Archives for April 2012

Tingo: New Hotel Booking Website That Allows Price Drops

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If you haven’t heard, Autoslash was a website that let you book car rentals and then re-booked you whenever they could find a better price via price drops or discount codes. It worked well for me in the past. Then the major car rental companies (which are really 3 huge companies with 10 different names) stopped allowing them to provide quotes. Things do not look good for them.

Tingo.com is a new site that wants to do basically the same thing but with hotel rooms. You book a room, and if there are future price drops, they’ll rebook the same room at the new lower price. It appears that you have to pay for the room upfront, and then future price drops are refunded to your credit card.

I like the idea, and I don’t see why you wouldn’t try them out if they give the same upfront rate as other big sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. (I tried a few dates and places and Tingo did offer the same prices.) It would seem you have nothing to lose? But given what happened to AutoSlash, don’t be surprised if they receive a corporate smackdown as well. I do see that Tingo is a subsidiary of TripAdvisor, so maybe they have cleared this with the major hotel chains.

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.

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American Express Extended Payment Option = 5,000 Membership Rewards Bonus

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 promotion is for holders of American Express “charge” cards that have Membership Rewards Points, including the Green, Gold, and Platinum cards. (Basically, it should look like one of the cards above.) This would work perfectly for those that signed up for the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card that currently gives 25,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $2,000 within 3 months and are still in the fee-free first year.

Usually these cards require you to pay the bill in full after each month, but if you enroll in their “pay over time” feature they’ll give you 5,000 Membership Rewards points. (Platinum card holders can get an extra 10,000 points.) Now you can pay exorbitant rates like everyone else. 🙂 But wait! The good news for you responsible consumers is that there is no fee for enrollment, and also no requirement to actually pay any interest. So why not enroll and grab an extra 5,000 points? Fine print from the 5k offer quoted below.

[Read more…]

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.


Compare Your Budget With Americans 50 & 100 Years Ago

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Last week I mentioned comparing your budget with other people around the world. This time, how about comparing your budget to someone living 50 or 100 years ago?

A new article in The Atlantic dissects the information in a new government BLS report 100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending, focusing on the the differences in spending in 1900, 1950, and 2003.


Source: The Atlantic magazine, Bureau of Labor Statistics

In 1900, nearly 60% of income went towards food and clothing. In 2003, food and clothing are now less than 20% of expenditures. Instead, more than half of income is spent on housing and transportation (included in Other). The percentage of healthcare costs is again deceiving, as today most healthcare expenses are not paid directly by consumers but instead by employer insurance premiums and programs like Medicare.

I don’t wish I lived in the 1900s, as I’m quite accustomed to high quality healthcare and flushing toilets. But we should realize that things are in constant change. Are we properly taking advantage of our mass-produced cheap clothing and agricultural advances? Or are we spending the difference on things we don’t need just to fill the gap? What will things look like in 2050?

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.


This Is What I See When I Look at Shopping Mall Directory Maps

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Here’s my attempt at humor that came to mind while being dragged shopping again, in the name of baby gear research. (I get really whiny when made to shop…)

500 stores, and nothing to buy. Am I the only one?

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.


Barron’s Top Online Broker Rankings 2012

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Weekly business newspaper Barron’s recently released their 2012 annual broker survey rankings. A change from last year is that now the quality and availability of mobile apps for smartphones and iPads are now part of the criteria, as well as more attention paid to the ability to place transactions directly on international exchanges.

Barron’s admits their overall rankings are based on the needs of their paying subscribers – namely “wealthy, active traders”. As such, their overall winner was Interactive Brokers, which has an extensive feature set with low per-trade commissions but also requires a minimum opening balance of $10,000, a minium monthly fee of $10, and is lacking customer service especially for smaller investors.

I am not an active trader, I would say I do less than 50 trades a year mostly using ETFs. Based on no data whatsoever, I would guess that most readers here are also not active traders and don’t need a full-service terminal with real-time streaming charts and complex options order-entry capability. (Although I know some of you are.) Now, I still like having real-time quotes, a nice user interface, and friendly service when I need it. So thankfully Barron’s also ranked the brokers for other investing styles:

Top 5 Brokers for Novice Investors

  1. TD Ameritrade. Notes above-average costs, but more features and good mobile app. Curiously, no mention of the 100 commission-free ETF list.
  2. Fidelity
  3. E-Trade
  4. Charles Schwab
  5. Capital One 360 Sharebuilder

Top 5 Brokers for Long-Term Investing

  1. Fidelity – Notes good mix of reasonable cost, research tools, and overall usability.
  2. TD Ameritrade
  3. Charles Schwab
  4. E-Trade
  5. TradeKing

Top 5 Brokers for In-Person Service

  1. Scottrade. Notes over 500 physical branches across US.
  2. Merrill Edge
  3. Charles Schwab
  4. Fidelity
  5. TD Ameritrade

I found it weird that they mention Scottrade’s meager list of proprietary commission-free ETFs that nobody hardly uses, but completely ignore the fact that TD Ameritrade includes 100 of the world’s largest and most heavily traded ETFs on their commission-free list. I guess they really are laser-focused on daytraders and people trading on Asian exchanges in the middle of the night.

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.


First Baby New Expenses? One Family’s Experience

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 is from Elle at Couple Money. They live on one income, and have fun with the second!

When I read MMB’s questions about baby expenses, I shared a bit of our own experience with him. We are just a year ahead of him last summer we had our first baby, a little girl. It has been a wonderfully fun ride so far, with everyday bringing new milestones and challenges.

During the pregnancy my husband and I decided to track the baby expenses on Couple Money as we’re going through this process. We’re not the first parents to have questions about the finances of raising children, so I share our expenses and have asked others to give their input. Some wonderful bloggers have decided to join in the fun and share their own stories, tips, and advice on what works, what doesn’t, and what’s not worth stressing over.

Are Kids Really That Expensive?

For us, most of the expenses are just small bumps in our monthly budget. I think the main reason is that we made some financial decisions before we became parents that lent itself to reducing baby bills. For one thing, when we first were married we made it a family goal to keep all necessary expenses on 1 income. That allowed us to use the second income to pay down debts, save for goals, and invest for later.

Health Insurance and Doctor Visits
During the first trimester I was dehydrated enough that I needed to go to the ER to replenish; that was about $150 out of pocket. For the most part, though, my pregnancy had been uneventful. The health insurance policy we had when I was pregnant had a $2,500 deductible, so we saved a bit in our general funds to cover the deductible when our baby girl was delivered. Saving up to pay the bill in full allowed us to also get a 15% discount with the hospital.

Once our daughter arrived we quickly added her to my husband’s health insurance policy. That’s been the biggest change to our family budget – our premiums went up about $200/month for the family option.

Housing
No change in our housing bills. We bought our townhouse before we had our daughter. It had 3 bedrooms, so we converted the guest room into her nursery. We don’t have any plans on changing our location, right now we’re focusing on paying down the mortgage.

Daycare
I know that for many parents daycare is a huge expense. From what I saw last year it was about $1,200/month for an infant. Right now I work from home and our daughter stays with me. While it has cut back on the hours I work, the savings from not having her in daycare offsets it.

Food
Since we’re breastfeeding our food bill has increased just a bit to accommodate the extra calories I need to keep up. Since becoming pregnant, we changed our eating habits a bit. We’re focusing on making more meals at home and we a part of a CSA program with weekly deliveries during the part of the year. It’s been helping to keep groceries manageable and we’ve also discovered new recipes and dishes. Our daughter has baby food and some of what we’re eating in addition to breast milk.

Transportation
Even before we found out we were going to have a baby my husband and I were saving up for the vehicle as we’re trying to avoiding taking out a car loan. However we saving up a bit more to purchase a family sized sedan, like a Sonata. Our budget is $10k for the next car. We have the money saved and we’re currently searching for a deal. It’s not an immediate need (tight fit in my Jetta, but fine), so we’re going to make sure we look around a bit before securing the next car.

Clothing/Baby Gear
The first 2 months our bills were higher than normal as we bought a few items we didn’t receive from the baby registry. We waited until our daughter arrived to see if we really needed them or if they were nice to have items. Fortunately most of the necessary stuff was already bought. After the first 8 weeks, our expenses have smoothed out.

We have received gifts from family and friends – both new stuff and gently used. We didn’t have to buy a baby swing, since a buddy’s son didn’t seem to like it. It was practically new and our daughter loved it.

Right now diapers are about $20/month give or take through Amazon Mom and they are delivered right to our door. We get her wipes through Costco where a huge box costs about $20 as well (lasts a couple of months). Any clothes that she needs we pick at Target, Old Navy, or the consignment store around the corner. That’s about $30/month.

Thoughts on Having Kids

This is just a snapshot of our family’s baby expenses. As our little one gets older we know things will change. I’d like to hear from you – what expenses to you have to cover for your little one? What has been the biggest unexpected expense? What’s been the best surprise?

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.


Compare Your Budget With Other US Consumers and the World

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 NYT Economix blog and a new BLS report had some nice graphics comparing how the average consumer spends their money in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, and Japan. The data is from 2009.


Source: BLS.gov

 

Compared with the other countries, Americans spent more of their budgets on housing and health care, and less on recreation and entertainment. The Japanese spent the largest share on food, with a higher percentage spent on food than even housing. This is somewhat surprising, given the stereotype of small living spaces in Japan and large living spaces in the US. But remember, these are percentages and not absolute numbers.

You might think that out-of-pocket healthcare costs are lower in the other countries due to government-subsidized universal health care, but the Economix article points out that the total healthcare expenditures per capita in the US are also much higher (around double) those of other countries. I can’t believe they spend more on clothing than healthcare! Of course, my wardrobe turnover rate has been described as “glacial”.

Our spending breakdown still has a much, much bigger slice going towards housing, and a much smaller slice going towards transportation and food. We are lucky to have nice employer-sponsored health insurance.

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.


Warren Buffett Was Nearly Content With Early Retirement At 25

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snowball_bookHere is an insightful ForbesLife interview by Warren Buffett in their “When I was 25” series. The article is primarily about how he ended up starting the investing partnership that eventually became Berkshire Hathaway. But what I didn’t know was that before that happened, he actually was ready to settle down in early retirement when he was 25 years old, content to invest just his own money:

The thing is, when I got out of college, I had $9,800, but by the end of 1955, I was up to $127,000. I thought, I’ll go back to Omaha, take some college classes, and read a lot—I was going to retire! I figured we could live on $12,000 a year, and off my $127,000 asset base, I could easily make that. I told my wife, “Compound interest guarantees I’m going to get rich.” […]

I had no plans to start a partnership, or even have a job. I had no worries as long as I could operate on my own. I certainly did not want to sell securities to other people again.

Adjusting for inflation using CPI, $127,000 in 1955 would be about $1,100,000 in 2012 dollars. Spending $12,000 a year in 1955 would be just about $100,000 a year today. A 9% portfolio withdrawal rate is pretty high, but then again he’s Warren Buffett.

If he had gone the early retirement route, I’m sure he’d still be a comfortably rich Nebraska family man today, but given his quiet lifestyle we probably wouldn’t know anything about him. In fact, Buffett had already turned down an offer to be a partner in the hedge fund that Benjamin Graham founded. But events conspired to let him manage other people’s money without the pressures of salesmanship or marketing, and $50 billion later he’s one of the richest people alive.

I already knew from reading his biography The Snowball that he was quite the young entrepreneur and by 16 years old he had already accumulated over $58,000 in 2012 dollars ($5,000 in 1946). This was from many different micro-businesses including delivering newspapers, selling everything from gum to car washes, and owning pinball machines. He already knew that the faster he earned that money, the more time he would have to let compound interest do its thing. After moving back to Omaha, he even rented a house at first instead of buying so he wouldn’t have to commit any of his precious capital.

In any case, interesting that his initial goal was early retirement and career freedom, not necessarily doing whatever he could to accumulate more money. I look forward to the other articles in this series.

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.


Walgreens Pharmacy $25 For Transferring Prescription

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.

Walgreens Pharmacy has a new promotion where you get a $25 gift card if you transfer a prescription over to them. Looks like you can do it online and have it shipped to you for free if you don’t want to pick it up. I remember when it seemed like every pharmacy was doing this and you could hop from one to the next for months. Some probably still do… Target, Wal-mart, CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Kroger, and so on. Fine print quoted below. It appears to be one gift card per prescription transaction.

[Read more…]

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.