http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/11/should-i-buy-this-gadget-heres-a-helpful-flowchart.html Prosper.com was the first big name in the person-to-person lending space. Things have been quiet recently, as they took a while getting SEC approval for their investment notes. In addition, the problems with "old" Prosper included the fact that they let just about anyone apply for ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/11/prosper-p2p-50-for-new-lenders-up-to-2-rebate-bonus.html The new fixed rate for Series I Savings Bonds ("I Bonds") was announced on Monday to be 0.3%. This is a follow-up to the ~3.07% inflation rate previously calculated based on CPI-U data. As a long-term investment, a 0.3% real yield makes I-Bonds a slightly worse choice than ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/11/savings-i-bonds-november-2009-fixed-rate-03.html Here's a timely offer, at least for me. New-ish online broker OptionsHouse is offering 100 free trades when you open a new account with at least $3,000 with the promo code FREE100. The 100 free trades work for both stock and options trades, and are good ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/11/optionshouse-promotional-code-295trade-100-free-trades-to-start.html Schwab just sent me a press release announcing their new series of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that have low operating expense ratios and passively track indexes. The most commonly-noted drawback of ETFs is that you must buy them like a stock and thus pay trade commissions. However, ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/11/new-schwab-etfs-indexed-low-cost-no-commission-with-schwab-account.html Credit Card Debt In the past, I have taken money from credit cards at 0% APR and placed it into online savings accounts, bank CDs, or savings bonds that earn 4-5% interest (much less recently), and keeping the difference as profit. I even put together a series of step-by-step posts ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/11/monthly-net-worth-goals-update-november-2009.html The Chase Sapphire Card is a new rewards credit card that is offering 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase on the credit card, which can be redeemed for $100 cash. No annual fee. As a rewards card, it offers 1 point for every dollar in purchases (100 points ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/chase-sapphire-card-easy-100-signup-bonus.html This is a reminder that the Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 Plan is offering some excellent incentives for those looking to start putting some money aside for college. Open to residents of any state, the best part is that this is one of the nation's best 529 plans for those ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/529-plan-promotion-couples-get-150-jumpstart-to-college-savings.html Have you heard of this? A network of dentists will buy back your Halloween candy for $1 to $2 per pound at HalloweenCandyBuyBack.com. After a few zip code searches, there actually does seem to be a few dentists in many metro areas. They are ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/sell-your-halloween-candy-back-to-dentists.html Here's another good reader question about crappy 401k plans. Reader Robert saves enough to max out his 401k each year if he wanted to, in addition to maxing out his Roth IRA every year which he already does. However, his 401k plan is filled with expensive actively-managed ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/reader-question-what-if-my-401k-has-horrible-investment-options.html I've spent the last few hours browsing on Swaptree, which is a website that allows you to swap your books, CDs, DVDs, and video games with other members. You just list the items that you want to trade and the items that you want, and Swaptree sets up trades for ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/swaptree-review-barter-your-books-cds-dvds-and-video-games.html This might be cool for kids. The Spend Save Bank randomly deposits coins into either the 'Save' or 'Spend' section. It'd be even better if there was a option to set what percentages you want to split between spend and save, but I guess that would be a ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/piggy-bank-that-helps-you-save-spend.html You can now add the voicemail features of Google Voice to your existing cell phone service for free. Check out the Google Blog post and Engadget. More specifically, if you sign up for Google Voice with your existing number, you'll get: * Online, searchable voicemail ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/use-google-voice-to-enhance-your-cell-phone-voicemail.html Got a reader question today about the purchase limits for savings bonds: Can I get around the $20,000 annual buying limit by purchasing I-bonds in my child's name? After doing some research, it does appear that yes, you can exceed the usual purchase limits by buying more bonds in the names of ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/us-savings-bonds-increasing-annual-purchase-limits-with-a-minor-account.html In the book Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, he talks about how there are two types of people, maximizers and satisficers (think satisfy + suffice). I will simply quote the excellent summary from the book's Wikipedia page: A maximizer is like a perfectionist, someone who needs to be ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/paradox-of-financial-choices-maximizing-vs-satisficing.html American Express has a new card called the Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers these primary perks: * Earn 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of Card membership. MR points are very versatile, and can be converted to 15,000 frequent flier ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/american-express-15000-membership-rewards-points-bonus.html This is a interview/guest post with blog reader Ariel Hoffman, who recently spent a year traveling around Asia with his girlfriend Michal with a combined budget of only $10,000 - and managed to come back with $3,500 of it! I love to read nonfiction travel essays, so not ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/interview-a-couple-spends-a-year-in-asia-for-9day-each.html For a long time, the my knowledge of bonds could be summed up in one sentence: Bonds are an IOU where you lend money to someone and they pay you interest plus your principal back eventually. There are many risks with bonds, and just two of them are ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/learning-about-bonds-interest-rate-risk-time-horizons-and-duration.html I almost forgot, I'm wanted to give away my Google Voice invite to a randomly chosen reader. So if you liked the features and money-saving opportunities, you can enter for a free GV invite by leaving a comment under this post with your First name (or nickname) ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/free-google-voice-invite-giveaway.html Get a free 6-piece box from Edible Arrangements via their Facebook page. I was a little skeptical, but I got my coupon in less than 24 hours. Valid for first 100,000. Delivery is not included. Get one for your significant other and be romantic for ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/free-edible-arrangements-box-of-chocolate-dipped-fruit.html The telecom service Google Voice has been giving now new accounts faster recently, as well as now letting some current users invite others. I already have an account from back when it was GrandCentral, but I just requested an invite from Google and got an invite within ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/ways-to-save-money-with-google-voice.html Traditional Three Legged Stool of Retirement (post, image via Michigan.gov) Over the weekend, I finally got around to reading this Time magazine article about Why It's Time to Retire the 401(k) which has been getting some buzz. The author promotes bringing back what I call "portable pensions" to replace the ... http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/10/will-replacing-401k-plans-with-portable-pensions-fix-retirement-planning.html