In case you are unaware, the Ooma device looks like an old fashioned answering machine.  It connects directly to your router and you then connect ANY phone to the Ooma device.  It took me roughly 20 minutes or so to get the device up and running.  You use a web-based utility to do most of the setup which was very user-friendly.  I was able to pick a phone number in my local area and was calling out in no time.

Some Positives of the Ooma system:

• No monthly fees!
• Easy installation
• Ability to port your existing number for a one time fee of $39.99
• Works with your existing phones.
• Online playback of voicemail messages.
• Unlimited calling to any US Number.

Some Negatives of the Ooma system:

• You run the risk of the company going bust
• Integration with alarm systems is untested
• You lose phone service if you lose your internet connection

When I went back into Costco recently they were out of the Ooma devices.   There are two different versions of the Ooma system.  I bought the Ooma hub which is the older version of the device.  The newer device is the Ooma Telo which allows you to use Ooma’s proprietary handsets that allow you to access voicemail and other features.  I chose the Ooma hub because I was not interested in the Ooma handsets.

Costco apparently no longer sells the Hub online and only is selling the Telo for $199.99, which still seems like a good price.  Amazon has the Hub for $204.95 and the Telo for $222.99.

Overall, I am pleased with the device and am hoping that Ooma is here for the long haul.   I think the company has an interesting business model, and I just hope that others are willing to try something new and unproven.

I could not get a dial tone at all. I used different phones and tried all sorts of things with no success. I was able to call out using the phone application but not directly with a phone. So, I thought let’s try tech support. Well, magicjack does not offer phone support, they only offer support via live chat. I spent the next SEVEN hours chatting with 4 different supposed techies. I became incredibly frustrated and never found a solution to my problem. Finally it was determined that I had a defective magicjack and they said that they would send me a new one.

I also emailed the CEO of Magicjack, Dan and one of his assistants promptly emailed me back and said that they would indeed send me a replacement and would refund my original shipping charge since I needed to send the original defective jack back to them.

We will see how the second try goes. I will keep you posted, but am a little discouraged. I was so excited about the new technology and thought it would be a better solution than Skype, but that remains to be seen.

Have any of you had any experience with Magicjack? What are your thoughts?

http://www.magicjack.com

It is a website/forum called BetterBidding.com. This web site is a great idea, because it allows you to search for a destination and a rating before you name your price on Priceline. Other users post successful bids and the prices that they paid so that you can get a sense of what you should try to pay and which hotel you will be awarded after bidding. The thing that Priceline does not want you to know is that they only have 3-4 hotels for each star rating in each city. With BetterBidding.com, you can see what the hotels will be in each major city and therefore know how nice of a hotel you will probably be staying in.

I’ll give you an example. My wife and I are going to a wedding in Baltimore in April and the hotels that the bride and groom suggested ranged from 189-149 per night. With BetterBidding.com and Priceline we were able to get a great historic hotel in the Inner Harbour area of Baltimore for only $73/night. I think that is great and I hope you can use these tactics to save yourself a bundle of money.

Something that can be as scary as Halloween’s ghosts and goblins is the
thought of recovering from a disaster for which you were unprepared. If
you have not already, now is the time to learn what steps you can take
to prepare yourself. Financial Planning – A Guide to Disaster
Preparedness .

If you are recovering from an unexpected crisis, the information in this
guide can help you through the steps you need to take to recover,
Disaster Recovery: A Guide to Financial Issues .

The guides above were developed by the AICPA, Red Cross,
and the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE).

Visit www.FeedthePig.org
<http://www.feedthepig.org> for more money-saving tips.

I think I have found the answer. It is Palm’s newest treo-like device, the Centro.

It has everything that the Blackberry offers and I am able to get a data plan through Sprint for only $15/month. That is a big savings for me. The Centro is currently only offered through Sprint, and I am not sure what your feelings are on Sprint but if you are a current subscriber this may be a good option for you.

As far as the functionality goes, the Centro has everything that a Treo or Palm has — datebook, email, contact manager, etc.. It also handles Microsoft Office documents incredibly well with a full version of a popular product called Documents To Go. This program allows you to view Word, Powerpoint, Excel and PDF files very easily. My Blackberry didn’t do such a good job of this.

The Blackberry has become so popular mainly because of it’s ability to handle email very well. Sprint was smart and included a full version of a program which they call Sprint Mobile Email but which was actually created by a company called Seven. This program actually pushes email to your Centro just like the Blackberry. While the Blackberry “pushes” the email to your phone a bit faster than the Centro, there is really not much difference at all.

The Centro blows the Blackberry out of the water with it’s Blazer web browser.  I am able to get broadband like speeds with ease.  It is so much faster than AT&T’s EVDO network which is what Apple’s Iphone uses.  Sometimes browsing the web can be somewhat of a drag depending on your device, and the Centro makes it easy to get directions or find a restaurant’s phone number or anything else you might want to do while you are out and about.

Overall I have been extremely happy with my choice to move from the Blackberry to the Centro. I will keep you updated on my usage of the phone over the next few months.

• FNBO Direct (First National Bank of Omaha)- 5.05% – No fees, No minimums
• EmigrantDirect – 4.75% – No fees, No minimums
• ING Direct – 4.30% – No fees, No minimums

Any of these accounts would work great as an emergency fund and all of these allow you to setup automatic deposits from your checking account so that you can deposit money into this account without really even thinking.

I have had an account set up for this purpose for several years, and you would be surprised at how much interest you can earn in a relatively small amount of time. It is empowering to check your balance every month and see the “Interest Paid” field getting larger and larger.

There are other online banks offering competitive rates, I just featured 3 of the more popular ones. You can always go to BankRate and search for other online savings products.

There is also an entire other element to this scenario that I don’t have time to get into completely. This is really just a Multi-Level Marketing scheme and the people that are trying to get you to do this with your mortgage are making a lot of money off of you going through with this program.

These companies try to paint a pretty picture of paying your mortgage off early. The problem is that this takes discipline and if you have that discipline and discretionary income you do not need this program. So save yourself the $3500 and put it towards the principle each month and watch that balance fall.

Two of my personal favorites are the PenFed VISA, and the Costco Trueearnings American Express card. The PenFed VISA gives you 5% cash back on gas purchases and 1.25% cash back on everything else. There are no special restrictions for this card and the cash rewards are awarded to your statement every month which is great. The Penfed Visa also doesn’t have any sort of annual fee. The Costco American Express card is a little different. It gives you 3% cash back on dining out, 2% on travel and 1% on everything else. This card also doubles as your Costco card which is nice so that you can trim that wallet down a bit. You have to be a Costco member to apply for this card, and your membership actually renews on the card each year but there is no other annual fee. The rewards accumulate throughout the year and are awarded once a year in February.

Either way you dice it, if you are using your credit card and paying it off every month – you should be getting something in return from these giant credit card companies. We will see if these companies continue to offer these good deals or if the credit card companies will see this cutting into their ever growing profits.

One last thing, please do not apply for one of these cards if you are still riddled with credit card debt. Pay down your debt and then apply for one of these and reap the benefits. Obviously you are far better served paying down your debt than earning rewards on these cards. You can’t beat a return on your money of between 10-25% depending on what interest rate the credit card companies are charging.

CardWeb Rewards List

PenFed VISA

Costco TrueEarnings American Express

The first is MagicJack which is a nifty device that plugs into your USB port and acts as a phone jack. The device is similar to a USB flash drive but allows you to plug in any type of phone to have telephone service. This device is incredibly inexpensive at $40 which includes the device and an entire year of service. The only reason as to why I haven’t signed up for this yet is because the service does not offer a phone number in my area code as of yet. Apparently they are adding more area codes each week, but I am still waiting on a North Carolina area code.

The second option is a long time player in the industry—Skype. Skype has been around for several years and offers fairly clear phone calls over their network. You can use your computer to make Skype-to-Skype calls or to call other people who are not on Skype. I signed up for Skype and have been using it for several months. So far, I have spent around $30 for 3 months of service which includes voice mail and a local North Carolina number. The only thing that I really do not like about Skype is the fact that when you call someone your number shows as Unavailable on a Caller ID enabled phone. This can easily cause people to not answer the phone, because they think that you are a salesperson. Skype’s technology is fairly reliable and I have not had any calls dropped or much interference at all. If they can fix this Caller ID issue I would be happy to stick with them. Apparently, this feature is available internationally, but not in the US.

I really think that both MagicJack and Skype have an incredible opportunity to change the face of the telephone industry. I know that the typical mega-phone company is shaking in their boots as they see small companies offering incredible deals on services that have been relatively expensive for years. If you don’t get anything out of this post, at least investigate whether you can save money on some sort of VOIP provider as opposed to a monopoly phone or cable company.

http://www.magicjack.com

http://www.skype.com

I’ll give you a little background to help explain how I became interested in this sort of thing. I have been around computers since I was a young kid, and started programming in middle school. In the mid 90’s, I began designing web sites for Duke University and learned a great deal about HTML and graphic design. I then started a landscaping company in 1997 and actually sold it in early 2007. I still do a fair amount of web design work when the opportunity arises. I have always had that entrepreneurial spirit and hope to continue to feed it as I grow older. I am now working with a Real Estate Investment company and trying to begin to invest in some Real Estate of my own. That is a little background of how I came to be and I hope to add to this soon. But for now, have fun and I hope I can give you some helpful tips and I hope to learn from all of you.