Archives for October 2010

Starting a Home Based Business: Stay at Home Mom Upgrades Volunteer Work into New Start-Up Business

October 11, 2010 By Jonathan Ping 11 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

The following is a guest post from reader Leslie, who shares her story of returning to the workforce by starting her own business in Florida. You can see more of her work at on Facebook and soon at LALGraphicDesigns.com (currently under construction).

Background

As a thirty-five year old mother of three, for the past decade I have been fully employed as a stay at home mom. When my first child was born I put my career aspirations and four year college degree aside to focus on raising our children. Before motherhood, I used to work as a graphic artist doing on-air graphics for a local TV station and a national satellite TV provider. Now that all the kids are all in school, with encouragement from friends and family, I recently started my own home based graphic art and design business. This is the story – or at least the first chapter – in a story which just began to be written about my home based business.

After “retiring” to run our household, I kept my artistic and computer skills fresh over the past several years by volunteering and providing free graphic arts services for community organizations, schools, friends and family. Samples of school T-shirt and business logo designs are copied in the margins. Although I committed my energies to raising our children, I had always wanted to run my own business. As set forth below, my contacts through our local parent teacher associations and charities have developed into business clients.

Formation and Formalities

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Career, Entrepreneurial
Last updated: January 29, 2012
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Out of the Office

October 9, 2010 By Jonathan Ping 8 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

I’m going on vacation for the next 3 weeks. I’ve got some great guest posts lined up, most of them are very long and in-depth. I think you’ll like them. The response was great, and I have even more great guest content for when I get back. There will also be some posts of my own that I’ve written ahead of time. Comment moderation and e-mail replies will be even slower than usual, so thanks in advance for your patience.

Even though purely financially this year has been one of the best, other than that it has been the worst. I’d happy trade the two. I’m looking forward to the break, and hope to come back with renewed energy and focus.

Filed Under: General
Last updated: October 10, 2010
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

The Rat Race: Does This Cartoon Look Familiar?

October 8, 2010 By Jonathan Ping 16 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

ratracepolyp

Let’s get out of the race!

Image credit to artist Polyp. There’s also an animated version that made me nauseous (perhaps that was the point?).

Filed Under: Funny, Simple Living
Last updated: August 9, 2018
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Vanguard Lowers Minimum Balance Requirements For Mutual Fund Admiral Shares

October 6, 2010 By Jonathan Ping 23 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Vanguard made another announcement that effective today (10/6), the minimum amount required to qualify for Admiral Shares has been reduced to $10,000 for most of their index funds and $50,000 for actively-managed funds, significantly reduced from the previous $100,000 minimum.

Admirals shares are a separate share class of 52 mutual funds in addition to the standard Investor shares. While owning the same underlying investments, they also take advantage of the cost savings of big accounts and thus have lower annual expense ratios. According to their press release, the lowered requirements means that nearly half of all Vanguard clients can take advantage of at least one of these Admiral funds.

Here is a chart comparing Investor vs. Admiral shares costs for three major funds, along with the overall average across for all similar funds:

Here’s another comparison chart of the same broad funds with similar competitors from Fidelity and Schwab. Note that there are some differences in actual fund holdings, especially in the international funds (click to enlarge with more details):

Here’s a list of excluded index funds:

The minimum amount to qualify for Admiral Shares will remain at $100,000 for the following sector index funds: Consumer Discretionary Index Fund, Consumer Staples Index Fund, Energy Index Fund, Financials Index Fund, Health Care Index Fund, Industrials Index Fund, Information Technology Index Fund, Materials Index Fund, Telecommunication Services Index Fund, and Utilities Index Fund, and for the following tax-managed funds: Tax-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund, and Tax-Managed Growth and Income Fund.

I’m probably going to switch to the Admiral Shares of Vanguard Total International Stock (VGTSX, ER 0.20%) when it comes out, away from the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU , ER 0.25%) which I just converted to. Their holdings are now pretty close. While I don’t mind ETFs that much, they are a bit more work because I like to make a limit order during stock market hours in order to get a proper fill. (I don’t like market orders in case there is another flash crash or similar.) If it’s both cheaper and easier, I gotta go for it.

This will also keep me from converting some of my other mutual funds to ETFs, as the expense difference will either be gone or significantly minimized. They say that the newly qualified folks will have their funds transferred over – with no tax consequences – automatically over the next few weeks. If you’re impatient like me, you can manually request it as well online. Just log into your account at Vanguard and look for the “Convert to Admiral Shares” link. It’s always nice to save some money without doing anything at all.

Filed Under: Investing
Last updated: October 6, 2010
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Rewards Credit Cards: Rotating Categories 2010 October-December Update

October 6, 2010 By Jonathan Ping 15 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

When you charge something on your credit card, the merchant usually pays about 2-3% in transaction fees for the convenience and benefit of accepting these cards. To get your business, issuers often rebate part of these fees in the form of % cashback rewards or frequent flier miles. Since credit cards offer handy conveniences like easily tracking spending, fraud charge back protection, and extended warranties, I figure you might as well earn some of this back as well. I previously wrote about the new trend of rotating rewards categories as a carrot. (Stop reading now if you carry a balance and are paying double-digit interest every month.)

Here’s an update for the offers during Q1 2012. It seems like they are getting ready for holiday shopping. Too bad my goal is to not set foot in a department store this year!

Chase Freedom Visa – $100 Bonus Cash Back
Reward categories change quarterly. From January 1 to March 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in the following categories:

  • Gas Stations
  • Amazon.com

You must enroll at ChaseBonus.com. All other purchases do earn a standard 1%, with no tiers or expiration of rewards. Currently, the Chase Freedom Visa card has a promotion offering a $100 check if you sign up and make $500 in purchases in your first three months.

Citi Dividend Platinum Select Visa CardCiti® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card
Reward categories change quarterly. From October 1st to December 31st, you can earn 5% cash back from Citi on:

  • Department Stores
  • Clothing Stores
  • Electronics Stores
  • Toy Stores

After you get your card, you must enroll by logging into your account or calling 1-800-231-0891. There is no cap on the 5% back, except for the $300 overall cap on all dividend rewards annually. All other purchases do earn a standard 1% with no tiers, and rewards do not expire as long as you have activity once every 12 months. Also, 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months with 3% fee and on purchases for 12 months.

Discover More CardDiscover More Card
Reward categories change quarterly. From October 1 to December 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $300 spent in the following categories:

  • Restaurants
  • Department Stores
  • Clothing Stores

You must enroll online to activate the rewards each quarter. Discover card has a tiered cashback rate (1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3000; purchases that are part of your first $3000 earn .25%.).

PenFed Platinum Cashback Rewards CardPenFed Platinum Cashback Rewards Card
Bonus categories appear and change regularly for this card, but not on a set schedule. Currently through December 31st, cardholders can earn 3% cashback in the following categories:

  • Electronics
  • Sporting Goods

You can view all the eligible merchants here. You don’t need to enroll. This is in addition to the year-round rewards structure of 5% cash back on gas purchases (must pay at pump), 2% cash back on supermarket purchases, and 1% cash back on everything else. Rewards are credited monthly on your next statement.

Note: To get this card, you must also have membership to the Pentagon Federal Credit Union (you can apply for both at the same time). In general, membership is open to the military, US government employees, or the family or household of existing members. However, anyone can become eligible by joining the National Military Family Association (NMFA) for a $20 one-time fee. PenFed also offers other competitive financial products, including low-rate mortgages and long-term CD rates.

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Deals & Offers
Last updated: February 9, 2017
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Vanguard Target Retirement Funds Changes: Increased International Exposure

October 4, 2010 By Jonathan Ping 13 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

A lot of people own Vanguard Target Retirement 20XX Funds, and I just noticed that Vanguard made an announcement that they will be making some changes:

  • The international equity weighting will be increased to 30% of the overall stock portion fund, up from about 20%.
  • Three of the funds (European Stock Index, Pacific Stock Index, and Emerging Markets Stock Index) will be replaced by a single fund, Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund.
  • The Total International Stock Index Fund itself is making some changes. Its benchmark index will switch to the MSCI All Country World ex USA Investable Market Index, which differs from the previous index by adding exposure to Canada and Israel, as well as adding a ~13% allocation to small-cap companies.

All of these changes sound good to me, even if it is another example of Vanguard following the herd. The very first target retirement funds had no exposure to Emerging Markets. Emerging got hot, and then Vanguard added to their funds. Investors have been increasing their international exposure as well recently, and 20% was less than their competitors like Fidelity and starting to look old-fashioned. (Perhaps this is another move away from the philosophies of founder Jack Bogle.)

This also means most Target funds will consist of just three funds:

  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
  • Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund
  • Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund

The stated reasons are for increased simplification and diversification (and a little less volatility perhaps), and not for any increase in expected future returns. Here’s a Q&A from Morningstar with Vanguard CIO Gus Sauter about the topic.

I still like this series of all-in-one funds for those people who like the idea of auto-pilot and have all their retirement savings in tax-deferred accounts like 401ks and IRAs. They are simple, reduce your stock exposure gradually over time, keep costs low, and rebalance regularly for you. You can also adjust your risk level by choosing a different target year.

I held the Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 (VTIVX) for a while. After selling it, I’ve found it very easy to let my asset allocation shift.

However, if you have both taxable and tax-deferred investment accounts, splitting up your bonds and stocks for optimal tax-efficiency can help you increase your after-tax returns.

Filed Under: Investing, Retirement
Last updated: October 5, 2010
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

How To Be Clutch With Your Money – Book Review

October 4, 2010 By Jonathan Ping 2 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Drive. Click. Choke. Empowered. Switch. Bounce. It seems that the short book with the one-word title is very popular these days. Here’s another one: Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Other Don’t, by Paul Sullivan. The book explores stories of people both overcoming and succumbing to extremely stressful situations.

The people profiled include war veterans, actors, and athletes. In particular, five key characteristics of the “clutch” are given:

  • focus,
  • discipline,
  • adaptability,
  • the ability to be fully in the present, and
  • being driven, whether by fear or desire

What about a financial crisis? Your home value plummets while your mortgage rate jumps, you are suddenly unemployed, or your investments drop drastically in value. How will you respond so that your household survives? Seems a lot different than making a golf swing, but here I tried to summarize the section using the five traits above:

Focus. Take responsibility. Change what you can. Don’t waste time blaming others like the mortgage lenders or the credit card issuers that jacked up your rates.

Discipline. Cut your costs without emotion. Sell liabilities like cars, boats, vacation properties. Walk away from your home mortgage if needed. You should always have enough cash to cover twelve months of your expenses.

Adaptability. What is most important to you? Family? Well, your family will still love you if you live in an apartment and drive a $3,000 car. Learn to live without the rest.

Be in the present. Don’t wait. Don’t think you’ll be bailed out, or something magical will happen. If you rely on hope an sit around waiting for things to improve, you’ll just burn through more of your reserves and end up even worse.

Being driven. Figure out what motivates you. Maybe it is fear of losing it all, or desire for financial freedom.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Frugal Living
Last updated: April 25, 2019
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Sprint SERO Premium Plan Details Available

October 3, 2010 By Jonathan Ping 78 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Here’s a quick update for the readers out there who joined the super-cheap Sprint SERO plan with me back in 2007. We got 500 minutes, 7pm nights, unlimited text, and unlimited data for $30 a month. But then Sprint started restricting the types of smartphones we could upgrade to.

As of October 1st, Sprint officially released the details of their SERO Premium plan for existing SERO customers only.

What are the plan details of the new SERO Premium rate plans?
As of 10/1/10, there will be two SERO Premium plans available, SERO Premium 500 at $40/month and SERO Premium 1250 at $59.99/month. SERO Premium plans will match current SERO rate plans with two added features, Any Mobile Anytime and Unlimited GPS Navigation. SERO Premium rate plans will be compatible with all devices offered by Sprint. Only customers on a current SERO rate plan as of 10/1/10 will be able to swap to a SERO Premium rate plan. SERO Premium rate plans will not be discountable – customers on current SERO plans receiving discounts above and beyond the already discounted SERO rate will lose those discounts when moving to a SERO premium plan. 4G handsets such as HTC EVO 4G and Samsung Epic 4G will also require the $10 Premium Data add-on.

So for $10 a month more, you can choose any non-4G phone including Android and WebOS phones, plus you get GPS and free minutes to any mobile phone (not just Sprint customers). 4G phones cost an additional $10/month. However, you’ll probably lose any additional corporate/special member discounts.

Discounted Sprint Plans Open To All

Everyone can still get in on the newer Sprint Everything Plus Referral Program. Designed for friends of employees, you can use the following information to gain access:

Sprint employee e-mail address: Russ.S.McGuire@Sprint.com
Last 3 digits of employee ID (CID): 383

Monthly plans start at $59.99 for 500 minutes with unlimited text and data, which is $10 cheaper than their regular plans. In addition, check if you are eligible for a student or employee discount, or 10-15% savings for being a credit union member.

I’m personally not planning on switching. If I was going to change plans, I would use my available corporate discounts to get an iPhone from AT&T with enough data/text for my needs and tethering at $45 a month.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Frugal Living
Last updated: August 9, 2018
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Restaurant.com Current Coupon Codes – Save on Dining Out

October 1, 2010 By Jonathan Ping 13 Comments
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

Restaurant.com is a website that offers promotional gift certificates to participating restaurants. The regular price is $10 for at $25 certificate, with certain restrictions. However, there are very often coupon codes that allow you to save even more. Currently, you can get 80% off (final price: $2) with coupon code TOUCHDOWN. Offer valid through 10/16 at 11:59PM PST.

Despite my initial skepticism about these things, many readers responded that they indeed found these certificates very useful for saving money. See comments below. Always note the restrictions (dine-in only, not valid Friday night, etc.) which can vary for each place.

Here’s an example of how the savings math might work out. You find a restaurant on the list that you like that usually runs around $20 + tip per person (~$48 for a couple). You buy a $25 certificate for $2, which usually comes with a $35 minimum purchase + 18% required gratuity on full price.

Dinner for two = $40 regular menu price
Minus $25 certificate = $15
Plus cost of certificate ($2) = $17
Plus 18% gratuity on menu price = $7.20
Total price = $24.20 or 12 bucks a person, a 50%+ savings

These days, that’s pretty good if you can find a worthy restaurant. Any stigma attached to using coupons is probably a lot less as well. Share your favorite restaurants if you got ’em. Mine is the Austin Steakhouse in Las Vegas. If you haven’t searched in a while, they’ve been adding more restaurants to the list. I’ll update this post with the current codes as they come out.

Update: You can save even more with cashback shopping sites like eBates ($5 new customer bonus), Mr. Rebates ($5 bonus), and BigCrumbs. Currently, Mr. Rebates is the highest, offering 30% cashback.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Frugal Living
Last updated: February 11, 2018
My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

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