Archives for November 2005

Holding Off On Credit Cards… For Now

Posted on November 13, 2005 // 8 Comments

With all these higher interest rate opportunities like T-Bills ans SavingsBonds, I’ve been itching to apply for another of my favorite 0% balance transfer offers after recently paying off one of my current ones, but I’ve decided to wait at least another couple weeks. My reason? I figured since I just went from over 50% utilization of one credit card to zero, my credit score will jump up once all the credit bureaus hear about it. (Also supported by the FICO Score Estimator.) But since they only seem to get information once a month, they may not know about my good deeds yet. And I want the fattest credit limit I can get so I can maximize my earn interest off of borrowed free money.

So for now, I’ll have to be patient, and maybe find some more tasty credit offers.

Filed Under: Credit Cards //

How To Predict T-Bill Rates?

Posted on November 13, 2005 // Leave a Comment

A commenter asked how do you predict rates for T-Bills, which I have been buying. I have no idea. I’ve never even taken Econ 101. I did a search and found this [pdf] article titled ‘Using Federal Funds Futures Rates to Predict Federal Reserve Actions’. If someone wants to read that and see if it helps, be my guest. From what I read, the conclusion was “yeah you can try, but not very accurately”.

Since I’m on an Excel kick right now, I found some historical data on the Fed Funds Rate and previous 4-Week Treasury Bill rates. I graphed them together, along with a trendline of the 4-Week T-Bill rates:
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Treasury Bills and Bonds //

Tracking Monthly Family Expenses: Looking Back

Posted on November 12, 2005 // 2 Comments
Family Budget

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Budgeting //

Budget Results for October

Posted on November 12, 2005 // 3 Comments

Here are our results our Target Budget Areas for October:

Budgeting Table

Overall, a solid showing. Most importantly, we had minimal miscellaneous expenses, which includes stuff like clothing, household things, pet care, travel, medical – all those little things that add up quick. Gas and entertainment were okay. I felt like we ate out a lot last month, but I we were still close to our total food cost goal.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Budgeting //

Treasury Bill and Bank Interest Rate Comparisons

Posted on November 12, 2005 // 8 Comments

I was bored, so I did some comparison of T-Bill rates vs. equivalent bank rates and actual bank account rates for various combinations of Federal and State tax brackets. Yes, I’m weird. As expected, if you don’t pay state or local taxes, T-Bills are pretty bland. However, if you are in a higher income tax bracket or in a heavily-taxed area, they can become pretty attractive.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Treasury Bills and Bonds //

Free Frequent Flyer Miles

Posted on November 10, 2005 // 1 Comment

Time for more Bored Money… Although frequent flyer miles are getting watered down by the second, they are still worth something if you fly as much as me. And if they are free, why not get them? Whenever I have some free time I stop over to Gary Steiger’s excellent website FreeFrequentFlyerMiles.com. He sifts through all the current miles deals and filters it down to a easily manageable level. It’ll take a while to get caught up with all the goodies there, but after that I just always check the ‘What’s New?’ section.

There are always airlines giving out miles here and there for surveys, switching long-distance carriers, signing up for e-mail newsletters, and so on. It all adds up! Together with this site and my Starwood AmEx Card earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent on it, last time we flew to visit the parents it was with 50,000 miles for two free cross-country flights, saving us over $1,000.

Filed Under: Bored Money //

4-Week T-Bill Purchased: Very Easy

Posted on November 10, 2005 // 21 Comments

Treasury Direct LogoSo I the $1,000 28-day T-Bill that I scheduled for purchase last week was issued today without a hitch. I knew the rate was 3.885% (exempt from state and local income taxes), as the auction was on Tuesday and announced on their Recent T-Bill Auction Results page. The issue date was today, and right on time today I see a debit of $997.03 from my checking account. It also showed up online in my Treasury Direct account. After 28 days, on 12/8, I will have an even $1,000. Not so exciting when you think of it as less than 3 bucks. 🙂

But if you think of it as an equivalent CD return, that’s the same return as a 4.41% 1-month bank CD, based on a 25% marginal federal tax bracket and 9% marginal state tax. (If you are in higher brackets your return is even better). I’m thinking a T-Bill ladder with 28-day T-Bill rungs…
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Treasury Bills and Bonds //

Washington Mutual Drops Free ATM Access

Posted on November 9, 2005 // 14 Comments

For me, the only reason I knew Washington Mutual existed was because they offered free ATM access with no fees on their end. According to this recent Reuters article (via Fatwallet), as of November 17th that will be no more. Bummer.

An surprising quote from the article:

Bankrate.com estimates that U.S. consumers pay nearly $4 billion a year in ATM fees, with an average $1.40 surcharge.

$4 Billion??? Yowza. We are lazy folk. I can’t talk though, because I contributed to that $4 Billion myself.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Banking //

Our Online Business: Product Prototypes

Posted on November 8, 2005 // 10 Comments

Almost a month ago I was brainstorming ideas for an online business that my wife and I could start together. Well, since then we’ve both been otherwise distracted and haven’t made much progress. It seems we just don’t have the time to do it all out, so we are moseying along at our own comfortable pace. We realize this is mostly for fun and to spend time together on a common hobby. Anyways, I thought I’d share some prototypes we’ve been cooking up. As I mentioned before, we think the pet area is a good growing market with higher margins.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Entrepreneurial //

November 2005 Financial Status / Net Worth Update

Posted on November 7, 2005 // 9 Comments

Net Worth at Age 27
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Goals //

Carnival of Debt Reduction #8

Posted on November 7, 2005 // 5 Comments

Carnival MerryGoRoundWelcome to the 8th edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction, which is a weekly smorgasborg of the best debt reduction articles as submitted from bloggers. While I don’t talk about debt reduction very much, I would suggest that they key is first to find out where your money goes now. I dislike budgeting myself, but every month I track my spending and focus on certain target areas like Dining Out. What? You want more? Ok, ok, here:
[Read more…]

Filed Under: General //

Why I Don’t Trust PayPal

Posted on November 6, 2005 // 26 Comments

Back when I was a new eBay Powerseller, I loved PayPal. People paid me instantly, and I didn’t have to run to the bank to deposit checks and wait until they cleared. Of course some people had problems, but I figured they were probably doing some sketchy stuff and had it coming…. Until it happened to me.

They don’t tell you this, but just one nervous buyer or seller can file a complaint against you, and that’s that. Even if they just don’t want to pay for it. Your account is disabled, a happy word for frozen. As in no access to your money. And you don’t get access until you do all of the following:
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Banking //
« Previous Page
Next Page »