FIRE Finance

In Search Of A Savory Salary

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:19:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Nov 19, 2009: We spend more than one third of our lives at our work places. Perhaps its a good idea to make sure that we are being paid well for our sweat and toil. But how do we go about finding out how much our salaries should be?

Well in this age of technology, smart people should use good tools to accomplish the job. One of the finest tools for salary search has been released by a company named Indeed. You can check out Indeed's tool here. Playing around with the tool, we discovered quite a few neat features and interesting facts:

We can compare more than one Job Title, in various cities and states by using the "Add Comparison" link below the "What" and "Where" boxes.

If we want to remove some of the criteria chosen above for comparison we can do so by using the button "Remove" placed at the end of each row.

So how does Indeed's Salary Search Do It?

A quote from their website:

Indeed Salary Search is based on an index of salary information extracted from over 50 million job postings from thousands of unique sources over the last 12 months. Many job descriptions don't contain salary information, but there are enough that do to produce statistically significant average salaries for millions of keyword, job title and location combinations - in fact, most job searches you are likely to think of. As new jobs are added each day, the Indeed Salary Search index is automatically updated with fresh salary data, so the salary results are as up-to-date as they could possibly be.

What is so unique about Indeed's Salary Search?

Indeed claims that Salary Search isn't based on survey data and isn't limited to job titles. They say that:

Market Rate: Many salary tools that claim to be market-based use historic survey data. But is the past a true reflection of the current market rate? Indeed Salary Search shows you what current job openings are paying - which is what matters if you are in the job market. Traditional survey-based salary tools can be poor at tracking completely new kinds of job - Iraq Reconstruction Program Advisor, for example - whereas Indeed monitors the very latest jobs as they emerge.

Keyword-based: Typical salary tools are based on job titles alone, but Indeed Salary Search lets you search using any mix of skills, keywords or job titles to give you the average salary of all jobs matching your query. You don't have to choose a generic job title that may or may not match your skill set, which really helps when skills or qualifications are more important than titles. Indeed Salary Search also provides the average salaries of jobs with specific titles related to your search.

Well, we did like the concepts behind Indeed's tool. The authenticity of its data can be checked wrt a particular industry and location by comparing the current salaries in that domain with the data generated by Salary Search. If any of our readers do find out how well this tool fares against real life data, please do let us know. Meanwhile we shall also try to find out how well the tool fares in our professional arenas. Good salaries are rare indeed!
Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

FireSafe Your Personal Finance Documents

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:18:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Nov 18, 2009: On a quiet evening, a couple of years ago, we returned from our work to find our apartment complex in flames. In front of our eyes we saw one apartment after another being consumed by a monstrous fire while we helplessly looked on. By God's grace the brave fire fighters put out the flames just a couple of apartments from ours. Though our block was charred our belongings were unharmed. But our hearts reached out to our neighbors who had lost everything. We tried to help to the best of our abilities and in the process we learnt a lot.

Since most of the residents of the apartment complex had never thought about the consequences of a fire on their personal finances and identities, they had to undergo some hardships. Documents related to finance like checkbooks, certificates of deposits, shareholders' certificates, important files on the computers, backups and other important stuff like passports, social security cards, medical records, etc were burnt to ashes. The lucky ones who were out working had their wallets on them, for the rest that was out of reach too. Consequently quite a few of them were identity less, had no credit and ATM cards, no cash or extra set of clothes on them. Pretty scary! However with the help of friends, employers, the city officials and tonnes of paper work they got back their identities. The recovery was a slow process spanning over weeks.

We immediately reflected on what we can do to save ourselves from such hardships. Two options became evident. One was to purchase a fire safe and put all our important documents in it. Not that fire safes are totally safe from fire but they can resist it for a few hours. We have chosen a couple of fire safes from Sentry to protect our personal documents.

The other was to keep a copy of the originals in a safe deposit box in a bank away from the apartment. Both these techniques are not fool proof but they provide some resilience in such a situation. Another neat idea is to keep a back-up file of all our online accounts and passwords in a different place (i.e. not in the apartment). We have to take care to keep it in a safe place else we will lose our monies and investments to an identity thief. The safe deposit box/locker in a bank is a good place to store a back-up of our e-personal finance state.

On hindsight we feel that it is a nice idea to keep our important stuff in such a way that we can grab hold of it and go in a moment's notice. In the case where we are not there to grab them and go, it would be great to have a back-up in a safe place where we can access it in case of natural calamities or unforeseen disasters like fire, flash floods, thefts or unknown surprises.

We hope that our experience about safe keeping our important documents is useful to you. Please share your views and ideas about how to fire proof our crucial documents.

Image Source(s): Adrian

Prevent Auto Theft & Home Burglary with Affordable Anti Theft Devices

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:16:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Nov 16, 2009: J.D. Roth's Get Rich Slowly is one of our favorite personal finance blogs. We were shaken when we read that JD's car was burgled again! Sometimes incidents like these forewarn us about raising our awareness on how to protect our valuables. The next step of course is to take action on the acquired knowledge.

In this information age, it can be frighteningly easy for thieves and other criminals to ransack a home, hotwire and steal a car, or worse. According to the FBI, a vehicle is stolen every 26.4 seconds in the US. Last year alone, 1.2 million vehicles were stolen across the country. To make matters worse, only about 12 percent of vehicle thefts are resolved with an arrest.

We need to take more care than ever to protect ourselves and our property from desperate individuals. It is no longer sufficient just to lock our doors and hide our valuables. However all is not lost yet. We can raise the barrier for thieves with some fairly affordable anti theft devices that really work. They can help protect our vehicles and also save us some money on our auto insurance premiums since now a days we get discounts for installing anti theft devices in our cars. Here are some popular and affordable auto anti theft devices:

Car Alarm

One of the most popular anti-theft devices of all times for automobiles is a car alarm. In addition to emitting sounds, many car alarms activate a vehicle’s headlights, tail lights and horn in a repetitive fashion. There are tonnes of top of the line car alarm gizmos which can cost us a lot of money. On the other hand we can have a simple one installed for as little as $150 to $200.

LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System

Each LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System includes a small radio frequency transceiver hidden in one of up to 20 places in our vehicle and has a unique code that is tied to the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). When we report a vehicle theft to the police, a routine entry into a state police crime computer results in a match of the LoJack System's unique code against the state VIN database. This automatically activates the LoJack Unit in our vehicle, which emits an inaudible signal. Law enforcement authorities who are equipped with LoJack Police Tracking Computers in their police cars and aviation units are always listening for a LoJack signal to track and recover our stolen LoJack equipped vehicle.

Over 200,000 vehicles have been recovered worldwide since this product was introduced, with over 100,000 recovered in the U.S. alone. This thing works. One of our friends' new Honda Civic was stolen from our university's campus. The cops were able to track her car and it was recovered within 24 hours!

Steering Wheel Locking Device & Column Collars

Though a steering wheel lock is a passive anti theft device, the sight of "The Club" affixed to our steering wheel is enough to send car thieves down the line to a less-prepared victim. They come in a variety of styles and strength ratings, with prices varying between $30 and $110. We purchased one for around $80 and it has been serving us well for the past four years. Most of these devices have a key to unlock them. So we need to add this key to our car's key ring to avoid the uncomfortable situation of having lost the steering wheel lock's key!

A steering wheel column collar makes it impossible to pull the ignition and hot wire the vehicle. We can have a good one installed for about $150.

Kill Switch

A kill switch stops the flow of electricity and/or fuel in our vehicle and disables it from starting. They cost around $15 to $20. However, before installing one we need to check our vehicle’s warranty because in some cases they nullify warranties.

Chemical VIN Etching

We can have our Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) chemically etched into glass panels and other parts of our car or truck. VIN etching into glass has been proven to be one of the best auto theft deterrents that causes a thief to look elsewhere since it directly impacts his profits. On an average, the glass panels in a vehicle is worth around $1,500 to $2,000 which is far more than any thief is willing to incur to replace all the windows in a vehicle. But if a car thief has decided to take a car down and sell its parts then this method is no good. VIN etching costs anywhere from $20 to $100.

Wheel Locks & Electronic Keys

Most car thieves look for easy victims and speedy operations. Having wheel locks on our vehicle thwarts thieves looking for sitters. Prices for effective wheel locks are between $75 and $175.

On the same note, coded electronic keys can be made that will serve as the only method to start a vehicle. Now a days several automobile manufacturers offer it as a standard factory safety feature.

There are other devices that can slow down or stop thieves from making off with our vehicle as well. They include electronic trackers, gas pedal locks, gearshift locks, hood locks and anti-theft decals. With a well researched shopping based on our needs we can give ourselves the extra peace of mind that comes with having an active plan for vehicle theft deterrence.

Along the same lines, affordable anti-theft devices for our homes can protect our residences from unauthorized entry and valuables stored within from being stolen. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular home anti theft devices:

Home Security Monitoring Systems

Home security monitoring systems, like ADT Home Security, greatly reduce our chances of being robbed or vandalized by notifying authorities as soon as it detects an intruder. Some service options that come with ADT are 24 hour live customer service representation, easy touch control keypad, window and door sensors, motion detectors, fire detectors, video cameras (comes with monitor and DVR) and medical companion. These systems require professional installation, monitoring fees and several other optional charges.

Yard Signs and Window Decals

Another simple and affordable side of home security includes non-technical devices such as yard signs and window decals. Signs are very effective and affordable anti theft devices for our home. But there is a caveat too since the signs tell everybody what home security system is protecting our house. If the burglars are smart they can get the specific circuit diagrams (for the system protecting the house) and break in. Another simple method involves strategic placement of shrubs with thorns under windows that will cause housebreakers to think twice.

Backup Power Supply

It's an age old fact that usually thieves target areas that are dark and are affected by power outages. Lights are excellent anti theft devices. So law enforcement professionals recommend having a backup power supply in case of natural disasters and/or blackouts. Solar power panel systems can be a great source for back up power supply. Now our home's lights will shine brightly with photovoltaic energy sources when the entire neighborhood is darkened. This system is environment friendly and frugal too.

Cameras and Motion Detectors

For big houses and properties it is advantageous to install cameras and motion detectors. Now a days most web cameras have an idle mode feature to detect motion inside a given room as well. Technological advancements have made the prices of these items very competitive.

However in spite of having anti theft devices it's worthwhile to remember that some of the most effective methods for vehicle and home security are completely FREE. Often they involve safe habits that we can consistently employ in our daily lives for maintaining security. Being alert, observant and aware of our environment for strangers behaving in a suspicious manner is one of the most important habits for protecting ourselves. A couple of useful traits are common sense and practical wit.

Staying safe and protecting our family, home and vehicles can be a surprisingly simplistic endeavor with good planning, minimal investment and solid habits. How about having a family meeting tonight and discussing relevant security measures to stay on top of things! Let us know what you do to keep yourselves secure and protect your valuables. Looking forward towards your comments :).

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Restaurant.com - Special Discount 80% OFF

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:55:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Nov 13, 2009: Today we came across a great deal from Restaurant.com. Since we are frugal diners this special discount on their dining gift certificates is a welcome break for us. Hope it helps in saving some dining dollars.

Beginning now, Restaurant.com is offering 80% OFF on their dining certificates!

This means that their $25 dining gift certificates that normally sell for $10
have been reduced to $2 ONLY.

Promo Code: Enter ENTREE at checkout.

Hurry! This offer is valid through Nov 16th, 2009.

Their website provides detailed information about a restaurant, its menus and wine lists along with the ability to make free online reservations. Enjoy!

Happy Veterans Day

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:11:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Nov 11, 2009: We wish everyone a Happy Veterans Day and express heartfelt gratitude to all our veterans who have served this great country with honor and pride. It's a state and federal holiday across US. But those of us who are employees of corporate America need to go to work :(.

Nevertheless it's a great day with an inspiring history. In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words:

To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations …

Weekend Review #44 - From Saving Yourself from Id Theft to Surprising Stuff that You can Turn into Cash

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:06:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Nov 6, 2009: This Sunday was real exciting! We enjoyed presenting our Halloween Giveaway and finding its winners by generating random numbers. It was really fun to read through the comments, some of them filled with humorous expectations about winning the contest. Thanks from our heart to all our readers for making it such an enjoyable event. We plan to conduct more giveaways in future.

Now for our weekend review. Its really cold today, so its nice to have a warm house coat and a glass of hot chocolate. Settled cozily in our couch, we present our best three picks from the carnivals:

Money Under 30: David presents Seven Signs You’re At Risk for Identity Theft.

Christian Finances: Bob shares How he used a third car to prevent a financial catastrophe. We really liked the way Bob planned and executed things well ahead of time :).

My Dollar Plan - Madison unfurls 10 Surprising Things You Can Turn Into Cash.

Retro FIRE

Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs - Ranked By Traffic (Popular)

$100 Bank SignUp Bonus from Bank of America

Free Money - Online Bank Account Signup Bonuses upto $1000 in all (Popular)

The Witch of Wall Street - Henrietta "Hetty" Green (Interesting)

Top 5 Freebie Websites (Popular)

$35 - Bank of America Bill Pay Bonus

Here is the list of carnivals and festivals we participated this week. Enjoy your weekend :).

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Free Money - Online Bank Account Signup Bonuses upto $1000 in all

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:09:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Updated Nov 05, 2009: Today we present some of the best online bank account sign up bonuses mostly at the national level. This list includes checking account bonuses as well as savings account ones.

There is a lot of free money available via these bank account sign up bonuses. However it needs some sincere work. It helps to keep a log of the various conditions that need to be met for each offer. Also, kindly note the expiration dates of the offers and make it a point to read the associated fine prints.

Bonus	Expires	Type	Bank Bonus Link	Notes
$100	N.M.*	Checking Account Bonus	Green Bank Bonus Link	Two Direct Deposits of at least $100 each needed
$100	31 Dec 09	Checking Account Bonus	Chase Bank Bonus Link	New Funds, $100 Min Deposit, Direct Deposit or Five Debit Card Purchases Needed
$100	11 Dec 09	Checking Account Bonus	Bank of The West Bonus Link	New Funds, $250 Min Direct Deposit OR Online 10 Bill Pays Needed
$100	N.M.*	Checking Account Bonus	Flagstar Bonus Link	New accounts only and an automatic, recurring direct deposit of at least $250 per month needed
$100	31 Dec 09	Checking Account Bonus	Bank of America Bonus Link	Offer code: AOU261009
$60, $20	N.M.*	Savings Account Bonus	Capital One Bank Bonus Link	Costco Membership needed
$50	N.M.*	Checking Account Bonus	eFirstBank Bonus Link	For customers in AZ, CA & CO
$50	N.M.*	Checking Account Bonus	M & T Bank Bonus Link	Direct Deposit needed
$50	N.M.*	Checking Account Bonus	Salem Five Bank Bonus Link	New accounts only, Direct Deposit needed
$25	N.M.*	Checking Account Bonus	Ing Direct Referral Bonus Link	Referral Bonus for ING Savings / Checking account

N.M.* = Not Mentioned

We shall update this list at regular intervals. It'd be nice if you could help us keep abreast of the various bank account sign up bonuses by leaving a comment. Heartfelt thanks for your cooperation. Enjoy the free money :).

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Top Traffic Generators for FIRE Finance - Oct 2009

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:04:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Nov 4, 2009: October heralded the start of another winter. We saw fall colors and how they've faded away to make way for fresh snow and a new facet of nature. For us, it's time to get serious about our finances, tax filings, create several alternate sources of income (active or passive) and appreciate the value of a frugal life.

Amidst all these events, we are grateful to our loyal audience and pf community for their support. In that light, this month's top ten traffic referrers are:

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

$100 Bank Account Signup Bonus - Chase's FREE Checking Account

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:09:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Nov 3, 2009: Chase is offering a $100 sign-up bonus when we open a FREE Chase Checking Account with $100 and set up direct deposit or make five debit card purchases.

Expires: 31st Dec, 2009

No Monthly Service Fee — Chase CheckingSM has no monthly service fee when you have a direct deposit or five or more debit card purchases post to your account each statement period.

Bonus/Account Information — To qualify for the reward you must open a new Chase CheckingSM account with a $100 minimum opening deposit of new money (money not currently held by Chase or its affiliates).

Also, within 60 calendar days of account opening, you must initiate a monthly direct deposit such as payroll, pension or Social Security, or other government benefits or make five debit card purchases.

The reward will be deposited into your new account within 10 days after the initial direct deposit has posted to your account.

Limit one personal checking account-related reward/premium per customer, per calendar year. Offer not available on account conversions or in combination with any other offer. Reward is not considered part of the minimum opening balance.

Checking account must remain open for a minimum of six months or the reward will be debited from the account at closing.

Account is subject to approval. Reward is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT. Chase CheckingSM is available only at Chase branded branches and at Chase.com.

Free Chase Mobile — There's no charge from Chase, but standard text messaging and other rates from your wireless provider still apply.

Please let us know your experiences and opinions about this deal. Good Luck with your FREE MONEY.

Three Winners of "Your Money & Your Brain" are .......

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:59:00 PST

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

We had twenty four enthusiastic entries to our giveaway of three copies of Jason Zweig's superb book "Your Money & Your Brain." Now here is the exciting part of generating three random numbers (at http://random.org). The winners are ........

Who are the lucky souls with entries 9, 3 and 2?

They are Free From Broke (Entry #9), rubynreba (Entry #3) and Gale (Entry #2). Congrats :)! The books shall be on their way via USPS as soon as we receive the winners' mailing addresses.

Heartfelt thanks to all who participated in this contest and made it such fun. We are planning more giveaways of attractive and useful books, gizmos, and goodies. So stay tuned to our site by subscribing our RSS Feed and keep winning. Cheers!

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Happy Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:31:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Oct 31,2009: We wish you a Happy Halloween. Hope you have a wonderful time at tonight's Halloween party dressed in fabulous yet scary costumes. Last night we filled our orange colored pumpkin bucket with colorful candies. The kids got a love them :).

And we know that pumpkin carvers are going to have a ball of a time today. There's a best pumpkin carver competition going on at our work place. Creativity rules the roost. The prizes are pretty cool and it'd be fun to see the winning entries. All the best for a great Halloween and the weekend ahead.

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

FIRE Finance on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:30:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Finally we have joined the Twitter bandwagon. Now, you can follow us at Twitter:
@FIREfinance - http://twitter.com/FIREfinance.

In addition, we are in the process of creating our list Top 100 PF Blogs by Traffic on Twitter. The url for this list is:
http://twitter.com/FIREfinance/top100pfblogs/members.

We plan to update this list with our monthly rankings. It will help our readers get the latest posts from the Top 100 PF blogs (by traffic) in one place.

In this context, we need your help. If you have a twitter account, kindly follow us and we'll add your blog to the Top 100 PF Blogs list at the earliest. Not to mention, we will follow you as you well :). Your cooperation will not only help us in compiling this list faster but will also aid in its maintenance.

We have also added a Twitter widget to our sidebar which shows your Twitter profile on every page of our site when you visit us.

Looking forward to some great interaction with the personal finance community via Twitter. If you have any tips for Twitter newbies, please feel free to drop a comment. We appreciate your time and kindness :).

Daylight Savings Time Reminder

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:21:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Oct 29, 2009: It is not yet time to reset our household clocks and watches to get that extra hour on Sunday morning. We will get an extra hour of Sunday morning sleep on Nov. 2, because of the time change that rolls our clocks back an hour every fall.

This move back to Standard Time from Daylight Saving Time, or DST takes effect at 2 a.m. the first Sunday in November, rather than the last Sunday in October which is a break in a long-standing pattern. And for that, we have to thank the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005. To save energy, U.S. legislators had set the stage for 34 weeks of DST, beginning 2007.

Looking forward towards an extra hour on Sunday (November 2nd)!

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Restaurant.com - Special Discount 80% OFF

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:55:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Oct 26, 2009: Today we came across a great deal from Restaurant.com. Since we are frugal diners this special discount on their dining gift certificates is a welcome break for us. Hope it helps in saving some dining dollars.

Beginning now, Restaurant.com is offering 80% OFF on their dining certificates!

This means that their $25 dining gift certificates that normally sell for $10
have been reduced to $2 ONLY.

Promo Code: Enter TREATS at checkout.

Hurry! This offer is valid through Oct 31st, 2009.

Their website provides detailed information about a restaurant, its menus and wine lists along with the ability to make free online reservations. Enjoy!

FREE Halloween Give Away - "Your Money & Your Brain" - 2009

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:55:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

The winner has been announced and this contest has ended. Click here for current giveaways.

Oct 23, 2009: Welcome to our free giveaway on the eve of Halloween. Fun times are ahead and we decided to celebrate it with our great audience by giving away 3 copies of Jason Zweig's superb book "Your Money & Your Brain."

This book sells at a list price of $26.00 and we shall be giving away three copies of this book (total value of $78). That means three winners and increased chances of winning. Get your entries in asap!

Coming back to Jason's book. It explores a different aspect of personal finance. It tackles the question "What happens inside our brains when we think about money?" Zweig, a veteran financial journalist, draws on the latest research in neuroeconomics, a fascinating new discipline that combines psychology, neuroscience and economics to better understand financial decision making. He shows why we often misunderstand risk and why we tend to be overconfident about our investment decisions. Jason also explains why smart people make stupid financial decisions and what they can do to avoid these mistakes.

In a nutshell this book is extremely entertaining and provides some fresh outlooks into the realm of personal finance and money. If you have ever been left thinking "How could I have been so stupid?" then you will benefit from this book.

Some examples (reprinted from the book with the author's permission) are:

Pursuit of Random Data

The pursuit of patterns in random data is a fundamental function of our brains. This often leads to pareidolia which means incorrect or distorted imagery. Often people sift through mountains of stock market data to find "predictable patterns" that might enable them to beat the market:

It became a common belief, based on historical numbers, that U.S. stocks tend to go up on Fridays and down on Mondays - but, in the 1990s, they did the exact opposite.

October (the month of the 1987 market crash) is widely supposed to be the worst month to own stocks - but, over the long sweep of history, it has actually averaged the fifth-best returns of any month.

Millions of investors believe in technical analysis, which supposedly predicts future prices on the basis of past prices, and in market timing, which purports to enable you to get out of stocks before they go down and back in before they go up. There is little, if any, objective evidence that either tactic works in the long run.

Every year, many Wall Streeters root for National Football Conference teams to win the Super Bowl, based on the widely held and widely inaccurate belief that when teams originating in the old NFL take the championship, the stock market goes up the next year!

Jellybean Syndrome

Another common syndrome is the jellybean syndrome or "denominator blindness."

Every fraction looks like this: numerator / denominator
The impact of every investment you make can be expressed as:

dollar amount of your gain or loss / Total amount of your wealth

In this fundamental investing fraction, the numerator fluctuates constantly, and often widely, while the denominator varies much more gradually over time. For example, suppose you have a total net worth of $200,000 and that yesterday the market value of your stocks did not change at all.

If your stocks gain $1000 today, then the numerator of your fraction instantly shoots from 0 to 1000. The denominator, however, nudges slightly upward from $200000 to $201000. The leap from 0 to $1000 is exciting and vivid, while the movement from $200000 to $201000 is hardly noticeable at all.

But it is the denominator that matters; that is where the real money is. After all, the sum total of your wealth is a much more important number than the amount by which it rose or fell on any given day. Even so, many investors fixate on the numbers that change the most, overlooking the much larger amounts of money that are at stake overall.

Illusion of Control

To see how sensitive most of us are to the illusion of control, consider the following two bets:

A. I will pick a name at random from the stock tables in the Wall Street Journal. You will guess whether this stock will go up or down tomorrow. If you're right, you win $10; if you're wrong, you lose $10.

B. I will pick a name at random from the stock tables in the Wall Street Journal. You will guess whether this stock will go up or down yesterday. (You are not allowed to look up the price.) If you're right, you win $10; if you're wrong, you lose $10.

Which bet do you like better?

In experiments at Stanford University, two-thirds of the participants took the first one. Most of these people were well aware that each bet has identical, 50/50 odds of winning.

But the first bet seems more comfortable, because it does not make you feel as if the result is out of your hands. An earlier study found that people would wager more money, and even be willing to accept worse odds, if they bet before, rather than after, a pair of dice was thrown."

This book is great fun. It goes on to explain the reasons behind such psychological behavior which affects our financial choices and consequently our wealth. We believe that money or wealth is a result of conscious choices that we make and how we successfully invest our skills and energies to those choices.

Give Away Rules

The winner will be announced on Sunday,November 1st, 2009.

To win this book, all you need to do is leave a short comment. Your comment # (generated automatically) will be your entry number.

Winner Notification: Since this site is hosted on Blogger, we need your email address to contact you for sending the book. You have three choices:

Leave your email address in your comment.
If you are not comfortable about leaving your email address in your comment, kindly send an email to firegetters@gmail.com [firegetters at gmail dot com] with your email id. Please put the following in the subject line "FREE GiveAway".
If you have a blog, and would like to be contacted through it, please leave its link in your comment.

Limit one entry per person.

You do not need to have a blog to participate in this giveaway.

Deadline for posting a valid comment is now through midnight, Oct 31st (US - Eastern Standard Time), 2009.

Who is a winner?

We shall generate a two digit random number (http://random.org). The winner is the commenter whose comment # matches with the random number generated. Since we are giving away 3 copies we shall generate three random numbers with 2 digits in each.

To maintain transparency the random numbers generated will be published.
In case the winning entry is a comment from "Anonymous' with no email id or link to a site, we will run the random number generator once again to determine another winner.
Once a winner is announced and we've contacted him/her, we expect a response within a week. Else we'll go through the process of selecting a new winner once again.

The book will be mailed to an address in US only. Currently we are not mailing to international addresses. If you are outside US and you win, please arrange for someone in US to collect the book on your behalf and ship it to you. Our apologies for this inconvenience.

Please consider subscribing our RSS Feed (What is this?) to stay tuned to our site. Why? We are planning more giveaways with great, attractive and useful books, gizmos, and goodies. Good Luck to all!

FIRE Finance reserves all rights to the rules of this contest.
Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

$35 - Bank of America Bill Pay Bonus

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:22:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Oct 22, 2009: Bank of America is offering a $35 bonus to sign up for its bill pay service. We need to make three online bill pays within 30 days to earn this $35 bonus OR make 2 online bill payments within 30 days and get $25.

Here are some more details from the fine print:

This is a special limited time offer available to existing consumer and small business customers who have not made a bill payment with Bank of America Online Banking within the last 6 months.

Offer cannot be combined with any other offer and is limited to one incentive per customer.

Customers will get $35 if they use BOA's Online bill payment service to pay three bills from their checking account within 30 days.If instead two bills are paid within 30 days, the incentive is $25.

To get the $35, Small Business customers may instead enroll in Online Business Suite Direct Payments service and make two payments within 30 days. Direct Payment Service requires Internet access, and Internet service provider fees may apply. This service is not available in Washington or Idaho.

If we determine that you meet all the terms of the offer, we generally pay the incentive within 90 days. We may deposit the incentive directly into your Bank of America checking account or we may mail a check to the address listed in our records for the checking account. We may report to the IRS the value of the incentive we pay to you and you are responsible for any applicable taxes.

Top 5 Freebie Websites

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:11:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Oct 21, 2009: We like to collect freebies. Over the years this liking has developed into a creative hobby which has a tidy annual payoff worth hundreds of dollars in savings. But this habit involves investment of time and energy. Too bad that its not free. We guess somewhere we've got to pay in some sort of currency for what we get in life! In short, nothing in the universe is really free.

While searching for freebies of various kinds we found a bunch of useful websites who have already done the hard work of locating and listing the freebies available at a given point of time. Makes our job easier and all the more fun. Now all we have to do is browse through their findings to locate the stuff that we need. Here are our top five freebie websites.

Boddit.com - Freebies

Boddit.com is the super mom of all deal aggregators. In our opinion its the best. They also have a freebie aggregator which collects freebie deals and news from all over the web including those from popular forums like fatwallet, slickdeals and more. Keep a timer with you when you browse boddit, time simply flies!

Shop4Freebies.com

You can shop for freebies here but your bill will be zero dollars :). They have a new list of 100% free stuff posted every 24 hours. The site is clean, spacious and well designed. It is easy to shop around. Another attractive feature is a section devoted to hundreds of free trade magazine subscriptions and technical document downloads.

GoFreebies.com

A nice listing of available freebies with neat pictures and vivid descriptions. A well laid out site with easy navigation which allows users to vote for each offer with a click. GoFreebies also lists offers by their newness, ratings (popularity) and clicks. Plus it has a special coupons section too.

MySavings.com

It is an online community dedicated to providing a comprehensive online directory of brand name free samples, freebies, printable grocery coupons and online coupons to boost our savings. The site is well designed and covers deals in US, UK, Canada and Australia.

AbsurdlyCool.com

This site provides daily finds on freebies through an automated free stuff aggregator which is designed to collect free stuff from other top freebie sites. At present it locates free offers available in US, Canada and UK. In addition, it filters out the scam, provides a rating, category and source for each freebie offer and the ability for users to leave their comments about the offer.

We hope that the above sites would be useful in your quest for accumulating freebies. Looking forward towards your feedback and experiences with freebie sites.

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Top Traffic Generators for FIRE Finance - Sep 2009

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:20:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Oct 20, 2009: September ushered in autumn and a beautiful month of blogging. We rejoiced with the glorious Colors of Fall. September also witnessed the beginning of our preparations for welcoming winter and the holidays ahead.

Amidst all these events, we are grateful to our faithful readers and the personal finance community for sending traffic our way. Here is a toast to September's top ten traffic referrers:

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

September's Best of FIRE Finance - 2009

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:19:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Oct 19, 2009: September is one of four Gregorian months with 30 days. In Latin, septem means "seven" and septimus means "seventh". In fact, September was the seventh month of the Roman calendar until 153 BC, when there was a calendar reform. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, September marks the beginning of the ecclesiastical year. The flower of this month is the aster or morning glory.

Moving on, today we present our best posts from September. Let's go for a pristine "Retro-September" ..........

PF Articles

Sep 2009 - Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs - Ranked By Traffic (Popular)

12 Tips To Lower Your Heating Bill (Popular)

PF Products

Quicken Deluxe 2009 Coupons & Deals - Upto 34% OFF Discount (Popular)

TD Ameritrade - $100 Sign up Bonus - Save Yourself Account

10% OFF Coupon / Discount - You Need A Budget (YNAB) Pro Personal Finance Software Program (Popular)

Etrade Offers 100 Commission FREE Stock & Option Trades!

GreenBank - $100 Bank Account Signup Bonus

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Restaurant.com - Special Discount 70% OFF

noreply@blogger.com (FIRE Finance) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:11:00 PDT

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Oct 16, 2009: Today we came across a great deal from Restaurant.com. Since we are frugal diners this special discount on their dining gift certificates is a welcome break for us. Hope it helps in saving some dining dollars.

Beginning now, Restaurant.com is offering 70% OFF on their dining certificates + a FREE $10 Lobster Gram offer!

This means that their $25 dining gift certificates that normally sell for $10
have been reduced to $3 ONLY.

Promo Code: Enter PUMPKIN at checkout.

Hurry! This offer is valid through Oct 25th, 2009.

Their website provides detailed information about a restaurant, its menus and wine lists along with the ability to make free online reservations. Enjoy!