Archives for September 2014

1 Year Free Identity Protection and Credit Monitoring from Home Depot

Posted on September 9, 2014 // 4 Comments

hdallclearidHome Depot has admitted they were recently hacked and customer information was compromised and stolen. If you have shopped at any Home Depot store after April 1, 2014, you are eligible for one free year of identity protection and credit monitoring at homedepot.allclearid.com (press release).

If you need identity repair assistance during the next 12 months, starting on September 8, 2014, we have a team of dedicated fraud resolution investigators available to assist you. They will do the work to recover financial losses, restore your credit, and make sure your identity is returned to its proper condition.

For additional protection, we are also making available at no cost to you a service that includes credit monitoring, identity monitoring, and an identity theft insurance policy.

It appears you get AllClear Secure identity repair service and a 12-month AllClear PRO subscription (retail price of $14.95 a month, though I’d never actually pay that). Call 1-855-252-0908 for identity repair assistance. You’ll have to provide them with your Social Security number. Keep in mind that with all major credit card issuers, you have zero liability for any unauthorized charges as long as you report them in a timely manner.

Reminder: Everyone can get free daily credit monitoring from all three major credit bureaus through the following sites: Credit Sesame for Experian, Credit Karma for TransUnion, and Quizzle for Equifax (I got offered this last one, but it may be targeted).

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Deals & Offers //

Get Rid of Second Car and Use Uber Instead?

Posted on September 8, 2014 // 18 Comments

uberiphone5Forget borrowing money to buy a car, the concept of owning a car itself is changing. Owning a car requires committing to a long list of expenses:

  • car payment and value depreciation ($1,000+ a year)
  • car insurance premium ($500+ a year)
  • fuel costs ($600+ a year)
  • government tax, registration, and fees ($300+ a year)
  • maintenance and repair costs
  • parking, traffic tickets, and tolls

In rough terms, owning a car runs at least $3,000 a year with most people spending more than $5,000 a year. Consumer Reports calculates the median at $9,000 a year over the first 5 years for new car buyers.

As a couple with two cars, I’ve been thinking about trying to get by with one car in the household. Even besides public transit, consider all the car-based options that may be available:

  • Renting a car, but driving ourselves. (ZipCar, RelayRides)
  • Being driven around by other people who rent or own cars. (taxis, Uber, Lyft)
  • Being driven by autonomous robotic cars. (Google or major auto company)

After recent positive experiences with Uber and reading about the advancements in self-driving cars, I now believe that within the next 10 years we will shed at least one car. (I doubt I would want to go completely carless with two kids and all their activities.) Some food for thought on the subject:

  • With Uber, Less Reason to Own a Car – Farhad Manjoo at NY Times.

    “In many cities and even suburbs, it’s becoming much easier to organize your life car-free or car-lite,” said David A. King, an assistant professor of urban planning at Columbia University who studies technology and transportation. By car-lite, Dr. King means that instead of having one car for every driver, households can increasingly get by with owning just a single vehicle, thanks in part to tech-enabled services like Uber.

  • A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX (Los Angeles) – Kyle Hill at Medium.

    So there you have it… for the average American who drives 13,476 miles per year, owning a motor vehicle will cost them $12,744 per year to maintain, and the cost of taking UberX everywhere will cost them $18,115 per year. However, Americans who drive less than 9,481 miles in a year should seriously consider ditching their car, because UberX will be cheaper.

  • How Do Car Ownership Costs Compare to Uber? – Uber Blog.

    The math doesn’t lie. In a city with with a fast, practical (and cool) alternative like Uber, it would very much be worth your time to crunch the numbers and see how much you’re really spending on your gas, parking, maintenance, etc. and how much time you spend doing those things. Because having your own personal driver pick you up in a slick car each and every day is a hell of an appealing alternative.

  • Uber vs Car Ownership – Sam Altman.

    Taking uberX everywhere is now cheaper for me than owning a car (I have an expensive car, so it’s not a super fair comparison, but I still think it’s interesting).

Of course “the math” depends on where you live and how you drive, but even small to medium cities will be affected. Uber now has UberFamily (car seats) and UberPool (multiple passengers heading the same direction). Now look at self-driving car technology. If I buy a self-driving car, that’s really just another convenience/luxury that costs me more money. But what happens when Uber and Lyft don’t have to pay drivers? (Robots taking jobs again!) Fares will drop even further.

Filed Under: Frugal Living, Simple Living //

Early Retirement Lesson #4: How Much Car Can I Afford?

Posted on September 7, 2014 // 58 Comments

Pretty Jaguar F-TypeHere’s another installment of what I would tell my kids about pursuing financial freedom. Read all of my early retirement lessons here. I’ve already covered housing, so the next big expense that comes to mind is cars. This is a revised version of a older post.

If you want to achieve early retirement, my rule of thumb is that you should only pay CASH for cars. By cash I don’t mean retirement savings in an IRA, I’m talking about actual cash sitting in the bank while otherwise still making timely progress towards your other financial goals. I’ve never had a car loan. When I buy a car, I write a check or hand over a wad of cash.

Don’t you like cars? I’ve been a Car and Driver subscriber off and on for 20 years now. I wanted to become an ASE-certified mechanic and even applied to automotive school, but settled on being a mechanical engineering major. But I also know that cars are the biggest area where the price paid vs. utility derived (i.e. value) can get completely out of whack. While a BMW M3 is a beautiful example of precision German engineering, unless your commute involves an unrestricted Autobahn it won’t get you to work any faster than my old 2001 Pontiac.

I’m also a proponent of individual choice according to personal priorities. Great cars are beautiful manmade creations, just like great buildings and great bridges. (Top Gear reference!) You may derive an obscene amount of personal joy out of your car. Okay, so buy it with cash saved up after you put 15%+ of your pay aside for retirement. An old classmate drove a 12-year-old Porsche 944 that he worked on himself.

So I can never buy a new car? Again, if you have the cash knock yourself out. My parents are the buy-new-and-drive-for-a-decade type, and they’ve done well with that philosophy. The car-buying process is not known for being pleasurable, so buying new with cash and driving it into the ground can often be good enough.

Reliable car sweet spot? The “true cost” of a car is the sum of depreciation, maintenance costs, gas, and insurance. New cars hurt you on the depreciation front. Going too cheap may result in high maintenance costs overwhelming the low depreciation. Any fuel-efficient car between 3 and 7 years old with good maintenance records seems like a reasonable choice to me. Buy it from a private party on AutoTrader or Craigslist, get it checked out by a trusted mechanic, use one of the many pricing guides available. Modern cars can easily go past 10 years and 100,000 miles now with proper maintenance.

I personally like the idea of a used GM, Ford, or Mazda model. This is because I bought a Pontiac Grand Prix for under $9,000 at 3 years old and 35,000 miles (company car went off-lease). Even though this was the base model of a struggling-and-now-defunct domestic brand, it ran for another 9 years with the only major repairs being broken power window actuators. Essentially, I now believe that the used car pricing market adjusts adequately for reliability. Hondas and Toyotas are certainly more reliable but there is no way I could get a 3-year-old Camry for $9,000.

What if I only have 50 bucks and need a car for work? My first advice would be to try harder to find alternatives. Public transportation may be a hassle, but I dislike the idea of working past 65 even more. Can you vanpool or carpool? Could you (gasp) bike or walk? Second of all, watch out. All kinds of shady shenanigans happen if you have a low credit score and need help financing.

If you absolutely have to finance a car, bring your own financing from a reputable credit union like PenFed or Hanscom FCU, which currently offers used car loans starting at 1.49% APR. Negotiate only on price, not monthly payments. Make the loan term 3 years or less.

Again, this rule of thumb is targeted at those folks to want to escape the rat race early. You can still have the $40,000 luxury vehicle, but you’ll have to plan ahead and save for it. Then, when you’re staring at a nice $40,000 balance on your bank statement, it becomes much easier to weigh clearly the value of the car vs. writing a huge check.

You may have heard this before, but never buy anything based on monthly payments – that’s the same logic that encourages just making the minimum payment on credit card debt and spawned rent-to-own furniture! Don’t fool yourself into believing you can afford a car just because the monthly lease payment seems manageable. Did you know that over 70% of Mercedes-Benz C-classes are leased? There are many people who spend big chunks of their income every year on cars when they could have a paid-off mortgage instead.

Imagine how much more practical car ownership would be if everyone had to pay cash. Think of car debt like credit card debt – something to be avoided if at all possible. If you already have it, work to pay off as soon as possible.

Filed Under: Frugal Living //

Dinner Boot Camp: Free Family Meal Planning for a Week

Posted on September 5, 2014 // 6 Comments

dinnerplaybookThe New York Times Motherlode blog is running Dinner: The Boot Camp next week with Jenny Rosenstrach, author of the new book Dinner: The Playbook “A 30-Day Plan for Mastering the Art of the Family Meal”.

Here is the free shopping list and weekly dinner meal plan [pdf] for Sunday night 9/7 through Thursday night 9/12 (you get to go out on Friday). Just shop once on Saturday/Sunday, and the meals are meant to be easy-to-make and tasty. Check in the day after each meal on the Motherlode blog to share experiences.

Inspired by Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, we’ve been trying to shift our eating our habits to the theory that as long as you make it yourself from scratch, it’s healthy enough and cheap enough. Think of “processing” as the middleman that shaves off quality (and replaces with salt and sugar) while increasing cost (have to make a profit, right?). Cut out the middleman.

Our overall goal is to cook ourselves using raw materials 5 days a week, eat “food-in-a-box” dinner once a week, and eat out (or take-out) from a restaurant once per week.

Filed Under: Family, Frugal Living //

Fandango Movie Ticket for $7 (Up to $14 Value)

Posted on September 4, 2014 // 3 Comments

Amazon Local has a Fandango Movie Ticket code for $7. Voucher is valid for 1 movie ticket up to $14. Service fee still applies (varies). Limited quantities. Promotional value expires 11/30/14, paid value never expires.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Expedia $100 off $400 Coupon Code – Today 9/4 Only

Posted on September 4, 2014 // 2 Comments

Expedia has a promotion for their new table app where you can get $100 off a $400 hotel booking. That’s up to 25% off. Pretty simple… go to link, enter mobile phone number, receive unique coupon code. Says for today only 9/4… sorry if you don’t see this in time.

Hotel stay must be $400 before taxes and fees. Coupon must be redeemed on Expedia.com by 11:59 PM (Pacific Time) on September 4, 2014, for travel between now and December 31, 2014. Limit one (1) coupon per user account and per qualifying hotel booking. Full terms and conditions.

I can’t quite parse the terms and conditions, but it may only apply towards hotels with an “Expedia Rate”. You must book today, so I would make sure your rate is refundable if you aren’t 100% sure.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Baby Gear Reviews: Car Seats, Strollers, and Feeding Pillows (Part 2)

Posted on September 3, 2014 // 7 Comments

Here is Part 2 of my series on baby gear, organized in the order of Amazon’s Baby Registry. Here is Part 1. The entire series can be found with the Baby Gear tag here. This week is car seats, strollers, and feeding pillows.

babystuff2

Car Seats

babystuff_carseatI’ll start with car seats, as we decided that first before picking a stroller. We chose the Chicco Keyfit 30 Infant Car Seat with Base (plus an extra base for the other car). It was #1 rated by Consumer Reports, well-rated by various other sources including the popular Baby Bargains book, and was recommended by all our friends who had it. You don’t want to go used with a car seat.

After owning it through two different infants, we found it is easy to use, relatively lightweight, durable, easy to take apart, and easy to clean. It’s rated up to 30 lbs, which is more than you’ll probably need. We like that if the baby is sleeping, we can just take the entire seat in and out of the car without waking her up. Our kid often napped in the car seat at home. This also meant we only needed one car seat (and two bases) for two cars.

I haven’t used any other infant car seat so I am unable to provide a good comparison test, but we really have no complaints. A good friend generously bought us ours, and I bought my sister one. The only catch is that it is not the cheapest option. I have seen the Britax B-Safe and it looks similar and is slightly cheaper.

After our first kiddo outgrew the car seat, we bought a pair of Britax Marathon G4 Convertible car seats. Britax seemed to have a good safety history and the chair itself felt very over-engineered and beefy. Honestly, I don’t know the differences between the 26 different Britax models. Ours was on sale. The basic model runs $130 and seems fine to me, it lacks a few conveniences and maybe some comfort padding. The new Chicco Nextfit convertible seat is also highly rated but is closer to $300.

  • Verdict: Buy new. We highly recommend the Chicco Keyfit 30 and have nothing negative to say about it. It currently costs ~$190 but will last through two kids and probably another if we have temporary insanity and try for a third kid. When you outgrow that, we like our beefy Britax convertible seats. Just keep moving up the price range (starts at ~$125) until your budget protests.

Strollers

babystuff_strollerBuying a stroller is like buying a car. There is basic transportation, and then there a million luxury and fashion features for the “outdoorsy” and the “hip urban” set. Strollers can also be bought used in barely-used condition at a significant discount.

Since we picked the Chicco Keyfit, our first thought was to buy the Chicco Cortina, which is basically a regular toddler stroller that can also hold your car seat. Sounds smart right? One stroller, two uses. But at 26 lbs for just the stroller, it was heavy. We ended up just buying a lightweight 14 lb universal frame stroller for $50 which just has one purpose: to hold an infant car seat. 12 lbs difference is a big deal when it comes to both pushing and repeatedly lugging it in and out of a car. If you want your seat to “click in” rather than use a strap, then you have to buy the Chicco-branded one for $100.

For strollers after that, my frugal advice is to find a used baby gear shop and try out their strollers in person. There is so much variation, you just never know until you actually try it. Plus they cost half as much as new. The height could be wrong, you might kick the back wheels when you push, your kid might be too big/small/wide/narrow, etc. The main factors for me are (1) is it lightweight, (2) is the kid comfortable, and (3) are the wheels compatible with the terrain you’ll be one. We often take walks on uneven, thick grass so small wheels get stuck very easily. We have a small, lightweight “mall” stroller (Combi Cosmo) and a heavier “SUV” stroller (Baby Jogger City Mini). I’m not absolutely in love with either one, but they are good enough. The City Mini is fashionable yet has sturdy construction. I think the one-handed collapse feature is rather overrated.

  • Verdict: If you buy a removable infant car seat, just buy a lightweight stroller frame starting at $50 new (or find one used for half). You’ll be good for the first year or so. Always try out a stroller in person. If putting on a baby registry, at least test the usability (fold up, put in car, take out of car, unfold, several times in a row). If buying yourself, just wait until the kid is old enough and buy one used. A good stroller can cost safely under $200 and last a long time.

Feeding Pillows

babystuff_pillowWhen we had our first baby, I think Boppys were trendy or something because we got a few of them as gifts. We used both and liked the Boppy but preferred the My Brest Friend feeding pillow even though we’d never heard of it before (still not a fan of the name). I just noticed that the Brest Friend is the #1 best-selling feeding pillow on Amazon right now, so I guess we were not alone. Allows a comfortable position both for breastfeeding directly and bottle-feeding.

  • Verdict: We preferred the My Brest Friend over the Boppy. Used daily for feeding, totally worth it at ~$40 if you breastfeed. If formula-fed, it is nice but not essential as you have other options like a bed, chair, or car seat.
Filed Under: Family, Frugal Living // Tagged: ,

Harry Markowitz Personal Investment Portfolio and Strategy

Posted on September 2, 2014 // 4 Comments

As mentioned in my Acorns app review, Harry Markowitz won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his pioneering work in Modern Portfolio Theory, which says that a rational investor should pick an “efficient” portfolio that uses a mix of assets to maximize the expected portfolio return for a given level of risk. You can read all about the Harry Markowitz Model on his Wikipedia page.

Implementation of this mathematical theory has produced many “mean-variance optimized” portfolios containing upwards of 10 different asset classes. Basically these are backtested from historical performance numbers. One of the more complex examples is the 7Twelve Balanced Portfolio shown here:

7twelve_pie

But what did Harry Markowitz actually hold in his own personal portfolio? What was his investment strategy?

Consider this story from Jonathan Zweig in an NYT article about emotions and investing:

Mr. Markowitz was then working at the RAND Corporation and trying to figure out how to allocate his retirement account. He knew what he should do: “I should have computed the historical co-variances of the asset classes and drawn an efficient frontier.” (That’s efficient-market talk for draining as much risk as possible out of his portfolio.)

But, he said, “I visualized my grief if the stock market went way up and I wasn’t in it — or if it went way down and I was completely in it. So I split my contributions 50/50 between stocks and bonds.” As Mr. Zweig notes dryly, Mr. Markowitz had proved “incapable of applying” his breakthrough theory to his own money. Economists in his day believed powerfully in the concept of “economic man”— the theory that people always acted in their own best self-interest. Yet Mr. Markowitz, famous economist though he was, was clearly not an example of economic man.

Next, read this Chicago Tribune interview by Gail MarksJarvis:

Early in his career, he did not take the risks some investment advisers suggest for young investors to maximize returns. Rather, he saved regularly and put half his money into stocks and half into bonds to grow while controlling risks. When he thought he had accumulated too much in either category, he stopped putting money there for a while and directed savings to the neglected group. […]

“I never sold anything,” he said. If stocks were increasing in value, he would let that portion grow for a while, but eventually he would stop stock purchases and beef up the bonds. The idea: The bonds would insulate him from the downturns that crush stocks from time to time without clear warning. […]

“Say you were 65, and invested $1 million, with 60 percent in stocks and 40 percent in bonds,” he said. “It became $800,000 [during the financial crisis], and you are not happy, but you lived to invest another day.”

I happen to think Markowitz’s actions overall were quite rational and even wise. We could all learn some lessons from his personal strategies.

  • Rely on saving, not risk-taking. Markowitz understood the pain of losing your hard-earned money in a down market. Young investors are often told to go 100% stock or close to that, but he was 50/50 and stuck with it.
  • Don’t worry about fine-tuning to achieve the perfect portfolio, as it’s all based on the past anyway. Nobody knows what will actually be the “efficient” portfolio for the next 20, 30, 40 years. As long as you have your bases covered, keep it simple. Warren Buffett also recommends simplicity for his wife’s trust and even though he would do a 90% stocks and 10% bonds split, you likely don’t have the ability to lose 40% of your portfolio and go… ah well I’ll just live on the remaining $100 million.
  • Tweak, but don’t panic. Buy and hold is one strategy that will work “well enough”. However, if you feel like you must, you can do like Markowitz and make some tweaks now and then… just don’t do anything extreme that could catastrophically damage your portfolio.

Regular savings plus a simple 50/50 or 60/40 portfolio plus no panic selling will do quite well over a long period of time. That’s a solid game plan, even for mathematical geniuses.

Filed Under: Investing //
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