Archives for April 2009

Gillette Free Razor Giveaway Month

Posted on April 18, 2009 // 11 Comments

Gillette is giving away 500 razors each day at Noon Eastern every day for a month, until May 16th. Register at Gillette.com/walk. It might be better to wait a few days for this promo to die down? Don’t watch the painful video of Tiger, Jeter, and Federer strutting.

500 Gillette Fusion razors are available each day for 31 days. Beginning at 12:00 Noon (ET) each day starting on 4/16/09 and ending on 5/16/09, go to Gillette.com/walk and follow the on screen instructions to register. If you are one of the first 500 people to register on that day you will be eligible to receive a Gillette Fusion razor.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Make Extra Money as a Phone Sex Operator?

Posted on April 17, 2009 //

(I’ve been sitting on this post for a while, debating whether I wanted to deal with the comment moderation that will inevitably follow. Oh well, gotta stir things up a little bit now and then. 😉 Just don’t take this too seriously.)

If you have insomnia like I do, you’ve probably seen those commercial for 900 numbers to talk to beautiful, attentive women (or men). Well, if you think about it, wouldn’t being on the other end of the phone be an interesting part-time job? Obviously, not for everyone, but let’s look at the pros:

  • No experience required.
  • You can work from home.
  • No upfront fees (there shouldn’t be), and all you need is a telephone.
  • Flexible hours, and probably mostly at night.
  • No in-person interaction. Your real information is kept private.
  • Reportedly, get paid around $10-$20 per hour. (This is your cut after they charge $2 a minute, or $120 an hour.)

How do I get paid? You get paid for your actual talk time, but your per-minute wage is based on how long you keep the caller on the phone. Many sites claim to send checks out weekly. According to one report:

For the first 5 or so minutes that you take a call you will be paid about .12 – .15 cents per minute. If you keep the caller on the line for more than 5 minutes, but up to 9 minutes, the pay raises to .30 cents. If the caller remains on the line for 10 minutes or more, expect to make between .40 cents – .60 cents or more. A good sex operator should be able to keep the customer on the line for 15 minutes or more.

Filed Under: Funny //

PineCone Paid Survey Link Open Again

Posted on April 17, 2009 // 8 Comments

Just a quick post to say that PineCone Research is accepting new members again for their paid survey panel. It seemed to die right after I posted it last time. Thanks Jan.

Other legit survey sites in my experience are SurveySavvy, InboxDollars, Opinion Outpost, GlobalTestMarket, NFO MySurvey, and BzzAgent.

Filed Under: Bored Money //

eBay: Berkshire Hathaway 2009 Annual Meeting Tickets for $5

Posted on April 16, 2009 // 10 Comments

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.

Filed Under: General //

Business Mastercard Easy Savings: Get 5% Back on USPS Online Postage, Dunkin Donuts, & More

Posted on April 16, 2009 // 11 Comments

MasterCard has an automatic rebate program called Easy Savings that works with “a MasterCard small business or select middle market card issued in the United States, from a participating bank.” This includes certain business debit Mastercards. You can find out if your card qualifies by visiting the website and typing in the card number and trying to register for free.

Here is a list of participating merchants. Two newly added offers are 5% back at the U.S. Postal Service Click-N-Ship website (online postage) and Dunkin Donuts shops. I know some active eBay sellers that wouldn’t mind a 5% discount on postage. The rebates are automatic and show up on your monthly statements. You don’t even have to click through a portal like eBates, just shop like normal.

My CitiBusiness Mastercard and WaMu Business Debit cards were accepted. Given that any individual (as a sole proprietorship) can get either a business credit card or business checking account (with debit card), this is then basically open to anyone who wants it badly enough.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Savings I-Bonds Update: New Inflation (err… Deflation) Rate Announced

Posted on April 15, 2009 // 20 Comments

New inflation numbers for March 2009 were announced today, so it’s time for the usual semi-annual update:

New Inflation Rate
September 2008 CPI-U was 218.783. March 2009 CPI-U was 212.709, for a semi-annual decrease of 2.78%. Using this official formula, the variable interest rate for the next 6 months will be approximately -5.55%, depending on the fixed rate. What does this deflation mean for the investment returns for I-Bonds?

Buying Now = ~3.08% APR, 11-month investment
If you buy before the end of April, the fixed rate portion of I-Bonds will be 0.7%. You will be guaranteed an variable interest rate of 4.94% for the next 6 months, for a total rate of 5.64%. For the 6 months after that, the total rate will be zero, not -4.85%. This is due to the 0% floor on savings bond rates.

You can’t redeem until 12 months have gone by, and any redemptions within 5 years incur a 3-month interest penalty. However, a known “trick” with I-Bonds is that if you buy at the end of the month, you’ll still get all the interest for the entire month as if you bought it in the beginning of the month. Let’s say we buy at the end of this April, hold for the minimum of one year, and pay the 3-month interest penalty for redeeming within 5 years. You’ll be able to sell on April 1, 2010 for an actual holding period of 11 months.

This would leave you with a 5.64% return on your money for 6 months, and then nothing for 5 months. Overall, that’s a 3.08% annualized return, and you will be exempt from state income taxes on the interest as well. This is very competitive with current bank CD rates.

Buying Later? If you wait until May 1st, you will get a new unknown fixed rate minus 5.55%, for a virtually guaranteed composite rate of zero for the first 6 months. (The next 6 months will be based on an unknown rate based on future inflation.) Unless there is a big bump in the fixed rate that makes it a good long-term investment, sticking with banks or credit unions will likely give you a higher yield.

Low Purchase Limits
The annual purchase limit is now $5,000 in paper I-bonds and $5,000 in online I-bonds per Social Security Number. For a couple, that’s $20,000 per year. Buy online at TreasuryDirect.gov. As for paper, here is a post on how to buy paper savings bonds from your local bank. Some larger banks may have an electronic process.

For more background, see the rest of my posts on savings bonds.

Filed Under: Savings Bonds //

A Quick & Dirty Plan To Reach Financial Freedom

Posted on April 13, 2009 // 42 Comments

Despite the current financial funk, I still desire financial freedom. The general idea is simple; I need to generate enough income from my assets to pay for my expenses. Here is how I’ve been framing the problem in my mind recently. I’m 30 now, let’s say I want to be “retired” by age 50.

Part 1: Accumulate 30 times annual (non-housing) expenses

There are numerous studies about the “safe withdrawal rate” from a portfolio, and they usually end up at around 3% to 4%. This usually means that with $1,000,000 dollars, you have a high (say 99%) chance of being able to produce $30,000 to $40,000 of income each year plus inflation adjustments for a long period of time (30+ years).

This is the same as saying you need to save 25 to 33 times your annual expenses.. If you’re conservative (or young), I’d go with a higher number, so I picked 30. Multiply your annual expenses by 30. You need that much money to retire. All of these are based on historical numbers, so this is only an estimate.

Right now I’d estimate our annual non-housing expenses at about $24,000 per year ($2,000 per month). Previously I’ve found that we spend about $18,000 per year, but that neglects a few things like health insurance and car deprecation. (Again, health insurance for those that retirement very early and are not healthy might be a bogey.)

$24,000 x 30 = $720,000.

At about $200,000 in non-housing assets right now, that leave me $520k left. Divided by 20 years and assuming no investment return, that would require $25k per year (not inflation-adjusted). At a 3% annual real return, I’d still need to save nearly $20k per year.

Remarks
With this part, you can see the power of frugal living, or the damage done by lifestyle inflation. $500 a month is $6k per year. $6k x 30 = $180,000.

So if I could cut $500 a month in my expenses, I’d need to save $180,000 less. On the other hand, if I grow some bad habits and start spending $500 more a month, I’d need to save $180,000 more. Either way, that’s a big number! This is why I still need to complete my line-by-line examination of expenses.

Part 2: Own my house / Pay off mortgage

I currently have 29 years left on a 30-year fixed mortgage. For us, that would mean another ~$470,000 in mortgage principal, but more when you count in all that interest.

According to this mortgage calculator, if we make one extra monthly payment per year (simulating a bi-weekly acceleration plan), that’d give us about 24 years before we’re done. If I made two extra monthly payments per year, it’d be shaved down to 20 years, which has the house paid off at age 50. Lots of other considerations, but I’m strongly leaning towards it.

Remarks
I know that you could easily roll up “housing” costs into Part 1 above, but I didn’t for a few reasons. For one, housing is one of the few expense areas where you can essentially “buy” all future costs. For example, you can’t pay a lump sum in exchange for all the electricity you’ll consume in your lifetime. Same thing for your grocery bill, or even a car since you’ll have to replace it. But if you own your house, you’ve basically cut out rent forever (just left with maintenance and property taxes). It also reduces the danger of inflation eating up your spending power.

The second reason is lower taxes. Owning your own house not only saves you from have to pay a housing payment, but also keeps you from having to earn the gross income needed to generate that after-tax amount. Ignoring house, I saw above that I only need to generate $24,000 of income per year total. The income taxes on that amount is very, very small. Using current numbers it might be less than 5% overall, with my marginal tax bracket at a mere 10% after taking out the personal exemptions and standard deductions.

But if I need to generate another $24,000 of income to cover housing ($2k per month in rent), then that additional $24k would be taxed at much higher rate of 15%. With state tax, the difference might be another 5%.

Try out this method with your own numbers, and see what happens. When I run the numbers like this, I know that I could retire much earlier if I moved to a cheaper place upon retirement. But is it worth it? It’s all about priorities…

Filed Under: Real Estate, Retirement, Taxes //

Free Song Downloads at Amazon MP3

Posted on April 13, 2009 // 1 Comment

Here is a link that lists all of the free song downloads on Amazon MP3. Sort by category on the left sidebar. You’re not going to find the latest Kanye West song there, but take a look and try some out.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Free 60-Day Membership to BJ’s Wholesale Club

Posted on April 13, 2009 // 2 Comments

If you visit (expired) and print out the coupon, you can get a free 60-day trial membership to BJ’s Wholesale Club. There appears to be no surcharge as they say you get “full member benefits”. BJ’s also has a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their memberships, but this might be less hassle.

One trial membership per household. In-club only, so no online shopping.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Opened Rewards Checking and Mega Money Market Savings Accounts at Evantage Bank

Posted on April 8, 2009 // 43 Comments

I haven’t been much of a interest rate-chaser recently, and it feels like it’s been a while since I’ve opened up a new bank account. For one, I already have a lot of my cash tied up in CDs and I-Bonds. Also, most of my recent cashflow has been going into 401k and IRA contributions.

Now that I have a bit more free time, I decided to open up a new “Rewards Checking” account at Evantage Bank. It offers 5.25% APY on the first $10,000 in balances, and 2.25% APY for anything over that if you meet their requirements of electronic statements and 10 debit card purchases per month. I liked it because it was available nationwide, there were no minimum balance requirements, and didn’t have a direct deposit requirement.

In addition, they have a “Mega Money Market” savings account that is currently paying 3.10% APY on balances to $35,000. (No debit requirements.) So you could keep a total of $45,000 parked at Evantage at a combined interest rate of 3.58%. Not too shabby in this current environment. Alternatively, you could open a second Rewards Checking account and get another $10k at 5.25% (but also with another 10-purchase commitment).

So far, the account application was run by CashEdge, with the usual informational requests and ID verification using questions based on your credit report. The process was completely online, with both online signature cards and an ACH transfer option for initial deposit. I’ll provide a better update once I get started.

I’ve written about rewards checking accounts in the past. They are a gamble and you can earn very little interest if you don’t pay attention to the requirements. In addition, the rates can drop quickly. Look at your own habits, and hopefully these rates will stay competitive for a while.

Evantage is one of identical triplet banks, along with Redneck Bank and AmericaNetBank, which are all owned by the Huckabay family of Oklahoma. The three banks reportedly have different gimmicks to attract publicity – supposedly the redneck, patriot, and high-tech crowd? Apparently it worked, because Redneck Bank isn’t even taking new applications as of yesterday.

Filed Under: Banking //

April 2009 Financial Status / Net Worth Update

Posted on April 7, 2009 // 33 Comments
Net Worth Chart 2009

Finally a bit of green!

Credit Card Debt
For newer readers, don’t worry. In the past, I have been taking money from credit cards at 0% APR and immediately placing it into high-yield savings accounts or similar safe investments that earn 5% interest or more, and keeping the difference as profit. I even put together a series of step-by-step posts on how to make money off of credit cards this way. However, given the current lack of good no fee 0% APR balance transfer offers, I am just waiting to pay off my existing balances.

Retirement and Brokerage accounts
March was a rebound month for the stock market, and our balances went up accordingly. We contributed $10,000 into IRAs, and $12,969 in 401(k) salary deferral and company match. A chunk of that was a true-up contribution from 2008. Score! See my 2009 Q1 portfolio update for more details.

Cash Savings and Emergency Funds
Our cash savings did drop due to the IRA contributions, but we still have over a years worth of expenses set aside. I want to keep one year of expenses for our emergency fund, and start looking for places to invest the rest.

Home Equity
I used the same internet valuation tools as before – Zillow, Cyberhomes, Coldwell Banker, and Bank of America (old version). The magical elves have decided that my home is worth a tiny bit more this month. The number shown is after another 11% reduction to be more conservative.

It’s been about a year that I’ve had this mortgage, and I am wondering if I should commit some cash towards paying down the mortgage principal too. If I make an extra mortgage payment each year, I replicate a biweekly accelerated payment plan, and can shave around 5 years off my 30-year mortgage.

Filed Under: Goals, Investing, Real Estate, Retirement //

2009 Q1 Investment Portfolio Update – April 6th, 2009

Posted on April 6, 2009 // 16 Comments
2009 Q1 Portfolio Breakdown
 
Retirement Portfolio Actual Target
Asset Class / Fund % %
Broad US Stock Market 32.2% 34%
VTSMX – Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
DISFX – Diversified Stock Index Institutional Fund*
FSEMX – Fidelity Spartan Extended Market Index Fund*
US Small-Cap Value 8.7% 8.9%
VISVX – Vanguard Small Cap Value Index Fund
Real Estate (REITs) 8.7% 8.5%
VGSIX – Vanguard REIT Index Fund
Broad International Developed 23.8% 25.5%
FSIIX – Fidelity Spartan International Index Fund*
International Emerging Markets 12.1% 8.5%
VEIEX – Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund
Bonds – Short-Term 3.7% 3.8%
VFISX – Vanguard Short-Term Treasury Fund
Bonds – Inflation-Indexed 10.8% 11.3%
VIPSX – Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities Fund
Total Portfolio Value $120,016
* denotes 401(k) holding given limited investment options.

2009 is already over one-fourth over, so I think it’s a good time to check on the ole’ battered portfolio.

Contribution Details
In early 2009, we each made a $5,000 contribution towards our non-deductible IRAs for the 2008 tax year, for a total of $10,000. We have also contributed $12,969 so far into our 401ks through regular salary deferrals and the company match. We haven’t made any after-tax investments in our portfolio yet.

YTD Performance
According to my spreadsheet, the 2009 year-to-date time-weighted performance of our personal portfolio is -15.5% YTD.

For reference, the Vanguard S&P 500 Fund has returned -6% YTD, their FTSE All World Ex-US fund has returned –6.36% YTD, and their Total Bond Index fund is -0.13% YTD as of 12/8/08. The Vanguard Target 2045 Fund has returned -4.70% YTD. Part of the poor relative performance is probably due to the timing of my large lump-sum investments.

Investment Changes
We have used our new contributions to bring us closer to our asset allocation target, with a 85% stocks/15% bonds split.

You can view all my previous portfolio snapshots here.

Filed Under: Investing, Retirement //
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