Yesterday I received the list of charges for my emergency room visit earlier this month (for what was found to be a kidney stone). I added my best guess for what each of the charges were for: Summary of Charges Emergency Room (Doc + … [Read the rest]
OpenCourseWare: Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning
Posted on June 21, 2007 // 28 Comments
While reading this month's issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, I found that UC Irvine offers a free online course on the Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning: This course was produced by a generous grant from the Certified … [Read the rest]
Which Store Gift Cards Have The Highest Resale Value?
Posted on June 21, 2007 // 17 Comments
All this talk about converting free Membership Rewards points into cold hard cash got me to thinking - how much do you net after fees, and which stores have the gift cards or certificates with the highest resale value? My initial guess was that … [Read the rest]
Free 25,000 Rewards Points ($250 in Gift Cards or a Free Plane Ticket) For American Express Business Gold Card
Posted on June 19, 2007 // 43 Comments
Update: The below promotion is now expired. The New Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN now offers 3X points on airfare, 2X points on advertising, gas, and shipping and 1X point on everything else. The annual fee for this card is … [Read the rest]
Considering Changes To How I Calculate Our Net Worth
Posted on June 19, 2007 // 80 Comments
When tracking one's net worth, whether publicly or privately, I don't think there is any one "correct" way to do it. People should measure it however they like in order to achieve useful information out of it. Accordingly, as we get closer to … [Read the rest]
More Ways to Keep Your Bank Balances High, and Make More Money
Posted on June 17, 2007 // 32 Comments
Everybody has a high-yield savings or checking account paying 4% or more, right? Here are a few other ways to maximize your bank balances and therefore your interest earned. Stop withholding too much of your taxes Did you get your tax refund? … [Read the rest]
Father’s Day Thoughts: What Are You Working For?
Posted on June 17, 2007 // 22 Comments
I don't mean to be a downer on this holiday, but I still want to point out the results from CareerBuilder.com's 2007 annual Father's Day survey of full-time working fathers: 27% of working dads say they spend more than 50 hours a week on work … [Read the rest]
How To Keep Your Gift Cards and Certificates From Expiring
Posted on June 16, 2007 // 25 Comments
We ended up getting a huge Macy's gift card for our wedding three years ago, and were dismayed when we realized that after 2 years it had died with about $100 still on it. The problem was that for a long time the closest Macy's was an hour's drive … [Read the rest]
Beware: Lifestyle Inflation Ahead! Things You Get And Can’t Go Back
Posted on June 16, 2007 // 41 Comments
Even though we're still trying to avoid "lifestyle inflation", we find that there are certain things that once you achieve, they are very, very hard to give up. Here's just a few: Living in a house, as opposed to an apartment We started renting … [Read the rest]
Rising Mortgage Interest Rates: Good or Bad For Potential Home Buyers?
Posted on June 14, 2007 // 23 Comments
The hot real estate news this week is that interest rates on mortgage loans rose abruptly, thanks to some international happenings influencing Treasury rates here. According to this NY Times article, the national average for the 30-year fixed-rate … [Read the rest]
Lessons Learned From Examining My Payroll Taxes
Posted on June 14, 2007 // 34 Comments
As hundreds of high school kids run out this month and get their first summer job, they will also be greeted with their first wonderful paycheck... that and the phrase "What's FICA and where did all my money go?" Ah, payroll taxes. First, some … [Read the rest]
Do You Have A Speculative Portion Of Your Portoflio?
Posted on June 12, 2007 // 50 Comments
I've been toying again recently with the core and explore idea of putting a few thousand dollars into my Zecco account and testing out some active trading theories like options, swing-trading, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, whatever. I … [Read the rest]
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